Generation 2 VMs support key features that aren’t supported in generation 1 VMs. These features include increased memory, Intel Software Guard Extensions (Intel SGX), and virtualized persistent memory (vPMEM). You can now run Windows workloads on Generation 2 VMs in production to take advantage of these Generation 2 features.
Azure HX Virtual Machines for HPC
HX-series Virtual Machines (VMs) are optimized for large memory HPC workloads such as backend EDA, finite element analysis, computational geoscience, and big data analytics.
These VMs feature:
Up to 176 AMD EPYC™ 9004-series CPU cores with AMD 3D V-Cache (Genoa-X), 1.4 TB of RAM, clock frequencies up to 3.7 GHz, and no simultaneous multithreading.
Up to 1.4 TB/s of effective memory bandwidth and 2.3 GB L3 cache per VM, up to 12 GB/s (reads) and 7 GB/s (writes) of block device SSD performance.
400 Gb/s NDR InfiniBand from NVIDIA Networking to enable supercomputer-scale MPI workloads.
Storage
Azure Files geo-redundancy for standard large file shares (preview)
Azure Files geo-redundancy for large file shares is now in public preview for standard SMB file shares. Azure Files has supported large file shares for several years which not only provides file share capacity up to 100TiB but improved IO operations per second (IOPS) and throughput as well. Large file shares are widely adopted by customers using locally redundant storage (LRS) and zone-redundant storage (ZRS) but has not been available for geo-redundant storage (GRS) and geo-zone redundant storage (GZRS) until now. Geo-redundancy is critical for meeting various compliance and regulatory requirements. Geo-redundant storage asynchronously replicates to a secondary region and if the primary region becomes unavailable, you can initiate a failover to the secondary region.
New features in Azure Container Storage (preview)
Azure Container Storage, a unique storage service built natively for containers, is introducing several new features in preview to enhance the performance, reliability, and backup experience for its customers. Among the new features are volume snapshot, which allows you to capture the point-in-time state of persistent volumes, enabling you to back up data before applying changes. Additionally, the scalability target of Persistent Volumes has increased, empowering you to easily scale up your storage footprint. This means you can focus on building data services without worrying about the limitations of the underlying infrastructure.
To stay up to date on news regarding Azure Management services, this summary is released monthly, allowing you to have an overview of the main new features of the month. In this article you will find the announcements, summarized, accompanied by the necessary references to be able to carry out further investigations.
The following diagram shows the different areas related to management, which are covered in this series of articles:
Figure 1 – Management services in Azure overview
Monitor
Azure Monitor
Azure Monitor for SAP solutions
Azure Monitor for SAP Solutions is now available. It is a solution for customers running SAP applications in a Microsoft Azure environment and allows end-to-end monitoring. With Azure Monitor for SAP, customers can centrally collect end-to-end telemetry data from SAP NetWeaver, database, Linux Pacemaker clusters in high availability and Linux operating systems. The solution Azure Monitor for SAP can be configured with no infrastructure to implement and maintain for customers. Some new features of Azure Monitor for SAP include SAP Landscape Monitor, which provides a single destination to understand the health of the entire SAP landscape, and SAP Insights (preview), which allows you to easily identify the root cause of SAP application availability or performance issues. Furthermore, Azure Monitor for SAP Solutions offers Transport Layer Security and new CPU performance alert templates, memory and disk I/O, plus many other features. With the release of this release, the version of Azure Monitor for SAP solutions (Classic) will be collected by 31 may.
Availability of the Azure Monitor managed service for Prometheus
Prometheus, the open-source project of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, is considered the de-facto standard when it comes to monitoring containerized workloads. Running Prometheus in self-managed mode is often a great solution for smaller implementations, but scaling it to handle enterprise workloads can be a challenge.
Azure Monitor's fully managed service for Prometheus offers the best of what we like about the open-source ecosystem, while automating complex tasks such as scaling, high availability and long-term data retention. It is available as a standalone feature of Azure Monitor or as an integrated component of Container Insights, Azure Monitor Alerts and Azure Managed Grafana.
Azure Monitor Managed Service for Prometheus for Kubernetes enabled for Azure Arc (preview)
The Azure Monitor managed service for Prometheus extends support for monitoring Kubernetes clusters managed by Azure Arc. The Azure Arc-enabled Azure Monitor for Prometheus on Kubernetes managed service allows customers to monitor their Kubernetes clusters running anywhere and maintains the same functionality as monitoring Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
Azure Monitor Agent: support for CIS and SELinux hardening
The AMA has introduced support for hardening standards for CIS and SELinux. For SELinux, AMA works by activating a signed built-in policy. Through CIS, AMA supports select distros, also available on the Azure Marketplace.
Alert support for Azure Data Explorer (preview)
Azure Monitor alerts let you monitor Azure and application telemetry to quickly identify issues affecting various services. More specifically, Azure Monitor log alert rules allow you to set up periodic log telemetry queries to identify potential problems and receive notifications or trigger actions.
Until now, these alert rules supported querying Log Analytics and Application Insights data. Now Microsoft is introducing support for querying Azure Data Explorer tables as well (ADX) and to merge data between these data sources into a single query.
Cost optimization with transformations on Log Analytics for troubleshootingof Cosmos DB
Azure Cosmos DB now supports transformations on Log Analytics workspaces. To help reduce costs when you enable Log Analytics to troubleshoot Cosmos DB resources, transformations have been introduced. These transformations in the Log Analytics workspace allow you to filter columns, reduce the number of results returned and create new columns before the data is sent to the destination.
Configure
Azure Automation
Support for Python runbooks 3.8
Azure Automation has introduced support for Python runbooks 3.8. This feature allows you to create and run Python runbooks 3.8 for orchestrating the management tasks of hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
Govern
Azure Cost Management
Updates related toMicrosoft Cost Management
Microsoft is constantly looking for new methodologies to improve Microsoft Cost Management, the solution to provide greater visibility into where costs are accumulating in the cloud, identify and prevent incorrect spending patterns and optimize costs . Inthis article some of the latest improvements and updates regarding this solution are reported.
Alert to optimize reservation purchases
Azure Reservations can provide cost savings by committing to annual or three-year plans. However, sometimes reservations can remain unused or underused, resulting in financial losses. As a user of a billing account or a reservation, it is possible to examine the percentage of use of the reservations purchased in the Azure portal, but important changes may be missed. Enabling alerts on the use of reservations, solves the problem by receiving email notifications whenever any of the reservations have low usage. This allows for timely intervention and optimization of reservation purchases to achieve maximum cost efficiency.
Secure
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
New features, bug fixes and deprecated features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Microsoft Defender for Cloud development is constantly evolving and improvements are being made on an ongoing basis. To stay up to date on the latest developments, Microsoft updates this page, this provides information about new features, bug fixes and deprecated features. In particular, this month the main news concern:
new alerts in Defender for the Key Vault;
support encrypted disks in AWS for agentless scanning;
inclusion of new AWS Regions;
changes to identity recommendations;
new recommendations of Defender for DevOps to include Azure DevOps scan results;
release of the Vulnerability Assessment of containers based on Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management (MDVM) in Defender CSPM.
Protect
Azure Backup
Azure Backup Server V4
The V4 version of Microsoft Azure Backup Server (MABS) has been released and introduces the following improvements:
Workload support: Azure Backup Server V4 supports installation on Windows Server 2022 using SQL Server 2022 come database MABS. Furthermore, adds support for backup of virtual machines running on Azure Stack HCI 22H2 and VMware 8.0, as well as Windows Server backup 2022 and SQL Server 2022.
Performance: Azure Backup Server V4 adds the ability to select and restore individual files/folders from online recovery points for Hyper-V and Azure Stack HCI virtual machines running Windows Server, without having to download the entire restore point. MABS V4 also adds support for parallel restores and features more parallel online backup jobs.
Security: with Azure Backup Server V4 you can use private endpoints to send backups to the Recovery Services vault.
Azure Backup Reports: support for more workloads
Azure Backup Reports now includes support for other workloads: Azure Database for PostgreSQL Servers, Azure Blobs and Azure Disks. Thanks to this update it is now possible to enable the logging of metadata related to the backup (such as job, backup item, policy, usage) for these workloads and retain these records for a customizable period of time depending on compliance and audit requirements. This way you can take advantage of the reporting views, already provided natively by the Backup Reports solution, to view information about protected items corresponding to these workloads.
Soft deletion of recovery points for Azure Backup (preview)
Azure Backup's soft delete feature now supports soft deletion of recovery points. This feature allows you to recover data from recovery points that may have been deleted as a result of backup policy changes. Soft deleting recovery points allows you to keep these recovery points for an additional duration, based on the retention specified for soft delete in the vault settings.
Support for confidential virtual machines using Customer Managed Keys(private preview)
Azure Backup is introducing support for backup of operating system disk encrypted confidential VMs, done using customer managed keys.
Azure Site Recovery
New Update Rollup
For Azure Site Recovery was released theUpdate Rollup 67 that solves several issues and introduces some improvements. The details and the procedure to follow for the installation can be found in the specific KB.
Migrate
Azure Migrate
New Azure Migrate releases and features
Azure Migrate is the service in Azure that includes a large portfolio of tools that you can use, through a guided experience, to address effectively the most common migration scenarios. To stay up-to-date on the latest developments in the solution, please consult this page, that provides information about new releases and features. In particular, this month the main news concerns the discovery and assessment of SQL Server.
Azure Database Migration
Database Migration Service Pack for Oracle (preview)
The Database Migration Service Pack for Oracle is a collection of four extensions that provide a complete solution to modernize Oracle workloads and migrate them to databases in the Azure environment. This extension pack offers several benefits, including in-depth end-to-end assessments, correct sizing of Azure resources, code conversion, remediation planning and near real-time data migration in Azure environment (see next paragraph).
Data Migration for Oracle (preview)
The Data Migration for Oracle extension is a powerful tool that allows you to easily migrate Oracle databases to the Azure platform. This solution offers a seamless migration experience, from the source Oracle database to the target platform (SQL), using Azure Database Migration Service. The extension offers both offline and online data migration for critical databases, ensuring minimal downtime for the migration process.
Evaluation of Azure
To test for free and evaluate the services provided by Azure you can access this page.
Azure VMware Solution will become generally available on May 17, 2023, to US Federal and State and Local Government (US) customers and their partners, in the regions of Arizona and Virgina. With this release, Microsoft is combining world-class Azure infrastructure together with VMware technologies by offering Azure VMware Solutions on Azure Government, which is designed, built, and supported by Microsoft.
Networking
Routing Intent and Virtual WAN Integrated Firewall NVAs
Routing intent allows you to set up simple and declarative routing policies to configure Virtual WAN to route traffic to bump-in-the-wire security solutions such as Azure Firewall, Integrated Firewall NVA and SaaS deployed in the Virtual WAN hub. This feature delivers two critical use cases: inter-region/inter-hub traffic inspection and branch-to-branch (on-premises to on-premises traffic inspection). With the General Availability of routing intent feature, the Virtual WAN team also extended routing intent capabilities to Next Generation Firewall NVA’s integrated within the Virtual WAN hub. As a result, the Virtual WAN team is also announcing the General Availability of the first two integrated Firewall NVA’s in Virtual WAN: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security and Fortinet NGFW.
Seamlessly upgrade your Application Gateway V2 WAF configuration to a policy
Azure’s regional Web Application Firewall (WAF) on Application Gateway now supports a fully automated experience when upgrading your WAF from a configuration to a policy. WAF policies offer you multiple benefits over WAF configurations including:
richer feature set: Advanced features like newer managed rule sets, custom rules, per rule exclusions, bot protection rules, and more;
higher scale and performance with our next generation WAF engine;
simplified management experience: WAF policy allows you to define your WAF setup once, and share it across multiple gateways, listeners, and URL paths;
latest features: you can keep up to date with the latest features and enhancements.
Policy analytics for Azure Firewall
As application migration to the cloud accelerates, it’s common to update Azure Firewall configuration daily (sometimes hourly) to meet the growing application needs and respond to a changing threat landscape. Frequently, changes are managed by multiple administrators spread across geographies. Over time, the firewall configuration can grow sub optimally impacting firewall performance and security. It’s a challenging task for any IT team to optimize firewall rules without impacting applications and causing serious downtime. Policy analytics help address these challenges faced by IT teams by providing visibility into traffic flowing through the firewall with features such as firewall flow logs, rule to flow match, rule hit rate, and single rule analysis. IT admins can refine Azure Firewall rules in a few simple steps through the Azure portal.
Inbound ICMPv4 pings are now supported on Azure Load Balancer
Standard Public Load Balancer now supports inbound ICMP pings on IPv4 frontends. Previously, to determine reachability of a Load Balancer’s frontend, a TCP-based ping tool like Psping would need to be used. This added complexity as external software was needed on each client machine. Now, you can ping the IPv4 frontend of a Standard Public Load Balancer like you natively would on an on-premises device without any external software needed. This enables you to troubleshoot network traffic between Azure Load Balancer and your client device.
Azure Bastion now support shareable links
With the Azure Bastion shareable links feature, you can now connect to a target resource (virtual machine or virtual machine scale set) using Azure Bastion without accessing the Azure portal. This feature will solve two key pain points:
administrators will no longer have to provide full access to their Azure accounts to one-time VM users—helping to maintain their privacy and security;
users without Azure subscriptions can seamlessly connect to VMs without exposing RDP/SSH ports to the public internet.
Now generally available, the shareable links feature is supported for peered VNETs across subscriptions and across regions. It is also supported for national clouds.
Azure DNS Private Resolver is available in additional regions
Azure DNS Private Resolver is now available in West US, Canada East, Qatar Central, UAE North, Australia Southeast, Norway East, Norway East, and Poland Central.
Always Serve for Azure Traffic Manager (preview)
Always Serve for Azure Traffic Manager (ATM) is now available in public preview. You can disable endpoint health checks from an ATM profile and always serve traffic to that given endpoint. You can also now choose to use 3rd party health check tools to determine endpoint health, and ATM native health checks can be disabled, allowing flexible health check setups.
Storage
Azure Container Storage (preview)
Azure Container Storage, now in preview, is a unique volume management service built natively for containers. It provides a consistent experience across different types of storage offerings, including Managed option (backed by Azure Elastic SAN), Azure Disks, and ephemeral disk on container services. This simplifies the deployment of persistent volumes and offers a highly scalable, cost-effective, high-performance and resilient storage solution. With Azure Container Storage, you can easily create and manage block storage volumes for production-scale stateful container applications and run them on Kubernetes, ensuring consistent experiences across different environments. The solution is optimized to enhance the performance of stateful workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters by accelerating the deployment of stateful containers with persistent volumes and improving quality with reduced pod failover time through fast attach/detach. Additionally, by efficiently deploying and managing persistent volumes on backend storage options, you can reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) associated with container storage.
Azure NetApp Files Standard Network Features – Edit Volumes (preview)
Standard Network Features provide you with an enhanced Virtual Networking experience for a seamless and consistent experience along with security posture for Azure NetApp Files. You are now able to edit existing ANF volumes and upgrading Basic network features to Standard network features.
Microsoft Azure available from new cloud region in Poland
The newest cloud region in Poland is available with Azure Availability Zones and provides customers with the highest standards of security, privacy, and regulatory-compliant data storage in the country.
Ebsv5 and Ebdsv5 NVMe-enabled VM sizes
The Ebsv5 and Ebdsv5 VM series are the first Azure VM series to support NVMe storage protocol. NVMe support enables these series to achieve the highest Disk Storage IOPS and throughput of any Azure VMs to date. NVMe is a high-performance storage interface that is faster and more efficient compared to other traditional storage protocols like SCSI, which is the only other protocol that most Azure VMs use currently. With NVMe interface supported, customers can now use these VMs to achieve even higher VM-to-disk throughput and IOPS performance per core, with up to 8,000 MBps and 260,000 IOPS. This enables customers that process extremely data-intensive workloads to process more data on fewer core compute resources, potentially saving them money on infrastructure and commercial software licensing costs.
DCesv5 and ECesv5-series Confidential VMs with Intel TDX (preview)
There is an expansion of Confidential VM family with the launch of the DCesv5-series and ECesv5-series in preview. Featuring 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors, these VMs are backed by an all-new hardware-based Trusted Execution Environment called Intel® Trust Domain Extensions (TDX). Organizations can use these VMs to seamlessly bring confidential workloads to the cloud without any code changes to their applications.
Networking
Cloud Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) Palo Alto Networks – an Azure Native ISV Service
Cloud NGFW Palo Alto Networks is the first ISV next-generation firewall service natively integrated in Azure. Developed through a collaboration between Microsoft and Palo Alto Networks, this service delivers the cutting-edge security features of Palo Alto Networks NGFW technology while also offering the simplicity and convenience of cloud-native scaling and management. NGFWs provide superior network security by offering enhanced capabilities compared to traditional firewalls. These include deep packet inspection, advanced visibility and control features, and the use of AI to improve threat detection and response.
Palo Alto Networks SaaS Cloud NGFW Integration with Virtual WAN (preview)
Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW is the first security software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution to be integrated in Azure Virtual WAN, allowing you to enjoy the simplicity of a SaaS security offering without the hassles of managing provisioning, scaling, resiliency, software updates, or routing.
Cloud NGFW SaaS integration with Virtual WAN provides you with the following benefits:
protect workloads with a highly available NGFW powered by machine learning to
detect and stop known, unknown and zero-day threats;
fully managed infrastructure and software lifecycle under SaaS model; consumption-based pay-as-you-go billing;
dedicated and streamlined support channel between Azure and Palo Alto Networks to provide a delightful customer support experience;
simple one-click routing to inspect on-premises, Azure VNets and Internet traffic;
deep and cohesive integration with Azure that provides a cloud-native experience.
Application Gateway V1 will be retired on 28 April 2026
Because Application Gateway V1 retires on 28 April 2026, please transition to Application Gateway V2 by that date.
Alongside the Application Gateway V1 features you already use, Application Gateway V2 provides:
additional features – Autoscaling, zone redundancy, URL rewrite, mutual authentication mTLS , Azure Kubernetes Service Ingress Controller, Keyvault integration;
enhanced security – Faster update of security rules, WAF custom rules and policy associations, bot protection-
From now through 28 April 2026, you can continue using Application Gateway V1 but begin transitioning to Application Gateway V2.
New customers (customers who doesn’t not have Application Gateway V1 SKU in their subscriptions in the month of June 2023) won’t be able to create V1 gateways from 1st July 2023.
Existing customers with subscriptions containing V1 gateways, will no longer be able to create V1 gateways after 28th August 2024. However, they can manage V1 gateways until the retirement date of 28 April 2026. After 28 April 2026, Application Gateway V1 will not be supported.
Storage
Cross-region service endpoints for Azure Storage
Cross-region service endpoints is now generally available for Azure Blob and Data Lake Storage in all Azure regions. Virtual Network (VNet) service endpoints provide secure and direct connectivity to Azure services over an optimized route over the Azure backbone network. Service endpoints in Azure Storage already allow the ability to connect to a storage account to VNets in the same or paired region. With this release, cross-region service endpoints can be configured to allow access to an Azure Blob or Data Lake storage account from VNets in any region. This is valuable for customer scenarios such as global storage resource and access management.
Azure Blob Storage adds a new online access: Cold Storage (preview)
Azure Blob Storage is optimized for storing massive amounts of unstructured data. With blob access tiers, you can store your blob data in the most cost-effective manner based on how frequently it will be accessed and how long it will be retained. Now Azure Blob Storage adds a new online access tier, cold, in addition to hot, cool and archive.
Cold tier pricing is positioned between cool and archive, with 90-day early deletion policy. See the prices in Azure Blob Storage pricing. You can seamlessly use the cold tier the way you use hot and cool, through REST API, SDK, tools, and lifecycle management policy. Cold public preview is now available in Canada Central, Canada East, France Central and Korea Central.
Microsoft is constantly announcing news regarding Azure management services. This summary, published monthly, allows you to have an overall overview of the main news of the current month, in order to stay up to date on these news and have the necessary references to conduct further study.
The following diagram shows the different areas related to management, which are covered in this series of articles:
Figure 1 – Management services in Azure overview
Monitor
Azure Monitor
Azure Monitor for Prometheus has updated the AKS add-on to support Windows nodes
Azure Monitor for Prometheus managed service has updated the AKS metrics add-on to support collection of Prometheus metrics from Windows nodes in AKS clusters. Azure Monitor Metrics add-on integration allows Windows pod DaemonSets to start running on node pools. Are supported both Windows Server 2019 also Windows Server 2022.
Azure Monitor Metrics Dataplane API released
The Azure Metrics Dataplane API is a new approach to Azure Monitor that improves the collection of resource information enabling greater query capacity and efficiency. With this API it is possible to retrieve data on metrics, for a maximum of 50 ID of resources in the same subscription and region, in one batch API call. This improves query throughput, reduces the risk of throttling and provides a smoother experience for customers who want to gather information about Azure resources.
Configure
Update management center
Hotpatch availability for Windows Server VMs in Azure with Desktop Experience Hotpatch is now available for preview images of Windows Server Azure Edition virtual machines with the Desktop Experience installation mode.
Hotpatch is a feature that allows you to patch and install updates to Windows Server Azure Edition virtual machines in an Azure environment, without requiring a restart. It was previously available for Server Core installation mode, but now also Windows Server Azure Edition virtual machines installed with Desktop Experience installation mode can take advantage of this security update installation mode, by providing:
less impact on workloads by having to do fewer reboots;
faster deployment of updates, as the packages are smaller, they install faster and patch orchestration is easier with Azure Update Manager;
better protection, because hotpatch update packages are dedicated to Windows security updates that install faster without reboots.
Govern
Azure Cost Management
Azure Advisor: advice for the right sizing of VM/VMSSwith a custom reference time
Customers using Azure Advisor can improve the relevance of recommendations to make them more actionable, resulting in additional cost savings. In fact,, right sizing recommendations help optimize costs, identifying idle or underutilized virtual machines based on their CPU activity, storage and network over the default seven-day reporting period. Now, thanks to the latest update, customers can set the reporting period to get recommendations based on 14, 21, 30, 60 or even 90 days of use. The configuration can be applied at the subscription level. This feature is especially useful when workloads peak biweekly or monthly.
Updates related toMicrosoft Cost Management
Microsoft is constantly looking for new methodologies to improve Microsoft Cost Management, the solution to provide greater visibility into where costs are accumulating in the cloud, identify and prevent incorrect spending patterns and optimize costs . Inthis article some of the latest improvements and updates regarding this solution are reported.
Secure
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Integration between Azure API Management and Microsoft Defender for API (preview)
It is now possible to obtain a higher level of API security thanks to the integration between Azure API Management and Microsoft Defender for APIs. This integration enables a comprehensive defense strategy for:
gain visibility into Azure APIs;
understand their security posture;
prioritize vulnerability fixes;
detect and respond to active threats in runtime, using anomalous and suspicious API usage detections based on machine learning.
New features, bug fixes and deprecated features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Microsoft Defender for Cloud development is constantly evolving and improvements are being made on an ongoing basis. To stay up to date on the latest developments, Microsoft updates this page, this provides information about new features, bug fixes and deprecated features.
Protect
Azure Backup
Support for Azure VMs using Premium SSD v2 (preview)
In Azure Backup it is now possible to enable the protection of Azure virtual machines that use Premium SSD v2. Enabling these backups is currently available in select regions, and Microsoft plans to add support in more regions in the coming weeks..
Azure Site Recovery
Large disk support for disaster recovery of Hyper-V virtual machines
In Azure Site Recovery it is now possible to enable disaster recovery of Hyper-V virtual machines with data disks up to 32 TB. This applies to Hyper-V VMs replicating to managed disks in any Azure region.
Migrate
Azure Migrate
New Azure Migrate releases and features
Azure Migrate is the service in Azure that includes a large portfolio of tools that you can use, through a guided experience, to address effectively the most common migration scenarios. To stay up-to-date on the latest developments in the solution, please consult this page, that provides information about new releases and features. In particular, this month the main news concern:
possibility to create a business case by importing the list of servers through a .csv file;
building a business case using Azure Migrate for:
servers and workloads running in Microsoft Hyper-V and physical/bare-metal environments, as well as IaaS services from other public clouds;
SQL Server Always On Failover Cluster instances and Always On availability groups.
Evaluation of Azure
To test for free and evaluate the services provided by Azure you can access this page.
Hotpatch for Windows Server VMs on Azure with desktop experience
Hotpatch is now available for Windows Server Azure edition VMs running the desktop experience. Hotpatch is a feature that allows you to patch and install updates to Windows Server Azure Edition virtual machines on Azure without requiring a reboot. It was previously available for the server core installation mode, but now, Windows Server Azure edition VMs installed with the desktop experience mode (the Windows Explorer shell, Start Menu, etc.) will no longer reboot every month for security updates, providing:
lower workload impact with less reboots;
faster deployment of updates as the packages are smaller, install faster, and have easier patch orchestration with Azure Update Manager;
better protection, as the hotpatch update packages are scoped to Windows security updates that install faster without rebooting.
Trusted launch on existing Azure Gen2 VMs (preview)
Trusted launch provides a seamless way to improve the security of Azure Generation 2 VMs. It protects against advanced and persistent attack techniques by combining technologies which can be independently enabled like secure boot and virtualized version of trusted platform module (vTPM). The preview is available to support to enable Trusted launch on existing Gen2 VMs by upgrading the security type of the Gen2 VM to Trusted launch. This will help improve the foundational security of existing Gen2 VMs.
Networking
Azure CNI overlay in generally available
Azure CNI overlay addresses performance, scalability and IP exhaustion challenges while using traditional Azure Container Networking Interface (CNI). With Azure CNI overlay AKS clusters can be scaled to very large sizes by assigning pod IP addresses from user defined overlay address space which are logically different from VNet IP address space hosting the cluster nodes. Additionally, user defined private CIDR can be reused in different AKS clusters, truly extending the IP space available for containerized applications in AKS. Pod and node traffic within the cluster use an overlay network via Azure Software Defined Network (SDN) without any additional encapsulation. Network Address Translation (using the node’s IP address) is used to reach resources outside the cluster.
Storage
Azure Storage Mover is now Generally Available
Azure Storage Mover is a new, fully managed migration service that enables you to migrate your files and folders to Azure Storage while minimizing downtime for your workload. You can use Storage Mover for different migration scenarios such as lift-and-shift, and for cloud migrations that you have to repeat occasionally. Azure Storage Mover also helps maintain oversight and manage the migration of all your globally distributed file shares from a single storage mover resource.
Support for Linux clients to use identity-based access to Azure file shares over SMB
Azure Files now supports Linux clients to use identity-based authentication over Server Message Block (SMB). Previously only Windows clients were supported by Azure Files.
In order to leverage identity based authentication and authorization, the clients need to be domain joined to one of the following Domain Services:
On-premises Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
Azure Active Directory Domain Services (Azure AD DS)
Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Kerberos for hybrid identities is NOT supported yet for Linux clients. This capability will enable customers who are moving a mix of Windows and Linux environments to cloud to have a consistent identity system across both Windows and Linux workstations.
Azure Elastic SAN Public Preview is now available in more regions
Azure Elastic SAN, which is currently in preview, is available with locally redundant storage (LRS) in several regions, including Australia East, Southeast Asia, France Central (including ZRS), North Europe (including ZRS), Sweden Central, UK South, West Europe (including ZRS), East US, East US 2, South Central US, West US 2 (including ZRS), and West US 3. By combining SAN-like capabilities with the advantages of being a cloud-native service, Azure Elastic SAN provides a storage solution that is highly scalable, cost-effective, high-performing, and resilient. It caters to various storage needs, whether you’re migrating your on-premises SAN to the cloud or creating your application directly in the cloud.
The end of support for operating systems Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 is fast approaching and, for Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of companies, this aspect must be carefully evaluated as it has significant impacts on the IT infrastructure. At the same time, end of support can be an important opportunity to modernize the IT environment in order to ensure greater security, new features and improved business continuity. This article outlines the strategies you can adopt to deal with this situation, thus avoiding exposing your IT infrastructure to security issues caused by this situation.
When does Windows Server 2012/2012R2 support end and what does it mean?
The 10 October 2023 marks the end of extended support for Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2. Without the support of Microsoft, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 will no longer receive security patches, unless you take certain actions below. This means that any vulnerabilities discovered in the operating system will no longer be fixed and this could make systems vulnerable to cyber attacks. Furthermore, this condition would result in a state of non-compliance with specific regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Furthermore, users will no longer receive bug fixes and other updates needed to keep the operating system in line with the latest technology, which could lead to compatibility issues with newer software and introduce potential performance issues.
On top of all that, Microsoft will no longer provide online technical support and technical content updates for this operating system.
All these aspects have a significant impact on the IT organizations that still use these operating systems.
Possible strategies and opportunities related to the end of support
This situation is certainly not very pleasant for those who find themselves facing it now, given the limited time, but it can also be seen as an important opportunity for renewal and innovation of its infrastructure. The following paragraphs show the possible strategies that can be implemented.
Upgrading on-premises systems
This strategy involves moving to a new version of Windows Server in an on-premises environment. The advice in this case is to approach at least Windows Server 2019, but it is preferable to adopt the latest version, Windows Server 2022, that can provide the latest security innovations, application performance and modernization.
Furthermore, where technically possible it is preferable not to proceed with in place updates of the operating system, but to manage migration in side-by-side.
This method usually requires the involvement of the application provider, to ensure software compatibility with the new version of the operating system. Since the software is not recent, often it require the adoption of updated versions of the same, which may comprise architecture adjustment and an in-depth phase of testing for the new release . By adopting this upgrade process, the time and effort are considerable, but the result you get is critical to complying with the technological renewal.
Maintaining Windows Server 2012/2012 R2, but with security updates for others 3 years
To continue receiving security updates for Windows Server 2012\2012 R2 hosted on on-premises environment, one option is to join the programExtended Security Update (ESU). This paid program guarantees the provisioning of Security Updates classified as "critical" and "important" for an additional three years, in the specific case until 13 October 2026.
The Extended Security Update program (ESU) is an option for customers who need to run some legacy microsoft products beyond the end of support and who are not in a position to undertake other strategies. The updates included in the ESU program do not include new features and non-security related updates.
Azure adoption
Migrating systems to Azure
Migrating Windows Server Systems 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 on-premises in Azure environment will continue to receive security updates for another three years, classified as critical and important, without having to join the ESU program. This scenario is not only useful to ensure compliance with its systems, but it opens the way towards hybrid architectures where you can get the cloud advantages. In this regard, Microsoft offers a great solution that can provide a large set of tools needed to best deal with the most common migration scenarios: Azure Migrate, that structure the migration process in different phase (discovery, assessment, and migration).
Also Azure Arc can be very useful for inventory digital assets in heterogeneous and distributed environments.
Adopting this strategy can be faster than upgrading systems and allows you to have more time to deal with software renewal. In this regard, the cloud allows you to have excellent flexibility and agility in testing applications in parallel environments.
Before starting the migration path to Azure, it is also essential to structure the networking of the hybrid environment appropriately and evaluate the iterations with the other infrastructure components, to see whether the application can also work well in the cloud.
Migration to Azure can take place to IaaS virtual machines or, in the presence of a large number of systems to be migrated in a VMware environment, Azure VMware Solution can be a solution to consider to face a massive migration quickly and minimizing the interruption of the services provided.
Extending Azure in your datacenter with Azure Stack HCI
Azure Stack HCI is the Microsoft solution that allows you to create a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) for running workloads in an on-premises environment and that provides a strategic connection to various Azure services. Azure Stack HCI was specifically designed by Microsoft to help customers modernize their hybrid datacenter, offering a complete and familiar Azure experience in an on-premises environment. For more information on the Microsoft Azure Stack HCI solution, I invite you to readthis article or to viewthis video.
Azure Stack HCI allows you to get free, just like in Azure, important security patches for Microsoft's legacy products that are past their end of support, through the Extended Security Update program (ESU). For further information you can consult this Microsoft's document. This strategy allows you to have more time to undertake an application modernization process, without neglecting security aspects.
Application modernization
Under certain circumstances, an application modernization process could be undertaken, maybe focused on the public cloud, with the aim of increasing innovation, agility and operational efficiency. Microsoft Azure offers the flexibility to choose from a wide range of options to host your applications, covering the spectrum of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Container-as-a-Service (CaaS) and serverless. In a journey to move away from legacy operating systems, customers can use containers even for applications not specifically designed to use microservices-based architectures. In these cases, it is possible to implement a migration strategy for existing applications that only involves minimal changes to the application code or changes to configurations. These are strictly necessary changes to optimize the application in order to be hosted on PaaS and CaaS solutions. To get some ideas about it, I invite you to read on this article.
Steps to a successful transition
For companies intending to undertake one of the strategies listed, there are some important steps that need to be taken to ensure a successful transition.
Regardless of the strategy you decide to adopt, the advice is to make a detailed assessment, so you can categorize each workload by type, criticality, complexity and risk. This way you can prioritize and proceed with a structured migration plan.
Furthermore, it is necessary to carefully evaluate the most suitable transition strategy considering how to minimize any disruption to company activities. This may include scheduling tests and creating adequate backup sets before migration.
Finally, once the migration is complete, It is important to activate a modern monitor system to ensure that the application workload is stable and working as expected.
Conclusions
Windows Server end of support 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 presents a challenge for many companies that still use these operating systems. However, it can also be seen as an opportunity for companies to start an infrastructure or application modernization process. In this way you will have more modern resources, also taking advantage of the opportunities they offer in terms of security, scalability and performance.
The Dlsv5 and Dldsv5 VM series are ideal for workloads that require less RAM per vCPU than standard general purpose VM sizes. Target workloads include web servers, gaming, video encoding, AI/ML, batch processing and more. These VM series can potentially improve price-performance and reduce the cost of running workloads that do not require more memory per vCPU. The new VMs feature sizes with and without local temporary storage.
Networking
Azure Firewall enhancements for troubleshooting network performance and traffic visibility (preview)
Microsoft Azure Firewall now offers new logging and metric enhancements designed to increase visibility and provide more insights into traffic processed by the firewall. IT security administrators may use (in preview) a combination of the following to root cause application performance issues:
Application Gateway v2 is introducing a collection of new capabilities to further enable you to control network exposure using Application Gateway v2 skus:
private IP only frontend configuration (elimination of Public IP);
enhanced control over Network Securtiy Groups:
eliminate GatewayManager service tag requirement;
enable definition of Deny All Outbound rule;
enhanced control over Route Table rules:
forced Tunelling Support (learning of 0.0.0.0/0 route via BGP);
route Table rule of 0.0.0.0/0 next hop Virtual Appliance.
Storage
Azure File Sync agent v16
The Azure File Sync agent v16 release has finished flighting and is now available on both Microsoft Update and the Microsoft Download Center.
Improvements and issues that are fixed:
improved Azure File Sync service availability:
Azure File Sync is now a zone-redundant service which means an outage in a zone has limited impact while improving the service resiliency to minimize customer impact. To fully leverage this improvement, configure your storage accounts to use zone-redundant storage (ZRS) or Geo-zone redundant storage (GZRS) replication. To learn more about different redundancy options for your storage accounts, see: Azure Storage redundancy
immediately run server change enumeration to detect files changes that were missed on the server:
Azure File Sync uses the Windows USN journal feature on Windows Server to immediately detect files that were changed and upload them to the Azure file share. If files changed are missed due to journal wrap or other issues, the files will not sync to the Azure file share until the changes are detected. Azure File Sync has a server change enumeration job that runs every 24 hours on the server endpoint path to detect changes that were missed by the USN journal. If you don’t want to wait until the next server change enumeration job runs, you can now use the Invoke-StorageSyncServerChangeDetection PowerShell cmdlet to immediately run server change enumeration on a server endpoint path;
bug fix for the PowerShell script FileSyncErrorsReport.ps1;
miscellaneous reliability and telemetry improvements for cloud tiering and sync.
More information about this release:
this release is available for Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022 installations;
the agent version for this release is 16.0.0.0;
installation instructions are documented in KB5013877.
Azure Files NFS: nconnect support
Azure Files NFS v4.1 share now support nconnect option. Nconnect is a client-side Linux mount option that increases performance at scale. With nconnect, the NFS mount uses more TCP connections between the client and the Azure Files service for NFSv4.1. Using Nconnect can improve a client’s throughput/IOPS upto 4X and reduce TCO by upto 70%. There is no additional billing cost associated to using this feature. This feature is available to all existing and new shares.
Azure Premium SSD v2 Disk Storage in new regions
Azure Premium SSD v2 Disk Storage is now available in East US 2, North Europe, and West US 2 regions. This next-generation storage solution offers advanced general-purpose block storage with the best price performance, delivering sub-millisecond disk latencies for demanding IO-intensive workloads at a low cost. It is well-suited for a wide range of enterprise production workloads, including SQL Server, Oracle, MariaDB, SAP, Cassandra, MongoDB, big data analytics, gaming on virtual machines, and stateful containers.
In March there were several news announced by Microsoft regarding Azure management services. In this series of articles, published on a monthly basis, major announcements are listed, accompanied by the necessary references to be able to conduct further studies on.
The following diagram shows the different areas related to management, which are covered in this series of articles:
Figure 1 – Management services in Azure overview
Monitor
Azure Monitor
Ingestion client libraries
Microsoft announces the initial release of the Azure Monitor Ingestion client libraries for .NET, Java, JavaScript e Python. Libraries allow you to:
Upload custom logs to a Log Analytics workspace.
Modernize security standards by requiring Azure Active Directory token-based authentication.
Complete Azure Monitor Query libraries, used to query logs in a Log Analytics workspace.
Collecting Syslog from AKS nodes using Azure Monitor Container Insights(preview)
Customers can now use Azure Monitor Container Insights to collect Syslog from their Azure Kubernetes Service cluster nodes (AKS). In combination with SIEM systems (Microsoft Sentinel) and monitor tools (Azure Monitor), syslog collection tracks security and health events of IaaS and containerized workloads.
The Azure Monitor for Prometheus managed service now supports querying PromQL
Thanks to Azure Workbooks support for Azure Monitor Prometheus managed service, users are provided with the ability to use Prometheus workbooks to run PromQL queries in the portal. Furthermore, users have the benefit of creating custom reports for Prometheus workbooks.
Azure Monitor supports Availability Zones in new regions
Azure Monitor continues to expand its availability zone support by adding three regions: Canada Central, France Central and Japan East.
Azure Monitor alerts support cloning
When viewing the details of an alert rule in the Azure portal, a new option is now available “duplicate”, which allows you to duplicate the alert rule. When selecting this option for an existing alert rule, the rule creation wizard starts, pre-populated with the original alert rule configuration, while allowing you to make changes.
Configure
Azure Automation
Announced the retirement of the agent-based Hybrid Worker (Windows and Linux) for the 31 August 2024
Azure Automation is deprecating the agent-based Hybrid Runbook Worker (Windows and Linux) and this will definitely happen on 31 August 2024. You must migrate to extension-based Hybrid Workers by that date (Windows and Linux).
The main advantages of the extension-based Hybrid Runbook Worker are:
uses system-assigned managed identities, so you don't need to manage certificates for authentication;
offers automatic updating of minor versions;
simplify hybrid worker management at scale with native integration with Azure Resource Manager and governance with Azure Policy.
Migrating authentication from Run As accountto Managed Identityin ASR
It is now possible to migrate the authentication type of accounts, moving to managed identities, using Azure Site Recovery from the Azure portal. Authentication of runbooks via Run As accounts will be deprecated on 30 September 2023. Before that date, runbooks need to be migrated to enable the use of Managed Identities.
Govern
Azure Cost Management
Updates related toMicrosoft Cost Management
Microsoft is constantly looking for new methodologies to improve Microsoft Cost Management, the solution to provide greater visibility into where costs are accumulating in the cloud, identify and prevent incorrect spending patterns and optimize costs . Inthis article the latest improvements and updates concerning this solution are reported.
Azure Arc
Improved Azure Arc integration with Datadog
Microsoft is improving the ability to observe and manage IT infrastructure thanks to the integration of Microsoft Azure Arc with Datadog. Based on the consolidated collaboration, Microsoft is integrating Datadog with Azure Arc natively, to meet Datadog customers, providing rich insights from Azure Arc-enabled resources directly into Datadog dashboards. Customers can monitor real-time data during cloud migrations and performance of applications running in both public cloud and hybrid or multicloud environments.
Secure
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
New features, bug fixes and deprecated features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Microsoft Defender for Cloud development is constantly evolving and improvements are being made on an ongoing basis. To stay up to date on the latest developments, Microsoft updates this page, this provides information about new features, bug fixes and deprecated features. In particular, this month the main news concern:
availability of a new Defender for Storage plan, which includes near real-time scanning for malware and detection of threats to sensitive data;
data-aware security posture (preview);
new experience for managing Azure default security policies;
Defender per CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management) is now available (GA);
ability to create custom security standards and recommendations in Microsoft Defender for Cloud;
Microsoft Cloud Security Benchmark (MCSB) version 1.0 is now available (GA);
some regulatory compliance standards are now available in government clouds;
new preview recommendation for Azure SQL Servers;
new notice in Defender for Key Vault.
Protect
Azure Backup
Immutable vaults for Azure Backup
Immutable vaults are now also available for production environments and offer greater security for backups, ensuring that recovery points created once cannot be deleted before they expire. Azure Backup prevents any operation on immutable vaults which could lead to backup data loss. Furthermore, you can lock immutable vault ownership to make it irreversible. This helps protect your backups from threats such as ransomware attacks and malicious actors, preventing operations such as deleting backups or reducing retention in backup policies.
Backup per Azure Kubernetes Service (preview)
Organizations using Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) increasingly run stateful applications on their clusters, deploying workloads such as Apache Kafka-based messaging queues and databases such as Postgres and MongoDB. With data storage within the cluster, backup and recovery become a major concern of IT managers. Make sure Kubernetes backup capabilities are scalable, flexible and purpose-built for Kubernetes is central to an overall data protection plan. Azure Backup introduced now Backup for AKS. This solution simplifies the backup and recovery of containerized applications and data and allows customers to configure a scheduled backup for both cluster state and application data. Backup for AKS is aligned with the Container Storage Interface (CSI) to offer Kubernetes-aware backup capabilities. The solution allows customers to unlock different scenarios, such as data backup for application security and regulatory requirements, cloning of development/test environments and rollback management.
Azure Backup allows you to keep backups in vaults for Azure Blob and for Azure File (preview)
Azure Backup now supports transferring Azure Blob and Azure File backups to vaults. A vault is a logical entity that stores backups and recovery points created over time. In this regard, you can define a backup schedule for creating recovery points and specify retention settings that determine how long backups will be stored in the vault. Backups in the vault are isolated from the source data and allow you to tap into the data even if the source data has been compromised, performing resets.
Listed below are some of the main features that can be achieved by placing backups in vaults:
Offsite copy of data: allows you to restore mission-critical data from backups, regardless of the state of the source data.
Long-term retention of backup data, which helps you meet compliance requirements, particularly in the financial and healthcare sectors, with strict guidelines on the data retention period.
Recovery in alternate location: allows you to restore data to an alternate account if the source storage account is compromised or create different copies of your data for testing or development purposes.
Centralized management through the backup center: backups in vaults can be monitored and analyzed at scale alongside other protected workloads using Azure Backup.
Safe backups. The built-in security features of Azure Backup, such as multi-user authorization (MUA) for critical backup operations, data encryption and role-based access control (RBAC), help protect the backups in the vault and meet your backup security needs.
Azure Site Recovery
Improved the ability to rename network interfaces and disks of protected virtual machines
ASR introduces a new, easier way to name and rename network interfaces (NIC) and the virtual machine disks in the recovery service vaults.
Migrate
Azure Migrate
New Azure Migrate releases and features
Azure Migrate is the service in Azure that includes a large portfolio of tools that you can use, through a guided experience, to address effectively the most common migration scenarios. To stay up-to-date on the latest developments in the solution, please consult this page, that provides information about new releases and features. In particular, This month, the biggest news is support for web app discovery and assessment for Azure app service for Hyper-V and physical servers.
Azure Database Migration
Offline Azure SQL Database migrations with the Azure SQL Migration extension
Offline migrations of SQL Server databases running on-premises, on Azure virtual machines or any virtual machine running in the cloud (private, public) to Azure SQL Database it is possible to do it through the Azure SQL Migration extension. The new migration feature of the Azure SQL Migration extension for Azure Data Studio provides an end-to-end experience to modernize SQL Server on Azure SQL Database. The extension allows you to prepare for the migration with actions to remediate any blockages and allows you to obtain recommendations to adequately size the Azure SQL Database targets, including hardware configuration in the Hyperscale service tier.
Evaluation of Azure
To test for free and evaluate the services provided by Azure you can access this page.
Azure VMware Solution: Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server
Azure Hybrid Benefit (AHB) for SQL Server is now available in Azure VMware Solution (AVS). With AHB for SQL Server on Azure VMware Solution, you can take advantage of the unlimited virtualization licensing capability included with the SQL Server Software Assurance. To this end, you can configure and enable VM-Host placement policies via the Azure portal and apply Azure Hybrid Benefit.
Networking
Azure Firewall Basic
Azure Firewall Basic is a new SKU for Azure Firewall designed for small and medium-sized businesses. Azure Firewall Basic can be deployed inside a virtual network or a virtual hub. This gives businesses the flexibility to choose the deployment option that best meets their needs.
Seamless integration with other Azure security services
Simple setup and easy-to-use
Setup in just a few minutes
Automate deployment (deploy as code)
Zero maintenance with automatic updates
Central management via Azure Firewall Manager
Cost-effective
Designed to deliver essential, cost-effective protection of your resources within your virtual network
Pricing and billing for Azure Firewall Basic with secured virtual hub will be effective starting May 1, 2023.
Azure Virtual Network Manager
Azure Virtual Network Manager (AVNM) is now generally available. AVNM is a highly scalable and available network management solution that allows you to simplify network management across subscriptions globally. Using its centralized network management capabilities, you can manage your network resources at scale from a single plane of glass.
Key features of Azure Virtual Network Manager include:
global management of virtual network resources across regions, subscriptions, and tenants;
automated management and deployment of virtual network topology to create hub and spoke*;
high-priority security rule enforcement at scale to protect your network resources*;
safe deployment of network configurations across desired regions.
*The mesh topology and security admin rule features remain in public preview and will become generally available soon
Azure Traffic Manager: reserved namespaces for subdomains
Azure Traffic Manager has added functionality for reserving domain labels for traffic manager profiles. Any customer requesting a traffic manger profile of the form label1.trafficmanager.net will have “label1” label reserved for the tenant and another user will not be able to create a new traffic manager profile with this name or subdomains below it. For example if a user creates a profile names label1.trafficmanager.net then “label1” and all labels of form “<labelN>….<lable2>.<label1>.trafficmanager.net” will be reserved for the subscription. With these enhancements, once a namespace is created by a customer under trafficmanager.net domain, it will not be available for any other tenant. This enhancement ensures that customers have full control over the labels tree used in their traffic manager profiles and enables customers better manage their namespace without having to worry about a specific name/label being in use by other tenants.
Illumio for Azure Firewall (preview)
Microsoft partnered with Illumio, the leader in Zero Trust Segmentation, to build Illumio for Azure Firewall, an integrated solution that brings the benefits of Zero Trust Segmentation to Azure Firewall.
Illumio for Azure Firewall uses the Azure platform to protect your resources across your Azure virtual networks and at your Azure perimeter. It enables organizations to understand application traffic and dependencies and apply consistent protection across your environment – limiting exposure, containing breaches, and improving efficiency. Illumio for Azure Firewall also helps simplify Zero Trust Segmentation by enhancing visibility, streamlining policy management, and providing scalable security.
Key benefits:
Reduce security risks with a single view of your east-west and north-south traffic based on Azure Firewall flow data within your Azure subscriptions.
Gain a holistic view of your application traffic with real-time visibility of interactions and dependencies across your environment.
Easily deploy and configure Azure application-based polices within the Illumio platform.
Deploy Azure Firewall policies confidently with policies that automatically scale along with your applications.
Avoid application downtime by understanding the impact of Azure Firewall policies before they are enforced.
Works with all 3 SKUs of Azure Firewall – Basic, Standard, and Premium – to meet the needs of any organization.
Accelerated Connections for Network Virtual Appliances now in Azure Marketplace (preview)
Accelerated Connections is a new product that enhances Accelerated Networking enabled vNICs, enabling customer flexibility in selecting the best option of CPS capabilities suited to match their Azure implementation. This offering will enable you to achieve the first bare-metal-like performance levels for connections per second (CPS) in Azure.
Storage
Ephemeral OS disks supports encryption at host using customer managed keys
Ephemeral OS disks can be encrypted at host using platform managed keys or customer managed keys. The default is platform managed keys. This feature would enable our customers to meet your organization’s compliance needs.
Azure Ultra Disk Storage in Brazil Southeast, South Africa North and UAE North
Azure Ultra Disk Storage is now available in one zone in Brazil Southeast, South Africa North and UAE North region. Azure Ultra Disk Storage offers high throughput, high IOPS and consistent low latency disk storage for Azure Virtual Machines (VMs). Ultra Disk Storage is well suited for data-intensive workloads such as SAP HANA, top-tier databases and transaction-heavy workloads.
Encryption scopes on hierarchical namespace enabled storage accounts
Encryption scopes introduce the option to provision multiple encryption keys in a storage account with hierarchical namespace. Using encryption scopes, you now can provision multiple encryption keys and choose to apply the encryption scope either at the container level (as the default scope for blobs in that container) or at the blob level. The capability is available for REST, HDFS, NFSv3 and SFTP protocols in an Azure Blob / Data Lake Gen2 storage account. The key that protects an encryption scope may be either a Microsoft-managed key or a customer-managed key in Azure Key Vault. You can choose to enable automatic rotation of a customer-managed key that protects an encryption scope. When you generate a new version of the key in your Key Vault, Azure Storage will automatically update the version of the key that is protecting the encryption scope, within a day.
Performance Plus for Azure Disk Storage (preview)
Azure Disk Storage now offers a new feature called Performance Plus, which enhances the IOPS and throughput performance of Standard HDD, Standard SSD, and Standard HDD disks that are sized 1TB or larger. Performance Plus is offered for free and is available to use through deployments on Azure Command-Line Interface (CLI) and PowerShell.
