Azure updates

General Available: Azure Synapse Runtime for Apache Spark 3.4 is now GA

Target availability: Q3 2024

Azure Synapse Runtime for Apache Spark 3.4 is now Generally Available

• Open Source
• Features

Public preview: Backup and restore of virtual machines with private endpoint enabled disks

Azure Backup can now help you back up virtual machines using private endpoint-enabled disks. You can now also specify network settings to be used by the restored disks while initiating the restore process.

• Azure Backup
• Security
• Management
• Features

Azure Virtual Network Manager Security Admin Rule generally available in 45 regions

Azure Virtual Network Manager's security admin rule configuration is now generally available in 45 regions, empowering users to enforce security rules across their virtual networks globally.

• Azure Virtual Network Manager
• Regions & Datacenters
• Features

Public preview: Azure Backup supports long term retention for backup of Azure Database for MySQL– Flexible Server

Target availability: Q1 2024

Now you can retain backups for up to 10 years by defining your own backup and retention policy for MySQL- Flexible server.

• Azure Backup
• Azure Database for MySQL flexible servers
• Security
• Features
• Compliance

Public Preview: Azure Backup enables vaulted backups for Azure Files for comprehensive data protection.

Target availability: Q1 2024

Azure Backup now supports transferring Azure Files backups to the vault for comprehensive protection against severe data loss scenarios like ransomware attack.

• Security
• Features

Standard_NC6s_v3, Standard_NC12s_v3 and Standard_NC24s_v3 Azure virtual machines will be retired on September 30, 2025

Standard_NC6s_v3, Standard_NC12s_v3 and Standard_NC24s_v3 Azure virtual machines will be retired on September 30, 2025

• Retirements

Public Preview: Invoke Azure Machine Learning models using the azure_ai extension

Target availability: Q1 2024

Invoke Azure Machine Learning models in real-time from SQL in Azure Database for PostgreSQL.

• Azure Database for PostgreSQL
• Features

Public Preview: On-demand capacity reservations for Specialty SKUs

Target availability: Q2 2024

You can now reserve capacity with SLA for following Specialty VM sizes, Mv3 series, NC-series (v3 and newer), NV-series (v2 and newer), and Lsv2 series

• Pricing & Offerings

General Availability: Azure NetApp Files support for 1 TiB capacity pools

Azure NetApp Files now supports smaller 1 TiB capacity pool sizes, lowered from 2 TiB, when used with volumes using standard network features.

• Azure NetApp Files
• Regions & Datacenters
• Pricing & Offerings
• Features

Billing for Azure Monitor stateful log search alerts

Starting from May 1, 2024, you will be charged for stateful log alerts in Azure Monitor.

• Services
• Features
• Compliance

Public preview: Windows GPU support in AKS

You can now run GPU workloads, such as machine learning, video encoding, large simulations, and gaming, on Windows nodepools in AKS.

• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• Features

General Availability: App Service Backup and Restore over Azure Virtual Network

Customers can now use custom backups, to back up their web app's files and configuration data to a firewall-protected storage account.

• Features

General availability: Azure Virtual Network encryption now in additional regions

Azure Virtual Network encryption is a feature of Azure Virtual Networks. Virtual network encryption allows you to seamlessly encrypt and decrypt traffic between Azure Virtual Machines. Now available in additional regions.

• Virtual Network
• Regions & Datacenters
• Services
• Features

Public preview: Change Actor

Change Actor allows you to see who initiated the change and with which client that change was made, for changes across all your tenants and subscriptions. 

• Azure Resource Graph
• Management
• Features

Sending a log search alert with cross tenant target resource will no longer be supported

As of March 15, 2024, this behavior will change and sending a log search alert with a cross tenant target resource (except for the lighthouse case) will no longer be supported. Alerts will not be sent to unauthorized target resources, and log search alert rules with an unauthorized target will be ignored. This will ensure that only authorized users can receive and investigate log search alerts.

• Alerts
• Features
• Compliance

General Availability: Trusted launch for Azure VMs in China regions

Azure China cloud regions now support Trusted Launch Virtual Machines to improve security posture of an Azure Virtual Machine.

• Security
• Regions & Datacenters
• Compliance
• Operating System

Announcing General Availability to migrate Virtual Network injected Azure Data Explorer Cluster to Private Endpoints

The migration of Azure Virtual Network injected Azure Data Explorer cluster to Private Endpoints in generally available now. The process is simple and can be done using the Azure portal, the ARM template, or any code which uses the ADX SDK.

• Azure Data Explorer
• Security
• Features