Azure updates
Get the latest updates on Azure products and features to meet your cloud investment needs. Subscribe to notifications to stay informed.
RSS feedMay 2024
GA: Support for disabling Windows outboundNAT in AKS
You can now manually disable Windows outboundNAT when creating new Windows node pools in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
April 2024
Public Preview: Azure HDInsight on AKS is now available for preview in 7 new regions
Target availability: Q2 2024
Azure HDInsight on AKS is now available for preview in seven new regions - East US 2 EUAP, West US, Japan East, Australia East, Canada Central, North Europe, Brazil South. Azure HDInsight on AKS is a modern, reliable, secure, and fully managed Platform as a Service (PaaS) that runs on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). HDInsight on AKS allows you to deploy popular Open-Source Analytics workloads like Apache Spark™, Apache Flink®️, and Trino without the overhead of managing and monitoring containers. For more information about Azure HDInsight on AKS, see the documentation.
March 2024
Preview: New Features in Azure Container Storage
Azure Container Storage is a fully managed volume orchestration service built natively for containers. New capabilities include support for Temp SSD, simplified installation via AKS CLI, and scalable storage for cost-efficient workload management.
Public preview: Kubernetes AI Toolchain Operator (KAITO) add-on for AKS
You can now choose from preset LLMs with images hosted by AKS and split inferencing across multiple lower-GPU count VMs
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.
Public preview: Deployment safeguards in AKS
You can now use deployment safeguards to implement Kubernetes best practices and get warnings on deployment or deny the deployment of manifest files that are not following best practices.
Public preview: Trusted launch support in AKS
Administrators can now deploy AKS nodes with verified and signed bootloaders, OS kernels, and drivers.
Generally Available: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) support for 5K Node limit by default for standard tier clusters
You can now scale your AKS cluster to larger than 1000 nodes without having to request any special limit increases or whitelisting.
February 2024
Generally Available: AKS support for node soak duration for upgrades
You can now stagger AKS node upgrades and minimize application downtime.
GA: Istio-based service mesh add-on for Azure Kubernetes Service
You can deploy an officially supported Istio addon for AKS
Public Preview: Regional Disaster Recovery by Azure Backup for AKS
Customers can now utilize Azure Backup for AKS to recover their containerized applications and data during a regional disaster scenario.
Generally Available: Azure Stack HCI latest feature release
Target availability: Q1 2024
Azure Stack HCI is the Microsoft Azure Arc-enabled infrastructure. Now, customers who have an Azure Stack HCI subscription can download the latest feature release for their infrastructure. This new Azure Stack HCI release is the version of the product required to run Azure Virtual Desktop on- prem which is also now in GA and called Azure Virtual Desktop for Azure Stack HCI. This is an exciting development as the public preview of this product is in high demand specifically in Healthcare and Financial Services.
January 2024
Public preview: Istio add-on for AKS now supports plug-in certificate authority (CA)
You can now bring your own certificates and keys to use with Istio add-on for signing workload certificates for improved security.
Visual Studio Code extension update for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
You can use VS Code extension update for AKS to interact with a new create cluster experience, abort/reconcile cluster, and more.
Public preview: Node OS API options feature for AKS
You can now get Node IP for tasks such as troubleshooting, without needing kubectl access
Public preview: Kube-reserved resource optimization in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
You will see AKS reserve up to 20% less memorry on nodes.
December 2023
Container insights recommended alerts (custom metrics) (preview) retirement moving up to 31 May 2024
Target retirement date: June 01, 2024
Transition to Prometheus recommended alert rules (preview) before 31 May 2024.
Generally Available: AKS support for API breaking change detection
AKS now alerts you on API breaking changes on minor version change cluster upgrades.
Public preview: Node autoprovision support in AKS
AKS can now take care of VM SKU selection based on the workloads you are scheduling rather than you having to pre-allocate node pools of a certain SKU type.
November 2023
General Availability - Azure Backup for AKS
Azure Backup is announcing General Availability of Azure Backup for AKS allowing customers to protect their applications by providing ability to backup and restore AKS clusters.
Azure at Microsoft Build
Get answers to your questions from Microsoft and Community experts.
Community supportRead commonly asked questions on Azure updates.
FAQFind the latest news, updates, and resources for Azure partners.
Azure Partner ZoneTell us what you think of Azure and what you want to see in the future.
Provide feedbackAzure is available in more regions than any other cloud provider.
Check product availability in your region