Azure updates

Private Preview: Force detach zone redundant disks during zone outage

Force detach zone redundant disks during zone outage and take advantage of ZRS ability to achieve an RPO of 0.

• Managed Disks
• Azure Disk Storage
• Virtual Machines
• Windows Virtual Machines
• Linux Virtual Machines
• Features

Public Preview: Next generation of general purpose service tier for Azure SQL Managed Instance

Target availability: Q1 2024

The next generation of general purpose service tier brings improved performance, 32 TB storage and higher database density.

• Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Azure SQL
• Features

Public preview: Public IP Domain Name Label Scope

Announcing the public preview for a new capability in Azure public IP address that can prevent DNS subdomain takeover while still allowing for re-use of DNS names.

• Azure DNS
• Features

Public preview: Database watcher for Azure SQL

Target availability: Q1 2024

Enable in-depth, managed monitoring of Azure SQL databases, elastic pools, and managed instances.

• Azure Data Explorer
• Azure SQL
• Features

Operator and CRD support with Azure Managed Prometheus

Azure Monitor managed service for Prometheus will support CRD-based configs for scrape jobs to collect metrics from workloads running in your AKS cluster. With this new update, customers can use custom resources (service monitor and pod monitor) to configure metric collection with Managed Prometheus.

• Azure Monitor
• Managed Prometheus
• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• 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: 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

• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• Features

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

Public preview: Azure CNI static block IP allocation support in AKS

You can now scale beyond the current 65k Pod IPs and scale up to 1 Million Pods.

• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• Features

Generally Available: Instance level Public IP tags in AKS

You can now utilize Azure routing preference for your cluster, public node IPs in AKS

• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• Security
• Features

Public preview: Trusted launch support in AKS

Administrators can now deploy AKS nodes with verified and signed bootloaders, OS kernels, and drivers.

• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• Security
• Features

Public preview: Azure Modeling and Simulation Workbench

Azure Modeling and Simulation Workbench is a new service that provides a fully managed work environment for engineering development, accelerating project startup, and enabling secure collaboration between development teams.

• Virtual Machines
• Premium Blob Storage
• Azure Modeling and Simulation Workbench
• Azure NetApp Files
• Services
• Pricing & Offerings

Public Preview: JVM memory fit in Azure Container Apps

Java apps are now attuned to the container environment and primed for better performance and reliability by default.

• Azure Container Apps
• Features

Public Preview: Managed Java components in Azure Container Apps

You can now leverage managed Java components in Azure Container apps for service registry and externalized application properties.

• Azure Container Apps
• Features

Public Preview: Tomcat support in Azure Container Apps

You can now deploy a Java application using a WAR file to Azure Container Apps.

• Azure Container Apps
• Features

Public Preview: Modernizing Azure Resource Manager Throttling

In 2024, Azure Resource Manager is introducing a revamped throttling experience for subscriptions, with increased limits and a token bucket algorithm for managing requests. This will enhance API management and improve productivity. The transition to the new architecture will be gradual, leading to a more efficient and dynamic throttling experience. For more information, consult the Azure Resource Manager documentation.

• Management

Public Preview: Azure SQL updates for mid-March 2024

Target availability: Q1 2024

Public preview enhancements and updates released for Azure SQL in mid-March 2024.

• Azure SQL Database
• Features

Azure API Center Updates

Target availability: Q1 2024

We are pleased to announce an update to the Azure API Center extension for Visual Studio Code, introducing new capabilities for API inventory and design. Additionally, we are unveiling a new API governance feature in API Center, enabling API linting and analysis based on customer-owned design guidelines.

• 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