Summary of Azure snippets for the week commencing 16th June 2025, grouped by Azure service. After the flurry of announcements from and around Build, it’s a little quieter this week :-)

For all the updates on Azure platform resources and products - Azure updates from Microsoft

GA = Generally Available
Public/Private Preview = as stated
RET = Service retirement

Azure services with highlighted updates this week:

• API Management
• Azure Backup
• Azure Command Launcher
• Azure DB for PostgreSQL
• Azure Functions
• Azure Kubernetes Services
• Azure SQL

API Management

• Import from Azure AI Foundry to Azure API Management’s AI Gateway (GA) : This capability simplifies onboarding of large language model (LLM) APIs by enabling seamless integration through the Azure portal.

Azure Backup

• Increased Disk Capacity for Azure VM Backup (GA) : VMs can now be protected with individual disks up to 64 TB and a total of 512 TB per VM. This enables large disk support for business continuity and recovery from disasters or ransomware attacks. Reduces the need to exclude disks from a backup set to get a VM backup if you’re still running VMs with lots of disks.

Azure Command Launcher

• Azure Command Launcher for Java (Private Preview) : Announcing the private preview of jaz, a new JVM launcher optimized specifically for Azure. By setting JVM parameters tailored for cloud deployments, jaz reduces wasted memory and CPU cycles, improves first-deploy performance, and enhances cost efficiency. This is ideal for developers who want better JVM defaults without diving deep into JVM tuning guides, and  develop and deploy cloud-native microservices. Works with cloud-native and container workloads.

Azure DB for PostgreSQL

• In-place major version upgrade to PostgreSQL 17 on Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server (Public Preview) : You can now upgrade your Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server instance to PostgreSQL 17 using a simple, in-place upgrade — now available in public preview. This release allows you to move from previous PostgreSQL versions (14, 15, or 16) to PostgreSQL 17 without changing your server endpoint, reconfiguring your application, or performing manual data migration.

Azure Functions

• OpenTelemetry support (Public Preview) : Expanding on the limited preview announced last year, these enhancements deliver better observability, improved performance, and more detailed insights into your function executions, helping you diagnose issues faster and optimize your applications more effectively. For those already using OTEL with tools like Prometheus and Grafana, this makes it easier to integrate Azure Functions into your monitoring.

Azure Kubernetes Services

• AKS Release 2025-06-17 now available (GA) : Among other new features, Kubernetes 1.27 LTS version and 1.30 community version are going out of support by July 30th; Kubernetes 1.33 community version is going to be released before the end of June; AKS patch versions 1.32.5, 1.31.9 are now available; and API Server VNet integration has been rolled out to more regions (includes UK West, but unusually not UK South!).

Azure SQL

• Azure SQL Managed Instance faster management operations (GA) : You can now create and update your Azure SQL Managed Instance with improved speed and precision. The new faster management operations experience enhances elasticity by enabling you to provision any configuration of your instance in under 30 minutes — whether it uses default or custom settings. Update and scaling operations are similarly accelerated, completing in less than 60 minutes compared to the previous four-hour process. Applies to all service tiers, but not to zone-redundant instances.

Summary of Azure snippets for the week commencing 26th May 2025, grouped by Azure service.

With Build taking place last week, a lot of announcements have dropped as usual, so this is a fairly big post. The Build 2025 Book of News has all the details of announcements from there. Plenty of AI focus as usual - I’ll cover some of the stuff that isn’t AI-related here :-)

For all the updates on Azure platform resources and products - Azure updates from Microsoft

Summary of Azure snippets for the week commencing 19th May 2025, grouped by Azure service.

For all the updates on Azure platform resources and products - Azure updates from Microsoft

GA = Generally Available
Public/Private Preview = as stated
RET = Service retirement

Azure services with highlighted updates this week:

• Azure Backup
• Azure Bastion
• Azure DB for PostgreSQL
• Azure Functions
• Azure Site Recovery
• Azure Storage
• Cloud Services
• Compute
• Copilot
• FinOps
• Governance
• Infrastructure as Code

Azure Backup

• Vaulted backup for Azure Data Lake Storage (Public Preview) : Azure Backup now supports transferring your Azure Data Lake Storage backups to a vault. In this limited public preview, you can configure vaulted backups for block blobs in a HNS-enabled standard general-purpose v2 ADLS Gen2 storage account in specific regions (a very limited set at present).

Summary of Azure snippets for the week commencing 17th March 2025, grouped by Azure service. Notably, the AKS updates this time include a pretty significant networking retirement.

For all the updates on Azure platform resources and products - Azure updates from Microsoft

GA = Generally Available
Public/Private Preview = as stated
RET = Service retirement

Azure services with highlighted updates this week:

• Azure Backup
• Azure Kubernetes Services
• Azure Load Balancer
• Azure Storage
• Virtual Network Manager

Azure Backup

• Vaulted Backup for Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server (GA) : Generally available in 5 regions (including UK South and UK West), public preview in others. Definite enhancement to DB for PostgreSQL backups which were previously only available with the server. Good to see more services coming in to Azure Backup to take advantage of the enhanced resilience and security a Vault can provide.

Summary of Azure snippets for the week commencing 21st October 2024, grouped by Azure service.

GA = Generally Available
Public/Private Preview = as stated
RET = Service retirement

Azure services with highlighted updates this week:

• Azure Backup
• Azure Storage
• Compute
• FinOps
• Redis

Azure Backup

• GRS and Cross-Region Restore support for Azure VMs using Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disk in Azure Backup (GA) : Definite improvement for DR resilience if you’re using Premium SSD v2 or Ultra disks with your VMs. GRS vaults and Cross-Region Restore are currently supported in the following regions for machines using Premium SSDv2 Disks: Southeast Asia, East Asia, North Europe, West Europe, East US, West US, and West US 3. Coming to other regions in later months (not sure this really counts as ‘Generally Available’ yet, if I’m being honest!).

Summary of Azure snippets for the week commencing 30th September 2024, grouped by Azure service. Almost back to normal posting cadence :-)

GA = Generally Available
Public/Private Preview = as stated
RET = Service retirement

Azure services with highlighted updates this week:

• Application Gateway
• Azure Backup
• Azure Cache for Redis
• Azure DB for PostgreSQL
• Azure Kubernetes Service
• Infrastructure as Code
• Network Security Groups
• Virtual Network Manager

Application Gateway

• Azure Application Gateway support for TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 will end by 31 August 2025 (RET) : All connections (frontend and backend) to Application Gateway must use Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 or later, as support for TLS 1.0 and 1.1 on Azure Application Gateway will be discontinued starting 31st August 2025.

Azure Backup

• Azure Business Continuity Center (Public Preview) : Centralised management platform for backup and disaster recovery of Azure resources. Will be replacing the Backup Center, which I think we can probably safely regard as deprecated from this point forward. Supports resources in all regions and a variety of sources and scenarios. (No idea why the title of the page on Azure Updates says Generally Available when it’s clearly still in preview :-)

Azure Cache for Redis

• Smaller Enterprise tier cache instance for Azure Cache for Redis (GA) : Following the very pricy Large Enterprise instances, there’s now a more cost-effective smaller one. Runs on burstables and recommended for dev/test only, but very much cheaper than the other Enterprise tiers.

Azure DB for PostgreSQL

• Online migration from Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Single Server to Flexible Server (GA) : Now out of preview, minimal downtime migration for PostgreSQL Single Server instances.

Azure Kubernetes Service

• gRPC and frontend mTLS now available for Application Gateway for Containers (GA) : Application Gateway for Containers now supports gRPC and frontend mutual authentication (mTLS). With both frontend and backend mutual authentication, end-to-end mutual authentication is now possible. This fills what I considered a fairly significant gap in the functionality of App Gateway for Containers, and brings it more in line with other ingress/gateway solutions.
• Long-term support for Kubernetes version 1.27 and 1.30 in AKS (GA) : K8s v1.30 has now joined 1.27 on the AKS LTS list.
• Open Service Mesh add-on for AKS will be retired on September 30, 2027 (RET) : Istio is (currently) the only option for a ’native’ AKS service mesh add-on going forward.
• Virtual machines node pools support in AKS (Public Preview) : With virtual machines node pools, Azure Kubernetes Service directly manages the provisioning and bootstrapping of every single node. (For Virtual Machine Scale Sets node pools, AKS manages the model of the Virtual Machine Scale Sets and uses it to achieve consistency across all nodes in the node pool.) Virtual Machines node pools allow the capability to add multiple VM SKUs of a similar family (e.g. different D-series SKUs) to a single node pool.
• Latest AKS release (GA) : Some ongoing updates from the last release, plus 1.30 in LTS (see above), and AKS patch versions 1.28.13, 1.29.8, 1.30.4 are now available

Infrastructure as Code

• Transition from Helm Repositories to OCI Artifacts for Storing Helm Charts (RET) : Starting March 30th, 2025, Azure Container Registry will no longer support Helm v2. Therefore, the legacy “Helm repositories” functionality will also be retired. After this date, Azure Container Registry will only support storing Helm charts as Open Container Initiative (OCI) Artifacts. Get your migration sorted out where needed - any Helm charts not stored as OCI Artifacts in ACR will be deleted after 30th March 2025!

Network Security Groups

• Network security group flow logs in Azure Network Watcher will be retired (RET) : Flow logs to be retired on 30/9/27, but you won’t be able to create new ones from 30/6/25. Migration path is to virtual network flow logs, and a migration process is available.

Virtual Network Manager

• Azure Virtual Network Monitoring IP address management (Public Preview) : This feature (part of Virtual Network Manager) is designed to streamline and optimise your IP address management, providing you with greater control and efficiency. Tracking IP address use in VNets and subnets to avoid clashes can be tricky in Azure, and if you’re using services such as Private Endpoints which can dynamically assign IP addresses, it gets even harder - something like this could be helpful and maybe remove the need for manual tracking of IPs. Preview available in UK South but not UK West.

And finally, goodbye to Azure Orbital Ground Station, which is being retired on 18th December 2024. Not my usual focus, but I couldn’t let it pass without a note!

Summary of Azure snippets for the week commencing 29th July 2024, grouped by Azure service.

GA = Generally Available
Public/Private Preview = as stated :-)

Azure services with highlighted updates this week:

• Azure Backup
• Azure Container Storage
• Azure Kubernetes Service
• Sustainability

Azure Backup

• VM Backup support for Premium SSD v2 disks (GA) : Several updates around Premium SSD v2 and Ultra disks, but VM Backup now supporting them both with the Enhanced backup policy is probably the biggest update from my point of view. Note that cross-region and file-level restores (from a mounted disk) are still not supported. Also (importantly) note that you can’t use geo-redundant (GRS) Recovery Services Vaults for enabling backup with Premium SSD v2 and Ultra disks.
• Vaulted Backup for Azure Blob Storage (GA) : Blob backups can now be stored in a Vault instead of just as snapshots in a Storage Account. Available in all public regions, but there are some limitations to be aware of.

Azure Container Storage

• Azure Container Storage for Ephemeral (Local NVMe/Temp SSD) and Azure Disk (GA) : ACS now ready for production workloads (ephemeral disks and Azure Disk-based ones, anyway). Lots of publicity for this one - Azure Blog post, AKS Engineering blog post, documentation.

Azure Kubernetes Service

• OS SKU in-place migration for AKS (GA) : The OS SKU in-place migration feature allows you to trigger a node image upgrade between one Linux SKU (i.e. Ubuntu) to another (i.e. Azure Linux) on an existing nodepool. No need to create new nodes, cordon and drain the existing ones, and then delete them - the upgrade can roll through the cluster without having to create new node pools.

Sustainability

• Azure Carbon Optimization (Public Preview) : Sustainability is still very much a hot topic with cloud workloads. Carbon optimization joins the emissions dashboard and emissions insights (another preview service) to allow you to get a full picture of your cloud deployment impact and where it could be improved.

Summary of Azure snippets for the week commencing 20th May 2024, grouped by Azure service.

GA = Generally Available
Public/Private Preview = as stated :-)

Microsoft Build took place this week, so lots of announcements - unsurprisingly, a strong focus on Copilot and AI, though there were some other technologies covered as well. Have a look at the Build 2024 Book of News for all the new stuff announced.

Azure services with highlighted updates this week: