Azure Product Updates Digest

Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server now supports a reader endpoint in public preview, enabling automatic load balancing of read-only traffic across multiple replicas to simplify connection management and improve scalability.

Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server now offers Extended Support to provide critical security updates and technical support for eligible PostgreSQL versions after community support ends, enabling customers to upgrade on their own timeline with confidence.

Azure SQL updates in mid-August 2026 introduce generally available features in Visual Studio Code for customizable keyboard shortcuts, free tier database provisioning, and a new SQL formatter, enhancing developer productivity and ease of database management.

The MSSQL extension for VS Code v1.45 introduces a public preview of a customizable SQL Formatter for cleaner code, alongside generally available Azure SQL Database provisioning and shortcuts configuration features to streamline development and database management.

Azure SQL Database provisioning in the MSSQL extension for VS Code is now generally available, enabling developers to create free tier managed databases directly from the editor with Infrastructure-as-Code support, improving development speed and consistency.

Azure SQL Managed Instance Next-gen General Purpose now supports zone redundancy in public preview, enhancing business continuity by distributing compute and data across availability zones to reduce downtime risk.

Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server now offers generally available pre-upgrade validation checks to proactively identify and resolve major version upgrade blockers, improving upgrade success and operational predictability.

This capability is enabled by default for all databases, regardless of the configured point-in-time restore retention period.

In late-July 2026, the following update and enhancement was made to Azure SQL: - Regex-based dynamic data masking (DDM) extends the built-in DDM feature with pattern‑based masking to hide sensitive data like emails, phone numbers, and identifiers—centrally…

Now you can deploy Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server in the India South Central Azure region.

Microsoft Defender Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) assessments for Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server are now generally available.

You can execute queries, navigate more efficiently, and discover available commands more easily, helping you complete your data tasks faster. - The new Results Grid introduces enhanced state management for improved performance and responsiveness, along with…

Whether you’re provisioning new deployments or managing complex environments, this module enables you to take full advantage of the latest platform capabilities directly from PowerShell.

SQL MCP Server is now generally available, giving customers a secure, high-performance way to build agentic solutions with controlled access to production data.

Microsoft Entra server principals (logins) for Azure SQL Database is now generally available.

As of March 31, 2026, new Azure Cosmos DB NoSQL accounts can no longer enable Azure Synapse Link.

The hub also provides a space to connect with other developers.

These new capabilities give you greater visibility and flexibility in managing platform maintenance events, helping reduce disruption to your workloads.

AI pipelines for Azure HorizonDB is now available in public preview.

With the new localized, web ledger explorer tool, ledger files can be imported to verify the authenticity of the ledger and the ledger data in its entirety.

Now you can unify your search operations in a single database.

You can now install the DuckDB extension in Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server.

The Azure Cosmos DB Agent Kit is now generally available, bringing proven best practices directly into your development workflow.

In early June 2026, the following update and enhancement was made to Azure SQL: Now you can use AES 256 symmetric keys to configure transparent data encryption (TDE) with customer-managed keys in Azure SQL Database.

You can now enable vaulted backups for Azure Cosmos DB accounts, protecting mission-critical data with secure, isolated, and resilient backups.

Since public preview, the emulator has shipped continuous updates that have significantly improved SDK compatibility and expanded Cosmos DB feature coverage.

You can now automate embedding generation from multiple data sources into Azure Cosmos DB and other Azure destinations.

With integrated embeddings, now in public preview, Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL can automatically generate and maintain embeddings for your data, without the need to build a separate pipeline.

This capability supports safer migrations, including transitioning to Microsoft Entra ID, by ensuring keys are no longer in use before disabling access.

You can now accelerate the development of agentic applications with the new Agent Memory Toolkit for Azure Cosmos DB.

You can now improve the relevance of any Cosmos DB query or search with the public preview of semantic reranker in Azure Cosmos DB.

We are announcing the public preview of the Agentic Retrieval Toolkit for Azure Cosmos DB.

Global secondary indexes (GSIs) for Azure Cosmos DB are now generally available, giving you a powerful way to accelerate query performance without adding complexity to your application code.

The Azure Cosmos DB all versions and deletes change feed mode is now generally available, giving you complete visibility into every change that happens in your containers.

The Azure Cosmos DB cost estimator is now in public preview, giving you a fast, accurate way to model throughput, storage, regions, and capacity mode before you provision a single account.

The process supports both online and offline modes by copying data from the source container to a new container through the Change Partition Key option in Data Explorer.

You can now use AI assistance in the Azure Cosmos DB extension for Visual Studio Code to work with your data faster and with less manual effort.

You can use the MCP Toolkit for Azure Cosmos DB, now in general availability, to connect your AI agents and copilots to operational data with enterprise-ready reliability.

Per-partition automatic failover (PPAF) is now generally available in Azure Cosmos DB, bringing faster recovery and higher availability to your mission-critical applications.

Announcing the public preview of distributed transactions in Azure Cosmos DB.

You can now more easily migrate from relational databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and MySQL to Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL.

Azure DocumentDB is excited to announce the general availability of service-managed failover for multi-region clusters.

Azure DocumentDB is excited to announce the general availability of graceful failovers that promote replica clusters while guaranteeing zero data loss.

You can build real-time, event-driven applications with change streams in Azure DocumentDB, now in public preview and featuring multi-node support.

Announcing the general availability of the Azure DocumentDB Migration Extension for Visual Studio Code.

With near-instant provisioning of free tier clusters, you can get started immediately on Azure DocumentDB.

Now available in public preview, Azure HorizonDB is designed for mission-critical applications that require enterprise-grade security, reliability, and scale.

Agentic Advisor Solution Accelerator for Azure HorizonDB is now generally available.

Advanced filtering for DiskANN vector search in Azure HorizonDB is now available in public preview.

BM25 full-text search is now available in public preview for Azure HorizonDB.

Azure DocumentDB now supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), available in public preview.

The MSSQL extension for Visual Studio Code now introduces Azure SQL Database provisioning in public preview, starting with the free tier so you can create and connect to a fully managed cloud database directly from your editor at no cost.

The MSSQL extension for Visual Studio Code now introduces Azure SQL Database provisioning in public preview, starting with the free tier so you can create and connect to a fully managed cloud database directly from your editor at no cost.

The GitHub Copilot integration with Schema Designer is now generally available in the MSSQL extension for Visual Studio Code, expanding the visual schema design experience with AI-assisted capabilities.

In June 2026, the following updates and enhancements were made to Azure SQL: Execute SQL queries, document with Markdown, and mix kernels like Python using SQL Notebooks in the MSSQL extension for Visual Studio Code.

You can view your current quota usage and limits, request quota increases, and track the status of your requests all directly from the portal without needing to file a support ticket.

Azure Database for MySQL Flexible Server continues to expand its global footprint with new regional availability and enhanced availability zone support.

Now customers can install the pg_ivm extension in Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server.

Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server now supports cross-tenant customer-managed keys (CMK), in public preview, allowing you to encrypt your data at rest using an Azure Key Vault key that resides in a separate Microsoft Entra tenant from the…

You can now use Microsoft Defender security assessments for Azure Database for PostgreSQL to continuously evaluate your database security posture and identify potential vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.

New pre-upgrade validation checks allow you to independently run upgrade compatibility validations and identify potential blockers ahead of time, helping reduce failed upgrade attempts and improve operational predictability.

You can now convert Oracle database schema objects to Azure Database for PostgreSQL-compatible schema directly in the PostgreSQL extension for Visual Studio Code.

You can now take advantage of Microsoft Entra ID token refresh support in Python, .NET, and JavaScript client libraries to simplify authentication in your applications backed by Azure Database for PostgreSQL.

You can now build production-ready AI and agent applications faster using the new LangChain and LangGraph integration for Azure Cosmos DB.

That’s why we’re excited to introduce a new capability in Azure SQL Managed Instance: Flexible Memory , now generally available.

Azure Cosmos DB Shell is now available in public preview, introducing a modern command-line experience with agentic capabilities powered by Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Azure Cosmos DB now offers spherical quantization in public preview to help you achieve faster vector indexing with higher recall and accuracy at scale.

By placing replicas closer to your users, you can improve read response times, efficiently distribute read traffic, and reduce read pressure on the primary server.

You can now monitor the synchronization status of your logical replication slots in Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server using the new logical_replication_slot_sync_status metric, now in public preview.

Dynamic data masking (DDM) is a server-side, policy-based security feature in Azure Cosmos DB that helps your organization protect sensitive data from unauthorized access.

You can now deploy Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server in the Denmark East Azure region.

New capabilities make it easier to mirror real-world Azure Database for PostgreSQL workloads at scale in Microsoft Fabric and operate them with confidence.

You can now migrate your Azure Database for PostgreSQL server from a virtual network‑integrated deployment to a network configuration that supports Private Endpoint connectivity.

We are excited to announce the general availability of Premium SSD v2 for Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server.

PgBouncer 1.25.1 is now generally available in Azure Database for PostgreSQL.

We’re introducing regional level consolidated maintenance notifications for Azure Database for PostgreSQL to simplify how you stay informed about upcoming maintenance.

Code analysis is available for any existing .sqlproj , no migration or project changes needed.

We're excited to announce that private endpoint support for Azure Cosmos DB Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric is now generally available.

We are excited to announce the public preview of Fabric Mirroring integration for Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server.

You can now leverage pgoutput for online (minimal-downtime) migrations with improved reliability and performance.

We’re excited to announce that Google AlloyDB is now supported as a source for migration into Azure Database for PostgreSQL.

We’re excited to announce that EDB PostgreSQL is now supported as a source for migration into Azure Database for PostgreSQL.

You can now modify the cron.timezone server parameter in Azure Database for PostgreSQL.

You can now stream row‑level data changes—inserts, updates, and deletes—from Azure SQL Managed Instance to Azure Event Hubs in near real time with change event streaming (CES).

The vector index now supports fully real-time updates, integrated pre-filtering and post-filtering, and improved memory efficiency at scale through vector quantization.

Starting March 31, 2027 Elastic query using Shard_Map_Manager external data source type reaches end of support.

You can select an existing connection or create a new one.

Announcing SQL MCP Server, our Model Context Protocol (MCP) connector for production databases.

The development cycle of a SQL database project enables database development to be integrated into a continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) workflow, a familiar development best practice.

From there, you can continue into the new Data API Builder public preview in the MSSQL extension, where GitHub Copilot plans and generates back-end endpoints from your schema.

The MSSQL extension for Visual Studio Code now introduces Data API builder in public preview with built-in GitHub Copilot integration, bringing a guided back-end generation experience directly into your development workflow.

Azure SQL Database now supports versionless keys for transparent data encryption (TDE), giving you a simpler and more reliable way to manage your own encryption keys.

Available in public preview, this update gives you greater control over how your data at rest is encrypted, allowing you to use your own keys stored in Azure Key Vault while continuing to take advantage of the high performance and scalability of Premium SSD…

You can now monitor your Azure Database for PostgreSQL with rich, built-in Grafana dashboards—right from the Azure portal.

You can now provision and manage Azure Database for PostgreSQL elastic clusters using Terraform, Bicep, and Ansible, with full General Availability support.

The MSSQL extension for Visual Studio Code now introduces Query Profiler in public preview, bringing real-time insight into your database activity directly inside Visual Studio Code.

In late-February 2026, the following updates and enhancements were made to Azure SQL: - Introducing Search Database Objects in the MSSQL extension for Visual Studio Code.

In late-February 2026, the following updates and enhancements were made to Azure SQL: - Manage your databases directly from the dialog using actions such as Name, Rename, and Drop. - Import a flat file to your database in the MSSQL Extension for Visual Studio…

You can simplify your disaster recovery strategy, reduce operational overhead, and improve confidence in your ability to recover from regional failures while continuing to benefit from a fully managed PostgreSQL service.

You can select an existing connection or create a new one.

PostgreSQL minor versions 18.1, 17.7, 16.11, 15.15, 14.20, and 13.23 are now supported by Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server.

Available now in Public Preview, you can configure Azure Cosmos DB accounts with virtual networks or private endpoints to work with Microsoft Fabric mirroring.

You can now simplify how you diagnose and resolve issues in your applications running on Azure Cosmos DB with the introduction of the Azure Cosmos DB Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Agent, built on the Azure SRE Agent platform.

We are pleased to announce that telemetry is now available in Azure Monitor activity log to identify the causes of auto-resuming serverless workloads in...

The Azure MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server provides a streamlined approach for managing Azure resources—including Azure confidential ledger—through natural language prompts.

Now you can install the credcheck extension in Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server.

Now you can install the ip4r extension in Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server.

Now you can upgrade the pg_squeeze extension to version 1.9.1 in Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server.

Now you can deploy Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server in the Belgium Central Azure region.

Announcing that Azure MCP Server now supports Azure Database for MySQL.

Now you can use native regex in T-SQL directly in Azure SQL and SQL Server 2025 queries—simplifying code, improving maintainability, and reducing dependency on external scripts.

Apply DACPAC files to new or existing databases or generate new files from existing databases.

In November 2025, the following updates and enhancements were made to Azure SQL: - Apply the reservation discount for a 1-year or 3-year reservation of a zone-redundant Azure SQL Managed Instance in the General Purpose tier to both the standard compute and…

Announcing that the mssql-python driver is now generally available.

You can now configure immutability for Azure SQL Database LTR backups to meet compliance and regulatory needs.

With just a few clicks in Visual Studio Code, you can generate T-SQL and object-relational mapping (ORM) code, explore schemas, and build, analyze, and optimize queries—even if you’re new to SQL.

Announcing the public preview of vector indexing using DiskANN in Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance and SQL database in Microsoft Fabric.

You can immediately get 3 to 5 times better performance simply by upgrading from the classic General Purpose tier.

Announcing that Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server now supports the Azure Storage extension with Parquet format and multiple compression options.

You can now bring data together and simplify analytics using Microsoft Fabric mirroring for Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server, now generally available.

Announcing that the PostgreSQL extension for Visual Studio Code is generally available.

This release introduces the latest PostgreSQL innovations along with seamless in-place upgrade support, allowing you to move from earlier versions without changing your server endpoint, reconfiguring applications, or migrating data manually.

With the public preview of change event streaming (CES), you can streamline data integration and support enhanced analytics, event-driven architectures, and the modernization of monolithic applications.

Now you can create pg_duckdb extensions in Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server, so you can accelerate analytics using DuckDB’s vectorized, columnar execution.

Now you can deploy general purpose and memory-optimized v6-series Azure Virtual Machines with local NVMe storage in Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server.

The anon extension is now generally available in Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server.

Announcing the public preview of Microsoft Foundry support for Azure Database for PostgreSQL.

Now you can use elastic clusters to horizontally scale Azure Database for PostgreSQL through row-based and schema-based sharding.

This release adds support for PostgreSQL 17 and 18, so you can adopt new versions without changing your automation patterns.

Migrating from Oracle to PostgreSQL is now simpler and faster with the new Oracle-to-PostgreSQL migration tooling, available directly in the Azure Database for PostgreSQL extension for Visual Studio Code.

Announcing the general availability of seamless, self-serve online migrations from Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB RU to Azure DocumentDB—directly from the Azure portal.

You can now migrate MongoDB workloads to Azure DocumentDB using the new Azure DocumentDB Migration extension for Visual Studio Code—now available in public preview.

You can now help protect sensitive data from unauthorized access using dynamic data masking (DDM), a server-side, policy-based security feature in Azure Cosmos DB.

Microsoft is announcing the general availability of Azure DocumentDB, a fully managed document database service built on the open-source, MongoDB-compatible DocumentDB, now governed by the Linux Foundation.

Now you can more easily operate your Azure Cosmos DB accounts at scale.

You can now unify insights across your entire Azure Cosmos DB footprint using Azure Cosmos DB Fleet Analytics, available in public preview.

You can now enable priority-based execution in Azure Cosmos DB to ensure that high-priority requests are favored during periods of contention.

Integrated into the DocumentDB for VS Code extension, the Index Advisor enables you to view and debug database performance.

Now generally available, Cosmos DB in Fabric enables you to build operational and analytical workloads in Microsoft Fabric.

Now generally available, Azure Cosmos DB Mirroring in Fabric enables you to seamlessly integrate your existing operational workloads with the analytical capabilities of Microsoft Fabric.

Now generally available, Azure Cosmos DB for VS Code comes with significant updates focused on usability, stability, and performance.

Azure Cosmos DB now supports float 16 data types for vector indexes.

This release gives you faster vector inserts and index builds in Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL, helping you reduce end-to-end ingestion and indexing times for large AI workloads.

Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL now supports fuzzy search in full-text search.

This new integration allows you to connect Microsoft Foundry Agents directly to data in Azure Cosmos DB.

Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL now supports Italian and Portuguese languages in full-text search, available today in public preview.

This update provides the headroom required for I/O-intensive applications and very large datasets, helping you to consolidate data that previously needed many shards and to maintain low latency at peak traffic.

You can use online container copy in Azure Cosmos DB to copy data from one container to another in real time.

Azure Database for MySQL triggers for Azure Functions are now generally available, enabling you to set up change tracking and develop event-driven applications at scale on any MySQL table.

We are thrilled to announce the General Availability of a highly requested feature: Self-serve configuration of the lower_case_table_names server parameter during server creation.

Now you can deploy Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server in all three availability zones in Japan West.

You can now configure read replicas (in-region and geo-replicas) with Premium SSD v2 storage tier in Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server.

In early November 2025, the following updates and enhancements were made to Azure SQL: - Azure SQL Hyperscale now supports multiple geo-secondary replicas, making it easier to design and deploy disaster recovery topology spanning multiple regions.

Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL now supports ORDER BY ST_DISTANCE for geospatial queries, now generally available.

Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL includes Query Advisor, now generally available in the .NET SDK.

Announcing the general availability of a dedicated Azure Standard Load Balancer in Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server for high availability-enabled servers.

Now you can use the open-source DocumentDB Kubernetes Operator to run DocumentDB on Kubernetes.

PgBouncer 1.23.1 is now generally available in Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server.

In mid-October 2025, the following updates and enhancements were made to Azure SQL: - Improve the redirect connection type to require only port 1433 and promote to default.

You can now scale your Azure Database for PostgreSQL servers that have high availability (HA) enabled with minimal impact to your users.

Announcing the general availability (GA) of automation support for Azure Database Migration Service (DMS) through PowerShell, custom cmdlets, and the Python SDK.

PostgreSQL 18 introduces new performance, scalability, and developer productivity improvements.

You can now access code samples for Entra ID token refresh using Python and .NET in Azure Database for PostgreSQL.

You can now configure a custom port (25001–26000) during server creation for both public and private access-enabled servers—enabling you to integrate more easily with existing applications and improve alignment with security postures.

Azure Cache for Redis (Basic, Standard and Premium) will be retired on September 30, 2028 and new creation requests will be blocked for existing customers starting October 1, 2026.

Azure Cache for Redis Enterprise and Enterprise Flash tiers is retiring on March 31, 2027 and new creation requests will be blocked starting April 1, 2026.

PostgreSQL minor versions 17.6, 16.10, 15.14, 14.19, 13.22, and 18 Beta 3 are now supported by Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server.

With the new Fabric connectivity option in the Connection Dialog, you can sign in using Microsoft Entra ID, browse your Fabric workspaces in a familiar tree view, search across them, and connect to SQL databases or endpoints—all without juggling connection…

In late September 2025, the following updates and enhancements were made to Azure SQL: - Protection from ransomware attacks to long-term retention (LTR) backups via immutability.

As part of August 2025 release, you can delete on-demand backups that are no longer needed and get more control over backup management and storage costs.

Azure Migrate now enables you to discover and assess PostgreSQL resources across VMware, Hyper‑V, physical servers, and other cloud environments.

Announcing support for confidential computing in Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server.

To make this easier, you can now visit the Azure SQL hub, a new home for everything related to Azure SQL in the Azure portal.

Same-region replica clusters are ideal for offloading intensive read operations, such as dashboards serving tens of thousands of users, helping to reduce load on the primary cluster and to improve overall performance.

Data encryption with CMK for Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB (vCore) enables you to bring your own encryption key to protect data at rest.

Announcing the general availability of Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server version 8.4.

To help you manage your MySQL upgrade timelines with greater flexibility, we’re introducing Extended Support for Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server, starting in spring 2026.

The new Self-Heal feature in Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server, is now available in Public Preview.

Now you can deploy Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server in the Austria East and Chile Central regions.

You can now take advantage of near-zero-downtime maintenance for Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server with high availability (HA) enabled.

Now generally available, the local SQL Server container enables container creation in the MSSQL extension for Visual Studio Code—no Docker commands needed.

The public preview of Entra ID group login using user credentials, now available on newly provisioned servers.

Now you can add physical shards as your Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB (vCore) clusters grow.

Announcing that Azure DMS now supports schema migration for Azure SQL Database—making your cloud migration journey smoother and more efficient than ever.

In late August 2025, the following updates and enhancements were made to Azure SQL: - Azure SQL Database now offers a replication lag metric, providing real-time visibility into the recovery point objective (RPO) when Geo-DR is enabled.

Data encryption with CMK for Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB (vCore) enables you to bring your own encryption key to protect data at rest.

Now you can deploy Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server in the Malaysia West Azure region.

You can now use Cassandra 5.0 in Azure Managed Instance for Apache Cassandra, available in public preview.

Announcing the general availability of the Upsert method and Script activity support in Azure Data Factory and Azure Synapse Analytics when using Azure Database for PostgreSQL.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) now generally supports Windows Server 2025 for Windows node pools, offering enhanced security, performance, and modern container runtime features to help organizations modernize Windows-based workloads.

Artifact Streaming on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) with Azure Container Registry (ACR) is now generally available, enabling faster pod startup and improved scaling by allowing pods to start before full container images are downloaded.

Confidential Virtual Machines (CVM) for Azure Linux in AKS are now generally available, enabling secure migration of sensitive container workloads without code changes.

Azure VM Image Builder is now generally available in sovereign and air-gapped clouds, enabling secure, consistent, and automated image customization across regulated and isolated environments.

Azure has made 248 and 372 vCPU D/E v7 series VMs generally available, offering up to 20% better compute performance and enhanced networking and storage capabilities to support larger, latency-sensitive workloads.

eBPF Host Routing in Advanced Container Networking Services for AKS is now generally available, enhancing Kubernetes networking performance by bypassing iptables and improving latency, throughput, and scalability for large-scale and latency-sensitive workloads.

Support for Node 22 LTS on Azure App Service will end on April 30, 2027, requiring customers to upgrade to Node 24 LTS to maintain security and support.

Azure Virtual Machines now generally support vCore customization with options to disable SMT/HT and configure constrained cores, enabling optimized performance and reduced software licensing costs.

Azure VMware Solution's license-included service will be retired by August 30, 2027, requiring customers to transition to a bring-your-own-license (BYOL) model due to Broadcom's updated VMware licensing policies, ensuring compliance and uninterrupted service.

Managed Instance on Azure App Service is now generally available, enabling seamless migration of complex Windows-based .NET applications to a fully managed PaaS environment with enhanced performance, security, and operational control.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) now generally supports native control plane metrics collection via Azure Monitor Managed Service for Prometheus, enhancing observability into key control plane components for better workload and scaling insights.

Azure App Service now supports automatic conversion of HTML responses to Markdown for AI agents, simplifying content consumption without code changes.

On September 1, 2026, the cc_v5 confidential VM series will be retired and will no longer be available for use or purchase.

TLaD automatically enables Secure Boot and vTPM for supported deployments, helping customers establish a stronger security baseline for workloads at no additional cost.New Gen2 VMs deployed through Azure Portal, Azure CLI, and Azure PowerShell automatically…

Application Routing with Gateway API is now generally available on AKS, bringing the Kubernetes Gateway API to ingress management without requiring a service mesh.

With AKS Prepared Image Specification, now in preview, customers can create preconfigured node images that include required container images and customizations ahead of time, enabling new nodes to start in a ready-to-run state.

You can now develop functions using Python 3.14 locally and deploy them to Azure Functions plans on Linux.

Azure Functions support for PowerShell 7.6 is now available in preview.

The Azure Arc migration solution now supports SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines as a migration target.

The Azure Functions extension for VS Code now provides a redesigned Create New Project experience in public preview, featuring a rich, visual template gallery that replaces the multi-step Quick Pick wizard with a searchable, filterable view of project…

Recommended replacements: - Av2 → Dsv5/Ddsv5 or Dasv5/Dadsv5 - F/Fs/Fsv2 → Dlsv6/Dldsv6, Falsv6, or Dsv5/Ddsv5 - G/Gs → Lsv3/Lasv3 or Easv5/Edsv5 - Lsv2 → Lsv3/Lasv3 Migration options: - Scale pool to zero and update VM size using Batch API (07-01-24 or…

Microsoft is announcing Confidential Live Migration in Azure, a new capability designed to improve operational flexibility and availability for Intel® TDX Confidential VMs during platform servicing.

The general purpose Dpsv7 and Dplsv7, memory-optimized Epsv7, high-memory Mpsv4, and dense storage Lpsv5 VMs are now available in preview.

Rolling updates are now generally available in the Flex Consumption plan, delivering zero-downtime deployments with a simple configuration change.

We’re excited to announce the preview of the new Azure Lasv5 and Laosv5 Local Storage Optimized Virtual Machines (VMs) powered by the 5th Generation AMD...

Azure Container Linux is a container-optimized, immutable operating system for AKS node pools — derived from Flatcar Container Linux and built on Azure Linux RPM packages.

Azure Linux 4.0, Microsoft's first-party Linux distribution purpose-built for Azure, is now available in public preview for Azure Virtual Machines and VM Scale Sets.

Azure Functions now supports building and hosting MCP Apps using the Azure Functions MCP Extension.

This enables customers to build integrated systems across the broader ecosystem such as Office 365, Teams, SharePoint, Salesforce, and other SaaS services, using familiar Functions workflows.

Azure Functions now supports building AI agents as a first-class workload using a markdown-first programming model in public preview.

Azure Functions now provides a set of AI assistant plugins and agent skills in public preview that close that gap.

Azure Functions now provides built-in Grafana dashboards.

Azure Functions now supports Go as a first-class language option in public preview.

Managed system node pools in AKS Automatic remove that responsibility.

Now in Public Preview, Anyscale on Azure is a cloud-native managed Ray platform for machine learning engineers and AI developers who need to run Python workloads at massive scale without compromising speed or control.

As part of this transition, all AV36 SDDCs will be retired after September 30, 2027, regardless of individual RI expiration dates.

Azure Functions support for Node.js 24 is now generally available.

As part of Azure’s ongoing security improvements, App Service, Functions, and Logic Apps will no longer accept connections using TLS 1.0 or TLS 1.1 after May 31, 2027.

Flex Consumption introduces a site-scoped certificate model in public preview in all the regions where Flex Consumption is available.

SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines is now generally available in the Malaysia West and Indonesia Central Azure regions.

Azure Premium SSD v2 is now available in all three Availability Zones in Japan West.

Azure has announced the general availability of the new Dl/D/E v7 Virtual Machines, powered by the latest Intel® Xeon® 6 (Granite Rapids) processors.

Starting July 1, 2026, purchases and renewals will no longer be available for one-year Azure Reserved VM Instances for the Av2, Amv2, Bv1, D, Ds, Dv2, Dsv2, F, Fs, Fsv2, G, Gs, Ls, and Lsv2 VM series.

The Durable Task Scheduler Consumption SKU is now generally available.

Azure Functions support for Java 25 is now generally available.

By reducing the need for manual correlation across logs, metrics, and flows, the agent helps teams identify likely root causes faster, improves troubleshooting consistency, and reduces time spent during incident investigations—while keeping customers fully in…

WireGuard in‑transit encryption is now generally available for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters using Azure CNI powered by Cilium and Advanced Container Networking Services (ACNS).

Before you can file a support request, you must have appropriate permissions.

As part of ongoing efforts to reduce reliance on legacy infrastructure and focus investments on supported platforms, Azure will enforce this retirement for Linux Consumption–based Function Apps still running runtime v3.

If you don't migrate by June 30, 2027, you won't be able to create new node pools, AKS won't produce new node images, and you'll no longer receive security patches for existing node pools.

Existing pools cannot be updated in-place; creating a new pool is required.

AKS now supports managed and user-assigned StandardV2 NAT Gateway as an outbound type for your AKS managed or BYO VNets.

Azure Kubernetes Service allows administrators to disable HTTP proxy variables for nodes and pods while retaining proxy configuration in the control plane, with changes triggering node pool reimaging to ensure a consistent cluster state.

Now, Azure Functions supports MCP resource triggers, enabling developers to expose resources directly from an Azure Functions–hosted Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.

Pod CIDR expansion allows overlay‑based AKS clusters to increase their pod IP range in place without cluster recreation.

Microsoft fully supports Python on: - Azure App Service on Linux - Azure Functions on Linux We recommend creating a new Linux based application and redeploying your Python workloads well in advance of the retirement date.

Customers must upgrade to Windows Server 2025 by this date to remain in a supported state.

Customers must upgrade to Windows Server 2025 by this date to remain in a supported state.

Ephemeral OS Disk with full caching is now available in public preview for Azure VM/VMSS, bringing significantly faster and more reliable OS disk performance to your workloads.

On March 31, 2027 Azure Monitor will be deprecating the sidecar for remote-write of Prometheus metrics to Azure Monitor Workspace.

This reduces upgrade risk and supports more controlled cluster lifecycle management.

Use this table to quickly understand where broad collection is available and where fine-grained filtering is available: Starting on November 30, 2025 , Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) no longer supports or provides security updates for Azure Linux 2.0.

By consolidating networking insights and summarizing findings with structured remediation guidance, the agent reduces investigation time and improves troubleshooting consistency without making configuration changes.

AKS managed GPU metrics automatically expose performance and utilization data from NVIDIA GPU‑enabled node pools into managed Prometheus and Grafana environments.

This capability supports both stored logs for continuous, filter-based collection and on-demand logs for targeted snapshots.

As Kubernetes environments scale across regions and clusters, IP‑based networking becomes difficult to manage and provides limited application‑level visibility and security controls.

Following the deprecation of ingress‑nginx, Kubernetes operators need a supported, standards‑aligned migration path for ingress without the complexity of a full service mesh.

On May 31, 2027, Microsoft Azure will retire the follow NP-series virtual machine (VMs) sizes: Standard_NP10s, Standard_NP20s, and Standard_NP40s.

How does the retirement of HBv2-series virtual machines affect me?

How does the retirement of HC-series virtual machines affect me?

Microsoft is announcing the retirement of the AV36P and AV52 Nodes on June 30, 2029.

Azure Batch had retired Low-Priority VMs on September 30, 2025 and will begin a system-initiated migration to Spot VMs beginning March 1, 2026.

Azure Batch periodically retires support for operating systems that reach end-of-life status.

After the target retirement dates, no new Batch pools specifying the NVv3 or NVv4-series VM family will be able to be successfully created.

You will no longer be able to create new node pools.

These new confidential VMs help organizations to move their most sensitive workloads to the cloud—without requiring any application code changes.

Microsoft will continue providing critical security patches through 30 November 2026, after which the NGINX ingress controller will no longer be supported within the Application Routing add-on.

On May 15, 2026, AKS will no longer produce new Windows Server Annual Channel node images or provide security patches.

As the Linux Consumption plan is being retired, workloads running on Linux Consumption should be migrated to the Flex Consumption plan, which supports .NET 10 using the isolated worker model.

Azure Functions Flex Consumption introduces new platform‑integrated tools that provide clearer insight into quota availability and deployment behavior.

Cluster mode for the agentic CLI for AKS, now in public preview, brings expert-level AI diagnostics directly into your AKS cluster with tighter security controls and faster performance.

The unified tooling for the AKS MCP Server introduces two new tools in public preview, call_az and call_kubectl, that enable agents to access cluster data through Azure APIs and kubectl.

It helps technical practitioners reduce operational overhead, improve resource utilization, and maintain consistent performance without manual intervention.

LocalDNS is now generally available for AKS clusters with Node auto‑provisioning, providing DNS resolution capabilities within the cluster.

This enables customers to use node auto-provisioning while meeting required encryption controls and gaining its associated compute efficiency, resiliency, and cost-management benefits.

These enhancements help technical practitioners improve cluster operations, incorporate new functionality, and plan upgrades with greater confidence.

DCa/ECa v6 series AMD based confidential virtual machines are now generally available in 11 new regions: Canada Central, Canada East, Norway East, Norway West, Italy North, Germany North, France South, Australia East, West US, West US 3, Germany West Central.

Your apps that are hosted on Functions will continue to run, but security updates and performance optimizations will no longer be available and we'll no longer provide customer service for Python 3.10.

Key improvements include: - Up to 35% CPU performance improvement compared to similarly sized v6 VMs - Significant performance gains on other workloads: - Up to 25% for Java-based workloads - Up to 65% for in-memory cache applications - Up to 80% for crypto…

Announcing the preview of new Azure Dlsv7/Dsv7 General Purpose and Esv7 Memory Optimized Virtual Machines (VMs) powered by the latest Intel® Xeon® 6 processors (Granite Rapids).

At Microsoft Ignite 2025, we announced the Public Preview of the Azure Command Launcher for Java, a new JVM launcher optimized specifically for Azure.

This capability allows teams to ensure that deployment manifests comply with selected security standards, help technical practitioners strengthen workload security, reduce configuration drift, and simplify the rollout of cluster-wide security controls.

Ubuntu 24.04 is now generally available on AKS starting with Kubernetes version 1.32, with containerd 2.0 enabled by default.

Ubuntu 24.04 is now generally available on AKS in Kubernetes version 1.32 and above.

The new cloud-native apps on Kubernetes pricing calculator scenario allows teams to estimate the total cost of ownership for a production-ready AKS cluster with other key Azure services, including Azure Container Registry, Azure Monitoring, Microsoft Defender…

Now that SDK type bindings support for Azure Blob Storage is available, we’re also introducing support for Service Bus SDK type bindings in your Node.js function apps.

The retirement date for default outbound access has been extended to March 31, 2026.

Azure Functions now supports custom handlers in Flex consumption.

Container network metrics filtering in Azure Container Networking Services (ACNS) is now available in public preview.

MCP support for AI toolchain operator add-on is now Generally Available.

Local redirect policy with Azure CNI powered by Cilium for AKS is now generally available.

Cluster-wide Cilium network policy for AKS clusters using Azure CNI powered by Cilium is now Generally Available.

To address the growing need for granular traffic control in microservices architectures, Azure Container Networking Services now offers Layer 7 Policy as a generally available feature.

Announcing that Trusted Launch supported Arm64 Images are now available in the Azure Marketplace.

These alerts enable you to monitor the ingestion limits for Azure Monitor Workspace and avoid metrics throttling.

Announcing Managed Instance on Azure App Service, now in Public Preview!

Azure Functions now supports OpenTelemetry in general availability (GA), enabling developers to export logs, traces, and metrics using open standards.

To support customers migrating from the Azure Functions Consumption plan or from AWS Lambda, Microsoft has published comprehensive migration guides and tooling: - Azure Functions Consumption to Flex Consumption: The new documentation provides step-by-step…

We are introducing a new capability that allows you to host remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers built with the MCP SDKs on Functions.

Azure Functions durable task scheduler is now generally available with the Dedicated SKU, and the Consumption SKU is entering public preview.

The Azure Functions MCP tool trigger is now generally available, allowing you to build tools using remote MCP with Azure Functions.

You can now develop functions using Java 25 locally and deploy them to Azure Functions on Windows and Linux.

You can now develop functions using Node.js 24 locally and deploy them to Azure Functions on Windows and Linux.

You can now build and host reliable production-grade AI agents using the durable extension for Microsoft Agent Framework.

Starting on AKS 1.36, new AKS Automatic clusters will by default enable Kubernetes Gateway API via the application routing add-on instead of Managed NGINX ingress with the application routing add-on due to the upstream Ingress NGINX retirement .

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Automatic clusters now come with a pod readiness SLA, guaranteeing that eligible pods meet readiness criteria within five minutes at the 99.9th percentile.

When migrating to Windows Server 2025, you’ll need to recreate your node pools with the new OS and migrate existing workloads.

By offloading namespace lifecycle management to Azure, teams can accelerate deployment, improve governance, and reduce operational overhead.

To address this, AKS now supports pod sandboxing, enabling customers to run containers in per-workload pod VMs.

Designed to integrate with existing environments and tools, AKS desktop enables seamless team collaboration through role-based access control (RBAC), helping teams move faster and stay aligned.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) visualization in Network Watcher Topology (Public Preview) delivers end-to-end visibility of AKS clusters directly within the Azure networking experience.

We are announcing the public preview of NCv6 RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition Virtual Machines, as the next enhancement of NC Series VMs available on Azure.

Custom error pages are now generally available on App Service.

Announcing the public preview of the new Azure Ebsv6 VM series, powered by 5th Generation Intel® Xeon® processors.

Scheduled Actions handles retries on transient errors.

Your apps that are hosted on App Service will continue to run, but security updates will no longer be available, and we’ll no longer provide customer service for Python 3.10.

Pod CIDR expansion in Azure CNI Overlay for AKS is now available in public preview.

eBPF host routing in Advanced Container Networking Services for AKS is now available in public preview.

To address this, Azure Kubernetes Service now offers scheduler profile configuration with in-tree plugins, available in public preview.

With no application-level changes required, LocalDNS delivers immediate performance improvements and supports advanced DNS customization for both internal and external domains.

To simplify this experience, Azure Kubernetes Service is introducing a new agentic AI-powered CLI experience through the “az aks agent” command.

Azure Kubernetes Service now supports Flatcar Container Linux in public preview.

To address these challenges, Microsoft has introduced Azure Linux with OS Guard, now available in public preview.

Azure MCP Server accelerates innovation, eliminates context switching, and delivers enterprise-grade security and scalability.

Azure Functions now supports rolling updates in the Flex Consumption plan, delivering zero-downtime deployments with a simple configuration change.

Your apps that are hosted on Functions will continue to run, but security updates and performance optimizations will no longer be available and we'll no longer provide customer support for Node.js 20.

The ability to share Capacity Reservation Groups (CRGs) with subscriptions is now in Public Preview.

You can now migrate to Azure Linux 3.0 with a new OS SKU enum, ‘AzureLinux3’, in Kubernetes version 1.28-1.36.

Starting with Python 3.13, Functions introduces runtime version control, a new opt-in feature that lets you target specific versions of the Functions Python runtime used by your app.

The public preview of Confidential Containers on AKS will be shutting down.

You can now enable availability zones for your Azure Functions Flex Consumption apps during both creation and post-deployment.

Today, we are announcing the general availability of Azure Spot Placement Score, a feature that allows you to assess the likelihood of deployment success for your Spot virtual machines.

The existing experience that Azure Network Policy Manager for windows nodes offers will no longer be supported starting September 30, 2026.

The AI toolchain operator add-on (KAITO) is now generally available on AKS, streamlining the deployment of AI inference and fine-tuning workflows using popular open-source frameworks.

AKS now supports, a simple Azure CLI command that will automatically migrate your AKS cluster from Availability Sets to the new Virtual Machines node pool and upgrade your load balancer SKU from basic to standard in one operation.

Due to changes in underlying infrastructure, the database connections feature of Static Web Apps this feature (currently in public preview), will be deprecated effective November 30, 2025.

To avoid disruptions, migrate AKS clusters running Linux nodes from NPM to Cilium Network Policy by that date.

You can enable Soft Delete on a new or existing gallery.

Microsoft announced the retirement of the AV36 node type on June 30, 2028, that date has changed to align with VMware’s roadmap.

The Azure Functions Linux Consumption hosting plan is being retired.

Beginning on September 30th 2025, Azure App Service on Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes will be retired, and customers will no longer be able to install the extension.

We encourage you to transition to Encryption at Host prior to the retirement date to experience the new capabilities of Encryption at Host including support for any operating system, custom disk images, and improved performance.

Announcing the Azure Managed Service for Prometheus now includes native Grafana dashboards within the Azure portal at no additional cost.

Broadcom announced changes to their VMware licensing policies.

Microsoft is announcing the general availability of the new DCa/ECa v6 series AMD based confidential virtual machines (VMs) in the UAE North and Korea Central regions with 4th generation AMD EPYC™ processors.

Distributed tracing V2 for Durable Functions introduces a robust and comprehensive tracing model that enables developers to correlate operations in orchestrations, activities, and durable entities.

Azure Functions now supports .NET 10 in Public Preview.

Azure HBv5-series VM is now generally availalbe in the Azure South Central US region.

Azure File Sync enables seamless tiering of data from on-premises Windows Servers to Azure Files for hybrid use cases and simplified migration.

Starting on November 30, 2025 , Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) no longer supports or provides security updates for Azure Linux 2.0.

We encourage you to transition to Azure Linux 3.0 prior to the retirement date to experience the capabilities of Azure Linux 3.0 including kernel updates and security improvements.

Announcong that Azure App Service now supports Bring Your Own License (BYOL) for JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP), enabling enterprise customers to deploy Java workloads with greater flexibility and cost efficiency.