Microsoft Updates and Ignite

Last Updated on July 3, 2024 by Arnav Sharma

November 1, 2023

  • TLS 1.2 to become the minimum TLS version for Azure Storage: Target availability Q4 2024.
  • GA: gRPC support on Azure App Service – Target availability Q4 2024.

November 2, 2023

  • Public Preview: Azure integration with Canonicalā€™s Snapshot Service for safe deployment.
  • Generally available: Azure Premium SSD v2 Disk Storage is now available in more regions.

November 3, 2023

  • Game Dev VM Marketplace Application will be retired on February 1st, 2024.

November 6, 2023

  • Now Available: Ability to add dynamic values in Alertā€™s custom fields.
  • Public Preview: Application Gateway IPv6 support.
  • In Preview: Azure Monitor managed service for Prometheus is available in 7 additional Azure regions.

November 6, 2023

  • Preview: Azure Container Storage in AKS.
  • Now Available: Latency metrics for disks and performance metrics for temporary disks on Azure Virtual Machines.
  • In Preview: Azure Elastic SAN updates: Security, and Usability.
  • General Availability: Azure Advisor recommendation improves the reliability of Azure Disks with Zone Redundant Storage.

November 7, 2023

  • Customer-Managed Keys (preview) integration with Azure Chaos Studio.
  • Now Available: Azure NetApp Files datastores for Azure VMware Solution is available in US Government regions.
  • Now Available: Azure Red Hat OpenShift November 2023 updates.
  • Now Available: Provider for running Karpenter on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
  • GA: Kubernetes Event-driven Autoscaling (KEDA) Add-on for AKS.
  • GA: Kubernetes 1.28 support in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
  • GA: Application routing add-on for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
  • GA: Kube-reserved resource optimization in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
  • In Preview: Dual-stack networking in Azure CNI Overlay for AKS.
  • In Preview: Artifact streaming support in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
  • In Preview: Image integrity support in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).

November 8, 2023

  • General Availability: Introducing NGads V620 Series VMs optimized for gaming scenarios.
  • Azure Monitor Logs archive provides up to 12 years of retention.
  • General Availability: Using a common port for public and private listeners.
  • General Availability: Rate-limit rules for Application Gateway Web Application Firewall.
  • Public Preview: Azure SQL updates for early-November 2023.

November 9, 2023

  • Public Preview: App Service End-to-end (E2E) Encryption for Linux Multi-tenant Resources.

November 10, 2023

  • Azure support for TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 will end by 31 October 2024.

November 13, 2023

  • Public Preview: Support for GraphQL APIs in Azure API Management Self-hosted Gateway.
  • Public Preview: Azure Monitor Agent JSON log collection.
  • Public Preview: Support for gRPC APIs in Azure API Management Self-Hosted Gateway.
  • Public Preview: Azure Monitor Alerts integration with Event Grid for Azure Key Vault system events.
  • Export cost details using the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS).

November 14, 2023

  • Experiment templates now available in Azure Chaos Studio.
  • General Availability: Start and stop load (Azure Load Testing) faults in Azure Chaos Studio.
  • GA: Azure Functions supports .NET 8 in the isolated worker model.
  • General Availability: Ubuntu Server to Ubuntu Pro in-place upgrade now available.

November 15, 2023 (Ignite Updates)

  • Public Preview: Microsoft Copilot for Azure.
  • Now Available: MQTT broker feature, PubSub capabilities for Azure Event Grid.
  • Introducing New Capabilities in Microsoft Dev Box.
  • Public Preview: 3rd party support for Arm solutions in Azure Marketplace.
  • Introducing New Capabilities in Azure Deployment Environments.
  • Public Preview: VM Hibernation.
  • Public Preview: Azure VMSS Zonal Expansion.
  • GA: Azure Boost.
  • Public Preview: New Generation AMD VMs – Dasv6/Easv6/Fasv6.
  • Public Preview: Azure Database for PostgreSQL Networking with private endpoints. Target availability: Q4 2023.
  • Public Preview: Enhanced performance and scalability in Azure Database for PostgreSQL. Target availability: Q4 2023.
  • General Availability: Free tier on Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB vCore. Target availability: Q4 2023.
  • General Availability: Vector search in Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB vCore. Target availability: Q4 2023.
  • General Availability: Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB vCore. Target availability: Q4 2023.
  • Public Preview: Priority-based execution in Azure Cosmos DB. Target availability: Q4 2023.
  • Public Preview: Cross-account container copy for Azure Cosmos DB NoSQL API. Target availability: Q4 2023.
  • Public Preview: Azure Open AI ā€œUse your dataā€ integration with Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB vCore. Target availability: Q4 2023.
  • Public Preview: Dynamic scaling per partition and per region. Target availability: Q4 2023.
  • Public Preview: Microsoft Copilot for Azure capability now available in Azure Cosmos DB. Target availability: Q4 2023.
  • Public Preview: Bring enhanced manageability to your SQL Server anywhere with Azure Arc. Target availability: Q4 2023.
  • General Availability: Azure Virtual Network Manager Security Admin Rule in select regions.
  • Public Preview: Enabling Rate Limiting on ExpressRoute Direct Circuits.
  • Public Preview: Customer-controlled maintenance.
  • General Availability: Lower pricing for Azure SQL Database Hyperscale expected in December 2023. Target availability: Q4 2023.
  • Public Preview: Azure Cosmos DB Migration for MongoDB extension – Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB vCore migration capability. Target availability: Q4 2023.
  • Public Preview: ExpressRoute Seamless Gateway Migration.
  • Public Preview: ExpressRoute Scalable Gateway.
  • General Availability: ExpressRoute Direct and Circuit in different subscriptions.
  • General Availability: ExpressRoute as a Trusted Service.
  • Public Preview: Confidential containers on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
  • Public Preview: Confidential temp disk encryption for confidential VMs.
  • Public Preview: New Marketplace app for Storage customers and feature enhancements to portal for Azure confidential ledger.
  • Preview: Disk Integrity Tool for confidential VMs in Azure.
  • Generally Available: Trusted launch as default for VMs deployed through PowerShell and CLI.
  • Public Preview: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.3 support for AMD-based confidential VMs.
  • Generally Available: AMD confidential VMs in new regions for November 2023.
  • Azure Machine Learning – Public Preview for November: Features include model/dataset selection, Fabric datastore integration, and Model-as-a-Service with inference APIs.
  • Azure Machine Learning – General Availability for November: Features include OSS LLMs search, compute management, and AI workflow support.
  • General Availability: Azure AI Advantage for Azure Cosmos DB.
  • Public Preview: Azure confidential VMs with Intel TDX.
  • Public Preview: Online Disaster recovery between SQL Server 2022 and Azure SQL Managed Instance.
  • General Availability: November 2022 Feature Wave for Azure SQL Managed Instance.
  • General Availability: Azure SQL Database Always Encrypted with virtualization-based security (VBS) enclaves.
  • Public Preview: Azure SQL updates for mid-November 2023.
  • General Availability: Azure SQL updates for mid-November 2023.
  • New user interface experience for Azure SQL migration extension.
  • Public Preview: Azure Managed Instance for Apache Cassandra Feature Updates.
  • Public Preview: Long Term Retention for Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server.
  • Public Preview: Azure Database for PostgreSQL extension for Azure AI.
  • GA: Stateful entities in Durable Functions on the isolated worker model for .NET.
  • Azure Container Storage is now available with Azure Linux container host (In Preview).
  • Azure Functions brings new flexibility with scale, VNet and long execution time (In Development).
  • Public Preview: Azure IoT Operations.
  • Generally available: Partitioned namespaces for Azure Service Bus Premium.
  • Public preview: Cost analysis add-on for AKS.
  • Public preview: Vector database add-ons for Azure Container Apps.
  • Public preview: Azure Container Apps adds native support for CNCF Buildpacks to automatically containerize your code.
  • Generally available: Azure Container Apps Landing Zone Accelerator.
  • Public preview: Policy-driven resiliency in Azure Container Apps.
  • Public preview: Dedicated GPU workload profiles.
  • Kubernetes AI toolchain operator (Now Available).
  • GA: Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager.
  • Preview: New Basic SKU functionality for Azure confidential ledger.
  • Azure Chaos Studio is now generally available.
  • General availability: Additional Azure ExpressRoute peering locations.
  • Generally available: AMD confidential VM option for Azure Databricks.
  • Announcing Azure API Management Credential Manager: Azure API Management Authorizations Renamed (Now Available).
  • Public Preview: Announcing the preview of Azure Managed Confidential Consortium Framework.
  • Preview: Azure confidential VMs with NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs.
  • Public Preview: Attach and VMs to and from Existing Virtual Machine Scale Sets.
  • General Availability of Azure Logic Apps’ New Data Mapper for Visual Studio Code.
  • Generally Available: Azure Mv3 Medium Memory (MM) Virtual Machines.
  • Azure Logic Apps Standard VS Code Extension Installation Enhancements in public preview.
  • General Availability of Application Insights Enhancements for Azure Logic Apps (standard).
  • Announcing general availability of .NET Framework Custom Code for Azure Logic Apps (standard).
  • Announcing Azure Integration Environment in public preview.
  • Azure Logic Apps workflow assistant in public preview.
  • Public preview: Azure Backup supports long term retention for backup of Azure Database for PostgreSQLā€“ Flexible Server.

November 16, 2023 (Ignote Updates)

  • General availability: Reservations for Microsoft Fabric.
  • Generally Available: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.3 now supported on Azure Virtual Machines.
  • General availability: Integration of Azure Monitor Agent support with Connection Monitor.
  • Public preview: Private subnet.

November 20, 2023

  • General availability: Azure Monitor Application Insights Browser SDK Loader for Node.js.
  • General Availability: Encryption at host for Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disks.
  • Azure Web PubSub support for Socket.IO now generally available.
  • Generally Available: Collect Syslog from AKS nodes using Azure Monitor Container Insights.
  • Part numbers from EA invoice are now added to the cost and usage file.
  • Generally available: Delete Jobs API to support bulk delete in Azure Digital Twins.
  • Generally Available: Azure Red Hat OpenShift in Italy North.

November 21, 2023

  • General Availability: Azure App Configuration Kubernetes Provider.
  • General Availability: User and group quota management in Azure NetApp Files.
  • General Availability: Standard network features support in US Gov regions.
  • Generally Available: Azure Static Web Apps now supports .NET 8.
  • Public Preview: Encryption using Customer Managed Keys for Backup Vaults.

November 22, 2023

  • General Availability: Azure Backup for AKS.
  • Public Preview: Kafka Input and Output with Azure Stream Analytics.
  • Public Preview: Schema migration for target Azure SQL DB.
  • Public Preview: Protocol Buffers (Protobuf) with Azure Stream Analytics.
  • General Availability: Azure Portal experience for Azure Database Migration Service.
  • General Availability: SKU recommendation in Azure SQL Migration extension – Azure Data Studio.
  • General Availability: pgvector 0.5.1 extension.
  • Public Preview: Server logs for Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server.
  • General Availability: Time travel in Azure Synapse Link for Azure Cosmos DB.
  • General Availability: Change data capture in Azure Cosmos DB analytical store.

November 24, 2023

  • Extended Support for .NET 6 (LTS) ends on 12 November 2024.
  • Extended Support for .NET 7 (STS) ends on 14 May 2024.

November 29, 2023

  • Public Preview: Azure NetApp Files support for 1 TiB capacity pools.
  • General Availability: Azure NetApp Files support for 2 TiB capacity pools.

FAQ: 

Q: What is the Azure OpenAI Service and how does it enhance Microsoft’s cloud offerings?

Azure OpenAI Service is a new feature introduced by Microsoft, aimed at enhancing its cloud offerings. It integrates advanced AI capabilities within the Azure platform, allowing users to leverage generative AI and other AI services for various applications. This service is a part of Microsoft’s broader strategy to incorporate AI into its cloud services, providing users with powerful tools for AI development and deployment.

Q: How is Microsoft integrating its Copilot feature into Microsoft 365, and what are its benefits?

Microsoft is integrating its Copilot feature into Microsoft 365 as part of its broader initiative to bring AI into everyday productivity tools. Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 is designed to act as an AI assistant, helping users with various tasks and improving efficiency. This integration signifies Microsoft’s commitment to using AI to create entirely new ways of working, enhancing productivity and offering new insights into workloads.

Q: What are the key updates announced for Azure at Microsoft Ignite 2023?

At Microsoft Ignite 2023, several key updates for Azure were announced. These updates include the introduction of new Azure AI services, enhancements in Azure Confidential Computing, and improvements in Azure Kubernetes Service. Additionally, Microsoft revealed updates in Azure’s AI development tools and the integration of Microsoft’s security solutions like Microsoft Defender and Sentinel into the Azure platform.

Q: Can you explain the concept of Azure Confidential Computing and its impact on data security?

Azure Confidential Computing is a feature of Azure that focuses on enhancing data security. It provides a secure environment for processing sensitive data, ensuring that it is encrypted and protected even during computation. This feature is crucial for organizations handling confidential data, as it extends security capabilities beyond storage and transmission, protecting data throughout its lifecycle within the Azure cloud.

Q: How does the integration of Microsoft and Azure AI services benefit users?

The integration of Microsoft and Azure AI services benefits users by offering a comprehensive suite of AI tools and capabilities within a unified platform. This integration allows for seamless access to AI technologies like Azure AI Speech, Azure AI Vision, and Azure AI Search. Users can leverage these services for various applications, from data analysis to building intelligent applications, all within the Azure portal.

Q: How does the Azure Confidential Computing enhance data security in Microsoft Azure?

Azure Confidential Computing is a significant feature in Microsoft Azure that brings a new level of data security. By offering encryption not just in transit and at rest, but also during computation, Azure Confidential Computing ensures that sensitive data remains protected across its entire lifecycle. This feature is particularly beneficial for organizations dealing with highly confidential information, providing them with an added layer of security within the Azure cloud environment.

Q: What are the new features in Azure AI Services, especially in Azure AI Studio, announced in November 2023?

In November 2023, Microsoft announced new features in Azure AI Services, particularly in Azure AI Studio. These updates include advanced AI model development tools, integration with Azure resources, and enhanced capabilities in areas like Azure AI Vision and Azure AI Search. The updates in Azure AI Studio signify Microsoft’s commitment to facilitating robust AI development and offering new, efficient ways for users to leverage AI technologies within the Azure ecosystem.

Q: Can you elaborate on the updates in Azure and their significance as highlighted in the Azure updates and Book of News from Microsoft Ignite 2023?

The updates in Azure, as highlighted in the Azure updates and Book of News from Microsoft Ignite 2023, mark significant advancements in Microsoft’s cloud offerings. These updates include enhancements in Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure SQL, and Azure Cosmos DB, reflecting Microsoft’s focus on providing scalable and secure cloud services. The Book of News also detailed the integration of cutting-edge technologies like generative AI and extended security updates, showcasing Azure’s evolution to meet diverse and complex enterprise needs.

Q: What is the role of Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 in transforming workplace productivity?

Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 plays a pivotal role in transforming workplace productivity by integrating AI-powered assistance into everyday office applications. This new feature enables users to automate routine tasks, gain new insights into their workloads, and explore entirely new ways of working. By leveraging AI capabilities, Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 simplifies complex workflows and enhances user efficiency, representing a significant step forward in the integration of AI into productivity software.

Q: How does the integration of Microsoft technologies, particularly Microsoft 365 data, benefit organizations?

The integration of Microsoft technologies, especially the incorporation of Microsoft 365 data, benefits organizations by offering a unified and comprehensive data management solution. This integration allows for seamless data flow between different Microsoft applications, enhancing collaboration and decision-making processes. By leveraging Microsoft 365 data in conjunction with other Microsoft services like Azure AI and Microsoft Dynamics 365, organizations can gain deeper insights and improve operational efficiency.

Q: What new capabilities does Microsoft Sentinel bring to the Microsoft cloud?

Microsoft Sentinel, as part of the Microsoft cloud, brings enhanced security capabilities by providing a scalable, cloud-native SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) solution. It helps in detecting, preventing, and responding to security threats across the entire enterprise. The integration of Microsoft Sentinel with other Microsoft security solutions like Microsoft Defender XDR enhances the overall security posture within the Microsoft cloud environment.

Q: How does Azure AI Content Safety contribute to online safety and security?

Azure AI Content Safety is a significant initiative by Microsoft focusing on online safety and security. This service utilizes advanced AI to monitor and manage digital content, ensuring that it adheres to safety standards and regulations. By analyzing and filtering content for harmful or inappropriate material, Azure AI Content Safety plays a crucial role in creating a safer online environment.

Q: Can you explain the functionality of Microsoft Copilot Studio and its impact on AI development?

Microsoft Copilot Studio is an innovative tool designed to facilitate AI development. It serves as a platform for developers and data scientists to build, train, and deploy AI models more efficiently. By providing tools for prompt engineering in Azure Machine Learning and incorporating new AI technologies, Copilot Studio streamlines the AI development process, making it more accessible and efficient for developers.

Q: What are the advantages of using Azure Virtual Desktop for remote work and collaboration?

Azure Virtual Desktop offers numerous advantages for remote work and collaboration. It allows users to access their desktop environments securely from any location, providing a consistent and high-performance experience. This service enables organizations to deploy virtual desktops easily, ensuring that team members have access to necessary resources and applications while maintaining security and compliance.

Q: How is Microsoft integrating Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365, and what benefits does it offer?

Microsoft is integrating Copilot into Microsoft Dynamics 365 to enhance business applications with AI capabilities. This integration allows for smarter, AI-driven insights and automation within Dynamics 365. It helps in streamlining business processes, improving customer interactions, and enabling more informed decision-making, thus elevating the overall efficiency and effectiveness of business operations.

Q: What features are included in the preview of Azure AI Studio?

The preview of Azure AI Studio includes a range of features designed to enhance AI development and deployment. It offers tools for building and refining AI models, integrates with Azure Machine Learning for advanced analytics, and provides a user-friendly interface for both expert and novice AI practitioners. This preview signifies Microsoft’s commitment to making AI more accessible and efficient for developers.

Q: Can you discuss the new features of Microsoft Azure Maia and its impact on cloud computing?

Microsoft Azure Maia introduces new features that significantly impact cloud computing. These features are designed to enhance Azure’s computational capabilities, improve scalability, and offer more efficient resource management. Microsoft Azure Maia represents a step forward in cloud innovation, providing users with more powerful and flexible cloud computing options.

Q: How does Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides enhance user experience and productivity?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides enhance user experience and productivity by providing interactive, step-by-step guidance within Dynamics 365 applications. These guides help users navigate complex tasks and processes, improving efficiency and accuracy. They are particularly useful for training and onboarding, allowing new users to quickly become proficient in using Dynamics 365 tools.

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