Last Updated on April 10, 2024 by Arnav Sharma
March 1, 2024
- Cloud Services (classic) deployment model is retiring on 31 August 2024: Cloud Services (classic) retiring in August 2024.
March 4, 2024
- Public Preview: Well-Architected Framework assessment on Azure Advisor: Initiate a self-serve experience of Assessments and manage their recommendations on Azure Advisor.
March 5, 2024
- Public preview: Azure NetApp Files volume enhancement – allow the same file path for volumes in different availability zones: Public Preview of Azure NetApp Files volume enhancement – file path uniqueness.
- Public preview: New Generation AMD VMs – Dasv6/Easv6/Fasv6: Azure introduces the latest AMD-based VMs in public preview for the D, E, and F series VMs, built on the 4th Generation AMD EPYC™ (Genoa) CPU.
- Azure Sphere OS version 24.03 is now available for evaluation: Participate in the retail evaluation now to ensure full compatibility.
March 6, 2024
- Generally available: Azure Functions Support for Node.js 20: Develop functions using Node.js 20 locally and deploy them to all Azure Functions plans on Linux and Windows.
March 7, 2024
- General Availability: App Service Backup and Restore over Azure Virtual Network: Customers can now use custom backups, to back up their web app’s files and configuration data to a firewall-protected storage account.
- Generally available: Service Level Agreements on Azure Blob Storage Cold Tier: Azure Blob Storage Cold Tier has published Service Level Agreements.
- General availability: Azure Virtual Network encryption now in additional regions: Azure Virtual Network encryption is a feature of Azure Virtual Networks, now available in additional regions.
- 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.
March 11, 2024
- Generally available: Azure Blob Storage Cold Tier in Poland Central, Qatar Central, and Azure China: Azure Blob Storage Cold Tier in generally available in Poland Central, Qatar Central, and Azure China.
March 13, 2024
- Azure IoT Edge supports Ubuntu Core Snaps: We are expanding the Azure IoT Edge supported platforms to include Ubuntu Core Snaps on IoT Edge as a Tier 1 supported operating system.
- Now available: Free data transfer out to internet when leaving Azure: Learn how to qualify for free egress when moving your data out of Azure.
March 14, 2024
- Azure Monitor managed service for Prometheus now supports TLS & mTLS based scraping: Azure Monitor managed service for Prometheus now supports TLS & mTLS based scraping for Prometheus instance served with TLS.
March 15, 2024
- Azure Classic Administrator roles are retiring on 31 August 2024: On 31 August 2024, Azure classic administrator roles will be retired.
- Visual Studio App Center retirement: Visual Studio App Center is scheduled for retirement on March 31, 2025.
- Retirement: Support for Application Gateway Web Application Firewall v2 Configuration is ending: On 15 March 2027, the Application Gateway WAF v2 Configuration will be retired.
March 18, 2024
- 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.
- Generally Available: Cost analysis add-on for AKS: You can now better understand the infra costs associated with running applications at the namespace and cluster levels and identify opportunities to optimize resource utilization through an Azure native experience.
- Open-Source Fleet Workload Placement Scheduling and Override: You can now schedule workloads in Fleet based on cost and availability of resource heuristics.
- Generally Available: Windows Gen 2 VM support in AKS: You can now use Gen 2 VM SKUs for Windows nodepools in AKS.
- Public preview: Windows GPU support in AKS: You can now run GPU workloads on Windows nodepools in AKS.
- Generally Available: Kubernetes 1.29 support in AKS: Take advantage of Kubernetes 1.29 version with AKS in the production environment.
- Generally Available: Custom kubelet configuration for Windows in AKS: Modify default values for kubelet parameters when using Windows nodepools in AKS.
- Public preview: Azure CNI static block IP allocation support in AKS: Scale beyond the current 65k Pod IPs and up to 1 Million Pods.
- Public preview: Deployment safeguards in AKS: Use deployment safeguards to implement Kubernetes best practices.
- Generally Available: Azure CNI overlay dual stack Support in AKS (Linux only): Deploy AKS clusters in dual stack mode enabling resource connection through IPv4 or IPv6.
- Generally Available: VM IP based load balancer in AKS: Choose IP-based backend pool membership for new or existing clusters in AKS.
- Generally Available: Host Network Security Group (NSG) control in AKS: Directly configure allowed ports in your nodepool settings.
- Generally Available: HostPort auto assign in AKS: AKS now lets you deploy pods without manually specifying host ports.
- Generally Available: Instance level Public IP tags in AKS in Preview: Utilize Azure routing preference for your cluster, public node IPs in AKS.
- Public preview: Trusted launch support in AKS: Deploy AKS nodes with verified and signed bootloaders, OS kernels, and drivers.
- Generally Available: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) support for 5K Node limit by default for standard tier clusters: Scale your AKS cluster to larger than 1000 nodes without any special limit increases or whitelisting.
- 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.
- Azure Monitor managed service for Prometheus is available in 13 additional Azure regions: Azure Managed Prometheus was announced GA in May 2023 and will be available in 13 additional regions.
- You can now opt in automatically renew your reservation at time of purchase: Opt in automatically renew your reservation at the time of purchase, providing an easy way to continue getting reservation discounts.
March 19, 2024
- Billing for Azure Monitor stateful log search alerts in Preview: Starting from May 1, 2024, you will be charged for stateful log alerts in Azure Monitor.
- 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.
- Generally Available: Cost analysis add-on for AKS: You can now better understand the infra costs associated with running applications at the namespace and cluster levels and identify opportunities to optimize resource utilization through an Azure native experience.
- Open-Source Fleet Workload Placement Scheduling and Override: You can now schedule workloads in Fleet based on cost and availability of resource heuristics.
- Generally Available: Windows Gen 2 VM support in AKS: You can now use Gen 2 VM SKUs for Windows nodepools in AKS.
- 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.
- Generally Available: Kubernetes 1.29 support in AKS: You can now take advantage of Kubernetes 1.29 version with AKS in production environment.
- Generally Available: Custom kubelet configuration for Windows in AKS: You can now modify default values for kubelet parameters when using Windows nodepools in AKS.
- 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.
- Public preview: Deployment safeguards in AKS: You can now use deployment safeguards to implement Kubernetes best practices and get warnings on deployment or deny the deployment of manifest files that are not following best practices.
- Generally Available: Azure CNI overlay dual stack Support in AKS (Linux only): You can now deploy AKS clusters in dual stack mode which now enables resource connection through IPv4 or IPv6.
- Generally Available: VM IP based load balancer in AKS: You can now choose IP-based backend pool membership for new or existing clusters in AKS.
- Generally Available: Host Network Security Group (NSG) control in AKS: You can now directly configure allowed ports in your nodepool settings.
- Generally Available: HostPort auto assign in AKS: AKS now lets you deploy pods without manually specifying host ports.
- Generally Available: Instance level Public IP tags in AKS in Preview: You can now utilize Azure routing preference for your cluster, public node IPs in AKS.
- Public preview: Trusted launch support in AKS: Administrators can now deploy AKS nodes with verified and signed bootloaders, OS kernels, and drivers.
- Generally Available: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) support for 5K Node limit by default for standard tier clusters: You can now scale your AKS cluster to larger than 1000 nodes without having to request any special limit increases or whitelisting.
- 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.
- Azure Monitor managed service for Prometheus is available in 13 additional Azure regions: Azure Managed Prometheus was announced GA in May 2023 and was available in 26 regions, with this new update Azure Managed Prometheus will be available in 13 additional regions.
- You can now opt in automatically renew your reservation at time of purchase: You can now opt in automatically renew your reservation at time of purchase, which provides an easy way to continue getting reservation discounts.
March 20, 2024
- Public preview: Database watcher for Azure SQL: Enable in-depth, managed monitoring of Azure SQL databases, elastic pools, and managed instances.
- Generally available: Application Gateway (v2) IPv6 support: Azure Application Gateway v2 enables dual-stack (IPv4 and IPv6) connectivity from the clients, providing more flexible and reliable access to the backend Applications.
March 21, 2024
- 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.
- General Availability: Azure NetApp Files support for 1 TiB capacity pools: Azure NetApp Files now supports smaller 1 TiB capacity pool sizes, lowered from 2 TiB, when used with volumes using standard network features.
- Public Preview: Next generation of general purpose service tier for Azure SQL Managed Instance: The next generation of general purpose service tier brings improved performance, 32 TB storage, and higher database density.
- 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.
March 22, 2024
- Default Internet outbound access for Simplified node communication Batch pools without public IP addresses will be retired on 30 September 2025: End of life announcement for default Internet outbound access for Simplified node communication Batch pools without public IP addresses on 30 September 2025.
- HPC Pack 2016 will be retired on 12 January 2027: End of life announcement for HPC Pack 2016 on 12 January 2027.
- Support for Standard_M192idms_v2 will be retired on 31 March 2027: Community support for Standard_M192idms_v2 is ending on 31 March 2027.
- Community support for Standard_M192ids_v2 is ending on 31 March 2027: Support for Standard_M192idms_v2 will be retired on 31 March 2027.
- Community support for Standard_M192ims_v2 is ending on 31 March 2027: Support for Standard_M192ims_v2 will be retired on 31 March 2027.
- Community support for Standard_M192is_v2 is ending on 31 March 2027: Support for Standard_M192is_v2 will be retired on 31 March 2027.
- Some compliance features in Microsoft Defender for Cloud will be retired on September 30, 2025: Microsoft Actions and Compliance offerings, two regulatory compliance features in public preview, will no longer be available through the Defender for Cloud portal pages starting September 30, 2025.
- Azure HDInsight 4.0 will be retired on 31 March 2025 – migrate your HDInsight clusters to 5.1: Azure HDInsight 4.0 will be retired on 31 March 2025.
- Announcing Azure HPC Cache Retirement: Azure HPC Cache is retiring. End of support is 30 September 2025.
- Announcing Avere vFXT for Azure Retirement: Avere vFXT for Azure is retiring. End of support is 30 September 2025.
March 25, 2024
- Breaking Changes to Azure API Management Workspaces: As part of our commitment to enhancing workspaces within Azure API Management, we are implementing several critical breaking changes effective June 14, 2024.
- General Availability: Automatic Scaling for App Service Web Apps: Azure App Service announces the general availability of the “Automatic Scaling” feature.
- Preview: New Features in Azure Container Storage: Azure Container Storage is a fully managed volume orchestration service built natively for containers. New capabilities include support for Temp SSD, simplified installation via AKS CLI, and scalable storage for cost-efficient workload management.
- Public Preview: Agentless multi-disk crash consistent backup by Azure Backup for VM: Azure VM backup now supports agentless multi-disk crash consistent backups in public preview.
March 26, 2024
- Public Preview: Azure SQL Database Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric: Mirroring Azure SQL Database provides an easy experience to continuously replicate SQL DB data directly into Microsoft Fabric.
- Azure Static Web Apps distributed functions capability now in Public Preview: Reduced latency by distributing managed functions to regions of high demand.
March 27, 2024
- General availability: Migration service in Azure Database for PostgreSQL: Seamlessly migrate PostgreSQL to Azure using a managed service for complete schema and data transfers, hassle-free.
- General availability: Rate Limiting on ExpressRoute Direct Circuits: Rate Limiting is now generally available over ExpressRoute Direct port circuits, providing enhanced control over bandwidth usage.
- Public Preview: On-demand capacity reservations for Specialty SKUs: You can now reserve capacity with SLA for following Specialty VM sizes, Mv3 series, NC-series (v3 and newer), NV-series (v2 and newer), and Lsv2 series.
- Public preview: Change partition key of a container in Azure Cosmos DB (NoSQL API): The ability to change the partition key of a container in Azure Cosmos is now available in preview for NoSQL API.
March 28, 2024
- Azure Sphere version 24.03 and Azure Sphere (Integrated) are now generally available: The Azure Sphere 24.03 release includes Azure Sphere (Integrated) general availability, support for custom certificates to connect to Azure IoT Services, an updated version of cURL for the Azure Sphere OS, security fixes, SDK support for Ubuntu 24.04 pre-release, removal of SDK support for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, and changes to the CMake toolchain.
- Preview: Improved throughput performance on Azure Disks’ Standard SSD: Azure Disks Standard SSD throughput limits are now 100 MB/s on disks sized 8191 GBs and lower.
- GA: Azure Logic Apps Designer for Consumption: The new Azure Logic Apps Designer for Consumption is now generally available, revolutionizing your workflow experience.
- Public Preview: Safety evaluations for generative AI applications in Azure AI Studio: Measure your generative AI application’s susceptibility to jailbreak attacks and to producing unsafe content.
March 29, 2024
- Support for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for Batch pools will be retired on 23 April 2025: End of life announcement for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS support for Azure Batch pools on 23 April 2025.
- Support for Basic and Standard A-series VM families support will be retired on 31 August 2024 for Batch pools: End of life for Basic and Standard A-series VM families support in Batch pools on 31 August 2024.
- Every-write AOF persistence on Azure Cache for Redis Enterprise and Enterprise Flash will be retired on 1 April 2025: Every-write AOF will be retired on 1 April 2025, and all instances using the feature will automatically switch to use every-second AOF instead.
- General availability: Availability zone volume placement for Azure NetApp Files: Deploy new Azure NetApp Files volumes in Azure availability zones (AZs) of your choice to support workloads across multiple availability zones.