In today’s fast-paced cloud landscape, it’s crucial to stay informed about the constant advancements in cloud computing, and Azure is at the forefront of innovation. With its robust services and powerful capabilities, Azure empowers businesses to accelerate their digital transformation, achieve scalability, enhance security, and unlock new opportunities.

My mission here at Azure Centric is to provide you with a comprehensive overview of the latest Azure updates, announcements, and features so that you can make the most of your Azure investments. From new service releases and updates to insightful tips, best practices, and success stories, I strive to deliver valuable content that helps you leverage Azure to its fullest potential.

I am thrilled to bring you the latest and most significant weekly updates from the dynamic world of Microsoft Azure.

General availability: Read replicas for Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server - The Dlsv5 and Dldsv5 VM series provide 2GiBs per vCPU and can offer lower price points within the general-purpose Azure Virtual Machines portfolio.

Generally available: Large disk support for disaster recovery of Hyper-V VMs using Site Recovery - You can now enable disaster recovery for Hyper-VMs with data disks up to 32 TB in size.

Public Preview: Support for Azure VMs using Ultra disks in Azure Backup - Public preview for the support for Azure VMs using Ultra disks in Azure Backup.

General availability: IP Protection SKU for Azure DDoS Protection - IP Protection provides cost-effective, enterprise-grade DDoS protection designed to meet the needs of SMB.

Public preview: Private Application Gateway v2 - Application Gateway v2 is introducing support for private IP only frontend configurations, enhanced control over NSG rules, and support for forced tunneling/route table rules to virtual appliances.

Public preview update: Azure Automation supports PowerShell 7.2 and Python 3.10 runbooks - Azure Automation has expanded Public preview support for PowerShell 7.2 and Python 3.10 runbooks.

General Availability: New General-Purpose VMs - Dlsv5 and Dldsv5 - The Dlsv5 and Dldsv5 VM series provide 2GiBs per vCPU and can offer lower price points within the general-purpose Azure Virtual Machines portfolio.

Action recommended: Implement disaster recovery strategies for your Azure App Service web apps by 31 March 2025 - We’ll no longer place apps in disaster recovery mode in the event of a regional disaster.

The “managed” IoT Edge solution on Azure stack Edge will be retired on March 31, 2024. Transition your IoT Edge workloads to an IoT Edge solution running on a Linux VM on Azure Stack Edge. - The “managed” IoT Edge solution on Azure Stack Edge will be retired on 31 March 2024

Azure Database for PostgreSQL Single Server will be retired—migrate to Flexible Server by 28 March 2025 - On 28 March 2025, Azure Database for PostgreSQL Single Server will be retired, and you’ll need to migrate to Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server by that date.

Action Required: Transition to DCR-based KQL transformations by 31 March 2026 - Custom fields feature will be retired on 31 March 2026

Azure CDN will be retiring Azure CDN Standard from Akamai on 31 October 2023 – transition to another CDN profile to avoid service interruption - Azure CDN Standard from Akamai is being retired and services will end on 31 October 2023

SQL Server connector’s V1 actions and triggers will be retired on 31 March 2024 – transition to SQL Server connector’s V2 actions and triggers - SQL Server connector’s V1 actions and triggers will be retired on 31 March 2024

Retirement notice: Migrate from Public Peering by March 31, 2024 - ExpressRoute Public Peering will be retired on March 31, 2024.

Classic experience to protect VMware machines using Azure Site Recovery will be retired on 30 March 2026 - Azure Site Recovery’s classic experience to protect VMware VMs will be retired on 30 March 2026

Transition to built-in Azure Monitor alerts for Recovery Services vaults in Azure Backup by 31 March 2026 - Classic alerts for Azure Backup will be retired on 31 March, 2026

Azure Image Builder Portal Functionality now available - Using Azure Image Builder’s new portal functionality, you can now build and validate custom images inside the portal. Now available!

Azure Service Fabric 9.1 Second Refresh Release - This release includes quality improvements.

Cheers,

Marcos Nogueira
Azure MVP
azurecentric.com
Twitter: @mdnoga