On the week of December 7th (especially on December 9th), Microsoft has sent us a whole bag of goodies, announcing the general availability of new features that were only in preview until now, and even newer features that have just entered public preview.
There’s quite a lot to cover here, so let’s try to break it down by categories and provide links for more details. Hopefully, this will help you pick and choose the technologies and features that are relevant to you specifically, and see what’s new, what’s cooking, and what has become available in a new region:
Table of contents
- New Datacenter Region
- App Service, Configuration, and Monitoring
- Data Platform, Storage, and Streaming
- Automation and Orchestration
- Machine Learning and AI
- Virtualization, Containerization, and Edge
- Looking for more?
New Datacenter Region
- Microsoft to establish new datacenter region in Denmark
The new region is anticipated to include Microsoft Azure, with Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform to follow.
App Service, Configuration, and Monitoring
Entered general availability
- Infrastructure Encryption for Azure Monitor dedicated clusters now generally available
Customers using Azure Monitor dedicated cluster get high level of assurance that their data is secure with additional 256-bit AES encryption at the Azure Storage infrastructure level. - Azure IoT Central new and updated features—November 2020
November updates include IoT Plug and Play support, new pricing tier, a preview of the jobs API, and documentation updates.
Entered public preview
- New Azure Monitor Agent and Data Collection Rules capabilities released in public preview
The new Azure Monitor Agent and the Data Collection Rules feature of Azure Monitor are announcing the release of several key features including support for on-premises servers (with Arc installed) and virtual machines scale sets, as well as sample ARM templates for programmatic installation and management, in addition to portal UI. - App Service Environment v3 now available in public preview
Available with no stamp fee via new Isolated v2 SKU. - App Service Anti-Virus Logs in public preview
Receive improved application monitoring with support for anti-virus scans .
New region availability
- App Configuration is now generally available in China and US Government clouds
Customers can now store configuration in these government clouds, leading to better performance and less latency when making configuration requests.
Data Platform, Storage, and Streaming
Entered general availability
- Machine Learning on Azure SQL Managed Instance now available
Use machine learning capabilities on a Managed Instance of Azure SQL Database for ease of moving your data, packages, and models to a cloud ready environment fully configured for machine learning. - Transparent Data Encryption with customer-managed keys for SQL Database Hyperscale
This feature enables bring your own key (BYOK) support for data protection at rest, using Azure Key Vault, for Azure SQL Database Hyperscale customers. - Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Single Server: logical decoding feature is now generally available
With logical decoding and wal2json support, unlock change data capture scenarios with Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Single Server. - Azure Data Share snapshot sharing for SQL Database and Synapse generally available
You can now share structured data stored in relational databases and data warehouse easily and securely between internal departments, with external partners, vendors or customers for collaboration. - Azure Storage account recovery available via portal is now generally available
Recover your deleted storage account directly from the portal. - Event hubs on Azure Stack Hub is now generally available
The GA version of Event Hubs is now available on Azure Stack Hub. This will allow you to realize cloud and on-premises scenarios that use streaming and event-based architectures.
Entered public preview
- Public preview: Azure Data Explorer dashboards October update
Azure Data Explorer dashboards keeps evolving constantly. In this update we cover cascading filters, clickable URLs in tables, multi-stat cards, and text font size control in stat cards. - Grafana query editor for Azure Data Explorer is in public preview
With the new Grafana query builder, it is now possible to build dashboards in just a few clicks using a simple graphical experience. - Private link for Azure SQL Data Sync on Azure SQL Database now in public preview
Private link enables SQL Data Sync users to choose a service managed private endpoint for the sync service to securely connect to member and hub databases during data synchronization. - Stop/start functionality for Azure Database for MariaDB is now in public preview
The stop/start feature can enable cost savings on your database servers as you can stop your Database for MariaDB server when not in use and start the server when you resume activity–paying only for what you use. - Azure resource logs for Azure Storage is now in public preview
With Azure Storage logs and native export options, it’s more convenient to troubleshoot issues on requests to your storage account. - Microsoft Azure Purview provides unified data governance
Announcing the public preview of a unified data governance service to maximize business value of data. - Introducing adutil – A tool to ease configuration of AD authentication for SQL on Linux/Containers
A new CLI based utility developed to ease the AD authentication configuration for both SQL Server on Linux and SQL Server Linux containers. AD authentication enables domain-joined clients on either Windows or Linux to authenticate to SQL Server using their domain credentials and the Kerberos protocol. - Azure Blob storage—NFS 3.0 protocol support public preview now supports GPV2 storage accounts
NFS 3.0 support for Azure Blob Storage preview now supports premium performance tier in all available regions and lower cost standard performance tier in Australia East, Korea Central, and South Central US.
New region availability
- Azure Databricks now available in Azure Government
Azure Databricks is now available in US Gov Arizona and US Gov Virginia regions. - Azure Databricks now generally available in the Azure China region
The availability of Azure Databricks in China enables global enterprises to provide a consistent experience for customers in this region.
Automation and Orchestration
Entered general availability
- Java Azure Functions support on Linux is now generally available
Developers can now build and publish Java Azure Functions Apps on Linux. - Azure Functions custom handlers are now generally available
You can develop Azure Functions using languages and runtimes that do not currently have first-class support. - Private Link support for Azure Automation is now generally available
Ensure a secure channel to connect to your Automation Accounts resources with the help of Private Links in Automation. - Azure Data Factory data flow connectors now generally available for CDM and Delta Lake.
Azure Data Factory (ADF) has make data flow connectors for ETL data loading, transforming, and landing in Common Data Model (CDM) and Delta Lake formats.
Entered public preview
- Logic Apps runtime platform updates and development capabilities
This public preview refresh deepens development and testing support across platforms and offers the ability to deploy and run on Azure, on any container, or on premises.
New region availability
- Azure Automation is now available in Norway East region
Automate tasks across Azure & Non-Azure environment using PowerShell and Python based scripts. - Azure Data Factory is now available in five new regions
Azure Data Factory is now available in five new regions: Switzerland North, Japan West, Canada East, Germany West Central, and UK West.
Machine Learning and AI
Entered general availability
- New features are now available for Azure Form Recognizer
Pre-built invoice, enhanced table extraction, and more available in Azure Form Recognizer
Entered public preview
- Azure Machine Learning updates December 2020 in public preview
Azure Machine Learning has new updates on View capabilities.
Virtualization, Containerization, and Edge
Entered general availability
- GA: Azure Red Hat OpenShift support for OpenShift 4.5
Benefit from new features and enhancements in OpenShift release 4.5. - Azure Stack Edge Kubernetes system is now available
Azure Stack Edge includes a managed Kubernetes environment so you can deploy your containerized apps to the edge with the click of a button. - General availability: AKS resources view
Azure portal now provides a Kubernetes resource view that improves the developer experience and simplifies dev/test scenarios. - Enabling IBM WebSphere Liberty and Open Liberty on Azure Red Hat OpenShift
Customers can easily deploy a variety of robust, production-ready WebSphere Liberty or Open Liberty architectures on Azure Red Hat OpenShift. - Automatic VM placement and Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets available on Dedicated Host
Azure can now select the dedicated host to which your VM is deployed. Additionally, Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets can be deployed in conjunction with Dedicated Hosts.
Entered public preview
- Azure Stack Edge Virtual Machine Support is in public preview
Azure Stack Edge hosts Azure virtual machines so you can run your VM based IoT, AI, and business applications on an Azure appliance at your location. - Public preview: AKS pod identity
Access cloud resources securely from AKS applications using Azure Active Directory (AAD). - Public preview: Automatic Cluster Upgrades in AKS
AKS simplifies the task of deploying new Kubernetes releases by enabling users to configure automatic cluster upgrades. - Public preview: Azure Monitor for containers new Reports(tab) & deployment live logs
Now access all your Kubernetes related visualizations such as Node-disk, Node-network, Workloads & Persistent Volume, and many more in new Reports(tab). As part of this update you can also view, search, and filter pod Live Logs of AKS deployments for quick troubleshooting. - Azure Sphere OS version 20.12 Update 1 is now available for evaluation
This release fixes an Ethernet connection issue for devices with both Wi-Fi and Ethernet enabled.
New Region Availability
- HBv2-series VMs for HPC are now available in UAE North
Azure’s most powerful and scalable HPC VMs, the HBv2-series, are now available in the UAE North region. Customers in this region can now run scale-out MPI workloads to tens of thousands of CPU cores.
Looking for more?
What else Microsoft has for us in store for these holidays?
These are indeed exciting and interesting times we live in 😄.
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Merry early-Christmas and happy early-holidays!
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