Azure Update - 27th June 2025

Key Concepts

Azure Advisor, Virtual Machine Right-Sizing, FXV2 VMs, Azure Front Door, Wildcard Certificates, Web Application Firewall (WAF), Security Co-pilot, Azure Virtual Network Manager (AVNM), IP Address Management (IPAM), Azure Firewall, Premium SSD v2, Ultra Disk, Azure NetApp Files, Customer Managed Keys (CMK), Azure SQL Database, Vector Data Types, Embeddings, Retrieve Augmented Generation (RAG), FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS), Azure Monitor Workspace, Azure Managed Prometheus.

Compute Updates

Azure Advisor Right-Sizing Recommendations

• Main Point: Azure Advisor's cost optimization recommendations for VMs now include expanded SKU evaluation.
• Details: The advisor analyzes VM resource usage and suggests better-fitting SKUs (smaller, different CPU/memory ratios). The expansion includes the DE and F virtual machine families.

FXV2 Virtual Machines GA

• Main Point: FXV2 virtual machines, based on 5th Gen Intel Xeon Platinum processors, are now generally available.
• Details:
  • Offer a 50% CPU performance improvement over the previous generation.
  • Scalable up to 96 virtual CPUs and 1,832 GB of memory.
  • Support NVMe storage.
  • Provide up to 400,000 IOPS and 11.4 GBps of remote network storage throughput.

Networking Updates

Azure Front Door Wildcard Certificates

• Main Point: Azure Front Door (Standard and Premium) now supports Microsoft-managed certificates for wildcard domains.
• Details:
  • Azure Front Door is a global layer 7 load balancer using anycast and split TCP.
  • Instead of requiring individual certificates for subdomains (e.g., site1.example.com, site2.example.com), a single wildcard certificate (e.g., *.example.com) can be used.
  • Microsoft can now provide these wildcard certificates, simplifying operations for users with many subdomains.

Web Application Firewall (WAF) Security Co-pilot Integration

• Main Point: Azure WAF now integrates with Security Co-pilot, enabling natural language interaction for security investigations.
• Details:
  • WAF protects Azure Front Door (global) and App Gateway (regional) deployments.
  • Security Co-pilot allows users to use natural language to analyze SQL injection attacks, cross-site scripting attacks, identify top offending IP addresses, and review WAF rule performance.

Azure Virtual Network Manager (AVNM) IP Address Management (IPAM) GA

• Main Point: Azure Virtual Network Manager now includes generally available IP Address Management (IPAM) capabilities.
• Details:
  • AVNM provides centralized management of large-scale virtual networking.
  • Features include configuring connectivity between virtual networks, applying security admin rules (preceding NSGs), and managing routing.
  • IPAM allows defining IP pools for Azure usage and automatically allocates addresses to virtual networks, preventing overlaps and simplifying management.

Azure Firewall Draft and Deploy (Preview)

• Main Point: Azure Firewall introduces a draft and deploy feature in preview for policy management.
• Details:
  • A two-phase approach: draft policy changes and then deploy them.
  • Drafting creates a clone of the existing policy for updates.
  • Multiple policies can be drafted simultaneously.
  • Deploying finalizes all drafted changes at once, minimizing disruption to Azure Firewall functionality.

Storage Updates

Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disk in Malaysia West

• Main Point: Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disk storage options are now available in the Malaysia West region.
• Details:
  • Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disk share the same infrastructure.
  • Allow independent configuration of IOPS and throughput from capacity.
  • Support dynamic adjustment of IOPS and throughput during use.
  • Offer sub-millisecond latency (Ultra Disk has even lower latency, around half a millisecond) and high IOPS/throughput potential.

Azure NetApp Files: CMK without Migration

• Main Point: Azure NetApp Files now supports switching from platform-managed keys to customer-managed keys (CMK) without data migration.
• Details:
  • Previously, moving to CMK required creating a new volume with CMK and migrating data.
  • Now, a volume can be switched to CMK (using a key in Key Vault) without data migration, providing a frictionless experience.

Database Updates

Azure SQL Database Vector Data Types (GA)

• Main Point: Azure SQL Database now generally supports vector data types for storing embeddings.
• Details:
  • Vectors store embeddings, which are high-dimensional representations of semantic meaning.
  • Useful for large language models (LLMs) and small language models (SLMs) to find data related to a query based on meaning, not just keywords.
  • Enables Retrieve Augmented Generation (RAG) solutions.
  • Azure SQL Database provides functions to work with vectors, such as finding the closest distance between vectors.

Miscellaneous Updates

Azure Cost Management FOCUS 1.2 Support

• Main Point: Azure Cost Management now supports the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) version 1.2.
• Details:
  • FOCUS is a standard used by FinOps professionals.
  • Support allows Azure billing data to be exported in a format compatible with tools supporting FOCUS 1.2.
  • FOCUS 1.2 includes new fields for multiple currencies, virtual currencies, invoice-level reconciliation, and cost allocation capabilities.

Azure Monitor Workspace Ingestion Monitoring (Preview)

• Main Point: Ingestion monitoring is now available in preview for Azure Monitor Workspace.
• Details:
  • Azure Monitor Workspace is specialized storage for Prometheus-format metrics (Azure Managed Prometheus).
  • Ingestion monitoring helps identify and resolve issues with metric ingestion from Kubernetes environments.

Synthesis/Conclusion

This week's Azure updates focus on enhancing existing services with new features and capabilities. Key improvements include expanded VM SKU options, simplified certificate management with Azure Front Door, improved security investigations through Security Co-pilot integration with WAF, streamlined IP address management with AVNM, and the introduction of vector data types in Azure SQL Database for AI applications. Additionally, updates to storage options and cost management provide greater flexibility and control over Azure resources. These updates collectively aim to improve performance, security, manageability, and cost efficiency for Azure users.