Azure Update - 29th August 2025

Key Concepts:

• Azure Service Groups
• Azure Migrate with Zone Redundant Storage (ZRS)
• Azure Functions with NodeJS 22 support
• Durable Functions and Roslyn Analyzer
• Azure CNI Overlay with App Gateway
• App Gateway Web Application Firewall Custom Block Response
• Azure NetApp Files Short-Term Clones
• Entra ID and RBAC for Azure Storage API
• Azure SQL Database Replication Lag Metric
• Azure SQL Local Containers with MSSQL VS Code Extension
• SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc in USGV Virginia
• Azure Database Migration Service Schema Migration
• Cosmos DB for MongoDB Shard Management
• PostgreSQL Entra Group Login
• Azure Austria East Region
• Azure OpenAI Service Provision Spillover
• Microsoft AI Models: MAI Voice 1 and MAI 1
• Windows Admin Center VSCenter to Hyper-V Migration

1. Azure Service Groups

• A new grouping construct for Azure subscriptions, resource groups, and resources.
• Designed to help workload owners manage and monitor their resources more effectively.
• Focuses on improved monitoring capabilities initially, with future enhancements planned.
• Allows for hierarchical grouping of resources and resource groups.
• Example: A workload owner can group all resources and resource groups that make up their workload or part of it.

2. Compute Updates

• Azure Migrate: Now supports Zone Redundant Storage (ZRS) disks in General Availability (GA).
  • ZRS replicates data across three availability zones within a region for increased resilience.
  • During server migration to Azure, users can now choose ZRS for the disks used by the underlying Azure VM.
  • Supported for Premium and Standard SSD managed disks, but not Premium SSD v2.
• Azure Functions: Now supports NodeJS 22 on both Windows and Linux-based plans.
• Durable Functions: Roslyn analyzer support for .NET isolated durable functions.
  • Roslyn analyzer provides real-time code analysis, flagging warnings and errors related to coding constraints specific to durable functions.
  • Durable functions require deterministic behavior due to potential reruns, making date, time, and GUID usage problematic.
  • The analyzer helps ensure durable functions adhere to these constraints.
  • Example: The analyzer will warn if the durable function uses DateTime.Now directly, as it will produce different values on each execution.

3. Networking Updates

• Azure CNI Overlay: Can now be combined with App Gateway for Containers or the regular App Gateway ingress controller.
  • Azure CNI Overlay allows using a different IP space for pods than the underlying virtual network, avoiding cubenet restrictions.
  • App Gateway provides Layer 7 regional load balancing. App Gateway for Containers is the preferred option for containerized applications.
  • This combination allows using App Gateway features without consuming IPs from the base virtual network.
• App Gateway Web Application Firewall (WAF): Supports custom block responses in preview.
  • Allows customizing the response status code and body for blocked requests.
  • Instead of the default 403 status code, users can define a custom code and message.
  • The custom response is set at the policy level, applying to all blocked requests.

4. Storage Updates

• Azure NetApp Files: Introduces short-term clones in preview.
  • Short-term clones are thin clones of existing volume snapshots, valid for up to one month.
  • They use the existing storage of the snapshot and only store changes made, minimizing storage overhead.
  • Useful for quick access to data sets without the full storage cost.
  • Example: Creating a short-term clone of a database snapshot for testing purposes.
• Azure Storage API: General Availability of Entra ID and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) for Get Account Info and other API calls.
  • Enables using Azure Active Directory (Entra ID) for authentication via OAuth 2.0.
  • Improves integration with managed identities for Azure resources.
  • Applies to API calls for getting/setting container, queue, and table ACLs.

5. Database Updates

• Azure SQL Database: Introduces a replication lag metric in seconds.
  • The replication_lag_seconds metric shows the time span between a transaction commit on the primary database and its acknowledgement by the secondary.
  • Helps understand the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) achievable in an unplanned scenario.
• Azure SQL Local Containers: Simplified creation of local SQL Server containers using the MSSQL extension for VS Code.
  • Eliminates the need for Docker commands, streamlining development and testing.
• MSSQL VS Code Extension: Adds a schema designer in GA.
  • Allows visually creating and modifying database schemas without writing T-SQL.
  • Includes schema comparison capabilities.
• SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc: Now available in USGV Virginia.
  • Extends Azure management capabilities to on-premises SQL Server instances.
  • Arc-enabling Windows servers brings them under Azure control plane.
  • Onboarding SQL Server to Azure Arc allows managing licensing, accessing extended security updates, and viewing SQL Server inventory in Azure.
• Azure Database Migration Service: Supports schema migration for Azure SQL Database.
  • Migrates missing schema objects (tables, views, stored procedures, indexes, user-defined types, roles, etc.) along with the data.
• Cosmos DB for MongoDB: Allows adding physical shards to collections.
  • Addresses scenarios where data grows beyond 32 TB or high performance requirements necessitate additional shards.
  • New shards initially require data rebalancing to fully utilize their capacity.
  • Users can trigger a rebalancing operation to distribute data across shards.
• PostgreSQL: Introduces Entra group login in preview.
  • Allows assigning PostgreSQL roles to Entra groups.
  • Entra group memberships are periodically synced to the PostgreSQL database.
  • Users logging in with Entra ID receive PostgreSQL roles based on their Entra group memberships.

6. Miscellaneous Updates

• Azure Austria East Region: Now in GA.
  • The first Azure region using Austrian local infrastructure.
  • Supports availability zones for in-region reliability.
  • Integrated into Microsoft's global fiber optic network.
• Azure OpenAI Service: Provision spillover is now in GA.
  • Automatically routes requests exceeding provisioned throughput units to a standard deployment.
  • Requires both a provisioned and standard deployment in the same Azure OpenAI resource, with the same data processing level (global or US data zone).
  • The spillover split metric allows monitoring which requests are being redirected.
• Microsoft AI Models: Two new models released.
  • MAI Voice 1: A highly expressive voice model that generates a minute of audio in under a second on a single GPU.
  • MAI 1: A mixture of experts model and Microsoft's first foundation model trained entirely in-house.
• Windows Admin Center: Includes a new migration tool for migrating from VSCenter to Hyper-V.
  • Supports both Windows and Linux VMs.
  • Automatically detects BIOS/UEFI and creates Gen1/Gen2 Hyper-V VMs accordingly.
  • Supports bulk migrations and multi-disk VMs.

7. Synthesis/Conclusion

This Azure update covers a range of enhancements across compute, networking, storage, databases, and AI services. Key takeaways include improved resilience with ZRS support in Azure Migrate, enhanced developer experience with NodeJS 22 in Azure Functions and the MSSQL VS Code extension, better network flexibility with Azure CNI Overlay and App Gateway integration, cost optimization with Azure NetApp Files short-term clones, and simplified management with Entra ID integration across various services. The introduction of the Austria East region and the Azure OpenAI Service provision spillover further expand Azure's global reach and capabilities. Finally, Microsoft's investment in its own AI models signals a growing focus on in-house innovation.