Azure SQL Database Provisioning in VS Code MSSQL Extension Reaches General Availability
Bridging Local Development and Cloud Databases Microsoft has announced the general availability of Azure SQL Database provisioning directly within the MSSQL extension for Visual Studio Code. This release streamlines how developers create, configure, and connect to managed cloud databases without leaving their code editor. The feature includes direct support for the Azure SQL Database free […]
Offline Cryptographic Auditing: Azure Confidential Ledger Releases Local Ledger Verification Tool
Verifying the cryptographic integrity of tamper-proof audit trails has traditionally required direct network connectivity to the underlying enclave infrastructure. For organizations operating under stringent compliance frameworks, external auditing engagements create an operational friction point: how do you grant third-party auditors or security analysts the ability to inspect transaction history and validate mathematical proofs without exposing […]
Azure VMware Solution license-included service gets retirement date as Broadcom licensing shift bites
What changed Microsoft confirmed the Azure VMware Solution (AVS) license-included service will retire on August 30, 2027. The decision follows Broadcom’s VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) licensing policy changes, which now require customers to bring their own portable licenses across all hyperscaler platforms. For AVS customers on license-included SKUs, this means a mandatory transition to bring-your-own-license […]
AKS control plane metrics now generally available with Managed Prometheus
Azure has made control plane metrics collection for AKS generally available, and it runs on Azure Monitor Managed Service for Prometheus. Until now, getting visibility into the managed Kubernetes control plane meant either accepting whatever Azure surfaced in its own dashboards or standing up your own Prometheus and scraping whatever you could reach. This closes […]
Batch Rule Updates for Azure Front Door Are Now Generally Available
Anyone who has managed Azure Front Door for any length of time has felt the pain of touching a rule set. Rule sets are where you define how traffic gets inspected, rewritten, and routed, and they sit right at the edge of your application where a bad change is immediately visible to real users. Historically, […]
Databricks Genie Free Usage Extended Through January 2027
Databricks just pushed the free usage window for its conversational analytics tools out to January 31, 2027. If you have been sitting on the fence about Genie, that is a meaningful amount of extra runway to test it for real, with real people, before you pay for it. Here is what the extension actually covers […]
Migrate AWS FSx to Azure Files with Azure Storage Mover
Moving file workloads between clouds used to mean a painful mix of scripts, third-party tools, and manual downtime. Microsoft just made part of that easier with a new public preview that migrates files from AWS FSx for Windows File Server straight into Azure Files. If you run SMB-based Windows file workloads on AWS and want […]
Explicit Proxy in Azure Firewall Goes GA: An Alternative to Route-Based Inspection
Azure Firewall’s explicit proxy mode reached general availability this month. For anyone who has fought with user-defined routes to steer outbound traffic through a firewall, this is a meaningful change. Instead of relying on transparent, route-based interception, you can now point applications and browsers directly at the firewall as a proxy. Explicit proxy versus the […]
Azure Private Link now works over IPv6
Azure Private Link has started supporting IPv6, in public preview. The update lets you reach Azure PaaS services like Azure Storage and Azure SQL Database over IPv6-based connectivity, using IPv6 private endpoints from clients inside an Azure virtual network. For anyone running an IPv6 or dual-stack estate, this closes a long standing gap in the […]
Azure SQL becomes a first class knowledge source for Foundry IQ
Microsoft Foundry has started letting Azure SQL Database feed AI systems directly. Azure SQL is now a first class knowledge source in Azure AI Search, available in public preview. In plain terms, teams building Copilot, RAG, and agentic experiences can point their retrieval layer at relational tables without first copying everything into a separate vector […]
Azure Virtual Network routing appliance hits general availability
Azure has made its Virtual Network routing appliance generally available for production workloads. The move gives teams a managed alternative to the usual stack of VM-based network virtual appliances (NVAs) that have anchored hub-and-spoke designs for years. It also marks August 4, 2026 as the date the service stopped being a preview experiment and became […]
Azure SQL Backup Immutability: Seven Days of Tamper-Proof Backups, Now GA
Microsoft has made backup immutability generally available for the most recent seven days of backups on Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance. The change is enabled by default for every database, and it removes one of the last easy ways for an attacker to destroy your recovery path. The idea is straightforward. Backups […]