SQL Server on Azure Local now runs without a cloud connection
SQL Server, no internet required SQL Server on Azure Local is now generally available in disconnected environments, per Microsoft’s September 29 update. The capability extends SQL Server support to Azure Local disconnected operations, where instances run with no connection to the Azure public cloud. Until now, running SQL Server on Azure Local assumed you could […]
Extended Support for Azure Database for PostgreSQL is now billing
If you run PostgreSQL 11, 12 or 13 on Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server, a quiet billing change went live on September 1. Azure automatically enrolled servers on unsupported PostgreSQL versions in Extended Support when standard support ended on July 31. A one-month grace period covered August at no charge. The meter started running […]
Lakebase Branching Lets Copilot Agent Mode Debug Against Production Data Without Touching Production
Microsoft has put a new capability into public preview for Azure Databricks: copy-on-write branching for Lakebase, wired directly into GitHub Copilot agent mode. In one command, a developer can branch a production Lakebase database, point Copilot agent mode at the branch endpoint, and debug an AI application against realistic data while the production database stays […]
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 […]
Shopify swapped Redis for MySQL and its inventory reservations scaled
Shopify moved the inventory reservation system that backs its checkout flow off Redis and onto MySQL, and the migration held up through a Black Friday peak. The engineering team wrote up the details on the Shopify Engineering blog, and the writeup is worth reading if you run anything with hot rows and high contention. 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 SQL Regex-Based Dynamic Data Masking Now in Preview
Azure SQL Database’s Dynamic Data Masking just got a significant upgrade: regex-based pattern matching. Instead of relying on a handful of built-in masking functions (default, email, random), you can now define custom regex patterns to match and mask sensitive data – emails, phone numbers, social security numbers, credit card fragments, or any pattern you can […]