Azure Virtual Network Manager IP address management is now generally available in additional regions: US Gov Virginia, US Gov Texas and US Gov Arizona, and China North 3 and China East 3. In complex network environments, managing IP addresses effectively is essential.

Azure Front Door's Web Application Firewall (WAF) now supports profile and route level WAF policy associations in public preview. This gives you more flexibility to apply broad baseline protection across an Azure Front Door profile while using targeted policies for specific applications, domains, or routes that need different controls.

Microsoft is happy to announce the public preview of reader endpoint support to simplify connection management when using multiple replicas in Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server. A reader endpoint enables automatic load balancing of read-only connection traffic across multiple replicas.

Customers can now bring Azure Container Apps environments into Microsoft Defender for Cloud's Serverless Containers Posture experience, helping security teams extend posture management across more of their container estate from a single workflow. This makes it easier to gain visibility into Container Apps resources and assess risks across areas such as identity, networking, and container or image configuration.

Organizations running Windows-based workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) face increasing pressure to modernize as support timelines for older Windows Server versions approach retirement. To help customers prepare, AKS now offers GA support for Windows Server 2025, bringing significant improvements such as Stable ABI, Generation 2 VM default, containerd 2.0, and FIPS enablement by default.

You can now accelerate your containerized workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) using Azure Container Registry (ACR) with Artifact streaming. Artifact streaming will allow you to scale your workloads without having to fully wait for images to be pulled into the clusters.

Confidential Virtual Machines (CVM) offer strong security and confidentiality for tenants. CVM for Azure Linux in AKS is now generally available and enables node pools with CVM to target the migration of highly sensitive container workloads to AKS without any code refactoring while benefiting from the features of AKS.

Align Microsoft Marketplace purchases to your business's accounting needs. Purchase order mapping helps allocate your Microsoft invoice, including Marketplace purchases, making it easier to reconcile your organization's cloud and AI spend.

Azure Firewall's auto-learn SNAT routes is now generally available, automatically learning registered and private destination prefixes periodically and applying them as No-SNAT ranges to preserve original source IPs and simplify SNAT management.

Azure Copilot Observability Agent, an AI-powered operational companion in Azure Monitor, is now covering Log Analytics data in Basic and Auxiliary table plans during interactive analysis and deep investigations. Teams can move high-volume telemetry - including container stdout and stderr, audit trails, and node syslog - to lower-cost table plans while keeping supported data available to the agent alongside metrics, traces, topology, and Azure resource context.

The Auxiliary table plan in Azure Monitor Logs is a cost-effective option for ingesting and retaining high-volume, verbose logs used for compliance and auditing. Auxiliary Logs is now generally available in the sovereign clouds: Azure Government (Fairfax) and China.

The Auxiliary table plan in Azure Monitor Logs gives you a cost-effective way to ingest and retain high-volume, verbose logs that you keep for compliance and auditing but rarely query. Two highly requested capabilities are now generally available.

Azure automatically recovers a VM when it loses access to an attached managed disk for an extended period. The VM is shut down and powered back on after disk connectivity is restored, with no customer action required.

Announcing the public preview of Azure Multicloud Interconnect, a managed service that provides private connectivity between Azure and supported cloud providers, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) available as the first supported provider in preview. As organizations increasingly distribute applications, data, AI services, and business-critical workloads across multiple clouds, establishing and operating cloud-to-cloud connectivity can become complex and operationally intensive.

The Azure Files Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) now supports workload identity for pod-level authentication to SMB file shares. Previously, managed identity support in AKS enabled workloads to mount Azure Files without using storage account keys.

Overview: Azure VM Image Builder is now generally available in Azure Government, China North 3, Azure Government Secret, and Azure Government Top Secret. You can now use the same managed image-building service across your sovereign and air-gapped environments that you use in global Azure.

Azure Bastion shareable link expiration is now generally available. When creating a shareable link, administrators can specify the date and time when the link should expire.

Azure Bastion support for IPv4 and IPv6 dual-stack configurations is now available in public preview. Customers can configure a newly created Bastion deployment with both IPv4 and IPv6 public IP addresses.

Azure Bastion integration with Azure Kubernetes Service is now generally available. Customers can establish a secure tunnel from their local machine through Azure Bastion to an AKS cluster API server.

Microsoft is excited to announce Live Reports, now in Public Preview for Azure SRE Agent. Live Reports help operations teams create dynamic operational views directly from SRE Agent conversations and keep them continuously up to date with the latest data from connected environments.

Azure SRE Agent VNet Integration is now generally available. VNet integration enables Azure SRE Agent to operate within your existing network controls, including Network Security Groups (NSGs), private DNS, and firewall policies, etc.

New customers can now get started with Azure SRE Agent through a 30-day trial experience. During the trial, customers can create SRE Agents and connect them to your operational tools and data sources, and explore capabilities at their own pace without baseline always-on charges.

Aspire 13.5 refreshes the dashboard and aspire.dev, expands the Interaction Service, adds cross-scope Azure references and persistent Kubernetes volumes, and brings live terminals into the apphost.

Extended Support for Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server helps you maintain secure, supported workloads while transitioning to newer PostgreSQL versions. With access to critical security updates, critical bug fixes, and technical support for eligible versions after community support ends, you can upgrade on your timeline with greater flexibility and confidence.

eBPF Host Routing in Advanced Container Networking Services for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is now generally available. eBPF Host Routing improves Kubernetes networking performance by moving packet forwarding and routing decisions directly into the Linux kernel using eBPF.

On April 30 2027, support for Node 22 LTS will end. Your apps that are hosted on App Service will continue to run, but security updates will no longer be available, and Microsoft will no longer provide customer service for Node 22 LTS.

Announcing the General Availability of custom block response code and body for WAF integrated with Application Gateway Azure WAF integrated with Application Gateway now supports customizable response status codes and bodies for blocked requests, enabling greater flexibility and control. By default, when the WAF blocks a request due to a matched rule, it returns a 403 status code with a "The request is blocked" message.

Managing Kubernetes resources across multiple clusters can require significant manual effort to apply updates and maintain consistency. Resource placement in Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager is now generally available and enables platform and application teams to consistently distribute Kubernetes resources across multiple AKS and Arc-enabled clusters.

In fail-fast update rollouts, a small number of member cluster update failures can halt progress across a broader update deployment. Maximum Allowed Failures for update runs in Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager, now available in preview, introduces an optional setting that allows update runs to continue when some member cluster updates fail.

Microsoft Agent Framework reaches general availability for multi-agent orchestration patterns, including the dynamic Magentic pattern that delivered 38 percent on GAIA and competitive results on AssistantBench and WebArena in published benchmarks. The GA release covers sequential pipelines, parallel collaboration, and Magentic-style coordination, all expressed in the same framework API so teams can swap patterns without rewriting agent code.

Lakebase is now generally available in four additional Azure regions: North Central US, France Central, Germany West Central, and East Asia. This expansion provides customers with additional deployment options and broader regional availability for Lakebase workloads.

Summarized advertised gateway prefixes for route advertisement is now generally available. You can specify aggregated (summarized) prefixes for an Azure gateway to advertise to your on-premises networks, rather than having every individual virtual network address space advertised.

Starting in August 2026, customers can engage directly with Azure Copilot agents to move more quickly from questions to action. With this update: Choose the right agent for your goal.

Azure Site Recovery now lets you use and attach an existing, pre-provisioned Network Interface Card (NIC) in the target region for test-failover and failover in the Azure-to-Azure scenario. This helps preserve prepared networking configurations, reserve IPs in the target region and more, giving you greater control over the disaster recovery environment.

In mid-August 2026, the following updates and enhancements were made to Azure SQL: You can customize keyboard shortcuts for Quick Queries, the Results Grid, and the Query Editor directly within Visual Studio Code—without leaving your editor. Shortcut Configuration helps you complete your data tasks faster.

With SQL Formatter, you can format SQL scripts directly in your editor for cleaner, more consistent, and readable code. Now in public preview, it includes more customizable formatting options to match your preferred coding style and streamline development.

With Azure SQL Database provisioning, you can create and connect to a fully managed cloud database directly from your editor—at no cost. Now generally available, the feature also includes ready-to-use Azure Resource Manager (ARM), Bicep, and Terraform templates for repeatable deployments, along with additional options to help you get started faster.

Today, Microsoft is announcing the General Availability of VM vCore Customization for Azure Virtual Machines, introducing two new capabilities: Disable Simultaneous Multi-Threading/Hyper-Threading (SMT/HT) and Configurable Constrained Cores. These features provide greater control over virtual CPU configurations, helping customers optimize performance while reducing software licensing costs.

In November last year, Broadcom changed its VMware licensing policies across all hyperscaler platforms to require customers to “bring your own” portable license for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). What's changing?

Managed Instance on Azure App Service is now generally available. Managed Instance helps organizations migrate web applications to Azure App Service with minimal configuration and no code changes.

Azure Firewall now supports IPv6 in public preview, enabling customers to configure Azure Firewall and Firewall Policy in dual-stack mode for both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic. This preview allows native IPv6 network-rule filtering and DNS Proxy support, helping organizations secure cloud, hybrid, and internal IPv6 traffic as they modernize toward dual-stack architectures.

Teams Rooms on Android now supports coordinated meetings, enabling paired Teams Rooms on Android devices and Android-based touch boards to work together in the same hybrid meeting experience. This feature enables coordinated join and leave, and collaboration across front-of-room displays and touch boards.

Configure retention for Microsoft 365 Copilot memory to help preserve historical versions of memory items for security, compliance, and investigation scenarios. Copilot memory includes saved memories and details inferred from chat history that enable more personalized and context-aware Copilot experiences.

Capacity view shows a timeline of who's working on what, so you can see how work is distributed across your team and spot overload or open capacity at a glance.

Self-serve sync connectors enable users to securely connect their own external data sources, such as Jira and Confluence Cloud, to Microsoft 365 Copilot. Using their own credentials and permissions, users can synchronize content they already have access to, making it discoverable in Copilot Chat and Microsoft Search.

M365 Copilot now supports Writing blocks. Edit drafts, memos, emails, and more inline while using Chat for easy editing and iteration.

Viva Glint service administrators will see a new announcement icon in the product header that links directly to the Viva Glint Tech Community blog. This makes it easier to discover product news, feature announcements, and best practices.

Viva Glint administrators will be able to create multiple-choice questions with up to 500 options and upload options using a CSV file. For questions containing more than 50 options, survey takers can search and filter the available responses, making longer lists faster and easier to navigate.

With breakout room support, Teams Rooms on Android can be added to a breakout room and moved in and out of the main room making it easy for breakout session coordination.

Users in Gov clouds can now report suspicious messages and external users within Teams. Reports are surfaced in the Teams admin center, giving admins greater visibility into potentially malicious activity and enabling them to investigate and take appropriate action.