Microsoft Cloud Updates (week of 16th Feb 2020)

#CloudSecurity

Azure Firewall Manager Preview now supports Azure Firewall deployments in virtual networks (also known as hub virtual networks) in addition to its support for Azure Firewall deployments in virtual WAN hubs (also known as secured virtual hubs).

Azure Firewall Spring 2020 updates

Azure Firewall is a cloud native firewall-as-a-service offering that enables customers to centrally govern and log all their traffic flows using a DevOps approach.

Azure Network Watcher is now generally available in four new regions

Azure Network Watcher is now generally available in UAE North, Switzerland North, Norway West and Germany West Central regions.

Azure Monitor for containers now supports large-scale clusters

Azure Monitor for containers now supports the monitoring of large-scale clusters up to 1,000 nodes and 100 node pools.

#IaaS

Azure Virtual Network—Network address translation is now in preview

Azure Virtual Network now offers network address translation (NAT) (in preview) to simplify outbound-only internet connectivity for virtual networks. All outbound connectivity uses the public IP address and/or public IP prefix resources connected to the virtual network NAT.

Azure Backup offline-backup with Azure Data Box

Now Azure Backup customers can take advantage of Azure Data Box to move large backups of critical enterprise data through offline mechanisms.

Azure Bastion is now available in 20 new regions

Azure Bastion is now generally available in 20 new regions. Azure Bastion is a managed PaaS service that provides secure and seamless RDP/SSH connectivity to your virtual machines directly in the Azure portal over SSL and without any public IP on your virtual machines.

Azure Backup now supports Windows Server 2008 Virtual Machine backup

You can now migrate your on-premises Windows Server 2008 to Azure, where you can continue to run and back them up on Azure virtual machines using Azure Backup.

#PowerPlatform

High contrast mode for embedded reports now available

Set your embedded Power BI reports to use a high contrast theme to enable users who may have visual or physical impairments to benefit from your reports.

ArcGIS now supported for embedded analytics for your organization

Power BI, integrated with ArcGIS, delivers the world’s leading visual spatial analytics. ArcGIS Maps for Power BI offers enhanced mapping and analysis capabilities, demographic data, and compelling visualizations.

Power BI has new, improved usage metrics report

The new Power BI usage metrics report allows you to monitor the views of your report and to see consumption percentages by platform. To see the different scenarios for embedded reports, simply hover over the data

Power BI Embedded filters API now supports single selection filter

Power BI Embedded now has the capability to set a basic filter as a single selection filter. To do this, when editing the report, select the checkbox that says Require single selection at the bottom of the filter card.

#Data

Support for PostgreSQL to Azure Database for PostgreSQL—Hyperscale (Citus) is now available

Now you can migrate from on-premises instances of PostgreSQL to Azure Database for PostgreSQL—Hyperscale (Citus) with minimal downtime by using Azure Database Migration Service, which performs resilient migrations of PostgreSQL data at scale and with high reliability.

#Serverless

Azure App Configuration is now generally available

Azure App Configuration is a managed service that helps developers centralise their application configuration and feature settings simply and securely.

Authored By Sarvesh Pandey, Ping Fung Yin and Onkar Vichare