Microsoft Cloud Updates (week of 23rd March 2020)

#IaaS

Action Required—Log Analytics agent for Windows will enforce SHA-2 signing on 18th May 2020

The Log Analytics agent for Windows, sometimes known as the OMS Windows agent or Microsoft Monitoring agent, will begin to enforce SHA-2 signing on 18th May 2020.

Log Analytics Agent for Windows March 2020 release is now available

The Log Analytics Agent for Windows March 2020 release is now available. This release contains several bug fixes and improvements to stability and reliability.

Azure Storage—Append Blob immutability support now generally available

Store business-critical data objects in a non-erasable and non-modifiable state for a user-specified retention interval using immutable storage for Azure Blob storage.

Azure Dedicated Hosts now provide support for Azure reservations

Azure Dedicated Host provides a single-tenant physical server to host your Azure Virtual Machines for Windows and Linux. The server capacity isn’t shared with other customers. Run Lsv2, Msv2, Dasv4, and Easv4 Azure Virtual Machines on Dedicated Host.

#CloudSecurity

Azure Web Application Firewall for Azure Content Delivery Network is in preview

Protect your web applications from common exploits and vulnerabilities with Web Application Firewall for Azure Content Delivery Network from Microsoft. Web Application Firewall is already natively integrated with Azure Application Gateway and Azure Front Door services.

Unmanaged Azure Active Directory accounts update for March 2021

Beginning 31st March 2021, Microsoft will no longer support the redemption of invitations by creating unmanaged Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) accounts and tenants for B2B collaboration scenarios.

#Serverless

Azure Security Center—Protection for Azure Kubernetes Service is now available

Azure Security Center is expanding its container security features to protect Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).

Azure Functions Premium plan regional virtual network integration

Regional virtual network integration is now generally available in the Azure Functions Premium plan. Run serverless function apps with no cold-start, virtual network connectivity and larger instance sizes with the Premium plan.

Azure Functions Premium plan is now available in 16 new regions

Run serverless function apps with no cold-start, virtual network connectivity and larger instance sizes with the Azure Functions Premium plan. The plan supports running on either Windows-based or Linux-based instances and is now available in 16 new regions.

Azure Container Registry support for Private Link now in preview

Azure Container Registry now supports Private Link, a means to limit network traffic of resources within the virtual network.

Azure SDKs General Availability – March 2020

Additional libraries for working with Azure services are now generally available.

#AI-ML-IoT

Integrate Azure Stream Analytics with Azure Machine Learning (in preview)

Implement machine learning models as a user-defined function (UDF) in your Azure Stream Analytics jobs to do real-time scoring and predictions on your streaming input data.

Azure Sphere update 20.03 is now available

New Azure Sphere update 20.03, which includes enhancements and bug fixes in the Azure Sphere OS, is now available in the retail feed.

Updates to .Net implementation support in latest Azure IoT C# SDK release

The latest Azure IoT C# SDK release includes two notable updates to .NET implementation.

#Data

Azure Database for MySQL—Three years reserved capacity is now available

Azure Database for MySQL reserved capacity is now available to reserve compute power for your existing and future MySQL servers.

Azure Database for PostgreSQL—Three years reserved capacity is now available

Azure Database for PostgreSQL Single Server reserved capacity is now available to reserve compute power for your existing and future PostgreSQL servers for three years.

Azure Database for MariaDB reserved capacity pricing is now available

Azure Database for MariaDB reserved capacity pricing is now available to reserve compute power for your existing and future MariaDB servers.