Azure and .NET Digest #3: New Virtual Machines, Subscription Discounts, and Azure Spring Apps Completion
Victor Karabedyants
MSDP in Software Engineering, CTO, MBA, Cloud Manager at Sitecore | AI Engineer | Azure Solutions Architect | Azure Administrator | Azure Security Engineer | Azure Developer | Azure Data Engineer and Devops| CKA
Welcome to this week's Azure Update , where we look at the latest in Azure cloud solutions. Let's take a look at the most important announcements and new features that arrived this week. Of particular note are the large number of updates related to SQL Server and infrastructure. Here are the highlights of this release.
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Compute: New virtual machines and GPU variants
NMads MA35d Series Virtual Machines
As part of the preview, Azure introduced NMads MA35d series VMs , which feature specialized hardware, including an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) for video processing with 8GB of memory. These machines are optimized for batch and live video processing , offering:
●????? 16 vCPUs
●????? 32 GB of RAM
●????? 76 GB of temporary storage
●????? 4 Gbps network bandwidth
These virtual machines provide high throughput and low latency , making them ideal for media workloads with an emphasis on efficiency and cost reduction.
NVads V10 V5 Series Virtual Machines
NVads V10 V5 series VMs are equipped with AMD Radeon V710 GPUs and EPYC CPUs . They are ideal for high performance scenarios such as:
●????? Virtual desktops with high graphic requirements
●????? Small and Medium AI and Machine Learning
●????? gaming :)
You can scale GPU resources depending on the need - from 1/6 part of the GPU (with 4 GB of video memory) to full GPU (24 GB of video memory), without additional GPU licenses.
Special offers
Azure is offering a 15% discount on your existing annual Azure Reserved VM instances subscription for a limited time (October 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025). By purchasing an annual subscription now, you can save up to 56% compared to pay-as-you-go rates.
Azure Spring Apps are terminating
Azure has announced the retirement of Azure Spring Apps . The full shutdown of services is planned for March 2028 , but some plans, such as Standard Consumption and Dedicated Plans , will be closed as early as March 2025 .
What's next?
Azure recommends migrating to Azure Container Apps , which have already integrated several Spring components to ease this transition. There's a step-by-step walkthrough to help you transition smoothly to Azure Container Apps or other options like App Service or AKS .
Networks: New features for Virtual Networks
IP Address Management (IPAM)
Azure Virtual Network Manager now supports IP Address Management (IPAM) for IPv4 and IPv6 . This feature helps large infrastructures avoid overlapping IP address ranges between vNets and between on-premise and other cloud infrastructures.
Subnet-Level Peering in Preview
A new feature, currently available in preview , allows subnet-level peering . Typically, entire virtual networks are peered, but now specific subnets can be specified for peering, giving more flexible control over traffic routing.
Compute upgrade: a tariff for those who need RAM
There is a new tariff for App Service Environments , focused on intensive use of memory. These environments are dedicated, meaning they do not use a shared infrastructure.
●????? You can choose configurations from 2 virtual cores with 16 GB of RAM to 32 virtual cores with 256 GB of RAM .
●????? This plan is ideal for workloads that require more memory .
Online updates: new features
Some interesting updates in the field of networks:
领英推荐
●????? App Gateway V2 Basic SKU has reached GA (General Availability) status and is intended for small and medium customers . Although it lacks some advanced features such as auto-scaling and URL rewriting , it provides basic features at a lower price.
●????? Bring Your Own IP (BYOIP) is now available globally. This feature allows you to use your own public IP addresses in Azure, which is useful for companies that don't want to lose trust in their existing IP addresses.
Storage upgrade: increased bandwidth
storage account egress bandwidth has been increased to 200 Gbit/s for commercial and public clouds (previously it was 120 Gbit/s). This applies to new and existing accounts .
Databases: SQL Server and Cosmos DB
●????? Azure SQL Database Serverless has reduced the auto-pause duration to 15 minutes , which helps reduce the cost of computing resources.
●????? Cosmos DB has several updates, cross-region replication on tiered clusters , an increase to 32 TiB and up to 20,000 IOP S on physical storage, as well as improved filters in Data Explorer .
Flexibility in maintenance planning for MySQL
Maintenance can now be rescheduled for MySQL Flexible Servers for a period of up to 30 days (previously it was only 14 days). This gives you more control over exactly when system updates occur.
PostgresSQL: vector indexing and other features
DISN indexing for Postgres SQL Flexible appeared in the preview , which improves work with queries based on natural language processing .
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Updating databases: SAP HANA Backup
SAP HANA Backup service has reduced the cost of protected instances , allowing enterprises to protect critical data at a lower cost . Using a combination of disk and HANA snapshots , companies can provide high-quality data protection without cutting costs.
Security and MFA changes
From October 15, access to Azure portals such as Azure Portal , Entra Admin Center , and Intune Admin Center will require Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) . This is the first phase of the change, and in 2025 the second phase will extend the MFA requirement to Azure CLI , Azure PowerShell , and other tools.
Disaster Recovery Update for SQL Server
A new capability is now available for SQL Server 2022 online disaster recovery between Azure SQL Managed Instances (SQL MI) and local servers . This makes it easy to set up two-way switching in case of accidents.
Various updates
●????? Microsoft Fabric now has support for the Terraform provider , which simplifies the management and control of the environment using infrastructure-as-code .
●????? Azure Business Continuity Center is now in GA , centralizing backup and disaster recovery management for Azure and hybrid environments.
●????? Azure Monitor Log Alerts has a new, more informative email template that makes it easier to manage notifications and trigger the necessary actions.
●????? Azure AI Studio added several new features to manage the risk and security of generative AI content, including protection against indirect prompt injection attacks and tools to evaluate the quality of results.
That's all the most important updates for this week! Stay tuned and as always, thanks for your attention. See you soon!
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