The CSP Revolution Newsletter – April 2021

NOW AVAILABLE

Directory scoped SAS allows more granular access assignment for ADLS Gen2.

• Azure Blob Storage
• Azure Data Lake Storage
• Security
• SDK and Tools
• Services
• Features

Directory scoped shared access signatures (SAS) generally available

NOW AVAILABLE

Azure Data Explorer (Kusto) is announcing the general availability of it’s performance update (EngineV3) which provides unprecedented performance in Big Data Logs and telemetry scenarios.

• Azure Data Explorer
• Services

Azure Data Explorer performance update (EngineV3) is now generally available

IN PREVIEW

Create apex domains on your Linux and Windows web app at no additional cost.

• App Service
• Services

Public preview: App Service Managed Certificates now supports apex domains

IN PREVIEW

Service Broker message exchange between Azure SQL Managed Instances (public preview) allows you to build reliable distributed applications with asynchronous message processing functionality by leveraging SQL Server engine’s native support for messaging/queuing.

• Azure SQL Database
• Features
• Management

Service Broker message exchange for Azure SQL Managed Instance in public preview

NOW AVAILABLE

The next version of Azure Data Explorer (ADX) with performance updates is now available.

• Azure Data Explorer
• Features

General availability: Azure Data Explorer (ADX) Performance Updates

NOW AVAILABLE

Use machine learning capabilities on a Managed Instance of Azure SQL Database for ease of moving your data, packages, and models to a cloud ready environment fully configured for machine learning.

• Azure SQL Database
• Open Source

Machine Learning Services on Azure SQL Managed Instance now generally available

NOW AVAILABLE

Control who can access your SQL data by using dynamic data masking granular permission on your Azure SQL Database, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Azure SQL Managed Instance.

• Azure SQL Database
• Security
• Features
• Management

General availability: Dynamic data masking granular permissions for Azure SQL and Azure Synapse Analytics

IN PREVIEW

Configure long-term backup retention for SQL Managed Instance databases and retain database backups beyond the 35 days provided by Azure SQL Managed Instance automated backups, for up to 10 years.

• Azure SQL Database
• Features
• Management

Long-term backup retention (LTR) for Azure SQL Managed Instance in public preview

IN PREVIEW

Get a single monitoring experience for all your cloud-based SQL deployments with Azure Monitor SQL insights

• Azure SQL Database
• Azure Monitor
• Management

Azure Monitor SQL insights for Azure SQL in public preview

NOW AVAILABLE

Prevent cost overruns with Azure budget alerts on forecasted costs

• Azure Cost Management and Billing
• Features

Generally available: Monitor your spending through forecasted cost alerts with Azure Cost Management and Billing

NOW AVAILABLE

Protect your APIs from several OWASP API Security Top 10 vulnerabilities without requiring an add-on solution.

• API Management
• Features

Azure API Management support for request and response validation policies has reached general availability. 

IN PREVIEW

Azure and AMD announce landmark in confidential computing evolution — it is now even easier to extend your protection of data at rest and data in transit to protect data in use.

• Security

Limited preview: Make workloads on AMD-backed virtual machines confidential without recompiling code

NOW AVAILABLE

New release of Azure Storage Explorer (v1.18.0) will decrease time to load, connect, and transfer data to Azure Storage.

• Azure Blob Storage
• Storage Accounts
• Azure Data Lake Storage
• Azure Files
• SDK and Tools

Azure Storage Explorer v1.18.0 is now generally available

NOW AVAILABLE

Media Services Live Events now support a lower-cost “StandBy” mode to allow you to pre-allocate live streaming at a lower cost. You can now use the new standby mode to transition quickly to a “Running” state faster than starting from cold creation and reduces your operational costs.

• Media Services
• Features

General availability: Media Services adds new “StandBy” mode for Live Events to speed up start times from warm state

NOW AVAILABLE

Media Services introduces new security features available in the 2020-05-01 version of the Azure Media Services API allowing you to now bring your own encryption keys, and configure trusted storage using System Managed Identities.

• Media Services
• Security
• Features

General availability: Media Services introduces new security features

NOW AVAILABLE

February updates include device model, API, dashboard, and documentation improvements.

• Azure IoT Central
• Features

Azure IoT Central new and updated features—February 2021

NOW AVAILABLE

Azure Availability Zones are now generally available in the Brazil South region. These three new zones provide customers with options for additional resiliency and tolerance to infrastructure impact.

• Services
• Features
• Regions & Datacenters

Brazil South Availability Zones now generally available

NOW AVAILABLE

You can now leverage Azure’s Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) certification across all live Azure regions.

• Compliance

Azure expands PCI DSS certification

NOW AVAILABLE

You can now use High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) or H.265 in the Standard Encoder. This new feature is available for Content Aware encoding, Adaptive Bitrate encoding, and creating your own custom transforms. Using HEVC along with supported decoding devices will provide you with the ability to deliver streaming content at reduced bitrates while maintaining the same video quality compared to H.264/AVC. This in turn will help reduce overall delivery costs through a CDN, and allow your viewers to receive higher quality streams on constrained networks.

• Media Services
• Features

General availability: Azure Media Services – HEVC encoding support in Standard Encoder