Microsoft Azure News
Generally Available: Vector search and vector indexes in Azure SQL
GENERAL AVAILABILITY
September 2026
Vector search and vector indexes are now generally available in Azure SQL Database. Using the CREATE VECTOR INDEX and VECTOR_SEARCH T-SQL capabilities, you can perform efficient approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) searches for AI scenarios such as semantic search, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), recommendation systems, and image search. Built on the DiskANN algorithm, vector indexes enable efficient vector similarity search over large datasets while allowing you to combine vector search with relational queries and filtering directly in Azure SQL Database.
By bringing AI retrieval directly into Azure SQL Database, you can build AI-powered applications on your enterprise data without requiring a separate vector database, simplifying application architecture while leveraging the reliability, security, and governance capabilities of Azure SQL Database.
Public Preview: Azure SQL Dev Hub
September 2026
Azure SQL Dev Hub gives you a central starting point for building applications with Azure SQL, whether you’re developing directly or using AI agents. You can find guidance for connecting to Azure SQL from .NET, Python, Node.js, and Java, along with resources for working with schemas and queries.
You can also access runnable samples, troubleshooting guidance, and SQL agent skills in one place, making it easier to get started and build with Azure SQL using the tools and frameworks you already use.
Generally Available: Azure SQL Managed Instance updates for late-September 2026
GENERAL AVAILABILITY
September 2026
In late September 2026, the following updates and enhancements were made to Azure SQL Managed Instance:
- Use the flexible memory feature in Azure SQL Managed Instance to change the amount of memory allocated to your SQL managed instance without changing the number of vCores.
- Get support for higher transaction log write throughput limits in Azure SQL Managed Instance Business Critical, enabling greater performance for write-intensive workloads.
Learn more:
Generally Available: Azure Backup for Elastic SAN
GENERAL AVAILABILITY
September 2026
Azure Backup now supports operational backup for Elastic SAN, offering a fully managed solution for backing up and restoring Elastic SAN volumes. This integration helps protect data against accidental deletions, ransomware attacks, and application updates by exporting Elastic SAN volumes to independent Managed Disk Incremental Snapshots. These snapshots are stored in locally redundant storage and are independent of the Elastic SAN volume lifecycle.
The solution supports up to 450 restore points with 24 hours backup frequency. It is generally available in all Azure regions and supports volumes up to 16 TiB. Long-term vaulted backups and hourly backups are not supported.
Standard charges apply for Managed Disk Incremental Snapshots.
To get started, visit the Resiliency center and configure protection for your Elastic SAN volumes.
Public Preview: Azure HorizonDB supports PostgreSQL 18
September 2026
Azure HorizonDB is a fully managed, PostgreSQL-compatible, cloud-native database service designed for scalable, high-performance workloads.
Azure HorizonDB, now in public preview, includes PostgreSQL 18 support.
Generally Available: Instant Access for VM restore points
GENERAL AVAILABILITY
September 2026
Instant Access for application-consistent restore points on virtual machines (that have Premium v2 or Ultra disks as data disks) is now generally available. With Instant Access, you can begin restoring a disk from a restore point as soon as the snapshot is created, instead of waiting for the background data replication to complete fully. That shortens your recovery time objective when you are bringing a VM back online.
What’s new at general availability
This release introduces “instantAccessState”, a consolidated read-only property on the restore point itself. During preview, customer had to inspect “snapshotAccessState” on each individual disk restore point and work out for themselves whether the restore point as a whole was usable. Now the customer can read one property at the restore point level and decide in a single step whether they can restore, copy, or download it, which removes per-disk polling logic from recovery automation and makes restore decision much simpler.
How to use it
Set instantAccess to true on the restore point collection to enable Instant Access for every restore point in it and optionally set instantAccessDurationMinutes on the restore point to control how long Instant Access stays active (60–300 minutes; the default is 300). Before you trigger a restore, read instantAccessState on the restore point and decide to restore based on its value rather than aggregating per-disk states yourself.
Generally Available: Azure Container Apps Sandboxes
GENERAL AVAILABILITY
September 2026
Teams building agentic applications, multi-tenant platforms, development environments, and CI/CD systems have often had to stitch together custom infrastructure to run untrusted code safely, preserve state across sessions, and handle bursty demand without paying for idle capacity. Azure Container Apps Sandboxes addresses that challenge with a new first-class resource type in Azure Container Apps that provides fast, secure, ephemeral compute environments with built-in suspend and resume capabilities.
Each sandbox runs in its own hardware-isolated microVM boundary, supports standard OCI container images, and starts in sub-second time. It can preserve memory, disk state, and preloaded libraries in a snapshot, so workloads resume quickly from the same point without incurring a cold start reload penalty. For technical practitioners, this means they can now run AI-generated or otherwise untrusted workloads in strongly isolated environments, preserve execution context across long-running tasks, and scale from zero to thousands of concurrent sandboxes using the same Azure foundation that also powers offerings such as GitHub Sandbox, hosted agents in Foundry Agent Service, and Azure Container Apps Express.Generally Available: Azure Container Apps Express
GENERAL AVAILABILITY
September 2026
Azure Container Apps Express is now generally available. It is the simplest and fastest way to launch and scale powerful applications on Azure, from zero to hyperscale, without infrastructure decisions. It represents the first Azure compute platform purpose-built for agent and developer use alike.
Express is based on years of experience running Azure Container Apps at a large scale. We have learned that most developers working on web apps, APIs and agents want to deploy quickly, have automatic scaling, and avoid dealing with complex infrastructure. Express provides these features. It sets up your environment in seconds, can handle any amount of traffic, and removes complicated settings. This helps teams move from writing code to having a production-ready app in just minutes, not hours.
Express is purpose-built for workloads serving developers and agents alike. It provides opinionated, production-grade defaults: autoscaling, per-second billing, managed identity, secrets management, custom domains, container registry integration, revision management, and built-in observability. Just bring your container, Azure Container Apps Express handles everything else.
Retirement: Support for PowerShell 7.4 ends on November 10, 2026
November 2026
Support for PowerShell 7.4 will end on November 10, 2026, please transition to PowerShell 7.6. Your Azure Function apps will continue to run, but security patches and updates will no longer be provided and customer support for PowerShell 7.4 will be discontinued. Running function apps on unsupported runtime or language version, may lead to issues and degraded performance.
Required action
To avoid potential security vulnerabilities, minimise risk for your Azure Functions apps, and take advantage of latest features, follow the steps to upgrade your app to PowerShell 7.6 before November 10, 2026.
Note: If your app is on a Linux Consumption plan, you will need to first upgrade to Flex Consumption plan before upgrading to PowerShell 7.6.
Public Preview: Flex Nodes for AKS
September 2026
Flex Nodes for AKS is a deployment option for application and platform teams to use hybrid and edge infrastructure as connected worker nodes to an AKS control plane in Azure. Flex Nodes provide a consistent Kubernetes control plane while enabling teams to govern and secure compute for latency, regulatory, or sovereign needs. Rather than deploying an operating a complete Kubernetes cluster with a local control plane, Flex Nodes for AKS are designed for connected environments where only the worker nodes run at the edge or on customer infrastructure.
Flex Nodes for AKS is ideal for applications that require local execution but not local operations, including AI inference, data processing, industrial applications, content delivery, branch office services, and latency-sensitive business workloads.
Generally Available: Azure Sphere OS version 26.09 is now available
GENERAL AVAILABILITY
September 2026
Azure Sphere OS version 26.09 is now available in the Retail feed. This release includes updates to the Azure Sphere OS only, with no update to the SDK. If your devices are connected to the internet, they will receive the updated OS from the cloud.
The 26.09 OS Retail release migrates the underlying Azure Sphere OS Linux Kernel version from the 5.10.x to 6.1.x branch, aligning Azure Sphere with the Linux CIP Platform for Super Long-Term Support. This will be Azure Sphere’s final major kernel update prior to retirement in 2031.
Please note that there are no functional changes or new features in this release.
Public Preview: Introducing a Guided Copilot Experience for Building Azure Apps in VS Code
September 2026
Today we’re previewing a new way to build cloud apps with GitHub Copilot in VS Code: a guided Copilot experience that takes you from idea to a deployed Azure app through a structured, predictable workflow instead of a free-form chat session that may or may not land where you need it to.
The problem: Copilot is powerful, but unpredictable
Ask Copilot to “build me a Node.js API on Azure Functions with a Postgres database” today, and you might get a working project, or you might not. Sometimes Copilot scaffolds the app but skips infrastructure. Sometimes it generates a deployment script that fails halfway through. Sometimes it forgets what you were building three prompts later.
The underlying model is capable. The problem is the shape of the experience: an open-ended chat with no checkpoints, no guardrails, and no consistent path from “I have an idea” to “it’s running in Azure.”
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Generally Available: Azure Functions support for PowerShell 7.6
GENERAL AVAILABILITY
September 2026
Azure Functions support for PowerShell 7.6 is now generally available.
You can now develop apps using PowerShell 7.6 locally and deploy them to Azure Functions plans.
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Public Preview: Foundry Routines in Foundry Agent Service
June 2026
In public preview, Foundry Agent Service adds Foundry Routines, a native trigger primitive for running published agents automatically. Production agents often need to run on a schedule or when a business event occurs, and today that means assembling external glue such as Logic Apps, Azure Functions, webhooks, queues, custom storage, and separate identity and role assignments.
The agent is governed in Foundry, but the trigger layer has been customer-owned infrastructure with its own configuration, monitoring, and failure modes. Routines includes recurring schedules, one-shot delayed timers, and event-based triggers through supported connections, keeping triggers, execution, and observability inside the governed Foundry workspace. The preview is intended for evaluation and is not covered by production SLAs. To get started, add a Routine to a published agent in Foundry Agent Service.
Public Preview: Mdsv4 and Msv4 Series Virtual Machines for SAP
September 2026
The Mdsv4 and Msv4 Series are memory-optimised virtual machine series built on 6th Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors and enhanced with advanced security capabilities and the latest Azure Boost technologies.
Designed for demanding memory-intensive and mission-critical workloads, including SAP workloads, these new series deliver improved performance, scalability, efficiency, and reliability to help customers run large-scale enterprise applications more cost-effectively.
Learn more: