Azure News January 2021

Microsoft promises 99.99% uptime for Azure AD user authentication 

As of April 1st, 2021, Microsoft has promised to update their public service level agreement (SLA) to promise 99.99% uptime for Azure AD user authentication, an improvement over their previous 99.9% SLA, due to increased demand over the last year as organisations moved workforces online and schools enabled study from home. 

Their announcement can be read in full here. 

Azure Cost Management + Billing 2020 year in review 

As we’re sure you’re aware, each month Microsoft announce new features, capabilities and updates to Azure Cost Management + Billing based on user feedback. In place of their usual monthly update last month Microsoft shared their Azure Cost Management + Billing 2020 year in review which included:

• Streamlined management behind a single pane of glass 
• Rich cost reporting and analytics 
• Flexible cost control that puts the power in your hands
• New ways to save and do more with less 
• Making it easier to learn and use Cost Management and Billing 

Have a read of the full review, and get a sneak peak of what’s planned for 2021 here.

Microsoft announces Azure Purview – a unified data governance service 

In December Microsoft announced their new unified data governance service, Azure Purview, designed to help organisations achieve a complete understanding of their data.  

Azure Purview helps discover all data across your organisation, track lineage of data, and create a business glossary wherever it is stored: on-premises, across clouds, in SaaS applications, and in Microsoft Power BI. It also helps you understand your data exposures by using over 100 AI classifiers that automatically look for personally identifiable information (PII), sensitive data, and pinpoint out-of-compliance data.  

The solution is integrated with Microsoft Information Protection which means you can apply the same sensitivity labels defined in Microsoft 365 Compliance Center. With Azure Purview, you can view your data estate pivoting on classifications and labeling and drill into assets containing sensitive data across on-premises, multi-cloud, and multi-edge locations. 

Eager to know more? Click here for the full solution breakdown. 

Discover data that powers business insights. Source: Microsoft

Harness analytical and predictive power with Azure Synapse Analytics

As of last month Azure Synapse is now generally available. What is Azure Synapse you might be asking. Azure Synapse brings together data integration, enterprise data warehousing, and big data analytics at cloud scale. The unification of these workloads enables organisations to reduce their end-to-end development time and accelerate time to insight.  

Interested in learning more? You can: 

• Read the announcement 
• Register for a virtual, hands-on lab for free
• Check out the daily Azure Synapse blog on how to use the latest features 

Azure Stack HCI delivers world-class hyperconverged infrastructure 

With the general availability of Azure Stack HCI, Microsoft have taken user feedback provided in preview to deliver a full-featured offering that includes: 

• Simplifying hybrid with native Azure integration provides visibility of the clusters in the Azure Portal for hybrid management
• Newly built-in stretched clustering capabilities to easily enhance a customer disaster recovery strategy 
• A new integrated system experience for Azure Stack HCI 

Interested in learning more or in getting started with Azure Stack HCI? You can do so here.

IN OTHER NEWS: 

Azure Digital Twins now generally available 

Microsoft Azure keeps the magic of Christmas alive with NORAD 

Further Insights