Azure News July 2021

by N4StackJul 1, 2021

Azure 101: The Beginner’s Guide to Azure

The Microsoft Azure cloud platform and its range of 200+ products and services have the potential to transform your business, take you steps ahead of your competitors and delight your customers.

But navigating cloud security and costs can be a minefield if you don’t understand the platform or have the in-house expertise.

In our free guide you will discover everything you need to know about the world of Azure.

Windows Virtual Desktop gets an upgrade

In 2019 Microsoft launched Windows Virtual Desktop. Fast forward two years and the needs of organisations have changed – flexibility, security and scalability are more important than ever before. To help customers and partners meet new hybrid work demands Microsoft have announced new capabilities and pricing for their WVD service along with a brand-new name – Azure Virtual Desktop.

Azure Virtual Desktop brings you:

Enhanced support for Azure Active Directory
The ability to manage Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session virtual machines with Microsoft Endpoint Manager
A new onboarding experience to help deploy in minutes
New pricing options for remote app streaming

Manage Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session virtual machines with Microsoft Endpoint Manager. Source: Microsoft

Find out more or try the new per-use access pricing option here.

Microsoft shares new guidance within the CAF for the retail industry

The Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) is a best-practice guide designed by Microsoft to help businesses accelerate the path to the cloud. Now, they’ve added new guidance specifically for the retail industry to help retail organisations navigate their cloud journey right from defining their business strategy, creating their adoption plan, preparing their cloud environments, implementing governance and operations to maximise business value.

New to the CAF? Have a read of our Beginner’s Guide to Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption Framework.

Interested to have a read of the new guidance? Say no more. You can find everything you need to know here.

Azure SQL enabled by Azure Arc coming soon

Manage your data and databases simply and efficiently with Azure SQL enabled by Azure Arc, set to be generally available on July 30th. The service means you can run Azure data services on premises, at the edge, and in multi-cloud environments on the infrastructure of your choice and allows you to:

Innovate faster while running a cloud-based database on premises or in a multi-cloud environment
Improve agility with self-service provisioning and deprovisioning of an Azure SQL or PostgreSQL database
Introduce cloud elasticity to your on-premises data solutions with Azure Arc–enabled data services
Gain a single view of your data across on-premises and cloud environments with unified management
Plus much more…

Azure SQL enabled by Azure Arc. Source: Microsoft

You can read more about the solution here.

Azure Cost Management and Billing updates

No matter the size of your business it’s important to know what you’re spending, where, and how you can reduce those costs. This is where Azure Cost Management and Billing comes in. Here are some of the latest improvements and updates based on user feedback:

View amortised costs in the cost analysis preview
Cloudyn has been retired
Cosmos DB Serverless generally available
Remember last used scope in Azure Cost Management
Reduced prices in Azure Sentinel and Azure Monitor, ExpressRoute Global Reach, and API Management Premium
Plus, much more…

So, grab a drink and have a read of all the latest improvements and updates here.

Develop and test your applications for free

As of June you can develop and test your applications or run small workloads in production for free on Azure Database for MySQL and Azure Database for PostgreSQL. Simply make sure you have an Azure free account and you’ll get 750 hours of B1ms and 32GB storage for free for the first 12 months.

Optimise security with Azure Firewall solution for Azure Sentinel

Microsoft have announced an integration between Azure Firewall and Azure Sentinel meaning you can get both detection and prevention in one place – the Azure Firewall solution for Azure Sentinel. The new solution offers three key capabilities: