AzureTracks Azure News Update 50th Edition Cake Special
Andrew Posted on 10:22 am

Azure Updates – Number 50 – November 5, 2022

A summary update on Azure News that includes updates released from Microsoft Azure related to Azure, Architecture, Compute, and Sentinel topics. I’ll provide links to all the resource updates with each item. Hopefully this will save you some time digging around to find recent releases and changes.

This is my 50th Azure Updates bi-weekly update, a special day indeed!

Updates will include preview and general availability announcements, news, and technical articles published in the listed topic areas for the previous 2 week snapshot. Presented is a subset of news that is highlighted here, visit Azure Blog or Azure Updates Blog to see all the updates.

Azure Updates

Azure Multi-Factor Authentication Server will be deprecated 30 September 2024
General availability: Ephemeral OS disk support for confidential virtual machines
Public preview: New Azure Maps Creator feature – Dataset with GeoJSON
Public preview: Azure Automation supports PowerShell 7.2 and Python 3.10 runbooks
Generally available: New KMS DNS in Azure US Government Cloud
Generally available: Logic Apps Standard Support for Functions Runtime V4
API versions being retired for Azure API Management
Review your VNET configurations in Switzerland North that may be affected by IP address changes
Public preview: SAP S/4HANA events are now available on Azure Event Grid
General availability: Azure Sphere OS version 22.10
Generally available: Azure Communication Services short code functionality for SMS
Azure SQL General availability updates for late October 2022
Public preview: Azure Load Testing supports authenticating with client certificates
Azure SQL Public preview updates for late October 2022
Public preview: Read replicas for Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server
Public preview: Improved passive geo-replication for Azure Cache for Redis
General availability: Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB data plane RBAC
Public preview: Azure CNI Powered by Cilium
Public preview: Azure Synapse Link for Azure Cosmos DB Gremlin API
Public preview: Mariner container optimized OS
Public preview: Azure Load Testing is now HITRUST certified
Public preview: K8s 1.25 support
Public preview: TCP support
Public preview: Azure Load Testing in West Europe
Public preview: New metrics capabilities in OpenTelemetry-based Application Insights
Public preview: V2 programming model for Azure Functions using Python
Generally available: CSI Extensible API for AKS
Dapr extension for AKS and Arc-enabled Kubernetes now support Dapr v1.9.0
Public preview: ASO makes it easy to manage database and connection
Public preview: IPVS load balancer support in AKS
Public preview: AKS image cleaner
Generally available: Premium SSD v2 disks available on Azure Disk CSI driver
Public preview: Vertical Pod Autoscaler
Generally available: AKS support for Ubuntu 22.04
Generally available: Azure Storage ??? Attribute-based access control for standard storage accounts
Generally available: MERGE command for Azure Synapse Analytics
Generally available: Custom IP Prefixes (BYOIP) now available in US Government regions
Public preview: Availability zone volume placement for Azure NetApp Files

Azure Blog

Build a globally resilient architecture with Azure Load Balancer
Sharing the latest improvements to efficiency in Microsoft???s datacenters
Secure your digital payment system in the cloud with Azure Payment HSM???now generally available
Microsoft named a Leader in 2022 Gartner?? Magic Quadrant??? for Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services
Accenture and Microsoft drive digital transformation with OnePlatform on Microsoft Energy Data Services for OSDU???
Forrester Total Economic Impact study: Azure Arc delivers 206 percent ROI over 3 years
Microsoft Cost Management updates???October 2022
Introducing Vision Studio, a UI-based demo interface for Computer Vision
Image Analysis 4.0 with new API endpoint and OCR model in preview
Azure Scales 530B Parameter GPT-3 Model with NVIDIA NeMo Megatron

Azure Sentinel Blog

Microsoft is named a Leader in the 2022 Gartner?? Magic Quadrant??? for Security Information and Event
Upcoming changes to the CommonSecurityLog table
What’s New in Sentinel Threat Hunting
Microsoft Sentinel: What’s New at Microsoft Ignite
UEBA Essentials solution now available in Content Hub!

Honorable Mentions & Other Special Content

  1. Detecting malicious shared links in Microsoft Teams
  2. Working smarter – Automating Microsoft Sentinel
    • Using automation in Sentinel is how we will operationalize the deployment so that our SOC Team can keep up with incidents that require a human to investigate or evaluate something of interest. We often talk about background noise, or low-value alerts and incidents; automation can be used to help remove these distractions and allow the team to focus on higher-value investigations.
    • This article drops you right in the middle in part 2 of 4 in a series from Microsoft Sentinel Blog. This is one of my favourite series that really helped show in a tangible way, how we can use automation to augment our SOC Teams.
    • https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-sentinel-blog/microsoft-sentinel-automation-tips-amp-tricks-part-2-playbooks/ba-p/3566369