Azure Newsletter

Managed instance general purpose tier in Azure SQL Database is generally available

Take advantage of the managed instance general purpose tier in Azure SQL Database, which is now generally available. Migrate your on-premises workloads to the cloud with minimal changes with managed instance—it provides the best of Microsoft SQL Server with the benefits of a fully managed service. With the general purpose performance tier, get balanced and scalable compute and storage options that fit most business workloads. Create a managed instance today and use your SQL Server licenses and active Software Assurance to save up to 55 percent with Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server.

Intelligent query processing feature family is available in Azure SQL Database

Improve the performance of your existing workloads with minimal implementation effort using the intelligent query processing feature family in Azure SQL Database. Get three new preview offerings with the feature family, including row mode memory grant feedback, approximate query processing, and table variable deferred compilation. Row mode memory grant feedback optimizes memory usage for repeating workloads. Table variable deferred compilation improves plan quality and overall performance for queries referencing table variables. And, approximate query processing is designed to provide aggregations across large datasets where responsiveness is more critical than absolute precision.

Save up to 80 percent with reserved capacity and Azure Hybrid Benefit

Now, use Azure SQL Database reserved capacity for SQL Database managed instance. This new pricing option saves you up to 33 percent compared to license-included pricing by enabling you to prepay for your SQL Database vCores for a one- or three-year term. Save up to 80 percent when you combine reserved capacity savings with Azure Hybrid Benefit for Microsoft SQL Server. Improve budgeting and forecasting with a single upfront payment, making it easy to calculate your investments.

Learn more >

Support for Microsoft SQL Server to Azure SQL Database managed instance migrations

With the support of Azure Database Migration Service, migrate Microsoft SQL Server databases to Azure SQL Database managed instance with minimal downtime. For online migrations (preview), use the Azure portal to create a Database Migration Service instance as a first step in performing migrations from SQL Server on-premises or on VMs to SQL Database managed instance. For offline migrations (generally available), access SQL Server workloads running on-premises or on VMs, and then perform offline migrations to SQL Database managed instance.

Azure Database for MariaDB is in preview

Get enterprise-ready, fully managed community MariaDB featuring open-source compatibility, built-in high availability, dynamic scaling, and flexible pricing with Azure Database for MariaDB Preview. The MariaDB community edition helps you easily lift and shift to the cloud, using the languages and frameworks of your choice.

Intelligent performance for Azure Database for PostgreSQL is in preview

Get preview support from Azure Database for PostgreSQL for query store, query performance insights, and performance recommendations—all part of the intelligent performance offering. Using this combination of features, inspect your databases to understand your workloads, identify bottlenecks, and detect changes in query performance.

Advanced Threat Protection feature for Azure database services for MySQL and PostgreSQL is in preview

Detect and respond to potential threats as they occur with Advanced Threat Protection (preview) for Azure Database for MySQL and Azure Database for PostgreSQL. Receive an alert on suspicious database activities along with potential vulnerabilities and anomalous database access and query patterns. This feature integrates alerts with Azure Security Center to provide details of suspicious activity and recommendations on how to investigate and mitigate them. With Advanced Threat Protection, it's easier to address database threats without the need for a security expert or to manage advanced security monitoring systems.

Azure SQL Data Warehouse streaming support is in Azure Databricks

Get efficient and scalable structured streaming write support for Azure SQL Data Warehouse, a cloud-based enterprise data warehouse that uses massively parallel processing to quickly run complex queries across petabytes of data. Use it as the central place your business can count on for visualizations and insights. And then access SQL Data Warehouse from Azure Databricks using the SQL Data Warehouse connector.

Azure Active Directory conditional access in Azure Databricks

Control where and when users are permitted to sign in to Azure Databricks with Azure Active Directory conditional access. It helps with restricted sign-in access, limited network location access, managing device access types, and restricted access to client applications.

Learn more >

Azure Key Vault is supported by Azure Databricks

Azure Databricks now supports Azure Key Vault-backed secret scope. With this, Azure Databricks now supports two types of secret scopes: Azure Key Vault-backed and Azure Databricks-backed.

Learn more >

Azure Databricks is available in Japan, Canada, India, and Australia

Now, use Azure Databricks in regions in Japan, Canada, India, and Australia, bringing region availability to 24 regions. Find out when it will be available in your region.

Next version of Azure HDInsight is in preview

Take advantage of new capabilities in the latest version of Azure HDInsight, which brings updates to several open source components in the Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark ecosystems. The next version of HDInsight uses Hortonworks Data Platform 3.0.1. Features include enhanced capabilities for Apache Hive, Kafka, Oozie, Phoenix, Spark, Storm, and HBase. Start using this version by selecting HDInsight 4.0 while creating a new cluster in HDInsight.

Enterprise security package for Azure HDInsight is generally available

Get enterprise-grade security for Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark workloads with the enterprise security package for Azure HDInsight, which is now generally available. Use new capabilities like multiuser authentication using Active Directory or Azure Active Directory; multiuser Apache Zeppelin notebook with collaborative data science experience; role-based access control (RBAC) for Apache Ambari operations; and fine-grained RBAC for HiveQL and Spark SQL using Apache Ranger.

Learn more >

Developer tool enhancements are in Apache Spark on Azure HDInsight

Take advantage of new developer tool enhancements for Apache Spark on Azure HDInsight. For the HDInsight Spark debugging toolset, use new capabilities to visualize Spark job executions; access and manage data input, output, and table operations; and visualize execution utilization. The HDInsight development toolkit features include a cross-platform lightweight editor, Azure integration, and support for PySpark.

Bring your own keys for Apache Kafka on Azure HDInsight

With bring your own keys (preview) for Apache Kafka on Azure HDInsight, encryption is a one-step process handled during cluster creation. If bringing your own keys is a prerequisite for data at rest, this feature unlocks Kafka for you and helps you be more confident in the security of your clusters. You won't be charged for enabling this feature.

Learn more >