Innovate from cloud to edge on your terms with Azure

Serving and making a difference in our communities and the wider world was a key focus of the past year's challenges. Organizations must be future-ready, work on their terms, operate seamlessly in hybrid environments, and have a strong foundation of trust to ensure they can persevere and achieve business success. Microsoft Azure is dedicated to helping all organizations achieve this, as demonstrated by our announcements at Microsoft Inspire.

Increase your opportunities with new Azure infrastructure capabilities

More than 95 percent of Fortune 500 businesses are using Azure to transform their businesses. They rely on an enterprise-grade infrastructure as well as deep integration with other Microsoft Cloud services. Azure can power all workloads. It offers the best Windows 10 (and Windows 11) virtual experience for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, (VDI), growing Linux workloads and open source databases. More than half of Azure VMs run Linux. Azure also supports specialized workloads like SAP, VMware and high-performance computing (HPC).

Customers can use Azure Hybrid Benefit to get Windows Server and SQL Server workloads. It offers three years of free Extended Security updates for Windows Server 2012/R2 or SQL Server 2012 that run on Azure.

Cloud migration can be daunting for all of these workloads. We want to make the process easier and ensure customers get tailored support. Our Azure Migration and Modernization Program has been expanded to include new scenarios that allow modernization of any app regardless of its framework or supporting databases. You can find all details on our migration and modernization blog.

Azure's multicloud and hybrid approach to innovation allows you to bring innovation wherever you are.

Our customers love the hybrid and multicloud approach. Azure Arc is the key to our ability to help customers seamlessly operate hybrid. Azure Arc allows customers to bring Azure services to any existing infrastructure, including other clouds, to benefit from Azure's benefits everywhere. Azure SQL and Azure PostgreSQL can be run on any infrastructure you choose. Machine learning can also be extended to the edge to allow models to be run close to data.

Azure Arc integrates with Azure Lighthouse, allowing partners to manage multiple customers' resources across edge, datacenters, multicloud, and multicloud environments. Azure Arc will make Azure SQL available to all managed service providers on July 30, 2021. This means that they can manage cloud data services on any on-premises infrastructure, or in any cloud environment the customer requires, without needing to modify existing tools or processes.

Azure Stack HCI allows customers to modernize their datacenters using a hybrid solution that tightly integrates Azure with hyperconverged infrastructure. Azure Stack HCI now allows guest licensing activation to be simplified with Automatic Virtual Machine Activation. Customers also benefit from advanced protection that includes defense-in-depth protection across multiple layers of hardware, firmware and operating systems. We are also pleased to announce a partner program that validates SI software and SI services for Azure Stack. Promotional activities will be held for partner solutions. For more information, please contact the Azure Stack Partner Program. Eligible partners can also access the advanced specializations available for Azure Stack HCI or Azure Arc to receive training and certification.

Azure data allows you to innovate

Developers have our commitment to Azure to be the best cloud to develop intelligent cloud-native apps that harness the power and data of AI and data.

Recently, we announced several improvements to Azure Cosmos DB. These updates will improve its performance and empower developers and ISVs with Azure Cosmos DB. Azure Cosmos DB serverless is free and only charges for the resources used. This makes it great for applications that have high traffic. Azure Cosmos DB integrated cache can reduce costs by upto 96 percent and increase performance by upto 300 percent for heavy workloads. Always Encrypted in Azure Cosmos DB enables clients to encrypt sensitive data before it is stored in a database. Azure Cosmos DB role-based Access Control (RBAC), allows admins to create Azure Active Directory Roles with restricted database access permissions.

Azure Cosmos DB has also been improved by introducing a substantial expansion to its free tier. App developers will have greater flexibility to invent at no additional cost, with 1,000 RU/s provisioned though put and 25GB storage per month.

These enhancements to Azure Cosmos DB make it easier and cheaper than ever to create new cloud-native apps on Azure. Developers can create unique combinations by combining the serverless Azure Cosmos DB and the elastic Azure Functions to solve complex orchestration issues and enable mission-critical, even-driven modern apps.

Azure Analytics gives you limitless possibilities

Azure Cosmos DB captures operational data in a cloud native application. This is only the beginning. With just one click, customers can gain real-time insight on the data using Azure Synapse link for Azure Cosmos DB. Organizations can use this low-cost cloud-native, cloud-native, HTAP implementation to add in-the moment analytics to their business. There is no ETL needed and no impact on their operations system.

We have been continuing to innovate with Azure Synapse Analytics to fulfill our promise to make Azure analytics the most secure and performant. Recently, we announced several new capabilities and offers that will help accelerate adoption. These include Azure Synapse Pathway which greatly accelerates data warehouse migrations through automated SQL code conversion to Azure Synapse. Partner can now drive value conversations with customers who are considering modernizing their analytics solutions by using the new Azure Synapse Business Value Assessments. Customers who migrate on-premises data warehouses from their existing systems to Azure Synapse will see a significant cost reduction, in addition to the existing reserved capacity discounts. Azure Synapse limited-time, free quantities offer allows customers with eligible subscription types to take full advantage of serverless capabilities. Customers can enjoy up to 10TB of queries per month as well as optimized Apache Spark capabilities for big-data workloads with up 120 free vCore hours per month.

Comprehensive data governance enables you to discover and govern more effectively than ever before

The exponential increase in data volume, type, source and interconnectedness has made it more important than ever to manage and control that data within an organization. Azure Purview provides a comprehensive data management and governance solution to help organizations gain a full understanding of their data. It allows you to discover, classify and protect data anywhere it is located, including on-premises and in cloud environments (including Amazon Web Services S3), SaaS applications and in Microsoft Power BI. With automated data discovery, sensitive classification and end-to–end data lineage, users can create a comprehensive, current map of their data landscape. Azure Purview empowers data consumers to maximize the trustworthiness and value of their data estate. If you need to know more about Azure, you can join Azure course today at Edureka.