Microsoft Azure | May 2019 updates

There is a huge amount of technology out there that enterprising SMEs can benefit from. New tools are constantly being developed, and Microsoft Azure is just one of the many setups that’s worth looking into. An ever-expanding collection of cloud services, it’s crafted to help your organisation meet challenges head on, and it’s always being added to.

May 2019 was no exception, with a whole host of new features rolled out. Created to help SMEs update and optimise their IT infrastructure, these could prove massively beneficial to your business. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights:

A web application firewall for Azure Front Door

The Web Application Firewall allows users to define security policies, to block, forward, allow, or limit access to web applications delivered through Front Door.

Log Analytics agent for Linux 1.10

In addition to this new WAF feature, a Log Analytics agent has also been made available, which will affect important improvements in both reliability and stability.

Azure bot service enhancements

Another interesting new feature is the QnA Maker, which enables users to create a troubleshooting bot that can use multiple questions and dialogue turns.

Azure dev spaces for AKS

Azure Dev Spaces is now also available for the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). This means that developer teams can test code end to end without replication or needing to mock up dependencies and that different parts of an application can be debugged simultaneously.

Azure SQL Database Hyperscale

Lots of individuals are getting excited about the Azure SQL Database Hyperscale, which now has a new service tier that provides support for single databases. The highly scalable nature of this feature means the database can grow organically, with accommodation up to 100TB.

Dynamic thresholds

We’re also looking forward to experimenting with the recently introduced Dynamic Thresholds. These mean it’s no longer necessary to identify and set thresholds for alerts manually. Rather, advanced Machine Learning is employed to monitor historical behaviour and spot any patterns or anomalies that might point toward potential service issues.

IoT hub expansion

In addition, the IoT Hub has grown its capabilities as an event source. The Event Grid can now be used to subscribe to device telemetry events to make the whole process simpler and more straightforward.

Azure Container Registry - Helm 3

Helm 3 support has also been made available in preview as of the 29th May. This update will facilitate the improved storing of Helm 3 charts, as well as having enhanced security and a new LUA-based scripting engine.

Adaptive network hardening

One of the new features we’re most enthused about is the adaptive network hardening for the Azure Security Centre. This will enable the app to identify any network traffic and connectivity patterns, and thus offer you NSG rule recommendations for any internet-facing virtual machines.

Azure NetApp files

Last but most certainly not least, this newest host of updates includes Azure NetApp Files – an immensely powerful storage service that allows you to run your most demanding workloads without the need for any coding modifications.

With dozens of exciting new developments unveiled in the last month alone, summer 2019 promises to bring some real treats for Microsoft Azure’s many users.