More Hyperconverged Capabilities

Microsoft has updated its Azure Stack HCI system for hyperconverged infrastructure to allow GPU for AI and machine learning, soft kernel reboot, thin provisioning and other infrastructure level capabilities. Management-level updates include virtual machine creation and management from the Azure portal. And server core security is now in all Azure Stack HCI integrated systems.

A new Azure Stack HCI partner program offers users new validated solutions from independent software vendors and services from partners.

Azure Arc has new features for select users, including native integration with Azure Stack HCI, new integration with VMware vSphere and a simplifie, fully managed machine learning add-on on Arc-enabled Kubernetes, which supports Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services Kubernetes clusters.

Microsoft has launched a preview of Azure Virtual Desktop for Azure Stack HCI and a new autoscale feature for AVD to schedule session host starts and stops.

Azure Automanage updates include a preview of custom configuration profiles for Windows Server and Linux virtual machines and support for Azure Arc-enabled server virtual machines. Generally available updates for Azure Automanage for Windows Service include extended network for Azure and an ability to securely access new file servers remotely over untrusted networks without a virtual private network.

Infrastructure Features Enhanced

General availability of Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets flexible orchestration mode is among the updates for Azure’s infrastructure related features and tools.

Microsoft has also made generally available Dv5 and Ev5 Azure Virtual Machine and new Dav5 and Eav5 Azure VMs. A preview of Ebs v5 Azure VM is expected in the future.

Another generally available feature is a new VMs selector feature for users to specify workload, technical specifications, region and other categories.

Generally available updates to Azure Monitor include EventHub integration for network isolation alerts and enhanced troubleshooting for Azure Firewall and VPN Gateway. A preview is now available of OpenTelemetry support in application insights.

Azure Disk Storage has a generally available update for on-demand disk bursting for Azure Premium solid-state drives.