Azure announced general availability of the DCesv6, DCedsv6, ECesv6, and ECedsv6 confidential VM series based on 5th Gen Intel Xeon processors with Intel Trust Domain Extensions (TDX).
Microsoft will retire the Managed NGINX Ingress used by the AKS Application Routing add-on in November 2026 due to the upstream Ingress-NGINX project deprecating and ending updates after March 2026. Microsoft will provide only critical security patches until 30 Nov 2026, after which the controller is unsupported.
Azure Storage adds a preview feature to restrict (bind) user delegation SAS usage to a specific Microsoft Entra ID identity, strengthening authentication by tying SAS access to the user.
Azure Monitor pipeline adds public-preview support for secure ingestion from external endpoints using TLS/mTLS and Bring Your Own Certificates (BYOC), plus new controls for pod placement.
Late-February 2026 preview updates for Azure SQL add in-dialog database management actions and introduce flat-file import support in the MSSQL extension.
Azure Database for PostgreSQL now supports configuring geo-redundant automated backups when using Premium SSD v2 disks (public preview). This adds a disaster-recovery option by storing backups in a geo-redundant manner.
Windows Server Annual Channel (Preview) on AKS will retire on May 15, 2026. Users should migrate to Windows Server Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) before that date.
Azure Application Gateway WAF Insights is now in public preview, adding an interactive view of WAF logs and metrics. It is intended to help investigate blocked requests and analyze attack patterns.
Azure Premium SSD v2 disks are now generally available in Brazil Southeast and expanded to a third Availability Zone in Malaysia West and Indonesia Central.
AKS MCP Server adds unified tooling in public preview to reduce tool/context overhead when managing AKS MCP servers. Two new tools are introduced: call_az and call_kubectl.
AKS clusters using node auto-provisioning can now enable LocalDNS, removing a previous limitation where LocalDNS couldn’t be used with that cluster type.
Azure Disk Storage now generally supports instant access for incremental snapshots of Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disks, enabling immediate restores to new disks after snapshot creation.
Mid-February 2026 Azure SQL preview adds new Visual Studio Code publishing support for SQL Projects and introduces a Connections Migration dialog to import existing workflows.
Azure announced a public preview AKS managed add-on for Application Gateway for Containers that automates deployment and lifecycle management of the gateway and its ALB Controller.
Azure Disk Backup is adding a private preview feature called Vaulted Backups for Azure Disk. It extends current disk protection beyond in-subscription operational snapshots toward storing backups in a vault tier.
Azure introduced a public preview of the Azure Virtual Network routing appliance for providing private connectivity across virtual networks using a dedicated routing appliance.
Azure NetApp Files Elastic zone-redundant storage (Elastic ZRS) is now in public preview. It aims to provide continuous access and zero data loss even if an entire Azure Availability Zone becomes unavailable.
Azure Container Storage v2.1.0 is generally available, adding native Elastic SAN support and a lightweight on‑demand installation model to simplify deployment and operations for Kubernetes workloads on Azure.
Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager now offers namespace‑scoped resource placement in public preview, providing fine‑grained control to select and propagate individual namespace resources across multiple clusters.
Azure Application Gateway WAF v2 now offers Public Preview support for additional rate‑limiting GroupBy options that use the X‑Forwarded‑For (XFF) HTTP header, enabling better client identification when the gateway is behind proxies or CDNs.
Microsoft will end support on April 1, 2026 for weak DHE TLS cipher suites used by Azure Front Door (Standard, Premium, Classic) and Azure CDN from Microsoft (Classic) to improve security.
Azure Databricks serverless workspaces are now generally available: a fully managed workspace option that includes preconfigured serverless compute and default storage to provide an enterprise-ready, SaaS-like experience with no infrastructure to manage.
Microsoft announced the general availability of Default Rule Set (DRS) 2.2 for Web Application Firewall (WAF) on Azure Application Gateway. The Azure-managed rule set provides active protection against common web vulnerabilities and exploits and includes Microsoft Threat Intelligence.