Introduction On September 25, 2025, Microsoft unveiled a unified evolution of its marketplace strategy: the new Microsoft Marketplace, merging Azure Marketplace and Microsoft AppSource into a single destination for cloud solutions, AI apps, agents, and industry‑specific offerings. (The Official Microsoft Blog) While the public announcement focuses on high‑level positioning, this transition carries significant technical implications […]
Blogs
Critical Deadline: Mandatory Upgrade of Azure Basic Public IP Addresses to Standard SKU
Azure is retiring the Basic SKU for Public IP addresses. This mandatory change impacts numerous deployments, introducing new technical requirements and offering enhanced capabilities. Customers must act to upgrade their IPs to the Standard SKU before the official retirement date.
Azure Networking Change 2025: Default Outbound Access Is Going Away – Technical Deep Dive
Microsoft Azure is making a fundamental change in how Virtual Machines get outbound connectivity to the Internet. As of 30 September 2025, new VMs (and new virtual networks/subnets in certain cases) will no longer receive default outbound internet access unless an explicit outbound method is configured. This change is part of Microsoft’s move toward secure by default networking, reducing invisible or implicit paths that may create security or reliability issues.
Introducing Azure Network Security Hub: Unified Management for Firewall, WAF, and DDoS Protection
Microsoft has enhanced and rebranded Azure Firewall Manager into what is now called the Network Security Hub. The goal: unify management, configuration, and monitoring of Azure’s network security services—mainly Azure Firewall, Web Application Firewall (WAF), and DDoS Protection—into a single, more intuitive and consolidated experience.
Mastering Azure DNS Security Policy: Full Guide for Filtering and Logging DNS Traffic
Introduction In today’s cloud-first world, DNS traffic is often overlooked—but it’s a vital part of your cloud security surface. Attackers frequently exploit DNS for exfiltration, command and control, or domain hijacking. Microsoft Azure’s DNS Security Policy equips you with the tools to filter DNS queries, block threats, and gain full visibility into DNS behavior within […]
How to Hibernate and Resume Azure Virtual Machines for Maximum Cost Savings
Introduction Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) provide powerful cloud computing capabilities, enabling enterprises to run scalable workloads with ease. One of the recent features that significantly enhances operational flexibility and cost management is the ability to hibernate and resume VMs. This capability allows users to pause VM workloads, preserve the state, and restart later without going […]
Azure Storage Mover Explained: Migrate Files to Azure Blob and File Shares
Introduction Azure Storage Mover is a fully managed hybrid migration service that simplifies the process of transferring large-scale file shares and folders from on-premises environments to Azure Storage. It supports migration to both Azure Blob and Azure Files with minimal downtime, making it ideal for enterprises transitioning workloads to the cloud. Key Benefits Supported Migration […]
General Availability: Azure FXv2-Series Virtual Machines
Introduction May 2025, Microsoft has released the Azure FXv2-series VMs – compute-optimized instances featuring the 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8573C (Emerald Rapids) CPU – now generally available across a growing list of regions. Performance at a Glance The FXv2-series delivers: Who It’s For & Why It Matters Technical Deep Dive Feature Specifications vCPU / Memory Up […]
General Availability: Ephemeral OS Disk support for v6 Azure VMs
Why Ephemeral OS Disks Matter Ephemeral OS disks operate entirely on the VM’s local SSD—often NVMe—bypassing remote Azure Storage. This local placement delivers: Being non-persistent means they’re perfect when OS state can be regenerated on reboot. v6 VM Series Now Fully Supported As of May 27, GA support is live for NVMe‑backed Ephemeral OS disks […]
Azure Site Recovery Now Supports Trusted Launch VMs – Here’s What You Need to Know
Introduction As organizations strive to enhance their cloud security posture, Trusted Launch for Azure virtual machines (VMs) has become an essential part of their virtual infrastructure. Trusted Launch protects against rootkits, bootkits, and other sophisticated malware by enabling Secure Boot, vTPM (virtual Trusted Platform Module), and measured boot for Gen2 VMs. However, until recently, customers […]