{"id":1785,"date":"2023-02-22T10:00:36","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T09:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ituziast.com\/?p=1785"},"modified":"2023-02-28T14:17:38","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T13:17:38","slug":"azure-announcements-february-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ituziast.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/22\/azure-announcements-february-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Azure Announcements (February 2023)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Microsoft Azure<\/a>, being a constantly evolving, updating and changing environment, makes it difficult to sometimes follow all that happens around it. I will try to condense some of the announcements based on status – generally available, preview or update features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be aware that generally available features\/updates might incur costs. Anything that is part of a public preview<\/a>, does not incur any costs, but also does not have Service-Level Agreement (SLA<\/a>) attached to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Previous articles:<\/p>\nCloud Section (Ituziast)<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Blogs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Scale Azure Firewall SNAT ports with NAT Gateway for large workloads<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Encountering source network address translation (SNAT)<\/a> port exhaustion is a common issue when dealing with large-scale outbound traffic. For each new connection made to the same destination endpoint over the internet, a new SNAT port is utilized. Once all SNAT ports are used up, it results in port exhaustion. Environments that necessitate frequent connections to the same destination, such as accessing a database hosted in a service provider’s data center, are particularly vulnerable to this issue. Customers who want to connect outbound to the internet should not only consider potential risks such as SNAT port exhaustion, but also how to safeguard their outbound traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Architecture diagram of Azure Firewall and NAT Gateway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Azure Firewall<\/a>\u00a0is a sophisticated security service designed to safeguard cloud infrastructures from new and evolving cyber threats through network traffic filtering. All outbound internet traffic routed through Azure Firewall is thoroughly examined, fortified, and subjected to source network address translation (SNAT) to mask the original client IP address. To enhance outbound connectivity, Azure Firewall can be expanded by associating multiple public IPs with the service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additional information:<\/p>\nLink <\/a>to <\/a>blog<\/a>
<\/a>What is Azure Virtual Network NAT? | Microsoft Learn<\/a>
Azure Firewall documentation | <\/a>Microsoft <\/a>Learn<\/a>
Scale SNAT <\/a>ports <\/a>with Azure Virtual Network NAT | Microsoft Learn<\/a>
Tutorial: <\/a>Integrate <\/a>NAT gateway with Azure Firewall in a hub and spoke network – Azure Virtual Network NAT | Microsoft<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

6 ways to improve accessibility with Azure AI<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Globally, more than one billion people live with disabilities and often confront obstacles in areas such as employment, education, and social inclusion. To tackle these challenges, Microsoft introduced a new five-year initiative in 2021, prioritizing three areas: creating more accessible technology, leveraging this technology to generate job opportunities for individuals with disabilities, and establishing a more inclusive work environment for disabled individuals. The objective is to narrow the disability gap and utilize the unexplored talent pool of disabled people. Digital technology can play a pivotal role in enhancing communication, interaction, and information accessibility for this community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microsoft and Azure AI<\/a> provide various accessibility solutions to assist organizations in developing more inclusive experiences for their users. These solutions encompass speech transcription and captioning, content readers, translation services, voice assistants, facial recognition, and computer vision. These AI-driven tools can facilitate better access and engagement with digital content for individuals with disabilities, be it through speech-to-text transcription, image captioning, or text-to-speech translation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additional information:<\/p>\n6 ways to improve accessibility with Azure AI | Azure Blog and Updates | Microsoft Azure<\/a>
Ability <\/a>Summit <\/a>| Home (microsoft.com)<\/a>
Cognitive <\/a>Speech <\/a>Services <\/a>\u2013 Text\/<\/a>Speech <\/a>Analysis | Microsoft Azure<\/a>
Immersive <\/a>Reader \u2013 <\/a>Immersion <\/a>Reading Tools | Microsoft Azure<\/a>
Translator \u2013 <\/a>Translation <\/a>Software as a Service | Microsoft Azure<\/a>
Speech to <\/a>Text <\/a>\u2013 Audio to <\/a>Text <\/a>Translation | Microsoft Azure<\/a>
Computer <\/a>Vision <\/a>| Microsoft Azure<\/a>
Azure OpenAI <\/a>Service <\/a>\u2013 Advanced Language Models | Microsoft Azure<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Automate your attack response with Azure DDoS Protection solution for Microsoft Sentinel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Azure delivers numerous network security products that aid organizations in safeguarding their applications: Azure DDoS Protection<\/a>, Azure Firewall<\/a>, and Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF)<\/a>. Customers can deploy and configure each of these services individually to heighten the security stance of their safeguarded environment and application in Azure. While each product offers distinct capabilities to tackle specific attack vectors, the most significant advantage lies in their combined power. These three products provide more extensive protection when used in conjunction. In fact, to combat contemporary attack campaigns, a product suite should be employed, and security signals from one service should be correlated with another to detect and prevent multi-vector attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest addition to this portfolio is \u00a0Azure DDoS Protection Solution for Microsoft Sentinel<\/a>. It allows customers to identify bad actors from Azure\u2019s DDoS security signals and block possible new attack vectors in other security products, such as Azure Firewall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additional information:<\/p>\nAutomate <\/a>your attack response with Azure DDoS Protection solution for Microsoft Sentinel | Azure Blog and Updates | Microsoft Azure<\/a>
Azure DDoS <\/a>Protection <\/a>Overview | Microsoft Learn<\/a>
What is Azure Web Application Firewall on Azure Application Gateway? – Azure Web Application Firewall | Microsoft Learn<\/a>
What is Microsoft <\/a>Sentinel<\/a>? | Microsoft Learn<\/a>
New Azure <\/a>DDoS <\/a>Solution for Microsoft Sentinel – Microsoft Community Hub<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n


General Availability Announcements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Apply Azure storage access tiers to append blobs and page blobs with blob type conversion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Azure Storage offers different\u00a0access tiers<\/a>. Access tiers include hot tier, cool tier, and archive tier. Azure Storage access tiers support only block blobs natively. When you need to save cost of storing append blobs or page blobs, you can convert them to block blobs. Blob type conversion along with tiering is now supported by PowerShell, CLI and AzCopy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additional information:<\/p>\nGenerally available: Apply Azure storage access tiers to append blobs and page blobs with blob type conversion | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure<\/a>
Best practices for using blob access tiers – Azure Storage | Microsoft Learn<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Azure Kubernetes Service introduces two pricing tiers: Free and Standard<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

AKS’s unique Free tier allows you to only pay for the virtual machines, and associated storage and networking resources consumed. It provides the managed Kubernetes control plane for free. This allows you to deploy unlimited free test clusters. The Free tier is recommended for clusters with less than 10 nodes and for experimenting, learning, and simple testing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new Standard tier is the recommended pricing option which comes with greater control, scalability and uptime support. Standard tier will also include additional features – support for up to 5000 nodes per cluster and API server autoscaling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additional information:<\/p>\nGenerally Available: Azure <\/a>Kubernetes <\/a>Service introduces two pricing tiers: Free and Standard | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure<\/a>
Introduction to Azure Kubernetes Service – Azure Kubernetes Service | Microsoft Learn<\/a>
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Free and Standard pricing tiers for cluster management – Azure Kubernetes Service | Microsoft Learn<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Managed Run Command \u2013 Execute PowerShell or shell scripts on Virtual Machines and Scale Sets<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The ability to manage\u00a0VMs by remotely executing scripts\u00a0has been\u00a0improved with the updated\u00a0 Managed Run Command feature. Now it\u2019s possible to execute multiple scripts at the same time, manage their progress and persist the execution outputs. Scripts\u00a0and parameters\u00a0can be used in ARM templates to automate the deployment. For long running scripts,\u00a0asynchronous mode\u00a0is supported to prevent blocking the VM provisioning.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n