Generally Available: Azure NVads V710 v5-series virtual machines

Generally Avaialble: Azure NVads V710 v5-series virtual machines
The NVads V710 v5-series virtual machines are designed for lightweight AI inferencing and graphics-intensive applications that demand cost-effective, high-performance GPUs with more memory and faster CPUs. Powered by AMD Radeon™ Pro V710 GPUs and 4th generation AMD EPYC CPUs, these VMs are tailored for small-to-medium AI/ML inferencing workloads, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), visualization, and cloud gaming workloads.

The series provides several options ranging from 1/6 of a GPU with 4 GB memory, perfect for lightweight virtual desktop experiences, to a full V710 GPU with a massive 28 GB for graphics intensive engineering applications or AI. This flexibility is ideal for customers that need to support a variety of inferencing and graphical workloads efficiently without requiring a full GPU for each application if it’s not needed.

**Generally Available: Azure Site Recovery for Shared Disk
We are excited to announce the General Availability of Azure Site Recovery for Shared Disk feature, which enables you to protect, monitor, recover, and re-protect your workloads running on Windows Server Failover Clusters (WSFC) on Azure VMs with Shared Disk.

Now you can use the benefits of Shared Disk for your mission-critical applications such as SQL FCI, SAP ASCS, Scale-out File Servers, etc., while ensuring business continuity and disaster recovery with Azure Site Recovery.

Salient Features:

• OS Support: Windows Server 2016 and later.
• Nodes: Up to 4 nodes per cluster.
• Shared Disks: Any number of shared disks can be attached to the cluster.
• High Churn and PowerShell Support

Generally Available: Metadata Cache for Azure SSD (Premium) SMB
This enhancement accelerates metadata operations for both SMB and REST protocols, benefiting new and existing file shares at no extra cost. Whether you're running critical business applications, scaling DevOps workflows, or supporting thousands of virtual desktop users, Azure Files is now faster, more scalable, and optimized for your most demanding workloads.

Generally Available: Azure Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disk Storage is now available in Australia Central 2 and Norway West

Azure Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disk Storage are now available in Australia Central 2 and Norway West regions. Azure Ultra Disk Storage delivers high throughput, high IOPS, and consistently low latency for Azure virtual machines, making it ideal for data-intensive workloads such as SAP HANA, top-tier databases, and transaction-heavy applications.

Azure Premium SSD v2, a next-generation general-purpose block storage solution, offers sub-millisecond latencies and exceptional price performance for IO-intensive workloads at a low cost. It is well-suited for a broad range of enterprise production scenarios, including SQL Server, Oracle, MariaDB, SAP, Cassandra, MongoDB, big data analytics, gaming on virtual machines, and stateful containers.

Generally Available: Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Azure Data Factory service principal authentication
We are excited to announce that you can now use service principal Entra authentication to connect your Azure Database for PostgreSQL instance with Azure Synapse Analytics and Azure Data Factory. This feature enhances security and simplifies the authentication process.

Generally Available: Latest PostgreSQL minor versions supported by Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server

PostgreSQL minor versions 17.4, 16.8, 15.12, 14.17, and 13.20 are now supported by Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server.

These minor version upgrades are automatically performed as part of the monthly planned maintenance in Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server. This upgrade automation ensures that your databases are always running the latest optimized versions without requiring manual intervention.

Generally Available: Support for time-series databases in the migration service for Azure Database for PostgreSQL
You can now use the migration service in Azure Database for PostgreSQL to easily migrate time-series databases—without dropping the extension. With the click of a button, you can use the Migration tab on the Flexible Server portal page or go through the Azure CLI.

This new capability replaces the slow, tedious processes required previously—using pg_dump and pg_restore, or dropping the TimescaleDB extension, then recreating it after migration.

Generally Available: PostgreSQL 17 performance management server parameters now modifiable on Azure Database for PostgreSQL
We are excited to announce that several parameters in Azure Database for PostgreSQL 17 can now be modified. This enhancement provides greater flexibility and control over your database configurations, allowing you to optimize performance and tailor settings to meet your specific needs.

You can now modify the following parameters:

• commit_timestamp_buffers: Adjust the number of buffers allocated for commit timestamps.
• enable_parallel_append: Enable or disable parallel append operations.
• event_triggers: Configure event triggers for specific database events.
• multixact_member_buffers: Set the number of buffers for multi-transaction members.
• multixact_offset_buffers: Define the number of buffers for multi-transaction offsets.
• notify_buffers: Manage the buffers used for notifications.
• serializable_buffers: Control the buffers allocated for serializable transactions.
• subtransaction_buffers: Adjust the buffers for subtransactions.
• transaction_buffers: Set the number of buffers for transactions.
• plan_cache_mode: Configure the caching mode for query plans.

Generally Available: Azure SQL updates for mid-April 2025
In mid-April 2025, the following updates and enhancements were made to Azure SQL:
Read-access geo-zone redundant storage (RA-GZRS) as a backup storage type is now generally available for non-hyperscale service tiers. Pricing for RA-GZRS is now the same as RA-GRS in regions where available.

Generally Available: Support for Mongo 8.0 on vCore-based Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB
You can now use MongoDB version 8.0 on vCore-based Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB. This release provides access to the latest MongoDB features, helping you build and manage your applications more efficiently.