Table of Contents Abstract The Enterprise Challenge: Storage Complexity at Scale Introducing the Azure NetApp Files VS Code Extension Technical Architecture: Building for Developer Productivity Intelligent Interface Layer Template Generation Engine Azure Integration Framework Azure NetApp Files VS Code Extension – High-Level Architecture overview Real-World Impact: Measurable Business Value Productivity Gains Cost Optimization Operational Excellence Example Scenario: Enterprise Development Team The Challenge The Solution Expected Results Key Capabilities for Enterprise Teams Template Generation and Standardization Multi-subscription support Developer-centric workflow Getting Started: Enterprise Deployment Guide Prerequisites Extension Deployment using UI Post-Installation Verification Conc…  ( 44 min )

If you’re looking for a clear, no-nonsense path into generative AI on Java, this series is for you.  Microsoft’s Java and AI for Beginners video series is a set of short tutorials that introduce the concepts, tooling, and patterns you need to get started at a pace that respects your time and experience. What the series […] The post Java and AI for Beginners: a practical video series for Java appeared first on Microsoft for Java Developers.  ( 23 min )

MCP registry and allowlist controls for GitHub Copilot in JetBrains IDEs and Eclipse are now available in public preview in nightly/pre-release builds. What’s new MCP Registry An MCP Registry is a directory of Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. For users of JetBrains IDEs and Eclipse, you can now configure your MCP Registry and browse available […] The post MCP Registry and Allowlist Controls for Copilot in JetBrains and Eclipse Now in Public Preview appeared first on Microsoft for Java Developers.  ( 23 min )

We’re thrilled to announce that the Fabric Core extension for Visual Studio Code is now officially open source! We’re excited to take this step because it shows how committed we are to being open, collaborating with the community, and giving developers the tools they need to create amazing things with Microsoft Fabric.  ( 6 min )

AI Everywhere… But Can It Fit in Your Pocket? We have all seen the magic of Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT-5 and Gemini. They write essays, generate code, summarize complex topics, and even help with strategy. But here’s the catch: LLMs are huge. They live in the cloud, run on powerful GPUs, and consume massive amounts of energy. Now imagine having that same intelligence on your own device, your phone, laptop, or robot with instant responses and complete privacy. That’s where Small Language Models (SLMs) come in. They are the leaner, faster cousins of LLMs, built to run efficiently on less powerful devices. LLMs vs SLMs What’s a Language Model Anyway? A language model is a system trained to understand patterns in human language. It doesn’t just memorize words, it learns how they con…  ( 37 min )

KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America is back - this time in Atlanta, Georgia, and the excitement is real. Whether you’re a developer, operator, architect, or just Kubernetes-curious, Microsoft Azure is showing up with a packed agenda, hands-on demos, and plenty of ways to connect and learn with our team of experts.  Read on for all the ways you can connect with our team! Kick off with Azure Day with Kubernetes (Nov 10) Before the main conference even starts, join us for Azure Day with Kubernetes on November 10. It’s a full day of learning, best practices, deep-dive discussions, and hands-on labs, all designed to help you build cloud-native and AI apps with Kubernetes on Azure. You’ll get to meet Microsoft experts, dive into technical sessions, roll up your sleeves in the afternoon labs …  ( 39 min )

What Are Small Language Models, and Why Should You Care? If you've been following AI development, you can probably recall "bigger is better" being the mantra for years. GPT-3.5 was 175 billion parameters, GPT-4 is even larger, and everyone seemed to be in an arms race to build the biggest model possible. But here's the thing: bigger models are expensive to run, slow to respond, and often overkill for what you actually need. Small Language Models (SLMs) flip this script. These are models with fewer parameters (typically 1-15 billion) that are trained really thoughtfully on high-quality data. The outcome of this is models that can run on your laptop, respond instantly, and still handle complex reasoning tasks. You can extrapolate from this, increased speed, privacy, and cost-effectiveness. M…  ( 31 min )

Why Security Headers Matter? Security headers are an essential part of web application security. They help protect against common vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting (XSS), clickjacking, and data exposure. By configuring these headers, you instruct browsers on how to handle your content securely. Azure platform does not automatically inject these headers, so developers must configure them at the application level or through middleware.   Common Security Headers to Implement Content-Security-Policy (CSP) Controls which resources the browser can load, mitigating XSS attacks. Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; X-Content-Type-Options Prevents MIME type sniffing. X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff X-Frame-Options Protects against clickjacking by disallowing iframe embeddi…  ( 24 min )

Introduction Delivering high-performance serverless applications is at the heart of Azure Functions. Azure Functions serves countless customer workloads across scenarios like APIs, event processing, and automation. To ensure great performance at scale, we’re always looking for opportunities to reduce latency and increase throughput — especially for common operations like JSON serialization and deserialization. To that end, we’ve introduced support for orjson, a fast JSON library, into the Python worker for Azure Functions. When customers add orjson to their Function App environment, the Azure Functions runtime will automatically switch to using orjson instead of the standard json module — unlocking significant performance gains without any application code changes. Motivation: Why orjson M…  ( 38 min )

Welcome to the October 2025 edition of the Fabric Influencers Spotlight, a recurring monthly post here to shine a bright light on the places on the internet where Microsoft MVPs & Fabric Super Users are doing some amazing work on all aspects of Microsoft Fabric. The Microsoft Fabric Community team has created the Fabric Influencers Spotlight to … Continue reading “Fabric Influencers Spotlight October 2025”  ( 8 min )

Why Azure Local? Azure Local extends Azure to customer-owned infrastructure, enabling local execution of modern and traditional applications across distributed on-premises or edge locations. Azure Local can help accelerate cloud and AI innovation by seamlessly delivering new applications, workloads, and services. Providing the ability to deploy Windows and Linux virtual machines (Azure Local VMs), Azure Virtual Desktop, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Arc for containerized workloads. AKS on Azure Local enables support for additional Azure Arc-enabled services, such as Azure Container Apps or Azure Machine Learning AKS compute target. Azure Local offers consistent cloud management capabilities while keeping business systems and application data on-premises, helping meet requirements for data…  ( 15 min )

The Architectural Imperative: Why Multi-Agent Orchestration is Essential In modern enterprise AI systems, the scope and complexity of real-world business challenges quickly exceed the capabilities of a single, monolithic AI Agent. Facing tasks like end-to-end customer journey management, multi-source data governance, or deep human-in-the-loop review processes, the fundamental architectural challenge shifts: How do we effectively coordinate […] The post Unlocking Enterprise AI Complexity: Multi-Agent Orchestration with the Microsoft Agent Framework appeared first on Semantic Kernel.  ( 26 min )

Azure Relay is an integral part of modern hybrid cloud architectures, enabling seamless connectivity between on-premises and cloud resources. To ensure continued reliability and security, Microsoft is implementing important updates to the IP addresses and DNS naming conventions used by Azure Relay services. What’s Changing? As detailed in the changes to IP-addresses for Azure Relay and Azure Relay WCF and Hybrid Connections DNS Support reference blogs, customers should be aware of two primary changes: IP and Name Transitions: The IP addresses and corresponding DNS names for Azure Relay endpoints will change during the transition period. For example, g0-prod-bn-vaz0001-sb.servicebus.windows.net can change to gv0-prod-bn-vaz0001-sb.servicebus.windows.net DNS Support Enhancements: Improv…  ( 24 min )

Let’s pick up from where we left off in the previous post — Selecting the Right Agentic Solution on Azure - Part 1. Earlier, we explored a decision tree to help identify the most suitable Azure service for building your agentic solution.   Following that discussion, we received several requests to dive deeper into the security considerations for each of these services. In this post, we’ll examine the security aspects of each option, one by one. But before going ahead and looking at the security perspective I highly recommend looking at list of Azure AI Services Technologies made available by Microsoft. This list is inclusive of all those services which were part of erstwhile cognitive services and latest additions.   Workflows with AI agents and models in Azure Logic Apps (Preview) – This…  ( 34 min )

With Azure Chaos Studio and Azure Load Testing, you can simulate both — run a controlled load test while injecting faults into your application or infrastructure to understand how it behaves under stress. Together, they help you find those resiliency blind spots — the cascading failures, retry storms, and degraded dependencies that only appear when your system is both busy and broken. For example: What if your database becomes read-only during peak user traffic? How does your API react if a downstream service starts returning 500s? Can your autoscaling rules recover fast enough? Let’s explore how you can run load tests from Azure Load Testing as part of a chaos experiment. Azure Chaos Studio + Azure Load Testing Integration Azure Chaos Studio has load test actions that let you integrate …  ( 26 min )

The AI landscape is evolving rapidly, and with the introduction of Microsoft Agent Framework, developers now have a powerful platform for building sophisticated AI agents that go far beyond simple chat completions. These agents can execute complex, multi-step workflows with persistent state, conversation threads, and structured execution—capabilities that are essential for production AI applications. Today, we're excited to share how Azure App Service provides an excellent platform for running Agent Framework workloads, especially those involving long-running operations. Let's explore why App Service is a great choice and walk through a practical example. 🔗 Quick link to sample app GitHub repo: https://github.com/Azure-Samples/app-service-agent-framework-travel-agent-dotnet The Challenge:…  ( 35 min )

Managed Private Endpoints support for connecting to Private Link Services is now available in Microsoft Fabric (Public REST APIs). This has been one of the top requests from our customers and the community: the ability to securely connect Fabric Spark compute to on-premises and network-isolated data sources using the option to allowlist Fully Qualified Domain … Continue reading “Securely Accessing On-Premises Data with Fabric Data Engineering Workloads”  ( 7 min )

OneLake is the unified data lake for Microsoft Fabric, designed to simplify data management and accelerate analytics across your organization. The best part is, OneLake speaks the same language your applications already do. With support for the ubiquitous Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) or Blob Storage APIs, OneLake makes it easy to bring your existing applications and … Continue reading “OneLake APIs: Bring your apps and build new ones with familiar Blob and ADLS APIs”  ( 6 min )

In Part 1 of this series, we tackled the critical challenge of protecting the LLM itself from malicious inputs. We implemented three essential security layers using Azure AI services: harmful content detection with Azure Content Safety, PII protection with Azure Text Analytics, and prompt injection prevention with Prompt Shields. These guardrails ensure that your AI model doesn't process harmful requests or leak sensitive information through cleverly crafted prompts. But even with a perfectly secured LLM, your entire AI chat system can still be compromised through architectural vulnerabilities. For example, the WotNot incident wasn't about prompt injection—it was 346,000 files sitting in an unsecured cloud storage bucket. Likewise the OmniGPT breach with 34 million lines of conversation lo…  ( 58 min )

AI agents that can actually do stuff (not just chat) are the fun part nowadays, but wiring them cleanly into real APIs, keeping things observable, and shipping them to the cloud can get... messy. So we built a fresh end‑to‑end sample to show how to do it right with the brand new LangChain.js v1 and Model Context Protocol (MCP). In case you missed it, MCP is a recent open standard that makes it easy for LLM agents to consume tools and APIs, and LangChain.js, a great framework for building GenAI apps and agents, has first-class support for it. You can quickly get up speed with the MCP for Beginners course and AI Agents for Beginners course. This new sample gives you: A LangChain.js v1 agent that streams its result, along reasoning + tool steps An MCP server exposing real tools (burger menu …  ( 39 min )

AI agents that can actually do stuff (not just chat) are the fun part nowadays, but wiring them cleanly into real APIs, keeping things observable, and shipping them to the cloud can get... messy. So we built a fresh end‑to‑end sample to show how to do it right with the brand new LangChain.js v1 and Model Context Protocol (MCP). In case you missed it, MCP is a recent open standard that makes it easy for LLM agents to consume tools and APIs, and LangChain.js, a great framework for building GenAI apps and agents, has first-class support for it. You can quickly get up speed with the MCP for Beginners course and AI Agents for Beginners course. This new sample gives you: A LangChain.js v1 agent that streams its result, along reasoning + tool steps An MCP server exposing real tools (burger menu …  ( 39 min )

Why Decision-Making Matters Without a shared framework, context fades and teams' re-debate old choices.ADRs solve that by recording the why behind design decisions — what problem we solved, what options we considered, and what trade-offs we accepted. A good ADR: Lives next to the code in your repo. Explains reasoning in plain language. Survives personnel changes and version history. Think of it as your team’s engineering memory. The Five Pillars of Trade-offs At Microsoft, we frame every major design discussion using the Azure Well-Architected pillars: Reliability – Will the system recover gracefully from failures? Performance Efficiency – Can it meet latency and throughput targets? Cost Optimization – Are we using resources efficiently? Security – Are we minimizing blast radius and exp…  ( 26 min )

Why this Investment Matters For years, SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) has been the go-to tool for millions of SQL developers worldwide. With over 3 million active users and 500K downloads per month, SSMS remains the most trusted environment for database professionals. Yet, Fabric Data Warehouse had long lacked deep integration with SSMS, leaving developers … Continue reading “SSMS 22 Meets Fabric Data Warehouse: Evolving the Developer Experiences”  ( 7 min )

Recently, we announced a significant milestone: public support for Row and Column Level Security within OneLake. This universal security framework applies consistently across all data engines, regardless of how data is accessed. Traditionally, Spark does not provide granular security features and assumes unrestricted access to the required datasets for query execution. To address this limitation, … Continue reading “How Spark Supports OneLake Security with Row and Column Level Policies”  ( 6 min )

🎥 Watch the full PyCon AU 2025 talk here When you work with human-entered data (registrations, surveys, customer forms, you name it!) you soon discover that people are very creative typists. Names, schools, companies, and addresses come in with abbreviations, nicknames, missing words, and typos galore. That mess makes it hard to answer even simple questions like: “Do these two records refer to the same person?” or “How many participants came from this organisation?” At PyCon AU 2025, I explored how different fuzzy matching techniques, from traditional algorithms to generative AI, can help make sense of that chaos. The Fuzzy Matching Challenge String comparison looks straightforward until you meet real-world data. “PLC Sydney” might really be “Presbyterian Ladies’ College Sydney.” “Certai…  ( 29 min )

In the world of high-performance, modern software engineering, developers often face a tough tradeoff: how to achieve lightning-fast data retrieval response rates without adding complexity, sacrificing reliability, or getting locked into specialized, external data caching products or platforms. What if you could harness the power and flexibility of your existing Postgres database to solve this challenge? Enter the Microsoft.Extensions.Caching.Postgres library, a new nuget.org package that brings distributed caching to Postgres, unlocking speed, simplicity, and seamless integration for modern .NET workloads. In this article, we’re going to take a closer look at the Postgres caching store, which introduces a new option for .NET developers planning on implementing a distributed cache, such as…  ( 35 min )

The AI landscape is evolving rapidly, and with the introduction of Microsoft Agent Framework, developers now have a powerful platform for building sophisticated AI agents that go far beyond simple chat completions. These agents can execute complex, multi-step workflows with persistent state, conversation threads, and structured execution—capabilities that are essential for production AI applications.  ( 6 min )

Copy job is the go-to solution in Microsoft Fabric Data Factory for simplified data movement, whether you’re moving data across clouds, from on-premises systems, or between services. With native support for multiple delivery styles, including bulk copy, incremental copy, and change data capture (CDC) replication, Copy job offers the flexibility to handle a wide range … Continue reading “Simplifying Data Ingestion with Copy job – Copy data across tenants using Copy job in Fabric Data Factory “  ( 8 min )

User Data Functions is an item that allows you to create fully managed Python functions to run on Fabric. You can use this item to embed your business logic in your Fabric data architectures across all the different integrations, such as Fabric data sources, Power BI reports, Pipelines, Notebooks, and more. The use of the … Continue reading “Capacity usage enabled date for Test capability in User Data Functions”  ( 6 min )

The Eventhouse Endpoint for Lakehouse is a powerful new capability in Microsoft Fabric that enables users to query Lakehouse tables with exceptional speed and ease, delivering real-time insights with high performance with large data volume, flexibility, advanced analytics capabilities, support for enhanced data formats such as strings and dynamic types and simplicity. Whether you’re working … Continue reading “Unlock Real-Time Intelligence with the Eventhouse Endpoint for Lakehouse”  ( 6 min )

Data warehouses are at the core of modern analytics, enabling organizations to turn raw data into actionable insights. Fabric Data Warehouse empowers data professionals to analyze various types of data from the classic DW table to the Parquet, CSV, and JSONL files. One of the most important decisions when working with external data is how … Continue reading “External data materialization in Fabric Data Warehouse”  ( 9 min )

Personal Background My name is Peace Silly. I studied French and Spanish at the University of Oxford, where I developed a strong interest in how language is structured and interpreted. That curiosity about syntax and meaning eventually led me to computer science, which I came to see as another language built on logic and structure. In the academic year 2024–2025, I completed the MSc Computer Science at University College London, where I developed this project as part of my Master’s thesis. Project Introduction Can large-scale event management be handled through a simple chat interface?This was the question that guided my Master’s thesis project at UCL. As part of the Industry Exchange Network (IXN) and in collaboration with Microsoft, I set out to explore how conversational interfaces and …  ( 41 min )

Weekly AMA 'Ask Me Anything': Build Smarter with Azure Developer CLI  Calling all AI engineers, developers, and builders of the future, this is your backstage pass to the tools shaping scalable, agentic AI deployments. Join Kristen Womack, Product Manager for the AzureAzure Developer CLI (azd) Developer CLI (azd), and the engineering team behind azd for a live Ask Me Anything session every Thursday at 12:30pm PT in the Azure AI Foundry Discord. Whether you're: 🧠 Orchestrating multi-agent systems 📦 Deploying LLM-powered apps with Azure AI Foundry 🔐 Navigating least-privilege infrastructure setups 🛠️ Debugging and optimizing reproducible workflows …this AMA is your chance to connect directly with the team building the CLI that powers it all. 💡 Why Join? Real-time answers from the azd engineers and product team Deployment walkthroughs for Foundry templates, from chatbots to document processors Tips for CI/CD, debugging, and reproducibility in enterprise environments Community-first mindset: bring your feedback, challenges, and ideas Kristen Womack brings deep insight into developer experience and product strategy; this is a rare opportunity to learn from the source and shape the future of AI tooling. 🔧 Get Ready Before you join: Install azd 👉 Install Guide Explore Kristen’s work 👉 www.kristenwomack.io Join the Discord 👉 Azure AI Foundry Community 🗓️ Weekly Schedule 🕧 Thursdays at 12:30pm PT📍 Azure AI Foundry Discord Bring your questions. Bring your curiosity. Build with the best.  ( 22 min )

The App Service team is working closely with the .NET team to address a set of issues that have impacted our ability to deliver updates to the .NET runtime versions provided by the platform on Windows.  ( 2 min )

To ensure our hosted agents in Azure Pipelines are operating in the most secure and up-to-date environments, we continuously update the supported images and phase out older ones. In October 2024, we announced support for Ubuntu-24.04. Soon, we plan to update the ubuntu-latest image to map to Ubuntu-24.04. Additionally, MacOS 15 Sequoia and Windows 2025 […] The post Upcoming Updates for Azure Pipelines Agents Images appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 31 min )

The modern developer platform has already moved past the desktop. We’re no longer defined by what’s installed on our laptops, instead we look at what tooling we can use to move from idea to production. An organisations developer platform strategy  is no longer a nice to have, it sets the ceiling for what’s possible, an organisation can’t iterate it's  way to developer nirvana if the foundation itself is brittle. A great developer platform shrinks TTFC (time to first commit), accelerates release velocity, and maybe most importantly, helps alleviate everyday frictions that lead to developer burnout. Very few platforms deliver everything an organization needs from a developer platform in one product. Modern development spans multiple dimensions, local tooling, cloud infrastructure, compliance…  ( 45 min )

We’re excited to introduce a new capability that simplifies Dev Box setup—enabling platform engineers and project admins to specify images and SKUs directly when configuring Dev Box pools, without needing to create Dev Box definitions at the Dev Center level. 🔄What’s changing Until now, configuring Dev Box pools with Azure Marketplace images or custom images […] The post Streamlined Setup, Stronger Guardrails for Microsoft Dev Box appeared first on Develop from the cloud.  ( 24 min )

This post will cover how to set up an NFS volume with Azure Container Apps through the Azure Portal  ( 9 min )

Today LangChain v1 officially launches and marks a new era for the popular AI agent library. The new version ushers in a more opinionated, streamlined, and extensible foundation for building agentic LLM applications. In this post we'll breakdown of what’s new, what changed, and what “general availability” means in practice.  Join Microsoft Developer Advocates, Marlene Mhangami and Yohan Lasorsa, to see live demos of the new API and find out more about what JavaScript and Python developers need to know about v1. Register for this event here.   Why v1? The Motivation Behind the Redesign The number of abstractions in LangChain had grown over the years to include chains, agents, tools, wrappers, prompt helpers and more, which, while powerful, introduced complexity and fragmentation. As model…  ( 29 min )

Today LangChain v1 officially launches and marks a new era for the popular AI agent library. The new version ushers in a more opinionated, streamlined, and extensible foundation for building agentic LLM applications. In this post we'll breakdown of what’s new, what changed, and what “general availability” means in practice.  Join Microsoft Developer Advocates, Marlene Mhangami and Yohan Lasorsa, to see live demos of the new API and find out more about what JavaScript and Python developers need to know about v1. Register for this event here.   Why v1? The Motivation Behind the Redesign The number of abstractions in LangChain had grown over the years to include chains, agents, tools, wrappers, prompt helpers and more, which, while powerful, introduced complexity and fragmentation. As model…  ( 29 min )

We are excited to share updates on the Microsoft 365 Developer Program with new capabilities and upcoming changes. The post Exciting new capabilities and enhancements for M365 Developer Program – October 2025 appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 23 min )

GitHub Copilot and VS Code teams are sponsoring open-source MCP projects that push the boundaries of developer experience, agent autonomy, and more. The post 9 open-source projects the GitHub Copilot and Visual Studio Code teams are sponsoring—and why they matter appeared first on Microsoft Open Source Blog.  ( 12 min )

TOC Introduction Deployment  Sources From Laptop From CI/CD tools Build Source From Oryx Build From Runtime From Deployment  Sources Walkthrough Laptop + Oryx Laptop + Runtime Laptop CI/CD concept Conclusion   1. Introduction Deployment on Azure Linux Web Apps can be done through several different methods. When a deployment issue occurs, the first step is usually to identify which method was used. The core of these methods revolves around the concept of Build, the process of preparing and loading the third-party dependencies required to run an application. For example, a Python app defines its build process as pip install packages, a Node.js app uses npm install modules, and PHP or Java apps rely on libraries. In this tutorial, I’ll use a simple Python app to demonstrate four di…  ( 38 min )

Picture this: A data engineer at a global enterprise starts the day with a familiar challenge – ‘Why does ingesting Parquet and JSON files always feel like a battle?’. Data engineers are dealing with millions of records stored in compressed Parquet files and deeply nested JSON logs. Every schema change means hours of debugging. Every … Continue reading “From Files to Delta Tables—Parquet & JSON data ingestion simplified with Shortcut Transformations”  ( 8 min )

OneLake Security centralizes fine-grained data access for Microsoft Fabric data items and enforces it consistently across engines.Currently in Preview and opt-in per item, it lets you define roles over tables or folders and optionally add Row-Level Security (RLS) and Column-Level Security (CLS) policies. These definitions govern what users can see across Fabric experiences. When you … Continue reading “OneLake Security on the SQL Analytics Endpoint”  ( 8 min )

Building on our earlier preview access, we are excited to announce the full preview of OneLake security, a significant milestone in our ongoing commitment to delivering a secure, scalable, and easy-to-manage data lake experience. OneLake security is now available to try without any sign up, allowing you to quickly secure data across your OneLake data. … Continue reading “OneLake security (Preview)”  ( 7 min )

I was reading an article over the weekend about WotNot, an AI chatbot startup that left 346,000 files completely exposed in an unsecured cloud storage bucket—passports, medical records, sensitive customer data, all accessible to anyone on the internet without even a password. The researchers who discovered it tried for over two months to get the company to fix it. Two months. That genuinely shook me. So I did what any concerned developer would do - I went down a rabbit hole of security breaches and best practices. In August, Lenovo's customer support chatbot was exploited through a simple 400-character prompt injection that allowed attackers to steal session cookies and potentially access customer support systems. Cyber Press published a detailed analysis of how attackers used indirect pro…  ( 42 min )

Protect your data at rest with keys you own and control  By default, Fabric encrypts all data at rest using Microsoft-managed keys and secures data in transit with TLS 1.2 or higher. Customer-managed keys (CMK), which you create, own, and maintain in your Azure Key Vault (AKV), offer enhanced control over your encryption strategy. With … Continue reading “Customer-managed keys for Fabric workspaces (Generally Available) “  ( 6 min )

With this release, customers gain greater control and assurance over the encryption of their most critical analytical workloads. The Value of Customer-Managed Keys Fabric already ensures that your data is encrypted at rest using Microsoft-managed keys. But for many organizations—especially in regulated industries—encryption alone isn’t enough. They need the ability to control and manage the … Continue reading “Bringing Customer-Managed Keys to Fabric Warehouse and SQL Analytics Endpoint”  ( 6 min )

If you're running workloads in Kubernetes, you'll know that scalability is key to keeping things available and responsive. But there's a problem: when your cluster runs out of resources, the node autoscaler needs to spin up new nodes, and this takes anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes. That's a long time to wait when you're dealing with a traffic spike. One way to handle this is using low priority pods to create buffer nodes that can be preempted when your actual workloads need the resources. The Problem Cloud-native applications are dynamic, and workload demands can spike quickly. Automatic scaling helps, but the delay in scaling up nodes when you run out of capacity can leave you vulnerable, especially in production. When a cluster runs out of available nodes, the autoscaler provisions new one…  ( 39 min )

About Continuing from the earlier article of Hosting Remote MCP Server on Azure Container Apps (ACA) using SSE transport mechanism This blog showcases the Hosting Remote MCP Servers on Azure Container Apps (ACA) as HTTP type transport.  Overview The Model Context Protocol (MCP) has revolutionized how AI assistants interact with external tools and data sources. While many examples focus on local implementations using stdio transport, this post demonstrates how to build and deploy a production-ready MCP server using HTTP transport in Azure Container Apps. In this article, we create a live forex converter that fetches real-time exchange rates from external APIs, showcasing how MCP servers can integrate with third-party services to provide dynamic, up-to-date information to AI assistants. What…  ( 28 min )

The Challenge Large-scale generative AI deployments can stretch system boundaries — especially when thousands of concurrent requests require both high throughput and low latency. In one such production environment, GPT-4o-mini deployments running under Provisioned Throughput Units (PTUs) began showing sporadic 408 (timeout) and 429 (throttling) errors. Requests that normally completed in seconds were occasionally hitting the 60-second timeout window, causing degraded experiences and unnecessary retries. Initial suspicion pointed toward PTU capacity limitations, but deeper telemetry revealed a different cause. What the Data Revealed Using Azure Data Explorer (Kusto), API Management (APIM) logs, and OpenAI billing telemetry, a detailed investigation uncovered several insights: Latency was n…  ( 25 min )

We’re thrilled to announce a game-changing enhancement in Azure Migrate. The storage utilization-based recommendations, a feature designed to help you right-size your storage workloads and maximize savings. By focusing on actual storage usage instead of allocated capacity, you can significantly reduce costs and accelerate their cloud journey. This feature brings a new level of precision to your migration planning and business case. Why This Matters In our analysis across thousands of on-premises environments, we observed a striking trend: nearly 40% of allocated storage is overprovisioned. This means customers are paying for capacity they don’t actually use. Traditional assessments often rely on allocated storage, leading to inflated cost estimates and suboptimal resource planning. What’s New Azure Migrate now honors actual storage utilization rather than allocated capacity when generating: Assessment recommendations for right-sizing your storage workloads. Business case calculations for accurate cost projections. This shift ensures: Lower migration cost projections: Pay for what you use, not what you’ve overprovisioned. Optimized cloud footprint: Reduce unnecessary storage allocation in Azure. Faster ROI: Build a business case that reflects true utilization, accelerating decision-making. Customer Impact By leveraging utilization-based insights, organizations can unlock significant savings and operate with greater efficiency. For example, if 40% of your storage is overprovisioned, this feature could cut your projected Azure storage costs dramatically, freeing up budget for innovation. How to Get Started Deploy an appliance in your on-premises environment. Build the business case or create an Azure Migrate Assessment for your on-premises workloads. Review the utilization-based recommendations in your assessment report or business case. Learn More Visit Azure Migrate documentation for detailed guidance and start optimizing your migration journey today.  ( 23 min )

As part of our ongoing commitment to security and modernization, we’re updating outdated authentication mechanisms used by older versions of clients reliant on our older Visual Studio client libraries. For full details on all known impacted clients, refer to the official announcement we made in April 2024: End of Support for Microsoft products reliant on […] The post Modernizing Authentication for Legacy Visual Studio Clients appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 23 min )

This gives you seamless access for your teams, stronger authentication with MFA and passwordless options, and centralized visibility into risks across your environment. Simplify hybrid identity management by reducing dual overhead, prioritizing key groups, migrating users without disruption, and automating policies with Graph or PowerShell.  Jeremy Chapman, Microsoft 365 Director, shows how to start minimizing your local directory and make Microsoft Entra your source of authority to protect access everywhere.  Strengthen your identity security.  Sync your on-prem AD with Microsoft Entra ID, adding MFA and Single Sign-on. Start here. Gain full visibility into risky sign-ins.  Minimize dual management by moving the source of authority to Microsoft Entra. Check it out. Automate moving group…  ( 47 min )

Table of Contents Abstract Introduction Unlocking Business Potential with Azure NetApp Files Object REST API Why is matters How it works OneLake shortcuts Direct path (Object REST API, NFS, SMB) What are we enabling? Use Cases Summary Learn more Abstract This article introduces the Azure NetApp Files Object REST API, a transformative solution for enterprises seeking seamless, real-time integration between their data and Azure's advanced analytics and AI services. By enabling direct, secure access to enterprise data—without costly transfers or duplication—the Object REST API accelerates innovation, streamlines workflows, and enhances operational efficiency. With S3-compatible object storage support, it empowers organizations to make faster, data-driven decisions while maintaining compliance…  ( 46 min )

This post covers why very rarely a dependency conflict may arise when using the “codeless” Application Insights agent on a Python Blessed Image with Azure App Service Linux  ( 7 min )

We have made Azure Synapse Runtime for Apache Spark 3.5 for our Azure Synapse Spark customers generally available for customers to start using it for their production workloads, while they get ready and prepare for migrating to Microsoft Fabric Spark. What This Mean for You You can now create Azure Synapse Runtime for Apache Spark … Continue reading “Azure Synapse Runtime for Apache Spark 3.5 (Generally Available)”  ( 6 min )

In our previous blog post on Schema Registry and Eventstreams, we introduced how Schema Registry in Microsoft Fabric Real-Time Intelligence enables type-safe, reliable event processing pipelines. With Azure EventHub integration with schema-enabled Eventstreams in preview, this brings enterprise-grade event streaming with schema validation to your real-time analytics workflows. Why EventHub + Schema Registry Matters Azure EventHub … Continue reading “Sourcing Schema-Driven Events from EventHub into Fabric Eventstreams (Preview)”  ( 7 min )

Set It and Forget It Target File Size Optimization What if you could enable a single setting and never worry about file size tuning again? Or if your tables automatically adjusted their optimal file sizes as they grew from megabytes to terabytes, without any manual intervention? Today’s data teams face a familiar challenge. Too small, … Continue reading “Adaptive Target File Size Management in Fabric Spark”  ( 10 min )

We’re introducing a new feature that gives you more granular control over your Spark compute resources in Microsoft Fabric: The Job-Level Bursting Switch. This highly anticipated addition empowers capacity administrators to fine-tune how Spark jobs utilize burst capacity, optimizing for either peak performance or higher concurrency based on your specific workload needs. Microsoft Fabric’s Compute … Continue reading “Introducing the Job-Level Bursting Switch in Microsoft Fabric”  ( 6 min )

Introduction Azure Functions on Azure Container Apps lets you run serverless functions in a flexible, scalable container environment. As the platform evolves, there are two mechanisms to deploy Images with Function Programming Model as Azure Container apps: Functions V1 (Legacy Microsoft.Web RP Model) Functions V2 (New Microsoft.App RP Model) V2 is latest and recommended approach to host Functions on Azure Container Apps. In this article, we will learn about differences in different approaches and how you can transition to V2 model. V1 Limitations (Legacy approach) Function App Deployments has limited functionality and experience therefore transition to V2 is encouraged. Below are the limitations of V1 Feature limitations  Lacks support for native container apps features such as multi r…  ( 32 min )

We’re updating the OS foundation for new code-based stacks on Azure App Service for Linux. Every new major version of our supported stacks will target Ubuntu going forward - this includes the new versions for .NET 10, Python 3.14, Node 24, PHP 8.5 and Java 25 - all expected to rollout in the next couple of months. Existing stacks remain on Debian and nothing changes for your current apps unless you choose to move.  ( 3 min )

Azure Container Apps (ACA) is redefining how developers build and deploy intelligent agents. With serverless scale, GPU-on-demand, and enterprise-grade isolation, ACA provides the ideal foundation for hosting AI agents securely and cost-effectively. Last month we highlighted how you can deploy n8n on Azure Container Apps to go from click-to-build to a running AI based automation platform in minutes, with no complex setup or infrastructure management overhead. In this post, we’re extending that same simplicity to AI agents, where we’ll show why Azure Container Apps is the best platform for running open-source agentic frameworks like Goose. Whether you’re experimenting with open-source models or building enterprise-grade automation, ACA gives you the flexibility and security you need. Challe…  ( 30 min )

Automate phishing triage, prioritize alerts, streamline access reviews, and close policy gaps while keeping full control through natural language feedback and recommendations. Reduce repetitive work, cut through alert noise, and focus on the most critical risks facing your organization.  Stay ahead of vulnerabilities and evolving threats by proactively identifying at-risk devices, deploying patches, and optimizing access policies as your environment changes. Build custom agents tailored to your workflows, connecting tools and data to automate your most time-consuming security tasks.  Dilip Radhakrishnan, Microsoft Security Copilot Partner Director, shares how to keep your organization protected with Security Copilot agents. Spend less time chasing false alarms. Spend more time stopping r…  ( 40 min )

Today we are excited to take our local MCP Server for Azure DevOps out of preview 🥳. Since the initial preview announcement, we’ve worked closely with early adopters and the community to incorporate feature suggestions and feedback. We’ve improved login and authorization, added and refined tooling, and introduced domains so users can scope active tools […] The post Azure DevOps local MCP Server is generally available appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 22 min )

OneLake diagnostics, makes it simple to answer ‘who accessed what, when, and how’ across your Fabric workspaces. OneLake diagnostics provides similar capabilities to Azure Blob Storage monitoring. OneLake is the data lake powering Microsoft Fabric. OneLake unifies all your data into a single virtual lake and brings together powerful features for enterprise data management: Alongside … Continue reading “Gain End-to-End Visibility into Data Activity Using OneLake diagnostics (Generally Available)”  ( 8 min )

With the release of Outbound Access Protection (OAP) for Fabric workspaces, customers gained a powerful safeguard: the ability to strictly control where outbound connections can be established. Meaning data loads and queries across the workspace are limited to trusted destinations, reducing risk and strengthening governance. Now, Fabric Warehouse (Preview) and SQL Analytics Endpoint (GA) are … Continue reading “Extending Outbound Access Protection to Fabric Warehouse and SQL Analytics Endpoint”  ( 7 min )

Microsoft OneLake is the unified data lake for your entire organization, built into Microsoft Fabric. It provides a single, open, and secure foundation for all your analytics workloads – eliminating data silos and simplifying data management across domains. The preview of Microsoft OneLake Table APIs, a new way to programmatically manage and interact with your … Continue reading “OneLake Table APIs (Preview)”  ( 6 min )

The October 2025 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This release includes improvements to the Python Environments extension, Copy Test ID functionality, and enhanced environment activation when using Copilot Chat. Keep on reading to learn more! The post Python in Visual Studio Code – October 2025 Release appeared first on Microsoft for Python Developers Blog.  ( 24 min )

Table of Contents Abstract From silicon to speed: How Azure NetApp Files powers EDA's future today The Reason: Why Azure NetApp Files for EDA workloads Unmatched Performance and Scale for EDA Cost and Performance Optimization with Azure NetApp Files Global Collaboration and 24×7 Productivity Operational Simplicity and Enterprise Reliability Key Azure NetApp Files Capabilities & Benefits for EDA at a Glance The Proof: Azure NetApp Files delivers at scale Understanding and Simulating EDA Workloads Results at a glance For Starters: Single Large Volume Performance Results in detail Azure NetApp Files large volume – the starting point Azure NetApp Files large volume scale – horizontal scaling For Scalers: Large Volumes Performance and Scalability The Method: SPECstorage® Solution 2020 Methodolo…  ( 75 min )

We’re excited to announce the public preview of resource-scope query for Azure Monitor Workspaces (AMWs)—a major step forward in simplifying observability, improving access control, and aligning with Azure-native experiences. This new capability builds on the successful implementation of resource-scope query in Log Analytics Workspaces (LAWs), which transformed how users access logs by aligning them with Azure resource scopes. We’re now bringing the same power and flexibility to metrics in AMWs. What is resource-scope query? Resource-scope query has been a frequently requested capability that allows users to query metrics scoped to a specific resource, resource group, or subscription—rather than needing to know which AMW the metrics are stored in. This means: Simpler querying: users can s…  ( 30 min )

Drasi turns one with GQL support—giving developers more ways to build change-driven systems. The post Marking Drasi’s first anniversary: introducing GQL support for Continuous Queries appeared first on Microsoft Open Source Blog.  ( 12 min )

Introduction Migrating to the cloud shouldn’t mean overspending. Many workloads — like dev/test environments, small databases, and low-traffic apps — don’t need constant CPU power. So why pay for performance you rarely use? Azure Migrate now supports B-Series and Cobalt 100 VMs, empowering you to plan migrations smarter, optimize costs, and get the right performance fit for every workload. B-Series VMs: Burstable power, lower costs B-Series VMs are designed for workloads with variable CPU usage, delivering cost efficiency without compromising flexibility. Key Benefits: Baseline Performance: Pay for a low, steady CPU baseline. Burst Capability: Scale up temporarily using credits accumulated during idle periods. Cost Efficiency: Ideal for workloads that stay idle most of the time but occasi…  ( 24 min )

Microsoft has launched a native graph data management, analytics, and visualization service. Its horizontally scalable, native graph engine empowers enterprises of all sizes with a relationship‑first way to model and explore interwoven data.  ( 8 min )

🚀 The Idea — Turning Career Confusion into Clarity The idea came from a personal struggle. Like many students and early-career developers, I often found myself unsure of what skills to learn next, which roles best fit my interests, or how to prepare effectively for interviews. That led me to one question: “What if everyone had their own AI-powered career coach?” That question became the mission — to build a smart, empathetic platform that helps users analyze their resumes, identify skill gaps, and prepare for interviews using Azure OpenAI. 🧠 What It Does (Quick Overview) AI Career Navigator offers four intelligent modules, each solving a specific problem job seekers face: Resume Analysis Upload your resume, and the system parses, scores, and evaluates it for clarity, impact, and role-fit…  ( 33 min )

Introduction As organizations across industries race to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their business processes and realize tangible value, one question consistently arises — where should we begin? Customers often wonder: What should the first steps in AI adoption look like? Should we build a unified, enterprise-grade platform for all AI initiatives? Who should guide us through this journey — Microsoft, our partners, or both? This blog aims to demystify these questions by providing a foundational understanding of the Azure AI Landing Zone (AI ALZ) — a unified, scalable, and secure framework for enterprise AI adoption. It explains how AI ALZ builds on two key architectural foundations — the Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) and the Well-Architected Framework (WAF) — and outlines…  ( 32 min )

Introduction As organizations across industries race to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their business processes and realize tangible value, one question consistently arises — where should we begin? Customers often wonder: What should the first steps in AI adoption look like? Should we build a unified, enterprise-grade platform for all AI initiatives? Who should guide us through this journey — Microsoft, our partners, or both? This blog aims to demystify these questions by providing a foundational understanding of the Azure AI Landing Zone (AI ALZ) — a unified, scalable, and secure framework for enterprise AI adoption. It explains how AI ALZ builds on two key architectural foundations — the Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) and the Well-Architected Framework (WAF) — and outlines…  ( 31 min )

Join us LIVE in the Azure AI Foundry Discord on the 14th October, 2025, 10am PT to learn more about Voice Live API  Voice is no longer a novelty, it's the next-gen interface between humans and machines. From automotive assistants to educational tutors, voice-driven agents are reshaping how we interact with technology. But building seamless, real-time voice experiences has often meant stitching together a patchwork of services: STT, GenAI, TTS, avatars, and more. Until now. Introducing Azure AI Foundry Voice Live API Launched into general availability on October 1, 2025, the Azure AI Foundry Voice Live API is a game-changer for developers building voice-enabled agents. It unifies the entire voice stack—speech-to-text, generative AI, text-to-speech, avatars, and conversational enhancements, …  ( 24 min )

Join us LIVE in the Azure AI Foundry Discord on the 14th October, 2025, 10am PT to learn more about Voice Live API  Voice is no longer a novelty, it's the next-gen interface between humans and machines. From automotive assistants to educational tutors, voice-driven agents are reshaping how we interact with technology. But building seamless, real-time voice experiences has often meant stitching together a patchwork of services: STT, GenAI, TTS, avatars, and more. Until now. Introducing Azure AI Foundry Voice Live API Launched into general availability on October 1, 2025, the Azure AI Foundry Voice Live API is a game-changer for developers building voice-enabled agents. It unifies the entire voice stack—speech-to-text, generative AI, text-to-speech, avatars, and conversational enhancements, …  ( 24 min )

Fabric data agents now support CI/CD, ALM flow, and Git integration. These enhancements help you implement best practices for managing your data agent artifacts and tracking changes, leading to more reliable and collaborative development. Benefits of CI/CD and ALM Flow Fabric data agents support a variety of data sources, including Lakehouse, Warehouse, Power BI Semantic … Continue reading “Fabric Data Agent now supports CI/CD, ALM Flow, and Git Integration”  ( 7 min )

As adoption of Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse accelerates, understanding its concurrency model becomes essential for developers, architects, and data engineers. In this post, we’ll explore how Fabric DW handles locking, the nuances of DDL blocking, and how these behaviors impact your workloads. Locking Behavior in Fabric Data Warehouse Fabric DW supports ACID-compliant transactions using standard … Continue reading “Understanding Locking and DDL Blocking in Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse”  ( 6 min )

Fabric Data Warehouse (DW) supports ACID-compliant transactions using standard T-SQL (BEGIN TRANSACTION, COMMIT, ROLLBACK) and uses Snapshot Isolation (SI) as its exclusive concurrency control model. All operations within a transaction are treated atomically—either all succeed or all fail. This ensures that each transaction operates on a consistent snapshot of the data as it existed at … Continue reading “Resolving Write Conflicts in Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse”  ( 8 min )

This post isn't just about the Student Support Agent (SSA) I built, which earned me a Distinction. It's about how Microsoft's tools made it possible to go from a rough concept to a robust pilot, proving their developer stack is one of the most convenient and powerful options for building intelligent, ethical, and scalable educational systems. The Vision: Cutting Through Campus Complexity University life is full of fragmented systems. Students constantly juggle multiple logins, websites, and interfaces just to check a timetable, book a room, or find a policy. My goal was simple: reduce that cognitive load by creating a unified assistant that could manage all these tasks through a single, intelligent conversation. CampusConnect dashboard and numbered widgets powered by Azure OpenAI The Stack…  ( 29 min )

Last week we announced Microsoft Agent Framework, you can find all the details: In the blog post here: Introducing Microsoft Agent Framework: The Open-Source Engine for Agentic AI Apps | Azure AI Foundry Blog Explore documentation for more details: https://aka.ms/AgentFramework/Docs See it in action: Watch demos on AI Show and Open at Microsoft Learn step by step: Microsoft Learn modules for […] The post Semantic Kernel and Microsoft Agent Framework appeared first on Semantic Kernel.  ( 24 min )

We’re excited to announce the release candidate (RC) of Azure DevOps Server, bringing new features previously available in our hosted version. You can  download Azure DevOps Server RC today. A direct upgrade to Azure DevOps Server RC is supported from any version of Team Foundation Server, including Team Foundation Server 2015 and newer. Note: October […] The post Announcing the new Azure DevOps Server RC Release appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 23 min )

The OPENROWSET function that can read JSONL format empowers you to easily read and ingest JSONL files – for example log files, social media streams, machine learning datasets, configuration files, and other semi-structured sources. With the versatile OPENROWSET T-SQL function, you can reference and query JSONL files as if they were tables, eliminating the need … Continue reading “Query and ingest JSONL files in Data Warehouse and SQL Endpoint for Lakehouse (Generally Available)”  ( 6 min )

The introduction of data sources and relative paths in the OPENROWSET function unlocks a new level of simplicity and flexibility for querying files in your Lakehouse and beyond. By leveraging external data sources, you can write cleaner, more maintainable SQL queries and easily access data wherever it resides — making data engineering and analytics more … Continue reading “Simplifying file access in OPENROWSET using data sources and relative paths (Preview)”  ( 7 min )

AI agents are becoming the backbone of modern applications, from personal assistants to autonomous research bots. If you're a student developer curious about building intelligent, goal-driven agents, Microsoft’s newly released Agent Framework is your launchpad. In this post, we’ll break down what the framework offers, how to get started, and why it’s a game-changer for learners and builders alike. What Is the Microsoft Agent Framework? The Microsoft Agent Framework is a modular, open-source toolkit designed to help developers build, orchestrate, and evaluate AI agents with minimal friction. It’s part of the AI Agents for Beginners curriculum, which walks you through foundational concepts using reproducible examples. At its core, the framework helps you: Define agent goals and capabilities…  ( 23 min )

As AI engineers, we’ve spent years optimizing models for the cloud, scaling inference, wrangling latency, and chasing compute across clusters. But the frontier is shifting. With the rise of Windows AI PCs and powerful local accelerators, the edge is no longer a constraint it’s now a canvas. Whether you're deploying vision models to industrial cameras, optimizing speech interfaces for offline assistants, or building privacy-preserving apps for healthcare, Edge AI is where real-world intelligence meets real-time performance. Why Edge AI, Why Now? Edge AI isn’t just about running models locally, it’s about rethinking the entire lifecycle: - Latency: Decisions in milliseconds, not round-trips to the cloud. - Privacy: Sensitive data stays on-device, enabling HIPAA/GDPR compliance. - Resilience:…  ( 27 min )

As AI engineers, we’ve spent years optimizing models for the cloud, scaling inference, wrangling latency, and chasing compute across clusters. But the frontier is shifting. With the rise of Windows AI PCs and powerful local accelerators, the edge is no longer a constraint it’s now a canvas. Whether you're deploying vision models to industrial cameras, optimizing speech interfaces for offline assistants, or building privacy-preserving apps for healthcare, Edge AI is where real-world intelligence meets real-time performance. Why Edge AI, Why Now? Edge AI isn’t just about running models locally, it’s about rethinking the entire lifecycle: - Latency: Decisions in milliseconds, not round-trips to the cloud. - Privacy: Sensitive data stays on-device, enabling HIPAA/GDPR compliance. - Resilience:…  ( 27 min )

We are updating how inline images are represented in the HTML body of Outlook emails in Outlook on the web and the new Outlook for Windows. This change may impact how your add-in identifies and processes inline images when using the attachment ID. The post Changes to inline image representation in Outlook on the web and new Outlook for Windows appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 24 min )

Cost plays the most important part in cloud migration accelerating the decisions. Organizations often hesitate because retail pricing doesn’t reflect their reality. That’s where Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) comes in, offering discounts of up to 60% off retail prices, based on your negotiated contract. Now, with Azure Migrate’s support for MCA pricing, you can bring those negotiated rates directly into your assessments. The result? Accurate cost projections, faster decision-making, and a clear path to the cloud. What is MCA? The Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) is a modern, flexible purchasing agreement designed to simplify how organizations buy and manage Microsoft services. It replaces older, complex agreements like the Enterprise Agreement (EA) for many customers, offering: Simp…  ( 21 min )

Find and know exactly what you’re provisioning by understanding the naming format to see CPU type, memory, storage, and features before deployment to match what your app or workload needs. Use free tools like Azure Migrate to right-size and plan.   Matt McSpirit, Microsoft Azure expert, shows how to choose, size, and deploy workloads such as burstable web apps, massive in-memory databases, GPU-driven AI training, and high-performance scientific modeling, all with automatic scaling and confidential computing when needed. Skip guesswork. Decode VM families, processor types, and premium options in seconds. Check out Azure virtual machine options. Boost performance. Azure Boost offloads storage and networking so your VM CPU stays focused on workloads. Watch here. Scale to thousands of VMs a…  ( 39 min )

End Write Amplification and Automate Your Table Maintenance Compaction is one the most necessary but also challenging aspects of managing a Lakehouse architecture. Similar to file systems and even relational databases, unless closely managed, data will get fragmented over time, and can lead to excessive compute costs. The OPTIMIZE command exists to solve for this … Continue reading “Introducing Optimized Compaction in Fabric Spark”  ( 9 min )

Fabric Spark connector for SQL databases (Azure SQL databases, Azure SQL Managed Instances, Fabric SQL databases and SQL Server in Azure VM) in the Fabric Spark runtime is now available. This connector enables Spark developers and data scientists to access and work with data from SQL database engines using a simplified Spark API. The connector … Continue reading “Spark Connector for SQL databases (Preview)”  ( 6 min )

Microsoft Fabric continues to evolve as a unified platform for data professionals, and the latest update to Semantic Link introduces Service Principal support—a key enhancement for teams looking to automate and scale their data workflows securely.  Semantic Link enables seamless integration between notebooks and semantic models, allowing users to query and analyze data directly from … Continue reading “Service Principal Support in Semantic Link: Enabling Scalable, Secure Automation”  ( 6 min )

Migration Assistant for Fabric Data Warehouse is now Generally Available! Migration Assistant for Fabric Data Warehouse is a powerful tool designed to streamline your journey to a modern, high-performance data platform. With this release, we’re making it easier than ever for organizations to migrate to Fabric Data Warehouse from any T-SQL database used for analytical … Continue reading “Migration Assistant for Fabric Data Warehouse (Generally Available)”  ( 7 min )

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) What is it? AKS is Microsoft’s managed Kubernetes offering, providing full access to the Kubernetes API and control plane. It’s designed for teams that want to run complex, scalable, and highly customisable container workloads, with direct control over orchestration, networking, and security. When to choose AKS: You need advanced orchestration, custom networking, or integration with third-party tools. Your team has Kubernetes expertise and wants granular control. You’re running large-scale, multi-service, or hybrid/multi-cloud workloads. You require Windows container support (with some limitations). Advantages: Full Kubernetes API access and ecosystem compatibility. Supports both Linux and Windows containers. Highly customisable (networking, storage, secur…  ( 25 min )

Watch how these collaborative agents partner with you in real time across your everyday apps.  Knowledge Agent streamlines SharePoint by auto-tagging files, retiring outdated pages, and even drafting new content so your sites stay current and searchable.  Facilitator is an agent in Microsoft Teams that keeps meetings on track — managing agendas, taking notes, assigning follow-ups, and capturing decisions automatically. Agents in Teams channels summarize conversations, generate status reports, and handle routine updates so projects move forward without missed details. Agents in Viva Engage communities draft accurate, data-driven responses to questions, connecting colleagues to the right information and reducing response times.  Organize and tag your SharePoint content automatically. Turn…  ( 43 min )

Why Mission-Critical Features Matter In the era of AI and cloud-scale analytics, organizations need a data integration platform that is secure, resilient, and ready for the most demanding workloads. Fabric Data Factory is engineered to deliver just that—enabling enterprises to unify, protect, and orchestrate their data across clouds, firewalls, and hybrid environments. Security, Isolation, and … Continue reading “Mission-Critical Data Integration: What’s New in Fabric Data Factory”  ( 7 min )

Summarize long email threads, generate bullet-point executive summaries, create charts, and update presentations — all without leaving your familiar apps. Copilot understands your context, remembers your preferences, and helps you reuse content seamlessly across Microsoft 365. IT admins stay in control while you boost productivity. Enterprise-grade protections, Microsoft Purview, and the Copilot Control System ensure your data stays secure.    Jeremy Chapman, Microsoft 365 Director, shares how with premium features like intelligent data retrieval, meeting facilitation, and specialized agents, you can automate routine tasks, generate insights, and stay in the flow without leaving your apps.  Create executive summaries instantly.  Copilot Chat understands your Word document context and wri…  ( 38 min )

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) for Fabric is a developer-focused framework that brings together Microsoft Fabric’s public APIs, item definitions, and best-practice guidance into a unified context layer designed for AI-assisted development. It runs locally on your machine, giving AI agents the context they need to generate code and author items without accessing your environment—keeping … Continue reading “Introducing Fabric MCP (Preview)”  ( 9 min )

Accelerating Product Innovation with Statsig Analytics on Microsoft Fabric Experimentation Analytics from Statsig offers a powerful new capability that’s set to transform how product teams innovate, measure product performance and make data-driven decisions to accelerate product adoption and growth. Imagine being able to unify experimentation, feature rollout, and impact analysis in one seamlessly integrated experience. … Continue reading “Statsig Experimentation Analytics (Preview)”  ( 7 min )

In today’s data-driven world, resilience and recoverability are no longer optional—they’re foundational. Microsoft Fabric continues to evolve as a unified data platform, and one of its most impactful enhancements is the ability to extend point-in-time restore (PITR) retention for Fabric SQL databases from the default 7 days to up to 35 days. This feature empowers … Continue reading “Extending Point-in-Time Retention in Fabric SQL DB: From 7 to 35 Days”  ( 7 min )

In the world of modern analytics, connectivity is everything. Your data ecosystem is only as powerful as your ability to connect to diverse sources, move data securely, and keep it fresh for business insights. That’s why Microsoft Fabric has been doubling down on Data Factory connectors—expanding coverage, improving performance, and enabling new enterprise-grade integration scenarios. … Continue reading “Unlocking Seamless Data Integration with the Latest Fabric Data Factory Connector Innovations”  ( 12 min )

The Fabric CLI is now open source—marking a major milestone in its evolution from a fast, intuitive, and scriptable interface for Microsoft Fabric into a community-driven platform for automation and exploration. Whether used interactively for ad-hoc operations or non-interactively in CI/CD pipelines, the CLI empowers developers to work efficiently and flexibly. With version 1.1.0, it … Continue reading “Fabric CLI: open source, AI-ready, and more powerful”  ( 8 min )

🔥 Foundry Fridays: Your Front-Row Seat to Azure AI Innovation Are you ready to go beyond the blog posts and docs and get your questions answered directly by the minds behind Azure AI? Then mark your calendars for Foundry Fridays a weekly Ask Me Anything (AMA) series hosted on the Azure AI Foundry Discord. Every Friday at 1:30 PM ET, the Azure AI team opens the floor to developers, researchers, and enthusiasts for a 30-minute live AMA with the experts building the future of AI at Microsoft. Whether you're curious about model fine-tuning, local inference, agentic workflows, or the latest in open-source tooling—Foundry Fridays is where the real-time insights happen. 🎙️ Why Join Foundry Fridays? Direct Access to Experts: Ask your questions live to Principal PMs, researchers, and engineers f…  ( 22 min )

We are excited to share that the Azure SRE Agent is now available in public preview for everyone instantly – no sign up required. A big thank you to all our preview customers who provided feedback and helped shape this release! Watching teams put the SRE Agent to work taught us a ton, and we’ve baked those lessons into a smarter, more resilient, and enterprise-ready experience. You can now find Azure SRE Agent directly in the Azure Portal and get started, or use the link below.  📖 Learn more about SRE Agent.👉 Create your first SRE Agent (Azure login required) What’s New in Azure SRE Agent - October Update The Azure SRE Agent now delivers secure-by-default governance, deeper diagnostics, and extensible automation—built for scale. It can even resolve incidents autonomously by following yo…  ( 26 min )

One of the most common questions Azure customers and administrators ask is: “How do I know who created this resource?” If you’ve ever been in charge of managing a large subscription with dozens (or even thousands) of resources, you know how important it is to answer this question quickly. Whether it’s for troubleshooting, governance, or compliance, tracking the origin of a resource can save time and reduce confusion. The good news: Azure makes this information available. You just need to know where to look. Step 1: Open the Resource Overview Navigate to the Overview page of the resource in question. This gives you the usual metadata like resource group, subscription, location, login server, and provisioning state. At first glance, however, you won’t see who created the resource. That inf…  ( 20 min )

🔍 What Is Outbound Network Segmentation? Outbound Network Segmentation allows you to define and control how outbound traffic is routed from your App Service Environment v3 apps. This means you can now segment outbound traffic at an app level, enabling fine-grained egress control that aligns with enterprise security policies and compliance requirements. Previously, all outbound traffic from an App Service Environment v3 originated from the full subnet range hosting the App Service Environment, making it difficult for networking teams to apply per-app restrictions, like what is available with the multi-tenant App Service offering. With this new capability, you can now: For each app, define the subnet all outbound traffic is routed through. Assign dedicated outbound IPs per app via NAT Gate…  ( 27 min )

Azure Event Grid continues to evolve with new capabilities in General Availability and Public Preview – intended to help you enhance performance, security, and interoperability in modern event-driven systems. These enhancements strengthen Azure Event Grid’s foundational messaging layer for distributed systems—supporting real-time telemetry, automation, and hybrid workloads. With support for advanced MQTT features and flexible authentication models, Event Grid now offers: Stronger security posture through OAuth 2.0 and Custom Webhook authentication Operational efficiency with static client identifiers and message retention Broader integration across devices, applications, and cloud services General Availability Features MQTT OAuth 2.0 Authentication Authenticate MQTT clients using JSON W…  ( 26 min )

Overview SQL Database in Fabric continues its commitment to providing you with robust tools for database management, performance monitoring, and optimization. Earlier this year, we released a performance dashboard to help you monitor and improve the performance of your SQL Database in Fabric. We’ve improved upon those performance monitoring capabilities with the ability to track … Continue reading “Memory consumption metrics in Fabric SQL Database”  ( 7 min )

Outbound Access Protection (OAP) is designed to help restrict outbound connectivity from a Fabric workspace to help prevent data exfiltration.  With OAP for Spark, Organizations can govern outbound connections from their Spark workloads in Fabric workspaces to external destinations and other Fabric workspaces within the same tenant providing organizations with granular controls to protect against data exfiltration.   To learn more about Workspace OAP, refer to the Introducing Workspace Outbound Access … Continue reading “Outbound Access Protection for Spark (Generally Available)”  ( 5 min )

AI functions offer a single-click way to perform tasks like text summarization, classification, translation, sentiment analysis, executing your own prompt, and more, all without writing complex code. With Data Wrangler’s interactive interface, you will be able to watch your transformations instantly with real-time previews to help you prepare data more confidently. A GIF demonstrating how … Continue reading “Accelerate Data Transformation with AI Functions in Data Wrangler (Preview)”  ( 6 min )

Private link for Fabric workspaces empowers your organization to secure your Fabric workspaces with fine-grained network isolation, allowing private, secure access from your virtual network — without traversing the public internet. In September, we introduced the Fabric workspace-level Private Link (Preview), enabling customers to use APIs to set up and manage private connectivity to their … Continue reading “Workspace-Level Private Link in Microsoft Fabric (Generally Available)”  ( 5 min )

The new Copilot capabilities of Fabric Data Factory to efficiently ingest your data, easily apply transformation with natural language and understand your data with Copilot explanation. In September 2024, we made Copilot for Data Factory generally available, new features are rolling out to make your data experience even more powerful and intuitive. In this blog, discover … Continue reading “AI-powered development with Fabric Data Factory – ingest, transform and understand your data with Copilot”  ( 7 min )

Copy job is the go-to solution in Microsoft Fabric Data Factory for simplified data movement. With native support for multiple delivery styles, including bulk copy, incremental copy, and change data capture (CDC) replication, Copy job offers the flexibility to handle a wide range of scenarios—all through an intuitive, easy-to-use experience. This update introduces several enhancements, … Continue reading “Simplifying Data Ingestion with Copy Job – Connection Parameterization, Expanded CDC and Connectors”  ( 7 min )

As organizations accelerate their AI adoption on Microsoft Azure, governance, compliance, and security become critical pillars for success. Deploying AI workloads without a structured compliance framework can expose enterprises to data privacy issues, misconfigurations, and regulatory risks. To address this challenge, the Azure AI Landing Zone provides a scalable and secure foundation — bringing together Azure Policy, Blueprints, and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) to ensure every resource aligns with organizational and regulatory standards. The Azure Policy & Compliance Framework acts as the governance backbone of this landing zone. It enforces consistency across environments by applying policy definitions, initiatives, and assignments that monitor and remediate non-compliant resources autom…  ( 25 min )

Welcome to the September edition of the Fabric Influencers Spotlight, a recurring monthly post here to shine a bright light on the places on the internet where Microsoft MVPs & Fabric Super Users are doing some amazing work on all aspects of Microsoft Fabric. The Microsoft Fabric Community team has created the Fabric Influencers Spotlight to highlight … Continue reading “Fabric Influencers Spotlight September 2025”  ( 7 min )

Here is the September 2025 release of the on-premises data gateway (version 3000.286).  ( 5 min )

In an age where data breaches can cost millions and erode customer trust, keeping your data private during transfer is no longer a ‘nice to have’ — it’s a must-have. That’s why Microsoft Fabric now allows Copy Job to work seamlessly with the Virtual Network (VNET) Data Gateway, providing a simple, secure, and high-performance way … Continue reading “Secure Your Data Movement with Copy Job and Virtual Network Data Gateway”  ( 6 min )

A new set of enhancements to Dataflow Gen2 in Microsoft Fabric significantly expands data integration and collaboration capabilities—enabling broader connectivity and streamlined workflows across teams. These updates are designed to meet the evolving needs of data professionals by offering more flexible destinations, schema support, and tighter integration with enterprise-grade platforms. Expanding Where Your Data Can … Continue reading “New Dataflow Gen2 data destinations and experience improvements”  ( 7 min )

At Microsoft, we believe that empowering every user to shape and transform data should be simple, powerful, and cost-effective. A major wave of enhancements is now available for Dataflow Gen2, the next-generation data transformation engine in Microsoft Fabric. These updates are the result of deep collaboration with our customers and community. You spoke, and we … Continue reading “Unlocking the Next Generation of Data Transformations with Dataflow Gen2 – FabCon Europe 2025 Announcements”  ( 8 min )

With this new capability, organizations can bring their Oracle data—whether on-premises, in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), or on Exadata—directly into OneLake, Fabric’s unified Data Lake. Meaning your Oracle data is always fresh, instantly query able, and seamlessly integrated with the rest of your analytics stack—without the complexity of traditional ETL. Integrating Oracle Data Seamlessly into OneLake … Continue reading “Mirroring for Oracle in Microsoft Fabric (Preview)”  ( 7 min )

Azure Storage Actions is a powerful platform for automating data management tasks across Blob and Data Lake Storage. Among its many features, Exclude Prefix stands out as a subtle yet critical capability that helps fine-tune task assignments. What Is the "Exclude Prefix" Feature? The Exclude Prefix option allows users to omit specific blobs or folders from being targeted by Azure Storage Actions. This is particularly useful when applying actions such as: Moving blobs to a cooler tier Deleting blobs Rehydrating archived blobs Triggering workflows based on blob changes For example, if you're running a task to archive blobs older than 30 days, but you want to exclude logs or config files, you can define a prefix like logs/ or config/ in the exclusion list. How to Use It — Example Scenario:I…  ( 26 min )

The way we write code as engineers is changing—fast. If you think GitHub Copilot is just glorified autocomplete, think again. Copilot is more than a tool—it’s a teammate. It’s a tireless, context-aware, prompt-savvy peer that can help you architect, refactor, and deploy with speed and precision. It also takes on tedious tasks that eat into your day, freeing you up to write more fulfilling, high-value code. When Copilot first launched in 2021, it did feel a bit like fancy autocomplete. But today, it has evolved far beyond that. To really unlock its potential, you need more than curiosity—you need practice. That’s why a team of us built Mastering GitHub Copilot for Paired Programming: a free, multi-module, hands-on workshop designed to take you from curious to confident. Whether you’re a jun…  ( 33 min )

We’re excited to announce that the Microsoft Build of OpenJDK binaries are now available for Java 25. As always, our builds aim to provide a high-quality, production-ready build of OpenJDK, with binaries tested across platforms (Windows, Linux, macOS) and backed by our support and release pipelines. With this release, we invite developers, teams, and organizations […] The post Microsoft’s OpenJDK builds now ready for Java 25 appeared first on Microsoft for Java Developers.  ( 25 min )

In this blog, we’ll cover: Why AI Landing Zones matter. Security threats specific to AI workloads. Mapping Azure security services into AI Landing Zone design areas. A reference architecture diagram . Ready-to-use Azure Policy and Blueprint snippets. ARM & Terraform templates to bootstrap security controls. Why AI Landing Zones? Landing Zones are opinionated environments that encode identity, networking, security, governance, and operations from day one. For AI, extending Landing Zone patterns means: Dedicated subscriptions for each team/project. Centralized shared services (network, identity, logging). Guardrails via Azure Policy and Blueprints. End-to-end security integration (Defender, Sentinel, Key Vault). This approach scales across multiple AI teams while keeping governance consi…  ( 33 min )

Fabric now supports smoother, faster multitasking with updates that streamline complex workflows across items and workspaces—bringing a modern IDE-like experience to developers. What’s Changing? We’re introducing a set of UI enhancements that improve how you multitask and navigate in Fabric — including horizontal tabs for open items, support for multiple active workspaces, and a new … Continue reading “Supercharge Your Workflow: New Multitasking Features Coming to Fabric (Preview)”  ( 6 min )

This release delivers enterprise-grade security, performance, and reliability—empowering you to confidently run production workloads. It builds on the strong momentum and customer adoption seen during preview. Why This Matters Enterprises with sensitive or regulated data often need to move information securely between private networks and Microsoft Fabric; with VNET Data Gateway, you can: GA Highlights … Continue reading “Virtual Network Data Gateway Support for Fabric Pipeline, Dataflow Gen2 Fast Copy, and Copy Job (Generally Available)”  ( 6 min )

This milestone of Mirroring for Azure SQL Managed Instance in Fabric marks a significant step forward in our mission to provide seamless, near real-time data replication and integration capabilities for our users. What is Mirroring in Fabric? Mirroring in Fabric is a powerful feature that allows you to replicate data from various data sources such … Continue reading “Fabric Mirroring for Azure SQL Managed Instance (Generally Available)”  ( 7 min )

Microsoft Fabric is redefining the modern, AI‑ready data estate—bringing data, governance, and compute together on a unified SaaS platform built for mission‑critical workloads. By converging analytics, security, and operations on OneLake, Fabric accelerates time‑to‑value with consistent governance. Trusted by thousands of customers across industries, Fabric turns fragmented data into a strategic advantage for any business. … Continue reading “Cross-Cloud Data Movement with Best-in-Class Connectivity: What’s New and What’s Next in Fabric Data Factory”  ( 9 min )

AI isn’t just for the cloud anymore. With the rise of Small Language Models (SLMs) and powerful local inference tools, developers can now run intelligent applications directly on laptops, phones, and edge devices—no internet required. If you're a student developer curious about building AI that works offline, privately, and fast, Microsoft’s Edge AI for Beginners course is your perfect starting point. What Is Edge AI? Edge AI refers to running AI models directly on local hardware—like your laptop, mobile device, or embedded system—without relying on cloud servers. This approach offers: ⚡ Real-time performance 🔒 Enhanced privacy (no data leaves your device) 🌐 Offline functionality 💸 Reduced cloud costs Whether you're building a chatbot that works without Wi-Fi or optimizing AI for low-…  ( 22 min )

Developer tier APIM enjoys many "premium" features such as vnet injection. FeatureConsumptionDeveloperBasicBasic v2StandardStandard v2PremiumPremium v2 (preview) Microsoft Entra integration1NoYesNoYesYesYesYesYes Virtual network injection supportNoYesNoNoNoNoYesYes Private endpoint support for inbound connectionsNoYesYesNoYesYesYesNo Outbound virtual network integration supportNoNoNoNoNoYesNoYes Multi-region deploymentNoNoNoNoNoNoYesNo Availability zonesNoNoNoNoNoNoYesNo Multiple custom domain names for gatewayNoYesNoNoNoNoYesNo Developer portal2NoYesYesYesYesYesYesYes Built-in cacheNoYesYesYesYesYesYesYes External cacheYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes AutoscalingNoNoYesNoYesNoYesNo API analyticsNoYesYesYesYesYesYesYes Self-hosted gateway3NoYesNoNoNoNoYesNo WorkspacesNoNoNoNoNoNoYesYes TLS sett…  ( 20 min )

Reviewed by: Sumit Sarabhai and Gaurav Sharma If you’ve worked with databases in Python, you know the boilerplate: open a connection, create a cursor, run queries, commit or rollback transactions, close cursors and connection. Forgetting just one cleanup step can lead to resource leaks (open connections) or even inconsistent data. That’s where context managers step […] The post Simplifying Resource Management in mssql-python through Context Manager appeared first on Microsoft for Python Developers Blog.  ( 26 min )

With the enhanced capability of the MCP on JetBrains, you can now bring prompts, resources, and even interactive tools directly into your IDE interacting with MCP. This means more flexible workflows, deeper context, and smoother collaboration between Copilot and your coding environment.  Let’s take a look at what you can do today with MCP Sampling, […] The post Unlocking MCP in JetBrains: How Copilot Uses Sampling, Prompts, Resources, and Elicitation appeared first on Microsoft for Java Developers.  ( 24 min )

This architecture diagram illustrates a Microsoft Azure AI Landing Zone Pattern — a scalable, secure, and well-governed framework for deploying AI workloads across multiple subscriptions in an enterprise environment. Let's walk through it end-to-end, breaking down each section, the flow, and key Azure services involved. 🧭 Overview: The architecture is split into 4 major landing zones: Connectivity Subscription AI Apps Landing Zone Subscription AI Hub Landing Zone Subscription AI Services Landing Zone Subscription 🔁 Step-by-Step Breakdown 🔹 1. Users → Application Gateway (WAF) Users (e.g., enterprise employees or external users) access the system via the Application Gateway with Web Application Firewall (WAF). This is part of the Connectivity Subscription and provides: Centralized in…  ( 36 min )

Governance Principles Least Privilege: Grant only the permissions required for each role.  Segregation of Duties (SoD): Separate responsibilities for build, deploy, operate, and secure.  Environment Guardrails:  Dev → open for experimentation.  Nonprod → controlled integration and validation.  Prod → no human write, CI/CD only, with Just-in-Time (PIM) access for exceptions.  Identity Strategy:  Managed Identities for workloads.  Service Principals for pipelines.  PIM for human elevation.  Break-glass accounts for emergencies only.  Key Benefits  Strong security aligned to enterprise & regulatory needs.  Clear accountability by persona and environment.  Consistency between control-plane and data-plane access.  Built-in operational gua…  ( 61 min )

🎓 What Is Foundry Fridays? Every Friday at 1:30 PM ET, join the Azure AI Foundry Discord Community https://aka.ms/model-mondays/discord for a 30-minute live Ask Me Anything (AMA) session. It’s your chance to connect with the experts behind Azure AI—Principal PMs, researchers, and engineers—who are building the tools you’ll use in classrooms, hackathons, and real-world projects. Whether you're experimenting with model fine-tuning, curious about local inference, or diving into agentic workflows and open-source tooling, this is where your questions get answered live and unscripted.       💡 Why Students & Educators Should Join Direct Access to ExpertsAsk your questions live and get real-time insights from the people building Azure AI. Weekly Themes That MatterFrom model routing and M…  ( 21 min )

Supply chain security has become one of the most pressing challenges for modern cloud-native applications. Every container image, Helm chart, SBOM, or AI model that flows through your CI/CD pipeline carries risk if its integrity or authenticity cannot be guaranteed. Attackers may attempt to tamper with artifacts, replace trusted images with malicious ones, or inject unverified base images into builds.   Today, we’re excited to highlight how Notary Project and Trusted Signing (Public Preview) make it easier than ever to secure your container image supply chain with strong, standards-based signing and verification.   Why image signing matters Image signing addresses two fundamental questions in the software supply chain:   Integrity: Is this artifact exactly the same one that was originally…  ( 25 min )

Picture this: Your agent authored with the OpenAI Agent SDK is halfway through analyzing 10,000 customer reviews when it hits a rate limit and dies. All that progress? Gone. Your multi-agent workflow that took 30 minutes to orchestrate? Back to square one because of a rate limit throttle. If you've deployed AI agents in production, you probably know this frustration first-hand. Today, we're announcing a solution that makes your agents reliable: OpenAI Agent SDK Integration with Azure Durable Functions. This integration provides automatic state persistence, enabling your agents to survive any failure and continue exactly where they stopped. No more lost progress, no more starting over, just reliable agents that work. The Challenge with AI Agents Building AI agents that work reliably in prod…  ( 34 min )

We’re thrilled to announce the public preview of Azure Container Apps Azure Monitor Dashboards with Grafana, a major step forward in simplifying observability for your apps and environments. With this new integration, you can view Grafana dashboards directly within your app or environment in the Azure portal, with no extra setup or cost required.  What’s new?  Azure Monitor Dashboards with Grafana bring the power of Grafana’s visualization capabilities to your Azure resources. Dashboards with Grafana enable you to create and edit Grafana dashboards directly in the Azure portal without additional cost and less administrative overhead compared to self-hosting Grafana or using managed Grafana services.  For Azure Container Apps, this means you can access two new pre-built dashboards:   Conta…  ( 22 min )

Introducing the Secure tab in the OneLake catalog—your central place to understand and manage access across Fabric items. From a single view, you can workspace roles with the View users experience and inspect or modify role OneLake security roles with View security roles. The Secure tab brings a streamlined view for governance teams and workspace … Continue reading “View and manage security in the OneLake catalog (Preview)”  ( 6 min )

Big news for Fabric users, managing workloads just got a lot easier! With the new Workspace-level assignment feature, workspace admins can now add additional workloads directly to their own workspaces—no more waiting on tenant or capacity-level setup. This update makes using additional workloads more accessible than ever. Once a workload is added, you can immediately … Continue reading “New in Microsoft Fabric: Empowering Workspace Admins with Direct Workload Assignment”  ( 6 min )

Coauthored by: Venu Amancha (Lucid Data Hub) and Roy Hasson (Microsoft) Lucid Data Hub is proud to announce Agent Mart Studio for Microsoft Fabric, enabling business users to build and deploy AI agents directly on top of enterprise data in OneLake. This integration enables organizations to automate complex business processes using proven AI agents, enhanced … Continue reading “Lucid Data Hub + Microsoft Fabric: Empowering Business Users with AI Agents”  ( 9 min )

Unveiling the Future of Data Integration and Pipelines at FabCon Europe 2025  ( 8 min )

Fabric Data Agent now support mirrored databases–making it easier than ever to put your operational data to work with AI. As organizations depend on an ever-growing mix of data sources, the ability to seamlessly integrate and analyze data—no matter where it resides—is critical. This is where mirroring in Fabric comes in. With open mirroring, you … Continue reading “Unlocking LLM-Powered through Data Agent from your Mirrored Databases in Microsoft Fabric”  ( 7 min )

SPFx is powering the future of Microsoft 365. From AI-driven portals to seamless integrations across SharePoint, Teams and Viva, SPFx is driving innovation at scale. This new blog series kicks off our journey into the next evolution—transparent, community-driven, and built for the AI era. Let’s shape what’s next, together. The post SharePoint Framework (SPFx) roadmap update – September 2025 appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 26 min )

Introducing Dev Proxy v1.2 with mock response mirroring capabilities that make API simulation more realistic. The post Dev Proxy v1.2 with mock response mirroring and improved performance appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 23 min )

As product roadmaps accelerate to meet new business needs, developer teams are struggling to maintain productivity, some even reporting that they need to use six or more tools to do their job. To address this, Microsoft has released an improved PostgreSQL extension to aid developers working with PostgreSQL in Visual Studio (VS) Code streamline their workflows and increase productivity.  PostgreSQL and VS Code are top choices among developers, but, until now, using PostgreSQL and VS Code together meant constantly Alt-Tabbing or copying queries between windows. The new extension, now in public preview, brings full database management and query capabilities into VS Code, right alongside your code. You can connect to PostgreSQL databases, run queries, explore schemas, and even get AI assistanc…  ( 51 min )

This new capability extends Microsoft Fabric’s zero-ETL data movement strategy, enabling customers to replicate data from BigQuery into OneLake—securely, efficiently, and in near real-time. What is Mirroring? Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric allows customers to replicate their operational and warehouse data sources directly into OneLake without complex ETL pipelines. This ensures data stays fresh and is … Continue reading “Mirroring for Google BigQuery in Microsoft Fabric (Preview)”  ( 6 min )

Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention policies for Fabric This is a significant milestone for organizations looking to strengthen their data governance and security posture within the unified, end-to-end analytics platform that is Microsoft Fabric. In today’s data-driven world, data is your most valuable asset. But with great data comes great responsibility – the responsibility to … Continue reading “Protecting Your Fabric Data Using Purview (Generally Available)”  ( 9 min )

During preview, thousands of users have leveraged created functions to embed their business logic into their Fabric ecosystem. We have seen sophisticated solutions for a wide variety of use cases from data engineering, with Data pipelines and Notebooks, to Translytical applications using Power BI reports. Benefits of using User Data Functions Key features of User … Continue reading “Fabric User Data Functions (Generally Available)”  ( 6 min )

Fabric Spark Monitoring APIs offers powerful new observability capabilities and enhanced automation to Spark workloads within Microsoft Fabric! Based on your feedback, here’s what’s new! We’ve continued refining the APIs to meet evolving user needs. Spark Advisor API – Provides recommendations and skew diagnostics to help identify bottlenecks and optimize performance. Resource Usage API – … Continue reading “Fabric Spark Monitoring APIs (Generally Available)”  ( 6 min )

A new AI capability in Microsoft Fabric’s Real-Time Intelligence (RTI) is available with a preview of anomaly detection. This marks the start of a journey to empower users with AI-driven, scalable, proactive real-time data experiences. Learn more about the other Real-Time Intelligence announcements in our documentation. Unlocking Value with AI in Real-Time Intelligence We are … Continue reading “AI–Powered Real-Time Intelligence with Anomaly Detection (Preview)”  ( 6 min )

Coauthored by: Joanne Wong Microsoft Fabric continues to evolve as a unified data platform, and the latest updates to SQL Database in Fabric as a fully managed database SaaS offering, brings a suite of application developer centric and enterprise-grade features that elevates security, flexibility, and developer productivity. Here’s a breakdown of the most impactful enhancements. … Continue reading “Unlocking Enterprise ready SQL database in Microsoft Fabric: ALM, Backup, Copilot & more”  ( 7 min )

Version 1.36 of the MSSQL extension for VS Code introduces Fabric Connectivity and SQL Database in Fabric Provisioning in Public Preview. These features let you browse Fabric workspaces, authenticate with Microsoft Entra ID, and create SQL databases directly from VS Code—reducing context switching and accelerating modern app development.  ( 6 min )

Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric has significantly transformed data access making data unification for all your AI and BI needs simple, requiring zero-ETL. Mirroring for Google BigQuery and Oracle are now in preview along with ability to chat with your Mirrored data directly in a Data Agent. Azure SQL Managed Instance is also GA with support … Continue reading “Mirroring: New Sources and Capabilities to Support Zero -ETL Data Unification”  ( 7 min )

Fabric Spark Run Series Analysis is a powerful observability feature designed to help you better understand, compare, and optimize your recurring Spark job executions. Building on the momentum from preview and the announcement of the Autotune feature at the Fabric Conference, Run Series Analysis has expanded capabilities, improved accessibility, and enhanced engineering infrastructure to support … Continue reading “Fabric Spark Run Series Analysis (Generally Available)”  ( 6 min )

In today’s data-driven landscape, operational agility depends on the ability to respond to insights as they happen. Microsoft Fabric’s Real-Time Intelligence (RTI) is transforming the way organizations ingest, transform, and analyze their data, introducing new possibilities for immediate action and decision-making. For organizations using Microsoft Fabric, integrating monitoring data from Azure resources is very relevant … Continue reading “Unlocking Real-Time Operational Intelligence: Azure Monitor Logs Integration in Fabric via Eventstream”  ( 6 min )

Discover and Assess PostgreSQL Databases at Scale with Azure Migrate (Preview) Cloud migration projects can be complex, and it can be difficult to determine where to begin, especially when you host different technology workloads and wish to migrate as well as modernize your workloads on Azure VM and PaaS solutions respectively. Planning migrations without full visibility into your IT estate—including the applications and databases powering your workloads—can lead to unexpected delays, cost overruns, or performance issues. At Microsoft, we're committed to helping you migrate with confidence by offering an integrated discovery, assessment, and migration capabilities for all your key workloads and applications through Azure Migrate. In this blog post, we’re excited to announce the public prev…  ( 24 min )

Introduction Managing campus events has long been a complex, manual process fraught with challenges. Traditional event management systems offer limited automation, placing a considerable workload on staff for tasks ranging from resource allocation to participant communication. This procedural friction presents a clear opportunity to build a more intelligent solution, leveraging the emerging paradigm of AI agents. To solve these challenges, I developed and evaluated a multi-agent system designed to automate the campus event workflow and improve productivity. In this blog, I’ll share the journey of building this system, detailing its architecture and how I leveraged the Semantic Kernel and Azure Services to create a team of specialized agents.  Background My name is Junjie Wan, and I’m a MSc…  ( 36 min )

Are you ready to take your Azure development workflow to the next level? In this post, we’ll walk through how to use GitHub Copilot in Agent Mode—paired with MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers—to get trusted, grounded answers from Microsoft Learn Docs, right inside your coding workspace. Whether you’re tired of switching tabs to search documentation or want to ensure your AI assistant’s answers are always accurate, this guide will show you how to streamline your workflow and boost your productivity. 🚀 Why Use Copilot with MCP Servers? Have you ever asked your AI assistant about Microsoft technologies and wondered if the answer was truly reliable? With MCP, you can connect Copilot directly to official Microsoft documentation—no more second-guessing or uploading your own grounding data. �…  ( 25 min )

The Microsoft Fabric Extensibility Toolkit is the next evolution of the Workload Development Kit. The new toolkit represents a significant step forward in enabling organizations to create and integrate data applications that show up in Microsoft Fabric. Now organizations and software development companies can build Fabric items within days or hours if they use the … Continue reading “Introducing the Microsoft Fabric Extensibility Toolkit”  ( 7 min )

Introducing Maps: The Geospatial Dimension of Real-Time Intelligence Everything happens somewhere. Whether you’re monitoring supply chains, tracking last-mile deliveries, or analyzing campaign performance, location adds context, reveals patterns, and helps you tell the story behind the numbers. With the new Map item geospatial insights are now built into the Microsoft Fabric Real-Time Intelligence workload – … Continue reading “Maps in Microsoft Fabric – Geospatial Insights for Real-Time Operations”  ( 6 min )

We’re excited to share some fantastic news—the Fabric VS Code Extension is now generally available! After listening to your feedback and making improvements, the Fabric VS Code Extension is packed with new features designed to make your development experience better.  ( 6 min )

The Spark Applications Comparison feature is now in preview in Microsoft Fabric. This new capability empowers developers and data engineers to analyze, debug, and optimize Spark performance across multiple application runs—whether you’re tracking changes from code updates or data variations to improve performance. What is Spark Applications Comparison? The Spark Applications Comparison feature allows users … Continue reading “Fabric Spark Applications Comparison (Preview)”  ( 6 min )

Shiva Shastri Sr Product Marketing Manager, Azure Migrate—Product & Ecosystem. Modernization in motion: Evolving at the speed of change. Modernization is the process of transforming legacy IT systems into technologies and architectures that improve agility, scalability, performance and cost-efficiency. It enables businesses to stay competitive by aligning their capabilities with evolving customer and market demands. Modernization is not a one-time event with a finish-line but a continuous journey of evolution. As technology, customer expectations, and competitive landscapes shift, so must the systems and processes that support them. Cloud-native architectures are inherently aligned with modernization while providing access to innovations such as AI. By treating modernization as an ongoing …  ( 28 min )

What Is Disciplined Guardrail-Based Development? In AI-assisted software development, approaches like Vibe Coding—which prioritize momentum and intuition—often fail to ensure code quality and maintainability. To address this, Disciplined Guardrail-Based Development introduces structured rules ("guardrails") that guide AI systems during coding and maintenance tasks, ensuring consistent quality and reliability. To get AI (LLMs) to generate appropriate code, developers must provide clear and specific instructions. Two key elements are essential: What to build – Clarifying requirements and breaking down tasks How to build it – Defining the application architecture The way these two elements are handled depends on the development methodology or process being used. Here are examples as follows…  ( 53 min )

Technology is evolving at an incredible pace, and now the world is in the midst of another revolution: Generative AI. This isn't just for tech experts anymore; it's a field that has truly democratized AI, putting powerful capabilities into the hands of everyone. From creating art to drafting emails, people and businesses are adopting these applications faster than ever. But as with any powerful technology, there are challenges. One might have experienced a frustrating delay when a chatbot is "thinking" or a smart assistant takes too long to respond. That's latency, and it's a common problem with applications that rely on large language models. The constant stream of API calls and high token usage can make these tools sluggish and expensive to run. So, how can we ensure these amazing tools …  ( 35 min )

We are excited to announce that Azure Monitor managed service for Prometheus now includes native Grafana dashboards within the Azure portal at no additional cost. This integration marks a major milestone in our mission to simplify observability reducing the administrative overhead and complexity compared to deploying and maintaining your own Grafana instances. The use of open-source observability tools continues to grow for cloud-native scenarios such as application and infrastructure monitoring using Prometheus metrics and OpenTelemetry logs and traces. For these scenarios, DevOps and SRE teams need streamlined and cost-effective access to industry-standard tooling like Prometheus metrics and Grafana dashboards within their cloud-hosted environments. For many teams, this usually means dep…  ( 24 min )

Meet the reimagined GitHub app for Teams: an AI-powered app to collaborate with GitHub Copilot right inside your Teams conversations. The post The new GitHub app for Teams: from conversation to code appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 23 min )

Like many of you I have been on a journey to build AI systems where multiple agents (AI models with tools and autonomy) collaborate to solve complex tasks. In this post, I want to share the engineering challenges we faced, the architecture we designed with Azure AI Foundry, and the lessons learned along the way. Our goal is to empower AI engineers and developers to leverage multi-agent systems for real-world applications, with the benefit of Microsoft’s tools, research insights, and enterprise-grade platform. Why Multi‑Agent Systems? The Need for AI Teamwork Building a single AI agent to perform a task is often straightforward. However, many real-world processes are too complex for one agent alone. Tasks like in-depth research, enterprise workflow automation, or multi-step customer service…  ( 75 min )

Like many of you I have been on a journey to build AI systems where multiple agents (AI models with tools and autonomy) collaborate to solve complex tasks. In this post, I want to share the engineering challenges we faced, the architecture we designed with Azure AI Foundry, and the lessons learned along the way. Our goal is to empower AI engineers and developers to leverage multi-agent systems for real-world applications, with the benefit of Microsoft’s tools, research insights, and enterprise-grade platform. Why Multi‑Agent Systems? The Need for AI Teamwork Building a single AI agent to perform a task is often straightforward. However, many real-world processes are too complex for one agent alone. Tasks like in-depth research, enterprise workflow automation, or multi-step customer service…  ( 75 min )

Introduction We introduce the proof-of-concept conversational multi-agent system for campus energy management.  This system is developed and evaluated through emerging frameworks in Microsoft’s Azure AI Agent Services. We quantitatively discuss the evaluation results and existing limitations within agentic evaluation frameworks. Finally, we outline the key challenges behind the development process, offering suggestions & recommendations for future works. Background I am an MSc Applied Computational Science student at Imperial College London. I was part of the team that collaborated with Microsoft to research the applications of autonomous LLM agents in institutional settings. I was part of the energy team, where my work focused on developing the conversational energy management chatbot. I …  ( 37 min )

1. Weekly Highlights This week’s top news in the Azure AI and open source ecosystem: Open Source Model Integration in Azure AI Foundry:Azure AI Foundry makes it easy to discover, deploy, and fine-tune thousands of open models. The Foundry catalog surface thousands of community models and fine-tuned variants for a wide range of tasks; visit the Foundry catalog to explore specific models and their licenses. Hugging Face Partnerships:Microsoft and Hugging Face continue to collaborate to bring models, datasets, and integration tooling to Azure (Transformers / Diffusers / Datasets workflows are all part of that ecosystem). Community Contributions:The open model catalog is growing via community submissions, leaderboards, and transparent benchmarking (HF leaderboards and community spaces make i…  ( 28 min )

Come learn about new agentic AI capabilities and investments that can help unlock your organization’s digital future. Mark your calendar for the upcoming Migrate and Modernize Summit, happening September 23 and 24. This highly anticipated event brings together IT professionals, cloud leaders, and developers packed with brand new product announcements and innovations, actionable insights, and opportunities to connect with industry visionaries.   The summit will showcase how new AI-assisted tooling advancements and investment offerings are helping teams move faster, reduce costs, and minimize risk. With expert guidance from Microsoft and industry partners, you’ll leave equipped to harness AI-powered tools that empower your organization to evolve confidently.  Keynote Speakers: Visionaries L…  ( 27 min )

Introduction  Accelerate your migration and modernization journey with Azure Essentials, Azure Migrate, and GitHub Copilot—empowering your organization to join the ranks of Frontier Firms: businesses that put AI and cloud innovation at the core of their strategy. Supported by expert guidance and investments through Azure Accelerate, every step is secure, resilient, and ready for the future of agentic applications.  Join the Migrate and Modernize Summit, where Microsoft will show new AI-assisted migration tools that will help teams modernize.  Why Secure and Resilient Migration Matters More Than Ever  Migrating to Azure is more than a technical upgrade—it’s a strategic move that positions your organization to lead as a Frontier Firm, where AI and cloud innovation drive transformation. By pr…  ( 30 min )

Are you ready to take your learning from “just reading” to “actively doing”? We are launching a series of interactive events designed to help you bridge the gap between theory and practice, connect with peers, and learn directly from experts, all in a vibrant, supportive Discord community. The series will guide you on practical ways to use AI in your learning journey with Data Science and Machine Learning. Join the series on Discord at: https://aka.ms/ds4beginners/discord  Why You Should Join Guided Pathways: Move seamlessly from the popular Data Science for Beginners and Machine Learning for Beginners curriculums to interact with fellow learners in the Azure AI Foundry Discord community. We’ve designed study plans, office hours sessions, and showcases so you can learn, ask questions, …  ( 22 min )

The next major release of Azure Container Storage delivers higher IOPS and less latency compared to previous versions. The post Accelerating AI and databases with Azure Container Storage, now 7 times faster and open source appeared first on Microsoft Open Source Blog.  ( 16 min )

Developers burn cycles context‑switching: opening five repos to find a logging example, searching a wiki for a data masking rule, scrolling chat history for the latest pipeline pattern. Organisations that I speak to are often on the path of transformational platform engineering projects but always have the fear or doubt of "what if my engineers don't use these resources". While projects like Backstage still play a pivotal role in inner sourcing and discoverability I also empathise with developers who would argue "How would I even know in the first place, which modules have or haven't been created for reuse". In this blog we explore how we can ensure organisational standards and developer satisfaction without any heavy lifting on either side, no custom model training, no rewriting or reloca…  ( 49 min )

Several months ago, GitHub introduced the public preview of its Copilot coding agent, a powerful new capability that allows you to assign GitHub Issues directly to Copilot. From there, the agent works independently in the background, much like a human developer, to complete the task. Copilot evaluates the request based on the information you provide, […] The post Azure Boards integration with GitHub Copilot (Private Preview) appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 25 min )

Key ISV Announcements Transforming the Future of Data with Microsoft Fabric The Engine of Innovation—ISVs & Microsoft Fabric Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) have long been the pulse driving technological advancement and industry-specific solutions in cloud ecosystems. With over 25,000 customers, Microsoft Fabric—a unified SaaS analytics platform designed to break down silos and accelerate insights—the opportunity … Continue reading “The Power of ISVs: Unleashing Innovation in Microsoft Fabric”  ( 10 min )

Microsoft Fabric provides industry leading data integration capabilities that are unique in the market. Fabric is built on OneLake, which provides data integration at the root, with shortcuts and mirroring that enable Zero-ETL approaches to data unification. Fabric Data Factory provides the industry’s largest, most widely adopted data integration capability offered as a single, cohesive … Continue reading “Unify your data estate for the era of AI with Fabric Data Factory”  ( 12 min )

Every organization shares the same ambitions: to deliver better outcomes, increase efficiency, mitigate risks, and seize opportunities before they are lost. These ambitions underpin growth, resilience, agility, and lasting competitive advantage.  Yet most organizations struggle to harness the full value of their data to realize those ambitions. Massive volumes of granular signals flow in constantly … Continue reading “The Foundation for Powering AI-Driven Operations: Fabric Real-Time Intelligence”  ( 14 min )

Fabric Data Warehouse is a relatively recent addition to the market, designed with a next-generation architecture and developed from the ground up in the 2020s. Drawing on decades of database and cloud innovation, Fabric Data Warehouse delivers advanced capabilities for modern organizations. Following FabCon Europe, we wish to highlight notable customer success stories and introduce … Continue reading “Welcome to Fabric Data Warehouse “  ( 7 min )

Welcome to the Fabric September 2025 Feature Summary! This month’s update is packed with exciting enhancements, such as new certification opportunities, the Power BI DataViz World Championships at FabCon Vienna, and major advancements in the Fabric Platform. Highlights include the general availability of the Govern Tab and Domains Public APIs and expanded Microsoft Purview protection … Continue reading “Fabric September 2025 Feature Summary”  ( 52 min )

Recently, we have seen a surge in requests from customers and Microsoft partners seeking guidance on building and deploying agentic solutions at various scales. With the rise of Generative AI, replacing traditional APIs with agents has become increasingly popular. There are several approaches to building, deploying, running, and orchestrating agents on Azure. In this discussion, I will focus exclusively on Azure-specific tools, services, and methodologies, setting aside Copilot and Copilot Studio for now. This article describes the options available as of today. 1. Azure OpenAI Assistants API:This feature within Azure OpenAI Service enables developers to create conversational agents (“assistants”) based on OpenAI models (such as GPT-3.5 and GPT-4). It supports capabilities like memory, too…  ( 31 min )

Recently, we have seen a surge in requests from customers and Microsoft partners seeking guidance on building and deploying agentic solutions at various scales. With the rise of Generative AI, replacing traditional APIs with agents has become increasingly popular. There are several approaches to building, deploying, running, and orchestrating agents on Azure. In this discussion, I will focus exclusively on Azure-specific tools, services, and methodologies, setting aside Copilot and Copilot Studio for now. This article describes the options available as of today. 1. Azure OpenAI Assistants API:This feature within Azure OpenAI Service enables developers to create conversational agents (“assistants”) based on OpenAI models (such as GPT-3.5 and GPT-4). It supports capabilities like memory, too…  ( 28 min )

The September 2025 release includes pipenv support in the Python Environment Extension, a new experimental hover feature with GitHub Copilot and Pylance, and more! The post Python in Visual Studio Code – September 2025 Release appeared first on Microsoft for Python Developers Blog.  ( 26 min )

AI-driven modernisation is unlocking new opportunities you may not have even considered yet. It's also allowing organisations to re-evaluate previously discarded modernisation attempts that were considered too hard, complex or simply didn't have the skills or time to do.  During Microsoft Build 2025, we were introduced to the concept of Agentic AI modernisation and this post from Ikenna Okeke does a great job of summarising the topic - Reimagining App Modernisation for the Era of AI | Microsoft Community Hub.  This blog post however, explores the modernisation opportunities that you may not even have thought of yet, the business benefits, how to start preparing your organisation, empowering your teams, and identifying where GitHub Copilot can help. I’ve spent the last 8 months working with…  ( 56 min )

Join the global movement to innovate with AI and Microsoft Fabric, kicking off September 15, 2025, at the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference in Vienna, and running virtually through November 3, 2025.  Whether you’re a data engineer, AI developer, or just curious about Fabric, this is your chance to: How to Participate Whether you’re just starting … Continue reading “Hack the Future of Data with Microsoft Fabric”  ( 8 min )

Scenario: Bringing Literature to Life with Immersive AI  In many high schools across the United States, reading literary classics is a rite of passage—but for many students, it’s also a source of frustration. The dense, archaic language and complex themes can feel inaccessible, especially when delivered through static printed text or monotone classroom readings. As a result, students often miss the emotional depth, nuance, and relevance of the material.  Now imagine that same classroom experience, reimagined through immersive AI.  Instead of silently reading from a textbook, students log into an interactive platform powered by neural voice and avatar technology. Instantly, the characters of Biff from Death of a Salesman or El Sordo from For Whom the Bell Tolls come alive voiced with emotio…  ( 42 min )

1. Weekly Highlights This week’s top news in the Azure AI ecosystem included: GPT Real Time (GA):Azure AI Foundry now offers GPT Real Time (GA)—lifelike voices, improved instruction following, audio fidelity, and function calling, with support for image context and lower pricing. Read the announcement and check out the model card for more details. Azure AI Translator API (Public Preview):Choose between fast Neural Machine Translation (NMT) or nuanced LLM-powered translations, with real-time flexibility for multilingual workflows. Read the announcement then check out the Azure AI Translator documentation for more details. Azure AI Foundry Agents Learning Plan:Build agents with autonomous goal pursuit, memory, collaboration, and deep fine-tuning (SFT, RFT, DPO) - on Azure AI Foundry. Read …  ( 30 min )

The Microsoft Fabric Migration Guide is now live! This comprehensive resource is designed to help you plan and execute your migration to Microsoft Fabric with confidence. Whether you’re just getting started or already deep into your migration journey, this guide provides best practices, tools, and step-by-step instructions to support you every step of the way. … Continue reading “Now Available – A Guide: Migrating to Fabric Data Warehouse”  ( 7 min )

Version 1.0.14.0, packed with improvements that make it even more powerful for your day-to-day data workflows has been released. What is OneLake File Explorer? OneLake file explorer is your bridge between local file management and the Microsoft Fabric ecosystem, bringing the power of OneLake directly into your Windows file explorer experience. Capabilities These features make … Continue reading “OneLake File Explorer: Smarter, More Reliable, and Seamlessly Integrated”  ( 6 min )

Most user action performed by your Copilot extension or web add-in can now be undone using the familiar ribbon Undo button, keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+Z), or the Undo button on Copilot response cards. The post Excel announces undo support for 3rd-party web add-ins appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 23 min )

Most user action performed by your Copilot extension or web add-in can now be undone using the familiar ribbon Undo button, keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+Z), or the Undo button on Copilot response cards. The post Excel announces undo support for 3rd-party Copilot declarative agents & web add-ins appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 23 min )

In May 2024, Microsoft announced the phased deprecation of VBScript in Windows, as detailed in the official Windows IT Pro Blog. This change impacts VBA developers who rely on VBScript, particularly for reference libraries such as regular expressions. This post outlines the upcoming changes and provides guidance to help you future proof your VBA projects. […] The post Prepare your VBA projects for VBScript deprecation in Windows appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 24 min )

This blog was originally posted to the App Service team blog We’re excited to announce that Azure App Service now supports Bring Your Own License (BYOL) for JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP), enabling enterprise customers to deploy Java workloads with greater flexibility and cost efficiency. If you’ve evaluated Azure App Service in the past, now is the perfect time to take another look. With BYOL support, you can leverage your existing Red Hat subscriptions to optimize costs and align with your enterprise licensing strategy. 🧩 What Is BYOL for JBoss EAP? BYOL allows customers with existing Red Hat subscriptions to apply those licenses directly to their JBoss EAP deployments on Azure App Service. This model complements the existing Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) option, giving customers mo…  ( 21 min )

Introduction Personalised learning has long been proven to improve students' academic performance, with private tutoring being an example. However, human teaching assistants are full-time researchers with limited availability. Recently, the rise of conversational apps like ChatGPT and Claude offered a promising solution, providing accessible, automated coaching and feedback that many students now rely on to support their studies. Yet, these general-purpose LLMs face critical limitations: they lack awareness of individual student backgrounds and specific course material, cannot track learning progress, and tend to provide direct answers instead of fostering critical thinking. To overcome these challenges, I developed ATLAS, an agentic Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) designed to bring toge…  ( 55 min )

Agents are rapidly emerging as the future of automation and intelligent workflows, empowering businesses to create dynamic solutions that adapt to real-world needs. Customers are recognizing immense value in building agents—these systems can orchestrate tasks, respond intelligently to changing inputs, and automate complex processes with minimal human intervention.  Microsoft Azure delivers robust, end-to-end experiences for designing, deploying, and managing agents, making it easier than ever to realize business outcomes across a wide range of scenarios. The Azure Foundry Agent Service is a unified platform that enables creation, orchestration, and management of intelligent agents with integrated AI, workflow automation, and secure enterprise connectivity. Azure Logic Apps Agent Loop enabl…  ( 23 min )

What Is the Azure Well-Architected Framework? The Azure Well-Architected Framework is a set of guiding principles that help cloud architects build high-quality solutions on Azure. It is structured around five key pillars: Reliability: Ensuring your application can recover from failures and continue to function. Security: Protecting applications and data from threats. Cost Optimization: Managing costs to maximize the value delivered. Operational Excellence: Running and monitoring systems to deliver business value. Performance Efficiency: Using IT and computing resources efficiently. These pillars serve as a foundation for evaluating and improving the architecture of cloud-based applications. They are particularly relevant for AI workloads, which often involve complex data pipelines, high …  ( 24 min )

Container Insights is Azure Monitor’s solution for collecting logs from your Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters.  As the adoption of AKS continues to grow, we are seeing an increasing number of customers with log scaling needs that hit the limits of log collection in Container Insights.  Last August, we announced the public preview of High Scale mode in Container Insights to help customers achieve a higher log collection throughput from their AKS clusters.  Today, we are happy to announce the General Availability of High Scale mode. High scale mode is ideal for customers approaching or above 10,000 logs/sec from a single node.   When High Scale mode is enabled, Container Insights does multiple configuration changes leading to a higher overall throughput. These include using a more powerful agent setup, using a different data pipeline, allocating more memory for the agent, and more. All these changes are made in the background by the service and do not require input or configuration from customers.  High Scale mode impacts only the data collection layer (with a new DCR) – the rest of the experience remains the same. Data flows to our existing tables, your queries and alerts work as before too.   High Scale mode is available to all customers. Today, High scale is turned off by default. In the future, we plan to enable High Scale mode by default for all customers to reduce the chances of log loss when workloads scale.   To get started with High Scale mode, please see our documentation at https://aka.ms/cihsmode  ( 20 min )

Last Friday I was reviewing our backlog items in the Java Engineering Group, and found an idea we had when Log4Shell happened. To this day, there is still no main stream solution to “find in production where a given JAR is being used“. Why runtime truth matters (Log4Shell) When Log4Shell hit, lots of teams hunted […] The post Building a Runtime JAR inspector in 10 hours appeared first on Microsoft for Java Developers.  ( 25 min )

We're making changes to how Microsoft handles Microsoft Teams call data in GCC High and DoD environments that we expose via the Microsoft Graph callRecords APIs. The post Change to data visibility for Microsoft Graph callRecords APIs in GCC High and DoD appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 22 min )

TL;DR: If your organization uses a TLS-inspecting proxy (e.g., Zscaler), some of the traffic originating from App Service build infrastructure may be re-signed by the proxy. App Service doesn’t trust that proxy cert by default, so the build fails. Set the app setting WEBSITE_INSTALL_PUBLIC_CERTS_IN_KUDU=true and upload the proxy’s public certificate (.cer). App Service will install the certificate and your builds will succeed.  ( 3 min )

Sidecars on Azure App Service let you bolt on capabilities like monitoring, caching, or AI—without changing your main app. The Azure team has added two GitHub Actions sample workflows that make it easy to roll this out on App Service for Linux. (Sidecars on Azure App Service)  ( 3 min )

Introduction: The Evolution of AI-Powered App Service Applications Over the past few months, we've been exploring how to supercharge existing Azure App Service applications with AI capabilities. If you've been following along with this series, you've seen how we can quickly integrate AI Foundry agents with MCP servers and host remote MCP servers directly on App Service. Today, we're taking the next leap forward by demonstrating how to build sophisticated multi-agent systems that leverage connected agents, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and OpenAPI tools - all running on Azure App Service's Premium v4 tier with .NET Aspire for enhanced observability and cloud-native development experience. 💡 Want the full technical details? This blog provides an overview of the key concepts and capabilitie…  ( 32 min )

What’s New? The updated experience introduces a dedicated App Service Quota blade in the Azure portal, offering a streamlined and intuitive interface to: View current usage and limits across the various SKUs Set custom quotas tailored to your App Service plan needs This new experience empowers developers and IT admins to proactively manage resources, avoid service disruptions, and optimize performance. Quick Reference - Start here! If your deployment requires quota for ten or more subscriptions, then file a support ticket with problem type Quota. If any subscription included in your request requires zone redundancy, then file a support ticket with problem type Quota. Otherwise, leverage the new self-service experience to increase your quota automatically. Self-service Quota Requests Fo…  ( 28 min )

For platform engineers, securely managing sensitive information across dev and test environments is a critical responsibility. Each workflow, from provisioning virtual machines to deploying artifacts and automating environment setup, often involves handling credentials, SSH keys, and API tokens. Sharing these in chat, hardcoding them into scripts, or keeping them in plain text is not secure. […] The post 🎉Enhancing security and streamlining configuration with Lab Secrets in Azure DevTest Labs appeared first on Develop from the cloud.  ( 23 min )

Delivering high-quality software is a necessity and that’s why Azure Test Plans has introduced the all-new Test Run Hub, an enabler for teams who want to take control of their testing process and drive continuous improvement. What Makes the Test Run Hub a Must-Have? The Test Run Hub is designed to help teams track test […] The post New Test Run Hub in Azure Test Plans appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 23 min )

For years, organizations have aspired to build a culture where data isn’t just accessible—it’s woven into every decision. And now with generative AI, AI assistants are making it easier than ever for business users to explore data, quickly answer their pressing data questions, and even build custom agents on their data. And yet, for many, … Continue reading “OneLake: your foundation for an AI-ready data estate”  ( 14 min )

Introducing Dev Proxy v1.1 with critical fixes for Microsoft Graph batch request simulation, resolved authentication plugin issues, and enhanced the MinimalPermissionsGuidancePlugin with new reporting capabilities. The post Dev Proxy v1.1 with improved support for Microsoft Graph batching appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 22 min )

Introducing Azure Local Training: Empowering You to Succeed We’re excited to announce the launch of the Azure Local Training Program — a comprehensive, self-paced learning experience designed to empower customer to learn more about how to manage Azure Local environments. Key Objectives Comprises of self-service, self-paced modules Align training updates with Azure Local feature release cadence to ensure content remains current and relevant. What You’ll Learn The training covers a wide range of topics including networking, deployment, Arc registration, updates, monitoring, co-pilot log collection, security, Arc VM management, billing and pricing, remote support, Azure Migrate, Configurator App, and Environment Checker. Built for All Skill Levels Whether you're an advanced user comfortable with CLI and scripting, or someone who prefers graphical interfaces, the training is designed to meet your needs. It includes knowledge checks and links to documentation to reinforce learning. Get Started Today The Azure Local Training Program will be updated annually to reflect the latest features and improvements. Start your journey today and unlock the full potential of Azure Local. This training is completely free and designed to help you unlock the full potential of Azure Local. If you require a zip format of the training to upload into your own learning system or would like to provide feedback about the training, please email azurelocaltraining@service.microsoft.com  ( 19 min )

Accelerate Innovation and Business Growth with Azure In today’s digital-first world, organizations are reimagining their cloud architectures to drive agility, resilience, and growth. Migrating your application load balancing from AWS Application Load Balancer (ALB) to Azure Application Gateway is more than a technical upgrade—it’s a strategic move to future-proof your business. Azure Application Gateway delivers enterprise-grade performance, security, and flexibility, empowering you to unlock new opportunities and maximize your cloud investment.   Key Insights for a Successful Migration 1. Strategic Assessment: Map Capabilities and Opportunities Begin your journey by evaluating your current AWS ALB environment. Identify critical features—path-based routing, health checks, SSL/TLS terminati…  ( 22 min )

For decades, fragments and unofficial copies of Microsoft’s 6502 BASIC have circulated online, mirrored on retrocomputing sites, and preserved in museum archives. Coders have studied the code, rebuilt it, and even run it in modern systems. Today, for the first time, we're officially releasing it under an open-source license. The post Bringing BASIC back: Microsoft’s 6502 BASIC is now Open Source appeared first on Microsoft Open Source Blog.  ( 11 min )

This blog will talk about the environment variables ENABLE_ORYX_BUILD vs. SCM_DO_BUILD_DURING_DEPLOYMENT on App Service Linux and deployments.  ( 3 min )

Introduction Welcome to the August 2025 edition of What’s New in Fabric Warehouse. As summer winds down, despite August being a slower month, our team continued to deliver meaningful updates. We shipped several new features focused on enhancing data ingestion, improving the data management, and streamlining security. At the same time, much of our energy … Continue reading “What’s new in Fabric Warehouse – August 2025 Recap”  ( 9 min )

In today’s hyper-connected digital landscape, safeguarding sensitive data is more critical than ever. Microsoft Fabric already offers a robust suite of network security features for inbound and outbound connectivity like Private Links, Trusted Workspace Access, and Managed Private Endpoints which are now generally available. As organizations increasingly depend on Microsoft Fabric to manage their sensitive … Continue reading “Introducing Workspace Outbound Access Protection for Spark  “  ( 7 min )

Accelerating Data Movement: Leveraging Fast Copy Feature in Dataflow to ingest SQL database faster. Unlocking Performance and Efficiency for Modern Data Workloads. The Fast Copy feature in Dataflow is designed to dramatically reduce data movement latency. It minimizes data movement latency primarily through bulk loading and parallel processing by dividing large datasets into manageable chunks. … Continue reading “Accelerating Data Movement by using Fast Copy to unlock performance and efficiency during data ingestion from SQL database in Fabric”  ( 6 min )

Broadcom has announced changes are coming to its VMware licensing model on hyperscalers beginning in its new fiscal year on November 1, 2025. If you’re an Azure VMware Solution (AVS) customer, here’s what you need to know about the new requirements and how they will affect your cloud deployments. What’s changing? Broadcom is changing its VMware licensing policies across all hyperscaler platforms to require customers to “bring your own” portable subscription for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). This means customers must purchase portable VCF subscriptions directly from Broadcom to use with cloud services in the future, including Azure VMware Solution. AVS already supports “bring your own” licensing model The good news is that Azure VMware Solution is ready for this change. The AVS VCF BYOL op…  ( 22 min )

Azure Cloud Shell is an online shell hosted by Microsoft that provides instant access to a command-line interface, enabling users to manage Azure resources without needing local installations. Cloud Shell comes equipped with popular tools and programming languages, including Azure CLI, PowerShell, and the Kubernetes command-line tool (kubectl). Using Cloud Shell can provide several benefits for administrators who need to work with AKS, especially if they need quick access from anywhere, or are in locked down environments: Immediate Access: There’s no need for local setup; you can start managing Azure resources directly from your web browser. Persistent Storage: Cloud Shell offers a file share in Azure, keeping your scripts and files accessible across multiple sessions. Pre-Configured Envi…  ( 38 min )

This tiny app just does one thing: upload an image → get a natural one-line caption. Under the hood: Azure AI Vision extracts high-confidence tags from the image. Azure OpenAI (GPT-4o-mini) turns those tags into a fluent caption. Streamlit provides a lightweight, Python-native UI so you can ship fast. All code + infra templates: image_caption_app in the App Service AI Samples repo: https://github.com/Azure-Samples/appservice-ai-samples/tree/main/image_caption_app What are these components? What is Streamlit? An open-source Python framework to build interactive data/AI apps with just a few lines of code—perfect for quick, clean UIs. What is Azure AI Vision (Vision API)? A cloud service that analyzes images and returns rich signals like tags with confidence scores, which we use as grounde…  ( 28 min )

At Build, we unveiled the Azure SRE Agent with a powerful end-to-end incident handling experience - detecting, diagnosing, mitigating, and handing off issues to development teams. Since then, it’s evolved dramatically in capability, coverage, and enterprise readiness. Designed to streamline incident response, improve uptime, and reduce operational costs, the agent is a pre-built AI assistant that brings intelligent automation to your Azure workloads. During the preview, customers explored features like natural language operations, proactive best practices, incident response, and daily health reports helping shape the updates we’re excited to share today. Before we dive into what’s new, here’s an important update: Billing for all Azure SRE Agent customers will officially begin on September …  ( 27 min )

We’re excited to introduce Fabric RTI’s Schema Registry — a centralized way to discover, manage, and evolve data schemas in Fabric Eventstreams and beyond.  ( 8 min )

We are excited to announce that Premium v4 is now Generally Available on Azure App Service for both Windows and Linux customers!  Key benefits of Premium v4 include: Fully managed platform-as-a-service (PaaS) to run your favorite web stack, on both Windows and Linux. Built using latest-gen Azure hardware for higher performance and reliability. Lower total cost of ownership with new pricing tailored for large-scale app modernization projects. Azure cost-saving options are available as part of the Premium v4 GA! High Performance and Reliability App Service Premium v4 GA runs on the latest AMD-based Dadsv6 / Eadsv6 series virtual machines with NVMe based temporary storage, delivering higher performance and more attractive pricing compared to previous Premium generations. Premium v4 provides…  ( 25 min )

Enrich Microsoft 365 profiles with Microsoft 365 Copilot connectors for people data The post Enriching Microsoft 365 profiles with Microsoft 365 Copilot connectors for people data (public preview) appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 26 min )

We are announcing the deprecation of the Microsoft Graph Toolkit (MGT). The retirement period begins September 1st, 2025 with full retirement planned for August 28th, 2026. Why we’re retiring this toolkit We introduced the Microsoft Graph Toolkit (MGT) to simplify the developer experience when building web applications that connect to Microsoft Graph. It provided a set […] The post Microsoft Graph Toolkit retirement appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 22 min )

We are announcing the retirement of the Microsoft Graph command-line interface (CLI). The Microsoft Graph CLI has served as a powerful tool for developers and IT professionals to interact with Microsoft Graph through simple terminal commands—enabling automation, scripting, and streamlined access to Microsoft 365 data and services. As we evolve our developer tooling strategy, we’re […] The post Microsoft Graph CLI retirement appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 23 min )

Welcome to the August 2025 edition of the Fabric Influencers Spotlight, a recurring monthly post here to shine a bright light on the places on the internet where Microsoft MVPs & Fabric Super Users are doing some amazing work on all aspects of Microsoft Fabric. The Microsoft Fabric Community team has created the Fabric Influencers Spotlight to … Continue reading “Fabric Influencers Spotlight August 2025”  ( 8 min )

Most of the times, it is observed that prompts/system message for large language models (LLMs) can become unstructured and difficult to manage, especially when it is lengthy containing few shot examples. This often leads to incorrect responses, makes way for hallucinations and more such problems. For those who have experienced this challenge, Prompt Orchestration Markup Language (POML) offers a structured solution. POML can be considered as the HTML of AI prompts, utilizing familiar tag-based components to introduce organization and reusability into a set of instructions. Its design addresses common frustrations in prompt engineering, allowing for a more efficient and scalable interaction with LLMs. Why use POML? The adoption of POML provides several key benefits: Structure and Reusabilit…  ( 43 min )

We’re excited to announce the general availability of the Responses API in Azure AI Foundry, making it easier than ever for developers to build intelligent, tool-using agents with stateful, multi-turn conversations—all in a single API call. Since we introduced the Responses API in public preview, customers have been using it to create agents that reason, call tools, and return structured outputs without complex orchestration code. Now, with GA, the API is production-ready and supports the full range of popular OpenAI models, including the GPT-5 series and fine-tuned models, along with a rich set of built-in tools to accelerate development.   Growing momentum since preview Since preview, we’ve seen rapid adoption across industries as teams bring agentic workflows into their applications: U…  ( 26 min )

In healthcare, data security is not just a technical priority—it’s an ethical and legal imperative. From electronic health records (EHRs) to population health analytics and research data, healthcare organizations working with platforms like Microsoft Fabric must protect sensitive health information while navigating a complex web of regulatory requirements, most notably HIPAA and regional health privacy … Continue reading “Meet Your Healthcare Regulation and Compliance Requirements with Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Policies “  ( 7 min )

JobInsight is a powerful Java-based diagnostic library designed to help developers and data engineers analyze completed Spark applications in Microsoft Fabric. With JobInsight, you can programmatically access Spark execution metrics and logs—all from within a Fabric Notebook. Whether you’re investigating performance bottlenecks, debugging task execution, or conducting post-run analysis across jobs, stages, or executors, JobInsight … Continue reading “Gain Deeper Insights into Spark Jobs with JobInsight in Microsoft Fabric”  ( 6 min )

The August 2025 Fabric Feature Summary showcases several exciting updates designed to streamline workflows and enhance platform capabilities. Notably, users will benefit from the new flat list view in Deployment pipelines, making navigation and management more intuitive. In addition, expanded support for service principals and cross-tenant integration with Azure DevOps reflects Microsoft’s commitment to versatile … Continue reading “August 2025 Fabric Feature Summary”  ( 27 min )

Organizations often face challenges when trying to scale analytics across large volumes of data stored in centralized SQL databases. As business teams demand faster, more tailored insights, traditional reporting pipelines can become bottlenecks. By adopting Lakehouse architecture with Microsoft Fabric, business groups can mirror their SQL data into OneLake and organize it using the Medallion … Continue reading “Mastering Declarative Data Transformations with Materialized Lake Views”  ( 6 min )

In previous versions of the Semantic Kernel, the encoding of template arguments was performed automatically if the argument type was a string. The encoding was not applied for custom types, anonymous types, or collections. With the latest changes, we’ve introduced stricter rules: if automatic encoding is enabled (the default behavior), an exception will now be […] The post Encoding Changes for Template Arguments in Semantic Kernel appeared first on Semantic Kernel.  ( 24 min )

In previous versions of the Semantic Kernel Python, the default fallback authentication mechanism for Azure services like AzureChatCompletion was DefaultAzureCredential from the Azure Identity library. This provided a convenient way to authenticate without explicitly passing credentials, especially during development. However, with the latest package version 1.36.0, this fallback is being removed to encourage more secure […] The post Azure Authentication Changes in Semantic Kernel Python appeared first on Semantic Kernel.  ( 24 min )

In this post, we’ll demonstrate how to build a simple yet powerful workflow using Azure Logic Apps, Log Analytics queries, and LLMs to automate log analysis, save time, and spot issues faster. While we focus here on an example using Application Insights data with Azure OpenAI, the same approach can be applied to any Log Analytics source - whether raw logs, security events, or custom logs. By customizing your queries and AI prompts to match your data and the model’s capabilities, you can easily adapt this workflow to meet your specific needs. Note: This blog post offers guidance for automating workflows with Log Analytics data and LLMs using existing Azure Monitor products. It’s intended as a flexible approach based on user needs and preferences, providing an additional option alongside oth…  ( 33 min )

We’ve completed a set of improvements to the monitoring experience for Notebooks running in high concurrency mode, whether triggered manually or as part of a pipeline using the high concurrency execution model. These updates provide deeper visibility into Spark applications, improve observability across multiple Notebooks, and enable more efficient debugging and performance tuning. New Enhancements … Continue reading “Enhanced Monitoring for Spark High Concurrency Workloads in Microsoft Fabric”  ( 6 min )

We’ve made a major enhancement to the Notebook Integration with Fabric User Data Functions (UDFs)—you can now use Pandas DataFrames and Series as input and output types, powered by native integration with Apache Arrow! This enhancement brings higher performance, improved efficiency, and better scalability to your Fabric Notebooks—enabling seamless function reuse for large-scale data processing … Continue reading “Use Fabric User Data Functions with Pandas DataFrames and Series in Notebooks”  ( 6 min )

This post will go over messages like “Container exceeded its local ephemeral storage limit” or “Pod ephemeral local storage usage exceeds the total limit of containers”.  ( 9 min )

1. Weekly Highlights This week’s top news in the Azure AI ecosystem included: Lakuna — Copilot Studio Agent for Product Teams:A hackathon project built with Copilot Studio and Azure AI Foundry, Lakuna analyzes your requirements and docs to surface hidden assumptions, helping teams reflect, test, and reduce bias in product planning. Azure ND H200 v5 VMs for AI:Azure Machine Learning introduced ND H200 v5 VMs, featuring NVIDIA H200 GPUs (over 1TB GPU memory per VM!) for massive models, bigger context windows, and ultra-fast throughput. Agent Factory Blog Series:The next wave of agentic AI is about extensibility: plug your agents into hundreds of APIs and services using Model Connector Protocol (MCP) for portable, reusable tool integrations. GPT-5 Tool Calling on Azure AI Foundry:GPT-5 mode…  ( 29 min )

We’re thrilled to announce that .NET 10 Preview is now available on Azure App Service for both Windows and Linux! Whether you’re building modern web apps with ASP.NET, experimenting with Blazor, or exploring the simplicity of Minimal APIs, you can now take advantage of the latest .NET 10 features directly in App Service.  ( 2 min )

Greetings from Las Vegas! I’m writing today from VMware Explore, where my team and I are thrilled to present the latest updates for Azure VMware Solution (AVS). We’re hosting breakout sessions, showcasing demos at our booth, and most importantly, meeting directly with customers to help them map the future of their VMware environments to take advantage of all the benefits of Microsoft Azure. Join our Microsoft sessions to learn about the latest updates to Azure VMware Solution and discover why it's a great choice for a quick move to the cloud. Here are some of the recent enhancements to Azure VMware Solution: Azure VMware Solution is now in 35 regions: Since the launch of AVS four years ago, we’ve been working to support customers globally with geographic expansion and I am pleased to repo…  ( 23 min )

Use triggers to launch processes from signals like approval emails, connect to the right data with Model Context Protocol (MCP) for faster, more accurate responses, and coordinate multiple agents to handle everything from task assignments to inventory planning. Choose AI models that fit each job, prompt agents to generate detailed documents, and test their reasoning in real time.  Jeremy Chapman, Director of Microsoft 365, shows how to transform repetitive work into scalable, intelligent systems.  Automate your planning. Skip manual steps by letting your agent instantly build launch plans and assign tasks when projects kick off. Get started with Copilot Studio. Your API is not an MCP. Help your agents find the right info faster so they respond with more accuracy and context. See how MCP …  ( 42 min )

We’re thrilled to announce that the Copy job Activity is now in Preview!  This new orchestration activity brings the simplicity of the Copy job item directly into your Microsoft Fabric Data Factory pipelines, enabling you to manage data movement alongside transformations, notifications, and more; all in one place.  The Copy job activity includes a monitoring link that gives you … Continue reading “Copy job Activity in pipelines (Preview)”  ( 6 min )

Introduction Co-op Translator began as a simple CLI tool for documentation translation. Over the past year, it has evolved into a GitHub Actions–powered workflow that helps automate translation across Microsoft’s open-source learning repositories. What started as a lightweight translator is now a widely used automation layer that keeps multilingual content continuously in sync, making Microsoft’s educational resources accessible to global communities without creating extra work for maintainers. Today, we’re excited to announce the release of v0.10.0, which introduces Jupyter Notebook support, expanded language coverage, and a more reliable translation engine. Status and Utilization Adoption at Scale 27,700+ downloads from PyPI as of August 2025 Actively used in multiple Microsoft OSS repo…  ( 22 min )

In today's AI-driven landscape, organizations are increasingly looking for ways to leverage large language models while maintaining data privacy and reducing operational costs. Microsoft Foundry Local is a free tool that lets developers run generative‑AI models entirely on‑device—no Azure subscription, no internet connection, and no data leaving your laptop or desktop. Combined with Microsoft's Semantic Kernel framework, this creates a powerful platform for building local Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) applications. This blog will walk you through architecting and implementing a production-ready RAG solution using these technologies, focusing on practical implementation patterns and architectural considerations. Understanding the Technology Stack Foundry Local: Edge AI with ONNX Runt…  ( 46 min )

We'll create an independent identity for DocumentDB and provide a conduit for database providers to contribute to our mission. The post DocumentDB joins the Linux Foundation appeared first on Microsoft Open Source Blog.  ( 12 min )

We’re excited to announce that Azure App Service now supports Bring Your Own License (BYOL) for JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP), enabling enterprise customers to deploy Java workloads with greater flexibility and cost efficiency. If you’ve evaluated Azure App Service in the past, now is the perfect time to take another look. With BYOL support, you can leverage your existing Red Hat subscriptions to optimize costs and align with your enterprise licensing strategy. 🧩 What Is BYOL for JBoss EAP? BYOL allows customers with existing Red Hat subscriptions to apply those licenses directly to their JBoss EAP deployments on Azure App Service. This model complements the existing Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) option, giving customers more control over licensing costs and compliance. With BYOL, customers: Avoid paying the built-in license fee in PAYG plans. Leverage their Red Hat Cloud Access entitlements. Maintain consistency with on-prem licensing strategies. This capability is part of a broader effort to make Azure the best cloud for enterprise Java workloads. 💡 Why BYOL Matters JBoss EAP powers mission-critical applications across industries. Until now, customers migrating to Azure App Service had to rely on PAYG licensing, which could be cost-prohibitive for large-scale deployments. BYOL changes that by: Reducing total cost of ownership. Supporting license portability via Red Hat Cloud Access. Aligning cloud deployments with existing enterprise agreements. This feature was developed jointly by Microsoft and Red Hat and is supported across multiple hosting options including Azure VMs, Azure Red Hat OpenShift, and now App Service. 📚 Resources and Documentation JBoss EAP on Azure Overview Red Hat Cloud Access Program Quickstart: Create a Java app on Azure App Service ✍️ Final Thoughts BYOL support for JBoss EAP on Azure App Service is a game-changer for enterprise Java customers. It empowers organizations to modernize their applications on Azure while preserving existing licensing investments. Whether you’re migrating from on-prem or scaling new workloads, BYOL offers the flexibility and savings you need. If you’re ready to get started, check out the deployment guide or reach out to your Microsoft or Red Hat account team for assistance.  ( 3 min )

From Linux kernel code to AI at scale, discover Microsoft’s open source evolution and impact. The post Microsoft’s open source journey: From 20,000 lines of Linux code to AI at global scale appeared first on Microsoft Open Source Blog.  ( 18 min )

Here is the August 2025 release of the on-premises data gateway (version 3000.282).  ( 6 min )

Introducing the Item History Page in Microsoft Fabric Capacity Metrics App (Preview) We’re thrilled to announce the Preview of the Item History page in the latest version of the Microsoft Fabric Capacity Metrics App. The Item History page provides a 30-day compute usage analysis through dynamic visuals and slicers, enabling users to explore both high-level … Continue reading “Introducing the Item History Page in Microsoft Fabric Capacity Metrics App (Preview)”  ( 6 min )

We’re thrilled to announce that workspace-level Private Link support in Microsoft Fabric is now in Preview! Last year in May, we announced General Availability of Private Link for Fabric Tenants.  Since then, we’ve heard feedback asking for more granular network security controls. Now the wait is finally over! Private link for Fabric workspaces empowers your … Continue reading “Fabric workspace-level Private Link (Preview)”  ( 6 min )

1. Weekly Highlights We kicked off with the top news and updates in the Azure AI ecosystem: Agent Factory Blog Series:A new 6-part blog series on designing reliable, agentic AI—exploring multi-step, collaborative agents that reflect, plan, and adapt using tool integrations and design patterns. Text PII Preview in Azure AI Language:Now redacts PII (like date of birth, license plates) in major European languages, with better accuracy for UK bank entities. Claude Opus 4.1 in Copilot Pro & Enterprise:Public preview brings smarter summaries, tool assistant thinking, and "Ask Mode" in VS Code.Now leverages stronger computer vision algorithms for table parsing—achieving 94-97% accuracy across Latin, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean—with sub-10ms latency. Mistral Document AI in Azure Foundry:Instant…  ( 29 min )

Qu’est-ce que Copilot Studio ? Copilot Studio est un outil faisant parti de Microsoft 365 qui permet de créer facilement des Chatbots. Un Agent Copilot est capable de discuter avec les utilisateurs en langage naturel. Ils peuvent répondre à des questions, guider les utilisateurs ou même déclencher des actions comme envoyer un courriel ou récupérer des données. Un outil sans code Avec Copilot, pas besoin d’avoir une connaissance en programmation. Son interface est simple, on peut écrire des questions, définir des réponses, ajouter des boutons et même le connecter à d’autres services comme Power Automate, SharePoint ou la Dataverse. Un grand avantage : Décrire pour créer Avec Copilot Studio, on peut décrire en quelque lignes ce que l’on veut que notre chatbot fasse, et Copilot Studio génère …  ( 27 min )

Copy Job is the go-to solution in Microsoft Fabric Data Factory for simplified data movement. With native support for multiple delivery styles, including bulk copy, incremental copy, and change data capture (CDC) replication, Copy job offers the flexibility to handle a wide range of scenarios—all through an intuitive, easy-to-use experience. In this update, we’re excited … Continue reading “Simplifying Data Ingestion with Copy job – Multiple Scheduler support”  ( 6 min )

An introduction to the new Results Table integrated into the output cell of Notebooks, powered by the VS Code extension called Data Wrangler. The post Announcing the Data Wrangler powered Notebook Results Table appeared first on Microsoft for Python Developers Blog.  ( 23 min )

GitHub Spark and GitHub Copilot are powerful development tools that can significantly boost productivity even when used out of the box. However, in enterprise settings, a common request is for development support that aligns with specific compliances or regulations. While GitHub Copilot allows you to choose models like GPT-4o or others, it does not currently support the use of custom fine-tuned models. Additionally, many users might find it unclear how to integrate Copilot with external services, which can be a source of frustration. To address such needs, one possible approach is to build a custom MCP server and connect it to GitHub Copilot. For a basic “Hello World” style guide on how to set this up, please refer to the articles below. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/build-a-model…  ( 34 min )

We’ve made a major update to User Data Functions! This update addresses the most critical feedback we have received since the start of the preview: the testing and development experience of your functions. Important note: In order to use this feature, you need to upgrade to the latest version of the fabric-user-data-functions library. Beginning in … Continue reading “Test and validate your functions with Develop mode in Fabric User Data Functions (Preview)”  ( 7 min )

The Open API specification, formerly Swagger Specification, is a widely used, language-agnostic description format for REST APIs. This allows humans and computers alike to discover and understand the capabilities of a service in a standardized format. This is critical for creating integrations with external systems, AI agents and code generators. Now, you can automatically generate … Continue reading “OpenAPI specification code generation now available in Fabric User Data Functions”  ( 6 min )

If you’ve already built Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers with the MCP SDKs and wished you could turn them into world class Remote MCP servers using a hyperscale, serverless platform, then this one’s for you! We’ve published samples showing how to host bring‑your-own (BYO) Remote MCP servers on Azure Functions, so you can run the servers you’ve already built with the MCP SDKs—Python, Node, and .NET—with minimal changes and full serverless goodness. Why this is exciting Keep your code. If you’ve already implemented servers with the MCP SDKs (Python, Node, .NET), deploy them to Azure Functions as remote MCP servers with just one line of code change. Serverless scale when you need it. Functions on the Flex Consumption plan handles bursty traffic, scales out and back to zero automatically,…  ( 22 min )

What is Foundry Local? Foundry Local is a user-friendly tool that helps you run small AI language models directly on your Windows or Mac computer. Think of it as a way to have your own personal ChatGPT running locally on your machine, without needing an internet connection or sending your data to external servers. Currently, Foundry Local works great with several popular model families: Phi models (Microsoft's small but powerful models) Qwen models (Alibaba's multilingual models) DeepSeek models (Efficient reasoning models) In this tutorial, we'll learn how to set up the Qwen3-0.6B model step by step. Don't worry if you're new to AI - we'll explain everything along the way! Why Do We Need to Convert AI Models? When you download AI models from websites like Hugging Face (think of it as G…  ( 37 min )

Introduction The integration of AI into web applications has reached a new milestone with the introduction of Model Context Protocol (MCP) support in Azure AI Foundry Agent Service. This powerful new feature allows developers to extend the capabilities of their Azure AI Foundry agents by connecting them to tools hosted on remote MCP servers—and the best part? Both your applications and MCP servers can be hosted seamlessly on Azure App Service. No custom code is required to get your agents hooked up to these MCP servers either, it's built right into this new functionality. In this blog post, we'll explore how this new functionality works, demonstrate a practical implementation, and show you how to get started with your own MCP-enabled applications on App Service. What is Model Context Proto…  ( 32 min )

Function calling is a powerful technique that allows Large Language Models (LLMs) to go beyond their static training data and interact with real-world, dynamic information sources like databases and APIs. This capability turns a simple chat interface into a powerful tool for fetching real-time data, executing code, and much more. The process of Tool/Function calling typically involves two main components: a client application and the LLM. A user's request, such as "Do I need to carry an umbrella in Bangalore today?", is sent from the client application to the LLM. Along with this message, a tool definition is provided. This definition gives the LLM the context it needs to understand what tools are available along usage methods. The LLM analyses the user's request and the list of available …  ( 34 min )

Special ThanksThanks to Andrew Thomas, Kurt Niebuhr, and Sachi Desai for their invaluable support, insightful discussions, and for providing the compute resources that made testing this deployment possible. Your contributions were essential in bringing this project to life.Introduction OpenAI recently released GPT-OSS, its first open-source large language model. With the rise of high-performance GPUs in the cloud, running advanced AI inference workloads has become easier than ever. Microsoft Azure’s AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service) paired with KAITO (Kubernetes AI Toolchain Operator) provides a powerful, scalable environment for deploying such models. KAITO simplifies provisioning GPU nodes, managing inference workloads, and integrating AI-optimized runtimes like vLLM. In this tutorial, we’l…  ( 28 min )

This blog covers a niche issue with Next.js, but potentially any node.js-based app, when using the Node.js URI API  ( 6 min )

The original post (Japanese) was written on 13 August 2025. Zero code instrumentationでMicronautアプリケーションからAzure Monitorにtraceやmetricを送信したい – Logico Inside This entry is a series posts below. Please take a look for background information. Send signals from Micronaut native image applications to Azure Monitor | Microsoft Community Hub Received another question from the customer. I understand that I can get metrics and traces, but is it possible to send them to Azure Monitor (Application Insights) without using code? If you are not familiar with zero-code instrumentation, please check the following URL. Zero-code | OpenTelemetry The customer wondered if the dependencies would take care of everything else when they only specified the dependencies and destinations. To confirm this (and to prov…  ( 36 min )

The original post (Japanese) was written on 29 July 2025. MicronautからAzure Monitorにlogを送信したい – Logico Inside This entry is related to the following one. Please take a look for background information. Send signals from Micronaut native image applications to Azure Monitor | Microsoft Community Hub Where can we post logs? Log destination differs depending upon managed services such as App Service, Container Apps, etc. We can also send logs to specified destination which is different destination from the default one. In the case of Azure Container Apps, for instance, we have several options to send logs. TypeDestinationHow to Write console output to a log ContainerAppConsoleLogs_CL If diagnostic settings are configured, destination table may differ from the above. The output destination can …  ( 40 min )

The original post (Japanese) was written on 23 July 2025. MicronautからAzure Monitorにtraceを送信したい – Logico Inside This entry is related to the following one. Please take a look for background information. Send signals from Micronaut native image applications to Azure Monitor | Microsoft Community Hub Prerequisites Maven: 3.9.10 JDK version 21 Micronaut: 4.9.0 or later The following tutorial was used as a reference. OpenTelemetry Tracing with Oracle Cloud and the Micronaut Framework As of 13 August 2025, GDK (Graal Dev Kit) guides are also available. Create and Trace a Micronaut Application Using Azure Monitor Create an archetype We can create an archetype using Micronaut’s CLI (mn) or Micronaut Launch. In this entry, use application.yml instead of application.properties for application conf…  ( 31 min )

The original post (Japanese) was written on 20 July 2025. MicronautアプリケーションからAzure Monitorにlog/metric/traceを送信したい – Logico Inside Query One of my customers, using Micronaut to develop their applications, asked me about the following question. We are currently creating microservices with Micronaut and orchestrating them on Azure (Azure Container Apps). We would like to ask about the following two points. We found information on how to send logs and metrics to Azure Monitor in the Micronaut documentation and guides, but we need to know how to send traces. Is it also available with GraalVM Native Image? Their query is, in short, Spring Boot provides Spring Boot Starter and Quarkus provides Quarkus as dependencies, but does Micronaut do the same? Spring Boot starter Quarkus Opentelemetry E…  ( 24 min )

The original post (Japanese) was written on 20 July 2025.MicronautからAzure Monitorにmetricを送信したい – Logico Inside This entry is related to the following one. Please take a look for background information.Send signals from Micronaut native image applications to Azure Monitor | Microsoft Community Hub Prerequisites Maven: 3.9.10 JDK version 21 Micronaut: 4.9.0 or later The following tutorials were used as a reference. Create a Micronaut Application to Collect Metrics and Monitor Them on Azure Monitor Metrics Collect Metrics with Micronaut Create an archetype We can create an archetype using Micronaut’s CLI (mn) or Micronaut Launch. In this entry, use application.yml instead of application.properties for application configuration. So, we need to specify the feature “yaml” so that we can includ…  ( 37 min )

1. Weekly Highlights This episode kicked off with the top news and updates in the Azure AI ecosystem: GPT-5 and GPT-OSS Models Now in Azure AI Foundry: Azure AI Foundry now supports OpenAI’s GPT-5 lineup (including GPT-5, GPT-5 Mini, and GPT-5 Nano) and the new open-weight GPT-OSS models (120B, 20B). These models offer powerful reasoning, real-time agent tasks, and ultra-low latency Q&A, all with massive context windows and flexible deployment via the Model Router. Flux 1 Context Pro & Flux 1.1 Pro from Black Forest Labs: These new vision models enable in-context image generation, editing, and style transfer, now available in the Image Playground in Azure AI Foundry. Browser Automation Tool (Preview): Agents can now perform real web tasks—search, navigation, form filling, and more—via na…  ( 32 min )

We’re excited to share that we’ve entered a new chapter in how we bring you Azure AI content! To streamline your experience, several Azure AI Tech Community blogs have been consolidated into a single destination—the Azure AI Foundry Blog. What’s Changed Multiple Azure AI blogs have merged into one. The Azure AI technical blogs – including the AI Platform Blog, Azure AI Services Blog, and Azure Machine Learning Blog – are now part of the new Azure AI Foundry Blog. By consolidating these resources into a single blog, you have one place to find technical news, tutorials, and announcements. Seamless Access to Past Content All existing content has been preserved. Posts from the legacy blogs have been migrated into the Azure AI Foundry Blog archive. Older posts remain accessible through redirect…  ( 21 min )

We’re excited to share that we’ve entered a new chapter in how we bring you Azure AI content! To streamline your experience, several Azure AI Tech Community blogs have been consolidated into a single destination—the Azure AI Foundry Blog. What’s Changed Multiple Azure AI blogs have merged into one. The Azure AI technical blogs – including the AI Platform Blog, Azure AI Services Blog, and Azure Machine Learning Blog – are now part of the new Azure AI Foundry Blog. By consolidating these resources into a single blog, you have one place to find technical news, tutorials, and announcements. Seamless Access to Past Content All existing content has been preserved. Posts from the legacy blogs have been migrated into the Azure AI Foundry Blog archive. Older posts remain accessible through redirect…  ( 21 min )

Building on our previous post about implementing dev-to-prod promotion with GitHub Actions, this follow-up demonstrates the same “build once, deploy everywhere” pattern using Azure DevOps Pipelines. You’ll learn how to leverage Azure DevOps YAML pipelines with Azure Developer CLI (azd). This approach ensures consistent, reliable deployments across environments. Environment-Specific Infrastructure The infrastructure approach is identical […] The post Azure Developer CLI: From Dev to Prod with Azure DevOps Pipelines appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 25 min )

We’re making an important change to how Azure DevOps displays OAuth client secrets to align with industry best practices and improve our overall security posture. Starting September, newly generated client secrets will be shown only once at the time of creation. After that, they will no longer be retrievable via the UI or API. This […] The post Azure DevOps OAuth Client Secrets Now Shown Only Once appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 21 min )

If you’ve ever waded through a swamp of secret scanning alerts wondering, “Which of these are actually dangerous right now?” — this enhancement is for you. Secret validity checks in GitHub Advanced Security for Azure DevOps (and the standalone Secret Protection experience) add a high‑signal field to each alert: Active (still usable), or Unknown (couldn’t […] The post Hunting Living Secrets: Secret Validity Checks Arrive in GitHub Advanced Security for Azure DevOps appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 24 min )

OpenAI recently introduced gpt-oss as an open-weight language model that delivers strong real-world performance at low cost. Available under the flexible Apache 2.0 license, these models outperform similarly sized open models on reasoning tasks, demonstrate strong tool use capabilities, and are optimized for efficient deployment on consumer hardware; see the announcement: https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-oss/. It’s an excellent choice for scenarios where you want the security and efficiency of a smaller model running on your application instance — while still getting impressive reasoning capabilities. By hosting it on Azure App Service, you can take advantage of enterprise-grade features without worrying about managing infrastructure: Built-in autoscaling Integration with VNet Ent…  ( 26 min )

Azure App Testing centralizes functional and performance testing for your apps. With Playwright Workspaces, you can author, execute, and analyze browser tests at scale, both locally and in the cloud, with shared reporting and parallel, cloud-hosted browsers. If you’re new to the service, start with this Overview and QuickStart. Create a Playwright Workspace (portal quick tour) In the Azure portal, search for “Azure App Testing”, open it, and select “Create.” Choose “Playwright Workspaces” (use “Azure Load Testing” for performance/load). Provide a name, region, and subscription, then create the workspace. Open your Playwright Workspace to author and run tests locally or on cloud-hosted browsers, and view results in “Test runs.” Note: A workspace lets you publish test results and artifact…  ( 27 min )

Copy Job has become the go-to solution in Microsoft Fabric Data Factory for simplified data movement, whether you’re moving data across clouds, from on-premises systems, or between services. With native support for multiple delivery styles, including bulk copy, incremental copy, and change data capture (CDC) replication, Copy Job offers the flexibility to handle a wide … Continue reading “Simplifying Data Ingestion with Copy job – Reset Incremental Copy, Auto Table Creation, and JSON Format Support”  ( 7 min )

Most developers today face a common challenge when integrating AI into their applications: the gap between natural language prompts and actual code execution. While services like OpenAI's ChatGPT excel at generating responses, they can't directly interact with your existing systems, databases, or business logic. You're left building complex orchestration layers, managing function calls manually, and creating brittle workflows that break when requirements change. Microsoft Semantic Kernel changes this paradigm entirely. Unlike traditional LLM integrations where you send a prompt and receive text, Semantic Kernel acts as an AI orchestration layer that bridges natural language with your existing codebase. Semantic Kernel intelligently decides which of your trusted functions to execute, chains…  ( 36 min )

We’re thrilled to announce that Continuous Access Evaluation (CAE) is now supported on Azure DevOps, bringing a new level of near real-time security enforcement to your development workflows. 🔐 What Is CAE? Continuous Access Evaluation (CAE) is a feature from Microsoft Entra ID that enables near real-time enforcement of Conditional Access policies. Traditionally, Microsoft Entra […] The post Real-Time Security with Continuous Access Evaluation (CAE) comes to Azure DevOps appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 23 min )

When deploying AKS clusters, a common concern is the amount of IP address space required. If you are deploying your AKS cluster into your corporate network, the size of the IP address space you can obtain may be quite small, which can cause problems with the number of pods you are able to deploy. The simplest and most common solution to this is to use an overlay network, which is fully supported in AKS. In an overlay network, pods are deployed to a private, non-routed address space that can be as large as you want. Translation between the routable and non-routed network is handled by AKS. For most people, this is the best option for dealing with IP addressing in AKS, and there is no need to complicate things further. However, there are some limitations with overlay networking, primarily th…  ( 39 min )

This post will cover why you may see the message of “The name ‘ContainerAppConsoleLogs_CL’ does not refer to any known table, tabular variable or function.”  ( 3 min )

AzCopy is a powerful and performant tool for copying data between Azure Storage and Microsoft OneLake, and is the preferred tool for large-scale data movement due to its ease of use and built-in performance optimizations. AzCopy now supports copying data from firewall-enabled Azure Storage accounts into OneLake using trusted workspace access. Now you can use … Continue reading “Load data from network-protected Azure Storage accounts to Microsoft OneLake with AzCopy”  ( 6 min )

We’re thrilled to share a major update and simplification to OneLake’s capacity utilization model that will make it even easier to manage Fabric capacity and scale your data workloads. We are reducing the consumption rate of OneLake transactions via proxy to match the rate for transactions via redirect. This means you no longer have to … Continue reading “OneLake costs simplified: lowering capacity utilization when accessing OneLake”  ( 7 min )

Reviewed by Imran Masud and Sumit Sarabhai When it comes to working with Microsoft SQL Server in Python, pyodbc has long been the de facto driver. It’s mature, trusted and has been serving the community well for years. But as applications scale and Python becomes more central to modern data workflows — from microservices to […] The post mssql-python vs pyodbc: Benchmarking SQL Server Performance appeared first on Microsoft for Python Developers Blog.  ( 25 min )

Data is at the heart of every application. But evolving your schema is risky business. One broken migration, and your dev or prod environment can go down. We've all experienced it: mismatched columns, orphaned constraints, missing fields, or that dreaded "table already exists" error. But what if debugging migrations didn’t have to be painful? What if you could simply describe the error or broken state, and AI could fix your migration in seconds? In this blog, you’ll learn how to: Use GitHub Copilot to describe and fix broken migrations with natural language Catch schema issues like incorrect foreign keys before they block your workflow Validate and deploy your database changes using GibsonAI CLI Broken migrations are nothing new. Whether you're working on a side project or part of a larg…  ( 27 min )

OpenAI has released the open-source models gpt-oss-20b and gpt-oss-120B. Enterprises and developers can now deploy these models on edge devices without relying on cloud APIs, enabling local deployment. The AI Toolkit for VS Code extension provides developers with a complete development workflow—from model testing and local deployment to building intelligent agent applications—creating a comprehensive AI application development workflow. We used the AI Toolkit in conjunction with gpt-oss-20b to build local AI applications. Understanding gpt-oss OpenAI has released gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b, the first open-weight language models since GPT-2. Both models utilize mixture-of-experts (MoE) architecture with MXFP4 quantization, delivering exceptional reasoning capabilities and tool use functio…  ( 26 min )

We’re excited to share that customer-managed keys (CMK) for Microsoft Fabric workspaces are now available in public preview in all public regions! This expansion makes it easier for customers worldwide to meet compliance requirements and implement robust data protection strategies. Note: This feature was released in public preview in a limited set of regions earlier … Continue reading “Customer-managed keys for Fabric workspaces is now in Public Preview”  ( 5 min )

Co-author: Meenal Srivastva Managing secure, seamless access to data sources is a top priority for organizations using Microsoft Fabric. With workspace identity authentication, teams can simplify credential management, enhance security, and streamline data access across their enterprise. Workspace identity in Fabric is an automatically managed service principal associated with workspaces (excluding My Workspaces). When you … Continue reading “Introducing support for Workspace Identity Authentication in Fabric Connectors”  ( 7 min )

Co-authored with Kevin Liu, Apache Iceberg Committer and Principal Engineer at Microsoft.  Microsoft Fabric is a unified SaaS data and analytics platform designed for the era of AI. All workloads in Microsoft Fabric use Delta Lake as the standard, open-source table format. With Microsoft OneLake, Fabric’s unified SaaS data lake, customers can unify their data … Continue reading “How Microsoft OneLake seamlessly provides Apache Iceberg support for all Fabric Data”  ( 7 min )

Why Page Numbers Matter in AI Search When users search for content within large PDFs—such as contracts, manuals, or reports—they often need to know not just what was found, but where it was found. Associating search results with page numbers enables: Contextual navigation within documents. Precise citations in knowledge bases or chatbots. Improved user trust in AI-generated responses. Prerequisites for Azure Blob Storage & Azure AI Search Setup Summary 1. Azure Blob Storage A container is configured to store PDF files. 2. Appropriate permissions: The AI search service must have Storage Blob Data Reader access to the container. If using RBAC, ensure the managed identity is properly assigned.  Ref:  AI search Search-blob-indexer-role-based-access How to Index Azure Blobs   Technical Ap…  ( 27 min )

Background Troubleshooting outbound connectivity issues in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) can be daunting. The complexity arises from the layered nature of Azure networking, which can span NSGs, UDRs, route tables, firewalls, and private endpoints. When a pod fails to reach an external service, pinpointing the root cause often requires deep familiarity with Azure networking and manual inspection of multiple network resources. This complex process slows down resolution and increases operational overhead for cluster operations and platform teams. Announcing the Connectivity Analysis feature for AKS To simplify the network troubleshooting process, we're excited to announce the Connectivity Analysis feature for AKS, now available in Public Preview. This feature leverages the same underlying en…  ( 27 min )

The August 2025 release includes Python shell integration support for Python 3.13+, Python Environments extension improvements, enhanced terminal suggestions with documentation, and more! The post Python in Visual Studio Code – August 2025 Release appeared first on Microsoft for Python Developers Blog.  ( 23 min )

Azure App Testing enables developers and QA teams to run large-scale functional and performance tests to pinpoint issues in their applications, across frameworks like Playwright, JMeter, or Locust. It brings together two powerful testing capabilities—Azure Load Testing and Microsoft Playwright Testing—into a single hub in the Azure Portal, providing a consistent experience for resource provisioning, access control, and consolidated billing. With Azure App Testing, our goal is to help you spend less time managing infrastructure and more time harnessing AI-driven test automation to boost quality and innovation. Key Benefits AI-driven testing: Accelerate test creation and insights with AI-powered tooling. Limitless scale: Simulate real-world traffic from multiple regions with load tests, and…  ( 23 min )

Core Topics Discussed 1. Weekly Highlights RFD Observability tools in Azure AI Foundry: Real-time model telemetry, auto evals, quick evals, Python grader. GitHub Copilot Pro with Spark: AI pair programmer for code explanation and workflow suggestions. Synthetic Data for Vision Models: Training accurate models with procedurally generated data. Agent-Friendly Websites: Making sites accessible to AI agents via APIs, semantic markup, and OpenAPI specs. MCP (Model Context Protocol): Standardizing agent memory and context for scalable AI. 2. Spotlight: Foundry Local – On-Device AI What is Foundry Local?A toolkit to run open-source AI models directly on your device (CPU, GPU, NPU) for fast, private, and efficient inference. Why does it matter?Developers can work with data locally, switch seaml…  ( 29 min )

If you have been following this blog post series then you should have a working Terraform config from the first two posts, plus a managed identity from the third post that has the correct authorizations as a workload identity for use in deployment pipelines. In this last post we will configure OpenID Connect for the … Continue reading “Terraform Provider for Microsoft Fabric: #4 Deploying a Fabric config with Terraform in GitHub Actions”  ( 9 min )

Introducing Dev Proxy v1.0, with new language model-specific testing capabilities to help developers build more reliable AI-powered applications by simulating real-world scenarios and tracking resource usage. The post Dev Proxy v1.0 with new features for building robust AI-powered apps appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 26 min )

Prerequisite This article assumes that you’ve already gone through a following post. Please make sure to read it before proceeding: Developing a Custom Engine Agent for Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat Using Pro-Code With the article, we have found how to publish a Custom Engine Agent using pro-code approaches such as C#. In this post, I’d like to shift the focus to security, specifically how to protect the endpoint of our custom Microsoft 365 Copilot. Through several architectural explorations, we found an approach that seems to work well. However, I strongly encourage you to review and evaluate it carefully for your production environment. Which Endpoints Can Be Controlled? In the current architecture, there are three key endpoints to consider from a security perspective: Teams EndpointThis…  ( 53 min )

Prerequisite This article assumes that you’ve already gone through a following post. Please make sure to read it before proceeding: Developing a Custom Engine Agent for Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat Using Pro-Code With the article, we have found how to publish a Custom Engine Agent using pro-code approaches such as C#. In this post, I’d like to shift the focus to security, specifically how to protect the endpoint of our custom Microsoft 365 Copilot. Through several architectural explorations, we found an approach that seems to work well. However, I strongly encourage you to review and evaluate it carefully for your production environment. Which Endpoints Can Be Controlled? In the current architecture, there are three key endpoints to consider from a security perspective: Teams EndpointThis…  ( 53 min )

Just yesterday, OpenAI announced the release of gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b, two new state-of-the-art open-weight language models. These models are designed to run on lighter weight GPU resources making them highly accessible for developers who want to self-host powerful language models within their own environments. If you’re looking to deploy these models in the cloud, Azure Container Apps serverless GPUs are a great option. With support for both A100 and T4 Open AI gpt-oss-120b running on Azure Container Apps serverless GPUsGPUs, serverless GPUs support both the gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b models, providing a cost-efficient and scalable platform with minimal infrastructure overhead. Open AI gpt-oss-120b running on Azure Container Apps serverless GPUs In this blog post, we’ll walk thro…  ( 31 min )

A recent issue was identified in the azure-resourcemanager libraries for Java regarding HTTP headers exceeding 8,192 bytes. Following analysis, this was addressed within the Azure SDK for Java by increasing the maximum response header size limit of “reactor-netty-http” to 256 KB, accommodating larger headers. To benefit from this mitigation, it is necessary to upgrade azure-core-http-netty […] The post “HTTP header exceeding 8,192 bytes” error when using the Azure SDK for Java appeared first on Microsoft for Java Developers.  ( 21 min )

Wassette empowers AI agents to securely fetch and run Wasm tools, enabling dynamic, permission-controlled capabilities with zero dependencies. The post Introducing Wassette: WebAssembly-based tools for AI agents appeared first on Microsoft Open Source Blog.  ( 14 min )

LangChain is a powerful framework that simplifies the development of applications powered by large language models (LLMs). It provides essential building blocks like chains, agents, and memory components that enable developers to create sophisticated AI workflows beyond simple prompt-response interactions. LangChain's importance lies in its ability to orchestrate complex AI operations, integrate multiple data sources, and maintain conversation context—making it the go-to choice for production-ready AI applications. In this blog post, we'll explore a sample application that demonstrates how you can easily deploy a LangChain application integrated with Azure OpenAI Foundry models to Azure App Service. We'll walk through this complete example that showcases a conversational AI chat interface …  ( 28 min )

Welcome to KubeCon + CloudNativeCon India 2025! We’re thrilled to join this year’s event in Hyderabad as a Gold sponsor, where we’ll be highlighting the newest innovations in Azure and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) while connecting with India’s dynamic cloud-native community. We’re excited to share some powerful new AKS capabilities that bring AI innovation to the forefront, strengthen security and networking, and make it easier than ever to scale and streamline operations. Innovate with AI AI is increasingly central to modern applications and competitive innovation, and AKS is evolving to support intelligent agents more natively. The AKS Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, now in public preview, introduces a unified interface that abstracts Kubernetes and Azure APIs, allowing AI agents …  ( 28 min )

Inbound IPv6 support on public multi-tenant App Service has been in public preview for a while now, so we're excited to finally be able to announce that it is now generally available across all public Azure regions for multi-tenant apps on all Basic, Standard, and Premium SKUs, Functions Consumption, Functions Elastic Premium, and Logic Apps Standard! The limitations called out in the previous blog post have been removed except for IP-SSL IPv6 bindings still not being supported. How it works IPv6 inbound requires two things: an IPv6 address that accepts traffic coming in, and a DNS record that returns an IPv6 (AAAA) record. You’ll also need a client that can send and receive IPv6 traffic. This means that you may not be able to test it from your local machine since many networks today only …  ( 21 min )

IN ONE hour, all ONLINE, complete our new training for Generative AI for Beginners – Java Edition – part of the incredible Microsoft Generative AI series – Python, .NET and JavaScript. In this training get first-hand experience with Core Generative AI Techniques and Tools we’re using inside Microsoft: Foundry Local MCP Responsible AI Quick Start Star and […] The post Generative AI for Beginners – Java Edition launched appeared first on Microsoft for Java Developers.  ( 22 min )

LangChain is a powerful framework that simplifies the development of applications powered by large language models (LLMs). It provides essential building blocks like chains, agents, and memory components that enable developers to create sophisticated AI workflows beyond simple prompt-response interactions. LangChain’s importance lies in its ability to orchestrate complex AI operations, integrate multiple data sources, and maintain conversation context—making it the go-to choice for production-ready AI applications.  ( 5 min )

We’re excited to announce that Azure Monitor Network Security Perimeter features are now generally available! This update is an important step forward for Azure Monitor’s security, providing comprehensive network isolation for your monitoring data. In this post, we’ll explain what Network Security Perimeter is, why it matters, and how it benefits Azure Monitor users. Network Security Perimeter is purpose-built to strengthen network security and monitoring, enabling customers to establish a more secure and isolated environment. As enterprise interest grows, it’s clear that this feature will play a key role in elevating the protection of Azure PaaS resources against evolving security threats. What is Network Security Perimeter and Why Does It Matter? Network Security Perimeter is a network i…  ( 31 min )

Azure Monitor logs are trusted by hundreds of thousands of organizations to monitor mission-critical workloads. But with such a diverse customer base, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. That’s why we’re excited to announce a series of major advancements to Auxiliary Logs, the Azure Monitor plan that is designed for high volume logs. Auxiliary Logs works in tandem with all other Azure Monitor tools including the more powerful Basic and Analytics Logs plans. Together, they are the one-stop-shop for all the logging needs of an organization. Auxiliary Logs were introduced last year and have gained a lot of traction since. There are many customers that ingest data into Auxiliary Logs, with several teams ingesting more than a petabyte of logs per day. Over the last few months, we have moved …  ( 27 min )

Batch users often encounter issues like nodes suddenly gets into unusable state due to high CPU or Disk usage. Alerts allow you to identify and address issues in your system. This blog will focus on how users can enable alerts when the node is consuming high amount of disk by configuring the threshold limit. With this user can get notified beforehand when the node gets into unusable state and pre-emptively takes measures to avoid service disruptions. The task output data is written to the file system of the Batch node. When this data reaches more than 90 percent capacity of the disk size of the node SKU, the Batch service marks the node as unusable and blocks the node from running any other tasks until the Batch service does a clean up. The Batch node agent reserves 10 percent capacity of …  ( 29 min )

Overview Semantic models are evolving to work more seamlessly with Mirrored artifacts—giving you greater flexibility, control, and transparency when working with mirrored data. Why are we decoupling semantic models from Mirroring Artifacts? Historically, Mirrored artifacts were created with an automatically ‘coupled’ semantic model. While convenient out-of-the-box, this approach limited how you could shape, interpret, and … Continue reading “Decoupling Semantic Model for Mirroring Customers”  ( 6 min )

Introduction Welcome to What’s New in Fabric Warehouse, where we’ll spotlight our work improving quality, delivering major performance enhancements, boosting developer productivity, and our continuous investments in security. Whether you’re migrating from Synapse, optimizing your workloads, writing SQL in VS Code, or exploring new APIs, this roundup has something for every data professional. With quality … Continue reading “What’s new in Fabric Warehouse – July 2025 Recap”  ( 10 min )

Microsoft Fabric’s Warehouse and SQL Endpoint now support both Case Sensitive (CS) and Case Insensitive (CI) collations, providing users with powerful tools to ensure data consistency and flexibility. This blog delves into the upcoming change – updated collation configuration requirements at the workspace and item levels, offering insights into how these features enhance data workflows, … Continue reading “Coming soon: Streamlining Data Management with Collation Settings in Microsoft Fabric Warehouse and SQL Endpoint”  ( 7 min )

Multiple Scheduler: A Game-Changer for Complex Scheduling Needs In today’s data environments, one size rarely fits all. Yet until now, Fabric only allowed one scheduler per item, forcing users to duplicate pipelines, manually configure jobs, or build brittle workarounds to meet real-world needs. That changes today. We’re excited to announce Multiple Scheduler support in Fabric — a long-awaited … Continue reading “Unlocking Flexibility in Fabric: Introducing Multiple Scheduler and CI/CD Support”  ( 6 min )

Any experiences that require additional setup is cumbersome, especially when there are multiple people needed. In GitHub Advanced Security for Azure DevOps, we’re working to make it easier to enable features and scale out enablement across your enterprise. You can now automatically inject the dependency scanning task into any pipeline run targeting your default branch. […] The post Automate your open-source dependency scanning with Advanced Security appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 23 min )

We have officially ended the support for TLS 1.1 and earlier on the Fabric platform. As previously announced, starting July 31, 2025, all outbound connections from Fabric to customer data sources must use TLS 1.2 or later. This update follows our earlier announcement in the TLS Deprecation for Fabric blog, where we outlined the rationale and timeline for this … Continue reading “Fabric Platform Support for Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.1 and earlier versions has ended”  ( 5 min )

Mirroring for Google BigQuery is now available in Private Preview—bringing the power of Microsoft Fabric to your BigQuery data with zero-ETL, near real-time replication, and native integration across the Fabric experience. This release marks a major milestone in our cross-cloud data strategy, enabling customers to unify analytics across various platforms without the complexity of traditional data movement. What’s New With Mirroring … Continue reading “Mirroring for Google BigQuery in Microsoft Fabric (Private Preview)”  ( 5 min )

Why MCP & Copilot for Azure Matter  What is AI-Assisted Azure Development? AI-assisted development means you can use natural language to manage Azure resources. The Azure MCP Server acts as a bridge between AI agents (like Copilot) and Azure services, exposing tools in a standard way. GitHub Copilot for Azure lets you chat with your cloud—no need to memorize commands or scripts. Key takeaway:These tools make Azure more accessible and powerful. You can ask questions, deploy resources, and get best-practice advice—all in plain English.   Technical Deep Dive: How Does Azure MCP Server Work? Implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP): Standardizes how AI agents talk to Azure services. Tool Discovery: Exposes a list of available tools (like listing VMs, deploying models, checking status). Na…  ( 31 min )

Why MCP & Copilot for Azure Matter  What is AI-Assisted Azure Development? AI-assisted development means you can use natural language to manage Azure resources. The Azure MCP Server acts as a bridge between AI agents (like Copilot) and Azure services, exposing tools in a standard way. GitHub Copilot for Azure lets you chat with your cloud—no need to memorize commands or scripts. Key takeaway:These tools make Azure more accessible and powerful. You can ask questions, deploy resources, and get best-practice advice—all in plain English.   Technical Deep Dive: How Does Azure MCP Server Work? Implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP): Standardizes how AI agents talk to Azure services. Tool Discovery: Exposes a list of available tools (like listing VMs, deploying models, checking status). Na…  ( 31 min )

Please refer to my repo to get more AI resources, wellcome to star it: https://github.com/xinyuwei-david/david-share.git  This repository ties together the entire methodology with a minimalistic example: first identify computational hotspots on the CPU, then rewrite loops characterized by "high parallelism, sequential memory access, and simple branching" into CUDA kernels to offload CPU workload and unleash GPU computing power. Running the code once can compare CPU and GPU execution times, separate transfer and computation overheads, and verify result errors. This quickly validates the feasibility and expected gains of "CPU → GPU" migration, providing a template for subsequent large-scale migration, pipeline optimization, and MIG resource partitioning in a real business environment. Overal…  ( 57 min )

At Microsoft Build 2025, we announced Azure SRE Agent, an AI tool designed to streamline incident response, improve service uptime, and cut operational costs. The SRE Agent uses AI Models in Azure AI Foundry to quickly analyze logs and metrics for root cause analysis and issue resolution. This advanced AI agent enhances incident and infrastructure management in Azure, allowing site reliability engineers (SRE) to focus on higher-value tasks.   Starting September 1, 2025, billing will begin for Azure SRE Agent. Please visit the Azure pricing page to see the pricing in your region. This article describes the billing model and example scenarios.  Overview of Azure SRE Agent Azure SRE Agent is a powerful tool that uses machine learning and advanced monitoring capabilities to proactively manage …  ( 33 min )

In certain scenarios, a storage account may contain a significant number of page blobs classified under the hot access tier that are infrequently accessed or retained solely for backup purposes. To optimise costs, it is desirable to transition these page blobs to the archive tier. However, as indicated in the following documentation - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/access-tiers-overview the ability to set the access tier is only available for block blobs; this functionality is not supported for append or page blobs. The Azure blob storage connector in Azure data factory is capable of copying blobs from block, append, or page blobs and copying data to only block blobs. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-factory/connector-azure-blob-storage?tabs=data-factory#…  ( 24 min )

RFT Observability ("Auto-Evals") Reinforcement Finetuning (RFT) observability, now in public preview, provides real-time, in-depth visibility into your RFT job by automatically kicking off evaluation (“auto-evals”) that shows the detailed finetuning progress at each checkpoint.  What is RFT? RFT adjusts model weights using a reward model (grader) to score outputs against the reference data. The grader’s results are then used to reward or penalize the model response, steering the model’s reasoning direction and quality towards desired outcomes. The benefit of using RFT over supervised fine-tuning (SFT) is that RFT incorporates these reward signals real-time during training – but it’s slower and more expensive than SFT. Previously, customers could only evaluate RFT results after a training …  ( 28 min )

Fast Copy in Dataflows Gen2 is a game-changer to enhance the performance and cost-efficiency of your Dataflows Gen2. By leveraging the same optimized backend as the Copy Activity in data pipelines, Fast Copy significantly reduces data processing time and enhances cost efficiency. Fast Copy in Dataflows Gen2 (Generally Available) enabled by default in all newly created Dataflows … Continue reading “Boost Performance with Fast Copy in Dataflows Gen2 for Snowflake”  ( 6 min )

Simplified, workspace-governed ingestion without external dependencies COPY INTO and OPENROWSET from OneLake are now available in Preview for Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse. With this release, you can load and query files directly from Lakehouse File folders, without relying on external staging storage, SAS tokens, or complex IAM configurations. This improvement reinforces Fabric’s vision of a … Continue reading “OneLake as a Source for COPY INTO and OPENROWSET (Preview)”  ( 6 min )

In April, we announced the preview of SQL Audit Logs for Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse, giving organizations the power to track and retain critical warehouse events for enhanced visibility and control. Today, we’re taking that experience to the next level. We’re introducing an all-new, intuitive visual experience—making it easier than ever to configure, enable, and … Continue reading “Experience the New Visual SQL Audit Logs Configuration in Fabric Warehouse”  ( 6 min )

At the Build conference on May 21, 2024, we announced the general available of Personal Voice, a feature designed to empower customers to build applications where users can easily create and utilize their own AI voices (see the blog). Today we're thrilled to announce that Azure AI Speech Service has upgraded a new zero-shot TTS (text-to-speech) model, named “DragonV2.1Neural”. This new model delivers more natural-sounding and expressive voices, offering improved pronunciation accuracy and greater controllability compared to the earlier zero-shot TTS model. In this blog, we’ll present the new zero-shot TTS model audio quality, new features and benchmarks results. We’ll also share a guide for controlling pronunciation and accent using the Personal Voice API with the new zero-shot TTS model. …  ( 39 min )

This week in Model Mondays, we dive into the cutting-edge research happening at Azure AI Foundry Labs. From the MCP Server that makes it easy to experiment with new models and tools, to Magentic-UI that brings human-centered agent workflows to life, there’s a lot to unpack! Spotlight On: Research & Innovation in Azure AI Foundry Labs 1. What is this topic and why is it important? Research and innovation are the engines that drive progress in AI. This episode spotlights Azure AI Foundry Labs—a hub where Microsoft’s latest breakthroughs in models, agent frameworks, and developer tools are shared with the world. The MCP Server makes it easy for an yone to experiment with new models and tools, while Magentic-UI brings human-centered agent workflows to life. These projects help bridge the gap …  ( 37 min )

This week in Model Mondays, we dive into the cutting-edge research happening at Azure AI Foundry Labs. From the MCP Server that makes it easy to experiment with new models and tools, to Magentic-UI that brings human-centered agent workflows to life, there’s a lot to unpack! Spotlight On: Research & Innovation in Azure AI Foundry Labs 1. What is this topic and why is it important? Research and innovation are the engines that drive progress in AI. This episode spotlights Azure AI Foundry Labs—a hub where Microsoft’s latest breakthroughs in models, agent frameworks, and developer tools are shared with the world. The MCP Server makes it easy for an yone to experiment with new models and tools, while Magentic-UI brings human-centered agent workflows to life. These projects help bridge the gap …  ( 37 min )

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is transforming how AI systems interact with real-world applications. From intelligent assistants to real-time streaming, MCP is already being adopted by leading companies—and now is your chance to get ahead. Join us for a four-part technical series designed to give you practical, production-ready skills in MCP development, integration, and deployment. Whether you're a developer, AI engineer, or cloud architect, this series will equip you with the tools to build and scale MCP-based solutions. 📅 English edition - 6PM IST (India Standard Time) ✅ Register at MCP Bootcamp APAC Session TitleDate & Time (IST) Creating Your First MCP Server Learn the fundamental concepts of the protocol and test your implementation using official tools. August 28, 6:00 PM MC…  ( 23 min )

Here is the July 2025 release of the on-premises data gateway (version 3000.278).  ( 5 min )

We’re thrilled to announce the general availability (GA) of Autoscale Billing for Apache Spark in Microsoft Fabric — a serverless billing model designed to offer greater flexibility, transparency, and cost efficiency for running Spark workloads at scale. With this model now fully supported, Spark Jobs can run independently of your Fabric capacity and are billed … Continue reading “Autoscale Billing for Spark in Microsoft Fabric (Generally Available)”  ( 7 min )

Welcome to the July 2025 Fabric Feature Summary! This month’s update covers major events like the return of the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference in Vienna, and the 10th anniversary of Power BI. Key platform enhancements include new domain tags and updates to the default category in the OneLake catalog. You’ll also find highlights on data … Continue reading “Fabric July 2025 Feature Summary”  ( 12 min )

The Microsoft Fabric tooling ecosystem has evolved in recent months as both the Fabric CLI and the Terraform Provider for Microsoft Fabric have become generally available, providing new opportunities for automating Fabric Administration tasks for those already experienced with Terraform for declarative deployment of infrastructure as code. This short blog series will provide practical guidance … Continue reading “Terraform Provider for Microsoft Fabric: #3 Creating a workload identity with Fabric permissions”  ( 10 min )

Correlate signals, run advanced analytics, and perform forensic investigations from a single copy of data — without costly migrations or data silos. Detect persistent, low-and-slow attacks with greater visibility, automate responses using scheduled jobs, and generate predictive insights by combining Copilot, KQL, and machine learning.     Vandana Mahtani, Microsoft Sentinel Principal Product Manager shows how to uncover long-running threats, streamline investigations, and automate defenses — all within a unified, AI-powered SIEM experience. Store security data for up to 12 years. Perfect for long-term investigations and compliance. Check out our new data lake in Microsoft Sentinel. Streamline your data strategy. Send high-volume logs to the new low-cost data lake tier and control retent…  ( 40 min )

We’re happy to announce the preview of JSON Lines (JSONL) support in the OPENROWSET(BULK) function for Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse and SQL endpoints for Lakehouses. The OPENROWSET(BULK) function allows you to query external data stored in the lake using well-known T-SQL syntax. With this update, you can now also query files in JSON Lines format, expanding the range of supported formats and simplifying access to semi-structured … Continue reading “JSON Lines Support in OPENROWSET for Fabric Data Warehouse and Lakehouse SQL Endpoints (Preview)”  ( 7 min )

As we continue to mature the Microsoft Fabric platform, we’re taking steps to streamline and simplify the experience for administrators and compliance teams who rely on audit logs. Beginning July 2025, we’re consolidating a number of redundant audit operations into a unified model that reflects our broader platform architecture. This change impacts how operations for … Continue reading “Standardizing Audit Operations for Warehouse, DataMarts and SQL Analytics Endpoint.”  ( 6 min )

We are continuously enhancing data agents in Fabric to deliver more powerful and flexible data experiences. In February of this year, we introduced a host of new improvements coming to the AI Skill—including support for additional Data Sources such as Eventhouse KQL and Semantic Models. Initially, integration to data sources was limited to sources with … Continue reading “Expanded Data Agent Support for Large Data Sources”  ( 6 min )

In the current digital environment, applications are expected to offer more than basic functionality, they must demonstrate intelligence, adaptability, and provide seamless user experiences. To remain competitive, organizations increasingly recognize that effective data utilization is fundamental to driving innovation. Data powers real-time insights and supports advanced agentic AI systems capable of reasoning, acting, and learning. … Continue reading “AI Ready Apps: From RAG to Chat – Interacting with SQL Database in Microsoft Fabric using GraphQL and MCP”  ( 17 min )

Getting Started Here is the original article written in Japanese. There are some great articles that explain how to integrate an MCP server built on Azure with a declarative agent created using Microsoft Copilot Studio. These approaches aim to extend the agent’s capabilities rather than defining a role. Here were some of the challenges we encountered: The agent's behavior can only be tested through the Copilot Studio. We want to use pro-code development tools. We can't choose LLM as the orchestrator—for example, there's no way to specify GPT-4o. The agent doesn’t always response same one which they would if we were prompting the LLM directly. These limitations got me thinking: why not build the entire agent myself? At the same time, I still wanted to take advantage of the familiar Micros…  ( 56 min )

Introduction Imagine a world where every second of your organization’s video content whether it’s a crucial training session, a product demo, or an expert-led seminar becomes instantly accessible, searchable, and actionable. What if, instead of sifting through hours of footage, you could surface key insights, create concise summaries, and deliver dynamic, avatar-driven presentations in minutes? In a landscape overwhelmed by video, it’s not about storing more, it’s about unlocking value from every frame.  Join me as we dive into the future of intelligent video analytics, where Microsoft Azure’s cutting-edge AI transforms raw footage into powerful knowledge assets. The Business Challenge Traditional video content management faces several critical limitations: Content Discovery: Finding spec…  ( 40 min )

Welcome to the July 2025 edition of the Fabric Influencers Spotlight, a recurring monthly post here to shine a bright light on the places on the internet where Microsoft MVPs & Fabric Super Users are doing some amazing work on all aspects of Microsoft Fabric. The Microsoft Fabric Community team has created the Fabric Influencers Spotlight to … Continue reading “Fabric Influencers Spotlight July 2025”  ( 8 min )

In today’s fast-paced software development cycles, manual testing often becomes a significant bottleneck. Our team was facing a growing backlog of test cases that required repetitive manual execution—running the entire test suite every sprint. This consumed valuable time that could be better spent on exploratory testing and higher-value tasks. We set out to solve this […] The post From Manual Testing to AI-Generated Automation: Our Azure DevOps MCP + Playwright Success Story appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 25 min )

Introduction Modern systems must be modular and interoperable by design. Integration is no longer a feature, it’s a requirement. Developers are expected to build architectures that connect easily with third-party platforms, but too often, core systems are designed in isolation. This disconnect creates friction for downstream teams and slows delivery. At Microsoft, SaaS platforms like SAP SuccessFactors and Eightfold support Talent Acquisition by handling functions such as requisition tracking, application workflows, and interview coordination. These tools help reduce costs and free up engineering focus for high-priority areas like Azure and AI. The real challenge is integrating them with internal systems such as Demand Planning, Offer Management, and Employee Central. This blog post outlin…  ( 40 min )

Introduction Modern systems must be modular and interoperable by design. Integration is no longer a feature, it’s a requirement. Developers are expected to build architectures that connect easily with third-party platforms, but too often, core systems are designed in isolation. This disconnect creates friction for downstream teams and slows delivery. At Microsoft, SaaS platforms like SAP SuccessFactors and Eightfold support Talent Acquisition by handling functions such as requisition tracking, application workflows, and interview coordination. These tools help reduce costs and free up engineering focus for high-priority areas like Azure and AI. The real challenge is integrating them with internal systems such as Demand Planning, Offer Management, and Employee Central. This blog post outlin…  ( 40 min )

Introduction Modern systems must be modular and interoperable by design. Integration is no longer a feature, it’s a requirement. Developers are expected to build architectures that connect easily with third-party platforms, but too often, core systems are designed in isolation. This disconnect creates friction for downstream teams and slows delivery. At Microsoft, SaaS platforms like SAP SuccessFactors and Eightfold support Talent Acquisition by handling functions such as requisition tracking, application workflows, and interview coordination. These tools help reduce costs and free up engineering focus for high-priority areas like Azure and AI. The real challenge is integrating them with internal systems such as Demand Planning, Offer Management, and Employee Central. This blog post outlin…  ( 40 min )

Introduction Modern systems must be modular and interoperable by design. Integration is no longer a feature, it’s a requirement. Developers are expected to build architectures that connect easily with third-party platforms, but too often, core systems are designed in isolation. This disconnect creates friction for downstream teams and slows delivery. At Microsoft, SaaS platforms like SAP SuccessFactors and Eightfold support Talent Acquisition by handling functions such as requisition tracking, application workflows, and interview coordination. These tools help reduce costs and free up engineering focus for high-priority areas like Azure and AI. The real challenge is integrating them with internal systems such as Demand Planning, Offer Management, and Employee Central. This blog post outlin…  ( 40 min )

Azure Monitor logs are trusted by hundreds of thousands of organizations to monitor mission-critical workloads. But with such a diverse customer base, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. That’s why we’re excited to announce a series of major advancements to Auxiliary Logs, the Azure Monitor plan that is designed for high volume logs, making it more cost-effective and improving the tools for use. Auxiliary Logs works in tandem with all other Azure Monitor tools including the more powerful Basic and Analytics Logs plans. Together, they are the one-stop-shop for all the logging needs of an organization. Auxiliary Logs is also one of the underlying services behind Microsoft Sentinel and the newly announced Sentinel data lake enabling customers to use the same data for both observability and…  ( 28 min )

Stay securely connected with rearchitected 5G design — including six smart-switching antennas, eSIM and Wi-Fi 7 — without relying on hotspots. As the first Surface Laptop to feature 5G, it enables enterprise-ready AI features for deeper insights, productivity boosts, and powerful local inferencing wherever work happens. Stay connected anywhere. The first Surface laptop with built-in 5G — supporting NanoSIM, eSIM, smart signal switching, and international roaming. See it here. High-performance AI experiences. Surface Laptop 5G is powered by Intel Core Ultra processors with AI Boost. Watch here. No IT setup required. Surface Laptop 5G can arrive business-ready with zero-touch deployment and managed 5G policies. Check it out. QUICK LINKS: 00:00 — Surface Laptop 5G for Business 00:28 — Buil…  ( 29 min )

How Contoso uses MQTT sensors, public weather feeds and Fabric Real-Time Intelligence to monitor smart buildings. Jointly authored by Alicia Li and Arindam Chatterjee Why Real-Time Stream Processing Matters In the age of AI, as organizations embrace intelligent systems and data-driven decision-making, the ability to act on data the moment it arrives is unlocking new … Continue reading “From Signals to Insights: Building a Real-Time Streaming Data Platform with Fabric Eventstream”  ( 8 min )

A discussion on Model Context Protocol: Part 1 - Why is there a need for MCP Link part 1 Part 2 - What MCP is, including its architecture and core components Link part 2 Part 3 - A demo of MCP — including how to configure it so anyone can run it Part 3 - A demo of MCP using Visual Studio Code Link Part 3 Part 3B - A demo of MCP using GitHub Coding Agent  Part 4 - An example of how to develop an MCP server — a potential starter project for connecting to your own knowledge resources Link part 4 Part 5 - How to add OAuth authentication/authorization to our MCP Server Link part 5 Part 3B - MCP Demo with GitHub Coding Agent This MCP demo will use the GitHub Copilot Coding Agent. The Coding Agent is an autonomous, AI-powered software development agent integrated into GitHub. It can work ind…  ( 23 min )

Last month we introduced the SQL analytics endpoint Metadata Sync REST API in preview, and we’re excited to announce that this API is now Generally available (GA). With this API you can programmatically trigger a refresh of your SQL analytics endpoint to keep tables in sync with any changes made in your lakehouse, native and mirrored databases, … Continue reading “Refresh SQL analytics endpoint Metadata REST API (Generally Available)”  ( 6 min )

Celebrating Enhanced Flexibility in the WDK Sample We’re thrilled to announce a major step forward for the Workload Development Kit (WDK): developers can now transform our workload sample into their favorite programming languages. Whether you prefer Python, Java, Node.js, or Go, we’ve made it easier to start building innovative workloads with the tools and languages … Continue reading “Empowering Workload Developers with Language Choice and Simplicity”  ( 6 min )

Additional authors: Joanne Wong The preview of the integration between Fabric data agents and Microsoft Copilot Studio is now available, introducing a robust capability that enables agents to interoperate seamlessly across tools. This enhancement is designed to streamline the development, deployment, and scaling of intelligent agents across enterprise data environments, reinforcing automation and extensibility within … Continue reading “Fabric Data Agents + Microsoft Copilot Studio: A New Era of Multi-Agent Orchestration (Preview)”  ( 7 min )

The Microsoft Fabric tooling ecosystem has evolved in recent months as both the Fabric CLI and the Terraform Provider for Microsoft Fabric have become generally available, providing new opportunities for automating Fabric Administration tasks for those already experienced with Terraform for declarative deployment of infrastructure as code. This short blog series will provide practical guidance … Continue reading “Terraform Provider for Microsoft Fabric: #2 Using MCP servers and Fabric CLI to help define your fabric resources”  ( 9 min )

It's nice to meet you virtually! We are a team consisting of Tamara Gaidar, a data scientist, and Fady Copty, a researcher. We both work at Microsoft Security. In the upcoming blog posts, we will share insights our team has gained from building AI agents that can be leveraged for any agentic-ai application. We hope you enjoy reading and that it adds value to your day-to-day job. Cheers! TL;DR In this blog we provide a practical guide for transitioning agentic AI projects from research to production. We will be writing it in several parts. In part one we will explore how to effectively design agentic AI systems - AI agents that can reason over and generate unstructured data - by emphasizing the importance of clearly defining the problem and understanding why AI is needed. We will outline a …  ( 29 min )

Integrating Azure Function Apps into your Azure Data Factory (ADF) workflows is a common practice. To enhance security beyond the use of function API keys, leveraging managed identity authentication is strongly recommended. Given the fact that many existing guides were outdated with recent updates to Azure services, this article provides a comprehensive, up-to-date walkthrough on configuring managed identity in ADF to securely call Function Apps. The provided methods can also be adapted to other Azure services that need to call Function Apps with managed identity authentication. The high level process is: Enable Managed Identity on Data Factory Configure Microsoft Entra Sign-in on Azure Function App Configure Linked Service in Data Factory Assign Permissions to the Data Factory in Azure …  ( 23 min )

A Java thread dump is a snapshot of the current state of all the threads that are part of a Java process. It provides a lot of valuable information about the Java process like its current execution point, stack trace, thread priority, and the status of the thread (running, waiting, or blocked).Thread dumps are especially useful for diagnosing and troubleshooting performance issues, deadlocks, and unresponsive applications in a Java application. They are crucial for understanding the behavior of an application at a certain point in time and can provide insights into the application's performance that would be difficult to obtain in any other way.   In Azure App Service, we provide ability to capture Java thread dump of your Java application by using "Diagnostic & Solve Problem". The tool is…  ( 25 min )

A search job is an asynchronous query that runs on any data in your Log Analytics workspace, including data from the long-term retention, making the results available for further queries in a new Analytics table within your workspace.  To efficiently search massive datasets, Search Job divides queries into smaller time-based segments, processes them in parallel, and returns the results. This approach optimizes scalability and enables reliable analysis, even over petabytes of data.  We’re excited to announce significant enhancements to Search Jobs, designed to make large-scale data exploration faster, easier, and more efficient.  What’s New in Search Job  Our latest update includes several powerful improvements:  Intuitive and streamlined UI experience for faster and simpler setup.  Cost e…  ( 24 min )

We are pleased to announce that Azure VMware Solution is now available in Spain Central. Now in 35 Azure regions, Azure VMware Solution empowers you to seamlessly extend or migrate existing VMware workloads to Azure without the cost, effort or risk of re-architecting applications or retooling operations.  Azure VMware Solution supports: Rapid cloud migration of VMware-based workloads to Azure without refactoring. Datacenter exit while maintaining operational consistency for the VMware environment. Business continuity and disaster recovery for on-premises VMware environments. Attach Azure services and innovate applications at your own pace. Includes the VMware technology stack and lets you leverage existing Microsoft licenses for Windows Server and SQL Server. For updates on current and upcoming region availability, visit the product by region page here. Streamline migration with new offers and licensing benefits, including a 20% discount. We recently announced the VMware Rapid Migration Plan, where Microsoft provides a comprehensive set of licensing benefits and programs to give you price protection and savings as you migrate to Azure VMware Solution. Azure VMware Solution is a great first step to the cloud for VMware customers, and this plan can help you get there. Learn More  ( 19 min )

Read/Write to SQL database in Fabric using Python Notebook You created your SQL database in Fabric because you wanted to take full advantage of all the existing workloads without worrying about integration pain points. Python notebook integration with SQL was highly requested. We are thrilled to share you can seamlessly use a python notebook to … Continue reading “Connect to your SQL database in Fabric using Python Notebook”  ( 6 min )

Building on the excitement of our public preview, we’re excited to announce the latest updates to the Migration Assistant for Fabric Data Warehouse, making it even easier, faster, and more reliable to move your data to Fabric. The Migration Assistant simplifies what can be a complicated process by automatically taking care of it. Since its … Continue reading “Fabric Data Warehouse Migration Assistant: Better, Faster, More Reliable”  ( 6 min )

Copy Job is now the preferred solution in Microsoft Fabric Data Factory for simplified data movement, whether you’re moving data across clouds, from on-premises systems, or between different services. With robust support for both batch and incremental copying, it offers the flexibility to tackle a wide range of scenarios with ease. We continuously improve Copy … Continue reading “Simplifying Data Ingestion with Copy job – Copy Data from Database View,  Sample dataset and New Connectors”  ( 6 min )

As generative AI adoption accelerates, more professionals are recognizing the limitations of basic Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). Many point out that traditional RAG provides only superficial analysis and that search results often appear as isolated points, rather than forming holistic insights. Most RAG implementations rely on single-query searches and summarization, which makes it difficult to explore information in depth or to perform repeated validation. These limitations become especially clear in complex enterprise scenarios. Deep Research is designed to address these challenges. Unlike RAG, Deep Research refers to advanced capabilities where AI receives a user’s query and collects and analyzes information from a variety of perspectives to generate detailed reports. This appro…  ( 46 min )

Hello Java customers! We are happy to announce the latest July 2025 patch & security update release for the Microsoft Build of OpenJDK. Download and install the binaries today. OpenJDK 21.0.8 OpenJDK 17.0.16 OpenJDK 11.0.28 Check our release notes page for details on fixes and enhancements. The source code of our builds is available now […] The post Java OpenJDK July 2025 Patch & Security Update appeared first on Microsoft for Java Developers.  ( 22 min )

Overview  As part of an upcoming industry-wide change, DigiCert, the Certificate Authority (CA) for Azure App Service Managed Certificates (ASMC), is required to migrate to a new validation platform to meet multi-perspective issuance corroboration (MPIC) requirements.   While most certificates will not be impacted by this change, certain site configurations and setups may prevent certificate issuance or renewal starting July 28, 2025.   What Will the Change Look Like?  For most customers: No disruption. Certificate issuance and renewals will continue as expected for eligible site configurations.  For impacted scenarios: Certificate requests will fail (no certificate issued) starting July 28, 2025, if your site configuration is not supported. Existing certificates will remain valid until th…  ( 35 min )

As AI agents become central to how we build and interact with modern productivity apps, developers need tools that are flexible, standard-based, and deeply integrated with AI. That’s where the Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit MCP Server comes in.  This is a local Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that acts as a bridge between your AI coding agents and […] The post Build Smarter with the Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit MCP Server appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 24 min )

This post walks through how to implement a “build once, deploy everywhere” pattern using Azure Developer CLI (azd) that provisions environment-specific infrastructure and promotes applications from dev to prod with the same build artifacts. You’ll learn how to use conditional Bicep deployment, environment variable injection, package preservation across environments, and automated CI/CD promotion from development […] The post Azure Developer CLI: From Dev to Prod with One Click appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 24 min )

Overview Microsoft Fabric is officially sunsetting Default Semantic Models. This change is part of our ongoing efforts to simplify and improve the manageability, deployment, and governance of Fabric items such as warehouse, lakehouse, SQL database, and mirrored databases. Why the Change? Default Semantic Models were initially designed to provide a lightweight, out-of-the-box experience—automatically generating models … Continue reading “Sunsetting Default Semantic Models – Microsoft Fabric”  ( 7 min )

Fabric offers a wide variety of data-science capabilities, from automated machine learning with FLAML to batch inferencing with the SynapseML PREDICT function. We’re pleased to announce that ML models can now serve real-time predictions from secure, scalable, and easy-to-use online endpoints. In addition to generating batch predictions in Spark, you can use endpoints to bring … Continue reading “Serve real-time predictions seamlessly with ML model endpoints”  ( 6 min )

We’re thrilled to share a series of exciting updates and upcoming enhancements to the SQL analytics endpoint in Microsoft Fabric. These improvements are designed to make your experience more powerful and reliable. From Preview to GA – Metadata sync REST API Last month, we introduced the SQL analytics endpoint metadata sync REST API in preview, … Continue reading “What’s new and coming soon in SQL analytics endpoint in Fabric”  ( 6 min )

Microsoft Fabric offers native Git integration and deployment pipelines to facilitate version control, collaboration, and automated releases for workspace items like user data functions. This guide explains how to set up and manage Git integration for user data functions within a Fabric workspace. • Workspace preparation and Git linking: Users start by selecting or creating a Fabric workspace containing user data functions, then enable Git integration via workspace settings by connecting to a Git provider and repository branch, optionally specifying a folder for organization. • Branching strategy configuration: Teams are advised to adopt branching strategies such as main/develop, feature, and release branches, along with pull request and code review policies to maintain code quality and collaboration. • Managing user data functions in Git: Each data function is stored in a function_app.py file; users clone the repository locally, edit or add functions, and update the definition.json file to reflect new functions and required libraries like numpy. • Committing, syncing, and publishing changes: After committing changes in VS Code, users sync with the Fabric portal, update the function via source control, and publish to deploy the new or updated functions, making them available for invocation.  ( 8 min )

When you deploy AKS, you deploy the control plan, which is managed by Microsoft, and one or more node pools, which contain the worker nodes used to run your Kubernetes workloads. These node pools are usually deployed as Virtual Machine Scale Sets. These scale sets are visible in your subscription, but generally you would not make changes to these directly, as they will be managed by AKS and all of the configuration and management of these is done through AKS. However, there are some scenarios where you do need to make changes to the underlying node configuration to be able to handle the workloads you need to run. Whilst you can make some changes to these nodes, you need to make sure you do it in a supported manner, which will be applied consistently to all your nodes. An example of this re…  ( 38 min )

In the rapidly evolving landscape of AI application development, the ability to orchestrate multiple intelligent agents has become crucial for building sophisticated, enterprise-grade solutions. While individual AI agents excel at specific tasks, complex business scenarios often require coordination between specialized agents running on different platforms, frameworks, or even across organizational boundaries. This is where the […] The post Guest Blog: Building Multi-Agent Solutions with Semantic Kernel and A2A Protocol appeared first on Semantic Kernel.  ( 29 min )

Project Overview The system replicates a developer's workflow by autonomously launching VS Code, configuring the environment, and generating code via GitHub Copilot Agent mode. This automation is ideal for scenarios where: Codebase is not hosted on GitHub – GitHub Agents on github.com are not applicable. GitHub Codespaces cannot access the code – VS Code in the browser is ruled out. Desktop automation is required – Must work with VS Code desktop client on a local computer. Key Innovation: CUA Model + PyAutoGUI Integration The project demonstrates the synergy between CUA model and PyAutoGUI: PyAutoGUI: Executes desktop actions (launching apps, typing, clicking). CUA Model: Analyzes screenshots and determines next actions. Deterministic Outcomes: Enables autonomous detection and correctio…  ( 22 min )

Solution ideas The original framework introduced several Logic App and Function App patterns for SQL BPA, Update Manager, Cost Management, Anomaly Detection, and Smart Doc creation. In this article we add two Copilot Studio Agents, packaged in the GitHub repository Microsoft Azure AI for Operation Framework, designed to be deployed in a dedicated subscription (e.g., OpenAI-CoreIntegration): Copilot FinOps Agent – interactive cost & usage analysis Copilot Update Manager Agent – interactive patch status & one-time updates Architecture   Copilot FinOps Agent A Copilot Studio agent that lets stakeholders chat in natural language to retrieve, compare, and summarise cost data—without leaving Teams. Dataflow #StageDescription Initial TriggerUser message (Teams / Copilot Studio web) invoke t…  ( 27 min )

With the recent release of our new Availability Zone features, a common question we've been getting from our customers is: "How do I know if my existing App Service supports Availability Zones?" While this information is documented in the App Service Resiliency Microsoft Learn Docs, in this blog post I will try and walk you through some essential aspects of enabling Availability Zones in Azure App Service. This article outlines how to confirm if your App Service plan supports Availability Zones, guides you through upgrading from Free, Basic, or Standard tiers to Premium SKUs, and describes the process for enabling this feature, including creating new, properly configured plans. The overview also addresses specific considerations for App Service Environments, along with common issues and so…  ( 44 min )

Overview Azure VMware Solution is a VMware validated first party Azure service from Microsoft that provides private clouds containing VMware vSphere clusters built from dedicated bare-metal Azure infrastructure. It enables customers to leverage their existing investments in VMware skills and tools, allowing them to focus on developing and running their VMware-based workloads on Azure. At Microsoft, we’re continuously evolving our services based on customer feedback and Azure VMware Solution is no exception. As a fully Microsoft-managed service, Azure VMware Solution takes care of the end-to-end lifecycle management of your VMware environment, from ESXi host patching to vCenter Server and NSX upgrades. This ensures your private cloud stays secure, compliant, and up-to-date.  Historically, p…  ( 25 min )

Shortcut‑based AI transformations in Microsoft Fabric convert raw text files into governed Delta Lake tables within minutes, removing the need for complex data‑integration pipelines and significantly reducing time to insight. Why adopt AI transformations? Supported AI transforms Transform Purpose Summarization Generates concise summaries from long-form text. Translation Translates text between supported languages. Sentiment analysis Labels text … Continue reading “Accelerating Insights from Unstructured Text with AI Powered OneLake Shortcut Transformations”  ( 6 min )

Today, we are thrilled to announce the General Availability of the Geo-replication feature for Azure Event Hubs, now available in both Premium and Dedicated tiers. This milestone marks a significant enhancement in our service, providing our customers with robust business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities – ensuring high availability for their mission-critical applications.  The Geo-replication feature allows you to replicate your Event Hubs data across multiple regions either synchronously or asynchronously, ensuring that your data remains accessible in the event of maintenance activities, regional degradation, or a regional outage. With Geo-replication, you can seamlessly promote a secondary region to a primary, minimizing downtime and ensuring business continuity.        …  ( 21 min )

What Will We Cover? In this interactive AMA, you'll learn how to: Expose Azure API Management instances as MCP servers, enabling remote access to your APIs using AI combined with Model Context Protocol. Configure API Management policies to enhance your MCP servers with enterprise-grade capabilities such as rate limiting, authentication, and centralized monitoring. Why This Matters Model Context Protocol (MCP) bridges the gap between AI agents and the real-world data they need to be effective. By integrating MCP with Azure API Management, developers can expose tools to their AI agents while enforcing consistent policies and security standards. Whether you’re deploying custom tools or remote services, this AMA will show you how Azure API Management can be your go-to platform for controlling and scaling MCP access. How to Join Register to Join the Azure AI Foundry Discord Community EventSee the events channel 📅 Monday, July 21st, 2025⏰ 10:00 AM Pacific Time (UTC−07:00) Event Highlights Learn how to expose MCP servers through Azure API Management See how to configure and test policies such as rate limiting Get answers directly from Microsoft product managers and engineers Connect with fellow developers building with MCP, Azure API Management, and Azure AI Foundry Get a Head Start Before the event, check out the documentation to learn how to Expose a REST API in API Management as an MCP server, view the Build and protect MCPs faster with governance in Azure API Manager session from Build 2025, or explore the AI-Gateway labs on GitHub and learn how to use APIM and MCP in the MCP for Beginners course. Don’t miss this opportunity to deepen your understanding of API Management and MCP integration—and get your questions answered live!  ( 21 min )

We are pleased to announce that Eventstream’s Confluent Cloud for Apache Kafka streaming connector now supports decoding data from Confluent Cloud for Apache Kafka topics that are associated with a data contract in Confluent Schema Registry. The Challenge with Schema Registry Encoded Data The Confluent Schema Registry serves as a centralized service for managing and … Continue reading “Decoding Data with Confluent Schema Registry Support in Eventstream (Preview)”  ( 7 min )

Shortcut‑based AI transformations in Microsoft Fabric convert raw text files into governed Delta Lake tables within minutes, removing the need for complex data‑integration pipelines and significantly reducing time to insight. Why adopt AI transformations? How to set up an AI-powered shortcut transformations 3. Monitor progressStatus can be observed under Manage shortcut Practical implementation patterns All these … Continue reading “Accelerating Insights from Unstructured Text with AI‑Powered OneLake Shortcut Transformations in Microsoft Fabric (Public Preview)”  ( 3 min )

Introducing multiple-schema inferencing in Eventstream! This feature empowers you to work seamlessly with data sources that emit varying schemas by inferring and managing multiple schemas simultaneously. It eliminates the limitations of single-schema inferencing by enabling more accurate and flexible transformations, preventing field mismatches when switching between Live and Edit modes, and allowing you to view … Continue reading “Enhancing Data Transformation Flexibility with Multiple-Schema Inferencing in Eventstream (Preview)”  ( 8 min )

Microsoft Fabric has introduced new features for its User Data Functions (UDFs), enhancing Python-based data processing capabilities within the platform. These updates include support for asynchronous functions and the use of pandas DataFrame and Series types for input and output, enabling more efficient handling of large-scale data. • Async function support: Developers can now write async functions in Fabric UDFs to improve responsiveness and efficiency, especially for managing high volumes of I/O-bound operations, such as reading files asynchronously from a Lakehouse. • Pandas DataFrame and Series integration: UDFs can accept and return pandas DataFrames and Series, allowing batch processing of rows with improved speed and performance in data analysis tasks. An example function calculates total revenue by driver using pandas groupby operations. • Usage in notebooks: These functions can be invoked directly from notebooks using pandas objects, facilitating efficient aggregation and analysis of large datasets interactively within Microsoft Fabric. • Getting started and benefits: Users can enable these features by updating the fabric-user-data-functions library to version 1.0.0. The enhancements reduce I/O operations, enable concurrent task handling, and improve performance on datasets with millions of rows.  ( 7 min )

This post was generated with AI help and human revision & review. To learn more about our motivation and workflows, please refer to this document in our Model Mondays website. About Model Mondays Model Mondays is a weekly series designed to help you build your Azure AI Foundry Model IQ, one week at a time. Here’s what to expect: 5-Minute Highlights – Quick updates on Azure AI models and tools (Mondays) 15-Minute Spotlight – A deeper look at a key model, protocol, or feature (Mondays) 30-Minute AMA – Friday Q&A with experts from Monday’s episode Whether you’re just starting out or already working with models, this series is your chance to grow with the community. Quick links to explore: Register for Model Mondays Watch Past Episodes Join the AMA on July 18 Visit the Discussion Forum Sp…  ( 26 min )

If you want to know about Azure, the work we are doing in partnership with VMware by Broadcom, or have a conversation about your VMware workloads, stop by our booth #107! This year Microsoft will have several break-out sessions on a variety of topics where you will discover how Microsoft can streamline your VMware workloads’ migration to the cloud. Learn how to maximize your existing on-premises investments and fast path your applications into an AI-innovation platform. We’ll reveal the quickest, least disruptive migration path, and share enticing offers that make this an easy decision. Learn how transitioning from on-premises to Azure will give your business a competitive edge. As you are building out your VMware Explore schedule don't miss these Micrsoft sessions: Monday, August 25th9:00-9:45 AM From On-Prem to Intelligent Cloud with Azure VMware Solution    CLOB1948LVS  45-min. Breakout Session Monday, August 25th 12:45-1:30 PM Building End-to-End Networking with Azure VMware Solution   CLOB1950LVS  45-min. Breakout Session Monday, August 25th 2:00-3:30 PM Azure & AI: How to unleash the power of Azure VMware Solution   CLOT1951LVS  90-min. Tutorial Tuesday, August 26th 10:30-11:15 AM Enterprise Security and Migration with Azure VMware Solution   CLOB1952LVS  45-min. Breakout Session Tuesday, August 26th1:00-1:45 PM Build Resilient VCF Private Clouds: Azure VMware Solution (AVS) + BCDR & Storage   CLOB1953LVS  45-min. Breakout  Wednesday, August 27th 11:00-11:30 AM Ask Me Anything About Azure VMware Solution   CLOM1949LVS  Meet the Expert Roundtable Wednesday, August 27th3:30-4:00 PM Ask Me Anything About Azure VMware Solution   CLOM1947LVS  Meet the Expert Roundtable  ( 20 min )

Custom Engine Agents now generally available—build and integrate your own AI into the flow of work Microsoft 365 Copilot is redefining how people interact with AI—embedding it directly into the flow of work as the intuitive, natural interface for agents: the ‘UI for AI’ As Copilot becomes the interface for AI in the workplace, we’re […] The post Bring your own agents into Microsoft 365 Copilot appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 26 min )

In many use cases, using remote MCP servers is not uncommon. In particular, if you're using Azure API Management (APIM), Azure API Center (APIC) or Copilot Studio in Power Platform, integrating with remote MCP servers is inevitable.   MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a protocol used for defining server endpoints that support AI agent workflows, often in Copilot scenarios.   Background   A remote MCP server is basically an HTTP API app that exposes an endpoint of either /mcp or /sse depending on the spec the servers support. This endpoint should be accessible from Copilot Studio through a custom connector, APIM or APIC. The easiest and simplest way of exposing this endpoint is to provide an OpenAPI doc. The OpenAPI doc is very simple because it has only one endpoint, and the structure is a…  ( 28 min )

Purpose of the document provide overview of AI Foundry and how it can be set up and organised for at scale for an enterprise.  This document should be considered as guidance and recommendations, but individual organisations should treat and consider other factors such as security, policy, governance and number of business units. AI Foundry Resource: Azure AI Foundry is Microsoft’s unified platform for building, customising, and managing AI applications and agents—designed to accelerate innovation and operationalise AI at scale. It brings together: Data, models, and operations into a single, integrated environment. A developer-first experience with native support for GitHub, Visual Studio, and Copilot Studio. A low-code portal and code-first SDKs/APIs for flexibility across skill levels. …  ( 43 min )

Azure Custom Vision is an easy-to-use yet powerful cognitive service from Microsoft that empowers developers to build, train, and deploy custom image classification or object detection models - all without being machine learning experts. Through a simple web interface or SDKs, you can upload images, tag them with meaningful labels, and train a model that understands your specific use case with the help of transfer learning. Once trained, you might realize you need access to those tagged images again - maybe for auditing, retraining on different platforms, migrating data, or simply backing them up. Unfortunately, the Custom Vision portal doesn’t offer a “Download All Tagged Images” button. Thankfully, Microsoft provides a RESTful Get Tagged Images API, a hidden gem that enables you to reco…  ( 39 min )

The artificial intelligence landscape presents unprecedented opportunities for Java developers. With decades of experience building robust enterprise applications using Spring, Quarkus and Jakarta EE, Java developers are uniquely positioned to create sophisticated AI solutions. The emergence of specialized AI libraries like LangChain4j enables them to leverage their existing expertise while building secure, scalable, and maintainable […] The post Microsoft and LangChain4j: A Partnership for Secure, Enterprise-Grade Java AI Applications appeared first on Microsoft for Java Developers.  ( 23 min )

Instead of switching between logs, PowerShell, and spreadsheets, Security Copilot centralizes insights for faster, more focused action.  Resolve compromised accounts, uncover ownerless or high-risk apps, and tighten policy coverage with clear insights, actionable recommendations, and auto-generated policies. Strengthen security posture and reclaim time with a smarter, more efficient approach powered by Security Copilot.       Diana Vicezar, Microsoft Entra Product Manager, shares how to streamline investigations and policy management using AI-driven insights and automation. Skip the scripting.  Ask questions in plain language and get back policy and risk insights in seconds. Microsoft Entra now has built-in AI with Security Copilot. Stay ahead of threats.  Use AI to track auth changes, …  ( 38 min )

We’re excited to announce the General Availability of Managed Private Endpoints (MPE) in Fabric Eventstream. This network security feature allows you to stream data from Azure resources to Fabric over a private and secure network without the complexity of manual network configurations. Why Network Security Matters for Streaming As organizations increasingly adopt real-time data streaming … Continue reading “Secure Data Streaming with Private Endpoints in Eventstream (Generally Available)”  ( 6 min )

Azure and Fabric Events offer a powerful capability within Real-Time Intelligence that enables you to ingest system events that are generated in Microsoft Fabric and Azure to deliver them to consumers in Microsoft Fabric like Activator for setting event-based triggers or Eventstream to stream and process events to other destinations. Permission model To subscribe to Azure and Fabric events … Continue reading “Permission model improvements for Azure and Fabric Events”  ( 7 min )

The Microsoft Fabric tooling ecosystem has evolved in recent months as both the Fabric CLI and the Terraform Provider for Microsoft Fabric have become generally available, providing new opportunities for automating Fabric Administration tasks for those already experienced with Terraform for declarative deployment of infrastructure as code. This short blog series will provide practical guidance … Continue reading “Terraform Provider for Microsoft Fabric: #1 Accelerating first steps using the CLIs”  ( 10 min )

Project Overview We are a team of Imperial College Students committed to improving campus life through innovative multi-agent solutions. CampusSphere leverages Microsoft Azure AI capabilities to automate core university campus services. We created an end-to-end solution that allows both students and staff to access a multi-agent framework for room/gym booking, attendance tracking, calendar management, IoT monitoring and more. 🔭 Our Initial Vision: Reimagining Campus Technology When our team at Imperial College London embarked on the CampusSphere project as part of Microsoft's Agentic Campus initiative, we had one clear ambition: to create an intelligent campus ecosystem that would fundamentally change how students, faculty, and staff interact with university services. The inspiration came…  ( 31 min )

A discussion on Model Context Protocol: Part 1 - Why is there a need for MCP Link part 1 Part 2 - What MCP is, including its architecture and core components Link part 2 Part 3 - A demo of MCP — including how to configure it so anyone can run it Link part 3 Part 4 - An example of how to develop an MCP server — a potential starter project for connecting to your own knowledge resources Link part 4 Part 5 - How to add OAuth authentication/authorization to our MCP Server  Part 5 ... MCP Authentication / Authorization In the previous section we covered the development of an MCP Server. In this section we shall extend the server code so that it supports authentication / authorization. Objectives Authentication and authorization are essential for both the MCP service provider and the user. Each…  ( 40 min )

Broadcom has released a new Critical Security Advisory, VMSA-2025-0013 with a CVSS base score range of 7.1 to 9.3. With Microsoft’s commitment to the security of our platform and our improved lifecycle management process, we were able to quickly assemble a global team to work on the acceleration and validation of the ESXi 8.0 U3f + Hot Patch (VAIO bug fix) Build 24797835 security patch . We have nearly finished qualifying the security patch that will mitigate VMSA-2025-0013 across our fleet. As a result, with the public release of this vulnerability we expect to be able to patch your existing Azure VMware Solution infrastructure next week. We are committing to completing the remediation within 30-days. Microsoft will communicate the scheduled date of patching over the next three weeks. Any…  ( 22 min )

In August 2025, Microsoft Fabric will introduce workspace access limits to improve service quality, reliability, and to encourage workspace access control hygiene. This limit will be permanent once it is rolled out – each Fabric & Power BI workspace will be limited to a maximum of 1,000 users or groups in workspaces roles (Admin, Member, … Continue reading “Introduction of access limits in a Fabric workspace”  ( 6 min )

We are thrilled to announce the general availability of Mirroring for Azure Databricks Unity Catalog in Microsoft Fabric—a secure, high-performance integration that provides seamless access to Azure Databricks tables from Fabric. With Fabric and Azure Databricks, we are building the future of data platforms on a lakehouse foundation, powered by open data formats, full interoperability, … Continue reading “Unified by design: mirroring Azure Databricks Unity Catalog to Microsoft OneLake in Fabric (Generally Available)”  ( 9 min )

The world of AI agents is evolving rapidly, with new protocols and frameworks emerging to enable sophisticated multi-agent communication. Google's Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol represents one of the most promising approaches for building distributed AI systems that can coordinate tasks across different platforms and services. I'm excited to share how you can leverage Azure App Service to build, deploy, and scale A2A applications. Today, I'll walk you through a practical example that combines Microsoft Semantic Kernel with the A2A protocol to create an intelligent travel planning assistant. What We Built: An A2A Travel Agent on App Service I've taken an existing A2A travel planning sample and enhanced it to run seamlessly on Azure App Service. This demonstrates how A2A concepts can be adapt…  ( 32 min )

We're announcing a new tutorial that helps developers migrate solutions from EWS to Microsoft Graph using AI and GitHub Copilot. The post Supercharge your EWS migration with AI and GitHub Copilot appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 23 min )

You can now interactively debug Hyperlight guest micro-VMs. Attach the GNU Debugger at runtime to step through the code. The post Hyperlight: Debugging hardware-protected guests appeared first on Microsoft Open Source Blog.  ( 16 min )

In a world where foundation models are increasingly accessible, the real magic happens when developers make them their own. Fine-tuning is no longer a niche capability, it’s becoming a core skill for developers who want to build AI that’s faster, smarter, and more aligned with their users scaling expert knowledge across their organizations. Over the past few months, we’ve seen something remarkable: a growing community of builders, tinkerers, and innovators coming together to push the boundaries of what fine-tuning can do making a powerful difference for everyday organizations.  A Community Making a Big Impact: Customer Stories At Build 2025, we saw firsthand how much the landscape has shifted. Just a year ago, many teams were still relying solely on prompt engineering or retrieval-augmente…  ( 29 min )

As organizations adopt Azure VMware Solution (AVS) to modernize their infrastructure, the need for repeatable, script-driven deployment patterns becomes increasingly important. Whether you're preparing for a new AVS deployment or enhancing an existing AVS environment, automation can significantly reduce manual effort, improve consistency, and accelerate readiness for workload migration.   AVS Landing Zone already provides a rich repository of Terraform, Azure Resource manager (ARM), Bicep and PowerShell scripts to automate deployment as well as management operations. For example, we recently added a collection of PowerShell-based automation scripts that simplify the deployment of key AVS components. This article highlights three such scripts that help accelerate AVS migrations: Jumpbox De…  ( 30 min )

Microsoft’s AI-powered code review assistant has transformed pull request workflows by automating routine checks, suggesting improvements, and enabling conversational Q&A, leading to faster PR completion, improved code quality, and enhanced developer onboarding. Its seamless integration and customizability have driven widespread adoption within Microsoft The post Enhancing Code Quality at Scale with AI-Powered Code Reviews appeared first on Engineering@Microsoft.  ( 27 min )

After the successful release of Public Preview of mssql-python driver, we’re thrilled to announce a major milestone for the mssql-python driver: full support for all three major operating systems—Windows, macOS, and Linux. This release marks a significant leap forward in our mission to provide seamless, performant, and Pythonic connectivity to Microsoft SQL Server and the […] The post Announcing Full Cross-Platform Support for the mssql-python Driver appeared first on Microsoft for Python Developers Blog.  ( 24 min )

Coauthor: Ramachandran G, RTI Engineering Manager, Microsoft In today’s data-driven world, organizations rely heavily on real-time insights to monitor systems, detect anomalies, and make informed decisions. One of the key challenges in achieving this is efficiently ingesting and transforming log data from diverse sources into a format that can be analysed instantly. Real-Time Intelligence Real-time … Continue reading “Ingest Logs using Logstash into Real-Time Intelligence”  ( 7 min )

The Preview of Cosmos DB in Microsoft Fabric, is now available to all users. Following its initial announcement at Microsoft Build 2025, several new capabilities have been added to improve data workflows. With this release, you can seamlessly access and analyze your operational data across the Fabric ecosystem. Leverage Real-Time Intelligence, Copilot-powered Power BI, and … Continue reading “Announcing Cosmos DB in Microsoft Fabric Featuring New Capabilities! (Preview)”  ( 8 min )

Microsoft Fabric now offers a preview of support for Microsoft Entra service principals when using Amazon S3 Shortcuts. This feature allows the use of Entra service principals to securely access S3 buckets without the need for long-term AWS access keys. Previously, S3 shortcuts required access keys. With this update, organizations can authorize access using Microsoft … Continue reading “Access Amazon S3 Shortcuts Securely and Seamlessly with Microsoft Entra Service Principals (Preview)”  ( 6 min )

Overview Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open, standardized protocol that allows Large Language Models (LLMs) to interact with external tools and data sources in a consistent, extensible way. It gives models access to capabilities beyond their training data—such as calling APIs or querying databases. MCP builds on the idea of function calling, which lets LLMs invoke external operations by generating JSON payloads that match predefined schemas. While function calling was initially tied to proprietary formats (like OpenAI’s schemas), MCP unifies these patterns under a common JSON-RPC-based protocol. This makes it easier for developers to write tools once and expose them to many LLMs, regardless of vendor. In short: Function calling gave LLMs actions. MCP gives those actions structure, di…  ( 41 min )

As AI agents become more sophisticated, the need for seamless integration with powerful cloud-based tools grows. With the Azure AI Foundry SDK and MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools, creates a dynamic duo that empowers developers to build, deploy, and manage intelligent agents with ease. Solution Overview The AI-Foundry-Agent-MCP GitHub repository provides a hands-on solution for integrating MCP tools with the Azure AI Foundry SDK. This setup allows developers to: Access and deploy state-of-the-art models from Azure AI Foundry. Use MCP tools to manage model context, knowledge bases, and evaluation pipelines. Rapidly prototype and scale AI agent solutions in a cloud-native environment. Getting Started The repo includes a step-by-step guide to get your environment up and running: Clone th…  ( 23 min )

The July 2025 release includes TBA and more! The post Python in Visual Studio Code – July 2025 Release appeared first on Microsoft for Python Developers Blog.  ( 23 min )

In this blog post, we will describe how to train an ML model in Fabric Spark notebook, save it in Fabric’s models registry and use it for scoring new streaming data by Fabric Eventhouse via update policy in real time. We describe a typical workflow that can be implemented to monitor cloud resources or IoT … Continue reading “ML Model Scoring in Fabric Eventhouse via Update Policy”  ( 11 min )

Effortlessly read Delta Lake tables using Apache Iceberg readers Microsoft Fabric is a unified, SaaS data and analytics platform designed for the era of AI. All workloads in Microsoft Fabric use Delta Lake as the standard, open-source table format. With Microsoft OneLake, Fabric’s unified SaaS data lake, customers can unify their data estate across multiple … Continue reading “New in OneLake: Access your Delta Lake tables as Iceberg automatically (Preview)”  ( 6 min )

A new feature has been added to Eventstream—the SQL Operator—which enables real-time data transformation within the platform. Whether you’re filtering, aggregating, or joining data streams, or handling complex data transformation needs like conditional logic, nested expression, string manipulation etc. SQL Operator gives you the flexibility and control to craft custom transformations using the language you … Continue reading “From Clicks to Code: SQL Operator under Fabric Eventstream (Preview)”  ( 7 min )

For enterprise customers, SAP represents one of the most valuable data sources. Integration of SAP data with other non-SAP data estates is a frequent requirement of Microsoft Fabric customers. Consequently, we are continually working to expand the options for SAP data integration to ensure that every customer has a viable solution tailored to their specific … Continue reading “What’s new with SAP connectivity in Microsoft Fabric – July 2025”  ( 9 min )

Have you ever wondered how to give AI assistants access to your organization’s data in a clean, structured way? The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that creates a bridge between large language models and external tools, APIs, and data sources. Think of it as a universal translator that lets AI agents understand … Continue reading “Connecting AI Agents to Microsoft Fabric with GraphQL and the Model Context Protocol (MCP)”  ( 8 min )

This structured plan helps students: Plans | Microsoft Learn Build foundational knowledge of AI in the cloud. Learn how enterprise-level infrastructure supports responsible, scalable AI deployments. Explore governance and monitoring strategies to ensure security and compliance. And the best part? It’s built using Microsoft’s existing training resources plus some brand-new modules to give you an edge. Your AI Readiness Journey on Azure 🎯 Milestone 1: Getting Started with AI on Azure https://learn.microsoft.com/training/paths/introduction-to-ai-on-azure/Begin with the basics—from machine learning concepts to practical uses of Azure AI services. 🛡️ Milestone 2: Infrastructure Essentials https://learn.microsoft.com/training/paths/manage-iam-for-ai-workloads-on-azure/ https://learn.micro…  ( 20 min )

Global Workshops for All Skill Levels We’re hosting a series of free online workshops to introduce you to MCP—available in multiple languages and programming languages! You’ll get hands-on experience building your first MCP server, guided by friendly experts ready to answer your questions. Register now: https://aka.ms/letslearnmcp Who Should Join? This workshop is built for: Students exploring tech careers Beginner devs eager to learn how AI agents and MCP works Curious coders and seasoned pros alike If you’ve got some code curiosity and a laptop, you’re good to go. Workshop Schedule (English Sessions) DateTech FocusRegistration Link July 9C#Join Here July 15JavaJoin Here July 16PythonJoin Here July 17C# + Visual StudioJoin Here July 21TypeScriptJoin Here Multilingual Sessions We’re…  ( 21 min )

The Power of Connected Agents: Building Multi-Agent Systems Imagine trying to build an AI system that can handle complex workflows like managing support tickets, analyzing data from multiple sources, or providing comprehensive recommendations. Sounds challenging, right? That's where multi-agent systems come in! The Develop a multi-agent solution with Azure AI Foundry Agent Services module introduces you to the concept of connected agents  a game changing approach that allows you to break down complex tasks into specialized roles handled by different AI agents. Why Connected Agents Matter As a student developer, you might wonder why you'd need multiple agents when a single agent can handle many tasks. Here's why this approach is transformative: 1. Simplified Complexity: Instead of building …  ( 29 min )

This week in Model Mondays, we put the spotlight on the AI Toolkit for Visual Studio Code - and explore the tools and workflows that make building generative AI apps and agents easier for developers. Read on for my recap. This post was generated with AI help and human revision & review. To learn more about our motivation and workflows, please refer to this document in our website. About Model Mondays Model Mondays is a weekly series designed to help you grow your Azure AI Foundry Model IQ step by step. Each week includes: 5-Minute Highlights – Quick news and updates about Azure AI models and tools on Monday 15-Minute Spotlight – Deep dive into a key model, protocol, or feature on Monday 30-Minute AMA on Friday – Live Q&A with subject matter experts from the Monday livestream If you're lo…  ( 28 min )

This week in Model Mondays, we put the spotlight on the AI Toolkit for Visual Studio Code - and explore the tools and workflows that make building generative AI apps and agents easier for developers. Read on for my recap. This post was generated with AI help and human revision & review. To learn more about our motivation and workflows, please refer to this document in our website. About Model Mondays Model Mondays is a weekly series designed to help you grow your Azure AI Foundry Model IQ step by step. Each week includes: 5-Minute Highlights – Quick news and updates about Azure AI models and tools on Monday 15-Minute Spotlight – Deep dive into a key model, protocol, or feature on Monday 30-Minute AMA on Friday – Live Q&A with subject matter experts from the Monday livestream If you're lo…  ( 28 min )

In this example, I demonstrate a Windows-based Function App using PowerShell, with deployment via Azure DevOps (ADO) and a Bicep template. Local development is done in VSCode.   Scenario: Your Function App project resides in a shared repository maintained by a team. Each developer works on a separate branch. Whenever a branch is updated, the Function App is deployed to a slot named after that branch. If the slot doesn't exist, it will be automatically created.   How to use it: Create a Function App You can create a Function App using any method of your choice.   Prepare a corresponding repo in Azure DevOps Set up your repo structure for the Function App source code.   Create Function App code using the VSCode wizard In this example, we use PowerShell and create an anonymous H…  ( 25 min )

Today, you can use Custom Instructions in JetBrains to speed up development while staying aligned with your team’s coding standards and personal preferences. Whether you’re working on a solo project or part of a larger team, adhering to consistent coding standards is essential. Custom Instructions provide a mechanism to reinforce team coding guidelines or embed […] The post Customize GitHub Copilot in JetBrains with Custom Instructions appeared first on Microsoft for Java Developers.  ( 22 min )

Today we are releasing patches that impact the latest version of our self-hosted product, Azure DevOps Server. We strongly encourage and recommend that all customers use the latest, most secure release of Azure DevOps Server. You can download the latest version of the product, Azure DevOps Server 2022.2 from the Azure DevOps Server download page. […] The post July Patches for Azure DevOps Server appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 21 min )

SharePoint Embedded is a fully managed, cloud-based, API-only document management system that lets you securely integrate your custom web or mobile apps, whether built on Azure or other clouds, with Microsoft 365 file storage. It’s especially ideal for ISVs building multi-tenant apps because content stays within each customer’s Microsoft 365 tenant.    Design apps that include Microsoft 365 Copilot and agent capabilities, connected Office experiences like Word, and Microsoft Purview compliance and data protection, all within your own user experience. Use built-in retrieval augmented generation (RAG) or bring your own models to create intelligent, secure solutions that reason over your business content, support real-time co-authoring, and scale with granular permissions and storage control.…  ( 39 min )

A Fabric workspace identity is an automatically managed service principal that can be associated with a Fabric workspace. Fabric workspaces with a workspace identity can securely read or write to firewall-enabled Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 accounts through trusted workspace access for OneLake shortcuts. Fabric items can use the identity when connecting to resources that support Microsoft … Continue reading “Fabric Workspace Identity: Removing Default Contributor Access for Workspace Identity”  ( 7 min )

Azure Storage Actions is a fully managed platform designed to automate data management tasks for Azure Blob Storage and Azure Data Lake Storage. You can use it to perform common data operations on millions of objects across multiple storage accounts without provisioning extra compute capacity and without requiring you to write code. Storage task actions can be used to rehydrate the archived blobs in any tier as required. Please note there is no option to set the rehydration priority and is defaulted to Standard one as of now. Note :- Azure Storage Actions are generally available in the following public regions: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage-actions/overview#supported-regions Azure Storage Actions is currently in PREVIEW in following reions. Please refer: https://learn.mic…  ( 22 min )

We’ve made significant improvements to how Node.js applications are deployed on Azure App Service — with deployment times now up to 8× faster in some cases.  ( 2 min )

Executive Summary AI agents need identity and trust just like humans. In this article, we demonstrate a zero-trust approach to autonomous AI agents by integrating Identity and access management into an enterprise agentic workflow. Using a hotel booking scenario, we show how each AI agent has identity and issued access token for every action. This ensures no implicit trust between entities – every interaction is authenticated and authorized, following the principle of “never trust, always verify”[1]. The solution marries Asgardeo by WSO2(for identity and access management) with Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service on Azure AI Foundry and Autogen (for powerful generative AI model and Multiagent orchestration). The result is a working example of autonomous agents that carry digital ID tokens, ena…  ( 59 min )

With all our big announcements at Build, you might think we'd kick back and take a break for a few weeks... but fine tuning never stops! We're wrapping up June with a release of direct preference optimization for the 4.1 family of models, fine tuning available in more regions than ever before, and Responses API support for fine-tuned models.  GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1-mini support Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) 😍 GPT-4.1 and GPT-4.1-mini now support Direct Preference Optimization (DPO). DPO is a finetuning technique that adjusts model weights based on human preferences. You provide a prompt along with two responses: a preferred and non-preferred example; using this data, you can align a fine-tuned model to match your own style, preferences, or safety requirements.   Unlike Reinforcement Lea…  ( 23 min )

That’s the promise behind the new pricing model for Azure AI Content Understanding. We’ve restructured how you pay for document, audio, and video analysis—moving from rigid field-based pricing to a flexible, token-based system that lets you pay only for what you use. Whether you're extracting layout from documents or identifying actions in a video, the new pricing structure delivers up to 60% cost savings for many typical tasks and more control over your spend. Why We’re Moving to Token-Based Pricing Field-based pricing was easy to understand, but it didn’t reflect the real work being done. Some fields are simple. Others require deep reasoning, cross-referencing, and contextual understanding. So we asked: What if pricing scaled with complexity? Enter tokens. Tokens are the atomic units of …  ( 35 min )

After several months in private preview and many bug fixes along the way, we’re excited to announce that Markdown support in large text fields is now generally available! 🎉 🦄 How it works By default, all existing and new work items will continue using the HTML editor for large text fields. However, you now have […] The post Markdown Support Arrives for Work Items appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 24 min )

The Cloud Native team at Azure is working to make AI on Kubernetes more cost-effective and approachable for a broader range of users.  The post Optimizing memory usage in large language models fine-tuning with KAITO: Best practices from Phi-3  appeared first on Microsoft Open Source Blog.  ( 15 min )

Introduction Ready to explore the fascinating world of Generative AI using your JavaScript skills? This week’s featured repository, Generative AI for Beginners with JavaScript, is your launchpad into the future of application development. Whether you're just starting out or looking to expand your AI toolbox, this open-source GitHub resource offers a rich, hands-on journey. It includes interactive lessons, quizzes, and even time-travel storytelling featuring historical legends like Leonardo da Vinci and Ada Lovelace. Each chapter combines narrative-driven learning with practical exercises, helping you understand foundational AI concepts and apply them directly in code. It’s immersive, educational, and genuinely fun. What You'll Learn 1. 🧠 Foundations of Generative AI and LLMs Start with t…  ( 23 min )

A discussion on Model Context Protocol: Part 1 - Why is there a need for MCP Link part 1 Part 2 - What MCP is, including its architecture and core components Link part 2 Part 3 - A demo of MCP — including how to configure it so anyone can run it Link part 3 Part 4 - An example of how to develop an MCP server — a potential starter project for connecting to your own knowledge resources Part 4 - MCP Development In this section we shall discuss creating an MCP Server - specifically, the Colour MCP server that was covered in the previous section, and used in the demo. MCP SDK To help build MCP servers with minimal effort - there are Software Development Kits (SDKS) for the following languages: C# Java Kotlin Python Ruby Swift TypeScript Links to the different SDKS are at https://modelcontex…  ( 26 min )

A discussion on Model Context Protocol: Part 1 - Why is there a need for MCP Part 2 - What MCP is, including its architecture and core components Part 3 - A demo of MCP — including how to configure it so anyone can run it Part 4 - An example of how to develop an MCP server — a potential starter project for connecting to your own knowledge resources Part 4 - MCP Development In this section we shall discuss creating an MCP Server - specifically, the Colour MCP server that was covered in the previous section, and used in the demo. MCP SDK To help build MCP servers with minimal effort - there are Software Development Kits (SDKS) for the following languages: C# Java Kotlin Python Ruby Swift TypeScript Links to the different SDKS are at https://modelcontextprotocol.io/ Colors MCP The source …  ( 26 min )

A discussion on Model Context Protocol: Part 1 - Why is there a need for MCP Link part 1 Part 2 - What MCP is, including its architecture and core components Link part 2 Part 3 - A demo of MCP — including how to configure it so anyone can run it Part 4 - An example of how to develop an MCP server — a potential starter project for connecting to your own knowledge resources Link part 4 Part 3 - MCP Demo This section shows the use of several MCP tools - specifically, these will provide knowledge about Colors, Timer, Prices and Azure Resources. The demo will use Visual Studio Code and GitHub Copilot Agent Mode. Demo video Configuration The remainder of this section, explains how to configure and run the demo. Project can be cloned from https://github.com/markharrisonorg/mcpdemo. Alternative…  ( 26 min )

A discussion on Model Context Protocol:Part 1 - Why is there a need for MCP Part 2 - What MCP is, including its architecture and core components Part 3 - A demo of MCP — including how to configure it so anyone can run it Part 4 - An example of how to develop an MCP server — a potential starter project for connecting to your own knowledge resources Part 3 - MCP Demo This section shows the use of several MCP tools - specifically, these will provide knowledge about Colors, Timer, Prices and Azure Resources. The demo will use Visual Studio Code and GitHub Copilot Agent Mode. Demo video Configuration The remainder of this section, explains how to configure and run the demo. Project can be cloned from https://github.com/markharrisonorg/mcpdemo. Alternatively: Create an empty folder and open wi…  ( 25 min )

A discussion on Model Context Protocol: Part 1 - Why is there a need for MCP Link part 1 Part 2 - What MCP is, including its architecture and core components Part 3 - A demo of MCP — including how to configure it so anyone can run it  Link part 3 Part 4 - An example of how to develop an MCP server — a potential starter project for connecting to your own knowledge resources Link part 4 Part 2 - What is MCP? The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard designed to enable intelligent AI applications to seamlessly communicate and interoperate with a wide range of external tools and services. MCP abstracts away integration complexities by defining a unified, extensible communication layer that supports context-aware interactions. https://modelcontextprotocol.io/ Overview of MCP Archit…  ( 21 min )

A discussion on Model Context Protocol: Part 1 - Why is there a need for MCP Part 2 - What MCP is, including its architecture and core components Part 3 - A demo of MCP — including how to configure it so anyone can run it Part 4 - An example of how to develop an MCP server — a potential starter project for connecting to your own knowledge resources Part 2 - What is MCP? The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard designed to enable intelligent AI applications to seamlessly communicate and interoperate with a wide range of external tools and services. MCP abstracts away integration complexities by defining a unified, extensible communication layer that supports context-aware interactions. https://modelcontextprotocol.io/ Overview of MCP Architecture MCP is structured around a modul…  ( 20 min )

A discussion on Model Context Protocol: Part 1 - Why is there a need for MCP  Part 2 - What MCP is, including its architecture and core components Link part 2  Part 3 - A demo of MCP — including how to configure it so anyone can run it Link Part 3  Part 4 - An example of how to develop an MCP server — a potential starter project for connecting to your own knowledge resources Link part 4 Part 1 - Why MCP? To understand why the Model Context Protocol (MCP) is needed, lets start by looking at the patterns that modern AI Agents rely on. Common AI Patterns Chat The Chat pattern is a conversational interface between an Agent and an AI Endpoint, typically using natural language, though it can also involve structured inputs or metadata depending on the use case.     The first message sent to an…  ( 31 min )

A discussion on Model Context Protocol: Part 1 - Why is there a need for MCP  Part 2 - What MCP is, including its architecture and core components Part 3 - A demo of MCP — including how to configure it so anyone can run it Part 4 - An example of how to develop an MCP server — a potential starter project for connecting to your own knowledge resources Part 1 - Why MCP? To understand why MCP is needed, lets start by looking at the patterns that modern AI Agents rely on. Common AI Patterns Chat The Chat pattern is a conversational interface between an Agent and an AI Endpoint, typically using natural language, though it can also involve structured inputs or metadata depending on the use case.     The first message sent to an AI endpoint includes a system prompt, which defines the AI's behav…  ( 31 min )

This week in Model Mondays, we focus on Small Language Models (SLMs) and Reasoning — and learn how reasoning models leverage inference-time scaling to execute complex tasks, but how can we use these in resource-constrained devices? Read on for my recap of Mojan Javaheripi's insights on Phi-4 reasoning models that are redefining small language models (SLM) for the agentic era of apps. About Model Mondays Model Mondays is a weekly series designed to help you build your Azure AI Foundry Model IQ step by step. Here's how it works: 5-Minute Highlights – Quick news and updates about Azure AI models and tools on Monday 15-Minute Spotlight – Deep dive into a key model, protocol, or feature on Monday 30-Minute AMA on Friday – Live Q&A with subject matter experts from Monday livestream If you want…  ( 29 min )

This week in Model Mondays, we focus on Small Language Models (SLMs) and Reasoning — and learn how reasoning models leverage inference-time scaling to execute complex tasks, but how can we use these in resource-constrained devices? Read on for my recap of Mojan Javaheripi's insights on Phi-4 reasoning models that are redefining small language models (SLM) for the agentic era of apps. About Model Mondays Model Mondays is a weekly series designed to help you build your Azure AI Foundry Model IQ step by step. Here's how it works: 5-Minute Highlights – Quick news and updates about Azure AI models and tools on Monday 15-Minute Spotlight – Deep dive into a key model, protocol, or feature on Monday 30-Minute AMA on Friday – Live Q&A with subject matter experts from Monday livestream If you want…  ( 29 min )

This article walks you through an application for Procure-to-Pay anomaly detection using Azure AI Foundry Agent Service. It analyzes purchase invoice images to detect procurement anomalies and compliance issues. The key capabilities of Azure AI Foundry it showcases are: Agent Service that performs a multi-step business process with only natural language instructions. The Application has little to no business logic in the code. Invocation of a variety of automated tool actions required during the multi steps business process. It showcases the recently announced turnkey integration with MCP Server, Azure Logic Apps. In addition, it uses a) visual reasoning of images using gpt-4o models, b) turnkey vector search, and c) reasoning to apply business rules and perform p2p anomaly detection. The…  ( 45 min )

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In Azure Batch, to monitor the node performance like CPU or Disk usage users are required to use Azure monitor.  The Azure Monitor service collects and aggregates metrics and logs from every component of the node. Azure Monitor provides you with a view of availability, performance, and resilience. When you create an Azure Batch pool, you can install any of the following monitoring-related extensions on the compute nodes to collect and analyse data. Previously users have leveraged Batch Insights to get system statistics for Azure Batch account nodes, but it is deprecated now and no longer supported. The Log Analytics agent virtual machine (VM) extension installs the Log Analytics agent on Azure VMs and enrols VMs into an existing Log Analytics workspace. The Log Analytics agent is on a depr…  ( 31 min )

Industry: Energy Location: North America Executive Summary: AI-Driven Multi-Agent Knowledge and IT Support Solution for an Energy Industry Firm A North American energy company sought to modernize its legacy knowledge and IT support chatbot, which was underperforming across key metrics. The existing system, built on static rules and scripts, delivered slow and often inaccurate responses, failing to meet the organization’s standards for employee engagement and operational efficiency. To address this challenge, we proposed and designed a cloud-native, AI-powered multi-agent system hosted on Microsoft Azure. Built on the LangGraph orchestration framework and Azure AI Foundry. This solution integrates advanced ai agent hierarchies, allowing for contextual, domain-specific knowledge retrieval an…  ( 22 min )

1. Introduction 1.1 Evolution from Expert Systems to Modern AI The transition from rule-based expert systems to modern AI represents one of the most significant paradigm shifts in computer science[1]. Where the original 1992 paper by Kiper focused on testing deterministic rule-based systems with clear logical pathways, today's AI systems operate through complex neural architectures that process information in fundamentally different ways[2]. Modern AI systems, particularly deep neural networks and transformer models, exhibit emergent behaviors that cannot be easily traced through simple logical paths[3]. Traditional expert systems operated on explicit if-then rules that could be mapped to logical path graphs, making structural testing relatively straightforward[4]. Contemporary AI systems,…  ( 65 min )

We are excited to announce the public preview of IPv6 outbound support in App Service for Windows! Public preview of outbound IPv6 support for Windows multi-tenant apps is supported on all App Service plan SKUs, Functions Consumption, Functions Elastic Premium, and Logic Apps Standard running Windows. This is the next announcement in our series of IPv6 related feature work on App Service. Public preview of Inbound IPv6 Support on App Service multi-tenant This announcement: IPv6 (dual-stack) non-vnet outbound support (multi-tenant) Backlog - IPv6 vnet outbound support (multi-tenant and App Service Environment v3) Backlog - IPv6 vnet inbound support (App Service Environment v3 - both internal and external) Limitations Linux sites are NOT supported at this time but will be available in the…  ( 22 min )

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) has rapidly become the industry standard for connecting AI agents to a wide range of external tools and services in a consistent way. In a matter of months, this protocol has become a hot topic in developer events and forums and has been implemented by companies large and small. With such rapid change comes the need for training and upskilling to meet the moment! That's why, we're planning a series of virtual training events across different languages (both natural and programming) to introduce you to MCP. ⭐ Register: https://aka.ms/letslearnmcp 👩‍💻 Who Should Join? Whether you're a beginner developer, a university student, or a seasoned tech professional, this workshop was designed with you in mind. At each event, experts will guide you through an exciti…  ( 22 min )

Veeam Data Cloud (VDC) provides cloud-native, SaaS-based data resilience for mission-critical environments including Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Azure, and Salesforce. As enterprise data protection needs to evolve, so does the intelligence behind it. With Veeam Intelligence, VDC is leveraging the power of generative AI that helps users get the most value from VDC services using an advanced AI assistant, with the vision to deliver real-time insights through backup telemetry in the future   To build an assistant delivers accurate, reliable, and safe responses, the VDC team partnered with Azure AI Foundry, Microsoft's AI application development platform which provides built-in responsible AI evaluation and testing  at scale.   From Backup to Breakthrough: Enabling Smart, Safe AI Assistance Veeam…  ( 24 min )

At the //Build conference in May 2025, we announced the public preview of Azure AI Voice Live API (Breakout Session 144). Today we are exciting to share some updates to this API and the latest pricing. Recap: What is the Voice Live API and why does it matter? Voice is the next generation interface between humans and computers. In the era of voice-driven technologies, creating smooth and intuitive speech-based systems has become a priority for developers. The Voice Live API simplifies the process by combining essential voice processing components into a unified interface. Whether you're building conversational agents for customer support, automotive assistants, or educational tools, this API is designed to streamline workflows, reduce latency, and deliver high-quality, real-time voice inter…  ( 38 min )

Copy job has been a go-to tool for simplified data ingestion in Microsoft Fabric, offering a seamless data movement experience from any source to any destination. Whether you need batch or incremental copying, it provides the flexibility to meet diverse data needs while maintaining a simple and intuitive workflow. We continuously refine Copy job based … Continue reading “Simplifying Data Ingestion with Copy job – Incremental Copy GA, Lakehouse Upserts, and New Connectors”  ( 7 min )

The Java ecosystem around Azure Cosmos DB has quietly grown a lot stronger in the first half of 2024. And the updates are especially exciting if you’re working on scalable apps or exploring GenAI workloads. From new support for vector search and indexing, to better throughput management and improved integrations with Apache Kafka, Spring Data, […] The post What’s New for Java Developers in Azure Cosmos DB (NoSQL)? appeared first on Microsoft for Java Developers.  ( 22 min )

Now, with Radius Resource Types, platform engineers can define resource types specific to their organizations. The post Expanding platform engineering capabilities with Radius Resource Types appeared first on Microsoft Open Source Blog.  ( 13 min )

With built-in protections, prevent data leaks, block unsafe prompts, and avoid oversharing without rewriting your app. As a developer, focus on innovation while meeting evolving security and compliance requirements. And as a security admin, gain full visibility into AI data interactions, user activity, and policy enforcement across environments.     Shilpa Ranganathan, Microsoft Purview Principal GPM, shares how new SDKs and Azure AI Foundry integrations bring enterprise-grade security to custom AI apps. Stop data leaks.     Detect and block sensitive content in real-time with Microsoft Purview. Get started. Adapt AI security based on user roles.     Block or allow access without changing your code. See it here. Prevent oversharing with built-in data protections.     Only authorized us…  ( 40 min )

Read how the Retrieval API gives developers a secure, compliant and scalable way to integrate enterprise content into their AI workflows. The post Microsoft 365 Copilot APIs: Unlocking enterprise knowledge for AI with the Retrieval API — Now in Public Preview appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 26 min )

This week in Model Mondays, we focus on the Model Context Protocol (MCP) — and learn how to securely connect AI models to real-world tools and services using MCP, Azure AI Foundry, and industry-standard authorization. Read on for my recap   About Model Mondays Model Mondays is a weekly series designed to help you build your Azure AI Foundry Model IQ step by step. Here’s how it works: 5-Minute Highlights – Quick news and updates about Azure AI models and tools on Monday 15-Minute Spotlight – Deep dive into a key model, protocol, or feature on Monday 30-Minute AMA on Friday – Live Q&A with subject matter experts from Monday livestream If you want to grow your skills with the latest in AI model development, Model Mondays is the place to start. Want to follow along? Register Here - to watc…  ( 31 min )

💡 Why This Approach? Traditional deployments often include models inside the app, leading to: Large container sizes Long build times Slow cold starts Painful updates when models change With Azure Blob Storage, you can offload the model and only fetch it at runtime — reducing size, improving flexibility, and enabling easier updates. What You will Need An ML model (model.pkl, model.pt, etc.) An Azure Blob Storage account A Python web app (FastAPI, Flask, or Streamlit) Azure Web App (App Service for Python) Azure Python SDK: azure-storage-blob Step 1: Save and Upload Your Model to Blob Storage First, save your trained model locally: # PyTorch example import torch torch.save(model.state_dict(), "model.pt") Then, upload it to Azure Blob Storage: from azure.storage.blob import BlobServiceC…  ( 26 min )

Introduction Organizations enforcing Entra ID authentication on their Application Insights resources often face a sudden problem: browser-based telemetry stops flowing. This happens when local authentication is disabled — a necessary step to enforce strict identity controls — but sending data from browser environments comes with inherent security challenges, and the Application Insights JavaScript SDK is no exception. As a result, telemetry from web clients is silently dropped, leaving gaps in monitoring and frustrated teams wondering how to re-enable secure telemetry ingestion. This article provides a solution: using Azure API Management (APIM) as a secure proxy that authenticates telemetry using a managed identity before forwarding it to Application Insights. This pattern restores observ…  ( 34 min )

Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4 are now available in GitHub Copilot Chat for JetBrains IDEs and Eclipse. Model Availability✨ Claude Sonnet 4: Available for users on Pro, Pro+, Business, and Enterprise plans. Claude Opus 4: Available for users on Pro+ and Enterprise plans. For full details, please see this documentation. How to Get Started🚀 JetBrains IDEs: Click the GitHub Copilot icon –> Open GitHub Copilot Chat-> […] The post Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4 and Opus 4 Now Available in GitHub Copilot for JetBrains and Eclipse appeared first on Microsoft for Java Developers.  ( 23 min )

Shortcut transformations is a new capability in Microsoft Fabric that simplifies the process of converting raw files, starting with .CSV files, into Delta tables. This feature eliminates the need for traditional ETL pipelines, enabling users to transform data directly on top of files with minimal setup. Why use Shortcut transformations Shortcut transformations help users: What … Continue reading “Announcing Shortcut Transformations: from files to Delta tables. Always in sync, no pipelines required.”  ( 7 min )

Introduction and Motivation The explosive growth of data-driven applications has pushed distributed database systems to their limits, especially as organizations demand real-time consistency, high availability, and efficient resource utilization across global infrastructures. The CAP theorem—asserting that a distributed system can guarantee at most two out of consistency, availability, and partition tolerance—forces architects to make challenging trade-offs. Traditional distributed databases rely on static policies and heuristics, which cannot adapt to the dynamic nature of modern workloads and evolving data relationships. Recent advances in Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) offer a new paradigm for modeling and optimizing distributed systems. Unlike conventional machine learning, GNNs naturall…  ( 30 min )

We are delighted to announce the availability of the Voice Conversion (VC) feature in Azure AI Speech service, which is currently in preview. What is voice Conversion Voice Conversion (or voice changer, speech to speech conversion) is the process of transforming the voice characteristics of a given audio to a target voice speaker, and after Voice Conversion, the resulting audio reserves source audio’s linguistic content and prosody while the voice timbre sounds like the target speaker. Below is a diagram of Voice Conversion.   The purpose of Voice Conversion There are 3 reasons users need Voice Conversion functionality: Voice Conversion can replicate your content using a different voice identity while maintaining the original prosody and emotion. For instance, in education, teachers can …  ( 30 min )

Proactively manage and secure all your devices — whether they run Windows, macOS, iOS, or Android. With cross-platform analytics, multi-device queries, and in-depth troubleshooting tools, you can pinpoint problems fast and take targeted action at scale.  Even without deep technical expertise, you can generate complex queries, identify vulnerabilities, and deploy remediations — all in a few clicks. With built-in Copilot support, daily tasks like policy validation, device comparison, and risk analysis become faster, smarter, and easier to act on.  Jeremy Chapman, Director of Microsoft 365, shares how to stay ahead of potential issues and keep endpoints running smoothly.  Spot and fix performance issues before users contact support.  Use Advanced Analytics in Microsoft Intune. Check it out.…  ( 42 min )

The June 2025 release of the on-premises data gateway is (version 3000.274). What’s New Fabric pipeline – Azure database for PostgreSQL connector version 2.0 is now generally available. This new version is enhanced to support TLS 1.3, new table action – upsert, as well as the script activity in data pipeline.  Fabric pipeline – Enhanced … Continue reading “On-premises data gateway June 2025 release”  ( 6 min )

The Microsoft Fabric Extension for VS Code introduces two new features that enhance the management of Fabric items directly within the editor. Users can now perform CRUD operations on Fabric items and switch between multiple tenants easily. These updates aim to improve workflow efficiency and are based on customer feedback, inviting further suggestions for enhancement.  ( 6 min )

Introducing Dev Proxy v0.29, with a major architectural overhaul, control over language model prompts, and improved diagnostics. The post Dev Proxy v0.29 with refactored architecture, MCP server, and exposed LM prompts appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 24 min )

Building robust, scalable AI apps is tough, especially when you want to move fast, follow best practices, and avoid being bogged down by endless setup and configuration. In this quest, you’ll discover how to accelerate your journey from prototype to production by leveraging ready-made templates and modern cloud tools. Say goodbye to decision fatigue and hello to streamlined, industry-approved workflows you can make your own. 👉 Want to catch up on the full program or grab more quests? https://aka.ms/JSAIBuildathon 💬 Got questions or want to hang with other builders? Join us on Discord — head to the #js-ai-build-a-thon channel. 🚀 What You’ll Build A fully functional AI application deployed on Azure, customized to solve a real problem that matters to you.  A codebase powered by a producti…  ( 23 min )

Building robust, scalable AI apps is tough, especially when you want to move fast, follow best practices, and avoid being bogged down by endless setup and configuration. In this quest, you’ll discover how to accelerate your journey from prototype to production by leveraging ready-made templates and modern cloud tools. Say goodbye to decision fatigue and hello to streamlined, industry-approved workflows you can make your own. 👉 Want to catch up on the full program or grab more quests? https://aka.ms/JSAIBuildathon 💬 Got questions or want to hang with other builders? Join us on Discord — head to the #js-ai-build-a-thon channel. 🚀 What You’ll Build A fully functional AI application deployed on Azure, customized to solve a real problem that matters to you.  A codebase powered by a producti…  ( 23 min )

Azure DevOps will no longer depend on the Azure Resource Manager (ARM) resource (https://management.azure.com) when you sign in or refresh Microsoft Entra access tokens. Previously, Azure DevOps required the ARM audience during sign-in and token refresh flows. This requirement meant administrators had to allow all Azure DevOps users to bypass ARM-based Conditional Access policies (CAPs) […] The post Removing Azure Resource Manager reliance on Azure DevOps sign-ins appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 23 min )

One of the highly requested features in Microsoft Fabric is now available: the ability to encrypt data in OneLake using your own keys. As organizations face growing data volumes and tighter regulatory expectations, Customer-Managed Keys (CMK) offer a powerful way to enforce enterprise-grade security and ensure strict ownership of encryption keys and access. With Microsoft’s … Continue reading “Customer Managed Keys in OneLake: Strengthening Data Protection and Control”  ( 7 min )

We’re excited to introduce Data Source Instructions, a powerful new feature in the Fabric Data Agent that helps you get more precise, relevant answers from your structured data. What are Data Source instructions? When you use the Data Agent to ask questions in natural language, the agent must determine which data source to use and … Continue reading “New in Fabric Data Agent: Data source instructions for smarter, more accurate AI responses”  ( 6 min )

Welcome to the June 2025 update. The June 2025 Fabric update introduces several key enhancements across multiple areas. Power BI celebrates its 10th anniversary with a range of community events, contests, expert-led sessions, and special certification exam discounts. In Data Engineering, Fabric Notebooks now support integration with variable libraries in preview, empowering users to manage … Continue reading “Fabric June 2025 Feature Summary”  ( 17 min )

Special credit to Rory Preddy for creating the GitHub resource that enable us to learn more about Azure Sora. Reach him out on LinkedIn to say thanks. Introduction Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing content creation, and video generation is at the forefront of this transformation. OpenAI's Sora, a groundbreaking text-to-video model, allows creators to generate high-quality videos from simple text prompts. When paired with the powerful infrastructure of Azure AI Foundry, you can harness Sora's capabilities with scalability and efficiency, whether on a local machine or a remote setup.   In this blog post, I’ll walk you through the process of generating AI videos using Sora on Azure AI Foundry. We’ll cover the setup for both local and remote environments. Requirements: Azure AI …  ( 26 min )

We’re excited to announce a significant update to Semantic Kernel Python’s vector store implementation. Version 1.34 brings a complete overhaul that makes working with vector data simpler, more intuitive, and more powerful. This update consolidates the API, improves developer experience, and adds new capabilities that streamline AI development workflows. What Makes This Release Special? The […] The post Semantic Kernel Python Gets a Major Vector Store Upgrade appeared first on Semantic Kernel.  ( 25 min )

Surface the highest-risk alerts across your environment, no matter their default severity, and take action. Customize how your agents reason, teach them what matters to your organization, and continuously refine to reduce time-to-resolution.    Talhah Mir, Microsoft Purview Principal GPM, shows how to triage, investigate, and contain potential data risks before they escalate.  Focus on the most high-risk alerts in your queue.  Save time by letting Alert Triage Agents for DLP and IRM surface what matters. Watch how it works. Stay in control.  Tailor triage priorities with your own rules to focus on what really matters. See how to customize your alert triage agent using Security Copilot. View alert triage agent efficiency stats.  Know what your agent is doing and how well it’s performing…  ( 28 min )

It’s been almost 3 months since we announced OneLake security at FabCon 2025 in Las Vegas, and while the interest has not slowed down, we’ve also been working behind the scenes to improve the feature and address your feedback. In this blog post, we’ll go through some of the latest updates on OneLake security including … Continue reading “OneLake security – updates and news”  ( 6 min )

We’re excited to announce that one of our most-requested features is officially in Public Preview: You can now create Dev Boxes on behalf of your developers. Waiting around to get started is a thing of the past.  Whether you’re onboarding a new hire, running a hackathon, or setting up for a customer demo, this feature makes it […] The post 🎉 Now in Public Preview: Create Dev Boxes on Behalf of Your Developers  appeared first on Develop from the cloud.  ( 23 min )

Authors: Joel Borellis, Mohamad Al Jazaery, Hwasu Kim, Kira Soderstrom  Github Link  This repository is a great starting point. It demonstrates deploying an MCP server with Azure Container Apps and includes three example clients, each using a different agent framework to interact with the server. What’s Inside MCP Server with Sport News ToolsThe sample server, built using the fastmcp package, exposes tools like “Get NFL News”. It supports API key authentication and is designed to be easily extended with additional tools or data sources. You can run it locally or deploy it to Azure Container Apps for scalable, cloud-native hosting.   Three Client SamplesEach example demonstrates how different agent frameworks can consume tools from the MCP server. All the examples use Azure-OpenAI as a…  ( 25 min )

In app-only access scenarios, Shifts Management Graph APIs previously required the MS-APP-ACTS-AS: userId header to indicate the user on whose behalf the application was acting. However, this conflicted with the Microsoft Graph permission model where there is no signed-in user for app-only access scenarios. To align Shifts Graph APIs with this model, the MS-APP-ACTS-AS header […] The post Deprecation of MS-APP-ACTS-AS header in Shifts Management Microsoft Graph APIs appeared first on Microsoft 365 Developer Blog.  ( 24 min )

We’re excited to announce a major enhancement to the deployment experience for Strapi on Azure App Service. Building on the foundation laid out in our  overview, quick start, and FAQ , this update introduces automated and secure secrets management using Azure Key Vault. What’s New? The updated ARM template now provisions an Azure Key Vault instance alongside your Strapi application. This integration enables secure storage of sensitive credentials such as database passwords and Strapi-specific secrets. Here’s what makes this enhancement powerful: Secure by Default: Public access to the Key Vault is disabled out of the box. Instead, private endpoints are configured to ensure secure communication within your virtual network. Auto-Generated Secrets: Strapi secrets are now automatically genera…  ( 24 min )

In our previous blog post Inline Scalar user-defined functions in Microsoft Fabric Warehouse (Preview) we have announced the availability of SQL native scalar UDFs. We also emphasized the importance of inlining and how that can affect scenarios in which UDF can be used. In this post, we aim to highlight common patterns that prevent inlining … Continue reading “How to make your SQL scalar user-defined function (UDF) inlineable in Microsoft Fabric Warehouse “  ( 9 min )

SQL native Scalar user-defined functions (UDFs) in Microsoft Fabric Warehouse and SQL analytics endpoint are now in preview. A scalar UDF is a custom code implemented in T-SQL that accepts parameters, performs an action such as complex calculation, and returns a result of that action as a single value. They can contain local variables, calls … Continue reading “Inline Scalar user-defined functions (UDFs) in Microsoft Fabric Warehouse (Preview)”  ( 8 min )

The JS AI Build-a-thon is in full swing — and we’re turning up the power in Quest 7!If you're just joining us, this is part of an ongoing challenge to help JavaScript and TypeScript developers build AI-powered apps from scratch. Catch up here and join the conversation on Discord.   Last quest, you dipped your toes into agentic development — giving your AI the ability to act and reason.This time, we’re taking it further. In Quest 7, you’ll explore the Model Context Protocol (MCP) — a growing protocol in Agentic development that unlocks standardized tool-usage in AI agents via an MCP server. Available tools for the OS Patrol agent 🎯 What You’ll Build This quest is all about connecting your AI agent to tools that do real things.You’ll: Create and spin up an MCP server using the MCP TypeScri…  ( 25 min )

Let’s face it. Sometimes your Dev Box just… hangs around too long. Whether you’ve moved to a new project, left the company, want to create a new dev box with the latest tools, it’s time to clean things up. 🎯 With Dev Box Auto-Deletion now in public preview, offboarding just got a whole lot easier. […] The post 💻 Spring Cleaning for Dev Boxes: Mastering Manual & Automatic Offboarding appeared first on Develop from the cloud.  ( 24 min )

About Model Mondays Want to know what Reasoning models are and how you can build advanced reasoning scenarios like a Deep Research agent using Azure AI Foundry? Check out this recap from Model Mondays Season 2 Ep 1. Model Mondays is a weekly series to help you build your model IQ in three steps:1. Catch the 5-min Highlights on Monday, to get up to speed on model news2. Catch the 15-min Spotlight on Monday, for a deep-dive into a model or tool3. Catch the 30-min AMA on Friday, for a Q&A session with subject matter experts Want to follow along? Register Here- to watch upcoming livestreams for Season 2 Visit The Forum- to see the full AMA schedule for Season 2 Register Here - to join the AMA on Friday Jun 20 Spotlight On: Advanced Reasoning This week, the Model Mondays spotlight was on Adv…  ( 31 min )

About Model Mondays Want to know what Reasoning models are and how you can build advanced reasoning scenarios like a Deep Research agent using Azure AI Foundry? Check out this recap from Model Mondays Season 2 Ep 1. Model Mondays is a weekly series to help you build your model IQ in three steps:1. Catch the 5-min Highlights on Monday, to get up to speed on model news2. Catch the 15-min Spotlight on Monday, for a deep-dive into a model or tool3. Catch the 30-min AMA on Friday, for a Q&A session with subject matter experts Want to follow along? Register Here- to watch upcoming livestreams for Season 2 Visit The Forum- to see the full AMA schedule for Season 2 Register Here - to join the AMA on Friday Jun 20 Spotlight On: Advanced Reasoning This week, the Model Mondays spotlight was on Adv…  ( 31 min )

If you're curious about building AI solutions but don’t know where to start, Microsoft’s AI Toolkit is a great place to begin. Whether you’re a student, developer, or just someone exploring AI for the first time, this toolkit helps you build real-world solutions using Microsoft’s powerful AI services. In this blog, I’ll Walk you through what the AI Toolkit is, how you can get started, and where you can find helpful demos and ready-to-use code samples. What is the AI Toolkit? The AI Toolkit is a collection of tools, templates, and sample apps that make it easier to build AI-powered applications and copilots using Microsoft Azure. With the AI Toolkit, you can: Build intelligent apps without needing deep AI expertise. Use templates and guides that show you how everything works. Quickly proto…  ( 24 min )

Table of Contents Abstract Introduction Using Ansys Access with Azure NetApp Files Architecture Diagram Ansys Redhawk Scenario Details Overview and Context HPC Simulation Environment Cloud Shift Drivers Why Azure NetApp Files Capacity and Scale Fits for Ansys Access to support RedHawk-SC Use Cases Power Integrity Simulations Transient Simulations with Frequent Checkpoints Multiple Concurrent Simulation Runs End-to-End Engineering Workflows Azure Well-Architected Pillars And Considerations Performance Efficiency Parallel I/O and Low Latency Large Volumes Dynamic Service Levels and Volume Resizing Protocol Optimization Performance Isolation and QoS Cluster Right-Sizing Cost Optimization Pay-As-You-Go Model Storage Efficiency for data protection Reserved Capacity Tiering for Cold Data Archiva…  ( 41 min )

As organizations scale their development efforts, managing access to cloud resources becomes critical. Platform engineers need to strike a balance between enforcing governance and enabling developer agility. At Build 2025, we announced the general availability of project policies in Microsoft Dev Box, which provides a powerful way to improve resource control and governance for cloud […] The post Balance governance and flexibility with Dev Box project policies appeared first on Develop from the cloud.  ( 24 min )

Cost is one of the most important concerns in any cloud-native rollout. IT admins need powerful tools to control costs without slowing development. At Build 2025, we were excited to announce the general availability of hibernation in Microsoft Dev Box. This feature empowers platform engineers to optimize resource usage while empowering developers to get what […] The post Control cloud costs with Dev Box hibernation features appeared first on Develop from the cloud.  ( 23 min )

Our Team (Sorted Alphabetically): Ashkan Allahyari| ashkan.allahayri@ru.nl Ole Bekker| ole.bekker2@ru.nl Robin Elster| robin.elster@ru.nl Waad Hegazy| waad.hegazy@ru.nl Lea Hierl| lea.hierl@ru.nl Linda Pham| linda.pham@ru.nl  Master Business Analysis & Modelling, Radboud University Master Strategic Human Resources Leadership, Radboud University Student Exchange at Radboud University Project Overview At Radboud University, our team in the course Data-Driven Analytics for Responsible Business Solutions, embraced a unique opportunity to apply our passion for data analytics to a real-world challenge. Tasked with analyzing employee turnover at VenturaGear—a company committed to fostering a thriving workplace—we conducted an in-depth study to uncover the root causes of attrition. By le…  ( 36 min )

What is the Root Cert API? The Root Cert API allows customers to programmatically add root certificates to their ASE, making them available during the startup of apps. Root certificates are public certificates that identify a root certificate authority (CA). These are essential for establishing trust in secure communications. By adding root certificates to your ASE, all web apps hosted within that ASE will have them installed in their root store. This ensures that apps can securely communicate with internal services or APIs that use certificates issued by private or enterprise CAs. Previously, this functionality was only available in private preview through a workaround involving certificate uploads and a special app setting and included a number of limitations. With the new Root Cert API,…  ( 27 min )

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is rapidly becoming the prominent framework for building truly agentic, interoperable AI applications.   Many articles document MCP servers for single-server use, this project stands out as the starter template that combines Azure OpenAI integration with a Multi-Server MCP architecture on a custom interface, enabling you to connect and orchestrate multiple tool servers—through a customized UI.   Here, we will deep dive into Multi Server MCP implementation, connecting both local custom and ready MCP Servers in a single client session through the MultiServerMCP library from Langchain adapters, enabling agentic orchestration across different domains. While most triggers to OOB MCP servers leveraged Github Copilot for input, this project allows for custom app i…  ( 31 min )

In 2022, we announced the deprecation of LUIS by September 30, 2025 with a recommendation to migrate to conversational language understanding (CLU). In response to feedback from our valued customers, we have decided to extend the availability of certain functionalities in LUIS until March 31, 2026. This extension aims to support our customers in their smooth migration to CLU, ensuring minimal disruption to their operations.  Extension Details  Here are some details on when and how the LUIS functionality will change:  October 2022: LUIS resource creation is no longer available. October 31, 2025: The LUIS portal will no longer be available.  LUIS Authoring (via REST API only) will continue to be available. March 31, 2026: LUIS Authoring, including via REST API, will no longer be available.  LUIS Runtime will no longer be available.  Before these retirement dates, please migrate to conversational language understanding (CLU), a capability of Azure AI Service for Language. CLU provides many of the same capabilities as LUIS, plus enhancements such as:  Enhanced AI quality using state-of-the-art machine learning models  The LLM-powered Quick Deploy feature to deploy a CLU model with no training Multilingual capabilities that allow you to train in one language and predict in 99+ others  Built-in routing between conversational language understanding and custom question answering projects using orchestration workflow  Access to a suite of features available on Azure AI Service for Language in the Azure AI Foundry  Looking Ahead  On March 31, 2026, LUIS will be fully deprecated, and any LUIS inferencing requests will return an error message. We encourage all our customers to complete their migration to CLU as soon as possible to avoid any disruptions.  We appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we work together to ensure a smooth migration.   Thank you for your continued support and trust in our services.  ( 21 min )

Introduction As sustainability becomes a core priority for organizations worldwide, Azure Migrate now empowers customers to quantify environmental impact alongside cost savings when planning their cloud journey. With the new Sustainability Benefits capability in Azure Migrate's Business Case, customers can now view estimated emissions savings when migrating from on-premises environments to Azure — making sustainability a first-class consideration in cloud transformation. Align with Global Sustainability Goals With governments and enterprises racing to meet net-zero targets — including a 55% emissions reduction target by 2030 in the EU and net-zero goals in the US and UK by 2050 — cloud migration offers a meaningful path to emissions reduction. With Azure’s carbon-efficient infrastructure p…  ( 25 min )

What is Azure AI Foundry and Foundry Local? Azure AI Foundry is Microsoft’s comprehensive platform for enterprise AI development and deployment, enabling organizations to build, customize, and operate AI solutions at scale. It provides tools, services, and infrastructure to develop, fine-tune and deploy AI models in production environments with enterprise-grade security and compliance. Foundry Local […] The post Connect Spring AI to Local AI Models with Foundry Local appeared first on Microsoft for Java Developers.  ( 25 min )

A few weeks ago at BUILD, we announced the upcoming Azure DevOps MCP Server: 👉 Azure DevOps with GitHub Repositories – Your path to Agentic AI Today, we’re excited to share that the local Azure DevOps MCP Server is now available in public preview. This lets GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code […] The post Azure DevOps MCP Server, Public Preview appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 23 min )

Promoting an application or infrastructure change into production often comes with a requirement to follow a change control process. This ensures that changes to production are properly reviewed and that they adhere to required approvals, change windows and QA process. Often this change request (CR) process will be conducted using a system for recording and auditing the change request and the outcome. When deploying a release, there will often be places in the process to go through this change control workflow. This may be as part of a release pipeline, it may be managed in a pull request or it may be a manual process. Ultimately, by the time the actual changes are made to production infrastructure or applications, they should already be approved. This relies on the appropriate controls an…  ( 40 min )

TLDR Create an Azure Kubernetes Service cluster with GPU nodes and connect it to Azure Machine Learning to run distributed ML training workloads. This integration provides a managed data science platform while maintaining Kubernetes flexibility under the hood, enables multi-node training that spans multiple GPUs, and bridges the gap between infrastructure and ML teams. The solution works for both new and existing clusters, supporting specialized GPU hardware and hybrid scenarios. Why Should You Care? Integrating Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters with GPUs into Azure Machine Learning (AML) offers several key benefits: Utilize existing infrastructure: Leverage your existing AKS clusters with GPUs via a managed data science platform like AML Flexible resource sharing: Allow both AKS wo…  ( 34 min )

Co-author: Alexei Robsky, Data Scientist Manager Overview  As organizations increasingly rely on real-time data to drive decisions, the need for intelligent, responsive systems has never been greater. At the heart of this transformation is Fabric Real-Time Intelligence (RTI), a platform that empowers users to act on data as it arrives. Today, we’re excited to announce … Continue reading “Introducing MCP Support for Real-Time Intelligence (RTI) “  ( 7 min )

The Eventstreams artifact in the Microsoft Fabric Real-Time Intelligence experience lets you bring real-time events into Fabric, transform them, and then route them to various destinations such as Eventhouse, without writing any code (no-code). You can ingest data from an Eventstream to Eventhouse seamlessly either from Eventstream artifact or Eventhouse Get Data Wizard. This capability … Continue reading “Fabric Eventhouse now supports Eventstream Derived Streams in Direct Ingestion mode (Preview)”  ( 7 min )

Have you ever found yourself frustrated by inconsistent item creation? Maybe you’ve struggled to select the right workspace or folder when creating a new item or ended up with a cluttered workspace due to accidental item creation. We hear you—and we’re excited to introduce the new item creation experience in Fabric! This update is designed … Continue reading “Introducing new item creation experience in Fabric”  ( 6 min )

We’re excited to announce Surge Protection for background operations is now Generally Available (GA). Using surge protection, capacity admins can limit overuse by background operations in their capacities.  ( 6 min )

Scenario Once a loan application is submitted, financial institutions must process a variety of supporting documents—including pay stubs, tax returns, credit reports, and bank statements—before a loan can be approved. This post-application phase is often fragmented and manual, involving data retrieval from multiple systems, document verification, eligibility calculations, packet compilation, and signing. Each step typically requires coordination between underwriters, compliance teams, and loan processors, which can stretch the processing time to several weeks. This solution automates the post-application loan processing workflow using Azure services and Generative AI agents. Intelligent agents retrieve and validate applicant data, extract and summarize document contents, calculate loan eli…  ( 42 min )

The June 2025 release includes Copilot chat tools in the Python extension, project creation from a template, language server based terminal suggest, and more! The post Python in Visual Studio Code – June 2025 Release appeared first on Microsoft for Python Developers Blog.  ( 24 min )

Result Set Caching is now available in preview for Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse and Lakehouse SQL analytics endpoint. This performance optimization works transparently to cache the results of eligible T-SQL queries. When the same query is issued again, it directly retrieves the stored result, instead of recompiling and recomputing the original query. This operation drastically … Continue reading “Result Set Caching for Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse (Preview)”  ( 6 min )

In this quest, you'll teach your AI app to talk to external data using the Retreival Augmented Generation (RAG) technique. You'll overcome the limitations of pre-trained language models by allowing them to reference your own data, using it as context to deliver accurate, fact-based responses.   👉 Want to catch up on the full program or grab more quests? https://aka.ms/JSAIBuildathon 💬 Got questions or want to hang with other builders? Join us on Discord — head to the #js-ai-build-a-thon channel. 🔧 What You’ll Build In this quest, you’ll: Connect your AI app to external documents (like PDFs) Allow your app to “read” and respond using your real-world content Why does this matter? Because LLMs are powerful, but they don’t know your business, reports, or research papers, etc. With RAG, yo…  ( 25 min )

Prompty is a powerful tool for managing prompts in AI applications. Not only does it allow you to easily test your prompts during development, but it also provides observability, understandability and portability. Here's how to use Prompty with Foundry Local to support your AI applications with on-device inference. Foundry Local At the Build '25 conference, Microsoft announced Foundry Local, a new tool that allows developers to run AI models locally on their devices. Foundry Local offers developers several benefits, including performance, privacy, and cost savings. Why Prompty? When you build AI applications with Foundry Local, but also other language model hosts, consider using Prompty to manage your prompts. With Prompty, you store your prompts in separate files, making it easy to test a…  ( 27 min )

The Fashion Trends Discovery Scenario In this walkthrough, we'll explore a sample application that demonstrates the power of combining Computer Use (CUA) models with Playwright browser automation to autonomously compile trend information from the internet, while leveraging MCP integration to intelligently catalog and store insights in Azure Blob Storage. The User Experience A fashion analyst simply provides a query like "latest trends in sustainable fashion" to our command-line interface. What happens next showcases the power of agentic AI—the system requires no further human intervention to: Autonomous Web Navigation: The agent launches Pinterest, intelligently locates search interfaces, and performs targeted queries Intelligent Content Discovery: Systematically identifies and interacts …  ( 43 min )

Let me walk you through 12 features that have become indispensable in my daily coding life. Understanding Code Changes & History Inline Blame Annotations: GitLens adds small annotations at the end of each line of code, showing who last modified that line, when, and in which commit. This feature provides instant context about the code's history without leaving your editor. While working on an e-commerce platform's checkout process, I noticed an unexpected behavior. With inline blame, I quickly identified that the change was introduced in a recent sprint, saving hours of backtracking.  Heatmap: This feature adds a color-coded heatmap to the scroll bar, visually representing the age of the code. Newer changes appear in warmer colors, while older code is shown in cooler colors, helping you q…  ( 30 min )

In this quest, you’ll give your Gen AI prototype a polished chat interface using Vite and Lit. Along the way, you’ll also manage application infrastructure with Bicep and Azure Developer CLI (azd), making your prototype more structured and ready for deployment. This step is all about UX, making your AI prototype not just functional, but interactive and user-friendly. 👉 Want to catch up on the full program or grab more quests? https://aka.ms/JSAIBuildathon 💬 Got questions or want to hang with other builders? Join us on Discord — head to the #js-ai-build-a-thon channel. 🔧 What You’ll Build By the end of this quest, you’ll have: A chat UI built with Vite and Lit  A structured codebase with infrastructure-as-code (IaC) using Bicep  Seamless local deployment workflow using the Azure Develop…  ( 26 min )

Over the course of the last year, we have launched several Cohere models on Azure as Serverless Standard (pay-go) offering. We’re excited to announce that Cohere's latest models—Command A, Rerank 3.5, and Embed 4—are now available on Azure AI Foundry models via Managed Compute.   This launch allows enterprises and developers to now deploy Cohere models instantly with their own Azure quota, with per-hour GPU pricing that compensates the model provider—unlocking a scalable, low-friction path to production-ready GenAI.    What is Managed Compute?  Managed Compute is a deployment option within Azure AI Foundry Models that lets you run large language models (LLMs), SLMs, HuggingFace models and custom models fully hosted on Azure infrastructure.    Why Use Managed Compute?  Azure Managed Compute…  ( 23 min )

Introduction Quarkus is a general-purpose Java framework focused on efficient use of resources, fast startup, and rapid development. It allows developers to create and run services in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) or native binary executables (native mode). In this blog post we are going to focus on using Quarkus to create and monitor a […] The post Monitor your Quarkus native application on Azure appeared first on Microsoft for Java Developers.  ( 25 min )

This post goes over situations where you may notice jobs being terminated or stopped briefly and some things that can be done to help alleviate interruptions.  ( 7 min )

Introduction Integrating Azure API Management (APIM) with Microsoft Fabric’s API for GraphQL can significantly enhance your API’s capabilities by providing robust scalability and security features such as identity management, rate limiting, and caching. This post will guide you through the process of setting up and configuring these features. You may not be familiar with API … Continue reading “Integrating Azure API Management with Fabric API for GraphQL”  ( 8 min )

Introduction Whether you’re building analytics pipelines or conversational AI systems, the risk of exposing sensitive data is real. AI models trained on unfiltered datasets can inadvertently memorize and regurgitate PII, leading to compliance violations and reputational damage. This blog explores how to build scalable, secure, and compliant data workflows using PySpark, Microsoft Presidio, and Faker—covering … Continue reading “Privacy by Design: PII Detection and Anonymization with PySpark on Microsoft Fabric”  ( 9 min )

📍 Milano, Sala Luigiana @ Coperni.co Centrale - Via Copernico 38📅 17 Giugno 2025 dalle 9:00 alle 17:30🧠 Focus: AI Agents per sviluppatori, ricercatori, imprenditori e professionisti IT La serie globale AgentCon – AI Agents World Tour arriva a Milano per una giornata interamente dedicata a chi costruisce il futuro con l’intelligenza artificiale. Dopo il successo delle tappe internazionali in Kenya, Olanda e Brasile, il tour approda in Italia per offrire contenuti tecnici, demo dal vivo e networking con esperti del settore. Perché partecipare? AgentCon non è una conferenza qualsiasi. È il luogo dove si parla di casi d'uso concreti e esempi pratici di codice. L’evento è pensato per sviluppatori, architetti software, data scientist e professionisti IT che vogliono andare oltre i modelli e s…  ( 22 min )

Earlier this year, we released AI functions in public preview, allowing Fabric customers to apply LLM-powered transformations to OneLake data simply and seamlessly, in a single line of code. Since then, we’ve continued iterating on AI functions in response to your feedback. Let’s explore the latest updates, which make AI functions more powerful, more cost-effective, … Continue reading “Introducing upgrades to AI functions for better performance—and lower costs”  ( 7 min )

Introduction Let’s take a closer look at an exciting development in the AI space. Embedding models are the key to transforming complex data into usable insights, driving innovations like smarter chatbots and tailored recommendations. With Azure AI Foundry, Microsoft’s powerful platform, you’ve got the tools to build and scale these models effortlessly. Add in Open Web UI, a intuitive interface for engaging with AI systems, and you’ve got a winning combo that’s hard to beat. In this article, we’ll explore how embedding models on Azure AI Foundry, paired with Open Web UI, are paving the way for accessible and impactful AI solutions for developers and businesses. Let’s dive in!   To proceed with configuring the embedding model from Azure AI Foundry on Open Web UI, please firstly configure the…  ( 24 min )

Today we are releasing patches that impact the latest version of our self-hosted product, Azure DevOps Server. We strongly encourage and recommend that all customers use the latest, most secure release of Azure DevOps Server. You can download the latest version of the product, Azure DevOps Server 2022.2 from the Azure DevOps Server download page. […] The post June Patches for Azure DevOps Server appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 22 min )

Enforce MFA, block legacy authentication, and apply risk-based Conditional Access policies to reduce exposure from stale accounts and weak authentication methods. Use built-in tools for user, group, and device administration to detect and clean up identity sprawl — like unused credentials, inactive accounts, and expired apps — before they become vulnerabilities.  Jeremy Chapman, Microsoft 365 Director, shares steps to clean up your directory, strengthen authentication, and improve overall identity security.  Prioritize top risks.  Take action across MFA, risk policies, and stale objects with Microsoft Entra recommendations. Start here. Block over 99% of identity attacks.  Enforce MFA for admins and users in Microsoft Entra. Detect and delete stale user accounts.  See how to fix account …  ( 45 min )

The Azure Incubations team is proud to share that Drasi has officially been accepted into the Cloud Native Computing Foundation Sandbox. The post Drasi accepted into CNCF sandbox for change-driven solutions  appeared first on Microsoft Open Source Blog.  ( 13 min )

With Azure Container Apps we can run containerized applications, completely serverless. The platform itself handles all the orchestration needed to dynamically scale based on your set triggers (such as KEDA) and even scale-to-zero! I have been working a lot with customers recently on using Azure API Management (APIM) and the topic of how we can leverage Azure APIM to manage our internal APIs without having to expose a public IP and stay within compliance from a security standpoint, which leads to the use of a Self-Hosted Gateway. This offers a managed gateway deployed within their network, allowing a unified approach in managing their APIs while keeping all API communication in-network. The self-hosted gateway is deployed as a container and in this article, we will go through how to provis…  ( 27 min )

Migrating applications to the cloud or modernizing infrastructure requires thorough preparation. Whether it’s a cloud platform, a new data center, or a hybrid infrastructure — is a complex process. While organizations focus on optimizing performance, costs, and scalability, security often takes a backseat, leading to potential risks post-migration. One crucial step before migration is conducting a pre-migration scan to identify security vulnerabilities, licensing risks, and code quality issues. Several tools help in pre-migration scanning, including Blackduck, Coverity, Gitleaks, and Semgrep. In this article, we will explore the role of these tools in migration readiness. Why Perform a Pre-Migration Scan? When an application moves from an on-premises environment to the cloud, it interacts…  ( 31 min )

We're thrilled to announce the Public Preview of Azure Migrate Explore with an AI assistant! This exciting update enhances our existing Azure Migrate Explore (AME) utility, making migration assessments smarter, faster, and more impactful. What is Azure Migrate? Azure Migrate serves as a comprehensive hub designed to simplify the migration journey of on-premises infrastructure, including servers, databases, and web applications, to Azure Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) targets at scale. It provides a unified platform with a suite of tools and features to help you identify the best migration path, assess Azure readiness, estimate the cost of hosting workloads on Azure, and execute the migration with minimal downtime and risk. Revolutionizing Executive Pres…  ( 22 min )

Microsoft and F5 are collaborating on Phase 2 of the OpenTelemetry with Apache Arrow project. The post Microsoft and F5 join forces on OpenTelemetry with Apache Arrow in Rust appeared first on Microsoft Open Source Blog.  ( 12 min )

Add deep AI integration with built-in vector search and DiskANN optimizations, plus native support for large object JSON and new Change Event Streaming for live data updates.  Join and analyze data faster with the Lakehouse shortcuts in Microsoft Fabric that unify multiple databases — across different SQL Server versions, clouds, and on-prem — into a single, logical schema without moving data. Build intelligent apps, automate workflows, and unlock rich insights with Copilot and the unified Microsoft data platform, including seamless Microsoft Fabric integration, all while leveraging your existing SQL skills and infrastructure.  Bob Ward, lead SQL engineer, joins Jeremy Chapman to share how the latest SQL Server 2025 innovations simplify building complex, high-performance workloads with les…  ( 57 min )

We’re excited to announce that the long-awaited refresh SQL analytics endpoint metadata REST API is now available in preview. You can now programmatically trigger a refresh of your SQL analytics endpoint to keep tables in sync with any changes made in the parent artifact, ensuring that you can keep your data up to date as needed. … Continue reading “Refresh SQL analytics endpoint Metadata REST API (Preview)”  ( 6 min )

Debugging your code is a big deal, especially when you’re working with user data functions. You want to make sure everything works as it should and that’s where local debugging lets you catch problems in your code without messing with the live environment. In this blog post, I’ll walk you through the steps to make local debugging easier, faster, and less of a headache.  ( 7 min )

Artificial Intelligence is evolving, and so are the ways we build intelligent agents. On a recent Microsoft YouTube Live session, developers and AI enthusiasts gathered to explore the power of custom tools in AI agents using Azure AI Studio. The session walked through concepts, use cases, and a live demo that showed how integrating custom tools can bring a new level of intelligence and adaptability to your applications. 🎥 Watch the full session here:  https://www.youtube.com/live/MRpExvcdxGs?si=X03wsQxQkkshEkOT What Are AI Agents with Custom Tools? AI agents are essentially smart workflows that can reason, plan, and act — powered by large language models (LLMs). While built-in tools like search, calculator, or web APIs are helpful, custom tools allow developers to tailor agents for busin…  ( 23 min )

Part of the JS AI Build-a-thon, this quest is where the rubber meets the road. Whether you're here to explore the raw power of local models or just curious what Generative AI looks like under the hood, this guide is for you. 👉 Want to catch up on the full program or grab more quests? Start here💬 Got questions or just want to hang with other builders? Join us on Discord — head to the #js-ai-build-a-thon channel. 🧩 What You’ll Build in This Quest   In this quest, you’ll build a fully working local Gen AI prototype — no cloud APIs, no credits needed. You’ll explore the GitHub Models catalog, run local inference using an open model, and convert a hand-drawn UI sketch into a working webpage. Along the way, you’ll get hands-on with AI developer tooling built right into Visual Studio Code. Wh…  ( 31 min )

Part of the JS AI Build-a-thon, this quest is where the rubber meets the road. Whether you're here to explore the raw power of local models or just curious what Generative AI looks like under the hood, this guide is for you. 👉 Want to catch up on the full program or grab more quests? Start here💬 Got questions or just want to hang with other builders? Join us on Discord — head to the #js-ai-build-a-thon channel. 🧩 What You’ll Build in This Quest   In this quest, you’ll build a fully working local Gen AI prototype — no cloud APIs, no credits needed. You’ll explore the GitHub Models catalog, run local inference using an open model, and convert a hand-drawn UI sketch into a working webpage. Along the way, you’ll get hands-on with AI developer tooling built right into Visual Studio Code. Wh…  ( 31 min )

Want to build next-gen apps using AI and JavaScript (or TypeScript)? The JS AI Build-a-thon is your launchpad — a hands-on, quest-driven journey designed to take you from curious coder to AI-powered app builder. It’s self-paced, community-backed, and packed with real-world use cases. No fluff. Just code, context, and creative exploration. 👾 Ready to roll? Here's your setup guide: 🔧 Step 1: Start Your Journey Head to aka.ms/JSAIBuild-a-thon and find the GitHub repository. Before you hit “Start Course,” take a moment to scroll through the README — it’s packed with useful info, including a global list of Study Jams where you can connect with other developers learning alongside you. Find one near you or join virtually to level up with the community. Screenshot off available study jams Once y…  ( 25 min )

Overview Azure VMware Solution is a VMware validated first party Azure service from Microsoft that provides private clouds containing VMware vSphere clusters built from dedicated bare-metal Azure infrastructure. It enables customers to leverage their existing investments in VMware skills and tools, allowing them to focus on developing and running their VMware-based workloads on Azure. VMware HCX is the mobility and migration software used by the Azure VMware Solution to connect remote VMware vSphere environments to the Azure VMware Solution. These remote VMware vSphere environments can be on-premises, co-location or cloud-based instances.     Figure 1 – Azure VMware Solution with VMware HCX Service Mesh Broadcom has announced the end-of-life (EOL) for VMware HCX version 4.10.x, effective …  ( 27 min )

We are pleased to announce that Azure VMware Solution is now available in Korea Central. Now in 34 Azure regions, Azure VMware Solution empowers you to seamlessly extend or migrate existing VMware workloads to Azure without the cost, effort or risk of re-architecting applications or retooling operations.  Azure VMware Solution supports: Rapid cloud migration of VMware-based workloads to Azure without refactoring. Datacenter exit while maintaining operational consistency for the VMware environment. Business continuity and disaster recovery for on-premises VMware environments. Attach Azure services and innovate applications at your own pace. Includes the VMware technology stack and lets you leverage existing Microsoft licenses for Windows Server and SQL Server. For updates on current and upcoming region availability, visit the product by region page here.   Streamline migration with new offers and licensing benefits, including a 20% discount. We recently announced the VMware Rapid Migration Plan, where Microsoft provides a comprehensive set of licensing benefits and programs to give you price protection and savings as you migrate to Azure VMware Solution. Azure VMware Solution is a great first step to the cloud for VMware customers, and this plan can help you get there. Learn More  ( 19 min )

Use Cases: From Automation to Edge AI   Generative AI is transforming industries through: Content creation, summarization, and translation Customer engagement via chatbots and personalization Edge deployment for low-latency, privacy-sensitive applications Domain-specific tasks like legal, medical, or technical document processing LLMs vs. SLMs: Choosing the Right Fit FeatureLLMsSLMs ParametersBillions (e.g., GPT-4)Millions PerformanceHigh accuracy, nuanced understandingFast, efficient for simpler tasks DeploymentCloud-based, resource-intensiveIdeal for edge and mobile CostHigh compute and energyCost-effective SLMs are increasingly viable thanks to optimized runtimes and hardware, making them perfect for on-device AI. Azure AI Foundry: Your AI Launchpad Azure AI Foundry offers: A model catalogue with open-source and proprietary models   Tools for fine-tuning, evaluation, and deployment Integration with GitHub, VS Code, and Azure DevOps Support for both cloud and local inferencing Local AI: The Edge Advantage With tools like Foundry Local and Windows AI Foundry, developers can: Run models on-device with ONNX Runtime Use APIs for summarization, translation, and more Optimize for CPU, GPU, and NPU Ensure privacy, low latency, and offline capability Customization: RAG vs. Fine-Tuning FeatureRAGFine-Tuning Knowledge UpdatesDynamicStatic InterpretabilityHighLow LatencyHigherLower Hallucination RiskLowerModerate Use CaseReal-time, external dataDomain-specific tasks Both methods enhance model relevance RAG by retrieving external data, and fine-tuning by adapting model weights. Developer Resources Get started with: Foundry Local SDK Windows AI Foundry | Microsoft Developer AI Toolkit for VS Code Windows ML Azure AI Learn Courses Join the Azure AI Discord Community  ( 21 min )

As organizations continue to strengthen their security posture, restricting usage of personal access tokens (PATs) has become a critical area of focus. With the latest public preview of the Restrict personal access token creation policy in Azure DevOps, Project Collection Administrators (PCAs) now have another powerful tool to reduce unnecessary PAT usage and enforce tighter […] The post Restricting PAT Creation in Azure DevOps Is Now in Preview appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.  ( 25 min )

Orchestrate multi-agent apps and high-scale inference solutions using open-source and proprietary models, no infrastructure management needed. With Azure, connect frameworks like Semantic Kernel to models from DeepSeek, Llama, OpenAI’s GPT-4o, and Sora, without provisioning GPUs or writing complex scheduling logic. Just submit your prompt and assets, and the models do the rest. Using Azure’s Model as a Service, access cutting-edge models, including brand-new releases like DeepSeek R1 and Sora, as managed APIs with autoscaling and built-in security. Whether you’re handling bursts of demand, fine-tuning models, or provisioning compute, Azure provides the capacity, efficiency, and flexibility you need. With industry-leading AI silicon, including H100s, GB200s, and advanced cooling, your solut…  ( 57 min )

In the world of software development, flexibility and adaptability are key. Developers often face challenges when it comes to updating plugin metadata dynamically without disrupting services or requiring redeployment. This is where SemanticPluginForge, an open-source project, steps in to improve the way we manage plugin metadata. LLM Function Calling Feature The function calling feature in LLMs […] The post Enhancing Plugin Metadata Management with SemanticPluginForge appeared first on Semantic Kernel.  ( 25 min )

Smarter SK Agents with Contextual Function Selection In today’s fast-paced AI landscape, developers are constantly seeking ways to make AI interactions more efficient and relevant. The new Contextual Function Selection feature in the Semantic Kernel Agent Framework is here to address this need. By dynamically selecting and advertising only the most relevant functions based on […] The post Smarter SK Agents with Contextual Function Selection appeared first on Semantic Kernel.  ( 24 min )

As data volume and complexity soar, protecting sensitive information has become non-negotiable. With the latest enhancements to Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Policies in Microsoft Fabric, organizations now have the power to proactively secure their data in Onelake. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to take your data governance to the next level, following … Continue reading “Secure Your Data from Day One: Best Practices for Success with Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Policies in Microsoft Fabric”  ( 7 min )

Quick Links To RSVP for each episode: EP1: Advanced Reasoning Models: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/reactor/events/25905/  EP2: Model Context Protocol:https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/reactor/events/25906/  EP3: SLMs (and Reasoning):https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/reactor/events/25907/  Get All The Details: https://aka.ms/model-mondays    Azure AI Foundry offers the best model choice  Did you manage to catch up on all the talks from Microsoft Build 2025? If, like me, you are interested in building AI-driven applications on Azure, you probably started by looking at what’s new in Azure AI Foundry.  I recommend you read Asha Sharma’s post for the top 10 things you need to know in this context. And it starts with New Models & Smarter Models!  New Models | Azure AI Foundr…  ( 28 min )