Top 5 new Azure features and updates to watch for in 2023
Azure is one of the most popular cloud platforms in the world, offering a wide range of services and features for developers, businesses, and organizations. Azure is constantly evolving and adding new capabilities to meet the needs and expectations of its customers. In this blog post, we will look at some of the top 5 new Azure features and updates to watch for in 2023, based on the latest announcements from Microsoft.
1. Azure App Service: New Premium v3 Offerings
Azure App Service is a fully managed platform for building and hosting web apps, mobile backends, APIs, and microservices. Azure App Service supports multiple languages and frameworks, such as .NET, Java, Python, Node.js, PHP, and Ruby. Azure App Service also provides various features to enhance the performance, scalability, security, and reliability of your web apps.
One of the new features that Azure App Service introduced in 2023 is the Premium v3 plan, which offers improved compute power and memory for your web apps. The Premium v3 plan is based on the latest Azure VM hardware (Dv5-series), which provides faster processors, better networking, and more memory options. The Premium v3 plan also supports up to 30 instances per app service plan, and up to 100 GB of storage per instance. The Premium v3 plan is ideal for web apps that require high performance and scalability.
2. Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL REST APIs
Azure Cosmos DB is a fully managed NoSQL database service that offers global distribution, elastic scalability, consistent low latency, and multiple data models. Azure Cosmos DB supports various APIs to interact with different types of data, such as SQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, Gremlin, Table, and Spark.
In 2023, Azure Cosmos DB added support for PostgreSQL REST APIs, which allow you to use PostgreSQL-compatible queries and commands to access and manipulate data stored in Azure Cosmos DB. This means that you can use your existing PostgreSQL tools and applications to work with Azure Cosmos DB without any code changes. You can also leverage the benefits of Azure Cosmos DB, such as automatic indexing, geo-replication, backup and restore, encryption at rest and in transit, and SLA guarantees.
3. Azure Stream Analytics to Azure Data Explorer using managed private endpoint
Azure Stream Analytics is a real-time analytics service that enables you to process and analyze streaming data from various sources, such as IoT devices, sensors, web logs, social media, etc. Azure Stream Analytics supports various output sinks to store or visualize the processed data, such as Azure Blob Storage, Azure SQL Database, Power BI, Event Hubs, etc.
Azure Data Explorer is a fast and scalable data exploration service that enables you to analyze large volumes of structured and unstructured data using a simple query language (Kusto Query Language). Azure Data Explorer supports various ingestion methods to load data from different sources, such as Event Hubs, IoT Hub, Blob Storage, etc.
In 2023, Azure Stream Analytics added support for connecting to Azure Data Explorer using managed private endpoint. This means that you can securely transfer data from Azure Stream Analytics to Azure Data Explorer over a private network connection without exposing your data to the public internet. This enhances the security and performance of your data pipeline.
4. Static Web Apps support for Python 3.10
Azure Static Web Apps is a service that enables you to build and deploy modern web apps with static front-end and dynamic back-end using serverless APIs. Azure Static Web Apps supports various front-end frameworks and languages, such as React, Angular, Vue.js, Blazor WebAssembly, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Azure Static Web Apps also supports various back-end languages for serverless APIs, such as .NET, Node.js, and Python.
In 2023, Azure Static Web Apps added support for Python 3.10, which is the latest version of the popular programming language. This means that you can use Python 3.10 features and libraries to create serverless APIs for your static web apps. You can also use GitHub Actions to automate the deployment of your Python 3.10 code to Azure Static Web Apps.
5. NGINXaaS – Azure Native ISV Service
NGINX is a popular open-source web server and reverse proxy that offers high performance, scalability, security, and reliability for web applications. NGINX also provides various features to enhance the functionality of web applications, such as load balancing, caching, compression, SSL termination, etc.
In 2023, Microsoft partnered with F5 Networks to offer NGINX as a service (NGINXaaS) on Azure. This means that you can easily deploy and manage NGINX instances on Azure using a native user interface and API. You can also leverage the benefits of Azure, such as security, monitoring, backup, and recovery.
NGINXaaS is an Azure Native ISV Service, which means that it is fully integrated with Azure and follows the Azure best practices and standards. You can also use Azure Marketplace to discover and purchase NGINXaaS.
Conclusion
These are some of the top 5 new Azure features and updates to watch for in 2023, but there are many more to explore and try out. Azure is constantly innovating and adding new capabilities to help you build and run your web applications on the cloud. To learn more about Azure and its services, you can visit the Azure website or check out the Azure updates page.
