Reiterating their commitment to Azure development, Microsoft has made many announcements that are set to propel the cloud growth at the Microsoft Build 2021, which spanned over three days.
Ranging from better AI features to new apps services, the world’s second-biggest cloud tech has left no stone unturned for better user experience and productivity.
The tech giant provided a sneak peek into the up-and-coming product, PyTorch Enterprise, new Azure Marketplace, and Microsoft Build of OpenJDK. These initiatives are tailored to help Azure reach 71.5 million users by 2030, as estimated by IDC.
“It is our mission to empower this next generation of developers with world-class tools and cloud services that allow them to build the applications of the future,” Gabe Monroy, vice president of Microsoft Azure developer experience, said.
“These applications of the future will be intelligent, infused with AI to provide advanced insights.”
Open-source software and libraries have been used to refine Azure further, and the developers will realize idea by moving from cloud to code, Monroy felt.
“We see customers on Microsoft Azure building these applications of the future today by leveraging cloud-native technologies like containers, Kubernetes, microservices, serverless functions and API-centric design,” he said.
Let’s look at the most significant Azure announcements at the event:
1) Artificial Intelligence
Azure’s AI packs more power than ever before. Azure Bot Service now sports visual authoring canvas with extensible open-source tools. Employing this feature, developers can add feedback in the form of speech. Also, publishing bots will deploy the containers with minimal code changes.
Additionally, Azure Metrics Advisor has hit the market after Microsoft unveiled it in September. The tool is tailored to detect anomalies and provide diagnostic reports based on glaring glitches. The metrics advisor is self-sufficient enough not to rely upon machine learning.
Azure Video Analyzer has been launched at this event. The tool effectively combines Live Video Analytics and Video Indexer into one service. Employing Video Analyzer, developers can glean off video analytics from offline and streaming videos.
Microsoft has brought all three AI features under one umbrella: Azure Applied AI Services. Emphasizing the packaging, Eric Boyd, corporate vice president of Microsoft Azure AI, said, “The goal with Azure Applied AI Services is to provide a bit more packaging and structure to really accelerate the development of AI solutions for common business processes,” Boyd said. He elaborated that they usually pondered how to package and combine the cloud services in a simplified manner. With this simplified packaging, people would integrate the tremendous power of AI into their businesses, Boyd felt.
Also Read: Managed Azure Security Services
2) Azure Cognitive Service Updates
Translation and text analytical abilities have been ingrained into the new Azure Cognitive Services. The translation, which is officially called Document Translation, was first announced in February. The tool, which is now available, can translate the documents without changing the format and general structure of the source material. This feature is for enterprises that need to translate and transliterate documents into various languages.
Text Analytics for health, introduced in July 2020, is available to clients. The niche audience for this feature is the healthcare industry, as developers in this sector can extract and glean information from unstructured medical data, including notes and electronic health records. Riding on the coattails of Text Analytics is Question Answering. In preview, this feature will fetch answers from a passage without the data being managed in Azure.
3) Machine Learning
The event bore witness to the addition of new machine learning features. Machine learning managed endpoints has been announced at this event. The feature enables developers to build, deploy and maintain machine learning models. Additionally, Azure announced the launch of power apps.
“Recalling complex formulas is challenging, but now customers can simply use natural language, which is then automatically converted to Power Fx code,” Microsoft said. “Power Apps users can now build apps more quickly and easily using Power Fx code-enabled by Azure Machine Learning managed endpoints.”
4) PyTorch Enterprise
PyTorch is open-source, which gives added benefits to enterprise users of Microsoft Premier and Unified Support. It doles out hands-on support and solutions for bugs and security patches. Microsoft also announced PyTorch collaboration to sculpt a new program called PyTorch Enterprise Support Program. This program is aimed at giving a smoother experience to the clients.
Also Read: Microsoft Azure Migration Services
5) Kubernetes Optimization
Azure’s various functions, such as App Services and API Management, can be operationalized with Kubernetes clusters anywhere, anytime. It offers the freedom to run the application in multi-cloud environs and other scenarios as well. Coupled with Azure Arc, clients can deploy Web Apps and Event Grid services pre-provisioned with Kubernetes clusters. The optimization has only been announced and yet to be released.
“With today’s announcement, developers can save time building hybrid applications using the portable application services enabled by Azure Arc,“ Monroy said. “When combined with the use of Arc-enabled data services like Azure PostgreSQL and Azure SQL, applications and their data can now run anywhere using fully managed cloud services — an industry first.”
6) Azure Communication Services Updates
Launched in 2020, Azure Communication Services were rejuvenated with new features. The addition will allow the clients to continue communicating on Azure Communication Services in terms of Microsoft. The clients will also witness the addition of call recording on the comm services.
The communication platform now sports a user interface where the developers can utilize various UI options, ranging from prebuilt composites to specific UI components. The UI layer will provide the customer with Microsoft Teams-like composable and turnkey composite components built on open-source software.
Microsoft unveiled Windows Platform, which allows developers to add audio calling capabilities to apps operationalized on Windows. This allows the users to enjoy communication facilities on desktop PCs, Xbox, and other such Windows-powered devices.
Also Read: Microsoft Azure DevOps Services
7) Logic Apps Updates
Logic Apps will boast new hosting options and better workflows, accelerating productivity and encouraging higher integration with development tools. The cloud-based platform has gained prominence due to its integration capabilities.
Microsoft has put forth a new pricing tier and unveiled 4,000 new options for the consumption tier. All are implemented on a pay-as-you-go model.
8) New Azure Marketplace Offers
The Azure Marketplace has received a facelift with various offerings. Java Enterprise Edition and Jakarta Enterprise Edition, available now, power the customers to shift their Java apps to Azure with better results, coupled with automation.
The Marketplace has gone on to support IBM WebSphere Application Traditional Server on Azure virtual machines now. To provide a seamless experience, Microsoft and IBM will provide support for this service.
9) Azure Analytics Bettered
A preview-only feature titled ‘Synapse link of Dataverse’ is set to bring data and analytical systems closer. Developers can import their Dataverse to Azure Synapse to propel their Microsoft Power Apps or Dynamic 365 solutions. The integration will provide analytics which only better the solutions.
What is more, is Azure Synapse’s support for Spark 3.0.1. The clients who are already employing Azure Synapse data engineering can harness the potential of Spark 3.0.1 as it enhanced for Synapse now.
Azure will also host Azure Synapse Analytics which is now field-programmable. Enterprises employing large datasets can exploit this feature.
Also Read: Azure Backup and Disaster Recovery Services
10) Azure IoT Edge Updates
Azure updated its serving of the Internet of Things, the IoT Edge, which is now available. Customers of various industrial sectors can secure their assets with Azure’s ANSI/ISA-95 standard. Using Azure’s IoT Edge, manufacturers can effortlessly amass their systems data and effortlessly shift it to the cloud.
This IoT Edge feature is also available for Linux OS. Calling it EFLOW (Edge for Linux on Windows), Microsoft allows customers to run their applications on Windows and Linux without choosing between two.
To sum it up, Microsoft has used Build 2021 event to announce its intentions to expand its footprint. With Azure growing in leaps and bounds, customers can only expect more features to augment their business solutions.
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