John Savill delivers a comprehensive roundup of the latest Azure platform updates as of July 18th, 2025. This episode covers new Azure services, feature retirements, and key changes relevant for developers and IT professionals.

Azure Update – 18th July 2025

Author: John Savill's Technical Training
Date: 18 July 2025

Stay up to date with all the significant changes and new features rolled out to Microsoft Azure. This update includes a mix of new SDKs, improved services, feature retirements, and cloud security enhancements, providing concise technical insights developers and architects need to know.

Chapters & Highlights

• PowerShell Durable Functions SDK: Introduction and practical details for developers using Durable Functions within PowerShell workloads.
• Durable Functions Orchestration Versioning: Best practices for version handling when orchestrating complex workflows.
• Azure Functions Kafka Triggers: Now support direct event-driven integration for Kafka, broadening event source options for serverless workloads.
• AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service) Enhancements:
  • Node auto-provisioning
  • VM node pool options
  • Simplified migration commands
  • Maximum blocked nodes configuration
  • Extension manager now controlled from the AKS control plane
• Networking:
  • HOBO public IP for ExpressRoute Gateway
  • AFD (classic) and Azure CDN (classic) onboarding retirements
• Storage and Data:
  • Major update to BlobNFS (NFS support for Azure Blob Storage)
  • Event Hub geo-replication for higher availability
  • SSD storage for ephemeral OS disks
  • Cosmos DB integration with Microsoft Fabric
  • Databricks Unity Catalog support for Fabric OneLake storage
  • PostgreSQL Flexible Server availability in new regions
• Backup and Security:
  • Migrations from standard to enhanced backup policies
  • Trusted launch support added to standard backup
  • Premium SSD backup gains GRS and CRR in more regions
  • Azure Cloud Hardware Security Module (HSM) news
• AI and Platform Changes:
  • Azure AI Speaker Recognition retirement notice

Further Learning

• Azure Learning Path
• Certification Materials
• Azure Master Class Playlist
• DevOps Master Class Playlist
• PowerShell Master Class

For subtitles and translations, see the YouTube subtitle settings. For questions, see John’s FAQ or community discussion forums.

Key Takeaways

• Stay informed on new Azure service capabilities to optimize your cloud workloads.
• Review changes to Durable Functions, AKS management, and backup options for production workloads.
• Consider impact of service retirements (e.g., AFD Classic, Azure AI Speaker Recognition) on existing solutions.
• Explore new integration options across Microsoft Fabric and Databricks.