Azure AI & App Innovation Updates - April 2026#
By Lionel Gurret.
Introduction#
This article lists Azure updates for April 2026.

Updates#
AI + machine learning#
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Microsoft Agent Framework 1.0
- [In preview]: Public Preview: Memory in Foundry Agent Service
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Bring your own AI Gateway in Foundry Agent Service
- [In preview]: Public Preview: Hosted Agents in Foundry Agent Service
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Foundry Toolkit for Visual Studio Code (formerly AI Toolkit for VS Code)
- [Launched]: Generally available: Anthropic Claude Opus 4.7 on Azure Databricks
Containers#
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Microsoft Azure Red Hat OpenShift is now available in Austria East
- [Launched]: Retirement: Azure Functions runtime v3 on Linux Consumption will stop running September 30, 2026
- Retirement: Retirement: Azure Kubernetes Service support for Ubuntu 22.04
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Red Hat OpenShift adds NVIDIA H100 and H200 GPU support
- Retirement: Retirement: Service Fabric support for Windows Server 2022 ends on March 31, 2027 - upgrade to Windows Server 2025
- Retirement: Retirement: Service Fabric support for Windows Server 2019 ends on March 31, 2027 - upgrade to Windows Server 2025
- [In preview]: Public Preview: Unlock Client-Side Configuration at Scale with Azure App Configuration and Azure Front Door
DevOps#
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Monitor pipeline
- [In preview]: Public Preview: Azure Monitor supports native OTLP ingestion using the Azure Monitor Agent
- [In preview]: Public Preview: Monitor AKS applications with OpenTelemetry and Azure Monitor
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Observability in AKS Namespace and Workload Views
Compute#
- [In preview]: Generally Available: Azure Functions support for Java 25
- [Launched]: Public Preview: Container Network Insights Agent
- [Launched]: Generally Available: WireGuard In‑Transit Encryption for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
- [Launched]: Public Preview: StandardV2 NAT Gateway as an outbound type for AKS
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Disable HTTP proxy in AKS
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Functions now supports MCP resource triggers
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Pod CIDR expansion in AKS
Networking#
- [In preview]: Public Preview: Microsoft HTTP DDoS Ruleset for Azure WAF on Azure Front Door Premium
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Cross-region IPAM pool association in Azure Virtual Network Manager
- [In preview]: Public Preview: Managed identity support for graphical session recording
Storage#
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Prefix-scoped access for User Delegation SAS
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Connect to Azure Elastic SAN from Windows VM via VM Extension
- [In preview]: Public Preview: Azure Backup for Elastic SAN
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Elastic SAN support for CRC Protection
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Capacity Autoscaling on Azure Elastic SAN
- [In preview]: Generally Available: Azure NetApp Files advanced ransomware protection
- [In preview]: Generally Available: User and group quota reports in Azure NetApp Files
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Encrypt Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disks with Cross Tenant Customer Managed Keys
- [Launched]: Announcing: Minimum billable object size for cooler storage tiers
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Smart Tier (Azure Blob and Data Lake Storage)
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure File Sync in Belgium Central, Malaysia West, and Indonesia Central
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Granular Encryption-in-Transit Controls for SMB and NFS on Azure Files
- [In preview]: Public Preview: Azure NetApp Files storage with cool access enhancement
Retirements#
- [Launched]: Retirement: Prompt Flow in Azure ML and Foundry
Mobile#
- Retirement: Retirement: Support for .NET 8 (LTS) ends on November 10, 2026—upgrade your apps to .NET 10 (LTS)
- Retirement: Retirement: Python support for Azure App Service and Azure Functions on Windows will be retired on March 31, 2027
Databases#
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Cascading read replicas in Azure Database for PostgreSQL
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server in Denmark East
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Dynamic data masking with Azure Cosmos DB
- [In preview]: Public Preview: Logical replication slot sync Status metric for Azure PostgreSQL Flexible Server
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Premium SSD v2 for Azure Database for PostgreSQL
- [In preview]: Public Preview: Migrating from virtual network-integrated to Private Endpoint–capable network configuration
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Enhanced Mirroring Azure Database for PostgreSQL in Microsoft Fabric
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Enhancements to maintenance notifications in Azure Service Health
- [Launched]: Generally Available: PgBouncer 1.25.1 support in Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server
Hybrid + multicloud#
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Monitor for Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes with OpenShift and Azure Red Hat OpenShift
- [In preview]: Public Preview: Azure Arc adds SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines as a migration target
Management and governance#
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Configure AKS backup using a single Azure CLI command
- [In preview]: Public Preview: Azure Site Recovery support for Windows Azure VMs with NVMe disk controllers.
- Retirement: Retirement: Azure Managed Grafana Essential SKU will retire on March 30, 2027
- [In preview]: Public Preview: Azure Files assessments are now available using Azure Migrate
- [In preview]: Public Preview: Rule impact analysis on Azure Network Watcher
Batch#
- [Launched]: Retirement: End of life reminder of HBv2/HC-Series/NP-Series Azure Virtual Machine in Azure Batch Pool
Migration#
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Storage Mover now available in Azure Government (US)
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Data Box enhances compliance with automatic Secure Erasure Certificates
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Data Box now supports Azure Files Provisioned v2
Integration#
- [In preview]: Public Preview: Event Grid as a destination for Stripe events now in Public Preview
- [Launched]: Generally Available: Network Security Perimeter for Azure Service Bus
Azure Blob Storage#
Azure AI Language#
- Retirement: Retirement: Select Azure AI Language Features
Sources#
https://azure.microsoft.com/ Microsoft Dev Blog Azure Website

