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Azure AI & App Innovation Updates - April 2026

1 May 2026·897 words·5 mins

Author

Lionel Gurret

Azure AI & App Innovation Updates - April 2026
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By Lionel Gurret.

Introduction
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This article lists Azure updates for April 2026.

Updates
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AI + machine learning
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[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
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[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
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[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
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[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
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[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
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[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
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[Launched]: Retirement: Prompt Flow in Azure ML and Foundry

Mobile
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Databases
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[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
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Management and governance
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[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
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[Launched]: Retirement: End of life reminder of HBv2/HC-Series/NP-Series Azure Virtual Machine in Azure Batch Pool

Migration
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[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
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[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
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[Launched]: Retirement: AzureDnsEndpoints for Azure storage accounts will be retired March 2027

Azure AI Language
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Retirement: Retirement: Select Azure AI Language Features

Sources
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https://azure.microsoft.com/ Microsoft Dev Blog Azure Website