Azure AI & App Innovation Updates - September 2026

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By Lionel Gurret.

Introduction

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This article lists Azure updates for September 2026.

Updates

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AI + machine learning

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• [In preview]: Public Preview: Foundry Routines in Foundry Agent Service
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Enable and disable controls for Microsoft Foundry agents in Agent 365
• [In preview]: Public Preview: Network egress controls for hosted agents in Microsoft Foundry
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Publishing Microsoft Foundry agents to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Teams
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Developer CLI (azd) Extension Framework

Containers

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• Retirement: Retirement: Support for PowerShell 7.4 ends on November 10, 2026
• Retirement: Retirement: Support for .NET 8 and .NET 9 ends on November 10, 2026—upgrade your apps to .NET 10
• Retirement: Retirement: Support for Node.js 22 ends on April 30, 2027
• [In preview]: Public Preview: Azure Red Hat OpenShift with hosted control planes
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Microsoft Defender for Cloud support for Azure Container Apps (Serverless Containers Posture)

DevOps

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• [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Copilot Observability Agent supports Basic and Auxiliary table plans
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Monitor Auxiliary Logs Plan in Azure Government and China regions
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Monitor Auxiliary Logs Plan support for Azure tables and plan switching

Compute

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• [In preview]: Public Preview: SQL performance monitoring for SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines
• [In preview]: Public Preview: Ubuntu 26.04 support in AKS
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Storage optimized Lasv5 and Laosv5 Azure VM series
• [In preview]: Public Preview: Automatic Zone Placement for Virtual Machine Scale Sets
• [In preview]: Public preview: Script-based deployment for SQL Server on Linux Azure VM
• [In preview]: Public Preview: Flex Nodes for AKS
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Functions support for PowerShell 7.6
• [In preview]: Public Preview: Mdsv4 and Msv4 Series Virtual Machines for SAP
• [Launched]: Generally Available: TLS/SSL certificate and end-to-end TLS encryption support for Azure Functions Flex Consumption
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Ephemeral OS Disk with full caching for VM/VMSS
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Windows Server 2025 on AKS
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Artifact Streaming on AKS
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Confidential VMs for Azure Linux

Networking

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• [Launched]: Generally Available: High-scale mesh in Azure Virtual Network Manager
• [In preview]: Public Preview: HTTP/3 over QUIC support in Azure Application Gateway
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Virtual Network Manager IPAM in additional Azure regions
• [In preview]: Public Preview: Azure Front Door profile and route level WAF policies
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Firewall auto-learn SNAT routes

Virtual Machines

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• Retirement: Retirement: NVv3-series Azure Virtual Machines
• Retirement: Retirement: NVv4-series Azure Virtual Machines
• [Launched]: Retirement: Dv3, Dsv3, Ev3, and Esv3 Azure VMs

Azure Copilot

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• [Update]: Announcing: Azure canvases for GitHub Copilot

Azure Container Apps

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• Retirement: Retirement: Azure Functions v1 hosting model on Azure Container Apps

Feature

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• [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server in Germany West Central
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server Available in Italy North
• [Launched]: Generally Available: SQL Server on Azure Local Disconnected (ALDO)
• [Launched]: Generally Available: SQL Server support on Azure Local connected mode
• [Launched]: Generally Available: SQL Migration Agent Skills for assessment, migration, and validation
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Purchase order mapping available in Microsoft Marketplace

Databases

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• [In preview]: Public Preview: Azure Database for PostgreSQL Ultra Disk
• [In preview]: Public Preview: SQL Performance Monitoring for Azure SQL Database
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure SQL updates for late-September 2026
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server supports cross-tenant customer-managed keys (CMK)
• [In preview]: Public Preview: Azure SQL updates for late-September 2026
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Database DevOps in SSMS powered by SQL projects
• [In preview]: Public Preview: Azure SQL Database Hyperscale Serverless auto-pause and auto-resume
• [Launched]: Generally Available: SQL Formatter
• [In preview]: Public Preview: Migrate directly from Azure Arc to Azure SQL Database, including Hyperscale
• [In preview]: Public Preview: Microsoft SQL Agent Skills
• [In preview]: Public Preview: Long-term retention (LTR) v2 for Azure Database for PostgreSQL
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Vector search and vector indexes in Azure SQL
• [In preview]: Public Preview: Azure SQL Dev Hub
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure SQL Managed Instance updates for late-September 2026
• [In preview]: Public Preview: Azure HorizonDB supports PostgreSQL 18
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Logical replication slot sync status metric for Azure PostgreSQL Flexible Server
• [Launched]: Generally Available: New and improved troubleshooting guides for Azure Database for PostgreSQL
• [Launched]: Generally Available: PG18 support for Azure Database for PostgreSQL elastic clusters
• [In preview]: Public Preview: Azure SQL updates for mid-September 2026
• [In preview]: Public Preview: PostgreSQL skills and MCP plugin for Azure Database for PostgreSQL
• [In preview]: Private Preview: Reader Endpoint for Azure Database for MySQL

Hybrid + multicloud

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• [In preview]: Public Preview: Performance monitoring for Azure Arc–enabled SQL Server

Retirements

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• Retirement: Retirement: Azure Arc enabled System Center Virtual Machine Manager will be retired September 30, 2029
• [Launched]: Retirement: Microsoft HPC Pack
• Retirement: Retirement Update: SAP container images removed October 14, 2026
• [In preview]: Retirement: Azure Linux with OS Guard in Azure Kubernetes Service

Azure IoT Central

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• [Launched]: Retirement: Azure IoT Central will be retired on September 20, 2029

Storage

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• [Launched]: Generally Available: Support for large volume breakthrough mode
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Storage with cool access enhancement
• [In preview]: Public Preview : Microsoft entra kerberos authentication for Azure NetApp Files
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Instant Access for VM restore points
• [Launched]: Generally Available: User-bound user delegation SAS for Azure Storage

Regions & Datacenters

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• [Launched]: Generally Available: Luxembourg - Azure Extended Zones

Web

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• Retirement: Retirement: Azure Communication Services (ACS) standalone services will be retired on September 30, 2028

Internet of Things

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• [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Sphere OS version 26.09 is now available

Developer tools

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• [In preview]: Public Preview: Introducing a Guided Copilot Experience for Building Azure Apps in VS Code
• [Launched]: Generally Available: Playwright Workspaces in Australia East, Japan East, and Switzerland North

Features

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• [In preview]: Public Preview: Azure Payments HSM v2

Virtual desktop infrastructure

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• [Launched]: Announcing: New Windows App client-side endpoints for Azure Virtual Desktop

Migration

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• [In preview]: Public Preview: Agentless migration of on-premises SMB file shares to Azure Files (SMB)

Management and governance

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• [Launched]: Generally Available: Azure Copilot Troubleshooting Agent

Sources

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