Zure’s experts have been following Microsoft Build 2021 closely and here are their top 5 picks.

Azure PaaS anywhere with Azure Arc

For me, the most exciting announcement is the fact that you can now run Azure PaaS anywhere with Azure Arc. Allowing you to deploy on AKS but still use the full flexibility and capabilities of Azure PaaS, basically abstracting away a bit of the complexity of AKS.

– Glenn Colpaert, Azure MVP

API Management web socket

API Management web socket support is something worth mentioning. Web sockets enable developers to build APIs with real-time bidirectional messaging. Read more about Importing a WebSocket API using the Azure portal | Microsoft Docs.

– Jaakko Nikko, Principal Consultant

Cosmos DB improvements

Cosmos DB has been updated with some long waited features:

• Integrated cache
• Always Encrypted
• Partial document update
• Expanded free tier (400 RU/s => 1000 RU/s)

Announced at Microsoft Build: new capabilities for data security and workload optimization | Azure Cosmos DB Blog (microsoft.com)

Also announced at Build: new options to build and test apps at any scale | Azure Cosmos DB Blog (microsoft.com)

– Sami Ovaska, Azure Architect

Visual Studio productivity tips

Visual Studio users should take a look at this:

Pretty self-explanatory why you’d want to check it out. For some reason, most of these features seem to be opt-in so you’d probably not find them without looking at the options yourself.

– Pasi Huuhka, DevOps Architect

Azure ML Managed Endpoints

Azure ML Managed Endpoints facilitate ML model deployment and it should now be easier to deploy the same model as an online endpoint or batch inference endpoint. Click for more!

– Lauri Lehman, Data Scientist

More useful links you can find from our monthly Zure Digest blog.