Azure Updates: Generative AI; High performance computing; Entra

Continuing the company’s ongoing focus on generative AI, product marketing manager Natalie Mickey explored the ways that Microsoft is working to generative AI with free tools. The Azure AI portfolio provides a range of capabilities to support customers building enterprise AI capabilities. The AI Fundamentals course is often a good place to start to get up to speed, followed with more depth in the Azure AI engineer learning track. AI developers can leverage tools like AI Studio and OpenAI Service or take part in the interactive Cloud Skills Challenge. 

Principal mechanical engineer Prasad Raghavendra discussed the interplay between Microsoft Surface and high-performance computing. By as early as 2016, Microsoft migrated structural simulations for Surface Pro 4 to Azure HPC. He explained how digital computer aided design models are translated into a detailed FEA model with the Abaqus program and the rise of enhanced digital prototyping capabilities. 

“The team is now focused on deploying more scalable simulation and Azure HPC resource for multi-disciplinary teams and for multi-physics modeling. There is a huge opportunity to enable machine learning and AI in product creation. Azure HPC and the partnerships within Microsoft organizations will be leveraged to drive large scale innovations at a rapid speed. We are also continuing this digital transformation journey with model based systems engineering (MBSE) with the V4 Institute,” he wrote.

An Azure team member, writing on the Azure Tech Community, looked into the role of Microsoft Entra as a workload identity authentication service. Microsoft has steadily sought to improve on its identity and access management capabilities. Most recently, it has begun to offer regionally isolated authentication endpoints.