Azure Updates: OpenAI Service; Data Zones; VCF

Azure OpenAI Service Product Lead Steve Sweetman looked into the ways Microsoft is boosting enterprise trust for OpenAI Service. A number of large customers like Heineken, KPMG, Unity, and PwC have adopted Azure OpenAI for generative AI initiatives in part because of its security and compliance features, Sweetman wrote.

Microsoft is deploying OpenAI Data Zones for the EU and US. In the past, variances in the regional availability of models has meant customers need to manage multiple resources and route traffic between them. The new features are intended to simplify generative AI app management with more flexible regional data processing while maintaining data residency. Global deployments are available in over 25 regions, offering access to new models like the o1 model type at a low price with a high throughput. In this approach, data is stored at rest in a customer-selected region while the system uses the global backbone to optimize response times. The newly created US Data Zone spans all OpenAI regions in the US, with a similar EU-wide approach for the EU region. To ensure stricter data controls, customers can select regional deployments for processing and storage. 

VP Brett Tanzer discussed how to run VCF private clouds in VMware Solution with support for portable VCF subscriptions. A growing number of VMware customers are choosing to stop managing on-prem infrastructure and shift to cloud platforms to improve agility. Currently, Azure VMware Solution offers a way to migrate VMware workloads to Azure with VMware tools. The Azure version of VMware Solution supports the VMware Cloud Foundation bundle from VMware. According to Tanzer, customers can purchase Azure VMware Solution from Microsoft with VCF included or buy from Microsoft and leverage portable VCF subscriptions bought from VMware. With the offering, customers are able to tap into a managed service, greater energy efficiency, and the VMware Cloud Foundation stack.