Azure Updates: GPT-4o mini; Cost Management; Premium SSD v2; Maps

Microsoft CVP Asha Sharma announced the availability of OpenAI’s fastest model, GPT-4o mini, for Azure AI. The new model scores 82 percent on the Measuring Massive Multitask Language Understanding assessment, compared to 70 percent for GPT-3.5 Turbo, meaning that it is faster. Simultaneously, the model is 60 percent cheaper. The new model is intended to support customer scenarios like streaming, assistants, code interpretation, and offering code completion instructions. A new asynchronous filter is aimed at improving throughput and safety simultaneously.

Principal product manager Sameer Doultani recapped Microsoft Cost Management updates since June. Microsoft added FOCUS 1.0 support in exports to improve the export experience with REST API or Azure portal. Simultaneously, it added a pricing calculator, currently available only for pay-as-you-go-subscriptions. Kubernetes cost views, pricing support in new regions, and new services available for flex consumption are a few of the areas that Microsoft has added.

Principal group product manager Sirius Kuttiyan announced advancements in Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Azure Managed Disks. With the changes, Microsoft has introduced high input/output operations per second, new security measures for VMs, and low sub-millisecond latency. Incremental snapshots are intended to provide moment in time backup to guard against accidental data loss.