Azure Updates: Licensing; Stream Analytics; Data Explorer; Resource instance rules

As September got underway, Microsoft issued a string of small Azure updates that are each significant in their own way. Beginning on October 1, Microsoft plans to implement big changes for outsourcing and hosting terms. With the changes, customers will gain new ways to license and run workloads with cloud providers. For instance, customers will be able to move licenses to a partner’s cloud and run on shared hardware.

Part of the new initiative is a Flexible Virtualization benefit with software assurance and subscription licenses for the previously mentioned shared scenarios. Customers will be able to license Windows Server on a virtual core basis, subject to a per VM minimum. Virtual Desktop Application add-on license requirements are going away in an initiative to support Windows 10 and Windows 11 virtualization. Customers will have new options to acquire pre-built server and hosted desktop solutions from partners.

For database users, Microsoft now allows Stream Analytics clusters to connect to jobs so that users can write dedicated synapse SQL pools with managed private endpoints. Setup is straightforward. Users add a synapse SQL output to a job and then add a managed private endpoint in the Stream Analytics cluster. Database for PostgreSQL output in Stream Analytics is generally available. In August, the database team premiered public preview Stream Analytics no-code editor updates. As a result, Stream Analytics supports a new output sink, data enrichment through reference to SQL Database input sources, new runtime logs with diagnostic logs, and a new ribbon design.

Microsoft announced the Data Explorer Kusto Emulator in general availability.  A Docker Container encapsulates the Kusto Query Engine locally to support local development and automated testing. The offering is free for some customers.