Azure Updates: Spring Cloud; Cost Management; Backup; New Zealand data center

While Covid-19 continues to create huge challenges around the globe, the end of August and the start of September marked some good news. Around the world, schools and universities are returning to session—although many are doing so remotely, helping to drive potential demand for cloud services—and economies are showing signs of recovery.

Julia Liuson, Microsoft CVP for the Developer Division launched the new month by touting the capabilities of Azure Spring Cloud. The generally available fully managed service for Spring Boot apps is intended to help developers outsource the complexities of managing infrastructure. Jointly built and operated with VMware, the offering is available in 10 regions in the US, Western Europe, Australia, and Southeast Asia, with 10 more regions slated to become available in the coming months.

According to Liuson, security is a key focus with Spring Cloud. Customers want to isolate the offering from the public internet. A Managed Virtual Network offering with Spring Cloud allows customers to control inbound and outbound network communications, as well as interact with on-prem data centers. The Autoscale feature helps to automatically scale up and down apps based on load or schedule.

Principal program manager Raphael Chacko noted the general availability of the connector for Cost Management + Billing. It aims for a "single pane of glass," providing visibility into both Azure and AWS spend in Azure portal. For AWS users, the process involves configuring a cost and usage report in the AWS portal, then creating a role and policy to grant access to Azure Cost Management. With these connections in place, it's possible set budgets and alerts for AWS costs.