Ignite 2024: From cloud to edge, an increasingly sophisticated infrastructure portfolio takes shape

Microsoft Ignite 2024 is here and with it a slate of new announcements around Azure. In anticipation of the event, Microsoft shared its latest developments around cloud infrastructure.

Microsoft is increasingly expanding its global infrastructure with the goal of “spanning cloud and edge.” The expansion is intended to improve unified management and security to enable hybrid infrastructure. 

Azure Local is a newly introduced cloud-controlled hybrid infrastructure platform powered by Azure Arc, now in general availability. It delivers Azure services to distributed customer locations to make it more flexible to run cloud-native apps. Microsoft has teamed up with Lenovo, Dell, and HP to acquire hardware, they stated. In the future, existing Azure Stack HCI customers will be automatically upgraded to Azure Local, gaining new options to leverage customized cloud-based apps and Virtual Desktop integration. Together with Stack HCI, existing customers of Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022, and 2025 will be able to use features from Azure Local.

Over the last two years, Microsoft Purview featured frequently in news announcements from Microsoft. This year, Purview has added new regions, an integration with Microsoft Fabric, and AI capabilities provided through Oracle Database@Azure.