Overview

With Microsoft Ignite 2024 underway, it's sometimes hard to capture all the great topics and focus areas (as there are so many!) in this fully packed tech event, so I've decided to summarise my favourite top 10 updates and announcements tailored specifically on topics for developers, DevOps and Azure communities.

For the full book of news on all new announcements you can see this link: Ignite 2024 Book of News.

Firstly -> Microsoft Learn Challenges

Interested to get certified on Microsoft Fabric for free?

Why not take the Microsoft Learn Challenge: Ignite Edition and earn a badge by completing one of these unique, Fabric-focused collections. Be quick, the challenge ends on 10 January 2025.

Onto the announcement highlights... Here is my top 10 list of updates and announcements from Microsoft Ignite 2024:

1. Azure AI Foundry

Microsoft introduced Azure AI Foundry, a unified platform consolidating AI development. This platform offers a centralised portal, facilitating the creation, management, and auditing of AI projects. Azure AI Foundry is basically a rebrand of Azure AI Studio/Hub with some nifty new features a newer sleeker looking interface, this release and announcement is the next evolution of the AI Studio platform and experience.

2. Azure AI Foundry SDK

What really makes Azure AI Foundry stand out is the new SDK. So along with announcements of Azure AI Foundry, including some new features and a sleeker look to Azure AI Studio, it also comes with Unified Tooling and an SDK for the platform to support the entire AI project lifecycle. This tooling integrates with GitHub, enabling continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) workflows. Developers can leverage this platform to enhance collaboration, streamline development processes, and accelerate AI project delivery.

3. Azure AI Agent Service

This service aims to simplify the creation, deployment, and monitoring of autonomous AI agents for automating complex business processes. It offers robust integrations, secure data grounding, flexible model support, and enterprise-ready features to streamline workflows and improve scalability.

4. Azure Managed Redis

Microsoft unveiled Azure Managed Redis, an in-memory caching solution designed to enhance AI application performance. This cost-effective caching service offers intelligent scaling and efficient data retrieval and storage, ensuring optimal performance for AI workloads. Check out the Ignite session here: BRK189.

5. Power Platform Enhancements

Power Platform received several enhancements, including AI-powered automation in Power Automate and Copilot features for low-code/no-code environments. These updates enable users to build and deploy applications more efficiently, leveraging AI capabilities to automate tasks and streamline development processes.

6. Azure AI Search Integration with Github

Developers can now leverage retrieval augmented generation (RAG) applications directly from GitHub, simplifying the integration of AI capabilities into their projects. This integration streamlines the development process, enabling developers to access advanced AI tools and services directly within GitHub for creation of high-quality, data-driven applications. It leverages Azure AI Search's advanced features such as hybrid retrieval, semantic ranking, vectorisation, and more, for optimised performance.

7. Azure ND GB200 V6 VMs

Microsoft introduced Azure ND GB200 V6 VMs, powered by NVIDIA Blackwell, to enhance AI model training and inference. These virtual machines offer advanced computational capabilities, enabling developers to accelerate AI project development and deployment as well as address ethical AI challenges.

8. Azure Local via Arc

Microsoft expanded its hybrid cloud capabilities with Azure Local, allowing for unified management across on-premises, multi-cloud, and edge environments. Azure Local provides localised infrastructure support, catering to specific regional requirements.

9. Azure Fabric Databases

Microsoft introduced Azure Fabric Databases, autonomous database services optimised for operational and analytical AI workloads. These services offer scalability and efficiency for data-intensive applications, supporting high-performance AI projects.

10. Weights & Biases with Gretel and Scale AI

Microsoft announced partnerships aimed at simplifying data preparation, model training, and fine-tuning processes, providing developers with integrated tools to accelerate AI development.

Conclusion

Microsoft Ignite 2024 highlights the company's commitment to innovation across AI, cloud computing, and developer tools. Whether you're a DevOps engineer, GitHub user, or Azure architect, these updates provide the tools and integrations needed to streamline workflows, enhance performance, and deliver scalable solutions.

Microsoft and Azure keeps making significant strides in supporting developer and DevOps communities. By simplifying cloud-native development, enhancing AI integration and providing flexible, efficient tools for app development and deployment, Microsoft continues to empower developers to innovate and build the future of technology.

Author

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Marcel.LFollow

Dual Microsoft MVP DevOps + Azure | DevOps Architect | Technical speaker focused on Microsoft technologies, IaC and automation in Azure. Find me on GitHub: https://github.com/Pwd9000-ML