This week at Microsoft Ignite 2025, Azure introduces options that handle your expertise technique questions with improvements designed for this very inflection level.
Earlier than becoming a member of Microsoft, I spent years serving to organizations construct and remodel. I’ve seen how expertise choices can form a enterprise’s future. Whether or not it’s integrating platforms or guaranteeing your expertise technique stands the take a look at of time, these decisions outline how a enterprise operates, innovates, and stays forward of the competitors.
At present, enterprise leaders all over the place are asking:
- How will we use AI and brokers to drive actual outcomes?
- Is our information prepared for this shift?
- What dangers or alternatives include AI and brokers?
- Are we shifting quick sufficient, or will we fall behind?
This week at Microsoft Ignite 2025, Azure introduces options that handle these questions with improvements designed for this very inflection level.
It’s not nearly adopting the proper instruments. It’s about having a platform that provides each group the boldness to embrace an AI-first strategy. Azure is constructed for this second, with daring ambitions to allow companies of each measurement. By unifying AI, information, apps, and infrastructure, we’re delivering intelligence at scale.
In case you’re nonetheless questioning if AI can actually ship ROI, don’t take my phrase for it; see how Kraft Heinz, The Premier League, and Levi Strauss & Co. are discovering success by pairing their distinctive information with an AI-first strategy.
With these updates, we’re making it simpler to construct, run, and scale AI brokers that ship actual enterprise outcomes.
TLDR—the Ignite announcement rundown
On the go and need to get proper to what’s new and the right way to study extra? We’ve got you lined. In any other case, hold studying for a abstract of high improvements from the week.
Your AI and agent manufacturing unit, expanded: Microsoft Foundry provides Anthropic Claude and Cohere fashions for final mannequin alternative and adaptability
Earlier this 12 months, we introduced Anthropic fashions to Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, and Copilot Studio. At present, we’re taking the following pure step: Claude Sonnet 4.5, Opus 4.1, and Haiku 4.5 are actually a part of Microsoft Foundry, advancing our mission to present prospects alternative throughout the business’s main frontier fashions—and making Azure the one cloud providing each OpenAI and Anthropic fashions.
This enlargement underscores our dedication to an open, interoperable Microsoft AI ecosystem—bringing Anthropic’s reasoning-first intelligence into the instruments, platforms, and workflows organizations rely on each day.
This week, Cohere’s main fashions be a part of Foundry’s first-party mannequin lineup, enabling organizations to construct high-performance retrieval, classification, and technology workflows at enterprise scale.
With these additions to Foundry’s 11,000+-model ecosystem—alongside improvements from OpenAI, xAI, Meta, Mistral AI, Black Forest Labs, and Microsoft Analysis—builders can construct smarter brokers that motive, adapt, and combine seamlessly with their information and purposes.
Make AI brokers smarter with enterprise context
Within the agentic period, context is every thing as a result of probably the most helpful brokers don’t simply motive, they’re able to understanding your distinctive enterprise. Microsoft Azure brings enterprise context to the forefront, so you’ll be able to join brokers to the proper information and programs—securely, constantly, and at scale. This set of bulletins makes that actual.
Microsoft Cloth IQ turns your information into unified intelligence
Cloth IQ organizes enterprise information round enterprise ideas—not tables—so decision-makers and AI brokers can act in actual time. Now in preview, Cloth IQ unifies analytics, time-series, and operational information below a semantic framework.
As a result of all information resides in OneLake, both natively or through shortcuts and mirroring, organizations can notice these advantages throughout on-premises, hybrid, and multicloud environments. This hurries up answering new questions and constructing processes, making Cloth the unified intelligence system for the way enterprises see, resolve, and function.
Introducing Foundry IQ, which permits brokers to grasp extra out of your information
Now in preview, Foundry IQ makes it simpler for companies to attach AI brokers to the proper information, with out the standard complexity. Powered by Azure AI Search, it streamlines how brokers entry and motive over each private and non-private sources, like SharePoint, Cloth IQ, and the online.
As an alternative of constructing customized RAG pipelines, builders get pre-configured information bases and agentic retrieval in a single API that simply works—all whereas additionally respecting person permissions. The result is brokers that perceive extra, reply higher, and assist your apps carry out with better precision and context.
Brokers, simplified: Microsoft Agent Manufacturing unit, powered by Azure
This week, we’re introducing Microsoft Agent Manufacturing unit—a program that brings Work IQ, Cloth IQ, and Foundry IQ collectively to assist organizations construct brokers with confidence.
With a single metered plan, organizations can use Microsoft Foundry and Copilot Studio to construct with IQ. This implies you’ll be able to deploy brokers anyplace, together with Microsoft 365 Copilot, with out upfront licensing or provisioning.
Eligible organizations may also faucet into hands-on help from high AI Ahead Deployed Engineers and entry tailor-made, role-based coaching to spice up AI fluency throughout groups.
Modernize and prolong your information for AI—wherever it lives
Nice AI begins with nice information. To succeed, organizations want a basis that’s quick, versatile, and clever. This week, we launched new capabilities to assist make that doable.
Introducing Azure HorizonDB, a brand new totally managed PostgreSQL database service for quicker, smarter apps
Now in preview, HorizonDB is a cloud database service constructed for pace, scale, and resilience. It runs as much as thrice quicker than open-source PostgreSQL and grows to deal with demanding storage necessities with as much as 15 replicas working on auto-scaling shared storage.
Whether or not constructing new AI apps or modernizing core programs, HorizonDB delivers enterprise-grade safety and natively built-in AI fashions that can assist you scale confidently and create smarter experiences.
Azure DocumentDB affords AI-ready information, open requirements, and multi-cloud deployments
Now usually out there, Azure DocumentDB is a totally managed NoSQL service constructed on open-source tech and designed for hybrid and multicloud flexibility. It helps superior search and vector embeddings for extra correct outcomes and is suitable with fashionable open-source MongoDB drivers and instruments.
SQL Server 2025 delivers AI innovation to one of many world’s most generally used databases
The decades-long basis of innovation continues with the provision of SQL Server 2025. This launch helps builders construct trendy, AI-powered apps utilizing acquainted T-SQL—securely and at scale.
With built-in instruments for superior search, close to real-time insights through OneLake, and simplified information dealing with, companies can lastly unlock extra worth from the info they have already got. SQL Server 2025 is a future-ready platform that mixes efficiency, safety, and AI to assist groups transfer quicker and work smarter.
Cloth goes additional
SQL database and Cosmos DB in Cloth are additionally out there this week. These databases are natively built-in into Cloth, so you’ll be able to run transactional and NoSQL workloads side-by-side, multi functional surroundings.
Get on the spot entry to trusted information with bi-directional, zero copy sharing by SAP BDC Join for Cloth
Cloth now permits zero-copy information sharing with SAP Enterprise Knowledge Cloud, enabling prospects to mix trusted enterprise information with Cloth’s superior analytics and AI—with out duplication or added complexity. This breakthrough provides you on the spot entry to trusted, business-ready insights for superior analytics and AI.
We provide these world-class database choices so you’ll be able to construct as soon as and deploy on the edge, as platform as a service (PaaS), and even as software program as a service (SaaS).And since our complete portfolio is both Cloth-connected or Cloth-native, Cloth serves as a unified hub to your complete information property.
Function smarter and extra securely with AI-powered management
We consider belief is the muse of transformation. In an AI-powered world, companies want confidence, management, and readability. Azure offers that with built-in safety, governance, and observability, so you’ll be able to innovate boldly with out compromise.
With capabilities that defend your information, hold your operations clear, and make environments resilient, we introduced updates this week to strengthen belief at each layer.
Unified observability helps hold brokers safe, compliant, and below your management
One spotlight from immediately’s bulletins is the brand new Foundry Management Airplane. It provides groups real-time safety, lifecycle administration, and visibility throughout agent platforms. Foundry Management Airplane integrates indicators from the complete Microsoft Cloud, together with Agent 365 and the Microsoft safety suite, so builders can optimize efficiency, apply agent controls, and keep compliance.
New hosted brokers and multi-agent workflows let brokers collaborate throughout frameworks or clouds with out sacrificing enterprise-grade visibility, governance, and id controls. With Entra Agent ID, Defender runtime safety, and Purview information governance, you’ll be able to scale AI responsibly with guardrails in place.
Azure Copilot: Turning cloud operations into clever collaboration
Azure Copilot is a brand new agentic interface that orchestrates specialised brokers throughout the cloud administration lifecycle. It embeds brokers immediately the place you’re employed—chat, console, or command line—for a personalised expertise that connects motion, context, and governance.
We’re introducing new brokers that simplify the way you run on the cloud—from migration and deployment to operations and optimization—so every motion aligns with enterprise coverage.
- Migration and modernization brokers ship smarter, automated workflows, utilizing AI-powered discovery to deal with many of the heavy lifting. This shift strikes IT groups and builders past repetitive classification work to allow them to give attention to constructing new apps and brokers that drive innovation.
- Equally, the deployment agent streamlines infrastructure planning with steerage rooted in Azure Properly-Architected Framework greatest practices, whereas the operations and optimization brokers speed up subject decision, enhance resiliency, and uncover value financial savings alternatives.
Safe code to runtime with AI-infused DevSecOps
Microsoft and GitHub are remodeling app safety with native integration for Microsoft Defender for Cloud and GitHub Superior Safety. Now in preview, this integration helps defend cloud-native purposes throughout the complete app lifecycle, from code to cloud.
This allows builders and safety groups to collaborate seamlessly, permitting organizations to remain inside the instruments they use each day.
Construct on an AI-ready basis
Azure infrastructure is remodeling how we ship intelligence at scale—each for our personal companies and for patrons constructing the following technology of purposes.
On the middle of this evolution are new AI datacenters, designed as “AI superfactories,” and silicon improvements that allow Azure to supply unmatched flexibility and efficiency throughout each AI situation.
Azure Increase delivers pace and safety to your most demanding workloads
We’re asserting our newest technology of Azure Increase with distant storage throughput of as much as 20 GBps, as much as 1 million distant storage IOPS, and community bandwidth of as much as 400 Gbps. These developments considerably enhance efficiency for future Azure VM sequence. Azure Increase is a purpose-built subsystem that offloads virtualization processes from the hypervisor and host working system, accelerating storage and network-intensive workloads.
Azure Cobalt 200: Redefining efficiency for the agentic period
Azure Cobalt 200 is our next-generation ARM-based server, designed to ship effectivity, efficiency, and safety for contemporary workloads. It’s constructed to deal with AI and data-intensive purposes whereas sustaining robust confidentiality and reliability requirements.
By optimizing compute and networking at scale, Cobalt 200 helps you run your most important workloads extra cost-effectively and with better resilience. It’s infrastructure designed for immediately’s calls for—and prepared for what’s subsequent.
Retaining you on the frontier with steady innovation
We’re delivering steady innovation in AI, apps, information, safety, and cloud. If you select Azure, you get an clever cloud constructed on many years of expertise and partnerships that push boundaries. And as we’ve simply proven this week, the tempo of innovation isn’t slowing down anytime quickly.
Agentic enterprise, unlocked: Begin now on Microsoft Azure
I hope Ignite—and our broader wave of innovation—sparked new concepts for you. The period of the agentic cloud isn’t on the horizon; it’s right here proper now. Azure brings collectively AI, information, and cloud capabilities that can assist you transfer quicker, adapt smarter, and innovate confidently.
I invite you to think about what’s doable—and think about these questions:
- What challenges may you remedy with a extra linked, clever cloud basis?
- What may you construct in case your information, AI, and cloud labored seamlessly collectively?
- How may your groups work in a different way with extra time to innovate and fewer to keep up?
- How are you going to keep forward in a world the place change is the one fixed?
Wish to go deeper into the information? Try these blogs:
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- Discover expertise methodologies and instruments from real-world buyer experiences with Azure Necessities.
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