-
By: Janina Criador
- IT Guides
- January 30, 2024
- Comments 0
Essential Azure Updates You Can’t Afford to Miss in the Year
Microsoft Azure is vast and consistently evolving. It boasts a multitude of services that surpass those of any other cloud service provider. Businesses favor it for its hybrid connectivity and cost-effectiveness.
Azure impressively evolves rapidly, continually introducing new services and enhances existing ones with additional features. This dynamic pace requires individuals and businesses to adapt to new processes.
If you are responsible of Ensuring that your organization is well-informed about any changes that may affect it is essential. Similarly, staying up-to-date is equally important if you are interested in learning about Azure-managed services. Please continue reading this blog to keep yourself informed about the latest updates to Microsoft Azure in 2024.
Recent and Upcoming Updates for Azure
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
In 2024, the advancement of AI continues, particularly in healthcare. Microsoft has introduced new data and AI solutions to the market to help enhance patient and clinician experiences. The increased volume and diversity of healthcare data poses a significant challenge. Research shows that 97% of hospital-generated data will remain unused.
In May 2023, Microsoft introduced a comprehensive analytics platform. It blends various data and analytics tools for data optimization, paving the way for AI advancements. Fabric combines Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Power BI. It incorporates Azure OpenAI Service to leverage generative AI for unlocking data potential.
Microsoft Fabric’s Copilot feature enables users to interact with data through conversational language. It facilitates the creation of dataflows, pipelines, code generation, machine learning models, and result visualization while focusing on data security and privacy.
Read more about our Azure AI blogs for more information:
Copilot Solution
Starting 2024, Microsoft’s Copilot will become a major trend as the company refines and releases various versions for organizations. 365 Copilot is vital in Microsoft’s envisioned “age of copilots,” reshaping how we work with AI-based tools. Copilot, integrated into Microsoft 365 programs such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and Teams, utilizes generative AI for natural language interactions in task execution. This integration facilitates a groundbreaking approach to work processes.
Forrester predicts that during 2024, Microsoft 365 Copilot will directly impact 6.9 million US knowledge workers, making it a potential cost-effectiveness AI feature. Even with conservative estimates, we think the solution will cover its costs. It only requires one hour of time savings per week to break even on the annual cost.
Cloud Spend Optimization
In 2023, Microsoft unveiled a chat capability for Microsoft Cost Management powered by GPT-based AI. This feature streamlines cloud cost optimization and will become widely accessible to users in 2024. Microsoft Cost Management, accessible to all Azure subscribers, enables organizations to monitor, allocate, and enhance their cloud environment expenses.
Additional insights into cost optimization are available through Azure Advisor. It’s a free tool that gives personalized recommendations for optimizing cloud resource usage and costs.
For a proactive cost management approach, businesses can use the Azure Pricing Calculator and Azure Total Cost of Ownership Calculator. These tools aid in understanding projected cloud costs before deployment and help with informed decision-making.
Azure Ending Support in 2024
Continuing its commitment, ECF Data enumerates below a list of Microsoft products that are approaching the end of their lifecycle.
ECF Data’s Azure Support Services
The trends in 2024 align seamlessly with our ongoing product investments in ECF Data. We elaborate on the growing trend of customers assessing the long-term sustainability of their existing Azure-built solutions.
Besides integration-focused solutions, we’re expanding our Azure offerings. We’re enhancing support for more Azure resource types and adding features like incident management and escalation policies. We expect more customers to find that, with the scarcity of Azure experts, ECF Data effectively addresses their monitoring needs.
ECF Data is ready to support your team in making decisions and managing trade-offs. Our seasoned cloud team possesses expertise in guiding organizations through the complexities of the cloud landscape.
Recognizing the difficulties that come with migrating to the cloud, we emphasize our proven history of successful implementations. We employ a structured approach to assist organizations in navigating their cloud journey. Don’t hesitate to contact us to begin a conversation about crafting a cloud strategy for the future, starting now in 2024 and beyond.
