For those unfamiliar with Azure Stack, it’s an attempt to bring the power of Microsoft’s cloud platform to on-premises data centers. The third technical preview launched at the start of March, meaning general availability will be coming in the middle of this year.
Azure Stack TP3 Changelog
According to the Azure Stack team, the latest refresh “continues delivering Azure Services on premises so customers can create innovative applications for the hybrid cloud.” It contains the following changes:
“Azure App Service (Web apps, API apps, and Mobile apps) Azure Functions Updated versions of SQL/MySQL database services
New to App Service this release:
Azure Functions preview for AAD based deployments Deployment in disconnected environments Deployment on ADFS authenticated Azure Stack Installation and deployment improvements Azure Resource Manager (ARM) API version 2016-03-01 support for App Services Synchronization of SKUs with Azure – i.e. Free (F1), Shared (D1), and Standard (S1, S2, S3) Service reliability improvements”
Unfortunately, those with Azure Stack TP3 deployed already will have to re-deploy with the updated software before they can make use of most of these. The good news is that the deployment and operational experience should be much nicer thanks to these changes. The updates are an essential part of Microsoft’s roadmap for TP3. As well as Azure Functions, the company promises VM Extension syndication, multi-tenancy support, and Blockchain, Cloud Foundry and Mesos templates. You can find more information about the latest refresh on the Azure blog.
