Microsoft has announced the general availability of the SQL Server 2025 update policy for Azure SQL Managed Instance, providing customers with expanded control over how and when new engine capabilities are introduced. The update policy is designed to help organizations balance access to the latest SQL Server innovations with operational stability requirements. Some major updates include optimized locking, mirroring in Fabric, invoking HTTP REST endpoints and manual backup to Azure Blob Storage, among others. A full list of policy updates can be found in the policy documentation here.
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Posted by Redmondmag.com Editors on 03/03/20260 comments
Microsoft has introduced a public preview feature in Azure Storage that allows organizations to restrict the use of user delegation Shared Access Signatures (SAS) to a specific Microsoft Entra ID identity. The update is designed to strengthen access controls by ensuring that delegated SAS tokens can only be exercised by the intended Entra ID principal. This reduces the risk of unintended access while preserving the flexibility of SAS.
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Posted by Redmondmag.com Editors on 02/26/20260 comments
Microsoft has announced new public preview capabilities in Azure Monitor Pipeline, expanding the service’s ability to collect, transform and route telemetry data across cloud and hybrid environments. The updates are designed to provide greater flexibility in how logs and metrics are processed before reaching downstream monitoring and analytics tools. The main focus of the update covers secure ingestion with TLS and mTLS, control where pipeline instances run and processing data before it arrives in Azure Monitor. Pod placement controls for Azure Monitor and automated schema standardization are also among the new offerings. Detailed insight on what each of these updates means for users can be found here.
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Posted by Redmondmag.com Editors on 02/26/20260 comments
Microsoft is advising organizations to prepare their Windows Server environments for upcoming Secure Boot certificate updates. The changes are intended to maintain the integrity of the Secure Boot process by updating certificates used to validate firmware and bootloaders, helping protect systems from rootkits and other low-level threats. Expiration of older Secure Boot certificates introduced in 2011 will begin in late June 2026. IT teams can access a step-by-step guide on how to manage server environments to ensure a seamless update.
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Posted by Redmondmag.com Editors on 02/24/20260 comments
Microsoft has published the security baseline for Windows Server 2025, version 2602, offering updated configuration guidance to help organizations secure server deployments. The baseline includes recommended settings for group policies and system configurations designed to mitigate common attack vectors while maintaining operational functionality. Some security policy updates released include configuring the behavior of the sudo command, disabling Internet Explorer 11 and updated recommendations to NTLM auditing. A full list of security policy updates released can be found here.
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Posted by Redmondmag.com Editors on 02/24/20260 comments
Microsoft has introduced a refreshed design for Microsoft Planner, for both Planner in Teams and Planner for web. The update brings a more modern interface aligned with the broader Microsoft 365 experience, aiming to simplify navigation and improve visibility across plans and tasks. Included in the new features is real-time collaboration and mentioning team members within task chat, which provide notifications to the mentioned users Teams Activity. Planner will also now include Goals View, which allows teams to set clear, defined objectives to help with workflow priority. The refreshed design reduces clutter, improves layout and spacing and creates a focused workspace.
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Posted by Redmondmag.com Editors on 02/24/20260 comments
Microsoft has announced the general availability of Microsoft Teams optimization for Amazon WorkSpaces, improving audio, video and screen-sharing performance for users running Teams within AWS virtual desktops. The optimization enables media processing to occur locally on endpoint devices rather than within the virtual desktop session, reducing latency and improving call quality. Key features include multimedia offloading, high-definition audio and video and feature parity to match the functionality of desktop Teams.
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Posted by Redmondmag.com Editors on 02/20/20260 comments
Microsoft has updated OneDrive on Mac with a redesigned interface featuring a Liquid Glass visual style and a rebuilt Activity Center. The refresh introduces a more modern look aligned with recent macOS design trends while improving usability and clarity for users managing files and sync activity. The new Activity Center provides better visibility into uploads, downloads, sharing actions and account status directly from the menu bar. Task dialogues are now Mac-native, with enhanced accessibility options including VoiceOver and Full Keyboard Access.
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Posted by Redmondmag.com Editors on 02/20/20260 comments
Microsoft has introduced a public preview of automatic zone balancing for Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS), designed to improve workload distribution across availability zones. The feature automatically redistributes virtual machines to maintain balanced capacity when zone imbalances occur due to scaling events, maintenance or unexpected failures. The update helps ensure higher availability and more consistent performance without requiring manual reconfiguration. To create a rebalance, Automatic zone balance uses a create-before-delete approach to create new VMs in under-provisioned zones with built-in safety guardrails.
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Posted by Redmondmag.com Editors on 02/17/20260 comments
Microsoft has released Cumulative Update 2 (CU2) for SQL Server 2025 RTM, providing a set of bug fixes and performance improvements for customers running the latest version of the database platform. As with prior cumulative updates, CU2 includes all previously released fixes along with new corrections addressing issues reported since general availability. Microsoft continues to recommend regular adoption of cumulative updates to maintain stability and security in production environments. The update addresses fixes with backup restore, disaster recovery, resource governor, storage and log management and replication components.
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Posted by Redmondmag.com Editors on 02/17/20260 comments
Microsoft has announced the release of SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) v10.5, delivering updates designed to improve reliability and compatibility for database migration projects. SSMA helps organizations migrate schemas, data and database objects from platforms such as Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SAP ASE and DB2 to SQL Server or Azure SQL. The new version includes bug fixes, updated platform support and refinements aimed at reducing friction during complex migrations. The release focuses on expanding AI-assisted code conversion and addressing key customer feedback with AI-assisted code powered by Copilot for SAP ASE (Sybase). Additionally, improved code conversion quality for Oracle supports larger source scripts with enhanced reliability on Oracle for converted procedures on Azure SQL Managed Instance.
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Posted by Redmondmag.com Editors on 02/17/20260 comments