Microsoft has also launched Azure Local, a platform enabled by Azure Arc that brings Azure services to hybrid, multi-cloud, and Edge locations.
Microsoft Azure has launched a cloud-controlled hybrid infrastructure platform called Azure Local for distributed locations.
The technology giant has also revealed new DPU and HSM chips, plus other updates at its Microsoft Ignite 2024 event.
Microsoft launches new HSM and DPU chips
Microsoft has announced its new Azure Integrated Hardware Security Module (HSM) and Azure Boost DPU chips.
The HSM is a cloud security chip that gives users full administrative and cryptographic control, and means that Microsoft has no access or visibility of the keys stored within them.
Customers can manage who in their organisation has access to the HSMs, as well as the scope of their roles. Each device is validated against FIPS 140-2 Level 3 and eIDAS Common Criteria EAL4+.
The Azure Integrated HSM provides protection globally across Azure’s data centre hardware.
Microsoft already offered an Azure Dedicated HSM offering which is a cloud-based service providing HSMs hosted in Azure data centres using Thales Luna 7 HSM network appliances, and directly connecting to a customer’s virtual network.
The Azure Boost Data Processing Unit (DPU) is Azure’s first in-house DPU silicon.
The DPU is designed for “data-centric workloads with high efficiency and low power,” and joins Azure’s “processor trifecta” including CPUs and GPUs.
The company estimates that future DPU Azure servers will run storage workloads with four times the performance of existing servers and three times less power.
Microsoft has been toying with DPU offerings for more than a year.
Microsoft acquired DPU provider Fungible in January 2023, with the plan to join Microsoft’s data centre infrastructure engineering teams and “focus on delivering multiple DPU solutions, network innovation, and hardware systems advancements.”
In July of that year, the company announced Azure Boost to offload virtualization processes such as networking, storage, and host management onto dedicated hardware and software – a DPU-like service.
Microsoft has also revealed that it is continuing to “evolve its cooling technology” to meet the demands of AI and is using a liquid cooling heat exchanger unit designed to cool large-scale AI systems on Azure.
The cloud company aims to “advance cooling efficiency while retrofitting the innovation within its existing data centre footprint.”
Microsoft unveils distributed offering Azure Local
Microsoft has also launched Azure Local, a platform enabled by Azure Arc that brings Azure services to hybrid, multi-cloud, and Edge locations.
Azure Local provides Azure services, virtual machines, and containers that can be deployed at distributed locations enabling customers to run mission-critical workloads, cloud-native apps, and AI at their facility, and is now generally available.
The offering can be deployed on more than 100 validated hardware platforms including small industrial PCs and enterprise-class server deployments, and can be used disconnected where necessary to meet regulatory and compliance requirements.
Azure Local is replacing the Azure Stack product family, and existing customers of Azure Stack HCI will be automatically upgraded to Azure Local. The offering is priced on a per-core basis on your on-premises machines.
Microsoft and Atom Computing to launch commercial quantum machine
Microsoft and Atom Computing are planning to ship a commercial quantum machine that can outperform classical computing by the end of 2025.
The machine is being co-designed by Microsoft and Atom and, according to Microsoft, will be the world’s largest commercial offering and will use entangled logical qubits that can detect and correct.
