About this Video

• Video Title: Azure Update - 8th August 2025
• Channel: John Savill's Technical Training
• Speakers: John Savill
• Duration: 00:19:15

Introduction

This video provides a weekly update on Azure, covering new features and updates released on August 8th, 2025. The presenter reviews numerous changes across various Azure services, including compute, networking, storage, and AI.

Key Takeaways

• AKS Updates: Numerous updates to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) including the Agentic CLI (private preview), managed namespaces (public preview), virtual network verifier (preview), multiple standard load balancers (preview), increased Prometheus ingestion quota (preview), AKS local DNS (preview), Azure Bastion integration (preview), AKSMCP server (preview), control plane improvements (GA), security dashboard (GA), and static public prefix egress gateway removal. AKS also now supports deployment safeguards, Azure Linux and Ubuntu 24.04 with confidential VMs, advanced container networking layer 7 policies, NFS encryption for Azure files, and the ability to disable HTTP proxy.

• Compute: EV6 series virtual machines now offer 128 and 192 virtual CPU sizes, along with Azure Boost for enhanced performance.

• Networking: Azure DNS DNSSEC is now available in US Gov and China clouds. Azure Virtual Network Manager supports up to 5,000 virtual networks in a mesh. Network Security Perimeter is generally available. App Gateway for containers now integrates with a Web Application Firewall (WAF).

• Storage: Azure File Sync has a GA Azure Arc extension. Azure Data Box next gen is available in more regions. Azure Storage Actions are available in more regions. Azure Storage Discovery is in preview, offering insights into storage capacity, activity, and usage patterns for cost optimization.

• AI: GPT-5 is available in Azure AI Foundry, GitHub models playground, and GitHub API. GPT-image-1 has been updated for improved fidelity control. GPT open-source versions (120B and 20B parameters) are available. Azure Backup now offers multi-disk agentless crash-consistent backups. AI Shell has MCP support.

The transcript discusses GPT-5, which is a large language model, and its various versions available through Azure AI Foundry and other platforms. The presenter notes that GPT-5 is replacing older models due to its flexibility and improved capabilities in logic, multi-step tasks, reasoning, and coding. Additionally, GPT-image-1, an image generation model, received an update for better fidelity control. Finally, open-source versions of GPT (120 billion and 20 billion parameter versions) are also mentioned. These are all related to, but not directly named, ChatGPT.