1) Microsoft commits $30 billion to the UK for AI & cloud infrastructure Microsoft announced a $30 billion investment in the United Kingdom to be spent across 2025–2028, with roughly $15 billion earmarked for capital expenditures to build cloud and AI infrastructure (including a UK supercomputer). The commitment includes partnering with local data-centre firms, deploying thousands of advanced AI GPUs, and expanding operations and talent in the UK. Microsoft framed the move as a long-term bet on British AI capacity and digital sovereignty; UK officials welcomed the investment as a major jobs and infrastructure boost. This announcement dominated last week’s cloud headlines and will reshape local Azure capacity and AI compute availability. 2) Azure launches at-cost data transfer between Azure and external endpoints (GA) Azure announced general availability of an “at-cost data transfer” option for customers and CSP partners in Europe moving data between Azure and external endpoints. The new pricing option aims to reduce barriers for hybrid and multi-provider architectures by lowering the cost penalty for cross-provider data flows. Microsoft’s docs and the Azure updates feed explain how customers can request and configure at-cost transfer for supported scenarios—an important change for architects balancing vendor portability, data gravity, and cost. Expect this to influence multi-cloud designs and edge workflows in the region. 3) Databricks updates: Runtime 17.2 GA + Delta Sharing on Lakehouse Federation (beta) Databricks published September release notes (Sept 16) announcing Databricks Runtime 17.2 is now generally available and that Delta Sharing on Lakehouse Federation is in public beta. These updates improve performance and interoperability for data teams using Azure Databricks—allowing easier schema federation and table sharing across lakehouses. For Azure customers, the release streamlines large-scale data collaboration and reduces friction when sharing analytics across teams, partners, or cloud providers.

Top 3 Recent Microsoft Azure News Summaries 1. Microsoft Bolsters Azure Servers with Custom Security Chips - Microsoft announced at the Hot Chips 2025 conference that every server powering Azure will now include custom-designed security chips—Integrated HSM, combined with Azure Boost, Hydra BMC, and Caliptra 2.0 technologies. This hardware-level move aims to safeguard customers against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, especially given that cybercrime is estimated at $10 trillion globally, rivaling the economies of major nations. 2. Microsoft to Enforce Mandatory MFA for Azure Resource Management - Starting October 1, 2025, Microsoft will begin enforcing multi‑factor authentication (MFA) for all actions involving Azure resource management—covering Azure CLI, PowerShell, SDKs, APIs, and more. This initiative rolls out globally under the Secure Future Initiative (SFI). To ease compliance, administrators can delay implementation until July 2026 and are urged to upgrade to Azure CLI v2.76+ and Azure PowerShell v14.3+. 3. Microsoft Warns of Storm‑0501: Cloud‑Focused Cybercriminal Group - Microsoft has issued an alert about Storm‑0501, a threat group now leveraging cloud environments to target organizations. These actors exploit synced identities from on‑prem Active Directory to Azure Entra ID, bypass MFA, deploy backdoors, misuse SAML tokens, and ransom victims via Microsoft Teams. They also abuse Azure tools like AzureHound and AzCopy, and Azure Key Vault to breach and encrypt data. Microsoft recommends MFA enforcement, limiting sync permissions, applying TPM, implementing resource locks, and using Defender tools and advanced logging for protection.

Part of my job as a Cloud Engineer is to stay up-to-date on all things Azure and other technologies I work with on a daily bases. Instead of reacting to changes as they impact my job in the moment, I keep my eyes on the horizon and plan ahead. This can prevent issues before they become a problem. In this thread I will release short news bites that impact the tech we are learning about so that you can keep watch too.