SQL Server on Azure Local is now generally available

By Dustin Ward

Some of the world’s most critical databases run in places where cloud connectivity cannot be assumed. A remote industrial site, for example, may need production systems to continue operating when external connectivity is unavailable. A regulated organization may need sensitive data and processing to remain within sovereign boundaries. Today, SQL Server on Azure Local is…

Enterprise AI transformation relies on the end-to-end platform: Azure was built for this moment

By Dustin Ward

Summary The recognition for Microsoft over the past couple of weeks comes down to models, infrastructure, data, applications, and developer tools working as one system when AI moves into production. Enterprise AI is moving into production, and our customers are becoming multi-model. Organizations will use frontier models where capability matters, and smaller, specialized, and open-weight…

Managed PostgreSQL vs. self-hosted PostgreSQL: Key benefits and trade-offs

By Dustin Ward

Summary This post is for technical decision makers evaluating where to run production PostgreSQL workloads. It compares two valid operating models—self-managed PostgreSQL and a managed database service—through business and operational outcomes: control, engineering capacity, resilience, security, cost predictability, risk tolerance, and access to specialist expertise. The right choice depends on which responsibilities the organization needs…

What customers value most in Microsoft Databases—from reliability to AI readiness

By Dustin Ward

In this article What customers consistently value Turning customer feedback into innovation Thank you to our customers and community Every day, customers trust Microsoft Databases to power their most critical applications, business processes, and AI-powered experiences. Continuous customer feedback provides valuable insights into how these technologies perform in production and where we should continue investing.…

Proving application resilience on Azure with Chaos Studio

By Dustin Ward

Takeaway: Azure Chaos Studio helps organizations validate application resilience by simulating outages, failovers, network disruptions, and infrastructure failures before they impact production. You don’t know with certainty that your application is resilient until that resilience is tested. Better to learn it isn’t by deliberately breaking it in a test environment and watching how it reacts,…