Azure mandatory multifactor authentication: Phase 2 starting in October 2025

By Dustin Ward

As cyberattacks become increasingly frequent, sophisticated, and damaging, safeguarding your digital assets has never been more critical, and at Microsoft, your security is our top priority. Microsoft research shows that multifactor authentication (MFA) can block more than 99.2% of account compromise attacks, making it one of the most effective security measures available. As announced in August…

Microsoft Cost Management updates—July & August 2025

By Dustin Ward

Whether you’re a new student, a thriving startup, or the largest enterprise, you have financial constraints. You need to know what you’re spending, where your money is being spent, and how to plan for the future. Nobody wants a surprise bill—and that’s where Microsoft Cost Management comes in. We’re always looking for ways to learn…

Project Flash update: Advancing Azure Virtual Machine availability monitoring

By Dustin Ward

Previously, we shared an update on Project Flash as part of our Advancing Reliability blog series, reaffirming our commitment to helping Azure customers detect and diagnose virtual machine (VM) availability issues with speed and precision. This year, we’re excited to unveil the latest innovations that take VM availability monitoring to the next level—enabling customers to…

Introducing Azure Accelerate: Fueling transformation with experts and investments across your cloud and AI journey

By Dustin Ward

As technology continues to reshape every industry, organizations are transforming with cloud, data, and AI—ultimately resulting in smarter operations, better outcomes, and more impactful customer experiences. From global enterprises to fast-scaling startups, customers are putting Azure to work in powerful ways. To date, more than 26,000 customer projects have leveraged our offerings—Azure Migrate and Modernize…

Building secure, scalable AI in the cloud with Microsoft Azure

By Dustin Ward

Generative AI is a transformative force, redefining how modern enterprises operate. It has quickly become central to how businesses drive productivity, innovate, and deliver impact. The pressure is on: organizations must move fast to not only adopt AI, but to unlock real value at scale or risk falling behind.   Achieving enterprise-wide deployment of AI securely…

Maximize your ROI for Azure OpenAI

By Dustin Ward

When you’re building with AI, every decision counts—especially when it comes to cost. Whether you’re just getting started or scaling enterprise-grade applications, the last thing you want is unpredictable pricing or rigid infrastructure slowing you down. Azure OpenAI is designed with that in mind: flexible enough for early experiments, powerful enough for global deployments, and…