On this weblog, I’ll cowl the most recent slate of bulletins throughout Microsoft Cloth and the complete Azure Knowledge portfolio, designed to empower each developer on the planet to do extra with information.
The emergence of a completely new kind of group—reconstructed with AI—was uncovered in Microsoft’s newest annual Work Development Index report. These frontier corporations are constructing agent assistants, creating hybrid human and agent groups, and even establishing complete groups of brokers directed by people. As extra organizations start their journey to this subsequent frontier, brokers will start to function throughout each particular person and staff, with organization-wide context, automating duties and offering people with well timed, contextual insights.
Builders might be on the coronary heart of this agentic internet. However powering these brokers would require extra than simply AI fashions. Builders might want to convey collectively each kind of information a company produces; not simply analytical, however transactional and operational, in each structured and unstructured varieties. Take The Estée Lauder Firms, for instance, the worldwide magnificence firm educated an agent on their structured client perception information to offer their groups with actionable intelligence immediately. Whereas dentsu, a worldwide advertising and marketing agency, educated a collection of brokers on their unstructured HR and compliance information to rapidly reply worker questions.
Builders will want the best instruments at their disposal to convey collectively all this information, put together it for AI, and use it to coach the brokers that may quickly develop into our digital teammates. Whether or not it’s good to work with analytical, operational, or transactional information, we’re ensuring you could have the instruments you want. In actual fact, Microsoft is acknowledged as a pacesetter throughout the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Knowledge Integration Instruments, Cloud Database Administration Techniques, Cloud AI Developer Providers, and Analytics and Enterprise Intelligence Platforms.
On this weblog, I’ll cowl the most recent slate of bulletins throughout Microsoft Cloth and the complete Azure Knowledge portfolio, designed to empower each developer on the planet to do extra with information:
- Cloth bulletins: Cosmos DB (NoSQL) in Cloth, a brand new expertise referred to as digital twin builder, and new methods to make use of Copilot to speak along with your information.
- Azure Knowledge bulletins: SQL Server 2025, PostgreSQL in VS Code with GitHub Copilot, AI Foundry integration with Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Databricks, and SAP integration with Azure Databricks.
Microsoft Cloth is our AI-powered platform designed to convey all of your groups and information collectively to perform any information venture. With Cloth, our objective is to converge all the information companies you want right into a unified, open, and extensible platform, so that you not need to manually sew collectively disconnected companies. This imaginative and prescient of a converged information platform has already resonated with greater than 21,000 clients—together with over 70 % of the Fortune 500—who’re utilizing Cloth immediately. And with greater than 50 % of our clients utilizing greater than three workloads, most see the true worth of Cloth as a do-it-all information platform.
By converging our industry-leading instruments in a single software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, we are able to additionally assist builders speed up their tasks. It doesn’t matter what your information venture requires, whether or not it’s managing databases, accessing real-time information, or coaching machine studying fashions, Cloth has the instruments you want, which work collectively seamlessly out of the field. Since Cloth is SaaS, you may get began immediately with out the complexity of infrastructure and configuration settings you usually discover in information platforms. Steady integration and steady supply (CI/CD) capabilities are woven into the platform together with direct integration to the instruments builders use every single day, like GitHub and VS Code.
And importantly, with Cloth, builders can entry and analyze any kind of information. Microsoft OneLake, Cloth’s open information lake, can connect with structured and unstructured information throughout any cloud or format. Cloth Actual-Time Intelligence can assist your information in movement. And with our most up-to-date announcement of Cloth Databases, we may help you convey your transactional situations to Cloth. Right this moment, we’re enhancing our assist on your operational, semi-structured information with the addition of Cosmos DB in Cloth.
Speed up app improvement with Cosmos DB in Cloth
Six months in the past we introduced Cloth Databases, a brand new class of SaaS databases constructed instantly into Cloth which can be simple to deploy and handle and immediately obtainable to assist builders streamline software improvement. We began with SQL databases in Cloth, which you’ll provision in seconds on your structured information and are extremely obtainable and safe by default.
Nevertheless, as brokers tackle more and more advanced duties, the flexibility to convey collectively semi-structured information like textual content, paperwork, emails, and graphs will show crucial for AI coaching. Which is why we’re thrilled to announce we’re increasing Cloth Databases to deal with semi-structured information with the preview of Cosmos DB in Cloth. In response to a current Bloomberg CIO examine, Azure Cosmos DB was the best choice for constructing generative AI purposes.1 In actual fact, OpenAI selected Azure Cosmos DB because the database to assist the trillions of database transactions and petabytes of information wanted to assist the five hundred million customers who use ChatGPT weekly.2
We’re taking this industry-leading database expertise and bringing it to Cloth. With Cosmos DB in Cloth, builders can deploy a high-performance database with only a few clicks whereas nonetheless experiencing enterprise-grade dynamic scalability and 99.999% reliability. With assist for each SQL and NoSQL fashions, builders now have the pliability to construct AI purposes grounded in operational, transactional, and analytical information. Better of all, Cosmos DB information is immediately obtainable in OneLake for analytics like close to real-time sentiment evaluation for chat purposes. Try these new capabilities in motion:
You may strive Cosmos DB in Cloth immediately or study extra by studying the Cosmos DB in Cloth weblog.
Carry the bodily world to the digital world with digital twin builder in Cloth
Along with your information accessible in Cloth, we’re additionally bringing you extra instruments to investigate and uncover insights out of your information. One of the vital thrilling new instruments is known as digital twin builder, now in preview. Digital twin builder is a robust new functionality that allows organizations to create, handle, and visualize digital replicas of bodily and logical entities at scale. Inbuilt Cloth Actual-Time Intelligence, digital twin builder supplies a less complicated, no-code or low-code method to construct and handle digital representations of real-world objects and processes.
With digital twin builder, you’ll be able to join, map, and handle digital replicas of bodily and logical entities, whether or not they’re bodily property like equipment, logical entities like clients, or dynamic processes like manufacturing and logistics. You should utilize this digital twin to reinforce deep analytics, carry out what-if evaluation, and automation your processes. If you wish to study extra, you’ll be able to learn extra about digital twin builder in Cloth right here, and you too can begin your 60-day Microsoft Cloth free trial as properly. Try the next video of digital twin builder in motion:
Empower everybody to ask questions on their information in Energy BI and Microsoft Copilot Studio
Insights are solely impactful once they attain those that can use them to tell choices. That’s why making information extra accessible by way of chat experiences is among the quickest rising AI experiences. A educated agent can allow groups to easily ask questions on their information, offering a extra accessible and interactive method to uncover insights.
Chat along with your information by way of Copilot in Energy BI
Now, we’re thrilled to announce a brand new standalone, full-screen Copilot expertise in Energy BI which permits everybody to speak with the information they’ve entry to. With over 30M month-to-month energetic Energy BI customers and embedded experiences within the apps we use every single day, like Microsoft 365, Energy BI has develop into the default supply of information and insights for a lot of enterprise customers. Within the coming weeks, customers will be capable to open Copilot on their dwelling display and ask broader questions on their information. Copilot will mechanically search throughout a number of studies and semantic fashions to intelligently retrieve essentially the most related information you could have entry to and reply your questions. You may even entry this Copilot in Energy BI expertise instantly from Microsoft Groups, so that you don’t have to interrupt up your regular circulate of labor to get solutions. Try the next demo to see how this works:
I’m excited to share that we’re working to increase Copilot in Energy BI capabilities into Microsoft 365 Copilot with Energy BI agent, permitting customers to seek out content material, ask questions, and visually discover and analyze information with out leaving Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Join Cloth information brokers to Microsoft Copilot Studio
In Cloth, you’ll be able to create information brokers—digital enterprise analysts which allow you to interact in pure language conversations about your information in OneLake. Constructing on this functionality, we’re excited to convey these information brokers into Copilot Studio. As soon as added to your agent in Copilot Studio, they are often deployed throughout Microsoft Groups and Microsoft 365 Copilot to purpose over advanced datasets, get insights instantly from information in OneLake (respecting information entry permissions), and take motion. Your brokers may even automate duties like sending emails or triggering workflows, making it simpler for customers to work together with enterprise information and make data-driven actions in context.
Learn extra concerning the new chat along with your information expertise in Energy BI and keep tuned for when the Cloth information brokers integration with Copilot Studio turns into obtainable within the coming weeks.
Remodel your information right into a aggressive benefit with Azure Knowledge
For many years, databases have been the spine for managing enterprise data—enabling environment friendly storage, retrieval, and evaluation that energy the world’s purposes. And now, as we shift into the AI period, databases have gotten much more necessary to assist our more and more AI-powered purposes.
The ODP Company, which incorporates Workplace Depot, makes use of Azure Cosmos DB along with Azure AI companies to serve HR information to staff in real-time, changing turnarounds that used to take 24 hours.
We use Azure Cosmos DB to retailer HR information on the profile degree. It’s the glue between our again finish and entrance finish—everybody who logs in will get a profile, and the mannequin reads and writes to it in actual time to take care of context.
—Mick Feller, Distinguished Engineer, The ODP Company
The ODP story is only one of many, with clients like Docusign, BNY Mellon, and Mondra equally utilizing Azure Databases to gasoline their AI tasks.
We’re working exhausting to additional enrich our Database choices in order that they sustain with AI mannequin innovation and proceed fueling your AI purposes. Right this moment, we’re excited to unveil main bulletins throughout each our industry-leading SQL and open-source database choices, designed to help builders in crafting clever purposes.
Construct AI apps securely from floor to cloud with SQL Server 2025
For over 35 years, SQL Server has been an {industry} chief in offering safe, high-performance information administration. Now, we’re thrilled to announce SQL Server 2025 is formally in public preview.
Our latest model of SQL Server is purpose-built to securely assist your AI purposes, remodeling right into a vector database in its personal proper. SQL Server makes use of built-in filtering capabilities together with a vector search, with versatile interfaces for AI fashions deployed regionally or within the cloud, simplified workflows with built-in vector embedding, and assist for well-liked frameworks like LangChain, Semantic Kernel, and Entity Framework Core.
SQL Server 2025 has already resonated properly with greater than 3,400 candidates for our personal preview program, with full adoption coming twice as quick as SQL Server 2022. You may as well get began by way of frictionless integration with Cloth and Azure Arc, with assist for real-time information replication in Cloth by way of mirroring. See SQL Server 2025 in motion and study how one can get began immediately.
Carry collectively Azure PostgreSQL, VS Code, and GitHub Copilot
Open supply databases are taking part in an more and more extra crucial function in shaping the way forward for clever purposes, with PostgreSQL being the preferred in accordance with Stack Overflow’s 2024 Developer Survey.3 Microsoft is dedicated to supporting open supply and making the developer expertise higher than ever. Notably, Microsoft has essentially the most Postgres committers and contributions to the open-source group amongst all of the hyperscalers.
Right this moment, we’re saying the preview of the brand new and improved PostgreSQL extension for VS Code with GitHub Copilot inbuilt—designed to simplify workflows and enhance productiveness by way of AI-powered help. The PostgreSQL extension permits builders to handle databases instantly inside VS Code, whether or not they’re working in Azure, Docker containers, or on-premises environments. Now, the GitHub Copilot integration brings pure language capabilities to database improvement, serving to builders design schemas, write optimized queries, and troubleshoot points with expert-level steerage, proper from their editor.
We’re additionally saying the final availability of DiskANN on Azure Database for PostgreSQL, one of many quickest vector indexing algorithms available on the market. Builders can leverage DiskANN to construct high-performance, low-latency, and scalable generative AI purposes that surpass pgvector index sorts.
Vector search has been foundational to constructing generative AI purposes, however it has limitations on the subject of understanding some semantic relationships between enterprise information. We’re making it simpler for groups growing clever purposes and brokers to unlock deeper insights from their operational information by introducing generative AI-powered reasoning in PostgreSQL. These new semantic operators in Azure Database for PostgreSQL, now in preview, leverage LLMs instantly inside the database that can assist you unlock deeper relational context from information.
Connect with Azure AI Foundry instantly from Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Databricks
For builders designing and customizing AI apps and brokers, we’re saying that you would be able to now use Azure Cosmos DB accounts to energy AI options in Azure AI Foundry.
Clients can now securely retailer and handle the dialog threads between customers and AI brokers of their Azure Cosmos DB accounts, utilizing the Azure AI Foundry SDK. This allows brokers to recall the content material of earlier thread conversations and messages and choose up conversations the place they left off. Threads storage is now usually obtainable.
Coming quickly, builders will be capable to use the information saved of their Azure Cosmos DB accounts to energy AI options in Azure AI Foundry. Clients can quickly join and entry their Azure Cosmos DB information utilizing Azure AI Foundry in software code, and Azure Cosmos DB would be the first Azure database in a position to energy brokers and fashions in Azure AI Foundry with real-time, operational information.
We’re additionally saying the general public preview of Azure AI Foundry connection for Azure Databricks. This connection facilities on two key situations: enabling Foundry Brokers to make use of AI/BI Genie and run Azure Databricks Jobs. These capabilities can improve data retrieval and broaden how Foundry Brokers ship contextual solutions grounded in enterprise information, the place a lot of the world’s information resides. And, if you wish to study extra about all the Azure AI Foundry bulletins, you’ll be able to learn their weblog right here.
Increasing our Databricks and SAP partnership
We’re thrilled to deepen our longstanding partnership with SAP and Databricks, supporting SAP’s newest improvements with the launch of SAP Enterprise Knowledge Cloud (BDC) and SAP Databricks on Azure, anticipated in Q3 2025. SAP Databricks is a core part of SAP Enterprise Knowledge Cloud (BDC) that allows customers to leverage analytics capabilities of Databricks tailor-made to SAP workloads. Now builders can innovate on prime of the core enterprise information operating of their SAP purposes. When operating on Azure, SAP Databricks might be powered by Microsoft’s first celebration Azure Databricks service. This integration permits SAP Databricks to learn from sturdy scalability, efficiency, safety, and the Azure integrations clients count on from native Azure companies.
Join your Azure Databricks information to Cloth
You should utilize mirroring to entry your Azure Databricks Unity Catalog tables in OneLake, at present in preview, and preserve them in sync in close to real-time. Merely add your Azure Databricks workspace URL, choose the catalog, and Cloth creates a shortcut for each desk within the chosen catalog. Study extra by watching this video or by viewing the documentation.
Shifting ahead with information and AI improvements in Azure
With these bulletins, we’re evolving our information choices alongside our AI improvements to maintain tempo on this new period. These new improvements are designed to assist builders break down silos and combine their information into AI purposes, irrespective of the kind of information or the place it lives inside a company.
Watch these bulletins in motion at Microsoft Construct
Be a part of us at Microsoft Construct from Might 19 to 22, 2025, to see all of those bulletins in motion throughout the next periods:
- BRK206: Microsoft Cloth for Builders: Construct scalable information and AI options.
- BRK204: What’s new in Microsoft Databases: Empowering AI-Pushed App Dev.
- BRK202: Scale and safe MongoDB-compatible apps with Azure Cosmos DB.
- BRK203: Get quicker LLM responses and low app latency with Azure Managed Redis.
- BRK205: What’s coming in Cloth Automation and CI/CD.
- BRK207: SQL Server 2025: The Database Developer Reimagined.
- BRK208: Constructing AI brokers for actionable insights with information in Cloth.
- BRK209: Constructing actual options with Actual-Time Intelligence in Cloth.
- BRK210: Construct AI apps and unlock the ability of your information with Azure Databricks.
- BRK211: Constructing superior agentic apps with PostgreSQL on Azure.
- BRK212: Design scalable information layers for multi-tenant apps with Azure Cosmos DB.
- BRK213: Allow superior AI situations with Unified Knowledge Estates in Microsoft Cloth.
Enroll now for our upcoming safety webinars:
References
2 Forbes, ChatGPT Hits 1 Billion Customers? ‘Doubled In Simply Weeks’ Says OpenAI CEO
