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Azure flips a stack of preview-to-GA promotions while quietly retiring a long tail of legacy VM reservations.

azureelastic-sanaksfunctionsreserved-instanceslifecycle
◆Current state
Azure is wrapping up several preview-to-GA arcs at once. Elastic SAN gained three GA capabilities in a single drop (single volume snapshots, AVS Gen2 Private Cloud support, AV64 SKU support), AKS got Application Gateway for Containers as a managed add-on in AKS Automatic, and Azure Functions added Java 25 support and a Consumption SKU for the Durable Task Scheduler aimed at AI agent orchestration. On the lifecycle side, one-year Reserved VM Instance purchases retire on July 1, 2026 across 14 legacy VM series.
◆Where it's heading
Azure is doing two things in parallel. It's compressing storage and networking previews into GA so AVS, AKS, and Elastic SAN converge into a more coherent enterprise platform. And it's pruning the back catalog — older VM series losing reservation eligibility and ACS forcing migration off legacy AlternateId — clearing the deck for a tighter set of supported configurations.
◆Prediction
Expect more legacy SKU retirements through the year as Azure consolidates around current VM families. The Durable Task Scheduler Consumption SKU is positioned squarely for agent orchestration, so look for tighter integration between Azure Functions, AI Foundry, and the agent runtimes that have been shipping recently.

◆Recent moves

  1. 1mo ago

    Retirement: Azure Reserved Virtual Machines Instances for select VM series

    One-year Reserved VM Instance purchases and renewals are being discontinued for 14 legacy VM series (Av2, Amv2, Bv1, D, Ds, Dv2, Dsv2, F, Fs, Fsv2, G, Gs, Ls, Lsv2) starting July 1, 2026. Customers planning to renew on these series will need to migrate to current SKUs — meaningful for capacity planning even though it's lifecycle housekeeping.

    View source ↗
  2. 1mo ago

    [In preview] Public Preview: Application Gateway for Containers managed add-on + AKS Automatic

    Application Gateway for Containers managed add-on now works with AKS Automatic in public preview, removing the prior limitation that blocked the two from being combined. Tightens the fully managed AKS story.

    View source ↗
  3. 1mo ago

    [Launched] Generally Available: Single Volume Snapshots on Azure Elastic SAN

    Elastic SAN now supports incremental, single-volume snapshots stored within the SAN itself, enabling per-volume backup and rapid clone deployment. Closes a feature gap that made Elastic SAN feel less complete than equivalent block storage.

    View source ↗
  4. 1mo ago

    [Launched] Generally Available: AVS Support for AV64 SKU on Azure Elastic SAN

    AVS AV64 SKUs are now supported with Elastic SAN datastores, opening higher-scale storage options for AVS deployments. Continues the same Elastic-SAN-meets-AVS bundling thread.

    View source ↗
  5. 1mo ago

    [Launched] Generally Available: Azure Elastic SAN support for AVS Gen2 Private Cloud

    Elastic SAN datastores are GA against AVS Gen2 Private Cloud, with simpler connectivity (single Private Endpoint, no ExpressRoute gateway required). One of three Elastic SAN GA flips in the same drop, signaling Azure is treating SAN as a first-class option for VMware-on-Azure workloads.

    View source ↗
  6. 1mo ago

    [Launched] Generally Available: Azure Functions durable task scheduler Consumption SKU

    View source ↗