Microsoft Azure cloud services provide tools to build, deploy, manage and protect data, applications, and infrastructure. Microsoft Azure is a contender to become the largest cloud computing service provider by market share, growing at double the speed of its closest competitors, gaining expanding recognition as a leading service provider across innovation and technology analysts.  

2024 saw the release of dozens of new Azure updates and integrations that furthered the key themes outlined in our previous Azure best practices article. We expect 2025 to bring further enhancements — with the key themes of rapid performance advancements driven by AI, integration of security enhancements into every layer of Azure, and a focus on cost management controls.  

In this article, we explore the Azure capability updates released in the last year, including key integrations, look forward to new capabilities and our predictions for 2025, and how these considerations impact both Azure implementation best practices — and knowledge criteria for your deployment partner.

Recap of Azure's 2024 Key Trends and 2025 Projections

In 2025, Azure is anticipated to release accelerated AI with faster training speeds, lowering TCO, while advancing seamless integration across security, infrastructure, AI and cost.

We anticipate these gains to prompt a re-calculation of cloud computing performance gains and TCO. Across process-enhancing capabilities, accelerated threat detection and remediation, integration viability and right-sizing cloud expenditure, enterprise-level performance and value narratives for Azure are worth re-evaluation in 2025.  

Leveraging the themes from our 2024 article on getting the most from Azure, we have expanded the framework for considerations in the 2025 landscape.

Leverage Advanced Security Capabilities:

• Microsoft Azure provides tools to protect data, applications, and infrastructure. Azure allows organizations to deploy the adaptive controls needed to meet compliance and regulatory mandates, including identity management, encryption, and monitoring.

• In 2024, Azure’s security framework expanded to include advanced threat protection, Zero Trust architecture tools, advanced compliance and identity management tools with Azure Active Directory, AI-powered threat detection and autonomous security handling, and elevated data encryption standards.  Security, identity management, and compliance integrations with Splunk, IBM QRadar, LogRhythm, Okta, CyberArk, SailPoint, ServiceNow, and MetricStream amongst others were added during the year.

• In 2025, Azure is projected to offer compliance automation updates featuring significant drops in audit time, address security challenges with goals for a 99% threat detection rate and 80% automated remediation rate, inclusive of enhanced identity management controls to reduce access incidents.

Optimize Process Efficiency with Templates, Data Handling and Infrastructure Management Capabilities:

• Azure Deployment Environments (ADF) expands project-based templates, allowing developers to deploy consistent environments at any development stage, improving process efficiency and security.

• In 2024, Azure Resource Manager (ARM) also enhanced its template-based capabilities, reducing deployment errors, while accelerating template validation. In addition, elevated resource visibility was deployed for Azure Arc (which allows for seamless management of resources deployed within and outside of Azure). Data quality, infrastructure and ADF integrations included Informatica PowerCenter, Talend, Qlik, Fivetran, Precisely, Streamsets, Collibra, Alatino, and erwin.

• In 2025, Azure plans to deploy additional capabilities to further enhance resource visibility across a hybrid cloud environment.

Expand Intelligent Infrastructure with AKS:

• Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) deploys and manages containerized applications, supporting advanced AI integration into applications, creating operational efficiency gains with proper planning and execution.

• In 2024, Azure expanded support for LLM with reduced latency, automated ML workflows to reduce manual ML tasks, and expanded the scope of integration with OpenAI Models, allowing enterprises to leverage these capabilities for intelligent automation, predictive analytics, and new customer experiences.  Container monitoring, security, and Kubernetes toolkit integrations included Aqua Security, Snyk, Twistlock (acquired by Palo Alto),  Datadog, Dynatrace, New Relic, Rancher, VMware Tanzu, and RedHat OpenShift.

• In 2025, Azure plans to release updates including accelerated migration time for legacy containerization.

Plan for Connectivity, Networking and Performance:

• As Edge / IOT / further connectivity trends accelerate, Azure offers a services portfolio that allows for streamlined architectures leveraging common shared dependencies, such as Azure Active Directory, Azure Storage, and Azure Security Controls.

• In 2024, edge computing, DDoS, application delivery, and content delivery integrations included Cloudflare, F5 Networks, and Akamai, expanding opportunities for connectivity.

• In 2025, industry analysts estimate that 50-75% of enterprise data will be created and processed outside of centralized data centers and/or the cloud, with significant implications for maintaining connectivity as well as security.

Maintain Cloud Cost Monitoring:

• Implementing the Azure Cost Management Module allows for active cloud cost monitoring. Not only do costs constantly fluctuate, many organizations find that their needs and consumption are misaligned.

• In 2024, we recommended Azure Advisor (a resource to help optimize Azure resources), leveraging PAYG models, defining the correct auto-scaling parameters for your organization, and reviewing selection of the Azure Compute Service offerings to ensure optimal alignment to your enterprise needs.

• In 2025, we advocate for revisiting Azure performance and cost models, utilizing the opportunity to right-size spend. VM price-performance ratios are improving, revising business case thresholds. Concurrently, ‘wasted’ capacity is reaching staggering levels - while total cloud expenditures are expected to exceed $700-800B, upwards of 30% of total expenditures represent wasted capacity or misalignment with organizational needs - with individual organizations highlighting up to 50% of their spend may be underutilized or misallocated.

Best Practices for Azure Deployment

The landscape of Azure offerings and integrations are dynamic. While best practices in Azure deployment remain consistent, increasing focus on dynamic business planning is directly correlated to an environment that is generating insights in real-time.

Up-to-date knowledge and deployment experience become of elevated importance, to ensure the latest Azure capabilities have been considered in every step of your program.

Pre-Migration Assessment

• Conduct comprehensive application and infrastructure inventory; identify on-premises resources that should migrate to cloud.

• Understand corresponding KPIs, align to optimized set of Azure solutions.

• Assess technical dependencies and compatibility requirements.

• Calculate total cost of ownership (TCO) using Azure's updated pricing models.

• Identify compliance and security requirements.

Migration Strategy

• Start with less critical workloads to build expertise.

• Validate migration plan in a staging environment before deploying to production.

• Implement infrastructure as code (IaC) using Azure Resource Manager templates.

• Utilize Azure Landing Zones for standardized deployment.

• Leverage Azure Migrate tools for automated assessment and migration.

Post-Migration Optimization

• Monitor performance metrics and cost optimization opportunities.

• Implement automated scaling based on demand patterns.

• Conduct regular security audits and compliance checks.

• Plan for continuous training for IT staff on new Azure features.

Why 2025 is the Year to Migrate to Azure?

The convergence of expanded compliance tools, performance and cost optimization, operational competitive advantage, and enhanced integration makes 2025 a pivotal year for Azure migration. Organizations that integrate Azure’s capabilities can gain significant advantages in operational efficiency and security, creating a flexible and secure IT organization aligned to supporting business needs, risk management objectives and technological advancement.

Expanded Compliance Tools

Azure's expanded compliance certifications and improved governance tools help organizations meet evolving regulatory requirements more effectively. The platform’s expanded offerings now include region-specific compliance features and automated compliance monitoring.

Performance and Cost Optimization

Azure's enhanced performance and improved cost management tools offer better value for organizations, prompting a re-evaluation of KPIs as well as TCO. The Azure platform now provides more accurate forecasting and automated cost optimization recommendations.

Enhanced Integration

Microsoft's expanded ecosystem integration capabilities make it easier to connect with third-party tools and services. This includes improved support for multi-cloud strategies and hybrid deployments. The trend of multitudes of ecosystem integrations adopted in 2024 is anticipated to continue throughout 2025.

Operational Competitive Advantage

The platform's AI and automation features provide significant competitive advantages in terms of operational efficiency, development timeframes and customer experience. Organizations that delay adoption risk falling behind competitors who are already leveraging Azure's capabilities to drive technology programs and operational efficiency.

How Can Hypershift Assist Your Organization Reach Your Azure Objectives?

Moving to Azure is a rewarding yet very complex migration. Azure cloud migration transforms the organization's critical applications and data into a more agile, optimal, and secure architecture for today and tomorrow. However, understanding the rapidly shifting landscape of Azure’s capabilities, integrations, and cost implications requires a knowledgeable guide to navigate the optimal journey aligned to understanding your organization’s past, present and future needs.

With Hypershift and Azure, organizations have more than the opportunity to retire or re-engineer older applications, or remove standalone security devices that serve little or no use in the cloud, they have the opportunity to open up the IT environment to scale up, adapt, and act autonomously across their platforms based on evolving business need. In addition, migrating to Azure provides leading cybersecurity protection, reducing the risk of application breaches.

Whether organizations are considering a move to the Azure cloud, looking to further their Azure journey, or re-evaluate their cloud computing portfolio and costs, Hypershift, an MSSP specializing in Microsoft M365, Azure, and security, is an ideal consulting and managed services firm for organizations to engage. With successful migrations across every industry, our configurations are valued by our clients for building plans that incorporate the latest capabilities, adapted to meet evolving organizational needs.

Contact us today to schedule a discussion with our Microsoft Azure architects.

‍Security Enhancements:

• Zero Trust architecture tools: 75% reduction in attack surface • 60% faster threat detection • 90% improvement in access control

• Enhanced Azure Active Directory: 99.99% identity service uptime • 80% reduction in password resets • 65% faster user provisioning

• AI-powered threat detection: 95% threat detection accuracy • 85% reduction in false positives • 5-minute average response time

• Advanced data encryption: 100% data encryption at rest • 40% reduced encryption overhead • Zero impact on application performance

Technical Capabilities:

• Improved Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template capabilities: 80% reduction in deployment errors • 60% faster template validation • 40% reduction in template complexity

• Enhanced Azure Arc management: 95% unified resource visibility • 70% faster resource deployment • 55% reduction in management overhead

• New VM series optimization: 40% better price-performance ratio • 65% improved resource utilization • 30% reduction in operating costs

• Advanced networking features: 99.99% network availability • 50% reduced latency • 3x throughput improvement

Enhanced AI Infrastructure:

• Native support for custom LLM deployment with reduced latency: 70% faster model deployment time • 45% reduction in inference costs • 3x improvement in model serving capacity

• Advanced GPU clusters for AI workloads: 85% GPU utilization rate • 60% cost reduction vs. on-premises • 4x faster training speeds

• Automated ML operations with improved orchestration:  90% reduction in manual ML tasks • 75% faster model updates • 50% improvement in model accuracy

• Integration with OpenAI models: 99.9% API availability • 40ms average response time • 65% cost savings vs. direct API usage

How Critical Is Security And Compliance Within The Azure Cloud Environment?

Microsoft Azure provides tools to protect data, applications, and infrastructure. Azure security capabilities allow organizations to deploy the adaptive control needed to meet compliance and regulatory mandates.

These controls include:

• Azure Identity and Access Management support multi-factor authentication (MFA), role-based access control (RBAC), and least privilege assigned to individual or active directory groups.

• Azure supports data security and encryption for data-at-rest and data-in-transit with AES-256 encryption.

• Azure Information Protection provides email encryption.

• Azure Rights Management Systems helps organizations protect intellectual property by applying tags and document labels. This service also monitors content access and usage, looking for high-risk compromises.

• Threat Management capabilities within Azure protect cloud services and virtual machines from malware and DDoS attacks and provide data analysis tools. It also performs scheduled scans against the cloud resources to check for vulnerabilities.

• Azure Compliance provides a dashboard with real-time visibility into your compliance status against several mandates and regulations, including PCI-DSS, ISO 27001, and HIPAA.

What Is Azure Deployment Environments?

Azure Deployment Environments (ADF) offer project-based templates for devs to deploy consistent environments at any development stage, maximizing security and cost efficiency.

• ADF is available across Australia East, Europe West, Japan East, Canada Central, UK South, US East, US East 2, US South Central, and US West 3 East.

• ADFs are easy to create and deploy new environments without the hassle of backend processes. Platform engineers can choose from pre-built templates and spin up self-service environments quickly, with all the configurations applied automatically.

What Is Azure Kubernetes Services?

Deploying Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) applications can be complex but efficient and practical with proper planning and execution. Organizations have different deployment options regarding AKS, including:

Canary: Canary deployment in AKS allows for the slow rolling out of updates to a small group before releasing them to everyone.

Rolling Deployment: Rolling deployment updates an application to a new version without downtime by updating instances one at a time until all are on the latest version, allowing the application to run uninterrupted.

Blue/Green: Blue/green deployment maintains two identical production instances. One environment is primary, and the other is idle.

A/B: A/B deployment, or split testing, involves testing two versions of an app on a small group of users. The better-performing version is then used for everyone.

Managing The Cost Of Azure Cloud

Here are some recommendations to help manage your cost Azure investment:

• Right-size underutilized resources were leveraging Azure Advisor.

• Change your dynamic workflow from a fixed hourly to a pay-as-you-go pricing model.

• Move reserve instances to a pay-as-you-go model instead of a one-year committed contract.

• Organizations must enable auto-scaling to help spin up and spin down resources.

• Ensure you enable the correct Azure Compute Service offering that aligns with your needs. Often, organizations spend way more on computing than what they need.

Planned Azure Updates for 2025

Azure AI and Machine Learning

Advanced Features:

• Next-gen AI acceleration: 2x faster training speeds • 70% reduced energy consumption • 45% lower TCO

• Expanded LLM deployment: 90% deployment automation • 60% reduced operational costs • 3x model serving capacity

• Enhanced AI monitoring: 99% model drift detection • 85% automated remediation • 45-second anomaly detection

Infrastructure and Management

Advanced Features:

• Legacy containerization: 80% reduction in migration time • 65% lower maintenance costs • 50% improved performance

• Hybrid cloud management: 95% resource visibility • 70% automated operations • 40% cost optimization

• Advanced automation: 85% task automation • 60% error reduction • 30-minute average resolution

Advanced Capabilities:

• Compliance automation: 90% automated controls • 75% reduced audit time • 50% lower compliance costs

• Security posture management: 99% threat detection rate • 15-minute response time • 80% automated remediation

• Identity management: 99.999% authentication uptime • 70% reduced access incidents • 5-minute access provisioning

Sustainability Initiatives

Advanced Features:

• Carbon monitoring: 98% measurement accuracy • 40% reduced carbon footprint • Real-time emissions tracking

• Energy efficiency: 45% power reduction • 60% cooling optimization • 30% infrastructure efficiency

• Impact reporting: Daily carbon reporting • 95% measurement coverage • 100% regulatory compliance

Key Vendor Integrations in 2024

Security and Compliance Vendors

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

• Splunk Enterprise Security: Real-time threat detection, AI-powered analytics, custom compliance reporting

• IBM QRadar: Advanced threat hunting, automated response workflows, compliance frameworks

• LogRhythm: Security orchestration, automated response (SOAR), compliance automation

Identity and Access Management

• Okta: Advanced SSO capabilities, lifecycle management, privileged access

• CyberArk: Privileged access security, secrets management, identity security

• SailPoint: Identity governance, access certifications, AI-driven identity security

Compliance Management

• OneTrust: Automated compliance workflows, risk assessment, privacy management

• ServiceNow GRC: Integrated risk management, vendor risk management, policy management

• MetricStream: Compliance management, audit management, regulatory reporting
  

Data Integration and ADF

ETL and Data Integration

• Informatica PowerCenter: Enterprise data integration, real-time processing, data quality

• Talend: Cloud data integration, data quality management, API services

• Qlik: Data integration platform, automated data pipeline management

• Fivetran: Automated data pipeline management, pre-built connectors

Azure Data Factory Extensions

• Melissa Data: Data quality tools, address verification, data enrichment

• Precisely: Data integrity tools, location intelligence, data enrichment

• StreamSets: DataOps platform, data pipeline design, real-time processing

Data Governance

• Collibra: Data catalog, lineage tracking, privacy management

• Alation: Data intelligence platform, active data governance

• erwin: Data modeling, enterprise architecture, business process modeling

Container Security

• Aqua Security: Container scanning, runtime protection, compliance automation

• Twistlock (now part of Palo Alto): Container security platform, vulnerability management

• Snyk: Container vulnerability scanning, license compliance, infrastructure as code security

Container Monitoring and Observability

• Datadog: Container monitoring, APM, security monitoring

• Dynatrace: Full-stack monitoring, AIOps, application security

• New Relic: Kubernetes monitoring, distributed tracing, error tracking

Kubernetes Management

• Rancher: Multi-cluster management, security policies, observability

• VMware Tanzu: Kubernetes operations, application lifecycle management

• Red Hat OpenShift: Enterprise container platform, developer tools, automated operations

Networking and Performance

• Cloudflare: Enhanced edge computing and DDoS protection

• F5 Networks: Advanced application delivery and security

• Akamai: Improved content delivery and edge security

We covered a lot of ground in this post, and we're here to continue the discussion. Contact us below and let's find a good time to chat.