Azure New Capabilities–Red Hat goes GA, Container Services and much more

Red Hat Enterprise Linux images generally available through Azure Marketplace

Pricing | Use Red Hat solutions on Azure webpage
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, now available in all regions, is offered on a pay-as-you-go model, with per-hour billing. Red Hat and Microsoft also allow Red Hat Enterprise Linux customers on Azure to connect directly to the Red Hat Customer Portal for access to knowledge base articles, reference architectures, and product information, as well as to open support cases directly with Red Hat.

Azure Hybrid Use Benefit generally available

Moving to the cloud is a journey many customers take in hybrid mode. That’s why we created the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit. Now Windows Server customers can run Windows virtual machines (VMs) on Azure at a cheaper rate, for significant cost savings. Customers must have Software Assurance for Windows Server to use this benefit. For more information, please visit the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit webpage.

SQL Server Stretch Database in public preview

Pricing | Stretch Database webpage
With SQL Server Stretch Database, you can dynamically stretch warm and cold transactional data from SQL Server 2016 to Azure. Unlike cold data storage, your data is always available. Stretch Database enables you to maintain longer data retention timelines without overspending. Choose a level based on how often you’ll access the data, then scale up or down as needed. Using Stretch Database doesn’t require any application changes, and you can use Always Encrypted with Stretch Database to extend data more securely.

Azure Container Service in public preview

Pricing | Container Service webpage
Azure Container Service helps you to use Docker images and Linux containers in a production environment, providing management and orchestration at scale while supporting the same tools and technologies for building and deployment that you already use for your containerized applications. You select the size and number of hosts, choice of orchestrator, and then Container Service manages the details. Container Service offers you a choice of tools for container orchestration and scale operations: you can choose Docker Swarm and Compose for a native container experience, or Apache Mesos and popular Mesos frameworks for flexible deployment and management of large production workloads.

SSL Hosting (Bindings) for Azure App Service pricing changes

Pricing | App Service webpage
Azure App Service customers can now enjoy free Server Name Indication (SNI) SSL connections for Basic, Standard, and Premium service plans. There are no changes to IP SSL connection prices.

Google Widevine modular license delivery generally available in Azure Media Services

Pricing | Media Services webpage
Using a single H.264 encoded multibitrate MP4, you can now apply common encryption (CENC) with either Widevine or Microsoft PlayReady to help protect your premium content. You can also configure an easy, pay-as-you-go Widevine license service in Azure Media Services. With Azure Media Player, you can play back Widevine-protected content using Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) on Chrome and Android devices with HTML5 video. For more information, please read the Announcing Google Widevine license delivery services public preview in Azure Media Services blog post.