Microsoft brings new services to Azure in the UK

Three months ago, we reported that Microsoft Azure and Office 365 became available from UK data centers.  Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it has expanded on this availability of Azure in the UK by bringing several new services to the region.

Topping the list of new services is SQL Server Stretch Database, which Microsoft believes is “cost effective and can migrate your cold data transparently and securely to the Microsoft Azure cloud.” Second is Azure Functions, which is a solution for “easily running small pieces of code in the cloud.” Third up is Power BI, which Microsoft describes as, “a cloud-based business analytics service that enables anyone to connect to, visualize, and analyze data with greater speed, efficiency, and understanding.”

The fourth new service is Power BI embedded, which “enables application developers to embed stunning, fully interactive reports and visualizations in customer-facing apps without the time and expense of having to build custom controls from the ground up.” Other new services include:

• Azure DocumentDB: Azure DocumentDB is a fully managed NoSQL database service built for fast and predictable performance, high availability, elastic scaling, global distribution, and ease of development. As a schema-free NoSQL database, DocumentDB provides rich and familiar SQL query capabilities with consistent low latencies on JSON data
• Azure DevTest Labs:  Azure Devtest Labs is a service that helps developers and testers quickly create environments in Azure while minimizing waste and controlling cost. The goal for this service is to solve the problems that IT and development teams have been facing: delays in getting a working environment, time-consuming environment configuration, production fidelity issues, and high maintenance costs.

Are you an Azure Customer in the UK? What are your thoughts on these services becoming available in the region? As always, please do let us know what you think by dropping us a comment below!