Microsoft Launches Hosted Agents in Foundry Agent Service Public Preview

Microsoft has introduced hosted agents in Microsoft Foundry Agent Service, now available in public preview. The goal is to simplify how developers build and run production-grade AI agents without managing infrastructure.

Fully managed AI agents with stronger isolation

Hosted agents run inside dedicated VM-level environments rather than standard containers. Each session operates in its own sandbox with persistent storage and identity, delivering stronger isolation through hypervisor-level security.

Microsoft takes care of hosting, scaling, identity, and security. This removes the need for developers to configure or maintain backend systems.

Persistent sessions and efficient scaling

Each agent session keeps its full state, including files, disk data, and identity. Developers can resume work without losing context, which makes long-running or stateful agents easier to manage.

The system also ensures predictable startup times and automatically scales to zero when idle. This improves efficiency while keeping costs under control.

Broad framework and model support

Hosted agents integrate with multiple frameworks, including LangGraph, Microsoft Agent Framework, OpenAI Agents SDK, Claude Agent SDK, and GitHub Copilot SDK. Developers can use familiar tools without changing their workflow.

The platform remains model-agnostic, supporting providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Mistral AI. This flexibility allows teams to choose models based on performance, cost, or specific use cases.

Built-in memory and enterprise controls

Microsoft has added a built-in memory service that allows agents to retain long-term context across sessions. This removes the need for external databases and simplifies architecture.

Additional features include unified tool management, OAuth passthrough, private networking through VNet, and versioned deployments. These controls help organizations manage updates safely while maintaining security standards.

Why this matters

Hosted agents represent a shift from experimental AI projects to production-ready systems. Developers can now deploy reliable, stateful agents without dealing with infrastructure complexity.

Microsoft is positioning Foundry as a central hub for enterprise AI development, combining security, persistence, and scalability into a single platform.

With hosted agents, Microsoft moves AI development toward real-world deployment at scale. The platform focuses on making agents reliable, secure, and easy to run in enterprise environments.

In other news, GPT-image-2 is now available in Foundry, and Claude Opus 4.7 was added recently.

Via Neowin