December 1, 2021 3 min read

Azure 2021 Year in Review: The Platform That Kept Evolving

As we enter December, it’s time to reflect on an extraordinary year for Azure. From new services to significant enhancements, 2021 has been a year of rapid innovation. Let’s recap the highlights that shaped the Azure landscape.

The Big Announcements

Azure Arc Expansion

Azure Arc matured significantly this year, extending Azure management to on-premises, multi-cloud, and edge environments:

# Connect a Kubernetes cluster to Azure Arc
az connectedk8s connect \
    --name myArcCluster \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --location eastus

# Verify the connection
az connectedk8s show \
    --name myArcCluster \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup

Arc-enabled data services brought Azure SQL and PostgreSQL Hyperscale to any infrastructure, a game-changer for hybrid scenarios.

Azure Synapse Analytics GA

Synapse moved from preview to general availability, unifying data integration, enterprise data warehousing, and big data analytics:

-- Serverless SQL pool querying Delta Lake
SELECT
    product_category,
    SUM(revenue) as total_revenue,
    COUNT(DISTINCT customer_id) as unique_customers
FROM OPENROWSET(
    BULK 'https://datalake.dfs.core.windows.net/sales/delta/',
    FORMAT = 'DELTA'
) AS sales
WHERE year = 2021
GROUP BY product_category
ORDER BY total_revenue DESC;

Azure Purview GA

Data governance became a first-class citizen with Azure Purview’s general availability:

from azure.purview.catalog import PurviewCatalogClient
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential

credential = DefaultAzureCredential()
client = PurviewCatalogClient(
    endpoint="https://mypurview.purview.azure.com",
    credential=credential
)

# Search for sensitive data assets
search_request = {
    "keywords": "customer",
    "filter": {
        "classification": ["MICROSOFT.PERSONAL.EMAIL", "MICROSOFT.PERSONAL.NAME"]
    }
}
results = client.discovery.query(search_request=search_request)

Infrastructure Innovations

Azure Confidential Computing

Confidential computing expanded with new VM sizes and attestation capabilities:

using Azure.Security.Attestation;

var attestationClient = new AttestationClient(
    new Uri("https://myattestation.eus.attest.azure.net"),
    new DefaultAzureCredential()
);

// Attest an SGX enclave
var attestationResult = await attestationClient.AttestSgxEnclaveAsync(
    new AttestSgxEnclaveRequest(enclaveReport, runtimeData)
);

Azure Kubernetes Service Updates

AKS received continuous improvements throughout the year:

# AKS cluster with new 2021 features
apiVersion: containerservice.azure.com/v1api20210501
kind: ManagedCluster
metadata:
  name: aks-2021-cluster
spec:
  agentPoolProfiles:
    - name: system
      count: 3
      vmSize: Standard_DS2_v2
      mode: System
      enableEncryptionAtHost: true
  networkProfile:
    networkPlugin: azure
    networkPolicy: calico
  securityProfile:
    azureDefender:
      enabled: true

AI and Machine Learning Advances

Azure Cognitive Services and Azure Machine Learning saw significant updates:

from azure.ai.formrecognizer import DocumentAnalysisClient
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential

# New Document Intelligence (Form Recognizer) capabilities
client = DocumentAnalysisClient(
    endpoint="https://myformrecognizer.cognitiveservices.azure.com/",
    credential=DefaultAzureCredential()
)

# Analyze invoices with pre-built model
with open("invoice.pdf", "rb") as invoice:
    poller = client.begin_analyze_document("prebuilt-invoice", invoice)
    result = poller.result()

for document in result.documents:
    vendor_name = document.fields.get("VendorName")
    invoice_total = document.fields.get("InvoiceTotal")
    print(f"Vendor: {vendor_name.value}, Total: {invoice_total.value}")

What Made 2021 Special

Hybrid First: Azure Arc made it clear that Microsoft sees hybrid as the future
Data Unification: Synapse Analytics brought together disparate data technologies
Governance Maturity: Purview addressed the growing need for data governance
AI Democratization: Cognitive Services made AI accessible to all developers

Looking Ahead to 2022

Trends to watch:

Continued expansion of Azure Arc capabilities
Deeper Synapse and Power BI integration
More responsible AI tooling
Serverless everything

2021 was a transformative year for Azure. The platform’s evolution from IaaS-focused to a comprehensive cloud platform is complete, and 2022 promises even more innovation.