As we open the doors to Microsoft Build 2025, I’m thrilled to share the newest releases in our effort to enable teams to more rapidly develop and scale applications across boundaries: app development tools for Kubernetes (public preview), Kubernetes AI Toolchain Orchestrator [KAITO] (public preview), Foundry Local (public preview), workload orchestration (public preview) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) capabilities on Azure Local (public preview).
With our adaptive cloud approach, we offer a unified set of capabilities to enable your AI applications—whether they’re deployed to the public cloud, in hybrid environments, or at distributed edge locations. These capabilities include tools developers use every day, such as Visual Studio Code, to help build AI applications faster, better, and with greater security and resilience than ever before.
Microsoft's Adaptive cloud approach to more rapidly developing and scaling applications across boundaries
These new additions complement existing capabilities from Azure Arc for Kubernetes and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) enabled by Azure Arc, that support the hosting of containerized workloads, now with key capabilities designed to help expedite the creation of AI applications from model selection to edge-ready cluster provisioning (with GPU nodes), automated model deployment, lifecycle management and more. By combining KAITO with Azure Arc and Foundry Local in your workflow, Microsoft provides you with a more unified, flexible platform for building and running intelligent applications across boundaries. Learn more about our Arc-enabled AI story here.
To help accelerate your adoption of cloud-native capabilities in distributed environments, Kubernetes-based app development tools extend essential services—such as container storage and secrets synchronization—to edge-located clusters. And we plan to expand this set of services in the future. This integration simplifies the deployment and management of applications across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. By unifying infrastructure and application lifecycle management, it empowers teams to move faster while maintaining consistency, security, and visibility.
More details on each of these releases below. Here’s a glimpse of what they can mean for you, your workflow and your company.
Many of these services are already making a difference for application teams at customers like Domino’s, Coles, Chevron, and Dick’s Sporting Goods. Providing them with greater speed and agility, as they build the solutions their customers and teams need.
As customers continue to modernize their applications across hybrid, multi-cloud and distributed environments, many rely on trusted solutions from independent software vendors (ISVs). This is designed to help accelerate this journey—enabling partners to build, validate, and publish Arc-enabled Kubernetes applications directly to the Azure Marketplace.
Building on the momentum from our initial launch at last year's Ignite, I'm excited to introduce a new wave of partner solutions to the Azure Arc ISV Partner Program. This latest expansion brings not only new partners, but also entirely new solution categories to the Azure Marketplace—including Security, Networking & Service Mesh, API Infrastructure & Management, and Monitoring & Observability.
With just a few clicks, customers can now deploy enterprise-grade tools like HashiCorp Vault Enterprise, Istio by Solo.io, Traefik’s API stack, and Dynatrace Operator directly onto their Arc-enabled Kubernetes clusters. These additions to the Azure Arc ISV Partner Program reflect our commitment to supporting the full spectrum of cloud-native application needs.
Explore the growing ecosystem of Arc-enabled solutions in the Azure Marketplace.
RELEASES
Here’s a recap of some of our newest feature releases that support our Adaptive cloud approach.
App development tools for Kubernetes | Public Preview
Kubernetes clusters enabled by Azure Arc helps power our adaptive cloud strategy. We are extending a set of fundamental, services that are fully validated, managed and deployed by Arc. The initial set of these services includes Azure Container Storage enabled by Azure Arc and Azure Key Vault . In the future we will be expanding and adding more of these foundational services. In addition, a Visual Studio Code extension is available for developers to kick start Kubernetes application development and turn their Kubernetes apps into Arc-enabled applications. This toolkit provides code samples and an environment to build, test and deploy Kubernetes applications.
Figure 1: app development tools for Kubernetes in Azure Arc
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) capabilities on Azure Local | Public Preview
Edge RAG on Azure Local is a is a turnkey service, Azure Arc-enabled solution that brings Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) capabilities to on-premises environments. It can help customers to build, evaluate, and deploy generative AI applications—like custom chat assistants—directly on their local data, without sending it to the cloud. This release is especially valuable for industries like manufacturing and healthcare, where data sovereignty, low latency, and IP protection are important. By supporting customer local deployment of language models, more secure data ingestion, and built-in tools for prompt engineering and evaluation, these capabilities help empower organizations to unlock AI insights while maintaining more control over their data.
KAITO extension for AKS on Azure Local | Public Preview
Kubernetes AI Toolchain Operator (KAITO) enabled by Azure Arc is designed to help simplify and scale AI model deployment across hybrid and edge environments. It enables developers to declaratively deploy AI models—whether from Microsoft’s AI Foundry, third-party hubs like Hugging Face, or customer-provided sources—on Arc-enabled Kubernetes clusters. It helps customers bring cloud-native AI capabilities to the edge, enable low-latency inference, more consistent lifecycle management, and operational control across diverse infrastructure.
Try it out today using the “KAITO & AKS Arc” Jumpstart Drop!
Figure 2: Deploy AI models on AKS in hybrid and edge environments using KAITO
Workload orchestration | Public Preview
Workload orchestration provides a centralized, template-driven platform for managing application configurations across distributed edge environments. It enables IT teams to define reusable templates, manage interdependent applications, and enforce custom validation rules—both built-in and external. It also includes integrated monitoring, a no-code authoring portal with RBAC, and CLI support for automation and CI/CD integration. Workload orchestration simplifies complex edge deployments by unifying configuration management and governance, empowering teams to scale faster with consistency, security, and flexibility.
Foundry Local | Public Preview
Foundry Local is the high-performance local AI runtime stack that helps bring Azure AI Foundry’s power to client devices. It includes CLI, SDK, and a local REST API for model inference, and integrates with the Azure AI Foundry catalog for model access and deployment. It can help provide performance optimizations for Windows and Apple Silicon, and the SDK enables code portability between local and cloud environments. Foundry Local, now available in preview on Windows and macOS, enables the creation and deployment of cross-platform AI applications that help operate models, tools, and agents directly on-device. This eliminates reliance on cloud connectivity and offers more enhanced control and flexibility.
FIND US AT BUILD
- Breakout session (BRK188): Build and Scale your AI apps with Kubernetes and Azure Arc
- Breakout session (BRK183): Improving App Health with Health Modeling and Chaos Engineering
- Breakout session (BRK 195): Inside Azure innovations with Mark Russinovich
- Breakout session (BRK 168): AI and Agent Observability in Azure AI Foundry and Azure Monitor
You can also come talk to us about building, deploying and managing applications for the Adaptive cloud at the Expert Meet Up Area. Whether you are tuning in online or joining us in person, I wish you a fun and exciting Build 2025!!
Microsoft