Announcing General Availability of Managed Instance on Azure App Service
Today, we are thrilled to announce the General Availability (GA) of Managed Instance on Azure App Service. Following the tremendous response to our Public Preview announcement at Ignite 2025, we've spent the past nine months working closely with customers, partners, and the community to harden the platform, expand capabilities, and validate real-world enterprise migration scenarios. Managed Instance on Azure App Service is now ready for your production workloads, backed by a full enterprise SLA. The journey from Preview to GA Since November 2025, thousands of customers have used the public preview to move workloads that were previously "stuck" on-premises or on aging Windows Server VMs. The feedback has been unmistakable: Managed Instance on Azure App Service dramatically shortens the path to the cloud for legacy and complex .NET Framework applications often removing the need for code changes entirely. Enterprises across various sectors like financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and the public sector migrated applications that depended on GAC assemblies, COM components, Windows Services, registry configuration, and mapped network drives apps that historically required expensive re-platforming or a full rewrite. With Managed Instance on Azure App Service, these workloads now run on a fully managed PaaS platform, side-by-side with modern cloud-native apps. What's new at GA Building on the preview foundation of configuration scripts, registry adapters, storage mounts, and RDP via Azure Bastion, GA brings several important additions: Production SLA (99.95%) – Full enterprise-grade availability commitment across all supported regions. Expanded regional availability – Available in at least 8 Azure regions worldwide at GA with continued expansion planned through the remainder of 2026. Deeper Premium v4 integration – Managed Instance now takes full advantage of the Premium v4 App Service Plan tier for enhanced performance, memory-optimized SKUs, and improved price-performance. Zone redundancy – Deploy Managed Instance workloads across Availability Zones for higher resiliency without additional configuration effort. Enhanced observability – First-class integration with Azure Monitor, Application Insights, and Log Analytics, including instance-level metrics for CPU, memory and disk. Improved configuration script experience – Faster startup times, richer diagnostics when scripts fail, versioning support for configuration bundles, and streamlined rollback. Managed Identity everywhere – All secrets, storage connections, and Key Vault references at GA use Managed Identity by default, eliminating stored credentials from your deployment pipelines. Azure Policy and Defender for Cloud coverage – Governance, compliance, and threat protection controls now apply to Managed Instance the same way they apply to standard App Service workloads. Bicep, Terraform, and ARM templates – Full IaC support with new resource providers and modules for repeatable, auditable deployments. GitHub Copilot Modernization - Deep Integration with GitHub Copilot modernization for Application assessment targeting Managed Instance on App Service https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/azure/migration/appmod/working-with-assessment Why customers are choosing Managed Instance on Azure App Service The core value proposition remains the same and it's stronger than ever at GA: 1. Lift-and-Improve legacy applications Migrate .NET Framework apps with hardcoded file paths, COM dependencies, GAC entries, or registry access with no major code rewrites. Install custom components directly on the managed instance using configuration scripts. 2. Re-platform hard-to-modernize apps Move applications with lost source code, legacy middleware (MSMQ, SMTP servers, third-party runtimes), or tight infrastructure coupling. Managed Instance removes the blockers that historically forced these apps to stay on VMs. 3. Hybrid and regulated workloads Integrate securely with on-premises resources using VNet integration and private endpoints. Enforce data residency, Bring Your Own Storage, and Managed Identity–backed access controls to meet finance, healthcare, and government compliance requirements. 4. Incremental modernization Start with "lift and Improve" then adopt PaaS features like DevOps automation, autoscaling, deployment slots, and centralized configuration at your own pace. Future-proof your portfolio without a big-bang transformation. What customers are saying During preview, we saw real numbers: Migration timelines cut from months to weeks for apps that would otherwise have required substantial refactoring. Zero code changes for a significant share of preview workloads that previously blocked App Service adoption. Reduced infrastructure footprint as customers consolidated Windows Server VMs onto managed App Service Plans with zone redundancy and autoscaling built in. We are grateful to every preview customer whose feedback shaped this release. Pricing and licensing Managed Instance on Azure App Service is billed as a capability on top of the Premium v4 App Service Plan. There is no separate Managed Instance surcharge at GA you pay for the underlying Premium v4 compute you consume. Existing App Service reservations, savings plans, and any other Azure Benefit all apply, helping you optimize the total cost of ownership as you migrate. Getting started Getting started is straightforward: Assess your workload using Azure Migrate's updated App Service assessment, which now flags candidates ideal for Managed Instance. Create a new Web App using the Managed Instance on Azure App Service option in the Azure Marketplace, or via Bicep, Terraform, or the Azure CLI. Package your dependencies into a configuration bundle (a zip file plus a PowerShell install script) and store it in Azure Storage. Grant access via Managed Identity. Configure registry values, storage mounts, and networking to match your on-premises environment. Deploy your application using the same App Service deployment mechanisms you already know—ZIP deploy, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or Visual Studio publish. Operate with confidence use RDP over Azure Bastion for deep troubleshooting when you need it, and Azure Monitor for everything else. Resources 📘 Managed Instance on Azure App Service documentation 🎥 Technical Deep Dive session recording from Build 2026 🧭 GitHub Repo with sample configuration scripts, webapp and guidance for Managed Instance on App Service workloads Looking ahead GA is a milestone, not a finish line. On our roadmap we're already working on: Deeper integration with Azure Migrate's web app discovery and assessment capabilities to help identify web apps suitable for migration to Managed Instance on App Service Enhanced migration tooling with easier dependency detection and one-click configuration bundle generation. Expanded Rollout to Azure Regions across 2026 and beyond. Continuously Release new features and capabilities to make migrations easier and faster than ever before We can't wait to see what you build and what you migrate. Managed Instance on Azure App Service is here to make your modernization journey faster, simpler, and more secure than ever. Welcome to GA. 🚀 The Azure App Service TeamGoverning a Risk Operations Agent with the Microsoft Agent Framework Harness and AGT
This post walks through combining the Microsoft Agent Framework Harness with the Agent Governance Toolkit (AGT) to build a governed file-access agent. Harness supplies the file_access_* tools (list, read, grep, write, delete, replace); AGT's .WithGovernance() intercepts each tool call and enforces a YAML policy that allows reads but denies writes and deletes — at the execution layer, not just in the prompt. The post covers how Harness assembles a long-running agent from an IChatClient, how context-window compaction works, how to write deny-list vs. allow-list policies, and how to wire governance events into an audit trail. A working .NET 10 sample is included.
A simpler way to deploy ZIP packages to Azure App Service from the Azure portal
We recently introduced a simpler way to deploy applications to Azure App Service for Linux by uploading a ZIP package through Kudu. The experience lets you review the package contents, choose whether to run a server-side build, and follow the deployment through its different stages. This capability is now available directly in the Azure portal through Deployment Center. To use it: Open your Linux web app in the Azure portal. Go to Deployment Center. Select Manual Deployment (Push). Choose Publish files (new) as the source. Drag and drop your ZIP file or select Browse files. You can now upload and deploy your application without navigating separately to the Kudu site. This is useful for getting started, testing an application, or performing an occasional manual deployment. For repeatable production deployments, we recommend configuring a CI/CD pipeline. To learn more about the deployment experience, including package preview, build options, progress tracking, and deployment logs, see our previous post: A simpler way to deploy your code to Azure App Service for Linux | Microsoft Community HubAnnouncing public preview: Markdown for Agents in Azure App Service
Why Markdown for Agents? Web pages often contain scripts, styles, and HTML markup that are useful to browsers but add noise when the content is sent to an AI model. Markdown for Agents removes that extra markup and returns a smaller, text-focused response that is easier for agents to process and can reduce token usage. In internal testing across more than 637,000 pages, converted Markdown responses were 97 percent smaller at the median than the source HTML, with a median conversion time of 2 milliseconds. Results vary based on the page and its content. Public preview availability Markdown for Agents is available in public preview for Windows apps on Azure App Service in all public regions. The app must use an App Service plan in the Basic tier or higher. No additional authentication setup is required for Markdown conversion. Your app's existing authentication, authorization, and network access controls continue to apply. This feature is only supported on Windows App Service at this time. Support for Linux apps will come later this year. Enable Markdown for Agents During the public preview, you can enable the feature through the REST API, ARM/Bicep template, or the Azure CLI using az rest . Dedicated Azure CLI commands and portal support are planned for a future update. Azure CLI with az rest Replace the placeholders with your subscription ID, resource group, and app name: az rest --method patch --url "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/<SUBSCRIPTION_ID>/resourceGroups/<RESOURCE_GROUP>/providers/Microsoft.Web/sites/<APP_NAME>?api-version=2026-03-15" --headers "Content-Type=application/json" --body '{"properties":{"aiIntegration":{"markdown":{"enabled":true}}}}' Verify the setting: az rest --method get --url "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/<SUBSCRIPTION_ID>/resourceGroups/<RESOURCE_GROUP>/providers/Microsoft.Web/sites/<APP_NAME>?api-version=2026-03-15" --query "properties.aiIntegration.markdown" To disable the feature, send the same PATCH request with enabled set to false . ARM template Add the following property to your Microsoft.Web/sites resource using API version 2026-03-15 : "properties": { "aiIntegration": { "markdown": { "enabled": true } } } Bicep resource webApp 'Microsoft.Web/sites@2026-03-15' = { name: appName location: location properties: { serverFarmId: appServicePlanResourceId aiIntegration: { markdown: { enabled: true } } } } Request a Markdown response After enabling the feature, request an HTML page from your app with the Accept: text/markdown header: curl -i -H "Accept: text/markdown" "https://<APP_NAME>.azurewebsites.net/" A successfully converted response includes these headers: Content-Type: text/markdown; charset=utf-8 x-markdown-source: easy-markdown The response body contains Markdown generated from the page's HTML. Common content such as headings, paragraphs, links, lists, images, emphasis, and code is preserved, while script and style content is removed. Pages that cannot be safely converted may return their original HTML. Clients should check the Content-Type and x-markdown-source response headers before processing the response as Markdown. What's next Linux support is planned before the feature reaches general availability. We also plan to add dedicated Azure CLI commands and a portal experience in future updates. Share your feedback Try Markdown for Agents with your Windows App Service apps and let us know how it works for your agent scenarios. Share feedback, questions, and feature requests in the comments below.CDK Global modernizes automotive CRM on Azure SQL Managed Instance
For automotive retailers, most customer relationships don't begin and end with a vehicle purchase. A customer might browse inventory online, visit a dealership weeks later, return for service months after that, and eventually purchase another vehicle years down the road. Every interaction creates information that helps dealerships better understand their customers and build stronger relationships over time. Helping dealerships manage those relationships is at the core of the CDK CRM platform. CDK is a leading provider of cloud-based software to dealerships and OEMs across automotive and related industries in the US and Canada, helping facilitate more than $540 billion in annual automotive commerce. It gives dealership teams visibility into customer interactions with their products and services and creates continuity across the conversations that shape the buying journey. As customer expectations evolve, CDK continues to look for new ways to help dealerships work more efficiently, make better use of information, and adapt quickly to market changes. Supporting that next phase of innovation required a technology foundation that could grow alongside the business. Working with Microsoft, CDK evolved its CRM platform on Microsoft Azure and Azure SQL Managed Instance. The project included a large migration to Azure SQL Managed Instance and marked an important step in the future of the CRM experience. Transforming a business-critical system at scale The size of the project reflected how central the CRM platform is to CDK’s business. The environment supports a broad set of applications for dealership operations and relies on a robust data foundation to keep information flowing. Microsoft and CDK worked together to implement a cloud architecture built on Azure App Service and Azure SQL Managed Instance. Additional Azure services support application delivery, networking, and data movement across the architecture. The teams developed a Terraform-based infrastructure-as-code framework that standardizes how environments are deployed and managed. That foundation brings greater consistency to the development process. Engineering teams can work within environments that are configured in a predictable way, reducing the likelihood of unexpected differences between testing and production. The project also provided an opportunity to strengthen security and governance practices. CDK updated applications to use managed identities, reducing reliance on static credentials, and implemented Microsoft Entra ID authentication and private connectivity patterns that help secure access to critical resources. While dealership users may not see these changes directly, they help deliver the stability and security that customers expect from the platform. Preserving continuity while moving to the cloud As CDK evaluated its cloud strategy, the database layer became one of the most important decisions in the project. The CRM platform supports business-critical dealership operations throughout the day. Customer interactions, sales activity, and service records all depend on information moving quickly and reliably between systems. Any technology transformation would need to preserve that experience while creating a path to future growth. Azure SQL Managed Instance stood out because it offered a familiar SQL Server environment while reducing much of the operational overhead associated with managing database infrastructure. It also aligned well with CDK’s long-term goals around resiliency, scalability, and continuous innovation. Equally important, Azure SQL Managed Instance provided a migration path that worked with the realities of the CRM environment. “One of the reasons Azure SQL Managed Instance appealed to us was that it allowed us to innovate without redesigning the CRM platform from the ground up,” says Stan Leong, Vice President of Modern Retailing Engineering at CDK. “We could preserve compatibility with the applications our dealerships depend on while taking advantage of a fully managed cloud service.” Unlike some projects that can move applications gradually, the CDK CRM platform required a coordinated transition. The databases that support the platform are highly interconnected, which meant the company needed an approach that would allow the environment to move together while minimizing disruption for customers. To prepare for that transition, CDK and Microsoft used Azure SQL Managed Instance link to establish near real-time replication between environments. This allowed teams to begin validating the migration long before the production cutover. Engineers could confirm that data was flowing correctly, identify potential issues, and gain confidence in the process before dealerships were ever affected. The approach also gave CDK an added layer of flexibility during the transition period. Rather than making a one-way move, the company could maintain a rollback option while teams validated production operations in Azure. Because Azure SQL Managed Instance link kept environments synchronized, CDK retained the ability to fail back to its on-premises environment if needed while preserving continuity for dealership operations. After failing over to Azure, the company continued running with synchronized environments for more than four weeks, allowing teams to validate production workloads before completing the final cutover. Executing a migration measured in terabytes That preparation became especially important because the migration would take place during a single maintenance window. By establishing synchronization ahead of time, CDK was able to keep data aligned between environments before the failover to Azure. When migration time arrived, production data was already synchronized in Azure, allowing the maintenance event to focus on transitioning operations rather than moving large volumes of data for the first time. Planning and architecture work that led to the migration spanned several months. The final migration preparation and validation effort was completed in just six weeks, with engineers working together to test migration scenarios, optimize replication performance, and validate data consistency ahead of production. CDK migrated more than 1,000 databases and hundreds of terabytes of data to Azure SQL Managed Instance. The environment now processes billions of database queries every day. The failover to Azure was completed during a single weekend with minimal failover time and no data loss. In many cases, database failovers completed in seconds, with most finishing within minutes. Microsoft engineering, product, support, and field teams remained engaged throughout the event, working alongside CDK to monitor the transition and address issues in real time. “This was one of the most significant technology initiatives we’ve undertaken for our CRM platform,” says Leong. “Working closely with Microsoft, we migrated more than 1,000 databases to Azure SQL Managed Instance while supporting dealerships throughout the process. The collaboration between our teams helped us execute the transition with minimal disruption to customers.” Strengthening reliability for dealership operations Delivering more than a new cloud environment, the migration also gave CDK an opportunity to evolve the CRM platform operations. As part of this effort, CDK implemented resilience architecture built on Azure. The design incorporates Azure Front Door, geo-redundant storage, and Azure SQL Managed Instance failover capabilities, allowing the company to maintain continuity when unexpected disruptions occur. These improvements rarely attract attention when everything is working as expected, but they help the platform remain available when it matters most. Since the migration, CDK has heard positive feedback from dealerships that report faster and more responsive application experiences. Preparing dealerships for what’s next With the CRM platform now running on Azure, CDK is focused on the next phase of its CRM strategy. Beyond supporting today’s dealership operations, the cloud-based foundation gives the company greater flexibility to introduce new functionality and continue advancing the platform over time. AI capabilities are already helping dealership employees surface relevant information at the right moment while reducing the effort required to complete routine tasks. And AI is accelerating software development and deployment, enabling engineering teams to deliver new capabilities more efficiently. CDK is also investing in new reporting experiences designed to make insights easier to access. Dealerships generate enormous amounts of data, but its value depends on how quickly users can find relevant information and act on it. The CRM migration has become an important reference point for future platform initiatives across the organization. By successfully moving a business-critical platform at this scale, CDK established a blueprint for future cloud initiatives. “The migration was an important milestone, but it’s really the starting point,” says Leong. “With Azure and Azure SQL Managed Instance, our teams can focus more energy on delivering new capabilities for dealerships while using AI to power experiences that help customers operate more efficiently.”
