Partner Blog | Building AI-ready applications on open, enterprise-grade Azure platforms
Microsoft Build 2026 reinforced a practical reality for organizations moving from AI experimentation to production: AI is only as strong as the foundation it runs on. Customers need modern databases, governed data, secure infrastructure, and developer experiences that can carry performing AI-enabled applications at scale into production with confidence. The public preview announcements of Azure HorizonDB and Azure Linux, along with the general availability of Azure Container Linux, show how Microsoft is investing in open platforms, developer ecosystems, and enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure for AI-ready applications. These announcements also point to a broader shift: open source has become a strategic foundation for enterprise modernization, innovation, and strategic growth. These announcements give partners a straightforward way to connect customer AI goals to the open, secure, enterprise-ready platforms needed for production. They also create timely opportunities to engage customers on data modernization, AI-ready application development, secure infrastructure, and cloud-native operations. What was announced at Build 2026 Azure HorizonDB: A new standard for AI-native, enterprise PostgreSQL Azure HorizonDB enters public preview as a new PostgreSQL cloud database service engineered for performance, scale, and modern AI-powered application needs. For business leaders thinking about data strategy, this is significant. Organizations are under pressure to modernize legacy databases and support intelligent applications without sacrificing resilience, governance, or developer productivity. Azure HorizonDB is designed to address those priorities with a platform that can scale storage automatically for large enterprise workloads, scale compute across primary and replica nodes, and bring AI-native capabilities directly into the database layer. What stands out is that Azure HorizonDB gives enterprises a way to simplify architecture while also accelerating innovation. Features such as advanced filtered vector search, in-database AI model management, Microsoft Entra ID integration, and GitHub Copilot integration through the PostgreSQL extension for Visual Studio Code position it as more than a database modernization story. Developers can use Microsoft 365 Copilot with live database context to generate schema-aware SQL, explore database structures, analyze and rewrite queries, and build against HorizonDB-specific capabilities without leaving Visual Studio Code. It is designed to bring together open-source PostgreSQL, enterprise security, AI readiness, and a more integrated developer experience in a single managed service. For business leaders, that can create a faster path from data estate modernization to measurable business outcomes. In Microsoft internal testing environments, Azure HorizonDB performed three times faster than self-managed PostgreSQL. For partners, the announcement creates an opportunity to engage customers in PostgreSQL modernization, intelligent application architecture, migration planning, performance optimization, and AI-enabled development. Azure Linux: Open-source infrastructure at enterprise scale The Azure Linux public preview announcement is meaningful for leaders focused on cloud efficiency, security, and platform consistency. Linux is already foundational to modern digital infrastructure, and two-thirds of customer cores in Azure run Linux. Now Azure Linux provides a first-party Linux distribution, purpose-built for Azure, and is available for Azure virtual machines (VMs), VM scale sets, and container images. We also announced Azure Container Linux (ACL), a secure, immutable container host designed to help platform teams run Kubernetes workloads at scale on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). By bringing Azure Linux forward as a more visible first-party platform choice, Microsoft is giving organizations a cloud-native operating system designed for modern workloads, including virtual machines (VMs), containers, and AI infrastructure. This matters because infrastructure choices increasingly shape agility, security posture, and operating cost. Azure Linux reflects the Microsoft focus on secure-by-default design, consistent servicing, and tighter alignment between the operating system and the Azure platform. For enterprises, that can translate into simpler operations and a more predictable foundation for cloud-native applications. These announcements reinforce what the Microsoft partner ecosystem and customer usage have shown for years: open-source infrastructure is foundational to Microsoft cloud strategy, as more than 65% of customer cores in Azure run Linux. Continue reading blog hereUnlocking the Human Telemetry Layer for Safer Industrial Operations
What if we could track human health & safety conditions as precisely as we do with machines, and take immediate actions to protect our greatest asset, our people? Many industrial organizations still lack visibility into real-time human conditions, even as worker safety and operational risk remain major investment priorities. One of the most important operational signals has largely remained outside the industrial data estate: the human telemetry. VOORMI and Microsoft have joined forces to fill this gap in understanding real human conditions. Through the Mij™ platform, VOORMI brings human telemetry into Azure IoT, enabling enterprises to integrate worker conditions such as heat stress and fatigue into the same operational architecture already used for machines and industrial systems. VOORMI, SWNR’s performance apparel brand, is among the first to bring this technology into garments designed for real industrial field conditions. This integration brings their proprietary wearable technology directly into high-impact worker safety and field operations scenarios. The partnership helps establish a new telemetry layer for industrial operations, allowing human, machine, and environmental signals to converge and drive safer operations, real-time awareness, and adaptive AI workflows. Bringing the Human Signal into Industrial AI with Azure Industrial organizations increasingly recognize that many safety, productivity, and operational challenges occur at the intersection of people and machines. Workers operate in high-heat environments, hazardous conditions, remote sites, and physically demanding field scenarios where situational awareness matters in real time. Historically, worker telemetry has remained fragmented across proprietary wearable platforms and disconnected safety systems, creating governance and operational challenges for enterprise IT and OT teams. Mij™ is designed differently, integrating directly into customer-controlled Azure environments through Azure IoT Operations running at the edge or Azure IoT Hub in the cloud rather than introducing another isolated platform. Running intelligence at the edge enables virtual safety agents and operational workflows to execute closer to the worker, supporting low-latency responses, local interaction with OT systems, and operational resilience even in disconnected or bandwidth-constrained environments. This gives enterprises flexibility to support real-time worker safety responses at the edge while also enabling long-term analytics, reporting, and operational intelligence through Microsoft Fabric. Telemetry from garment-integrated sensors flows through edge gateways into Azure services including Azure IoT Operations, Azure Data Explorer, Azure Managed Grafana, and Microsoft Fabric. The result is a unified operational environment where worker telemetry can live beside machine, site, and environmental data under the customer’s existing identity, security, governance, and analytics model. The vision is simple and transformative: make human telemetry a trusted, first-class industrial data source. Azure Digital Operations as the Intelligence Layer The reference architecture demonstrates how Azure IoT Operations can serve as a scalable operational intelligence layer for worker safety and connected operations scenarios across manufacturing, energy, and field environments. Mij™-enabled garments broadcast Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) telemetry that can be processed locally through edge gateways and routed into Azure IoT Operations using MQTT and dataflows. Data is then operationalized through Azure Data Explorer and visualized using Azure Managed Grafana dashboards for field operations, worker safety, fleet health, gateway monitoring, and operational readiness scenarios. Telemetry can also be made available to Foundry Local-hosted GenAI agents to support real-time, context aware safety guidance, such as prompting workers operating in high-heat conditions to hydrate or seek cooler environments. While Mij™-enabled garments are the initial implementation, the edge device-to-cloud architecture creates a broader onboarding point for additional wearable, sensor, and field telemetry scenarios over time. This allows enterprises to bring more human and operational signals into a unified Azure-native operational environment. The architecture also supports flexible ingestion patterns for environments where dedicated edge gateways are not practical. Using Microsoft Entra External ID, Azure Container Apps, and Azure IoT Hub, telemetry can securely flow into Azure services without exposing operational infrastructure credentials to client devices. This pattern aligns with the broader Azure adaptive cloud approach: enabling customers to run distributed edge-native services on Arc-enabled Kubernetes infrastructure while maintaining centralized security, governance, and analytics capabilities across the enterprise. Depending on customer architecture preferences, telemetry can be processed through Azure IoT Operations at the edge or ingested directly through Azure IoT Hub for cloud-first analytics and downstream processing in services such as Microsoft Fabric. Edge processing also enables real-time sensor fusion across worker telemetry, ambient environmental conditions, machine parameters, and site-level operational signals, supporting faster safety interventions and more context-aware operational decisions. This gives enterprises flexibility in how they balance edge processing, operational responsiveness, governance and privacy requirements. Enabling the Next Generation of Industrial Workflows The long-term opportunity extends well beyond visualization dashboards. As worker telemetry becomes part of the operational fabric, enterprises can begin building more adaptive and intelligent workflows across worker safety, field readiness, incident response, compliance, environmental monitoring, and industrial AI systems. Human telemetry can provide critical real-time context that complements machine and environmental signals enabling more responsive operations and eventually more autonomous decision-support experiences. By bringing human telemetry into enterprise AI and analytics workflows, organizations can build more adaptive operational systems that improve worker safety, situational awareness, and real-time decision making at scale. This partnership reflects a broader industry shift: industrial transformation is no longer only about connected machines. It is about connected operations where people, equipment, environments, and AI systems participate in a shared operational intelligence layer. With SWNR’s Mij™platform and Azure IoT Operations, Microsoft and VOORMI are helping unlock that future. Learn more: Mij™ product page: https://swnrtechnologies.com/pages/mij Learn more about Azure IoT Operations: Documentation & Getting Started See what’s new with Azure IoT Hub: Preview Documentation To get started with a pilot, contact: pilots@swnrtechnologies.comGitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing
Instead of counting premium requests, every Copilot plan will include a monthly allotment of GitHub AI Credits, with the option for paid plans to purchase additional usage. Usage will be calculated based on token consumption, including input, output, and cached tokens, using the listed API rates for each model. This change aligns Copilot pricing with actual usage and is an important step toward a sustainable, reliable Copilot business and experience for all users. Learn more here and access partner resources here. APAC Office hours link – May 6, 7:00 PM — 8:00 PM PDT EMEA/AMER Office hours link – May 7, 8:00 AM — 9:00 AM PDT
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Learn how Microsoft Marketplace can help organizations streamline cloud procurement, optimize spend visibility, and simplify software purchasing through a FinOps-driven approach. This upcoming Microsoft Marketplace customer office hours session explores how partners and customers can leverage Marketplace capabilities to align cloud investments with business outcomes, improve operational efficiency, and maximize the value of Azure consumption commitments. Read the full event details and see why this session is valuable for organizations focused on cloud financial management, procurement modernization, and Marketplace growth strategies. 👉 Register Here: Microsoft Marketplace as a FinOps platform - Microsoft Marketplace customer office hours
Driving AI‑Powered Healthcare: A Data & AI Webinar and Workshop Series
Across these sessions, you’ll learn how healthcare organizations are using Microsoft Fabric, advanced analytics, and AI to unify fragmented data, modernize analytics, and enable intelligent, scalable solutions, from enterprise reporting to AI‑powered use cases. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to accelerate adoption, these sessions offer practical guidance, real‑world examples, and hands‑on learning to help you build a strong data foundation for AI in healthcare. Date Topic Details Location Registration Link May 6 Webinar: Microsoft Fabric Foundations - A Simple Path to Modern Analytics and AI Discover how Microsoft Fabric consolidates fragmented analytics into a single integrated data platform, making it easier to deliver trusted insights and adopt AI without added complexity. Virtual Register May 13 Webinar: Reduce BI Sprawl, Cut Cost and Build an AI-Ready Analytics Foundation Learn how Power BI enables enterprise BI consolidation, consistent metrics, and secure, scalable analytics that support both operational reporting and emerging AI use cases. Virtual Register May 19-20 In Person Workshop: Driving AI‑Powered Healthcare: Advanced Analytics, AI, and Real‑World Impact Attend this two‑day, in‑person event to learn how healthcare organizations use Microsoft Fabric to unify data, accelerate AI adoption, and deliver measurable clinical and operational value. Day 1 focuses on strategy, architecture, and real‑world healthcare use cases, while Day 2 offers hands‑on workshops to apply those concepts through guided labs and agent‑powered solutions. Chicago Register May 27 Webinar: Unified Data Foundation for AI & Analytics - Leveraging OneLake and Microsoft Fabric This session shows how organizations can simplify fragmented data architectures by using Microsoft Fabric and OneLake as a single, governed foundation for analytics and AI. Virtual Register June 3-4 In Person Workshop: Driving AI‑Powered Healthcare: Advanced Analytics, AI, and Real‑World Impact Attend this two‑day, in‑person event to learn how healthcare organizations use Microsoft Fabric to unify data, accelerate AI adoption, and deliver measurable clinical and operational value. Day 1 focuses on strategy, architecture, and real‑world healthcare use cases, while Day 2 offers hands‑on workshops to apply those concepts through guided labs and agent‑powered solutions. New York Register June 10 Webinar: From Data to Decisions: How AI Data Agents in Microsoft Fabric Redefine Analytics Join us to learn how Fabric Data Agents enable users to interact with enterprise data through AI‑powered, governed agents that understand both data and business context. Virtual Register
