New ways to learn and demonstrate skills
Announcing new opportunities within the Microsoft Credentials ecosystem, plus new skilling partnerships with Microsoft technology partners. At Microsoft Build 2026, we’re introducing new ways for developers to learn and demonstrate skills in the tools they use every day. Today, we’re announcing: Microsoft Pro Badges, first-of-their-kind credentials that set a new standard for recognizing real-world skills and proficiencies demonstrated through everyday work. An evolution of Microsoft Applied Skills. Co-authored skilling experiences with Anthropic in AI Skills Navigator. Recognizing real-world skills as they develop For decades, Microsoft Certifications have helped professionals showcase role-based expertise and advance their careers. We added Microsoft Applied Skills (scenario-based lab assessments) to capture project execution abilities. As work continues to evolve, learning happens increasingly in your day‑to‑day flow. The same should become true about how your skills are recognized. Microsoft Pro Badges is the next evolution of the Microsoft Credentials portfolio: the first credential of their kind, recognizing real-world achievements without separate tests. Pro Badges enable recognition to evolve alongside changing roles and needs. At their core is Verified Proficiency, our proprietary tool that measures and assesses real-world performance through telemetry, securely capturing evidence of your skills as you work. For organizations, Pro Badges offer a real-time, authentic view of capabilities, creating a window into how team members are actively applying skills and delivering impact. Pro Badges launch in June 2026 in private preview at Microsoft Build, in close partnership with GitHub. The first Pro Badge will cover GitHub Copilot, and it will be in general availability in late October 2026 at GitHub Universe. Additional tools, roles, and scenarios will follow, all also easily sharable on LinkedIn. Join the GitHub Copilot Verified Proficiency Insiders List to be among the first to learn more. Microsoft Applied Skills: Expanding today, awarding Pro Badges soon Microsoft continues to add lab-based assessments that reflect job-relevant skills. Newly available: Microsoft Applied Skills: Resolve GitHub issues using GitHub Copilot Microsoft Applied Skills: Get started developing agents in Microsoft Foundry Microsoft Applied Skills: Integrate model context protocol tools with agents in Microsoft Foundry Coming soon: Microsoft Applied Skills: Protect information in Microsoft 365 Copilot by using Microsoft Purview Microsoft Applied Skills: Create agentic workflows by using Microsoft Foundry Microsoft Applied Skills: Manage GitHub secret scanning by using GitHub Copilot Microsoft Applied Skills: Build an agent in Microsoft Copilot Studio Applied Skills will become part of the new Pro Badges family, offering a unified approach to recognizing real-world skills. Users successfully completing Applied Skills will soon be awarded Pro Badge credentials. Connecting AI skilling across ecosystems Developers increasingly work across models, platforms, data systems, and tools. We’re meeting this moment with a better-together approach to skilling with learning paths jointly authored with Microsoft technology partners and available in AI Skills Navigator. Designed by Microsoft and partner experts, these experiences help you understand how complementary technologies work together in real-world scenarios, while providing connected guidance and practical support to help you get started faster. We’re launching this initiative with Anthropic, starting with a learning path called Get started with Claude in Microsoft Foundry. Additional partners and jointly authored training experiences are on the way. Keep building: Take your skills further at Microsoft AI Skills Fest Join us June 8–12, 2026, for Microsoft AI Skills Fest, a free week of learning designed to help you turn AI momentum into real capability. You’ll learn directly in the tools and workflows you already use, with practical sessions focused on immediate application. If you’re a developer, the Agents League hackathon will be a highlight. This hackathon is an e-sports–inspired challenge where you’ll build and submit an agent, collaborate with peers, climb a live leaderboard, and compete for prizes.* You’ll also have opportunities to win a voucher* for select Microsoft Certification exams, helping you progress toward earning a Certification. AI Skills Fest is your chance to sharpen your AI skills, test yourself in real scenarios, and explore the latest Microsoft Credentials and skilling updates. Register, build, and compete, and then leave with skills you can use in the next steps of your career journey. *Terms and conditions apply.Announcing new security, maintenance and analytics features for PostgreSQL at Microsoft Build 2026
At Microsoft Build 2026, we’re announcing a major wave of PostgreSQL innovation across Azure. Alongside the public preview of Azure HorizonDB, we’re delivering a broad set of enhancements for our fully managed open-source PostgreSQL service: Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server. These updates span performance, analytics, security, operations, resilience and migration - helping you build faster, operate with more control, secure your workloads, and modernize with confidence. Here’s a quick tour of the top flexible server announcements at Build 2026. Feature Highlights V6 SKU with local SSD storage (NVMe) pg_duckdb Extension pg_ivm Extension Defender Security assessments temporal_tables Extension Cross-tenant CMK Automatic Entra token refresh libraries New Powershell module: Az.PostgreSQLFlexibleServer More control over planned maintenance Pre-Upgrade validation checks New Built-in Grafana dashboards Chaos Studio supports Azure Database for PostgreSQL AI-assisted Oracle to PostgreSQL migration Migration Service for Azure Database for PostgreSQL improvements (EDB, AlloyDB) Performance, Scale & Analytics V6 SKU with local SSD storage (NVMe) Generally Available by the end of June V6 Compute SKUs are built to handle your largest workloads, delivering high performance, massive scale, and better price performance. Powered by 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® processor and AMD's fourth Generation EPYC™ 9004 processors you can scale up to 192 vCores and 1.8 TiB of memory. With NVMe-backed local SSD storage and support for high-performance storage options such as Premium SSD v2, you can achieve high IOPS and throughput for demanding, IO-intensive PostgreSQL workloads. The Intel & AMD v6 SKUs with local SSD (NVMe) will be Generally Available by the end of June. Learn more: Compute options in Azure Database for PostgreSQL. pg_duckdb Extension Generally Available The pg_duckdb extension enables you to accelerate high-performance analytics and data-intensive applications with DuckDB’s SQL engine running inside your Postgres server. We’re pleased to announce pg_duckdb is now generally available in Azure Database for PostgreSQL. The latest version builds on the preview with the latest DuckDB engine improvements and optimized performance. This version adds vectorized execution for faster analytical queries, delivering significant improvements in aggregation performance, along with new support for writing to Azure Blob Storage and querying Parquet data directly from PostgreSQL. These capabilities enable high-performance analytics on your external data and simplify data processing workflows. Learn more: pg_duckdb. pg_ivm Extension Generally Available Materialized views are a useful way to optimize performance for queries that run regularly, but if underlying data becomes stale the result set needs to be recomputed. With the pg_ivm extension you can automatically maintain materialized views as the underlying data changes. This is particularly valuable for large datasets with small incremental changes that need real-time freshness, like dashboards, catalog analytics and SaaS usage reporting. We are pleased to announce the pg_ivm extension is now generally available in Azure Database for PostgreSQL. Learn more: pg_ivm. Security, Auditing & Identity Defender security assessments Preview Microsoft Defender Security Assessments for Azure Database for PostgreSQL enables continuous evaluation of your database security posture, helping identify vulnerabilities and misconfigurations across server and database configurations. Previously limited to reactive threat detection, in the latest preview release, Defender now provides proactive, risk-based insights through assessments tailored to PostgreSQL-specific best practices, delivering more relevant and actionable guidance. This helps you strengthen your security baseline, prioritize remediation, and align with best practices and compliance requirements. Learn more: https://aka.ms/Defender-Assessments-for-PG-Preview temporal_tables Extension Generally Available We’ve had many customer requests to support the temporal_tables extension, which provides built-in support for tracking and querying historical changes to data over time. Temporal tables are now generally available in Azure Database for PostgreSQL. With this extension enabled you can easily perform time-based queries, audit data changes, and maintain historical records without building custom tracking logic, simplifying application development and compliance scenarios. Learn more: temporal_tables Cross-tenant CMK Preview Azure Database for PostgreSQL now supports cross-tenant customer-managed keys (CMK) in public preview, allowing you to encrypt your data at rest using an Azure Key Vault key that resides in a separate Microsoft Entra tenant from the database service. This feature is designed for SaaS providers and enterprises that need to maintain strict separation of duties and ownership of encryption keys, enabling you to retain full control over key lifecycle management while PostgreSQL runs in a service provider’s tenant. Learn more: Data encryption at rest in Azure Database for PostgreSQL Automatic Entra token refresh libraries Preview We’re making it easier to use Entra ID authentication with Azure Database for PostgreSQL throughout the application stack by introducing new token refresh libraries for .NET, JavaScript, and Python. With Entra ID, access tokens are short-lived which can make managing their lifecycle complex in real-world applications. Developers need to be aware of token refresh and build additional handling around token expiration, connection retry, and session continuity. These new libraries remove that friction. By handling Entra token refresh seamlessly in the background, they allow applications to stay connected without interruption and with no custom logic required. The result is a simpler development experience and more resilient applications, especially for long-running or connection-heavy workloads. Across languages, the libraries provide a consistent and streamlined way to adopt secure, passwordless authentication, helping teams focus more on building their applications and less on managing authentication. Learn more: .NET, JavaScript, and Python. Operations, Maintenance & Monitoring New Powershell module: Az.PostgreSQLFlexibleServer Generally Available We’re excited to introduce the newly renamed Az.PostgreSQLFlexibleServer PowerShell module, delivering a streamlined experience for managing Azure Database for PostgreSQL with PowerShell. Building on the capabilities of the previous Az.PostgreSql module, the updated module aligns with the new features in the 2026-01-01 preview REST API. This module brings support for PostgreSQL 18, elastic clusters for scalable workloads and a range of enhancements designed to simplify management and improve performance. Whether you're provisioning new deployments or managing complex environments, this module ensures you can take full advantage of the latest platform capabilities directly from PowerShell. To learn more, visit our official documentation on PowerShell: Az.PostgreSql Module | Microsoft Learn More control over planned maintenance Generally Available We’ve seen many requests to provide more control when a maintenance update is applied to Azure Database for PostgreSQL. Sometimes when a critical workload is running you want to apply the maintenance when you’re ready. Announcing general availability this week, we’re building on the existing System and Custom maintenance window options and adding new self-service maintenance capabilities to the Azure portal. You can now reschedule upcoming maintenance updates for up to two weeks and apply maintenance on demand at a time that suits you. You can also view scheduled maintenance and review your server’s maintenance history after updates are complete. These options help you better align maintenance with your business schedules, reduce disruption during critical workload periods, and minimize the need for support-driven deferral requests. CLI and API support are coming soon. Learn more: https://aka.ms/azure-postgres-reschedule-maintenance Pre-Upgrade validation checks Preview Major version upgrades are critical for staying current with PostgreSQL features, security updates, and performance improvements, but you often discover blockers only after starting the upgrade workflow. Pre-Upgrade Validation Checks lets you validate upgrade readiness before initiating the actual upgrade by running Azure-specific upgrade checks and PostgreSQL pg_upgrade --check validations independently. The shift is simple: you can identify and fix upgrade blockers before the upgrade window begins. The feature surfaces actionable issues across configurations, extensions, dependencies, replication slots, event triggers, and other upgrade-sensitive objects. You can fix blockers, re-run validation until all checks pass, and proceed with the upgrade with greater predictability. Learn more: https://aka.ms/pg-flex-upgrade-checks New Built-in Grafana dashboards Generally Available boards — no setup, no extra cost, and no separate service to manage. Grafana dashboards are now built directly into the Azure portal for Azure Database for PostgreSQL - no setup, no extra cost, and no separate service to manage. You can open your PostgreSQL resource in the portal and immediately access prebuilt dashboards for key health and performance signals such as CPU, memory, storage, IOPS, connections, transactions, and availability. The key value is metrics + logs in one place. You can quickly correlate performance spikes with PostgreSQL logs, understand what changed, and troubleshoot faster using the familiar Grafana experience. Dashboards can also be customized, saved to your subscription, and shared across teams for ongoing operations. Learn more: https://aka.ms/azure-postgres-dashboards-grafana Resilience & Business Continuity Chaos Studio supports Azure Database for PostgreSQL Preview No matter how much you prepare, you only really know how good your database disaster recovery plan is when something breaks. With Chaos Studio support for Azure Database for PostgreSQL, you can simulate zone-down scenarios on PostgreSQL HA-enabled instances and validate the resilience of your mission-critical workloads. With Chaos Studio integration, you can proactively test failover behavior and gain confidence in how your applications respond to real-world zonal failures. This feature is currently available through a gated private preview. To get started, submit your subscription details using the form. Once reviewed, our team will enable the feature for your subscription, with guidance to help you begin testing. Getting started is simple: Create a Chaos Studio workspace via the Chaos Studio portal and configure your subscription, resource group, and region. Define the scope and assign the required managed identity and permissions. Review and verify your workspace setup. Browse available scenarios and select the PostgreSQL zone-down scenario. Configure the test (name, duration), then run it from My Library to begin validating failover behavior. With just a few steps, you’ll be able to simulate real-world failure conditions and gain confidence in your application’s resilience. To get started, please submit your details using this link: Private Preview Support for Chaos Studio Migration & Modernization AI-assisted Oracle to PostgreSQL migration Generally Available AI-assisted migration tooling has dramatically lowered the bar for moving between different databases and is changing the way people look at the return on investment for migration. The VS Code PostgreSQL extension comes with AI-Assisted migration tooling which converts Oracle schema and application code to Azure Database for PostgreSQL. This tooling uses GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Foundry, and custom Language Model tools to convert Oracle schema, database code and client applications into the PostgreSQL equivalents, and validates every change against a running flexible server instance. Learn more: Schema conversion, App conversion. Migration Service for Azure Database for PostgreSQL improvements (EDB, AlloyDB) Generally Available We’ve added AlloyDB and EDB Extended Server as new sources for migrating to PostgreSQL in the Azure Database for PostgreSQL Migration Service, with support for both online and offline migration support. Learn more: Migrate from AlloyDB, Migrate from EDB. Looking ahead That wraps up the Build 2026 announcements for Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server. There are also many great PostgreSQL technical sessions at Build this week, covering cloud-native app and AI development. To find out more, here's a link to the Build session catalog for PostgreSQL sessions: https://aka.ms/Postgres-on-Azure_Build-2026. We'll continue to build out our roadmap over the coming months to deliver on your asks to improve the performance, security and stability of your PostgreSQL workloads. Check the Microsoft Blog for PostgreSQL for a regular monthly recap where we share the latest enhancements and product updates.
