Microsoft Build 2024: Cloud infra updates include Cobalt 100-based VMs, access to Copilot in Azure

At its Build 2024 event in Seattle this week, Microsoft released updates to its cloud infrastructure to bolster support for all workloads, including AI-related ones. The updates includes new Azure virtual machines (VM), a new provisioning service, and options for enabling access to Microsoft Copilot in Azure.

In the VM space, Microsoft shared plans to release Azure VMs that can run on Cobalt 100 processors currently in preview. The Azure Cobalt 100 CPU, which is built on Arm architecture, was launched in November last year by Microsoft in an attempt to make its infrastructure across data centers more energy efficient when compared to commercial AMD and Intel CPUs.

“Cobalt 100-based VMs are Azure’s most energy efficient compute offering and deliver up to 40% better performance than our previous generation of Arm-based VMs…. the new Cobalt 100 based VMs are expected to enhance efficiency and performance for both Azure customers and Microsoft products,” Omar Khan, general manager of Azure infrastructure marketing at Microsoft, said in a statement.

Additionally, IC3, the platform that powers customer conversations in Microsoft Teams, is adopting Cobalt to serve its growing customer base more efficiently, achieving up to 45% better performance on Cobalt 100 VMs, Khan added.

Alongside the Azure VMs for Cobalt CPUs, Microsoft made AMD’s ND MI300X series of processors generally available for Azure. The ND MI300X VM, which combines eight AMD MI300X Instinct accelerators, will provide enterprises with better cost performance than rivals, especially for inferencing large language models, such as GPT-4, according to Khan.

Microsoft also released a new provisioning service, dubbed Azure Compute Fleet, which simplifies provisioning of Azure compute capacity across different VM types, availability zones, and pricing models. This will enable enterprises to meet desired scale, performance, and cost by enabling users to control VM group behaviors automatically and programmatically, Khan explained.  

Other updates include opening up Copilot in Microsoft Azure to all enterprise customers over the next couple of weeks. “With this update, enterprise customers can choose to have all their users access Copilot or grant access to specific users or groups within a tenant,” Khan said.

Copilot in Azure was introduced to help enterprise teams manage cloud and edge operations in natural language.