MS Ignite 2025 Recap: It's Not JUST About AI (Finally!)
Ignite 2025 just wrapped up, and while the headlines are screaming “AI Agents,” I’m actually relieved to see a ton of solid, “meat and potatoes” infrastructure updates. Yes, AI is cool, but if your network is overlapping or your hybrid VDI is lagging, an AI chatbot isn’t going to save you.
Here are the topics that caught my eye, focusing on the foundational tech that actually keeps the lights on.
1. The Heavy Lifting (Infrastructure & Hardware) 🏗️
Microsoft is flexing its silicon muscles. It’s not just about GPUs anymore; it’s about general-purpose compute efficiency.
- Azure Cobalt 200 & DPU: This is huge for pure performance. A custom 132-core Arm CPU that delivers 50% gains? Yes, please. Plus, the new Data Processing Unit (DPU) offloads networking and storage tasks from the CPU. This means your VMs get more dedicated power for actual workloads, not just overhead.
2. Networking & Hybrid (The Real World Problems) 🌐
This is where the real operational headaches usually live, and we got some great painkillers.
- AVNM Overlap Prevention: If you’ve ever managed a large hub-and-spoke network, you know the pain of IP overlapping. Azure Virtual Network Manager (AVNM) now natively prevents this. Simple, boring, and absolutely necessary.
- AVD for Hybrid (Azure Arc): Finally. You can run Azure Virtual Desktop on Arc-connected servers. This is a huge step for manufacturing or remote sites with bad internet. You get the Azure management plane, but the pixels stream locally.
- Zero Trust DNS: A foundational security layer now available for Windows. It verifies domains before you connect. It’s basic hygiene, but now it’s platform-integrated.
- Compliant Network Grant: A new Conditional Access control that checks if a user is coming from a verified network via Global Secure Access (GSA) before letting them in. No more trusting an IP just because it “looks” right.
3. Security & Governance (Keeping it Clean) 🛡️
- Entra Agent ID: Okay, a little bit of AI here, but from an Identity perspective. We can finally assign identities to these automated agents, meaning we can apply Conditional Access and lifecycle management to them, just like users.
- Security Copilot in E5: Security Copilot is now included in M365 E5. This makes advanced threat hunting tools accessible to way more teams without a separate, massive bill.
My Take
While everyone is chasing the “Agentic Future,” I’m most excited about the maturity in the platform itself. Things like Arc for AVD and AVNM improvements show that Microsoft hasn’t forgotten about the complex, hybrid realities enterprise IT actually lives in every day.
The AI stuff is the cherry on top, but the cake underneath just got a lot structurally sounder. 🍰