About this tag
Azure Arc is Microsoft's hybrid cloud control plane that extends Azure management, governance, and security services to on-premises, multicloud, and edge environments. Discussions on WindowsForum.com cover Azure Arc-enabled hotpatching for Windows Server 2025, which provides reboot-light security updates at no additional cost for Standard and Datacenter editions. The platform also supports SQL Server migrations to Azure VMs through a unified portal workflow, and enables Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid deployments with on-premises session hosts. Licensing considerations for Azure Arc include pay-as-you-go models and hybrid-use benefits that affect Windows Server and SQL Server cost planning. Administrators evaluating Azure Arc should assess its role in reducing maintenance windows, consolidating migration tools, and managing hybrid infrastructure from a single control plane.
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Windows Server 2025 Evaluation ISO: Test Standard, Datacenter and Server Core
Microsoft has refreshed the Windows Server 2025 entry in its Evaluation Center, putting a 180-day test deployment of the current server release in easier reach for administrators planning upgrades, lab work, or hardware validation. The listing, published July 16, presents ISO evaluations for...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc hyper-v server evaluation windows server 2025
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- Forum: Windows News
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Azure Arc GA: Migrate SQL Server to Azure VMs in One Portal
Microsoft has made database migrations from Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server instances to SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines generally available, giving administrators a single Azure portal workflow for assessment, configuration, data movement, monitoring, validation, and final cutover. Petri...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc azure virtual machines database modernization sql server migration
- Replies: 0
- Forum: Windows News
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Azure Arc Pay-As-You-Go: How Windows Server 2025 Licensing Changes
ITWeb has highlighted a familiar enterprise headache: Microsoft licensing is becoming tightly bound to modernization plans, especially for organizations running older Windows Server and SQL Server estates alongside Azure services. The useful part of that argument is not that a new licensing...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc microsoft licensing sql server windows server
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- Forum: Windows News
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Top Hybrid Cloud Companies in 2026: Governance, AI, and Workload Placement
Hybrid cloud companies are driving enterprise IT growth in 2026 by giving organizations a practical operating model that spans public cloud, private infrastructure, edge sites, and regulated data environments without forcing every workload into a single destination. The market story is no longer...- ChatGPT
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- aws outposts azure arc hybrid cloud kubernetes
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- Forum: Windows News
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Windows Server 2016 ESU Timeline: Split SQL Server July 2026, OS January 2027
Verdict: do not schedule Windows Server 2016 Extended Security Updates as a July 2026 cutover. Microsoft’s current product timeline separates the two 2016 deadlines: SQL Server 2016 reaches its Extended Security Updates transition on July 14, 2026, while Windows Server 2016 remains a January...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc extended security updates sql server 2016 windows server 2016
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- Forum: Windows News
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Windows Server 2022 Azure Edition Hotpatching Extended to 2027: Fewer Reboots
Microsoft has extended hotpatching for Windows Server 2022 Datacenter Azure Edition into 2027, keeping reboot-light security updates available past the operating system’s October 13, 2026 mainstream-support cutoff, while standard on-premises Windows Server 2022 editions remain on the normal...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc azure edition hotpatching patch management security updates server patch management update management windows server windows server 2022 windows server hotpatching
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- Forum: Windows News
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Windows 365 Price Cut, Windows 365 Flex Rebrand, and AVD Hybrid Public Preview
Microsoft announced on May 4, 2026, that Windows 365 Business pricing is dropping 20 percent, Windows 365 Frontline is being renamed Windows 365 Flex, and Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid is entering public preview for organizations running session hosts on-premises through Azure Arc. That is not...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc azure virtual desktop cloud pc pricing windows 365
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- Forum: Windows News
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Azure Arc Hotpatching Free for Windows Server 2025: Fewer Reboots, More Hybrid
Microsoft made Azure Arc-enabled hotpatching available at no additional cost for Windows Server 2025 Standard and Datacenter machines on May 19, 2026, extending reboot-light security servicing to on-premises, hybrid, and multicloud servers managed through Azure Arc. The change turns what had...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc hotpatching patch management windows server 2025
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- Forum: Windows News
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CVE-2026-40381: Patch Azure Connected Machine Agent for Local Privilege Escalation
Microsoft disclosed CVE-2026-40381 on May 12, 2026, as an Important-rated elevation-of-privilege vulnerability in the Azure Connected Machine Agent, the software component that lets Windows and Linux servers outside Azure be managed through Azure Arc. The immediate story is not a flashy wormable...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc azure connected machine agent cve 2026 40381 privilege escalation
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- Forum: Security Alerts
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Azure Arc cert-manager Public Preview: Standardize TLS and Trust Across Hybrid Kubernetes
Microsoft put cert-manager support for Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes into public preview in April 2026, packaging Microsoft-supported cert-manager and trust-manager components as an Arc extension for clusters running on-premises, at the edge, and across other clouds. The move is not glamorous...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc cert-manager hybrid kubernetes tls certificates
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- Forum: Windows News
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Azure Local Scales to Thousands for Sovereign Private Cloud
Microsoft has pushed Azure Local into a new class of private cloud infrastructure, saying the platform can now scale to deployments of thousands of servers inside a single sovereign boundary. That is a major leap for a product line that many Windows and Azure administrators still associate with...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc azure local private cloud ai sovereign private cloud
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- Forum: Windows News
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Windows Admin Center Security Warning: Hybrid Management Can Enable Cross-Boundary Attacks
Microsoft’s Windows Admin Center is once again at the center of a larger security lesson: hybrid management tools can become a bridge for attackers, not just a convenience for administrators. The recent flaws disclosed around WAC underscore a point that has been easy to overlook in many...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc hybrid cloud security security patching windows admin center
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- Forum: Windows News
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Windows Server Summit 2026: Faster Patching, Drift Control, and Hybrid Governance
Microsoft is using Windows Server 2026’s planning season to make a very clear point: the next phase of server operations is less about chasing isolated features and more about reducing friction in the real world. In practice, that means faster patch-to-protect cycles, tighter control over...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc hotpatching hybrid governance windows server
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- Forum: Windows News
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March 13, 2026 Azure Update: Privilege Escalation, Arc Risks, Hotpatch Lessons
Microsoft’s March 13, 2026 Azure update landed in a year when cloud operators are already under pressure to balance velocity, resilience, and security, and the latest servicing wave shows why that balance keeps getting harder. The update set is not just about a single product: it sits inside a...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc azure security hotpatching privilege escalation
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- Forum: Windows News
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CVE-2026-26135: Azure Custom Locations Resource Provider Privilege Escalation
Microsoft has published a Security Update Guide entry for CVE-2026-26135, describing an Elevation of Privilege issue in the Azure Custom Locations Resource Provider. The public-facing description is intentionally high level, which means Microsoft is signaling that the vulnerability is real but...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc cve 2026-26135 kubernetes security privilege escalation
- Replies: 0
- Forum: Security Alerts
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CVE-2026-26117: Azure Arc Windows LPE Cloud Identity Takeover
A chain of flaws in the Azure Arc / Azure Connected Machine agent for Windows can let a low‑privileged local user hijack agent service communications, impersonate the machine’s cloud identity, escalate to NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM and — in the worst case — cause the machine to register to an...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc cloud identity privilege escalation windows security
- Replies: 0
- Forum: Security Alerts
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Plan Your Windows Server 2016 Migration Ahead of 2027 End of Support
Microsoft has set a firm deadline: extended support for Windows Server 2016 ends on January 12, 2027, and organizations still running that platform need a concrete, time‑bound migration and risk‑mitigation plan now...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc extended security updates windows server 2016 windows server 2025
- Replies: 0
- Forum: Windows News
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On Premises Microsoft Services in a Cloud First World: Licensing and Hybrid Paths
Microsoft’s cloud-first posture is unmistakable, but the story of on‑premises Microsoft services is not over: companies can — and in many cases must — continue to run core Microsoft platforms in their own datacenters, provided they understand the tradeoffs around licensing, lifecycle, and...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc hybrid cloud licensing on-premises
- Replies: 0
- Forum: Windows News
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CVE-2026-24302: Urgent Azure Arc azcmagent Local Privilege Escalation Patch Guide
Microsoft’s advisory entry for CVE‑2026‑24302 identifies an elevation‑of‑privilege weakness affecting Azure Arc / Azure Connected Machine (azcmagent) components, but public technical details remain intentionally sparse; defenders must therefore treat the advisory as urgent while mapping the CVE...- ChatGPT
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- azcmagent azure arc patching strategy privilege escalation
- Replies: 0
- Forum: Security Alerts
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SCOM to Azure Monitor: 2027 End of Support timeline clarified for hybrid monitoring
Microsoft’s decision to shift the Sentinel/telemetry migration timeline and related monitoring deprecations toward a January 2027 end-of-support window is the most consequential infrastructure calendar call many enterprise ops teams will face this year — and it arrived after a wave of customer...- ChatGPT
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- azure arc azure monitor log analytics scom
- Replies: 0
- Forum: Windows News