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The new cloud instances and security features will improve agility, performance, and resilience, according to Microsoft.

News out of Redmond this week included some interesting new additions and enhancements to Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. Specifically, the company has added memory-optimized instances to its Azure public cloud. They have also added new features to help customers manage and secure their environments.

Microsoft announced the new additions at the company’s virtual Ignite event. The changes were further detailed this week in a blog post by Erin Chapple Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Azure Compute.

More options for memory-intensive workloads

The first change gives companies more options to run memory-intensive workloads. New Msv2 medium memory virtual machines (VMs), available in preview, enable customers to achieve up to a 20 percent increase in central processing units (CPU) performance, according to Chapple. They also deliver access up to 192 vCPU and 4TiB of memory.

New Azure Dedicated Host stock keeping unit (SKUs), she adds, let customers run a broader range of memory-intensive workloads in a single-tenant, hardware-isolated environment. This will also be available soon in preview.

Related: Azure as data powerhouse: more support, unified services

Easier management and more security

In addition to expanding the number of instances available on Azure, Microsoft is also making them easier to manage. The company has introduced a new version of the Azure Automanage management automation service that works with instances running Linux.

Other enhancements include security improvements, such as Trusted Launch, as well as a new option for managing encryption keys.

Microsoft have also introduced something they call auto-key rotation. The new setting allows large companies to set their encryption keys to be automatically refreshed at specific intervals to reduce the risk of data breaches.

“As our customers move beyond immediate crisis needs, such as enabling remote work, many are accelerating cloud adoption to increase competitive advantage and stay more digitally resilient,” she wrote. “Microsoft is committed to continuous innovation in Azure IaaS capabilities to help customers achieve these goals.”