Azure Messaging Update – May 2024

This update covers features being released at the Microsoft Build 2024 conference for the Azure Service Bus, Azure Event Hubs and Azure Event Grid services.

Azure Event Hubs Updates

Event Hubs has several new features including one of the most requested features we have heard from our customers.

New features:

Event Hubs Emulator (Public Preview)

The Event Hubs Emulator is a containerized instance of Azure Event Hubs that can run on Windows or Linux for development or test purposes.  This has been the most requested feature, and it is great to finally deliver it for customers.  In this first delivery of the emulator, it only will support AMQP traffic.

Large Message size (Public Preview)

Namespaces in Azure Event Hubs Dedicated now can support messages as large as 20 MB. 

Kafka Compression (GA)

The Kafka Compression feature is now generally available.

Schema Registry updates

In addition to the exiting AVRO schema support, the Schema Registry has added support for 2 more schema types. 

JSON Schema in Schema Registry (GA) – The JSON Schema support is now GA.  
Protobuf in Schema Registry (Public Preview) – Protobuf support is now available in preview in the Schema Registry.

Azure Service Bus Update

Azure Service Bus new features.

Batch Delete (Public Preview)

Azure Service Bus now supports Batch Delete providing a more convenient way to manage your queues, including dead letter queues.

Azure Event Grid Updates

Azure Event Grid continues to evolve with the addition of new features to achieve MQTT compliance, simplify security for IoT and event-driven solutions, and facilitate seamless integrations.

MQTT features:

MQTT Last Will and Testament (LWT) (GA)

Enables MQTT clients to notify other MQTT clients of their abrupt disconnections. You can use LWT to ensure predictable and reliable flow of communication among MQTT clients during unexpected disconnections, which is valuable for scenarios where real-time communication, system reliability, and coordinated actions are critical.

OAuth 2.0 authentication for MQTT clients (Public Preview)

Allows MQTTv3.1.1 and MQTTv5 clients to authenticate and connect with the MQTT broker using JSON Web Tokens (JWT) issued by any third-party OpenID Connect (OIDC) identity provider. This authentication method provides a lightweight, secure, and flexible option for MQTT clients that are not provisioned in Azure.

Namespace features:

Custom domain names support (Public Preview)

Allows users to assign their own domain names to Event Grid namespace’s MQTT and HTTP endpoints, enhancing security and simplifying client configuration.

Push delivery to Azure Event Hubs (GA)

Allows users to configure event subscriptions on namespace topics to send messages to Azure Event Hubs for streaming purposes.

Push delivery to Webhooks (Public Preview)

Allows users to configure event subscriptions on namespace topics to send messages to your application’s public endpoint using a simple and reliable delivery mechanism.

CloudEvents 1.0 Binary Content Mode (GA)

Offers the ability to produce messages whose payload is encoded in any media type.

Shared Access Signature (SAS) tokens authentication (Public Preview)

Allows users to publish or receive (pull delivery) messages using a simple authentication mechanism.

Namespace Topic as a destination (GA)

Enables users to create an event subscription on a custom, system, domain, and partner topics (Event Grid Basic) that forwards events to namespace topics. Forwarding events to the namespace topic allows you to take advantage of its pull delivery support and flexibility in consumption.

Event sources:

Microsoft Graph API events (GA)

Enables users to react to resource changes in Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, etc. This feature is key for enterprise scenarios such as auditing, onboarding, and policy enforcement, to name a few.

Azure Resource Notifications health resources events to Azure Monitor alerts (Public Preview)

Enables near real-time notifications when your workload is impacted. With this feature, you can get a better understanding of any service issues that may be affecting your resources.

API Center system topic (Public Preview)

Enables you to receive real-time updates when an API definition is added or updated. This means you can keep track of your APIs and ensure they are always up to date, making it easier for stakeholders throughout your organization to discover, reuse, and govern APIs.

To learn about new features released in Azure Event Grid, see this announcement.

To learn more about each of the Messaging and Streaming services:

Azure Service Bus
Azure Event Hubs
Azure Event Grid
Azure Stream Analytics

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