Here is the Bonus #117 edition of 5 Highlights Thursday — a bit of a bonus edition this week with 7 highlights instead of 5. I hope this newsletter will help you in your Azure journey and keep you informed. Feel free to forward this along to anyone who you think may enjoy or better ask them to subscribe.
1. TypeScript 7 Is Here (And It’s 10× Faster)
TypeScript 7 has landed, and it’s a big one — a native, Go-based compiler rewrite delivers roughly 10x faster compilation, alongside new language features and some breaking changes from v6. If you or your team live in the TypeScript ecosystem, this is worth 10 minutes of your time to understand what changes before you upgrade.
2. What’s New in SQL MCP Server 2.0
SQL MCP Server 2.0 brings new capabilities that let AI agents and Copilot interact directly with your SQL Server data through the Model Context Protocol. If you’re building agentic apps on top of SQL, this positions MCP as the standard interface for agent-to-data access — worth watching if you care about Azure SQL and agent tooling.
3. Introducing Project Perception: The Next Evolution of Agentic Security
Microsoft’s official intro to Project Perception — the next generation of agentic security that uses AI agents to proactively detect and respond to threats before they materialize. This is part of a coordinated security push (see #4 below) and is directly relevant if you’re thinking about AI security governance.
4. How Nationwide Stays Ahead of Attackers with Project Perception
A real customer story: Nationwide (the insurance company) shares how they’re using Project Perception for proactive threat intelligence — staying ahead of attackers before incidents occur rather than just reacting after the fact. Good pairing with #3 if you want the product story plus the real-world proof point.
5. Inside Codename MDASH: Built to Protect
A behind-the-scenes look at Codename MDASH — a new Microsoft Defender capability built specifically to protect AI workloads, agents, and agentic systems from emerging threats. Released the same day as Project Perception, this rounds out Microsoft’s coordinated AI security announcement.
6. Data Streaming for Modern Applications in SQL Server 2025, Azure SQL, and Fabric SQL
Data Exposed walks through data streaming patterns across SQL Server 2025, Azure SQL, and Fabric SQL — useful if you’re architecting real-time data pipelines and want one consistent streaming story across on-prem, cloud, and Fabric.
7. Build Microsoft Foundry Agents with the New AI Gateway Tier of API Management
API Management’s new AI Gateway tier gives you governance, rate limiting, and observability in front of Microsoft Foundry agents — worth a look if you’re running agentic workloads in production and need enterprise-grade traffic control in front of them.
As always, please give me feedback on LinkedIn. Which bullet above is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know.
Last by not least, know someone who might be interested in this newsletter? Share it with them.
Have a wonderful Thursday 🙂
Taswar