What Copilot does in Microsoft Azure

As organizations' IT infrastructure continues to grow, managing and administering all resources can become extremely complicated. Microsoft's adaptive cloud strategy includes a single, intelligent control plane that extends from the cloud to the edge and is designed to enable customers to manage their entire IT landscape consistently. A key part of this strategy is Microsoft Copilot in Azure, which has now been made available in preview form. Companies have the option of controlling access to Copilot for specific users or groups within a tenant.

Microsoft Copilot in Azure acts as an AI-powered companion to help teams manage operations in cloud and edge environments. The tool provides personalized recommendations and responses to natural language commands to help solve common problems faster. Copilot also uses artificial intelligence to simplify central management tasks and provides an intelligent control layer that covers both cloud and edge environments. All with the aim of reducing administrative effort and increasing productivity.

Functions and capabilities

Natural language interaction: Microsoft Copilot allows users to ask questions in natural language and receive personalized recommendations. For example, a user can ask: "Why is my app slow?" or "How do I fix this error?" and Copilot provides potential causes and solutions.

Access and security management: The tool offers flexible access options so that companies can define which users or user groups are allowed to use Copilot. This enables targeted control and ensures that the use of the tool complies with company standards and security guidelines.

Enhanced management capabilities: Microsoft Copilot includes new capabilities for managing Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), including configuring backups, customizing tiers, and creating kubectl commands. It also supports converting natural language to SQL queries and provides self-help for database administration.

Security enhancements: Copilot integrates features from Microsoft Defender for Cloud to simplify risk assessments and suggest remediation actions. It uses Defender External Attack Surface Management (EASM) to gain risk-related insights and generate corresponding queries.

Access and use: Microsoft Copilot for Azure is accessible in the Azure portal and via the Azure mobile app. It helps answer questions, generate queries and perform tasks, always taking into account the organization's policies and data privacy . Administrators can centrally control and customize access to the tool.

Retrieve information and solve problems: Users can ask Copilot for information on Azure services and offerings at any time. The tool offers help to solve problems by providing detailed explanations and suggested solutions. For example, a user can say: "My Azure database cannot connect to Power BI" and receive appropriate solutions.

Identify recommended services: Copilot also helps select the right Azure services for specific workloads or goals. Users can ask questions such as: "Which service is recommended for distributed caching?" and receive suitable recommendations and further information.

Navigation and settings: Instead of searching for a specific service, users can ask Copilot to open the service directly. The tool displays a list of suggestions from which the desired service can be selected. Copilot can also manage the portal settings and make adjustments without the user having to open the settings manually.

Current restrictions: At the start of the preview, there are of course still some restrictions on the use of Microsoft Copilot in Azure. These include, for example, the limitation to actions for a maximum of 10 resources at the same time and the restriction to 15 requests per chat. In addition, the tool is currently only available in English.

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