What is the service lifecycle?

January 17, 2021

1 min read

*This article could be a summary of content for learning purposes. For more information and knowledge, read the original articles in the References section.

The service lifecycle defines how every Azure service is released for public use.

Every Azure service starts in the development phase. In this phase, the Azure team collects and defines its requirements, and begins to build the service.
Next, the service is released to the public preview phase. During this phase, the public can access and experiment with it so that it can provide feedback. Your feedback helps Microsoft improve services. More importantly, providing feedback gives you the opportunity to request new or different capabilities so that services better meet your needs.
After a new Azure service is validated and tested, it’s released to all customers as a production-ready service. This is known as general availability (GA).

Features:

Each Azure preview defines its own terms and conditions.
Previews are excluded from the Service Level Agreements.
All preview-specific terms and conditions supplement your existing Azure service agreement.
Some previews aren’t covered by customer support.
Previews are not recommended for business-critical workloads.

The Azure updates page provides information about the latest updates to Azure products, services, and features, as well as product roadmaps and announcements.