Today, as I prognosticated just last week, Microsoft has taken the wraps off its single synchronization and connection tool for Active Directory. Azure Active Directory Connect connects on-premises Active Directory objects with Azure Active Directory, allowing seamless user authentication and a true Hybrid management environment for datacenter administrators.

Azure Active Directory Connect is probably the most anticipated of today's releases, but there's more. Here's what you can find today…

Limited Public Preview        

Azure SQL Data Warehouse. Azure SQL Data Warehouse is Microsoft’s fully-managed, elastic and petabyte-scale columnar data warehouse service. Customers can request access to the preview HERE.

General Availability

SQL Server 2016 CTP 2.1. This technical preview provides improvements for Stretch Database, Query Store, Temporal and Columnstore Index. The technical preview download link has been updated on the SQL Server Management Studio page.

Power BI Content Pack for SweetIQ and an Azure SQL Data Warehouse Connector in Power BI.

Azure Key Vault. Azure Key Vault delivers encryption key management in the cloud, allowing you to centrally manage your keys and secrets. The Key Vault page is located HERE.

Azure Application Gateway. It provides application-level routing and load balancing services to enable customers to build a scalable and highly-available web frontend in Azure. More information on the official Application Gateway page HERE.

Azure Active Directory Connect Health. It helps monitor and gain insights into the identity infrastructure used to extend on-premises identities to Azure Active Directory and Office 365. More information available HERE.

Azure Active Directory Connect. It is a tool to connect Active Directory and Azure Active Directory in a few clicks. Download available here:  Microsoft Azure Active Directory Connect