Azure Introduces VM Lifecycle Policy with Current, Extended, End of Life, and Retired Stages

Microsoft has introduced an Azure Virtual Machine Lifecycle Policy defining four stages, Current, Extended, End of Life, and Retired, for managing VM transitions.

Azure General Purpose, Memory Optimized, Compute Optimized, and Storage Optimized VMs are the first families covered, with Current VMs recommended for new deployments.

Retired VMs can no longer be provisioned, are not covered by an SLA, and are no longer eligible for Microsoft support.