Azure News - 2026-06-02

What's New

Security Insights: 

The new Security page in Kubernetes Center gives you an immediate, all clusters or Kubernetes Fleet Manager-wide view of your security posture without leaving the portal.

At the summary level you can see:

• Security vulnerabilities broken down by risk level
• Runtime alerts categorized by severity
• Non-compliant regulatory standards, with visibility into which benchmarks your clusters are falling short on

Drilling deeper into the security detail view exposes four distinct panels:

Security Vulnerabilities show a total count of vulnerabilities across all clusters, broken down by risk tier.

Runtime Alerts surfaces live alerts from Defender for Containers categorized by High, Medium, Low, and Informational severity. You can see at a glance whether any active threats require immediate attention, and drill into the full alert list with one click.

Misconfigurations show a count of configuration issues detected across your clusters, again broken down by risk level.

Regulatory Compliance Standards lets you see which compliance standards your clusters are enrolled in, which are passing, and which are failing. The view surfaces the lowest-performing standard with its pass rate, so you know exactly where to focus remediation effort.

Recommendations are shown alongside these panels, providing actionable and prioritized guidance. Each recommendation shows affected resource counts and links directly to remediation details.

Note: Security insights require Microsoft Defender for Containers to be enabled. Kubernetes Center will confirm at a glance whether all your clusters have it enabled.

Cluster Version Support Status: Stay Ahead of End-of-Support

Running an out-of-support Kubernetes version is one of the most common and preventable sources of risk in production environments. The new Cluster Version Support Status panel in Kubernetes Center gives you a clear picture of where every cluster stands.

The view breaks your clusters down into four states:

You can filter the view by cluster tier (Premium, Standard, or Free) to understand exposure by tier and prioritize accordingly.

For clusters that are out of support but LTS eligible, a single Enable LTS for Eligible Clusters button lets you act immediately without navigating away.

Kubernetes Center brings this into a single, always-on view so platform teams can:

• Catch version drift before it becomes an incident
• Spot misconfiguration patterns across clusters, not just within one
• Act on recommendations without switching tools
• Report on compliance posture without manual aggregation

Try It Out

These features are available now in Kubernetes Center in the Azure portal.

→ Open Security -Kubernetes Center in the Azure portal

We'd love to hear what you think. Try the new security and version views with your clusters and share your feedback directly through the portal using the feedback button.

FAQ

Do I need Microsoft Defender for Containers enabled to use the security features? Yes. Security vulnerabilities, runtime alerts, and misconfiguration data are powered by MS Defender for Containers. Kubernetes Center will show you if any clusters don't have it enabled so you can quickly close that gap.

Does this work across all my subscriptions and clusters? Kubernetes Center aggregates data across all AKS clusters you have access to. Make sure you have the appropriate RBAC permissions across the subscriptions you want visibility into.

What is LTS and should I enable it for eligible clusters? Long Term Support (LTS) extends the supported lifecycle of a Kubernetes version beyond its standard window. It's available for clusters on eligible versions running the Premium tier. If you have clusters showing "Out of support, LTS eligible," enabling LTS is the fastest way to restore support coverage while you plan a full version upgrade.

Is there a cost to use Kubernetes Center? Kubernetes Center itself is part of the Azure portal experience and there is no additional charge. Note that Microsoft Defender for Containers, which powers the security features, is a paid add-on. See the Defender for Containers pricing page for details.

Where can I learn more about the Kubernetes version lifecycle? See the AKS Kubernetes version support policy documentation for full details on version support windows, LTS eligibility, and upgrade guidance.