Microsoft Corp. has updated its third and final Azure Stack technical preview with some of the Azure cloud’s more advanced features and also some of its platform-as-a-service tools.

Azure Stack is Microsoft’s hybrid cloud offering that will come preloaded on hardware from partner firms Dell Technologies Inc., Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co., Lenovo Group Ltd. and Cisco Systems Inc. Once released, companies will be able to run the Azure Stack, which replicates many of the Azure Cloud’s services, in their own data centers.

The update introduces a preview of the Azure App Service for web apps, API apps and mobile apps. It also adds Azure Functions serverless computing and the most recent version of Microsoft’s SQL and MySQL databases.

Microsoft added that “based on feedback and several ongoing improvements/bug fixes, we’ve also updated the Azure Stack TP3 software for a better deployment and operational experience.”

To take advantage of the new features in Microsoft’s on-premises stack, customers will need to upgrade to Azure Stack Technical Preview 3. That iteration of the software was rolled out on March 1, ahead of an expected mid-2017 release of the final version of the product.

When it introduced Azure Stack Technical Preview 3 in March, Microsoft said features including Azure Functions, Virtual Machine Extension syndication and multi-tenancy support will be added soon, with plans for Blockchain, Cloud Foundry and Mesos templates workloads to arrive later. As such, customers can expect more new features to be added before or when the final version arrives.

Image: Rainer Stropek/Flickr.com