April 19, 2011 - Tech media outlet WinBuzzer published a blog post yesterday (April 18) reporting thatMicrosoftTaking a major step forward in the field of artificial intelligence and cloud data interaction, theLaunched two new programs based on the Model Context Protocol (MCP(used for emphasis)server (computer)Preview.
Azure MCP Server supports access to a wide range of Azure services, including Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Storage, and Azure Monitor, covering functions such as database querying, storage management, and log analysis.
The Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server dedicated server focuses on database operations, supporting tasks such as listing databases and tables, performing queries, and modifying data. Both servers are based on the open MCP standard and are designed to reduce developer customization and improve AI integration efficiency through a unified architecture.
Note: MCP, known as Model Context Protocol, was launched in November 2024 by AI company Anthropic to solve the challenge of AI models accessing fragmented external data.
With a standardized client-server architecture over HTTP, MCP allows AI applications (i.e. MCP Clients) to seamlessly interact with data sources or tools (via MCP Servers), providing standardized Tools, Resources and Templates. Resources" (data/files) and "Prompts" (templates).
Simply put, MCP is like a "USB-C interface" for AI applications, allowing AI assistants to seamlessly connect to external data sources and tools, solving the problem of data silos limiting the potential of AI.
Microsoft integrated MCP into Azure AI Foundry and Azure AI Agent Service back in March 2025, and developed the C# SDK in collaboration with Anthropic. this preview release is another step in Microsoft's continued push to drive Azure ecosystem interoperability under the CoreAI division strategy to support diverse models and tools under Microsoft's CoreAI strategy.