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Azure Media Services Azure Storage & Partner Media Solutions (Media Services Retirement)

Cloud object storage, content delivery, standalone Azure AI Video Indexer analysis, and marketplace partner media encoding and streaming workflows replacing retired Azure Media Services.

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Naming timeline

  1. Azure Media Services (v2 / v3)

    · General Availability (Rebuilt as v3 API on ARM in Oct 2018 · Retirement Announced Jun 30, 2023)

    Launched as Windows Azure Media Services providing cloud video encoding, live and on-demand streaming, content protection, and media analytics under 'Microsoft.Media/mediaservices'.

  2. Azure Storage & Partner Media Solutions (Media Services Retirement)Current name

    · Azure Media Services End of Support & Video Indexer Decoupling

    Completed retirement of Azure Media Services v2 and v3 APIs, 'az ams' CLI commands, and 'azurerm_media_services_account' resources on June 30, 2024, with Azure AI Video Indexer decoupled onto 'Microsoft.VideoIndexer/accounts' and media workflows migrated to Azure Blob Storage and partner solutions.

What replaced Azure Media Services?

Azure Media Services has been superseded by Azure Storage & Partner Media Solutions (Media Services Retirement), with the latest change on 30 June 2024 (Azure Media Services End of Support & Video Indexer Decoupling). Cloud object storage, content delivery, standalone Azure AI Video Indexer analysis, and marketplace partner media encoding and streaming workflows replacing retired Azure Media Services. The underlying legacy API or CLI surface is deprecated, so a technical migration is required.

Also known as

  • Windows Azure Media Services (WAMS)
  • Azure Media Services v3
  • Azure AI Video Indexer (Decoupled Media Analysis)

Technical identifiers

Legacy identifiers deprecated. The underlying API or CLI surface for the legacy name is officially deprecated, so this change requires a technical migration rather than a label update.

ARM Resource Providers (Microsoft.*)Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts Microsoft.VideoIndexer/accounts Microsoft.Cdn/profiles Microsoft.Media/mediaservices
Azure CLI (az) / PowerShellaz storage blob az afd az ams
Entra ID / Azure RBAC RolesStorage Blob Data Contributor Contributor
Terraform Resources (azurerm_*)azurerm_storage_account azurerm_cdn_frontdoor_profile azurerm_media_services_account

The 'Microsoft.Media/mediaservices' ARM Resource Provider, 'az ams' CLI command group, and 'azurerm_media_services_account' Terraform resource were retired on June 30, 2024 and removed in HashiCorp Terraform AzureRM provider v4.0.

Notes & disambiguation

  • In June 2023, Microsoft announced the retirement of Azure Media Services ('Microsoft.Media/mediaservices'), and officially shut down both Media Services v2 and v3 APIs and streaming endpoints on June 30, 2024.
  • To preserve video and audio AI capabilities, Microsoft decoupled Azure AI Video Indexer from Azure Media Services prior to June 30, 2024 so it runs directly on Azure Blob Storage under its own 'Microsoft.VideoIndexer/accounts' ARM Resource Provider.
  • On-demand video encoding, live streaming, dynamic packaging (HLS/DASH), and DRM content protection workloads transitioned to Azure Marketplace partner solutions (such as Bitmovin, MediaKind, harmonic, and Ravnur) backed by Azure Blob Storage and Azure Front Door / CDN.

Sources & official documentation

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