- The cloud config for Azure cloud provider can now be initialized from Kubernetes secret azure-cloud-provider in kube-system namespace
    - the secret is a serialized version of `azure.json` file with key cloud-config. And the secret name is azure-cloud-provider.

### SIG-Azure

Sig Azure was focused on two primary new alpha features:
- Adding Azure Availability Zones support to cloud provider.
- Supporting Cross RG resources (disks, Azure File and node [Experimental]

Besides the above new features, support for Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) and Cluster-Autoscaler is now stable and considered GA:

### Azure

* Set node external IP for azure node when disabling UseInstanceMetadata. ([#60959](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/60959), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer))

* Changed default azure file/dir mode to 0755. ([#56551](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/56551), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx))

- Azure Cloud Provider now supports using Azure network resources (Virtual Network, Load Balancer, Public IP, Route Table, Network Security Group, etc.) in different AAD Tenant and Subscription than those for the Kubernetes cluster. To use the feature, please reference https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/cloud-provider-azure/install/configs/#host-network-resources-in-different-aad-tenant-and-subscription. ([#883...

### **Azure**

*   Fixed several issues with properly provisioning Azure disk storage ([#55927](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/55927),[ @andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx))

- github.com/Azure/go-autorest/autorest/date: [v0.2.0 → v0.3.0](https://github.com/Azure/go-autorest/compare/autorest/date/v0.2.0...autorest/date/v0.3.0)
- github.com/Azure/go-autorest/autorest/mocks: [v0.3.0 → v0.4.0](https://github.com/Azure/go-autorest/compare/autorest/mocks/v0.3.0...autorest/mocks/v0.4.0)

- github.com/Azure/go-autorest/autorest/validation: [v0.1.0](https://github.com/Azure/go-autorest/autorest/validation/tree/v0.1.0)
- github.com/Azure/go-autorest/autorest: [v0.9.0](https://github.com/Azure/go-autorest/autorest/tree/v0.9.0)
- github.com/Azure/go-autorest/logger: [v0.1.0](https://github.com/Azure/go-autorest/logger/tree/v0.1.0)
- github.com/Azure/go-autorest/tracing: [v0.5.0](https://github.com/Azure/go-autorest/tracing/tree/v0.5.0)

- Fix the `cloudprovider_azure_api_request_duration_seconds` metric buckets to correctly capture the latency metrics. Previously, the majority of the calls would fall in the "+Inf" bucket. ([#95376](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/95376), [@marwanad](https://github.com/marwanad)) [SIG Cloud Provider and Instrumentation]

* fix get azure accounts timeout issue when there is no out-bound IP ([#74191](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/74191), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx))
* fix issue: fail to detach azure disk when there is server side error ([#74398](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/74398), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx))

* fix race condition when attach/delete azure disk in same time ([#84917](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/84917), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx))
* fix azure load balancer update dns label issue ([#85329](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/85329), [@nilo19](https://github.com/nilo19))