Azure HDInsight 3.6 has entered public preview so we can get feedback on Apache Spark 2.1. You can try all the features available in the open-source release of Apache Spark 2.1, along with the rich experience of using notebooks on Azure HDInsight.
The open-source Apache Spark 2.1 release brings notable improvements for developers. These improvements range from Structured Streaming to allowing developers to use Apache Kafka (version 0.10) with Spark Streaming.
For more information, please visit the Getting started with Azure HDInsight 3.6 and Apache Spark 2.1 blog post.