microsoft ignite 2021 the highlights

A look back at the some of the key announcements from Microsoft’s recent Ignite event which, as usual, provided an insight into the company’s latest technical updates and roadmaps, with the focus firmly on collaboration, cloud, cybersecurity and user/customer experiences.

At Ignite, Microsoft introduced more than 90 new services and updates, here are some of the main headlines from the event.

Collaboration

Microsoft Teams continues to be a hot topic following its incredible growth over the past couple of years and it was no different at Ignite, where a range of new features and updates were announced. Perhaps the most interesting was Mesh for Microsoft Teams, which aims to bring the mixed-reality world of Microsoft Mesh to Teams, starting with a preview featuring customised avatars in 2022. Users will have more options to join meeting rooms and virtual collaboration spaces using redesigned avatars that will move and react based on their speech without needing a camera or virtual headset.

Another Teams enhancement was Teams Connect. This will allow for Teams channels to be shared with outside individuals and organisations, with IT retaining control on how and what documents can be shared. There was also the inclusion of a virtual green room to enhance webinars and large meetings. This will allow organisers and guest speakers to interact in a second virtual space to collaborate on presentation content, monitor chat and socialise. Microsoft said this feature will be available in preview early this year.

Elsewhere on the collaboration front there was also the unveiling of Microsoft Loop, a new collaboration tool built on Fluid Framework. There are three main elements to Loop: Loop components, which can be as simple as lists, tables, notes and tasks or as sophisticated as a customer sales opportunity from Microsoft Dynamics 365, Loop pages where team members can organise their components, and Loop workspaces that are shared spaces which allow users to see group progress.

Another new collaboration feature revealed at Ignite was Context IQ, a set of capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365. It will initially be available in Microsoft Editor where, using AI, it will correct grammar and spelling and suggest sentence completions based on context, whilst also offering predictive assistance with file attachments, calendar scheduling and the tagging of relevant colleagues.

Cloud

The strategic importance of Microsoft Cloud was reflected in a number of significant announcements at Ignite.

For instance, several advances in Microsoft’s industry-specific clouds programme were revealed. This programme combines Azure, Dynamics 365, Microsoft Teams and Power Platform capabilities into cloud-based services directed at specific vertical markets. There were initially two such markets (namely, healthcare and retail), but Microsoft has further announced the general availability of Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services and Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit.

The company also launched the Azure OpenAI Service which will give Microsoft Cloud customers access to OpenAI’s ground-breaking GPT-3 natural language model platform. Not only does the new service provide access to the powerful GPT-3 models, it also offers security, compliance, reliability, data privacy and other enterprise-grade capabilities that are built into Microsoft Azure. 

In addition, Microsoft is updating Azure Arc, its hybrid and multi-cloud solution, to enable Cloud-Scale analytics using Azure Synapse. It is also giving it deeper support for VMware vSphere, which will allow customers to manage carbon footprints, and providing new integrations with Azure Stack HCI. 

Azure Container Apps, a fully managed, serverless container service is now in preview, enabling users to build and develop modern apps using their favourite programming language or framework without needing to manage complex infrastructure.

Cybersecurity

Microsoft emphasised that “the Microsoft Cloud is built on trust and security,” and this focus was reflected in a slew of announcements in the area of cybersecurity.

One such announcement was Defender for Business, a solution for small- to medium-sized businesses, that will be coming soon to preview. It will be included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium and will also be available as a standalone. Crucially, the tool is easy to use and does not require any specialist security knowledge to install and handle the platform. Defender for Business covers everything from threat and vulnerability management to misconfiguration remediation, attack surface reduction, anti-malware and anti-virus protection.

And with cloud apps becoming ever-more popular for organisations, it was certainly no surprise to see an announcement about Defender for Cloud Apps (formerly known as Cloud App Security). This enhanced solution now provides better visibility and app governance. In particular, Defender for Cloud Apps includes security for more than 26,000 cloud apps, covering all major cloud app use cases.

A number of enhancements were also unveiled for Defender for IoT (formerly Azure Defender for IoT) including discovering and securing enterprise IoT devices like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones, smart conferencing systems and building automation.

Employee and customer experiences

First announced back in February, Microsoft’s new employee experience platform Viva is now generally available. It combines capabilities from Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 into a suite of applications designed to improve employee, manager and HR experiences, especially in remote-work environments. The apps are Viva Connections, Viva Learning, Viva Insight and Viva Topics. A new module, Ally.io, will be coming next year offering a way to build alignment and improve business outcomes.

Microsoft also announced a new Customer Experience Platform aimed at giving business the ability to directly connect with their customers and to predict customer intent with the help of AI. It uses customer data to create transactional, behavioural and demographical data that helps a business better understand its customers.

There were also three new Dynamics 365 features revealed - Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Insights, Voice Channel for Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces. The Supply Chain Insights feature is particularly welcome given the global supply chain crisis we currently find ourselves in, with the solution helping businesses to avert potential supply disruptions by giving them data ‘in near real-time’ from their various partners, including logistics partners, data providers and suppliers.

In summary, Microsoft Ignite is the conference at which Microsoft traditionally announces new features and capabilities across its ever-expanding product portfolio and this latest event was certainly no exception. The wide-ranging innovations clearly show the strides the company is taking to ensure its customers can address the challenges posed by rapid digital transformation and the increasing adoption of hybrid working.