Last week, Microsoft hosted Ignite 2020, the tech giant’s annual conference that centres on IT professionals and the businesses and productivity workers that they support. Each year, Microsoft showcase their enterprise products and services as well as provide valuable training attendees. The event is also always jam-packed with announcements of new features to its line-up of products, with this year being no exception, despite being held 100 percent virtually for the first time ever.
At the event this year, Microsoft remained focused on the changes and challenges bought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and how businesses who embraced digital transformation and the power of technology have been best able to efficiently shift and remain operating despite the disruption. The company hope that the new updates and features will help solve the immediate challenges businesses face, for example by boosting the productivity and security of office and home workers across the globe, while also setting them up for future success.
“We are experiencing digital transformation at epic speed,” Jared Spataro, Microsoft Corporate Vice President notes. “COVID-19 has accelerated secular trends in the ways we work and live, jumpstarting durable new habits that will persist well past the pandemic. Throughout 2020, as we’ve navigated the equivalent of a year of digital transformation every month, it’s IT pros who’ve led the way. When COVID-19 caused a sudden shift to remote work, IT pros brought entire organizations online – sometimes over a single weekend. They trained individuals and teams on essential new tools, quickly deployed custom apps, and vigilantly protected organizations from increasingly complex security threats. Now, as business leaders look to build resilient organizations and find new opportunities for expansion, they’re looking to IT pros for sustainable solutions to support them for the long haul.”
As an IT provider of over 15 years and a Microsoft Direct Cloud Solutions provider, we always try to stay on top of everything Microsoft. As a result, we are able to provide our customers with the best in-class solutions as well as offer advice to them on how to get the most from their investment. Here’s a rundown of some of the key takeaways from the 2020 event that stood out to us.
During the Coronavirus pandemic, Microsoft Teams, growth exploded exponentially. According to new data released by Microsoft in March, Teams usage jumped nearly 40 percent in a week with 44 million daily active users. The platform then skyrocketed another 70 percent by the end of April – Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that Teams usage has increased to more than 75 million daily active users.
At Ignite 2020, Microsoft announced serval new ways for organisations to drive success and empower their employees in an age of remote work by using Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft Azure is an ever-expanding set of cloud-based computing services. At the Ignite 2020 conference, Microsoft announced the previews of two new services; Azure Communications Services and Azure Orbital.
Microsoft will be making its first ever industry-specific cloud, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, generally available on October 30, 2020. The cloud is architected to comply with the regulatory needs of the healthcare industry and is an integrated solution combining the capabilities from Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the Microsoft Power Platform. They hope than in an ever-changing healthcare environment, it will help organisations in this industry set a course for recovery and resilience.
“Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare is how Microsoft, and our partner ecosystem, helps healthcare organizations re-imagine tomorrow:” said Microsoft. “by empowering everyone to deliver value faster, to make more impactful decisions to set a clear course for the future, and to adapt and transform with boundless agility. We’re helping shape and scale digital health capabilities that empower healthcare organizations to get inspired with insights, tools, resources, and rapidly build solutions to drive better experiences, insights, and care.
In 2016, Microsoft announced Dynamics 365, a set of intelligent business applications which would help organisations run their business and deliver greater results through the use of predictive, AI-driven insights. At Ignite 2020, Microsoft unveiled some new updates to Dynamics 365 which focus on the most critical centres for customer satisfaction, especially in today’s business climate: service and supply chain.
Since Microsoft made Power BI generally available over 5 years ago, their mission has been to help users drive a data culture, where every individual can make each of their decisions better informed by data. At Ignite 2020, Microsoft noted how they have been hard to work on this and have some exciting new capabilities to announce. Below are some of them.
These are just a handful of the hundreds of new capabilities and features Microsoft announced at Ignite this year. In today’s current climate, organisations will need to ensure they hardness new technologies and advancements like the ones we have spoken about in the blog, as well as the new levels of flexibility and efficiency that come with them, to remain resilient as the world changes around us. If you’re unsure where to start with using them, entrustIT have years of technical experience with Microsoft qualified technicians ready to help you get the most from your Microsoft investment. Please get in touch with the team on 0330 002 0045 or email enquiries@entrustit.co.uk for more information.