Digging into the Microsoft Ignite announcements

By April Edwards, Senior Cloud Advocate and DevOps Practice Lead

24/10/2022

Tags
TechNet UK

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Hello Everyone!

Grab a cup of coffee (preferably a pumpkin spice latte for me) and get ready for this packed article! Microsoft Ignite took place last week, with various in-person events across the globe. It’s exciting to be back and in-person for events again!

With Microsoft Ignite each year there are A TON of product announcements. Before I dive into some of my favourites, I want to talk about the in-person experience here in the UK.

While the main event was broadcast live from Seattle, the UK offered a local viewing of the event with in-person talks over two days, October 13th and 14th. The UK Spotlight featured speakers and sessions from our UK-based partners, MVPs and other internal Microsoft Experts. The reality is we were limited on in-person numbers, so Microsoft had to develop an event that was truly virtual. Also, we had to make many schedule changes due to people getting Covid or having other personal circumstances arise. This seems to be the new normal for in-person events, and we have to pivot.

The tagline for Microsoft Ignite this year was ‘Do more with less’, really focusing on easier adoption to the cloud and increasing innovation, all while delivering this more securely. The UK leveraged the fact that they were hosting in Manchester, which happens to be the fastest growing city for tech in the UK.

The event brought home a feel of community and innovation local to the UK. There was a huge focus on filling the skills gap that we have, showing the success of others, and driving innovation with UK customers. I was extremely fortunate to be the host for this event and was able to interview folks from several universities that are changing the way we deliver education, by focusing on diversity, an adaptive curriculum and providing students with the tools to be successful in the industry. I also was able to interview people from Manchester City Council on how they drive inclusion into how they hire and how they have taken a diverse approach to their teams.

The UK event really focused on how others achieved success and we ensured their stories were heard so that others can build off of others’ success. Now, let’s take a look at some of the highlights from the technical sessions from Ignite:

Low Code/Power Platform – I don’t know how to write code! That’s okay, because Microsoft has developed some amazing tools to enable you to build websites, introduce automated workflows, process documents and build apps with low to no code. When you’re looking for ways to create automation without any coding background, check out low code options and take advantage of free training. There is also an opportunity to earn a free exam voucher!

Hybrid – We’re all about hybrid! There were announcements around the new Azure Arc-enabled SQL server, managing Azure Kubernetes Service with Azure Arc, and brand new features around Azure Stack HCI. I love the new feature of Azure Elastic SAN, completely scalable!

AI – There were a lot of cool features added to Microsoft products that allowed for the use of more languages, better accuracy, and overall better media experiences. One of the cool things they announced was the Responsible AI Dashboard, which is geared around making responsible AI decisions and helping customers to make more data-driven decisions. The AI and ML updates are leveraging what we can do with our data.

Security – Security is for everyone! We dedicated day two of Ignite in the UK to security and it’s great to see it at the forefront of everything we do. Personally, I am excited to see how we’ve launched more features for Microsoft Defender, Purview, endpoints (including InTune), M365 and even AKS and Azure Virtual Desktop. You can read about the announcements here.

Windows – While there have been some updates around Windows Government capability and the Windows 365 App, I’m excited to see the introduction of Organizational Messages on Windows 11. Personally my email is a black hole, so being able to send and view important messages to our organisations is great for reminding people of important updates and training, while it de-clutters our inboxes!

You can catch up on the entire Microsoft Ignite Book of News and look at all of the updates.

During Ignite, the Cloud Skills Challenge was launched. Sign up for free learning paths with the opportunity to earn a free exam voucher! Choose the challenge that is right for you, complete it, earn your free exam voucher!

Before we go, I just want to say that the PowerShell team did NOT get a session in at Ignite. To remediate this, they have put together a PowerShell 7 Unplugged video. It covers off how to install PowerShell 7 all the way to the latest features, including their latest roadmap. Check it out!

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, enjoy the beautiful autumn colours and stay safe!