What happened at Ignite 2020?

This year’s Ignite event was held digitally for the first time and included more than 800 sessions, presented live or on-demand. Here’s a quick run through some of the major announcements to give you a flavour of the new and upcoming technologies that were showcased.

SharePoint Syntex

Microsoft’s much talked-about ‘Project Cortex’, a knowledge management service originally envisaged as a single, centralised offering, is now going to be delivered as a number of add-ons to existing products. The first of these is SharePoint Syntex, which is based on machine learning technology and can be used to sort, tag, route and store content, such as expense reports and invoices, contracts and various other types of documents. The change in strategy is apparently the result of customer feedback following private previews.

SharePoint Syntex uses Azure’s AI Builder and LUIS (Language Understanding) cognitive service and will integrate with Microsoft Search, Cortana and Power Platform services.

Teams

Several new improvements were announced for Microsoft Teams, including:

• Breakout Rooms - this feature, which is now live, allows meeting organisers to divide participants into smaller groups within the broader meeting. This is ideal for a variety of functions such as facilitating workgroup discussions, brainstorming sessions or multi-tasking during a set timeframe 
• Together Mode - a key focus of Teams is meetings, so this new mode assists participants in feeling closer together, as though they were in a traditional group meeting in one room, though they may be physically dispersed. Future updates include the availability of auditorium, coffee shop or conference room settings. 
• Custom Layouts - the ability to use customised layouts which allows for greater personalisation and flexibility for users 
• Meeting Recaps – this will include a meeting recording, transcript, chat, shared files and more. The recap will be shared automatically in the meeting Chat tab and viewable in the Details tab, as well as being available in the meeting event in an Outlook calendar entry
• Collaborative calling – this functionality will help users share information more easily while on calls. This will be especially helpful for scenarios like helpdesks and hotlines, where users will be able to connect a call queue to a team’s channel

Edge browser on Linux

Microsoft’s new Chromium-based Edge browser on Linux, also known as ‘Chredge’, is now available to Insider testers. Microsoft already supports the new Edge browser on Windows 7, 8.1 and Windows 10, as well as on macOS.  

On a more general level, Microsoft Edge will release improvements to its PDF tools, allowing users to validate electronic signatures, add notes to PDFs and better navigate through documents and tables of content.

Azure

Two new innovations were announced for Azure Arc, which brings Azure management capabilities to any infrastructure and enables Azure services to run anywhere:

• Azure SQL Managed Instance and Azure Database for PostgreSQL can now run across on-premises data centres, multi-cloud and the edge 
• Azure Arc-enabled servers allow customers to organise and manage Windows and Linux servers (both physical and VMs) across multi-cloud, multi-edge environments from the Azure Portal

In addition, more devices and services have been added to the Azure Stack hybrid line-up. Perhaps the most significant of these is the availability of Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) on Azure Stack HCI, allowing customers to deploy and manage containerised apps at scale on Azure Stack HCI.

Power Platform

A host of new capabilities were announced for Power Platform. The most interesting were perhaps th low code updates for professional developers through an integrated Power Apps and Azure API Management experience, allowing to scale solutions through Power Apps with low-code and distribute through Microsoft Teams for massive scale.

In addition, there was good news for prospective users with the availability of Premium Per User, which now provides the capabilities of Power BI Premium on a per-user licence model as a new option for customers. This addresses the common customer request to provide a lower cost entry price point to get access to Premium capabilities. 

Get On 2021 aims to boost UK technology workforce

In other news, Microsoft is launching an exciting five-year campaign to help 1.5 million people build careers in technology and help 300,000 connect to technology job opportunities.

Working with organisations such as KPMG, Unilever and the Department of Work and Pensions, the initiative aims at addressing the widening digital talent gap in the UK. 

Confirmation of the importance of the campaign comes from LinkedIn data, which reveals the need for more than three million skilled people in UK technology careers over the next five years.

Get On 2021 will bring together programmes targeting education through to industry, focusing primarily on three key groups:

• People new to the technology industry - in education or leaving education and new to the world of work
• Upskillers – those looking to improve their skills and long-term career prospects, perhaps career switchers or those looking to return to the workplace
• Modernisers - IT professionals and business leaders looking to embrace new business models and deploy new technology

Clare Barclay, CEO of Microsoft UK, commented: “With hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs and some traditional sectors heavily impacted, we urgently need to invest in UK technical skills and capability to help realise our competitive potential. We want to help people get the right skills to thrive in technology careers, and employers find the right talent to help drive business success and UK prosperity. Together we can build a future based on long-term sustainable growth”.