Our 5 Takeaways from Microsoft Inspire
Mike Sumption and I spent the better part of the week at the Microsoft Inspire conference. This is one of the largest conferences in the world with over 40,000 in attendance. Inspire dwarfs any previous conference I’ve attended by 10x or more. The sheer scale is somewhat unbelievable but is an amazing experience to be around such a passionate community of technology professionals. The ability to talk with partners and Microsoft employees directly about what they are working on is worth it alone not to mention the new vendors, sessions, etc. that are all part of this event. We had such an amazing time at this conference, and of course, we have so much to share. To spare you some time, we’ve distilled our takeaways down to only five, you’re welcome.
Takeaway #1:
Teams, Teams, Teams. Have you heard about Microsoft Teams? Microsoft announced during Inspire that Teams utilization has surpassed 13 million users, which means Teams is the fastest-growing Microsoft product, EVER! This platform is evolving daily and is designed to be the central place for teamwork and collaboration in Office 365. The entire conference was abuzz about the future of Teams from automation, to the new applications being added in the near future. Make sure your organization is having discussions about how you will make the switch. Check out this article on why we think Teams is the best collaboration software.
Takeaway #2:
2020 is the “Year of Azure Cloud Migrations”. Two years ago, when I attended Inspire, Azure and Cloud was a big focus for Microsoft but this year it was the ONLY focus. Hardware is for endpoints and collaboration; workloads are in the cloud. If you haven’t already now is the time to make the move to the Cloud.
Takeaway #3:
PowerApps / Flow / AI Builder – This is another major growth area for Microsoft and I see some cool opportunities in this space. AI Builder is part of PowerApps and I wanted to mention as it’s a platform I tested out while I was at Microsoft Inspire and I loved its functionality. Microsoft is building a no-code AI platform that can take raw data, train it, and turn it into a fully functional AI application. We really are living in the future!
Takeaway #4:
Security – Like us, Microsoft is very concerned about Security. They have tightened the reigns with partners like us, ensuring we hold ourselves to a top level of security, announcing the requirement of MFA requirements for all partners. Microsoft also launched a new Security Competency certification for engineers and is building security capabilities into both Azure (Azure Sentinel, etc) and Office 365 (MFA, CA, ATP, M365, SecureScore, etc). Lots more to come from Microsoft within the security world and we will keep you updated as they release more info.
Takeaway #5:
There’s lots more… those are the big ones that we wanted to highlight but some other cool things are coming from Microsoft. If you enjoy Minecraft go check out Minecraft Earth which leverages Azure Cloud Spatial Anchors to create Augmented Reality based on location. Or Google SQL Hyperscale to see how large they’ve been able to scale a SQL database in Azure.
Conclusion:
Overall, going to Microsoft Inspire helped us understand the landscape of what the next few years will hold. Here at Worksighted, we are energized by the future, and with these updates from Microsoft, it looks like we are in for a wild ride. If you want to talk to an expert on how these takeaways might affect you, make sure to drop us a line!
Check out the Corenotes from Microsoft for more info on the conference!
Worksighted Team
We are a team of over-enthusiastic people, ready to help our clients utilize technology to spur growth! We love technology and come to work every day eager to solve problems and find ways to impact our clients.
