Microsoft held their annual partner conference, Inspire, this summer in Washington.  At the   Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella delivered the keynote and began with a review of Microsoft’s mission:

        Empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more

Nadella explains that even though technology paradigms are constantly shifting and changing, the mission remains constant.   One example presented was the rapid shift from the mobile first/cloud first to a new paradigm described as the Intelligent Cloud.  The Intelligent Cloud Era is defined with three characteristics: Multi-device, Artificial Intelligence and Serverless computing (revolution) office environments.  More on these below.

In today’s business, every product and service has digital components associated with it.  No longer are we building digital information systems to keep track of products and services, now the products and services themselves are digital.

Microsoft provides a path for their customers’ digital transformation.  The four primary outcomes of the digital transformation are:

• Empower employees
• Engage customers
• Optimize operations
• Transform products

The goal of enabling these outcomes for their customers provides Microsoft with direction on how they design, build and distribute their products and solutions.  The digital transformation and the four outcomes enable companies to evolve into the modern workplace.

From a product standpoint the biggest announcement was the release of Microsoft 365. The Microsoft 365 package is an integrated and complete solution for intelligent teamwork and security.

Microsoft 365 is combination plan including the best of Microsoft’s cloud offerings, including Office 365, Windows 10, and EMS or Enterprise Mobility and Security.

Microsoft 365 comes in two offerings, Microsoft 365 Enterprise designed for the largest of businesses and Microsoft 365 Business for small and medium businesses.   Microsoft 365 Business is an innovative combination of products providing small and medium sized businesses with the same tools and sophistication advantages that any large business has in a very compelling package.

The primary advantages of Microsoft 365 include:

• Improve creativity
• Team collaboration
• Organizational transparency
• Security

Keep following our blog for more information on these in future posts.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What is Multi-device/multi-sense?

Multi-device/multi-sense is a method for users to not be bound to single device nor a single input/output.  For example, users may start their day on their phone, transition to a laptop, and back to a tablet for a meeting.  A multi-sense example would be using touch, speech, or pen/stylus (inking) to interact with devices.

What is artificial intelligence or AI?

Artificial Intelligence describes utilizing compute power to create reasoning and intelligence based on large amounts of the data being created by todays applications.  Examples of applications creating large amounts of data include: CRM systems, smart factories and hospitals, point of sale transactions in big box stores, and even autonomous cars.

What is serverless computing?

Serverless computing is an efficient computing platform to manage the complexity around how apps are developed, distributed, and managed.