Microsoft’s annual Ignite conference from Tuesday to Thursday, has already been eventful for the myriad of new products and features the company has unveiled.
Many of the new tools are designed to help companies meet the challenge of doing business in the COVID-19 era and hybrid work. Here’s a look at some innovations in Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Dynamics 365, Azure, security platforms and more.
New Microsoft Teams features
Videoconferencing and other unified communications and collaboration tools are in high demand with remote and hybrid work the new normal, and Microsoft Teams is playing a big role in that solution.
New features in Teams include new Together mode scenes and custom layouts that make presented content more engaging, like bringing the presenter’s video feed into the foreground of the shared content screen.
New features and devices in Microsoft Teams Rooms to support health and safety as some employees return to the office, including the Room remote app, Teams casting and deeper integrations with Microsoft’s virtual assistant Cortana.
Well-being insights in Teams, including a virtual commute that brings structure to long workdays from home and integrations with wellness apps like Headspace.
Security
Microsoft is unifying all of its XDR capabilities and rebranding them as Microsoft Defender, which is inclusive of Microsoft 365 Defender and Azure Defender.,
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is now available for all major platforms, with the general availability of protection for Android devices along with a preview for iOS.
Also included in Azure Defender is a new unified dashboard experience with Azure Security Center that gives IT and security professionals visibility into alerts and which resources are being monitored. Microsoft says Azure Defender has new protections for SQL on-premises, Azure Kubernetes, Azure Key Vault and IoT.
Thanks to a new integration with CyberX’s agentless capabilities for securing unmanaged devices, Azure Defender for IoT now protects industrial IoT, operational technology and building management systems.
Microsoft also announced a new Compliance manager to help customers address increasing regulations, a new decentralized identity pilot and new connectors and APIs to help protect identities, apps and services across cloud environments.
Cloud services
Microsoft announced new capabilities in Dynamics 365 to help customers digitize their operations, like a new first-party voice channel for Dynamics 365 Customer Service built on Azure Communication Services. The new feature integrates voice into existing omnichannel capabilities for an end-to-end customer experience with a single solution built on the Microsoft cloud.
Two new add-ins for Dynamics 365 Supply Chain management, Cloud and Edge Scale Unit and Inventory Visibility enable customers to quickly respond to changing supply and demand.
Azure Communication Services, a new suite of tools that allow developers to deliver enterprise-grade communications across devices and platforms using the same platform that powers Microsoft Teams.
Other new features to help enterprises on their journey to the cloud and hybrid environments include Azure Arc-enabled servers, Azure Arc-enabled services and Azure Stack Edge.
Microsoft is also updating Azure Cognitive Services with new capabilities that will help organizations deploy artificial intelligence responsibly with new features like Metrics Advisor Preview and Spatial analysis.
For a complete list of Ignite announcements, visit the official website.
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