CHICAGO, May 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Monday at its
first-ever Ignite Conference, Microsoft Corp. announced a range of
new products and services that help IT professionals lead their
companies in the new era of enterprise computing, including the
next generation of Windows management, Microsoft Office, hybrid
cloud infrastructure and SQL Server.
"No business can succeed and scale without IT innovating and
transforming," said Satya Nadella,
CEO of Microsoft. "Empowering IT professionals is a key part of
Microsoft's technology agenda spanning Windows 10, Office 365,
Azure and other cloud technologies."
Brad Anderson's Official
Microsoft Blog post about the company's focus on IT professionals
can be found here.
Speaking to more than 23,000 conference attendees, as well as
thousands of online viewers, Nadella showcased how Microsoft is
fueling IT pro innovation and success. He was joined on stage by
Jose Angel Sanchez, CEO of Real
Madrid C.F., winner of the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup and the FIFA
Best Club of the 20th Century.
"Real Madrid is a club with a great tradition of winning, and
our partnership with Microsoft for digital transformation will help
us win both on and off the field," Sanchez said. "The Microsoft
cloud and its entire product portfolio is helping us change into a
truly data-driven organization and to provide 450 million fans
around the globe with exclusive, personalized content and services
— before, during and after matches."
Today's announcements address multiple challenges and
opportunities for IT professionals:
More personal computing
- Windows Update for Business, introduced today, is a new
management option for Windows 10 to always keep devices up to date
with the latest security updates and Windows features. The new
solution will help reduce management costs, provide control over
update deployment, offer faster access to security updates and
critical fixes, and deliver the latest innovation from Microsoft on
an ongoing basis. The Windows Store for Business offers additional
manageability, enabling company decision-makers to acquire trusted
software or content for entire teams and companies.
- System Center Configuration Manager for managing Windows
10, available today in technical preview, gives IT professionals
expanded tools to deploy, update, manage and secure Windows 10, and
will integrate with Windows Update for Business. In addition, next
week, Microsoft will release service packs for existing
Configuration Manager 2012 and 2012 R2 customers, as well as an
update to Microsoft Intune for Windows 10 support.
Reinventing productivity
- Office 2016, available in broad public preview today,
brings in-app, real-time co-authoring to the rich Office desktop
applications used by over 1 billion people worldwide. Real-time
presence and the ability to see changes to text and formatting as
they happen will help co-workers and teams stay on the same page as
they create content.
- Skype for Business broadcasting, introduced today,
enables customers to broadcast meetings to up to 10,000
people. The service uses Azure Media Services for streaming audio,
video and PowerPoint presentations, and offers built-in
interoperability with Bing Pulse for sentiment tracking and Yammer
for audience conversations. Extensibility enables third parties to
add audience polling, formal Q&A and other functionality.
- Organizational analytics in Office Delve, introduced and
demonstrated today, is powered by the Office Graph, expanding upon
personalized insights from Office Delve to provide organizational
insights to individuals and teams from Office 365 data. A rich
dashboard measures, tracks and identifies key trends such as
engagement, reach and work-life balance across individuals'
interactions within their organization and with external
teams.
- SharePoint Server 2016, showcased today and in preview
later this year, will deliver enhancements and new capabilities
across new user experiences, compliance and reporting. The new
version gives on-premises SharePoint customers access to new
capabilities in the cloud through hybrid deployments with Office
365.
- Exchange Server 2016, also demonstrated at Ignite and in
preview later this year, delivers new features first delivered in
Office 365, such as a new approach to document collaboration,
faster and more intelligent search, improved eDiscovery, and
developer extensibility for mail, calendar and contacts.
Intelligent cloud
- Next-generation hybrid cloud. Introduced today
and in preview this summer, Microsoft Azure Stack brings the
Azure user experience and both infrastructure and
platform-as-a-service capabilities into customers' datacenters.
With Azure Stack IT teams can easily blend enterprise applications
with modern, distributed applications and services while
maintaining centralized oversight. Built on the same core
technology as Azure, Azure Stack extends Microsoft's investments in
secure, more flexible software-defined infrastructure. The next
preview of Windows Server 2016 is available today, providing
a premium platform for enterprise and cloud applications, with
technologies such as Nano Server, a
lightweight installation option. Available today, Microsoft
Operations Management Suite (OMS) is a cloud-based solution
that extends System Center capabilities for management across
almost any hybrid cloud, including Azure, third-party clouds such
as Amazon Web Services, Windows Server, Linux, VMware or OpenStack.
OMS extends System Center 2016, which is also available in
preview this week.
- SQL Server 2016, in preview this summer, takes a major
leap forward with a database and analytics platform that provides
breakthrough performance for mission-critical applications and
deeper insights on any data across on-premises and cloud. Key
capabilities include enhanced in-memory technologies with real-time
operational analytics, new security and encryption technologies,
built-in advanced analytics with the R language, and mobile BI for
on-premises data. The new Stretch Database capability is an
industry first that allows for cost-effective access to historical
data by dynamically stretching data to Microsoft Azure.
- Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics (ATA), technology
based on the recent acquisition of Aorato, is available in preview.
ATA helps IT security professionals identify security breaches and
threats, using behavioral analysis and machine learning to provide
clear, actionable information.
- Office 365 transparency and control enhancements,
highlighted at Ignite, give customers enhanced visibility and
security of their data residing within Office 365, including
Customer Lockbox that provides customers with explicit approval
rights for Microsoft interaction with their data. Office 365 is the
only productivity service to provide this level of customer
control.
More information and news from Ignite, such as a news fact
sheet, keynote presentations, links to product blog posts and
partner announcements, can be found at the Microsoft News
Center.
Readers can also follow and engage with the Microsoft Twitter
community at @MSFTNews and @MS_Ignite using #MSIgnite.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide
leader in software, services, devices and solutions that help
people and businesses realize their full potential.
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