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  • Microsoft Ignite 2023 recap

    Microsoft Ignite 2023 recap

    It’s that time of the year again. Not Christmas. Microsoft Ignite time!

    This year I decided not to go to Seattle, but instead follow it virtually from home. I can say now when Microsoft Ignite is over that I’ve had a severe case of FOMO the last couple of days, by just seeing all the pictures it looked like it was a really awesome event!

    But since MS Ignite is over, it means that it’s time for a recap. What did I find most interesting?

    For starters. There was a clear theme this year. AI, AI, Copilot, Copilot and Copilot. 😂

    Oh, and the picture in the top of this post is of course created using AI!

    Windows 365

    There was a bunch of new things released within Windows 365 at Ignite, and Windows 365 actually got time in the main keynotes!

    New Windows app – A preview of a new app to support not only Windows 365 and Cloud PC, but to also give you all your Azure Virtual Desktops, DevBox and published apps in the same place. The cool thing is that it’s also platform independed so we will see the same experiance on all major platforms going forward. You be able to have a “Windows” app on your iPad.

    Windows 365 GPU support – Microsoft announced that GPU support for graphic design work is coming to Windows 365, and this will really be great for a lot of customer scenarios! It will be really interesting to see the pricetag on the GPU SKU, I would kind of guess that you really need to have a good business case and not just have it’s because GPUs are cool…

    Windows 365 AI capabilities – It was also announced that you as an IT admin will be able to get AI based recommendation on sizing the Cloud PCs. This to help improving cost efficiency and user sattisfaction. Preview will be released soon.

    Single-sign on (SSO) and passwordless authentication – SSO and passwordless has for quite some time now been in preview in the Intune portal, but it’s not in general availability. This also applies to approved AVD providers!

    Watermarking, screen capture protection, and tamper protection – in order to increase security and prevent dataloss, these features which have been in public preview for a while are now in general availablity on both Windows 365 and AVD.

    Windows 365 Customer Lockbox – To ensure that Microsoft support engineers can’t access content to do service operations without explicit approval, you can use Customer Lockbox. This is similar to other Customer Lockbox within the Microsoft ecosystem. This is in public preview.

    Windows 365 Customer Managed Keys – I think this is a pretty cool update. You will soon be able to use your own encryption keys for encrypting the Windows 365 Cloud PC disk.

    Windows

    Eventhough Microsoft Build is usually where we see most Windows news, there were a couple during Ignite this year.

    Copilot in Windows – This was actually announced at the event earlier this fall and went in to public preview for selected markets on the 1st of November. During Ignite Microsot announced that it will go into general availablity in December, so let’s cross out fingers Europe is included!

    Windows Autopatch for frontline workers– Windows Autopatch is not new, but Windows Autopatch is now included in the Microsoft 365 F3 subscription to ensure frontline workers are kept up to date.

    Windows Autopilot and Windows Update for Business merging – Microsoft is streamlining the interface to handle updates

    Microsoft Intune

    There were a few big announcements for Microsoft Intune, and I would say the two biggest were around macOS management, Security Copilot in Intune and the Intune Suite.

    MacOS management – Microsoft has for a while now been very loud about their story around macOS and Intune, and we are now starting to see the outcome of this. I wouldn’t say that there were that much news related to Ignite around this, but they were pushing for that Intune is now in the forefront of device management for Mac, which means that you no longer need to have Jamf or such to have extensive macOS management.

    Security Copilot for Intune – As part of the Copilot and Ai journey we are on, Security Copilot will help you dentify annomolies or issues in your environment. It will help you analyze big chunks of data in no time to find security related events. But Security Copilot is more than that, it will also integrate in Microsoft Intune to help you create new policies or figure out how to solve issues that arrises. This will be such a great feature for many admins out there!

    Microsoft Intune suite updates – Microsoft Intune Suite was announced back in March this year and has so far mostly been focues on Endpoint Privilegde Management and Remote Help. Microsoft has now announced three more features that are coming; Enterprise App Management, Advanced Analytics and Cloud PKI. These three additional services will make the Intune Suite bundle even better and are expected to all be available in February of 2024.

    Summary

    To be honest, this years focus at Ignite was Copilot. The word “Copilot” is mentioned 289 times in the book of news. That kind of set the tone for Ignite. Don’t get me wrong, I’m super excited for Copilot but this year was crazy!

    Any how, lot of cool stuff coming out of Ignite this year and I think we will see things moving even faster now around AI since post-Ignite there has been some news around people from OpenAI joining Microsoft… What a time to be alive!

    One thing that I take with me is that next year, I want to go to Seattle and be there in person. My feeds has been filled with Ignite related pictures and the FOMO has been real!

  • Ignite reflections

    Ignite reflections

    Ignite 2021 Fall edition is over, and I honestly needed some time to process what was announced.

    This year time there was quite a lot of things around device for once, but the general “Teams Teams Teams Teams” was gone and was more “MFA MFA MFA MFA” to quote a former colleague.

    I think one of the bigger things with Ignite this time was not that there were a bunch of new cool things (even though that was awesome). The biggest thing was that you could start to see the synergies and relations between several products that has felt disconnected. It was no longer “yet another collaboration tool” when they announced Microsoft Loop, it integrates to existing things like Outlook or Teams. Microsoft Loops builds on the fluid framework which was introduced a while back and has now become something! That was my biggest take away this time, that now we are starting to see a more connected range of products again. This was referred to during Ignite as digital fabric, so a new cool buzz-word to use!

    There was also some sweet news in the device management area, like a remote assistance tool from Microsoft (finally) and welcomed additions to Windows 365 like Azure AD Join.

    In case you missed it, here is the Book of news containing all new cool things!

    I’ve gathered a list of my highlights down below.

    Device stuff

    My top 5 from a device perspective:

    I’ll also include a link to the summary of all things MEM related, you can find it here!

    Microsoft 365 stuff

    My top 5 from a Microsoft 365 perspective:

    • Microsoft Loop – The fluid framework has gotten a new name and practical application which integrates into other M365 services
    • Teams updates – It’s not Ignite without Teams updates. I think the coolest one was the Mesh support, but also Shared Channels which improved the experience when working with external parties
    • Updates to OneDrive – OneDrive for macOS will get an improved user experience and support for ARM. OneDrive will also get support for Universal Print
    • ClipChamp – Okay, this was a little outside the box, but Microsoft announced ClipChamp which is a new video editing app
    • Microsoft Viva – Microsoft Viva, which I found very interesting after the spring edition of Ignite, has reached General Availablity.

    And of course, the overview for Microsoft 365 which you can find here!

  • Key take-aways from Ignite 2020

    Key take-aways from Ignite 2020

    Ignite 2020 was a bit different from previous Ignite to say non the less. Instead of having an in-person event in New Orleans, the experience this year was a 100% digital.

    It was as always, a bit overwhelming with a lot of interesting sessions, but you didn’t have to walk between sessions. Oh, and the coffee was really good this year!

    Looking at what was covered from the modern workplace at Ignite this year there was one common theme. Remote working and the new normal that Covid-19 creates. There was a lot of talk about how the world has changed the playing field for remote work and that we might never go back completely to how it was before. Something that I find very intriguing since this is an areas I’m passionate about.

    If you would only watch two of the sessions from Ignite 2020, I would really recommend that you watch Satya Nadella’s keynote on Building Digital Resilience and Jared Spataro’s keynote on The Future of Work. Those two were really good!

    This was a year for refinements from device management. New options for what you can do during Windows Autopilot and Co-management/tenant attach. A lot of new things which will help a lot of companies on the road to transition from traditional management to modern management! If you want to geek out, here are all the Endpoint Manager related sessions, all the Teams sessions and all the Office 365 sessions.

    Microsoft Tunnel

    On of the things that really cought my eye on an early stage was Microsoft Tunnel, which is a Microsoft VPN solution without the need for any third party licenses. I think this will be very beneficial for scenarios where you are utilizing Microsoft solutions for VPN for Windows and don’t want to invest in additional services for your mobile devices.

    Microsoft Tunnel is in public preview and is available on iOS and Android. You can read all about it here.

    Microsoft Edge

    Microsoft has been pushing the new Edge for a while now, and for a good reason too!

    It’s a really good browser, built on Chromium but with Microsoft integrations. I’ve been using this browser since it first came out, and it’s really good now.

    Microsoft is pushing it even more now and was also highlighting the Internet Explorer compatibility mode.

    BUT the big thing for Ignite was Application Management for Edge on Windows 10 which brings the Application Protection Policy features from the mobile platforms to the desktop Edge browser. This means that you can manage just the application instead of the whole device. Additionally, Microsoft Edge will support the new Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention (DLP) service which will be launched in October from day one.

    There were a bunch of other improvements to Edge presented as well, you can read all about it here.

    Microsoft Teams

    If you think there were a lot of new improvements introduced for Microsoft Endpoint Manager, it was nothing compared to Microsoft Teams.

    It’s becoming increasingly clear that Microsoft Teams should not be considered a product, it’s a platform.

    There were so many new things ranging from power platform and low-code solution for automated workflows to improved meeting experiences and wellbeing.

    A few of the highlights that caught my attention were:

    • Breakout sessions
    • Custom layouts and new together scenes
    • Wellbeing and productivity insights
    • Improved first-line workers functionallity

    You can read more in details here.