10 cool unveilings from Microsoft Ignite 2018 so far

Microsoft has made a number of big announcements in just the first two days of its Ignite 2018 conference in Orlando. 
From a plan to ditch passwords and upgrades to SQL server scalability, to the open data initiative chief executive Satya Nadella spoke of during his keynote, there is lots to take in. 
In the following slides, we highlight some of the most interesting Microsoft products, services and initiatives announced so far at Ignite 2018.  

Open Data Initiative

To tackle the persistent issue of business data existing in numerous silos, Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella announced that Microsoft was forming a new partnership to tackle the issue, the Open Data Initiative, with two other leading software companies, SAP and Adobe.

The three companies are bringing out a common data model to improve interoperability and data exchange between their applications— Microsoft Dynamics 365; SAP C/4HANA and S/4HANA; and the Adobe Experience Cloud and Adobe Experience Platform.

The data model "will provide for the use of a common data lake service on Microsoft Azure," Microsoft said in a news release.

Ditching passwords

Microsoft unveiled a plan that will allow businesses using Microsoft Azure Active Directory to regiment password-free login to almost anything that can be integrated with Microsoft Authenticator. 

“The Authenticator app replaces your password with a more secure multi-factor sign-in that combines your phone and your fingerprint, face, or PIN,” wrote Microsoft corporate vice president of security Rob Lefferts in a blog earlier this week. 

“Using a multi-factor sign-in method, you can reduce compromise by 99.9 percent, and you can make the user experience simpler by eliminating passwords. No company lets enterprises eliminate more passwords than Microsoft. Today, we are declaring an end to the era of passwords.”

Windows Virtual Desktop

Windows Virtual Desktop is a cloud-based service announced this week that allows users to run a version of Windows 10 through Microsoft Azure.

The service delivers “a multi-user Windows 10 experience, optimised for Office 365 ProPlus and includes free Windows 7 Extended Security Updates”, according to a company blog post. 

Microsoft added that the offering was “the most scalable service to deploy and manage Windows virtual machines, using Azure for compute, storage, rich diagnostics, advanced networking, connection brokering, and gateway.” 

“You no longer need to host, install, configure, and manage these components yourself—so you can deploy and scale in minutes.  

Office 2019

Microsoft launched the newest version of its on-premises Office suite on 24 September. 

Office 2019 is available now for volume license customers, and will become available to all customers, consumer and commercial in the coming weeks. 

Like the 2016 version, the suite is available as a one-time purchase. It includes versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, with Publisher 2019, Access 2019, Project 2019 and Visio 2019.

Microsoft Windows Server 2019

While general availability won’t actually come until October, Microsoft has well and truly taken the wraps off Windows Server 2019, announcing this week that Windows Server 2019 is coming next month, and bringing with it advancements in four key areas: 

• Hybrid, including features like Azure Backup, Azure File Sync, and a new Storage Migration Service; 
• Security, with Shielded VMs, and updates to Windows Defender and Defender Exploit Guard to protect against zero-day and malware attacks; 
• Application platform and developer enhancements; 
• Support around hyperconverged infrastructure through partnerships with the likes of Axellio, Dell EMC, HPE, Fujitsu, NEC, Hitachi, Huawei, Inspur, Lenovo and others.

Surface Hub 2 coming in 2019 

Microsoft revealed the newest iteration of its large-display Surface would start to ship in 2019.

The Surface Hub 2S, will ship in the second half of 2019 and offers a thinner, lighter touch panel than the original Surface Hub.

In 2020, Microsoft will follow the release of the Surface Hub 2S with updated Surface Hub 2X, allowing to users to tile, rotate and enable multi-user log in.

Microsoft is even flagging that a Surface Hub 2S can be updated to a 2X by means of removable processor cartridges. 

Azure Firewall

Microsoft corporate vice president of Azure Networking Yousef Khalidi took to the Microsoft Azure blog on 24 September to reveal Microsoft had announced general availability of Azure Firewall, which had been in public preview since July, as well as enhancements to to DDoS protection and Web Application Firewall.

“Protecting applications from malicious intent is critical and having full access control for all resources is critical. The cloud can help you embrace a zero-trust security posture as well as a DevOps model for managing security. Scaling, managing and understanding security polices becomes much easier with cloud native solutions,”  Khalidi said.

Azure IoT Central

Microsoft’s Azure IoT Central is a managed global IoT SaaS solution designed to simplify connecting to, monitoring and managing IoT assets.

Azure IoT Central entered general availability on 24 September, having been in public preview since late last year.

Azure Virtual Wan and networking tools

Microsoft’s corporate VP of Azure Networking Yousef Khalidi also revealed new Expressroute modules and the general availability of Azure Virtual WAN. 

Azure Virtual WAN is a service which is designed to give organisations branch-to-branch connectivity through Azure, according to Redmond Channel Partner’s Scott Bekker, who wrote of of the service: 
“Customers can configure branch devices manually to connect to Azure Virtual WAN, or they can work with partners who automate the process. Microsoft lists a number of preferred partners already, including Barracuda Networks, Check Point, Citrix, NetFoundry, Palo Alto Networks, Riverbed Technology and 128 Technology.”

New neural text-to-speech service 

Microsoft this week also touted Neural Text-to-Speech, a new text-to-speech service now available in in preview through Azure Cognitive Services Speech Services. 

The service, according to Microsoft, ‘uses deep neural networks to make the voices of computers nearly indistinguishable from recordings of people’. 

Microsoft claims NTT’s offers natural prosody and clear articulation of words, a leap beyond the duller tones we’ve come to known from text-to-speech services.