Microsoft Inspire brings a large dose of knowledge, inspiration and an occasion to exchange experience with partners from all over the world. We could not miss it! After last year’s event in Washington, this time the meeting took place in Las Vegas. From July 15 to 19, we participated in the largest Microsoft partners event. We heard a lot about the plans for the upcoming months, strategic goals, and we learned what more we can do to offer you even more benefits. There were also some important and difficult topics, including privacy and the world shaping role of modern technologies.
During last year’s event in Washington, Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella announced plans to launch Microsoft 365. He underlined the role of Cloud technologies, IoT, Big Data and AI. This year, the role of partnership in the process of Cloud-driven transformation was often emphasized. The partnership ecosystem of Microsoft consists of thousands of organizations which have an impact on the smooth functioning of companies all over the world. They complement the Microsoft team by providing Microsoft solutions to customers. That is why it is important to keep up to date with the manufacturer’s strategy and solutions. The Inspire Conference serves as a perfect opportunity to learn the direction of new technologies development and to see what is going to be popular in the next months. During the performances, we heard a lot about Cloud, AI, Mixed Reality and the Internet of Things.
Satya Nadella – Microsoft CEO – emphasized the importance of the event and the scale of global cooperation. He also pointed out that new technologies affect all spheres of life – being present not only in every office, but also in every home, stadium, factory, financial services centers, and many industries. He stressed that it is the IT world duty to protect human rights in terms of privacy, and the intelligent Cloud should be focused on people.
The CEO of Microsoft also drew attention to the scale of Azure platform global infrastructure, which includes 54 regions providing service, availability in 140 countries and up to 1,6 Pb/s bandwidth. No other Cloud provider can boast such a result. Nadella presented examples of organizations in which Azure, Azure Stack, Azure Sphere, Azure IoT and Microsoft 365 are used, including Chevron, Walmart, McDonald’s, Toyota, Walt Disney and Heathrow Airport.
The manufacturer announced several changes for Microsoft 365, including free of charge version of Teams service, intelligent functions for event management and analytical solutions enhancing teamwork. He also announced new Cloud solution and data management elements (including Azure Data Box Disk, Azure Virtual WAN and Azure Firewall). During Microsoft Inspire, we also learned that the third quarter of the fiscal year (the first quarter of calendar year 2018) brought an increase in Azure Cloud sales by 93%. It is a good prognosis for future months, as well as a clear signal pointing the direction many organizations are turning to.
