Monday, September 25, 2017

Microsoft launches new machine learning tools

 Microsoft, just like many of its competitors, has gone all in on machine learning. That emphasis is on full display at the company’s Ignite conference this where, where the company today announced a number of new tools for developers who want to build new A.I. models and users who simply want to make use of these pre-existing models — either from their own teams or from Microsoft.… Read More

Microsoft finally starts doing something with LinkedIn by integrating it into Office 365

 Last year, Microsoft bought LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, but even though the acquisition has long closed, Microsoft hasn’t yet done much with all of the data it gets from the social network. At its Ignite conference in Orlando, Florida, the company announced some first steps in integrating LinkedIn’s social graph with its Office products. Read More

Microsoft looks to the cloud to expand its security offerings

 Ignite is Microsoft’s main annual conference for bringing together its enterprise users and IT community. It’s no surprise then, that security is one of the main topics at the event, with about almost 150 sessions dedicated to the topic. And just as unsurprisingly, Microsoft is also using the event to announce a number of new security features, largely around its Microsoft 365… Read More

Bing now means business

 Unless you’re a regular Bing user, chances are you haven’t thought about Microsoft’s search engine all that much in recent years. While Microsoft has kept adding features to the service over time, its market share has remained pretty stable. At Microsoft’s Ignite conference in Orlando, however, Bing took center stage for a little while. Read More

Microsoft 365 expands with new plans for schools and frontline workers

 Microsoft today announced a major expansion to its Microsoft 365 offerings. The idea behind Microsoft 365 is to provide a single integrated solution that combines subscriptions to Office 365, Windows 10 and (depending on the plan you choose) the Enterprise Mobility and Security suite into a single bundle with prices that start around $12.50 per month and employee for the most basic tier.… Read More

Azure gets more affordable with reserved instances and new cost management features

 In case you didn’t know, Microsoft is hosting its annual Ignite conference in Orlando, Florida this week and while a lot of the event focuses on the company’s productivity apps, it wouldn’t be a Microsoft event without lots of talk about the Azure cloud computing platform, too. Among the updates to Azure today are the launch of reserved instances and the integration of… Read More

Microsoft is going all in on Teams and plans to phase out Skype for Business

 Microsoft Teams, the company’s Slack competitor with deep integrations into the Office 365 apps, has seen a lot of pickup over the last few months, with over 125,000 organizations now using it in one form or another. Maybe it’s no surprise, then, that the company today announced it is going all in on Teams as its core communications platform for the enterprise. Read More