Inspire 2020 – what were the highlights?

Microsoft’s Inspire global partner conference is always an important event, as it brings together distributors, vendors and the partner community. The 2020 event, held as an online event for the first time, was no different and included a number of exciting announcements in fast growing areas such as Teams, Azure and Microsoft 365. Here’s a quick overview of some of the most important ones:

Microsoft 365

• Microsoft Lists – a new app that allows users to track a whole raft of things, including  issues, assets, routines, contacts, inventory and more using customisable views, rules and comments to keep everyone in sync. Ready-made templates make it easy to start, and lists can be further extended with Power Platform integrations 
• New security, risk and compliance tools - these included the public preview of Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Double Key Encryption, new Insider Risk Management capabilities, and communication compliance tools in Microsoft Teams, all intended to help businesses protect their data more effectively
• Newly designed Yammer - an upgraded user experience for both web and mobile built with the Fluent Design System, providing new features and integrations including featured conversations and support for external guests in communities, powered by Azure B2B

Teams

• Together Mode - a new experience in Teams that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to digitally place participants in a shared background. This makes it feel like you are sitting in the same room - reducing background distractions and making it easier to pick up non-verbal cues that might otherwise be missed
• Microsoft Teams Rooms - provides a cloud-based IT service that includes 24/7 proactive management and monitoring delivered by Microsoft experts
• Microsoft Dataflex for Teams - a relational database now built into Teams at no additional cost. It enables users to build applications and workflows directly within Teams more easily than previously

Azure

• The next generation of Azure Stack HCI - version 20H2, available in preview, is designed for organisations that primarily want to run virtualised applications on hardware within their own data centres, while also accessing some Azure services. The product now has its own operating system and is based on an Azure monthly recurring subscription model
• Azure Lighthouse security enhancements - new additions including multi-factor authentication and privileged identity management support for Azure Lighthouse, which offers Azure management capabilities to managed services providers
• Azure Migrate features – enables users to conduct enhanced data centre assessments and includes the ability to import and create assessments using uploaded Configuration Management Database data and support for Azure VMware Solutions assessments

Dynamics 365

• Dynamics 365 Customer Voice – simplifies integration between Dynamics 365 and third-party business applications, enabling users to capture and incorporate real-time feedback with ready-to-use templates that include prebuilt questions, workflows and reports
• Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection - adds two new capabilities, these being Account Protection and Loss Prevention
• Dynamics 365 Connected Store – an AI tool that uses intelligent edge devices such as video data and IoT sensor data to deliver triggered alerts and actionable recommendations that can help to make retail spaces more efficient 

And finally, Microsoft and Citrix announced the latest agreement in their long-running collaborative partnership, with Citrix using Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud services provider and Microsoft promoting Citrix Workspace as a ‘preferred digital workspace solution’.

The two companies have also committed to provide joint tools and services for speeding the transition of on-premises Citrix customers to Azure. In addition, they said they would create a ‘connected roadmap’ that covers joint offerings comprising of Citrix Workspace, Citrix SD-WAN, Azure and Microsoft 365. These joint offerings will be sold through their respective direct sales forces via the Azure Marketplace and channel partners.