Microsoft Ignite 2020 was testament to everything we have seen from the brand this year – innovative, inspiring and transformative. The content of Microsoft’s annual conference was centered around three main topics: AI, Teams and innovation. However, what was of interest was the redoubled focus on remote meetings and collaboration. While there was an overwhelming number of updates, here are several key announcements we are looking forward to the most:
Microsoft Teams announced many new features that users are excited about. The most standout feature is the expansion of the number of individuals within a Teams suite. Currently the cap sits at 10,000 members, but later this year Microsoft plans to more than double this to 25,000 members per individual team which is staggering. Here’s a list of more major changes coming our way to Teams:
- Updated meeting features for 1:1 calls such as live captions, recording, transferring between mobile and desktop apps and transcripts.
- Microsoft Teams Panels can be mounted outside a meeting space to simplify meeting room management by giving users the power to quickly view room and meeting details, reserve a space, view upcoming reservations and easily identify current availability status.
- Personalized “Together Mode Scenes” allow you to select where you would like to virtually be during your call (think coffee shop or auditorium)
- Breakout Rooms
- Customizable Praise badges
- Updated search feature makes it easier to find messages and people
- Collaborative calling which is beneficial specifically to companies with IT Help Desks and hotlines as it allows you to have a call queue
Microsoft 365 has many exciting updates also coming, including an updated IT Pro which is adding Microsoft Tunnel for remote access to on-premises support for Shared iPad for Business. Here are some more 365 updates we can’t wait to see:
- Updated Cortana features coming to Teams and Windows 10
- Outlook is updating their Mac capabilities using Microsoft Sync technology
- Excel is now allowing users to directly connect to live Power BI datasets
Security remains a top priority and that was the case at Ignite 2020. Most notably, you can now manage threats with new updated features from Azure Sentinel which includes User and Entity Behavior Analytics and Threat Intelligence enhancements. More updates include:
- Enhanced Azure Defender extended detection dashboard in the Security Center
- Now supports protecting on-premises and multicloud protection for SQL Server
- New Azure Security Center Inventory
- Support for header-based authentication in Azure Active Directory Application Proxy
If you want to take a deep dive in to all of the exciting announcements that were made at this year’s event, check out the 2020 Book of News and the on-demand content available still available to watch.
As a Microsoft gold partner, we can help you navigate these changes and how they can affect your Microsoft investment.
