Microsoft Ignite 2022: what’s new for Microsoft?

Every year businesses eagerly anticipate the Microsoft Ignite conference, and the application and software development announcements that accompany it. This year’s Ignite saw a focus on application development that brings tangible benefits to businesses, with Microsoft developers expediting and smoothing out existing services. There was also a further focus on security, with endpoint management and cloud services receiving security updates.

At the time of closing, this year’s conference had seen over 300 product and development announcements; continue reading to discover the highlights of this year’s Ignite, and what they mean for your business.

Developments in Teams

Whilst last year’s Ignite conference primarily shone the spotlight on Mesh for Teams, this year’s conference highlighted more immediate changes for users .A host of new features were announced, that will continue to improve the Teams experience for users; these updates span two aspects of Teams - meetings and chats. The primary updates within meetings are:

Cameo: The new cameo feature seamlessly merges a PowerPoint Live presentation with the user’s camera feed, allowing users to fully personalise their presentation appearance.

Together Mode: This new feature is aimed at improving communication and togetherness, making users feel as though they’re sharing a room whilst in virtual meetings. Organisers and presenters can even assign seats to meeting participants.

Excel Live: Whilst in meetings users can collaborate on live Excel workbooks, making real-time changes from any device.

Collaborative annotations: By using the in-meeting toolset and Whiteboard canvas, users can react, draw and type in response to meeting content.

Polls: Users are able to make quick, informed decisions with the help of Polls for Teams. Polls has been billed as an ice-breaker feature for meetings, encouraging participation and collaboration.

There are also a number of updates and new features being rolled out within the Teams chat function:

Video clips: Users can now record and send short video clips, giving chat conversations a more personal feel.

Expanded reactions: The number of Teams emojis is being expanded, now encompassing over 800 options that will allow users to accurately convey their reactions and emotions.

Suggested replies: Group chat suggested replies are a newly rolled out feature, previously only being available in one-on-one conversations. Users can now select a pre-written suggested response, streamlining communication.

Schedule send: Users can now schedule Teams messages to be delivered at a later date and time, delaying message delivery.

Delete chat: Users can now easily remove themselves from group or one-on-one conversations without impacting upon other chat members.

Undoubtably users will be excited at the prospect of updates and features that have been designed with utility and ease in mind, Microsoft are placing a significant focus on the streamlining of their users’ days. All highlighted updates are either already available to users, or will be rolled out before the end of the year.

Security Announcements

In recent years Microsoft has made significant investment in its security offerings, recognising a global need for integrated security solutions. According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, users of Microsoft’s security products suite “save more than 60 percent when they turn to us as compared to a multi-vendor solution”. It’s arguably thanks to the major developments and investments of recent years that such savings can be made, and users are eager to discover what this year’s security announcements mean for their security posture and budget.

For 2022, the primary security developments that have been announced are related to automatic ransomware attack disruption in Defender, a new public preview of Microsoft Entra Identity Governance, and Defender for DevOps. Whilst there are a number of updates to be explored, we highlight the key benefits for business below.

Defender for Cloud: Microsoft have introduced new previews for Defender for Cloud, previewing a DevOps service designed to give visibility across multiple development operations environments from a centrally managed location. The previewed service is also intended to improve and strengthen cloud resource configurations in code, prioritising remediation of critical issues.

Automation in Defender: Microsoft have developed and rolled out a new feature that automatically recognises and disrupts attempted ransomware attacks, a crucial security feature for businesses across the globe. The new automation feature works by collecting and correlating signals from endpoints, identities, emails, documents and cloud applications - this isolates and contains ransomware on an affected endpoint.

Improved Endpoint Management: an upcoming release will be the newly improved and revised endpoint management features of Microsoft Intune. Admins will now have improved control of mobile devices and endpoints, also elevating standard users with administrative permissions through watertight policy.

Microsoft Services to Benefit Your Business

If your business utilises Microsoft products and services, it’s worthwhile investing some time getting into the details of this year’s Ignite conference. Whilst we’ve provided an overview of the products and services that will greatly benefit your business, there are a plethora of other new updates that can streamline your business processes.

At Fitzrovia IT we have a long-established partner relationship with Microsoft; our team can provide expert insight and assistance in reviewing, implementing and developing your usage of Microsoft systems. To find out more about Microsoft, it’s services, and how they can benefit your business, contact us today.