MICROSOFT INSPIRE 2020, July 21-22

Once again Inspire, the annual event dedicated to Microsoft’s partner ecosystem, has been an opportunity for Microsoft to announce important news about Azure, Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 and how these technologies will help partners to support companies around the world in their digital transformation path.

Below you can find a summary of the main points covered:

Microsoft offers new opportunities to manage business in a changing business environment.
• Multi-Factor Authentication and Privileged Identity Management support comes to Azure Lighthouse in response to customer feedback.
• The number of playbooks in Microsoft’s Cloud Practice series continues to expand with two new texts: “Microsoft Azure Center of Excellence”, to help partners scale an Azure-based practice; and “App Innovation Practice Development”, dedicated to how partners can leverage Microsoft technologies to meet the demand for cloud-based applications.
• Two new services for Lenovo Managed Services are designed to help SMBs make the most of Microsoft solutions for productivity, security and collaboration.

Power Platform and Dynamics 365 to manage the return to the office.
• Microsoft Power Platform offers new features that allow companies to safely return their workforce, constantly monitoring office conditions and taking timely action.
• Some new features of Dynamics 365, help sellers and merchants to accelerate their digitization, to understand and respond to the needs of their customers and to face the recovery phase.

Azure: the right Cloud Solution for Companies.
• Azure Stack HCI, Microsoft’s new hybrid cloud portfolio, now in public preview, offers hybrid functionality to customers’ datacenters, allowing them to capitalize on existing expertise and investments. Partners already offering Azure Stack HCI solutions include Dell EMC, HPE and Lenovo.

• Azure Migrate’s new features allow you to respond to changes in a very short time, offering richer assessments of data centers, enabling server migration and introducing new features for containerisation applications. Microsoft has also included support for Azure VMware Solution assessments.

Microsoft 365 and Teams: new features for a secure and collaborative work environment.
• Partners will have new opportunities to enrich the Teams user experience with third-party applications and services that can make meetings more interactive, engaging and effective.

• New Teams features make it easier for Firstline Workers to access information and apps and collaborate with colleagues. The “Communities” mode allows direct access from Teams to announcements, updates, discussions and Yammer events; the “Walkie Talkie” feature, now in public preview, enables push-to-talk communications; and other new features simplify shift management and task assignment for Firstline Managers.

• Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention, now publicly previewed within Microsoft 365, helps customers identify and protect endpoint information. Thanks to its integration with Windows 10, Microsoft Edge and Office applications, the new functionality can be implemented quickly. In addition, integration with Teams, Exchange and Sharepoint DLC policies gives customers the highest assurance of compliance throughout the Microsoft 365 suite.

• Improvements to the Power Platform experience within Teams make it an even more central hub for teamwork and process management. For example, “Microsoft Dataflex”, a relational database integrated into Teams at no additional cost, allows customers to create, deploy and manage apps and chatbots via Power Apps and Power Virtual Agents without ever having to leave Teams.

• Universal Print is a new Microsoft 365 solution that simplifies and protects the printing experience for customers migrating to the cloud.