Mesh for Teams is how Microsoft is planning to keep up with the Metaverse space. For Microsoft though, it will only mark the beginning of its Metaverse solutions which will cut across a host of its products. Mesh for Teams is an immersive 3D meetings experience enabled by the integration of Mesh and Teams. It is the next evolution of Microsoft’s mixed-reality product Mesh and collaboration tool Microsoft Teams. Preview will start rolling out in the first half of 2022.
Microsoft says Mesh will enable users to meet in traditional Teams meetings and immersive virtual spaces using personalized avatars. Using either a Personal Computer, mobile device, HoloLens or virtual reality headset. The avatars will enable participants to maintain a presence without turning on their cameras. Employees will also be able to collaborate using all of the Microsoft 365 productivity tools even in immersive spaces.
I can’t overstate how much of a breakthrough this is.
Satya Nadella
Microsoft metaverse, Mesh for Teams announced
Speaking at the Keynote event of Microsoft Ignite 2021, Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, announced the company’s plan on the metaverse space. Introducing two new solutions; Microsoft Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces and Mesh for Teams.
He noted that “as the digital and physical world come together we [Microsoft] are creating an entirely new platform layer which is the metaverse. The metaverse is not just transforming how we see the world, it’s changing how all of us actively participate in it“, he adds.
We are bringing people, places and things together with the digital world in both the consumers space as well as in the enterprise. When we talk about the metaverse we are describing both the new platform and new application types. We are building the metaverse platform for you to build upon. In a sense, the metaverse enables us to embed computing into the real world and to embed the real world into computing, bringing real presence to any digital space. I can’t overstate how much of a breakthrough this is. It’s no longer just looking at a camera view of a factory floor, you can be on the floor. It’s no longer just video conferencing with colleagues, you can be with them in the same room. It’s no longer just playing a game with friends, you can be in the game with them.
Satya Nadella
Microsoft says Mesh builds on the Together mode and Presenter mode features to keep meetings engaging and fun. It will roll out with a set of pre-built immersive spaces including meetings to social mixers. Organizations will get the opportunity to customize the spaces in future.
Facebook metaverse compared to the Microsoft metaverse
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Illusive, winner of the Identity Trailblazer award category at the second annual Microsoft Security 20/20 award event is announcing the Illusive Identity Risk Management for Microsoft Active Directory. The integrated solution combines the discovery, automated mitigation and protection of exploitable privileged identities.
Research from the Identity Defined Security Alliance shows that in the last two years 79% of organizations have had an identity-related breach. And Brendan O’Connell, chief product officer, Illusive, says despite significant investments in the current threat landscape to protect identity, the reality is that every organization has exploitable privileged identities.
“Illusive Identity Risk Management provides a much-needed solution to address a common gap in organizations’ security stack. Allowing them to avoid identity-related security incidents through the enablement of zero trust principles.”
Brendan O’Connell
“Illusive’s integration with Microsoft Azure Active Directory will enable organizations to discover privileged identities that are at risk of exploitation. Then mitigate these risks by dynamically stepping up Conditional Access policies. That will provide customers with the peace of mind that these most sensitive credentials are secure,” says Sue Bohn, VP Identity and Network Access division, Microsoft.
Benefits of protecting Azure Active Directory (AAD) with Illusive Identity Risk Management offering
Security & threat visibility on Active Directory and Azure
Visualize and automate the discovery of critical assets in AAD
Detect AAD misconfigurations for rapid remediation before attackers can take advantage
Detect insider threats attempting to leverage policy gaps between AD and AAD
Expose connections between privileged users on premise and in the cloud
Create AAD deceptions that provide high-fidelity threat detection
The integrated solution is now available for purchase from both Illusive and Microsoft. Through the Microsoft Azure Marketplace and from select, mutual value-added resellers and system integrators.
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GITEX Global 2021 is underway in Dubai and Microsoft is taking the opportunity to showcase its latest technological innovations in the areas of the future of work and sustainable smart cities. Alongside partners such as Schneider Electric, AVEVA, Digital Okta, Predica, Cloud 4C, Crayon, Rackspace, Liferay, TechVista, Intertec and Jedox.
Microsoft’s theme at GITEX Global 2021 is creating a “bolder digital future together”, with the company mapping out its vision for a more sustainable future. The event is taking place at the Dubai World Trade Centre till the 21st of October 2021.
few things are more pressing today than solving the issue of climate change
Microsoft is challenging everyone to imagine a more sustainable future this year says Sayed Hashish, General Manager, Microsoft UAE. He notes that the company is constantly striving to find solutions to the most pressing challenges of our time. He adds that few things are more pressing today than solving the issue of climate change.
“We have partnered with Schneider Electric, to bring Dubai’s sustainability vision to life. Our collaboration, running on Azure and powered by the Microsoft Cloud demonstrates how a combination of cutting-edge technologies can translate large amounts of data into actionable, sustainability-focused outcomes. This will turn urban environments from being part of the climate problem into becoming part of the solution. Together with our partners, we look forward to showcasing some of the ground-breaking innovations which will empower our customers to thrive in the digital economy and hybrid work environment.”
Sayed Hashish
You can find Microsoft and Microsoft partners on the event floor at Hall 7, dubbed the Microsoft hub. It houses an experiential center where you can have a hands-on with their products and solutions. Such as the Sustainable Smart City Command Center demo, Microsoft Teams, Viva Connections, Xbox, Windows 11 and Surface laptops. It also features a talk area for discussions, keynotes and workshops.
Microsoft says GITEX delegates will be able to try out its future of work products and solutions that allows employees to work, learn, and play under new flexible relationships with employers, all fuelled by the intelligent cloud. The company will also show how a balance can be struck between in-person and digital collaboration.
Last year the company focused on showcasing how it supports sustainable farming using AI, Edge and IoT,
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Microsoft is announcing the addition of Availability Zones to the South Africa North cloud region. Expanding the region to have three unique physically separated locations within the region. To bring higher availability and asynchronous replication of applications and data for disaster recovery protection.
Microsoft says the Availability Zones give users additional options for high availability for their most demanding applications and services. As well as confidence and protection from potential hardware and software failures. By providing three or more unique physical locations within an Azure region.
These zones located in Johannesburg will each have their own power, cooling and high-speed low latency connections. Let’s say you are deploying a web tier consisting of 3 virtual machines, you can place one in each zone. So that if zone A fails your customers will still be able to access the other virtual machines in the other availability zones in the same Azure region. This is really ideal where data residency laws and regulatory requirements are important.
South Africa North is the only Azure cloud region in the Middle East and Africa to get availability zones presence. Microsoft will bring availability zones to the UAE North region and establish a new datacenter region in Israel this year.
Microsoft launched two cloud regions in Africa, South Africa North and West located in Johannesburg and Cape Town respectively. And two in the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Interestingly, when you check the Azure global infrastructure map it appears Microsoft is hiding certain regions. Regions it classifies as reserved access regions and this includes South Africa West and Abu Dhabi. Although these regions are available to customers, they will require you to go through a request process in order to gain access. The process to request access is straightforward and you can initiate it directly within the Azure portal.
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Microsoft and Intel invite you to see how Azure partners and customers are becoming more productive and agile with hybrid and multicloud solutions. The free Azure Hybrid and Multicloud event will take place on Tuesday, June 29, 2021, from 9 AM to 11 AM PT. [4 PM GMT, 7 PM EAT, 5 PM BST, 5 PM WAT, 6 PM SAT]
The two-hour event will start with a short keynote and followed by deep dives into key topics and real companies’ experiences. Check out the sessions below.
Intel and Microsoft: Partnering to deliver scalable, secure, and flexible hybrid infrastructure to customers.
Run Azure data services anywhere with the latest developments in Azure Arc–enabled data services. See how SKF Group and Dell Technologies are getting the most out of the latest generation of hybrid data offerings.
Quickly build, deploy, and update apps anywhere with Azure Arc. Learn how to ensure governance, compliance, and security for all deployments.
Get consistent operations and security for hybrid and multicloud environments—and learn to automate systems to meet security, governance, and compliance standards.
Modernize your datacenter and use Azure Stack HCI hybrid capabilities to help improve availability and performance across environments.
Microsoft says you’ll get to ask questions and get answers to your hybrid questions. From product experts during the live chat and from Microsoft leaders during the live Q&A panel.
Speakers at the event include Corey Sanders, Microsoft Corporate Vice President (CVP), Solutions, Roanne Sones, Microsoft CVP Azure Edge + Platform. Others are Jeremy Winter, Microsoft VP, Azure Compute, Rose Schooler, Intel CVP and General Manager, Global Data center Sales.
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Standard Bank and Microsoft announce a strategic partnership to accelerate the digital transformation of Africa’s largest financial institution and further drive the continent’s growth. The Bank’s growing investment in the Microsoft Cloud will enable the innovation, efficiencies, and resilience required to respond to market dynamics and customer needs.
This partnership builds on the 30-year relationship between the two companies and involves migrating workloads, applications, and platforms to Microsoft Azure to drive organisational efficiencies, as well as workforce collaboration with Azure, PowerApps, Workplace Analytics and Microsoft Teams.
“Investing in the cloud will allow Standard Bank to achieve its strategy to transform from a traditional financial services company into a digital platform company, providing financial services, plus ancillary and associated services. We have adopted a cloud-first strategy, underpinned by end-to-end security and data-driven insights that will enable transformation with tangible results,” says Standard Bank Group Chief Executive, Sim Tshabalala.
“Standard Bank’s cloud-first strategy underlines the growing momentum in financial services to deliver differentiated experiences that today’s customers expect,” said Judson Althoff, Microsoft’s executive vice president of Worldwide Commercial Business. “As a long-standing technology partner, we are pleased to collaborate with Standard Bank in realizing this strategy and in becoming Africa’s future-first financial services firm through digital skilling-focused initiatives that will expand economic opportunity for young people across Africa.”
As part of the partnership, the companies will also:
Establish the African Digital Foundry (The Foundry), a strategic alliance, for Standard Bank and Microsoft to collaborate to co-create unique solutions through new technology to meet the financial needs of Africa’s consumers. Through the Foundry, the companies aspire to reach 100 million customers in Africa over the next five years.
Bring together their resources and know-how to provide youth with the relevant digital skills needed to secure future-ready jobs and equip Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with digital skills and capabilities so that they can take advantage of the growing shift to digital technologies.
The African Digital Foundry (The Foundry)
Standard Bank and Microsoft, through the Foundry, will co-create and execute joint go-to-market digital services related to trade, payment, and risk-based (lending and insurance) solutions. They will also develop ecosystems enabling digital trading to facilitate Africa’s growth.
“The Foundry is a digital initiative established in Africa, for Africans, to address the unique challenges the continent faces with customised innovations, services and solutions,” says Tshabalala. “The partnership will further enhance and create ongoing collaboration between our firms around co-engineering solutions for African consumers’ unique needs.”
Skills and Small Medium Enterprise (SME) Development
Harnessing the power and reach of both organisations, the partnership will also drive digital skills development, boost youth employment, and accelerate the growth of SMEs on the African continent.
Both organisations believe that digital transformation represents an opportunity for the continent to leap ahead, taking a leading role in enabling economic and societal growth in Africa.
Microsoft and Standard Bank will leverage their combined research, industry, partner and start-up programmes to impact the continent – where similar opportunities and challenges exist – using technology such as mixed reality and artificial intelligence.
“Continuing to build on the partnership is part of the ongoing journey that Standard Bank and Microsoft are on to invest in digital transformation as the enabler of meaningful and tangible innovation. Our journey is underpinned by collaborative efforts to develop, scale and roll-out digital solutions that will deliver personalised services to 100 million Africans and by meeting their unique and evolving needs and demands,” says Tshabalala.
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