A home for global talent and ambitious innovators, Microsoft Reactor.
Microsoft brings its startup and developer community hubs program, Microsoft Reactor, to the United Arab Emirates. The new Microsoft Reactor will be hosted by Hub71 and located in Abu Dhabi.
Microsoft shares that like all of its reactors, it will be a center for technical learning and knowledge-sharing for developers and startup professionals. The hub will be home to the Microsoft for Startups program in the region. Supporting startups build and scale their companies. This will bring the number of reactors globally to eleven. With Tel Aviv, Israel hosting the other reactor in the Middle East and Africa Region.
“As a partner of Hub71 Abu Dhabi, we are firmly committed to the Middle East region as it continues its journey to digitally transform and innovate“. Shares Scott Guthrie, Executive VP of Microsoft’s Cloud + AI Division. “We’re helping to create a home for global talent and ambitious innovators looking to this region for opportunity“.
The initiative is in collaboration with Hub71, Mubadala Investment Company, SoftBank Vision Fund and Abu Dhabi Global Market.
Hub71 and Startups
Microsoft will provide a curriculum to startup residents of Hub71. Strengthening expertise around emerging topics such as cloud services and Artificial Intelligence.
Seventeen new startups, emerging as recent winners of the Hub71 Incentive Program will benefit from the program. Hub71 will now have a total of 35 startups in its ecosystem.
We are thrilled to open a Microsoft Reactor within Hub71 says Jeana Jorgensen, General Manager, Cloud and AI Division at Microsoft. “Built to support the Gulf’s unprecedented rate of digital transformation, Microsoft recently invested in two datacenters in the UAE. The concentration of globally minded startups, investors and industry, represents an enormous opportunity. We believe bringing these elements together with Mubadala and Hub71 will be a catalyst for the region“.
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Student teams from Kenya and Tunisia qualify for the next stage of the 2020 Microsoft Imagine Cup competition. They are part of ten online regional semi-finalists from the Europe Middle East and Africa region. They will get to present their ideas at the Microsoft Imagine Cup EMEA regional finals in Amsterdam in March. With a chance to win USD 20,000, Azure Credit and a trip to the Imagine Cup World Championship in Seattle.
The teams from Kenya and Tunisia make up the only three online regional semi-finalist from Africa. They are Wild Eye – Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT), Kenya, RedWalls – Tunisia and The Knights – Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Kenya.
The teams will have a chance to qualify and present their ideas at the 2020 Microsoft Imagine Cup world finals. Where they can win USD 100,000 cash, USD50,000 in Azure grants and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Other qualifiers are student teams from Ukraine, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, Poland, UK and Pakistan. Stay tuned, as we bring you updates till the world finals in Seattle.
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A year ago, Microsoft announced it will no longer provide security updates or support for PCs running Windows 7. Starting today January 14, 2020 the company is officially ending support for the OS. You can still use your computer but Microsoft will no longer provide you with technical support for any issues, software updates and security updates or fixes. I’ll tell you how risky this is in a bit.
In the wake of this announcement, only 65.4 percent of Windows devices worldwide run on Windows 10 according to stats from Stat Counter. It also shows that 26.8 percent of Windows devices still run on Windows 7. With about 1.3 percent still living in the Windows XP era.
Compared to Europe, 23.1 percent and the United States of America, 17.9 percent, Africa has 39.7 percent of Windows devices still running on Windows 7. With only 49.9 percent running on Window 10.
For consumers this is the end of the road. Organizations on the other hand might pay a hefty amount monthly for Microsoft to provide them with these services.
Using an unsupported Windows 7 device will leave a user or business prone to several cybersecurity attacks. Resulting in losses and damages.
What Next after Windows 7 end of support?
As support for Windows 7 comes to an end, here is what Microsoft encourages you to do if you are still using the operating system.
While you could continue to use your PC running Windows 7, without continued software and security updates, it will be at greater risk for viruses and malware. Going forward, the best way for you to stay secure is on Windows 10. And the best way to experience Windows 10 is on a new PC. While it is possible to install Windows 10 on your older device, it is not recommended.
Kindly refresh, more to come …
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Microsoft is helping the United Arab Emirates(UAE) government achieve its vision of becoming a leader in AI. By partnering with its National Program for Artificial Intelligence to launch the AI Challenge Program initiative.
The AI Challenge Program is to accelerate the adoption of AI technology in the country. The UAE government led by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, sees AI as a pillar of its future strategies. Using artificial intelligence(AI) to shape the country’s development for the next fifty years. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed calls AI the “catalyst for the growth of global markets and new economic sectors“.
Microsoft will be supporting government organizations in leveraging AI technologies to address real life business challenges. While building strong local Emirati AI talents, shares Sayed Hashish, Microsoft UAE General Manager.
The Microsoft general manager signed the partnership with UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, at an AI expert retreat in Dubai.
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More business are moving their operations to the Cloud. Hybrid Cloud Adoption is expected to accelerate this growth at a rapid pace. Thus confirming that the future of cloud computing may well be hybrid.
Business Group Lead for Cloud and Enterprise at Microsoft Middle East Africa Multi Country Cluster covering North, West, East, Southern Africa, Levant & Pakistan, Mr. Wale Olokodana, shares on this subject matter. He addresses some of the benefits and challenges of moving your business operations to the cloud. What businesses need to do, to ensure they get the most from the cloud technology.
As many
organisations head to the cloud, the first stop might be ‘hybrid’
Companies across the Middle East/Africa are discovering hybrid solutions can solve many digital transformation challenges.
Moving to the cloud is
not unlike relocating your business to a prime piece of real estate. The
benefits are many, but the transition can be tricky. As governments and
businesses race to take advantage of cloud computing, they are navigating
current and future data regulations, as well as how to make the most of
existing IT infrastructure.
Across the Middle East
and Africa (MEA), businesses are prioritising cloud adoption. Research shows most
organisations in the Middle East are either using cloud computing services or
plan to do so in the next two years. African businesses are following closely, with
cloud adoption becoming near
pervasive.
With its improved security
and cost savings, cloud has become key for businesses looking to compete in the
digital era. But there are sometimes obstacles on the road to digitisation, and
this is where hybrid cloud is playing an invaluable role in helping businesses
digitally transform.
Hybrid cloud enables
businesses to store and process data in their on-premises private clouds and
take advantage of a public cloud provider. Hybrid cloud computing is a “best of
all possible worlds” platform, delivering all the benefits of cloud
computing—flexibility, scalability, and cost efficiencies.
Data
regulations and the cloud
One particularly
important consideration when it comes to cloud adoption is regulatory
compliance, and many of these policies are still being created across MEA.
Countries in the Gulf Cooperation
Council have begun addressing issues around data privacy at a
national level, but as it stands there is no overarching law that deals with
data protection in the region. The African Union
Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection has also recently made
an appeal for countries to start adopting stricter legal frameworks for data
protection purposes.
In Kenya, for example, The Data Protection Bill, 2019, was recently enacted and will regulate the processing of personal data and information governed by General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) . Those violating this law face a penalty notice of up to five million shillings, or in the case of an undertaking, up to two per centum of an organization’s annual turnover of the preceding financial year, whichever is higher.
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Future-proofing your IT strategy
Hybrid cloud is helping
organisations future-proof their digital strategies, allowing them to explore
the benefits of the cloud for data storage and applications, while using their
existing on-premises servers for information, other applications and data with
data residency implications.
It was for this exact reason
that Oman Data Park (ODP), a leading IT managed services provider,
deployed Microsoft Azure Stack, a hybrid cloud solution. ODP offers hosting,
security and cloud services as well as virtual data centre services, leveraging
its own data centres in Oman. But when it came to delivering on its digital
transformation promises to clients through the provision of Azure services, ODP
needed to navigate the Sultanate’s regulatory requirement to store data
locally.
Utilising
existing technology investments
Hybrid cloud is particularly
important for companies like banks, which have significant existing IT infrastructure
investments. With hybrid cloud computing, banks
can maintain their mainframe systems while simultaneously adopting new cloud
technologies. Banks are using Azure Stack to link their current systems, while
building an intelligent layer of digital services on top. The Microsoft
Azure cloud platform then supports scalable hybrid environments for moving
between on-premises and cloud computing environments seamlessly.
Sterling Bank is aimed at improving the time-to-market and improving
the service quality to its customers. The bank prioritized
cloud services, the cloud-first approach was the rationale behind the selection
of Microsoft Azure – for building, testing, deploying, and managing
applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed data
centers. So far, the bank has already deployed several products including Fare
Pay which is addressing transportation; Specta – a community lending solution
which gives out loans in 5 minutes; i-invest which is now a popular product in
the market that allows anybody to buy or trade a treasury bill. Another
consumer propositions that the bank introduced is OnePay – all which were
deployed via Microsoft Cloud.
Is the future
hybrid?
Innovations to cloud
computing are also making it easier to manage hybrid cloud environments.
Microsoft recently launched Azure Arc, enabling businesses
to use Azure cloud tools across different cloud and computing services. As most
organisations have IT infrastructure spread across multiple datacentres, clouds
and edge locations, the ability to run on-premise and multi-cloud environments
from one central space is a game-changer.
Not surprisingly, hybrid cloud adoption is expected to
accelerate at a rapid pace – confirming that the future of cloud computing may
well be hybrid. This is particularly the case in the Middle East which is
already outpacing the average global adoption rate.
When deploying from
the hybrid cloud, businesses have more control over their IT, improving the
latency and reliability of their services. This would make hybrid cloud a
particularly attractive option for businesses operating in the Middle East and
North Africa, which is one of the most under-represented areas in the world
when it comes to per capita Internet
connectivity.
As businesses set out
on their hybrid cloud journeys, it is important they begin with specific
business objectives in mind, considering company needs and priorities. This
will help them determine which workloads should be shifted to the cloud. Achieving
the right balance between public and private cloud usage involves several
different considerations, such as IT budget, regulatory requirements, as well
as the nature of different applications and where they are best deployed.
Partnering with a service provider that can manage and integrate your company’s different IT environments can help ensure your business optimises its hybrid cloud investment and that, ultimately, the move to becoming a digitally empowered business is much smoother.
Portégé X30L-G, the world’s lightest thirteen inch business laptop, debuts at the floor of CES 2020 in Las Vegas. Manufacturer Dynabook Europe GmbH, says the device meets and exceeds Microsoft’s Modern Device standard.
Uniquely designed for portability
It is a very light device weighing only 870g. Uniquely designed for portability the company calls it. The new Dynabook comes powered with the latest 10th generation Intel comet lake U processor and 4GB of RAM. With varying SSD storage options to choose from.
Dynabook engineered the Portégé X30L-G to to cover extreme environmental variables with the MIL-STD-810G standards. The laptop is put through military-grade drop, temperature, humidity and dustproof testing. To demonstrate its overall robustness, ensuring it can withstand the challenging demands of today’s mobile workforce.
Device features include a sharp non-reflective 13” IGZO FHD LCD screen. Two USB 3.0 ports, a USB type-C port, full-size HDMI port and Gigabit-LAN port.
“The launch of the Portégé X30L-G demonstrates our continued commitment to developing devices which are built with the modern day enterprise workforce in mind“, says Damian Jaume, President, Dynabook Europe GmbH. “The device is a testament to our engineers and their ability to pack powerful business-oriented components into increasingly compact devices. The next generation of lightweight devices is here and we’re excited to be at the forefront of this innovation He continues.”
The Portégé X30L-G will be available in stores from mid February 2020. Estimated basic selling price is $1,599.
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