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Forrester names Microsoft a Leader in Q4 2022 Security Analytics Platforms Wave report

We’re excited to announce that Microsoft is named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Security Analytics Platforms, Q4 2022. Microsoft achieved the highest possible score in 17 different criteria, including partner ecosystem, innovation roadmap, product security, case management, and architecture.

With threats like ransomware increasing in volume and complexity, it’s never been more important for chief information security officers (CISOs) to invest in solutions that will keep their companies safe and running. As the threat landscape continues to proliferate, cloud-native security information and event management (SIEM) solutions like Microsoft Sentinel have become a central part of a SecOps solution and have evolved to meet the new needs of customers to move faster.

Forrester Wave™ graphic showcasing Microsoft as a Leader in Security Analytics Platforms, Q4 2022.

We believe this placement validates our continued investment in Microsoft Sentinel, security research, and threat intelligence. We take it as a vote of confidence in our ability to keep our customers safe and working fearlessly. Microsoft Security is named a leader on seven different Forrester Wave™ reports and continues to invest in innovative solutions that work together to keep our customers’ businesses safer.

Microsoft was evaluated on several capabilities that empower customers to move faster to identify, investigate, and remediate threats. Some particularly important features include:

  • Providing flexibility to customers to create their own rules using Kusto Query Language (KQL) or by bringing their own machine learning. This allows security operations center (SOC) teams to build automations that work for their organization and reduces the amount of time spent on repetitive tasks.
  • Comprehensive threat intelligence that empowers customers to keep up with the evolving threat landscape.
  • Scaled search and storage of large volumes of data allow customers to protect their digital ecosystems at scale and monitor all their clouds, platforms, and endpoints in one place.  

The Microsoft Sentinel strategy

Microsoft Sentinel is a next-generation SIEM solution that collects security data across multicloud, multi-platform data sources. The comprehensive SOC platform provides user entity and behavior analytics (UEBA), threat intelligence, and security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) capabilities, along with deep integrations into Microsoft Defender threat protection products’ comprehensive coverage across SIEM and extended detection and response (XDR). Sentinel empowers companies to leverage cloud-scale, innovative AI and automation to move at machine speed and stay ahead of evolving threats.  

What makes the Microsoft suite of security solutions unique is the native integrations of SIEM with XDR to provide quick setup, more comprehensive coverage and context, and faster response time. Customers who leverage Microsoft Defender XDR products may be eligible for discounts on Microsoft Sentinel data ingestion.  

Over the past year, Microsoft has invested in many new capabilities, including content for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, business application coverage including SAP, enhanced SOAR capabilities, and improved workflow management. These capabilities help our customers to protect more of their digital ecosystem, automate responses to more types of threats, and build an efficient and collaborative SOC.

What’s next in Microsoft Security

Microsoft is dedicated to continued leadership in security. Continued investments will provide customers with the intelligence, automation, and scalability they need to protect their businesses and work efficiently. Upcoming enhancements include the integration of more threat intelligence, new ways to hunt across large sets of data, and more context and prioritization guidance in alerts. New AI solutions will allow SecOps teams to more easily identify the most urgent issues and give guidance on how similar customers have reacted to similar incidents. The Microsoft vision is to provide a central platform for SOCs to understand the health of their entire business and quickly act on issues.

Learn more

Read the The Forrester Wave™: Security Analytics Platforms, Q4 2022 report.

Microsoft Security is committed to empowering SecOps teams with security tools and platforms that enable the critical protection your users rely on. To experience Microsoft Sentinel at your organization, get started with a free trial today.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

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Microsoft names new chief sustainability officer: Melanie Nakagawa

I’m delighted to share the news that Melanie Nakagawa will join Microsoft in January as our new Chief Sustainability Officer. Reporting directly to me as a Corporate Vice President, Melanie will partner with teams across Microsoft and take on the leadership role for our company-wide environmental sustainability work.

Melanie brings to Microsoft almost two decades of environmental sustainability experience at the nexus of policy, business and technology, which will be vital as we continue our sustainability journey. She most recently served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Climate and Energy on the National Security Council at the White House, one of several roles she has held in the U.S. government. At the White House, Melanie played a leadership role on international and domestic climate initiatives, as well as energy issues that included the international energy response to the war in Ukraine.

Melanie Nakagawa headshot
Melanie Nakagawa

This built on Melanie’s prior work, including as the director of climate strategy for a climate tech-focused private equity firm working with growth stage companies in North America, Europe and Asia. She also brings experience in the nonprofit and academic sectors on environmental and energy policy and regulatory issues.

Melanie joins Microsoft at a critical time. January will mark the third anniversary of our ambitious climate goals to be carbon negative by 2030 and remove our historical carbon emissions by 2050. While I’m pleased with our progress, we must accelerate our momentum and broaden even further our climate-related work.

This urgency reflects the current state of climate issues around the world. As I found while meeting with global leaders last month at the United Nations COP27 climate conference in Egypt, the world confronts a complex and sobering challenge. As the United Nations Environment Programme reported in October in its annual Emissions Gap report, current national climate plans fall short of what will be needed to meet the world’s climate targets.

And as U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said at COP27, the “deadly impacts of climate change are here and now.” This means the world must not only push harder toward the goal of a Net Zero economy by the middle of the century, but move quickly and aggressively, especially in the Global South, to help vulnerable populations adapt to a world with a changed climate.

Given the enormity of these challenges, the pursuit of progress will require extraordinary innovation in the years and decades ahead.

And while every month seems to bring new foreboding studies, I also found cause for optimism in Egypt. For example, globally almost 4,000 companies have now dedicated themselves to the pursuit of climate pledges. And as the world focuses on the implementation of climate pledges – a major theme at COP27 – businesses have an increasingly important role to play. This was on bold display at COP27 as the United States’ Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, announced that the First Movers Coalition, launched just last year with the World Economic Forum, had grown to 65 companies dedicated to working and moving together faster.

Especially for a company like Microsoft, with our focus on helping the world’s organizations innovate through technology, our climate-related role could not be clearer. Cloud-based digital services, the better use of data, and rapid advances in AI will create new opportunities for us to help every organization achieve more progress in addressing the world’s climate and energy needs.

This connects directly with the three-fold sustainability mission that we launched as a company in September at the U.N. General Assembly meetings and that Melanie will now lead.

First, we will continue to drive toward achieving by 2030 our commitments to become carbon negative, water positive and zero waste as a company while contributing to the biodiversity of the planet. The team that Melanie leads includes environmental scientists of international stature, and they will help keep Microsoft’s work grounded in the best available science. And more than ever, the Environmental Sustainability operations team will partner with Microsoft’s Finance team and business and sustainability experts across the company to achieve the company’s internal and operational goals.

All this will build on recent and important steps across Microsoft. These include the construction of a new Thermal Energy Center for our Redmond campus, the pursuit of a Net Zero water certification for our Silicon Valley campus, and our most recent steps toward Zero Waste operations through the opening of our 4th and 5th Circular Centers in Singapore and Chicago. These complement our global renewable energy investments for our datacenters and investments that have made Microsoft the largest carbon removal purchaser in the world.

Second, we will accelerate innovation and deliver technology to help our customers and partners achieve their sustainability goals. Like Lucas Joppa, our first Chief Environmental Officer, Melanie will work with me to bring together leaders across Microsoft to work together and learn from each other. The good news is that sustainability has become an important team sport across Microsoft, with senior leaders in place for product development, marketing and sales, including Microsoft’s Elisabeth Brinton and Darryl Willis, who work hand in hand with our customers and partners to transform their businesses with our sustainability and energy solutions. Each quarter we’re strengthening the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, adding capabilities and investing in the next-generation, cloud-based sustainability data ecosystem the world needs. All this connects closely with the broader array of innovations in the Microsoft Cloud and our own climate and renewable energy innovations across one of the world’s largest arrays of datacenter operations.

Third, we will partner with governments, nonprofits, and businesses to spur the broader societal enabling factors critical to global sustainability progress. This includes existing and new initiatives that Melanie and her team will lead to help:

  • Broaden the use of climate-related data and more powerful AI, including by the United Nations and across the Global South;
  • Advance new and innovative climate, energy, and sustainability laws, policies and regulations;
  • Support reliable, interoperable, and globally aligned measurement accounting and reporting systems for carbon emissions;
  • Build new markets for climate and sustainability solutions, including through our Climate Innovation Fund and carbon removal purchases; and
  • Help develop and support the skills and talent needed for both specialized sustainability roles, as well as for existing jobs that will evolve to require sustainability fluency.

These three sustainability missions are grounded in three tenets that will guide our future sustainability work as a company.

First, we believe there is a virtuous cycle connecting these three missions. Progress in each mission helps strengthen our ability to pursue the next. In this sense, all three are interrelated and dependent on each other.

Second, we believe that cross-sector efforts will be indispensable for sustainability progress. As with almost all big problems in the world, we need a three-legged stool: business, nonprofits and governments. We believe that businesses have a unique role to play in innovation, especially when it comes to climate, energy and digital technology and product innovation. Nonprofits are often the best at incubating new societal solutions, often by using innovations that come from the business sector. And governments can bring solutions to scale in a way that no one else can, both through their public budgets and the power to legislate and regulate. Even in a divided world, the planet’s sustainability challenges require that we all come together.

Finally, across Microsoft (and the world, for that matter), environmental sustainability is becoming infused in almost everything we do, and our success requires navigating a matrix rather than managing a system of command and control. Melanie and the Environmental Sustainability team she will lead acts as a fulcrum across Microsoft, helping to bring everyone together and speaking publicly for the company. This is like the role that our corporate teams play in a variety of other areas, including accessibility, digital safety, privacy, human rights and responsible AI. As we’ve learned, the difference between success and failure always turns on our ability to work effectively as a team across a large company and with an even larger digital ecosystem.

It’s typically my role and privilege to help empower, work with and support talented leaders across all these areas and more. None of the issues are easy. And the environmental sustainability challenges may even be harder than most.

I’m excited that Melanie Nakagawa will help lead so many talented people across our company as we address the planet’s sustainability needs. And I look forward to supporting her!

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Microsoft announces the phased rollout of the EU Data Boundary for the Microsoft Cloud begins Jan. 1

In today’s global economy, commercial and public sector customers continue to look for ways to advance their goals, protect their data and scale for improved efficiencies. To support these changing requirements, Microsoft is committed to providing trusted cloud services that are designed to take advantage of the full power of the public cloud while respecting European values and sovereignty needs.

Today, we are announcing that, on January 1, 2023, Microsoft will begin a phased rollout of our EU Data Boundary solution to public sector and commercial customers in the European Union (EU) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

Microsoft’s on-going commitment to Europe

Microsoft remains deeply committed to supporting European digital needs and has adopted five European Cloud Principles that guide our cloud business across Europe. Microsoft offers data residency and proximity in more locations than any other cloud provider, enabling residency options for the entire Microsoft Cloud suite of online services, including Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform and Azure.

We provide Microsoft Cloud services to customers in nearly every country around the world. To support the requirements of customers across the EU and EFTA, we have opened and are constructing datacenters in more than 17 datacenter regions in Europe. Since 2020, we have announced plans to build nine new datacenter regions and during the past two years have made investments exceeding $12 billion, making Microsoft one of the largest sources of capital investment in Europe’s digital future.

Beginning the phased rollout of the EU Data Boundary for the Microsoft Cloud

Beginning on January 1, 2023, Microsoft will offer customers the ability to store and process their customer data within the EU Data Boundary for Microsoft 365, Azure, Power Platform and Dynamics 365 services. With this release, Microsoft expands on existing local storage and processing commitments, greatly reducing data flows out of Europe and building on our industry-leading data residency solutions.

In coming phases of the EU Data Boundary, Microsoft will expand the EU Data Boundary solution to include the storage and processing of additional categories of personal data, including data provided when receiving technical support.

Microsoft’s cloud services already comply with or exceed EU requirements, and the EU Data Boundary will further enable public sector and commercial customers in the EU and the EFTA to have their data processed and stored within the region. In addition, with the rollout of the EU Data Boundary, Microsoft will publish new data flow documentation on the new EU Data Boundary Trust Center webpage to provide transparent data insights for customers whose services will be included in the boundary.

The Microsoft EU Data Boundary is designed to build on our current residency solutions and offer enhanced control over data and increased transparency. In addition to the EU Data Boundary, Microsoft will continue to offer a wide spectrum of solutions that build on our long-standing commitments to support varied sovereignty needs, from our existing data residency capabilities in Azure, Dynamics, and Power Platform, to the coming Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, to Microsoft 365’s newly expanded data residency.

With Microsoft, commercial and public sector customers have the choice and flexibility they need to enjoy hyperscale products at the cutting edge of innovation while also meeting regulatory requirements and industry-specific standards.

Providing a future roadmap and new levels of transparency documentation

The EU Data Boundary is an industry-leading data residency solution. Based on customer feedback and insights, as well as learnings gained over the past year of developing the boundary, we have adjusted the timeline for the localization of additional personal data categories and data provided when receiving technical support. To ensure that we continue to deliver a world-class solution that meets the overall quality, stability, and security expectations of customers, Microsoft will deliver on-going enhancements to the boundary in phases. To assist customers with planning, we have published a detailed roadmap for our EU Data Boundary available on our Trust Center.

As part of our first phase of the EU Data Boundary rollout beginning January 1, 2023, Microsoft will publish detailed documentation on our Boundary commitments. Transparency documentation will be published initially in English and will also be made available in additional languages.

Documentation will be updated continually as Microsoft rolls out additional phases of the EU Data Boundary and will include details around services that may continue to require limited transfers of customer data outside of the EU to maintain the security and reliability of the service.

These limited data transfers ensure that EU customers continue to receive the full benefits of global hyperscale cloud computing while enjoying industry-leading data management capabilities. The transparency documentation, including data flow descriptions, will be available in the new EU Data Boundary Trust Center.

We look forward to continuing to partner with customers in Europe and will continue to do our best to empower their success in a dynamic and changing economic, social, and regulatory environment.

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HoloLens 2 brings new immersive collaboration tools to industrial metaverse customers

“Someone can grab a HoloLens, start a Guides session, and literally have a trainer in their head,” he said. “If they do need help, they can call an expert right from the app.”

Toyota feedback also helped improve other aspects of the Guides experience. For example, technicians used to put a QR code on the hood of a vehicle, scan it, and then follow the holographic instructions.

But those holograms could appear to drift as a worker moved around the car. Toyota worked with Microsoft to develop “object understanding.” That meant Toyota technicians could scan the entire vehicle, which helped lock a hologram in place and eliminate the parallax problem. A hologram pointing toward a bolt would always point to the exact location, no matter the viewer’s angle.

Over the years, the authoring experience in Guides has improved to where creating holographic instructions is as easy as creating a PowerPoint, Kleiner added.

“I don’t have to hire an army of consultants to build this. I don’t have to have a bunch of people with computer science degrees. I can give it to the experts on the frontlines, and they can generate their own content to train other folks or share,” he said.

Toyota found immediate value in Guides as a training tool, Kleiner said. Instead of working one-on-one with trainees, Toyota trainers can let trainees work independently and supervise multiple trainees at the same time – increasing their efficiency many times over.

During a pilot project at their San Antonio plant, Toyota used HoloLens 2 and Guides to train employees on how to assemble a new version of the Toyota Tundra. The data showed it was a success, Kleiner said. Defects were cut in half. Depending on the individual, training time fell between 20% and 50%, he said.

Partners in mixed reality

While HoloLens 2 devices have helped define what’s possible in the industrial metaverse, Microsoft is a platform company, Taylor said. That’s why Microsoft is committed to making its mixed reality software available wherever its customers are – whether that’s on a HoloLens 2 or another company’s device. And while Dynamics 365 Mixed Reality Apps provide enterprise-grade software so customers can get to work immediately, Microsoft has also built a Mixed Reality partner network of ISVs who can extend solutions to meet unique needs in different industries, from construction and education to healthcare and pharmaceutical.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) turned to one of these partners to improve worker safety during trench excavation. On construction sites, trenching and excavation are risky but essential jobs. One cubic yard of soil can weigh as much as a car, according to OSHA, and that delicate balance with gravity can be upset in an instant. That is why trench collapses are the leading cause of death in the construction industry.

To help mitigate this danger, OSHA instructors are using a custom mixed reality app to give trench safety inspectors immersive, hands-on hazard training without real-world risk. The app, created by the software studio Clirio, consists of six different scenes using realistic and immersive graphics to show variables like ground conditions, hazards, safety equipment and best practices for mitigating risk. Sophisticated sound design and animation add to the lifelike experience.

“Whenever you teach somebody something, it’s one thing to tell them, it’s one thing to show them, and it’s another thing to let them do it,” said Anthony Towey, Director of the OSHA Training Institute. “We can actually go into a trenching and excavation environment that’s as close as they’re going to get in the field.”

Thousands of construction contractors could use this training, he added. “And now they’ll be able to do it in a safe environment, where they can practice and make mistakes.”

Hokkaido Electric Power Company is using HoloLens 2, Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and a custom app to help staff inspect critical equipment at a thermal power plant. On every inspection patrol, workers navigate a vast labyrinth of boilers, turbines and generators and examine thousands of pieces of equipment for often subtle changes that can help them avoid larger problems, said Takaharu Umemoto, who works in the company’s Information Technology Section, Thermal Power Department. That requires extensive know-how and experience, he said. It would often take new hires one year of shadowing experienced technicians before they could handle everything.

Today, new hires get up to speed much quicker, he said, and the app has improved the efficiency of patrol inspections. The experience has made the company enthusiastic supporters of mixed reality technology, Umemoto said.

“I had an image of (mixed reality) as a technology for games, but it was a revelation to find that it can be used as an intuitive and easy-to-understand solution from the perspective of transferring patrol inspection skills,” Umemoto said.

A worker wearing a HoloLens 2 device shines a flashlight on a piece of equipment.
HoloLens 2, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and a custom app help Hokkaido Electric Power Company staff inspect critical equipment at a thermal power plant. (Image courtesy of Microsoft)

‘Everyone has a voice now’

As early customer pilots with HoloLens 2 have led to larger deployments, Microsoft has invested heavily in making the cloud-connected technology easier to manage at scale. That means IT departments can manage a HoloLens 2 headset just like any other laptop, phone or tablet, Evans said.

Those improvements helped Toyota move HoloLens 2 from the lab to the enterprise seamlessly, Kleiner said. “Usually when we leave the lab, there’s a huge learning curve: how do we maintain and operate these at the enterprise level?” Kleiner said. “All that was avoided because when we took the device to the IT department they said ‘Oh, this is just another Windows machine. We know how to handle it.’”

Microsoft will continue to work with customers to solve unique and tough challenges, Evans noted.

Customers like the U.S. Army are helping improve both software and hardware, while others are helping drive industry-specific improvements that may eventually have broader application, Evans said. It’s akin to how technologies like ceramic brakes and variable valve timing first appeared in Formula 1 but ultimately went from the racetrack to everyday streets.

“The military program has its own set of requirements that are tuned to the needs of the soldier. So, it’s helping push the whole platform forward. It’s great to have early adopters that are driving requirements because you end up with this trickle-down effect,” Evans said.

One thing Evans has said Microsoft hears from customers is that, unlike consumers who expect a constant crop of new gadgets, businesses don’t want to have to replace their devices every two years. That causes too much churn. “No one wants to be obsoleted for 10% better capabilities. They don’t need a successor yet, but they want to know it will be there at the right time,” he said.

Evans said Microsoft is pushing forward on all core hardware technologies: display, tracking, sensors, battery life. “We’re just looking for the right design point to make it a meaningful update. They want a successor device that’s going to enable an even higher return on investment,” Evans said.

As the HoloLens hardware and software continue to evolve, Toyota’s Kleiner expects Guides to remain “the killer mixed reality app” for frontline workers. One day, it could be like Word, available on any device. But for now, Toyota will keep rolling out HoloLens 2 headsets across the company, giving frontline workers the tools to work and collaborate in new ways.

“We now have a device we can deploy to every person,” Kleiner said. “It’s easy to maintain, and it allows our workers to participate in the larger conversation, regardless of rank or team structure. Everyone has a voice now.”

Related Links:

Top image: Desktop collaborators can annotate in 3D space and augment what a frontline worker wearing a HoloLens 2 is seeing with the latest update to Dynamics 365 Guides. (Image courtesy of Microsoft)  

Jake Siegel writes about Microsoft research and innovation.

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How Microsoft datacenter operations prepare for energy issues

The war in Ukraine and the resultant shortage of natural gas has forced the European Union (EU) and European countries to proactively prepare for the possibility of more volatile energy supplies—both this winter and beyond. Microsoft is working with customers, governments, and other stakeholders throughout the region to bring clarity, continuity, and compliance in the face of possible energy-saving strategies at the local and national level. In solidarity with Europe, where even essential services are likely to be asked to find energy savings, we have validated plans and contingencies in place to responsibly reduce energy use in our operations across Europe, and we will do so in a way that minimizes risk to customer workloads running in the Microsoft Cloud.

We want to share some of the contingencies and mitigations that our teams have put in place to responsibly operate our cloud services.

Supporting grid stability by responsibly managing our energy consumption

The power that is consumed by Microsoft from the utilities is primarily used to power our network and servers, cooling systems, and other datacenter operations. We have contingency plans to contribute to energy grid stability, while working to ensure minimal disruption to our customers and their workloads, including:

  1. The scale and distribution of the Microsoft datacenters gives us the ability to reposition non-regional platform as a service (PaaS) services, internal infrastructure, and many of our internal non-customer research and development (R&D) workloads to other nearby regions, while still meeting our data residency and EU Data Boundary commitments.
  2. Actively working with local governments and large organizations to closely monitor and respond to power consumption to ensure grid stability and minimal disruption to our customers’ critical workloads. We are working with local utility providers to ensure our systems are ready for a range of circumstances.
  3. Our datacenter regions are planned and built to withstand grid emergencies. When needed, we quickly transition to backup power sources to reduce impact on the grid without impacting customer workloads.

Resilient infrastructure investment

Microsoft is responsible for providing our customers with a resilient foundation in the Microsoft Cloud—in how it is designed, operated, and monitored to ensure availability. We make considerable investments in the platform itself—physical things like our datacenters, as well as software things like our deployment and maintenance processes.

We strive to provide our cloud-using customers with “five-nines” of service availability, meaning that the datacenter is operational 99.999 percent of the time. However, knowing that service interruptions and failures happen for a myriad of reasons, we build systems designed with failure in mind.

We have Azure Availability Zones (AZs) in every country in which we operate datacenter regions. AZ’s are comprised of a minimum of three zone locations, each with independent power, cooling and networking, allowing customers to spread their infrastructure and applications across discrete and dispersed datacenters for added resiliency and availability.

Battery backup and backup generators are an additional resiliency capability we implement and are utilized during power grid outages and other service interruptions so we can meet service levels and operational reliability. We have contracted access to additional fuel supplies to maintain generator operations, and we also hold critical spares to maintain generator health. We are ready to use backup generators across Europe, when necessary, to keep our services running in case of a serious grid emergency. 

Across our global infrastructure, it’s not unusual for us to work with a heightened operational awareness, due to external factors. For instance, severe winter weather events in Texas in 2021 caused substantial pressure on the Texas energy grid. Microsoft was able to remove its San Antonio datacenter from using grid power. Although Microsoft’s onsite substations were designed with redundancy, we were able to quickly transition to our tertiary redundant systems—generators. These systems kept the datacenters running, with zero impact to our cloud customers, while the utility grid could ensure residential homes stayed warm. During this event, we maintained 100 percent uptime for our customers, while removing our workloads from the grid.

Resiliency recommendations for cloud architectures

This is a challenging time for organizations monitoring the growing energy concerns in Europe. We are providing important infrastructure for the communities where we operate, and our customers are counting on us to provide reliable cloud services to run their critical workloads. We recognize the importance of continuity of service for our customers, including those providing essential services: health care providers, police and emergency responders, financial institutions, manufacturers of critical supplies, grocery stores and health agencies. Organizations wondering what more they can do to improve the reliability of their applications, or wondering how they can reduce their own energy consumption, can consider the following:

  1. Customers who have availed themselves of high availability tools, including geo-redundancy, should be unaffected by impacts to a single datacenter region. For software as a service (SaaS) services like Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Power Platform, the business continuity and resiliency are managed by Microsoft. For Microsoft Azure, customers should always consider designing their Azure workloads with high availability in mind.

    We always encourage customers to have a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plan in place as part of the Microsoft Well-Architected Framework, which you can read more about. Customers who want to proactively migrate their Azure resources from one region to another can do so at any time. Find out how.

  2. On-premises customers can reduce their own energy consumption by moving their applications, workloads, and databases to the cloud. The Microsoft Cloud can be up to 93 percent more energy efficient than traditional enterprise datacenters, depending on the specific comparison being made. Discover more here. Start your sustainability journey today.
  3. Energy use in our datacenters is driven by customer use. Customers can play a part in reducing energy consumption by following green software development guidelines, including shutting down unused server instances, and sustainable application design. Further information available here.

We continue to improve the energy efficiency of our datacenters, in our ongoing commitment to make our global infrastructure more sustainable and efficient. As countries and energy providers consider options to reduce their consumption of electricity in the event of an energy capacity shortage, we are working with grid operators on this evolving situation. With the scale, expertise, and partnerships that we operate, we are confident that our risk mitigation activities will offset any potential disruption to our customers running their critical workloads in the cloud.

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Latest Cyber Signals report: Risks to critical infrastructure on the rise

Today, the third edition of Cyber Signals was released spotlighting security trends and insights gathered from Microsoft’s 43 trillion daily security signals and 8,500 security experts. In this edition, we share new insights on wider risks that converging IT, Internet of Things (IoT), and operational technology (OT) systems pose to critical infrastructure. Cyber Signals presents new data on these risks with practical recommendations for enterprises.

OT is a combination of hardware and software across programmable systems or devices that interact with the physical environment (or manage devices that interact with the physical environment). Examples of OT can include building management systems, fire control systems, and physical access control mechanisms, like doors and elevators.

With increasing connectivity across converging IT, OT, and IoT increasing, organizations and individuals need to rethink cyber risk impact and consequences. Similar to how the loss of a laptop or modern vehicle containing a homeowner’s cached Wi-Fi credentials could grant a property thief unauthorized network access, compromising a manufacturing facility’s remotely connected equipment or a smart building’s security cameras introduces new vectors for threats like malware or industrial espionage.

With more than 41 billion IoT devices across enterprise and consumer environments expected by 2025—according to International Data Corporation (IDC) research1—devices such as cameras, smart speakers, or locks and commercial appliances can become entry points for attackers.

As OT systems underpinning energy, transportation, and other infrastructures become increasingly connected to IT systems, the risk of disruption and damage grows as boundaries blur between these formerly separated worlds. Microsoft has identified unpatched, high-severity vulnerabilities in 75 percent of the most common industrial controllers in customer OT networks, illustrating how challenging it is for even well-resourced organizations to patch control systems in demanding environments sensitive to downtime.

For businesses and infrastructure operators across industries, the defensive imperatives are gaining total visibility over connected systems and weighing evolving risks and dependencies. Unlike the IT landscape of common operating systems, business applications, and platforms, OT and IoT landscapes are more fragmented, featuring proprietary protocols and devices that may not have cybersecurity standards. Other realities affecting things like patching and vulnerability management are also factors.

While connected OT and IoT-enabled devices offer significant value to organizations looking to modernize workspaces, become more data-driven, and ease demands on staff through shifts like remote management and automation in critical infrastructure networks, if not properly secured, they increase the risk of unauthorized access to operational assets and networks.

David Atch, Microsoft Threat Intelligence, Head IoT and OT Security Research, highlights in this edition’s profile that to address IT and OT threats to critical infrastructure, organizations must have full visibility into the number of IT, OT, and IoT devices in their enterprise, where or how they converge, and the vital data, resources, and utilities accessible across these devices. Without this, organizations face both mass information disclosure (such as leaked production data of a factory) and the potential elevation of privilege for command and control of cyber-physical systems (such as stopping a factory production line). He shares additional insights in the Cyber Signals digital briefing where we take a deeper dive into wider risks that converging IT, IoT, and OT systems pose.

Securing IoT solutions with a Zero Trust security model starts with non-IoT specific requirements—specifically ensuring you have implemented the basics to securing identities and their devices and limiting their access. These requirements include explicitly verifying users, having visibility into the devices on the network, and real-time risk detections. 

Learn more

Read the third edition of Cyber Signals today.

We hope these resources are helpful in understanding and managing this evolving risk. To learn more about IT, OT, and IoT threats and explore the latest cybersecurity insights and updates visit Security Insider.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

1The Growth in Connected IoT Devices is Expected to Generate 79.4ZB of Data in 2025, According to a New IDC Forecast, Business Wire. June 18, 2019.

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In the midst of historic constraints, people and organizations turned to digital technology in 2022 to do more with less. Here are some of their incredible stories.

As a developer, as someone who has been in love with writing code my entire life, I believe it’s time for a new developer experience. Software has advanced in all aspects of our work and life. Running, maintaining and building software for a global population has never been more complex. We are at a turning point.  GitHub has built one, integrated platform where the world’s developers can build, create, collaborate and have the best times of their lives doing it. One, integrated platform for one purpose: Putting the developer first. From writing code with Copilot and Hey GitHub, running an ML model in a Codespace, automating your pull requests with Actions and Advanced Security, to the more than 15,000 integrations in our Marketplace that unlock the value of a true platform in GitHub. We have built the place that gives developers everything they need to be creative, to be happier, and to build the best work of their lives. Read the Universe blog below for the latest on how we’re enabling this new developer experience.  https://lnkd.in/e-zjdP8g

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People turned to digital technology in 2022 to do more with less. Here are some of their stories.

In the midst of so many historic constraints, people and organizations have turned to digital technology to amplify what they can do, and what an organization, a community and ultimately the world can achieve. Over the past year, that has meant being able to do more – and often much, much more – with less. Here are some of their stories.

More refugee aid/Less programming experience

Despite not having a technical background, Edgar Simões used Microsoft’s Power Platform, including Power Pages, to build Ukraine Live Aid to connect refugees with donation sites around the country.

Watch the video 

More equitable employment/Less turnover

Mentra, one of our AI for Accessibility grantees, is using AI to improve employment for people with disabilities by building a talent platform that serves the 1 in every 7 people who are neurodivergent.

Read the story

More food/Less waste

FoodCloud has built a technology platform with Power Platform and Dynamics 365 to connect food retailers with surplus or excess food to local community groups in Ireland.

Learn more

More vaccines/Less time

UNICEF built a streamlined information hub using the Microsoft Cloud to help distribute COVID-19 vaccines in a more equitable way.

Read the story

More bridges/Less barriers

The “Active Citizen” project at the Nobel Peace Center uses Minecraft to educate young people about Nobel Peace Prize laureates past and present and fosters an understanding of the skills needed to drive positive change in the world.

Learn more

More Stories

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Microsoft to increase digital connectivity and skills building in Africa

Today, as the US-Africa Leaders Summit is underway in Washington DC, Microsoft is announcing new plans to deepen our work and scale our commitments to providing digital connectivity and skills building in Africa.

First, we are expanding our Airband Initiative through new partnerships with local and global providers to bring internet access to 100 million Africans by the end of 2025. This includes a new global partnership with satellite provider Viasat that will allow us to quickly scale and reach new markets. This is part of a broader global ambition for Airband to bring internet access to a quarter of a billion people around the world by the end of 2025.

Second, as access to the internet grows, so does the need for cybersecurity experts to defend the growing ecosystem of providers and users. We will support this by expanding our Skills for Jobs efforts in Africa to include a new cybersecurity skilling program.

A growing continent: Africa’s opportunity and challenge

The opportunity for Africa is extraordinary – the continent is emerging as one of the most important markets in the world, with the fastest growing population, projected to grow from 1.4 billion to almost 1.7 billion by 2030. It’s the youngest continent in the world with a median age of under 20 and 60% of the population under the age of 25. But to harness this potential and drive innovative, inclusive and sustainable growth, it will be critical to help Africa close its digital divide.

Today, only 40% of the African continent is online, and nearly 600 million lack access to electricity, significant barriers to realizing digital transformation and hindering growth. We believe access to internet is a fundamental right and we’ve been working to help deliver internet access to all through our Airband initiative, in close cooperation with governments, local communications providers, international aid organizations and nonprofits. And we’ve seen results – globally, we’ve helped provide access to more than 51 million people including 9 million in Africa. Through Airband, Microsoft has been providing the technology know-how, seed funding and a proven business model to engage with partners, and with today’s announcement we will scale this ambition even further.

Airband: Scaling broadband access through partnerships

Our work to expand Airband will begin immediately, through a new collaboration with global communications company Viasat, where, for the first time, we will use satellite to reach remote areas that previously have had few, if any, options for conventional connectivity. This new partnership builds on our approach to use every technology available to deliver connectivity based on what is best suited for a particular community whether that is fixed wireless, TV white spaces, fiber optics or Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS).

Partnerships are foundational to the success of Airband and, by working with Viasat, we will extend internet access to 10 million people globally, half of that in Africa. We will deepen our work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria and prioritize bringing Airband to new places in Africa including Egypt, Senegal, and Angola to deliver much-needed connections, often for the first time.

Africa is a vast and diverse continent, and a solution that is suitable for connecting customers in one location might not work at all in another. Airband works through local and regional partnerships to think holistically about what solutions work best. For example, electricity is frequently unavailable, insufficient or unreliable in many parts of Africa. To address this, we are partnering with sustainable energy access providers like M-KOPA, paired with local ISP Mawingu networks to offer solutions that address energy and internet connectivity challenges in Kenya.  And in Ghana, we partnered with international ISP Bluetown to take a multi-technology approach – choosing fiber, microwave, satellite and TV white space (TVWS) to deliver solutions that meet local needs and take into consideration a community’s access to reliable power, proximity to a fiber connection, and geography such as hills or dense forest. Each solution is unique depending on a community and its environment.

Through Airband, we bring together an ecosystem of public and private organizations, including middle mile broadband providers, local ISPs for last-mile connectivity, energy partners, and organizations like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), that provides support, including for skilling work delivered through non-profits, so we can design and implement a local model in partnership with local governments.

Map of Africa showing partners and active projects
Partners and active projects in Africa

Broadband is just the beginning

Beyond solving for internet access, as Africa increasingly connects to the internet, its citizens will also need to defend its growing digital ecosystem and protect new users. To help the continent’s digital capabilities continue to grow, we’ll help with needed cybersecurity skills. Microsoft will offer free access to LinkedIn cybersecurity courses as part of our Skills for Jobs program. This includes a new, free Career Essentials Certificate in Systems Administration from Microsoft and LinkedIn and multiple Microsoft courses in advanced cybersecurity. In addition, working with our nonprofit partners, Microsoft will provide 12 months of LinkedIn premium access for the first 10,000 African learners that complete a Career Essentials Certificate in Systems Administration, helping them connect to jobs in the cybersecurity field.

Microsoft has upskilled more than 4 million young people across Africa over the past five years through various skilling and employability programs including our Skills for Jobs program, which helped more than 1.5 million young people and jobs seekers in Africa over the past two years. We work with governments, nonprofits and international organizations as well, including the African Development Bank (AfDB) on the Coding for Employment program. And our government partnerships include our work on the Tawar w Ghayar (Develop and Change) initiative with the Egyptian government that has upskilled over 2 million young people, and our partnership with the Nigerian government that aims to reach up to 5 million across the country.

What’s next

Microsoft has been present in Africa for more than 30 years and, today, we have more than 21,000 partners and 12 offices across the continent. We also established the Africa Transformation Office, which partners with public and private organizations working across sectors, technologies and borders to foster partnerships and develop solutions that will have a lasting impact. With today’s announcement, we’re increasing our investments to help people and governments across Africa in enabling transformation and economic prosperity.

This is just the beginning of the next chapter.

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Microsoft and Viasat announce new partnership to deliver internet access to underserved communities globally

New collaboration through the Microsoft Airband Initiative will increase internet availability for 5 million people across Africa and an additional 5 million people around the world by the end of 2025

REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 14, 2022 — On Wednesday, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Viasat (NASDAQ: VSAT) announced a new partnership to help deliver internet access to 10 million people around the globe, including 5 million across Africa. Viasat, a global communications company, is the first satellite partner to work with Microsoft’s Airband Initiative, and together they will deepen Airband’s work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States, as well as prioritize expanding the program to Egypt, Senegal and Angola to deliver much-needed internet connection, often for the first time.

This first of its kind global partnership for Airband is an important step in reaching the Initiative’s expanded goal of delivering internet access to a quarter of a billion people across the world, including 100 million people on the continent of Africa, by the end of 2025.

According to the International Telecommunication Union at the UN, roughly one third of the world’s population — or 2.7 billion people — have still never used the internet. Satellite allows internet access to reach remote areas that previously have had few, if any, options for conventional connectivity. Working together, the companies will combine expertise and assets to help enable telehealth, distance learning and education, precision agriculture, clean power, and other services to reach new areas through the transformational provision of power and connectivity. The companies will collaborate to provide and pilot technologies including, but not limited to, satellites (both geostationary orbit and low earth orbit) and fixed wireless.

“We believe access to the internet is a fundamental right and that digital skills create and enable economic prosperity for people, businesses and governments. Through our Airband Initiative we will extend high-speed internet access to 100 million people on the continent of Africa and to a quarter of a billion people living in unserved and underserved areas across the world by 2025,” said Teresa Hutson, Microsoft’s vice president of Technology and Corporate Responsibility. “Working with Viasat, we will use satellite to reach remote areas that previously have had few, if any, options for conventional connectivity. Together, we will be able to rapidly scale and expand Airband’s reach, exploring a wider pipeline of projects and new countries where we haven’t yet worked.”

Nearly one third of the world’s population is lacking online access to education, better medical care, business opportunities, connection with family and more. And most of this population lives in just 20 countries across Africa and the Global South. Universal, affordable internet access is part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and by focusing a large portion of this new partnership on Africa, Microsoft and Viasat are working to deliver connectivity and digital literacy for better education, healthcare and economic opportunity in critical markets.

“We’re proud to partner with Microsoft as it represents another important step in bringing affordable internet service across Africa, Latin America and the U.S., as both companies continue to break down barriers to bridge the digital divide and make significant progress toward digital equity and inclusion,” said Evan Dixon, President, Global Fixed Broadband of Viasat. “Providing internet access to the world is a challenging and bold goal, and doing so in a sustainable and responsible manner will unlock enduring opportunities for those who need it most.”

Through Airband, Microsoft and its partners have already delivered high-speed internet access to more than 51 million people globally, including over 4 million in unserved U.S. rural communities and an additional 47 million in 16 unserved and underserved countries outside the U.S. Launched in 2017, Microsoft’s Airband Initiative works through partnerships with local and regional internet and energy access providers, telecom equipment makers and nonprofits, as well as governmental and nongovernmental organizations, to advance access to affordable internet and relevant digital skills around the world. Microsoft believes access to the internet is a fundamental right for everyone.

Viasat is a global communications company and an innovator in satellite communications technologies and services, focused on making connectivity accessible, available and secure for all. Today, Viasat is connecting unserved and underserved communities around the world, many for the first time ever.

This partnership builds upon the existing relationship between Viasat and Microsoft Azure Space to deliver advances in satellite connectivity and furthers Microsoft’s mission to connect anyone, anywhere on the planet. To learn more about the partnership and keep up to date with our projects and initiatives, visit http://www.microsoft.com/airband.

Viasat is a global communications company that believes everyone and everything in the world can be connected. For more than 35 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments and militaries around the world communicate. Today, the Company is developing the ultimate global communications network to power high-quality, secure, affordable, fast connections to impact people’s lives anywhere they are—on the ground, in the air or at sea. To learn more about Viasat, visit: www.viasat.com, go to Viasat’s Corporate Blog, or follow the Company on social media at: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter or YouTube.

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Viasat, the Viasat logo and the Viasat signal are registered trademarks of Viasat Inc.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]

Viasat Media Relations, Carlos Mangandy/Deb Green: [email protected]

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.