As part of our continued commitment to open source solutions, we are announcing the general availability of Azure Managed Grafana, a managed service that enables you to run Grafana natively within the Azure cloud platform. With Azure Managed Grafana, you can seamlessly and securely connect with and scale to businesses’ existing Azure services, enhancing observability and cloud management.
In addition to the features announced during preview, with general availability, we’re introducing new capabilities that include the latest Grafana v9.0 features with its improved alerting experience as well as zone redundancy (in preview) and API key support.
New connections and integrations with Azure services
With general availability, we are adding new integrations with Azure services, allowing you to realize the benefits of Grafana as efficiently and effectively as possible.
We have introduced several new out-of-the-box dashboards for Azure Monitor. For example, with Availability Tests Geo Map dashboard for Azure Monitor application insights, you can view the results and responsiveness of your application availability tests based on geographic location. Additionally, with the new out-of-the-box Load Balancing dashboard for Azure Monitor network insights, you can monitor key performance metrics for all your Azure load balancing resources, including Load Balancers, Application Gateway, Front Door, and Traffic Manager.
The new “pin to Grafana” feature for Azure Monitor Logs allows you to seamlessly add charts and queries from Azure Monitor Logs to Grafana dashboards with just one click. In the illustration below, you can see how the Azure Monitor Logs query on the left is replicated in the Grafana interface on the right.
Similarly, we have introduced new out-of-the-box dashboards for Azure Container Apps as well. The new Aggregate View dashboard for Azure Container Apps depicts a geographic map of your container apps filtered by resource group, environment, and region with drill-down links to a detailed dashboard for each app. The new App View dashboard for Azure Container Apps monitors the performance of Azure Container Apps by viewing the key metrics of CPU, memory, restarts, and network traffic or by revision, replica, and status code.
The new cloud datacenter region launches with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365, giving organizations access to hundreds of scalable, highly available and resilient cloud services.
Today, Microsoft announced the launch of its new datacenter region in Qatar, marking a major milestone for Microsoft as the first hyperscale cloud provider to deliver enterprise-grade services in the country. The new world-class datacenters are open for business with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 available today.
The continued investment is in response to Qatar’s growing demand for high performance computing, and fast and reliable access to Microsoft services. The new datacenter region will play a pivotal role in providing access to scalable, highly available, and resilient cloud services to accelerate the digital transformation and advance intelligent cloud adoption of businesses, customers, and partners across Qatar.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, H.E. Mr. Mohammed bin Ali Al Mannai, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, said: The launch of the Data Centre today is considered an important milestone in the process of transforming the State of Qatar into an advanced and pioneering digital center in the Middle East and the world. This journey was inspired by the Qatar National Vision 2030, which aims to establish a diversified and competitive national economy.”
His Excellency continued: “These pioneering projects in the field of digital transformation, communications and information technology would not have been achieved without the ambitions of the country’s wise leadership and its vision to this vital sector, believing in its crucial role in the development of other economic sectors. Legislative and legal regulation of the sector and enhance its attractiveness.
“Microsoft has more datacenter regions than any other cloud provider and today we are proud to deliver the first hyperscale cloud datacenter region to Qatar. This development will increase opportunities for organizations of all sizes and across all sectors to leverage our trusted cloud to innovate, better serve their customers and achieve their business goals – ultimately supporting continued economic growth that benefits all residents.” said Ralph Haupter, President of Microsoft EMEA.
Providing new opportunities for customers and partners
Earlier this year, Microsoft, in partnership with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), launched the National Skilling Program, with the goal to upskill over 50,000 people in Qatar through providing digital skills acquisition programs over the next four years. To date, the program had benefited over 14,000 people.
Microsoft has also established a first-of-its kind Digital Center of Excellence to help bridge the skills gap amongst the IT community and help accelerate digital transformation, in collaboration with leading universities such as MIT xPro, the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD) and HEC Paris.
Delivering reliable, trusted, and resilient cloud, securely
Businesses of all sizes and industries can now host their cloud workloads in Microsoft’s Qatar datacenter, taking advantage of enterprise-grade reliability and performance. Customers can begin leveraging Microsoft Azure to develop advanced applications using AI, data and analytics, IoT and hybrid capabilities with advanced digital security and more, as well as Microsoft 365, the world’s productivity cloud that delivers best-of-breed productivity apps delivered seamlessly through cloud services.
With over 100 compliance offerings – the broadest set of compliance offerings and programs of any public cloud provider – the Microsoft cloud significantly empowers customers to meet local compliance and policy requirements. This includes the National Information Assurance Certification issued by the National Cyber Security Agency, which Microsoft received earlier this year.
“With its longstanding history as an early adopter of technology, Qatar has completely embraced cloud solutions and revolutionized entire industries to develop a new, advanced digital economy. Today’s announcement will enable the country to take these groundbreaking innovations to the world, showcase its standing as a leader in digital transformation and cement Qatar’s place as a global hub for innovation,” said Lana Khalaf, Microsoft Country Manager.
To learn more about the Microsoft cloud datacenter region in Qatar, please visit the website.
Microsoft announced today that it has joined the Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador initiative with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This initiative is NOAA’s successful, long-running program to formally recognize partners who are improving the United States’ readiness, responsiveness and resilience against extreme weather, water and climate events.
Weather by Microsoft Start powers experiences integrated into Microsoft 365, the Microsoft Edge browser and over 1.4 billion Windows devices worldwide. Using industry-leading machine learning and AI, Microsoft combines multiple observational datasets with its proprietary algorithms designed to generate highly accurate forecasts. As a proud Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador, Microsoft will continue to connect users with weather information that matters to them, helping people make informed and knowledgeable decisions.
NOAA NWS Warnings on Microsoft Start
Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more closely aligns with the NOAA National Weather Service’s mission to provide weather, water and climate data, forecasts, warnings and impact-based decision support services for the protection of life and property and enhancement of the national economy.
This alignment will enable Microsoft to continue building capabilities to better keep users informed and prepared for weather events and help NOAA reach even more people as they work to safeguard life and property. Weather by Microsoft Start is built into an intelligent, personalized feed that delivers up-to-the-minute information in intuitive experiences at users’ fingertips at no cost.
“Microsoft performs a critical role in making sure the public receives National Weather Service weather warnings,” said Ken Graham, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service. “Working together with our Weather-Ready Nation Ambassadors, we provide useful and relevant information to communities, businesses and individuals to help them become ready, responsive and resilient to extreme weather and water events.”
“The Weather Ready Nation Ambassador role for Microsoft makes perfect sense given the mission alignment,” said Taroon Mandhana, Corporate Vice President of Content Services. “However, this is just the beginning — further efforts in building a Weather-Ready Nation will include additional capabilities, notifications and weather content helping both Microsoft and NOAA reach our common goals to protect and empower everyone.
Users can reach their personalized weather forecast and feed by clicking on the weather icons on the Windows 10 and 11 taskbars, from the Microsoft Edge new tab page, or from the Microsoft Start homepage.
One of the biggest challenges in security today is visibility. And by visibility, I don’t just mean keeping an eye on ever-evolving cyberthreats, but also seeing your own security environment clearly—especially where you’re vulnerable.
For defenders who are working hard to manage threats across multiple clouds, platforms, and devices, research and investigation is a time-consuming and difficult challenge. Thankfully, we’ve recently launched two new security solutions designed to give you a comprehensive view of the security threats to your business—and track what’s changing day-to-day.
I’m really excited about these new products and invite you to learn more about them at our next digital event—Stop Ransomware with Microsoft Security—on September 15, 2022.
See the latest threat intelligence solutions in action
We have a lot to look forward to at this event. Charlie Bell, Executive Vice President of Microsoft Security, and Vasu Jakkal, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Security, Compliance, Identity, and Privacy Business, will join other security experts to discuss how to get ahead of ransomware and proactively prepare for even the most sophisticated attacks.
But this event goes beyond strategies and thought leadership—you’ll also get an exciting, in-depth look at two innovative new security products:
Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
These new security solutions work together to help you understand both your adversaries and your own security environment. With more visibility into your infrastructure and better insights into breaches and potential threats, you’ll be able to prioritize the right response tactics and keep pace with an ever-changing threat environment.
Let’s start with Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence. This solution works by analyzing signals from across the internet, then enriching this data with powerful machine learning algorithms to extract insights relevant to your organization.
When you attend this free digital event, you’ll learn exactly how to use this new solution to dive deep into a breach and really understand the nature of the attack and the assets affected.
Elevate your security posture
While Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence can help you understand the threat landscape, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management gives you greater knowledge of your attack surface.
With the help of this tool, you can build a more complete understanding of your security posture and locate unknown, unmanaged resources that are visible from the internet—the same view an attacker has when selecting a target.
Throughout the Stop Ransomware with Microsoft Security digital event, we’ll be demonstrating both Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence and Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management. Join us to learn how you can bolster your security strategy by integrating both products into your own security operation center—or connect with cybersecurity professionals during a live question and answer chat if you have questions.
Learn from the experts firsthand
We crafted every session in the Stop Ransomware with Microsoft Security digital event to empower you with the tools and insights you need to make the most of threat intelligence. Join your fellow cybersecurity professionals in the following sessions:
Ransomware, threat intelligence, and the state of security: Join Vasu Jakkal and Charlie Bell as they discuss the Microsoft approach to security, including what analysts are seeing in the threat landscape and how threat intelligence can help organizations prepare for the worst.
Unmask adversaries with Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence: Threat intelligence is the foundation of effective cybersecurity. As threats like ransomware increase in sophistication, it becomes even more critical to understand adversaries and their infrastructure. Learn how threat intelligence can enhance incident response and give your business the insights you need to stay ahead of threats.
Locate and secure your external attack surface: The external attack surface is constantly changing, and unknown, unsecured resources may fall outside your security coverage. Learn how to view your organization from the outside in—the same way an attacker does—and not only locate unmanaged assets but also protect them.
Threat intelligence is the cornerstone of solid security: Explore common use cases for threat intelligence and discover real-world applications to learn how you can enhance your existing security solutions and stop ransomware in its tracks.
Don’t just react to threats. Get ahead of them.
Join the Stop Ransomware with Microsoft Security digital event to learn how to safeguard your organization from today’s attacks—and be ready for tomorrow’s.
At this digital event, you’ll:
Hear key insights from Microsoft’s leadership, including a fireside conversation between Charlie Bell, Executive Vice President of Microsoft Security, and Vasu Jakkal, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Security, Compliance, Identity, and Privacy Business.
Learn about two new security solutions: Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence and Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management.
See threat intelligence from Microsoft Security in action and learn how to use it to prevent and remove even the most sophisticated ransomware.
Get your questions answered by threat protection experts during a live question and answer chat.
Stop Ransomware with Microsoft Security September 15, 2022 9:00 AM-10:30 AM PT
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.
We are pleased to confirm that Xbox will be making its digital return to Tokyo Game Show on September 15 at 6 p.m. JST / 9 a.m. UTC / 2 a.m. PDT, with a streamed broadcast celebrating the vibrant players and visionary creators across the region. Like years’ past, this will be a show curated for our players in Japan and Asia.
We invite fans to tune in to the Tokyo Game Show 2022 Xbox Stream where you can expect to see updates on existing titles from Xbox Game Studios and titles launching from developer partners that we hope will delight players here in Japan, across Asia and around the world.
The Xbox Stream will be available on Tokyo Game Show’s official YouTube channel, Xbox YouTube channels in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and on Bilibili in China.
While Tokyo Game Show 2022 will open its gates to the public for the first time in three years this September, the hybrid nature will allow players from around the world to also enjoy the latest in video games, technology, and games culture in Japan. With the theme of “Nothing Stops Gaming,” Tokyo Game Show 2022 will embody the solidarity of gamers and the promising future that lies ahead for our industry.
Gaming has always provided an important way to connect, but especially over the past few years. It has a transformative power to bring joy and foster community, and it’s at TGS where we can all enjoy the spirit of games together.
We look forward to you joining us digitally for the Xbox Stream on September 15 at 6 p.m. JST / 9 a.m. UTC / 2 a.m. PDT.
In these challenging times, closing learning gaps and helping students catch up are top of mind for educators working to accelerate learning. But where does student well-being fit in with this? There’s a strong case to be made for focusing more heavily on assessing and addressing student emotional wellness. After all, helping students build confidence and gain self-awareness skills can drive positive learning outcomes and benefit them throughout their lives.
The latest accelerate learning paper, “Prioritizing and Supporting Student Well-being,” calls attention to the importance of well-being and highlights the built-in capabilities of the Reflect tool in Microsoft Teams. This tool can help build students’ emotional vocabulary to deepen their empathy, provide teachers with the opportunity to gauge their students’ well-being, and give schools more thorough data to identify and address student needs at scale.
Before diving into how edtech tools like Reflect can support well-being, it’s important to understand the relationship between emotions and learning. In the booklet “The Nature of Learning, Using Research to Inspire Practice,” which is part of a project from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the authors state that one of the seven fundamentals of learning is that emotions are the gatekeepers of learning1. The reason for this is that emotion and cognition work together in the brain to guide learning. Positive emotions encourage recall and understanding, and negative emotions can disrupt it. That’s why it’s more important now than ever to focus on students’ social and emotional development and wellness.
“If we really want all students to leave school having developed certain academic, social, personal, and cultural capacities, we need to think really carefully about whether we as educators are creating the types of experiences that we know from research will help develop those capacities.”— Dr. Dave Paunesku, Senior Behavioral Scientist at Stanford University
Many factors have contributed to students feeling negative emotions over the past few years, and there is much discussion among educators about how to best support students and create positive learning environments. In Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s annual Educator Confidence Report, 72% of educators reported that accommodating students’ well-being needs was their largest concern, and 82% said they believed that an integrated, detailed well-being program would positively impact students2. Additionally, according to a 2021 report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, more than 90% of parents support programs that encourage students to acquire and practice life skills such as goal setting, problem solving, and self-confidence3—all elements that contribute to positive well-being. Perhaps the most compelling evidence to integrate social-emotional skills and well-being checks into learning environments is that the nonprofit Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)—a longtime leader in the social emotional learning (SEL) movement—reports that students who’ve completed SEL programs gain 11 percentile points in core academic areas4.
This data makes it clear that embedding social emotional education into curricula, while regularly evaluating students’ progress and emotional state, has significant wide-ranging benefits for students.
Integrating well-being checks into daily routines
There are many everyday moments that can be transformational for students. This includes moments when they have the opportunity to self-reflect, build and demonstrate empathy skills for their peers, and to learn to engage with the world meaningfully. Building check-ins into regular routines can help students recognize and name emotions, becoming “reflectors” of their own emotional lives and developing their capacity to learn and grow with intention. Regular check-ins can also help teachers assess their class’s comfort with subject matter, to see where students may need more support. And since things can change quickly, it’s a good idea for teachers to use opportunities as they arise throughout a school day to “take the temperature” of their students.
Of course, for such check-ins to be effective and fit naturally into the day, it’s helpful to have a clear, easy way to send and receive communications. Ideally integrated directly into learning tools that students and teachers already use. It’s important for students to be able to see how their responses change over time so they can track their own growth, and for educators to be able to evaluate where additional support or intervention might be needed to help students grow.
Reflect in Microsoft Teams for Education is built directly into the digital learning hub that unites assessments, communication, and collaboration. To help students visualize their feelings, there are “Feelings Monsters” that depict more than 50 emotions. Students can use these to understand their emotions and communicate with their teachers. And in addition to helping students name different moods, these visualizations also help start conversations about what causes pleasant and unpleasant feelings, how they affect learning, and how to navigate them.
Individual emotions can be infectious and can drive the tone in a classroom, which can change as moods shift, similar to an ever-changing “thermostat.” Educators can use Reflect to gain information that helps them guide the tone of their class, and turn the energy up or down. With regular check-ins, teachers can respect and respond to the unique emotional lives of their students. Helping young people have insights into their emotional state can lead to increases in student leadership skills, student voice, and greater agency.5
Comparing well-being check-in tools
To evaluate the ease-of-use and effectiveness of Reflect check-ins, the authors of “Prioritizing and Supporting Student Well-being” reviewed the process for educators to create a Reflect check-in. The authors also reviewed the process for students to respond, and for either students or educators to review responses in Teams. Next, they evaluated the equivalent Google Classroom solutions. And since Google does not have a built-in well-being tool similar to Reflect, the authors reviewed the process over two applications: Google Forms and Google Classroom. (Note: Google does not have a comparable tool that provides well-being data to educators or students as Reflect and Insights does.)
The results of the review were clear. They showed that Microsoft Reflect was more effective, easier to use, and a more comprehensive tool for checking in on student well-being, helping students understand and express their emotions and providing educators with clear and actionable analysis of aggregated results. With built-in applications like Reflect, educators can better understand the needs of all students, review data to inform decision-making, and help students improve their academic performance.
Want to learn more about how Microsoft 365 Education solutions can assist educators with understanding students’ well-being? Read “Prioritizing and Supporting Student Well-being” and be sure to check out the other papers in the series so far:
The next paper in the series will highlight read-aloud applications that support literacy, so look for that coming soon!
At Microsoft we recognize the importance of a competitive environment in the European cloud provider market, in which smaller competitors can thrive. It is therefore critical for us to remain mindful of our responsibilities as a major technology company. In May of this year, after constructive discussions with representatives of our European cloud provider partners, Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith announced our European Cloud Principles and committed to addressing their valid concerns, starting with changes to our software licensing terms.
Today, we are providing important updates on these changes for these partners and their customers in Europe and around the world, which we will introduce on 1 October 2022. They are intended to help these partners to be more competitive and grow their businesses. They will also provide more flexibility for their customers.
The changes have three primary goals:
Make it easier for customers to bring their software to the partner’s cloud
Ensure partners have access to the products necessary to sell cost-effective solutions that customers want
Empower partners to build hosted solutions with speed and scale
We are committed to competing fairly and in partnership with the diverse group of European cloud providers, and we strongly believe in the importance of an open and competitive cloud economy in Europe.
I’m thrilled to be writing to you today from VMware Explore in San Francisco, where my team and I will be presenting and meeting with customers and partners in person! When we launched Azure VMware Solution two years ago amid a pandemic, IT agility became a top priority as organizations scrambled to enable remote work and ensure business resilience via cloud solutions. Fast forward to today, and most organizations recognize that by running workloads in the cloud, they can respond more rapidly, no matter what the challenge or opportunity.
“It’s much easier for us to take on smaller acquisitions and bring them onboard … by using Azure VMware Solution, we’re always ready and able to add a node and start folding in the new acquisition’s applications and data with the extra capacity.”—Dean Hughes, Infrastructure Manager, Carpetright
“Ordering and installing on-premises networking hosts can take six months. But using Azure VMware Solution, it’s a simple process to run up new hosts that we can have working in a few days.”—Harry Sturgess, Manager of Technology and Operations, Metro South Health
Because every customer starts their cloud journey at a different place, we help enable customers to migrate to the cloud on their terms and maintain support for the business platforms and investments they have today. Azure VMware Solution is an easy way to extend and migrate existing VMware Private Clouds to run them natively on Azure. Azure VMware Solution offers symmetry with on-premises environments, which helps to accelerate datacenter migrations, so customers recognize the benefits of the cloud sooner. This symmetry also allows IT teams to leverage the same VMware skills, processes, and investments from their on-premises VMware environments.
“What a game-changer for us. As a VMware house, we saw how easy it would be to move applications from VMware to Azure VMware Solution because it’s bolted onto the back of Azure.”—Rob Wilde, Platforms Manager, Nottinghamshire County Council
Thanks to Microsoft’s unique Azure Hybrid Benefit and Extended Security Updates for Windows Server and SQL Server, Azure VMware Solution is one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to seamlessly migrate and run VMware in the cloud.
Option coming for VMware Cloud Universal Program
Today we extended our partnership with VMware to add support for the VMware Cloud Universal program. This will allow customers to purchase Azure VMware Solution as part of VMware Cloud Universal program, a flexible purchasing and consumption program for executing hybrid and multi-cloud strategies. With VMware Cloud Universal, customers may purchase credits for VMware’s multi-cloud infrastructure and management and apply these credits to deployments of Azure VMware Solution. Learn more.
Check out what’s new in Azure VMware Solution
Today I am excited to share some of the recent updates we’ve made to Azure VMware Solution.
Global expansion to 24 regions: Since the launch of Azure VMware Solution two years ago, we’ve been working to support customers globally with geographic expansion to 24 Azure regions, more than any other cloud provider. Check out the Azure products by region web page to find a region near you.
Azure NetApp Files datastores for Azure VMware Solution is now in public preview. For your storage-intensive workloads running on Azure VMware Solution, the integration with Azure NetApp Files helps to easily scale storage capacity beyond the limits of the local instance storage provided by vSAN and lower your overall total cost of ownership for storage-intensive workloads. Learn more.
Public IP to NSX Edge capability for Azure VMware Solution is now generally available in 17 Azure regions. Most customer applications running on Azure VMware Solution require internet access requiring both outbound and inbound internet connectivity. With this new capability, there are now three primary patterns for creating inbound and outbound internet access to resources on your Azure VMware Solution private cloud. Learn more.
Enterprise VMware Cloud Director Services for Azure VMware Solution is now in Public Preview. Customers who have Azure VMware Solution deployed under their Microsoft Enterprise agreement can purchase the VMware Cloud Director Service from VMware and connect their Azure VMware Solution private cloud to create and manage private virtual datacenters and leverage vCloud availability for migrating on-premises VMware workloads to Azure VMware Solution private clouds. Learn more.
Jetstream DR for Azure VMware Solution is now generally available, providing customers with disaster recovery protection needed for business and mission-critical applications while leveraging cost-effective cloud storage such as Azure Blob Storage. JetStream DR can also replicate and automate recovery to Azure NetApp Files datastores. Learn more.
VMware vRealize Log Insight Cloud for Azure VMware Solution is now generally available. This service provides centralized log management, deep operational visibility, intelligent analytics, and improved troubleshooting and security. This boosts IT organizations’ operational efficiency, mitigates costs arising from unplanned downtime, and reduces organizational risk by providing visibility into security-related events. Learn more.
VMware vSphere 7.0 is now available globally for all cloud deployments in Azure VMware Solution.
If you would like to stay up to date with the latest releases from Azure VMware Solution, please follow Azure updates.
Learn more
This week we are offering a special opportunity to take the Azure VMware Solution Cloud Skills Challenge. Compete in this free, self-paced, Microsoft learning path and advance your technical skills at the same time! Register for the Challenge.
The Grounded team is officially in the Home Stretch toward the full release on September 27 with their latest update to the game. The team is hard at work building the final game that a community of over 10 million players has helped define over the last two years. While that 1.0 launch will be the biggest update to the game yet, the Home Stretch update brings some major new features of its own for players to try out in the meantime.
First up is a big one that a lot of players have been waiting on: Shared Worlds. Shared Worlds let players store their worlds in the cloud, allowing friends to play that specific world even if the owner is offline. A player can own three Shared Worlds at a time, and have up to 50 worlds shared with them. Standard Worlds that players currently have will be convertible to Shared Worlds via the Save/Load menu.
In addition to these expanded opportunities to share the backyard with friends, players will also be able to share their adventures with a new in-game friend as they can tame a gnat as a pet. The little insects that bump into players because they can, will do so out of love now. The helpfulness of pets has also increased with tuning of their passive buffs and the ability to increase their health by gearing them up with armor. Further benefits for players include updates to everyone’s favorite robot friend, BURG.L, who has now acquired enough chips to remember he can roll his treads to inspect the Oak Lab and fulfill his assistant duties.
Speaking of assistance, another new addition coming in the Home Stretch update is the cookery. Meals will be craftable at the cookery instead of the oven, so players no longer have to have that odd feeling of mushroom bricks tainting their quesadillantlion anymore. The cookery is an earlier crafting unlock as well, allowing players access to meal recipes early on in their exploration of the backyard.
This isn’t the only change to crafting, however, as Armor and Weapon upgrades have also received a revamp in response to community feedback. The new upgrade system introduces Fashion Nuggets and Tough Nuggets, material types that players can use to craft and upgrade armor and weapons, respectively. This change dramatically improves the early-game experience for new and returning players.
Lastly, after tiring themselves out with all this crafting and cooking, players will be able to see the new Rest Timelapse which shows time passing in the yard while a player sleeps.
Groundedwill enter its full release on September 27, 2022 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows 10/11, and Steam for $39.99. It’s also available with Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta).
Grounded is also expanding its universe beyond the game as Bardel Entertainment, Kinetic Media, and SC Productions recently announced production of an animated television series based on the backyard world we’ve built. To learn more about Grounded, check out the latest Developer Vlogs on the Obsidian YouTube Channel or visit the official website.
Grounded – Game Preview
Xbox Game Studios
☆☆☆☆☆906
★★★★★
$29.99$23.99
Xbox One X Enhanced
PC Game Pass
Xbox Game Pass
This game is a work in progress. It may or may not change over time or release as a final product. Purchase only if you are comfortable with the current state of the unfinished game. Xbox Game Pass members can now pre-install Grounded, so they’re ready to play as soon as Xbox Game Preview begins. Not an Xbox Game Pass member? You can still purchase Grounded through Xbox Game Preview when it enters on July 28, 2020. The world is a vast, beautiful, and dangerous place – especially when you have been shrunken to the size of an ant. Explore, build, and survive together in this cooperative survival-adventure. Can you thrive alongside the hordes of giant insects, fighting to survive the perils of the backyard? Join our community and help shape the future of Grounded in Xbox Game Preview. – Reactive World and Insect Life – Explore this immersive and persistent world, where the insect life reacts to your actions. – Base Building and Crafting – Shelter and tools are critical to your survival. Build epic bases to protect you and your stuff from the insects and the elements. Craft weapons, tools, and armor, allowing you to better fight, explore and survive. – Online Co-op – You can face the backyard alone or together, online, with up to three friends – it is your choice. – Campaign – Uncover the secrets lurking in the shadows of Grounded as you freely explore the backyard and progress through its mysterious story. Full details on the latest status of the game, how you can give feedback and report issues can be found at https://grounded.obsidian.net/
Black Hat USA 2022 marked the twenty-fifth year that security researchers, security architects, and other security professionals have gathered to share the latest research, developments, and trends. Microsoft was among the companies participating in the conference, which was from August 6 to 11, 2022, in Las Vegas, Nevada. This year’s event was hybrid, with some attendees attending in-person and others joining online.
We were excited to join members of the Black Hat security community representing 111 countries.1 Along with more than 17,000 in-person attendees—and more than 15,000 virtual attendees—we heard security insights and shared the latest in Microsoft Security solutions, including two new security solutions—Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence to track threat actor activity and Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management to discover unknown and unmanaged resources that are visible and accessible from the internet.
Booth excitement
What energizes us the most about conferences like Black Hat is the opportunity to meet people. During the conference, we welcomed hundreds of security professionals to our booth. There, we talked about cybersecurity threats, shared our perspective on the need for comprehensive security, listened to their stories of cybersecurity challenges, and gave them demonstrations of the latest innovations from Microsoft Security in the threat intelligence and protection space, including Microsoft Defender Experts for Hunting.
We’re passionate about security and it’s always a thrill to be among others who feel the same way. Our team in the booth was kept happily busy. Some attendees chatted in groups of two or more while others crowded around four demo stations—Microsoft Security Experts, threat protection, threat intelligence, and identity and access management—to see how Microsoft product solutions can help catch what others miss.
During our Diversity and Inclusion Hour on Wednesday, Black Hat attendees gathered in the Microsoft booth to socialize and talk about diversity, equality, and inclusion in the workplace. As a bonus, Microsoft enlisted a professional photographer to take headshots for anyone who attended and wanted to update their LinkedIn profiles.
Conference sessions
Microsoft Security team members stay up on the latest news, solutions, and strategies in the security world. We were thrilled when several of these security professionals received the opportunity to share their thought leadership insights with Black Hat attendees.
“Advancing Investigations with Threat Intelligence”: Microsoft Incident Response Consultant MacKenzie Brown shared how Microsoft’s Detection and Response Team (DART) harnesses the power of threat intelligence while in the trenches helping customers challenged by cyberattacks. MacKenzie also walked through how DART responded to recent threats from the North Korean nation-state actor believed to be behind HolyGh0st and Lapus$. 163 attendees viewed the session virtually.
“AAD Joined Machines—The New Lateral Movement”: Microsoft Senior Security Researcher Mor Rubin talked about new research about a mechanism designed to allow authentication between Microsoft Azure Active Directory-joined machines. Mor also explored the foundation of the new network protocol, presented a way (and a tool) to perform pass-the-certificate attacks, and talked through an open-source solution that can help companies hunt for attacks.
“CastGuard: Mitigating Type Confusion in C++”: Microsoft Software Security Engineer Joe Bialek discussed type confusion vulnerabilities, which have incredibly powerful primitives to exploit writers. Joe introduced a new mitigation called CastGuard that’s being deployed to a set of Windows components (with more in the works). With a tiny instruction sequence and the virtual function table pointer of an object, CastGuard helps prevent illegal static down-casts in C++ code.
“Malware Classification With Machine Learning Enhanced by Windows Kernel Emulation”: Microsoft Security Software Engineer Dmitrijs Trizna presented a hybrid machine learning architecture that combines static and dynamic malware analysis methodologies. This architecture surpasses the capabilities of the modern AI classifiers and records a detection rate of 96.7 percent with a fixed false positive rate of 0.1 percent.
Conference social events
It wouldn’t be a conference without plenty of fun social events to get everyone chatting, networking, and celebrating the achievements of security professionals. At the Cybersecurity Women of the Year Awards (CSWY Awards) on August 9, 2022, attendees gathered at the Luxor, enjoyed a gourmet meal, and toasted to female cybersecurity and privacy leaders who are changing the world.
“The CSWY Awards recognize women protecting businesses, schools, and governments from cyber threats actors,” said Carmen Marsh, creator of the CSWY Awards. “We give security pros the opportunity to talk about what’s happening or not happening in cybersecurity and how to make it better. It’s wonderful to bring women from around the world to Las Vegas for this important event while creating inspiring role models for the new generation of cybersecurity professionals.”
As a Signature Sponsor, Microsoft was honored to recognize three barrier breakers serving as role models for future generations of cybersecurity professionals. Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Cloud and Microsoft 365 Security, Aanchal Gupta gave out the Cybersecurity Woman Privacy Woman Law Professional of the Year 2022 award, while Microsoft Senior Director of Security Narrative and Strategy, Shelli Strand awarded the Cybersecurity Woman Influencer of the Year 2022 award. Abhilasha Bhargav-Spantzel, Microsoft Partner Security Architect, gave out the Cybersecurity Woman Volunteer of the Year award.
After dinner and the awards ceremony, attendees networked and danced to a DJ spinning hits.
“Today, we have an incredible opportunity to attract a talented and impassioned generation of defenders and to change the deep gender disparity in our industry. I am so grateful to the Cybersecurity Woman of the Year program organizers for spotlighting the amazing work being done by those superheroes who are setting a powerful example for us all,” said Vasu Jakkal, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Security, Compliance, Identity, Management, and Privacy, “Microsoft is proud to take part in an event that is helping to cultivate inclusivity, inspire and facilitate mentorship, and celebrate the important field of cybersecurity.”
On August 10, 2022, Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) hosted Microsoft’s annual Researcher Celebration event at the Illuminarium in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event brought together some of Microsoft’s Most Valuable Researchers (MVRs), and many security leaders and professionals. Attendees met with the head of MSRC, Aanchal Gupta, MSRC leadership, and other key Microsoft attendees to thank the MVRs and researcher community for their contributions. Check out the list of MSRC 2022 Most Valuable Researchers!
Throughout the evening, more than 500 guests from more than 200 organizations across the information security community participated in space-themed activities and experiences while connecting and re-connecting in person for the first time in many years. Thanks to everyone that attended and helped make the event memorable.
More threat intelligence resources
We can’t wait for future opportunities to connect with everyone again in person. Until then, there are a few ways for you to stay connected and up to date on the latest from Microsoft in threat intelligence solutions:
Join us on September 15, 2022, for the free digital event Stop Ransomware with Microsoft Security to hear key insights from Microsoft’s leadership, including a fireside conversation between Charlie Bell, Executive Vice President of Microsoft Security, and Vasu Jakkal, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Security, Compliance, Identity, and Privacy Business.
Explore details on Microsoft’s threat intelligence solution in our blog post about new solutions for threat intelligence and attack surface management.
If you attended Black Hat and interacted with Microsoft, please share your feedback with us.
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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