Tag: Recent News

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Developing interest in computer science with Microsoft MakeCode

As part of Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, our work in computer science education is critical to ensuring that all students have the opportunity to learn foundational computing skills. The mission of Microsoft MakeCode is to empower the next generation of technology creators through fun projects, immediate results, and both block and text editors for learners at different experience and grade levels.

What is MakeCode Arcade?

MakeCode Arcade is a free, online platform for building retro-style video games using block or text-based programming. Using blocks that snap together as a developmentally appropriate alternative to text-based programming languages, students at any skill level can create projects and share a multi-player interactive product in minutes.  

While Arcade was designed for elementary and middle school students to develop hands-on fundamental coding skills, MakeCode Arcade offers an AP Computer Science Principles curriculum. This College Board endorsed and approved curriculum aligned for high school students features game-based learning to increase student engagement and experimentation.

Leveling Up in Your Classroom

With less than 30% of teachers in elementary and middle school having a degree in a computer or technical services, we recognize that there are multiple pathways to teaching computer science1. In addition to supporting student learning, MakeCode promotes teacher learning pathways with free professional development opportunities, customizable lessons, and access to tailor-made resources that do not require pre-existing coding knowledge or expertise.

Whether you are new to computer science, interested in bridging CS across the curriculum, or exploring the art of the possible with block-based programming, we encourage educators to familiarize themselves with MakeCode resources:

  1. Connect with our free MakeCode professional learning and self-guided resources on Microsoft Learn. Pro Tip: We recommend starting with “Engaging learners through games with MakeCode Arcade” as a great starting place.
  2. Explore the skillmaps, tutorials, and live coding sections of MakeCode Arcade.
  3. Check out our standards-aligned Introduction to Computer Science curriculum.
  4. Visit and bookmark our dedicated teacher resource page on the MakeCode homepage.
  5. Share your insights and partner with a teacher in another school subject.

Connecting Arcade to Your Classroom

After reviewing some of MakeCode’s educator resources and tools, consider how you will use Arcade and block-based coding with your students:

  • What are the natural connections to your classroom with MakeCode Arcade? Coding naturally aligns with math concepts like coordinate grids, rotation, and variables as well as problem solving and the arts. Further, computer science is a cross-discipline subject; consider how you might partner with Language Arts, Social Studies and other content areas to embed computer science instruction across the curriculum. As a reminder, each skillmap includes a learning outcomes document outlining the specific objectives of the activity.
  • What can you demonstrate with MakeCode Arcade? Show a project that you created to spark the students’ interest and demonstrate how to get started with MakeCode Arcade.
  • What activity can students successfully complete on the first day? Whether you do this as a class or assign it as an individual activity, the Beginner Skillmap or any of our Hour of Code activities make great introductions for first-time coders.
  • How can you elevate student work at the end of the first day? Students feel a sense of purpose when they’re able to share their final creations with a classroom or even an elbow-partner. Create a space to ensure that students can explain their projects to a friend. Also, when completing skillmaps, students are rewarded with a downloadable certificate and a digital badge upon reaching the trophy level.

Wakanda Forever and Hour of Code

We have two new engaging and entertaining experiences for Computer Science Education Week© 2022, which are already available for use in your classroom.

Hour of Code: “Code a Carnival”

Celebrate this year’s CS Education Week with Code a Carnival by MakeCode Arcade. Students will be introduced to game design as they create traditional carnival activities like “Whack-the-Mole” and “Burstin’ Balloons.” Along with guided tutorials, Code a Carnival provides a free easy-to-use teacher resource guide. 

To really bring your carnival to life, students can create multiplayer versions of their games to play with their friends, while putting their skills to the test. Whatever their coding experience, every student (and teacher) can increase their programming knowledge and have fun, while coding their own carnival game!

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever  

Have any Black Panther fans in your classroom? Your school can learn coding fundamentals as they develop their own action-packed activity inspired by Marvel Studios’© Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (in theaters beginning November 11).

Ready to take the first step? Kickstart your lesson along with an introduction by Letitia Wright, the actress who plays Wakanda’s lead technologist Shuri.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygSHKnmC_IU?&wmode=opaque&rel=0&w=640&h=360]After your students learn about their challenge, introduce your students to the MakeCode Arcade Wakanda Forever tutorial. This activity has step-by-step instructions and a corresponding teacher lesson plan, making it perfect for any classroom regardless of their coding background.

For more Wakanda Forever inspired content and the opportunity for your class to win an Xbox, go to xbox.com/wakanda-forever.

Powering Up with MakeCode

Ready to take your lessons to the next level? You can also integrate MakeCode with popular tools like the Micro:bit and Minecraft Education Edition. MakeCode works with the affordable, pocket-sized computer called a micro:bit, students can create things like a soil moisture sensor or a DIY pedometer.

Does your school have a subscription to Minecraft Education Edition? If so, did you know that you can use MakeCode to automate events and mod Minecraft’s virtual world? Visit Microsoft Learn to get started with block coding in Minecraft Education Edition. 

Stay Connected

We encourage you to subscribe to our MakeCode Blog to learn more, engage with other teachers on our MakeCode forum, or visit the Microsoft Learn Educator Center to bolster your knowledge about STEM, coding, and computer science. Don’t forget to follow @MSMakeCode wherever you scroll for the most up-to-date MakeCode news.

1 The Computer Science Teacher Landscape: Results of a Nationwide Teacher Survey | CSTA

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Congratulations to the grand prize winners of this year’s Global Hackathon! I am inspired by how you have applied your passion to a worthwhile purpose…

From Copilot for business to Codespaces for all, at GitHub Universe we’re bringing our breakthrough offerings to even more organizations and developers around the world. 

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From Copilot for business to Codespaces for all, at GitHub Universe we’re bringing our breakthrough offerings to even more organizations and developers around the world.

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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Azure sustainability guidance introduced at COP27

This week at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, we’re collectively focused on how to measure progress, build markets, and empower people across the globe to deliver a just, sustainable future for everyone on the planet.

It’s a pivotal moment for the world to come together to drive meaningful action to address and combat global climate change. It’s also an important event for Microsoft, where we will highlight our work to advance the sustainability of our business, share sustainability solutions for operational and environmental impact, and support the societal infrastructure for a sustainable world.

The customer signal is clear—sustainability is now a business imperative. In a study of over 1,230 business leaders across 113 countries, 81 percent of CEOs have increased their sustainability investments1. Sustainability is a top-10 business priority for the first time ever2, and carbon emissions are forecasted to become a top-three criterion for cloud purchases by 20253. The number of large cities with net zero targets has doubled since December 2020—from 115 to 2354 and the global market for green data centers is projected to grow to more than $181.9B by 20265.

Customers and partners are asking for help to understand how to meet and plan for rapidly evolving sustainability requirements, incentives, and regulations. At the same time, they’re dealing with rising energy costs and an uncertain economic environment. We’re hearing specific questions about building sustainable IT in the cloud: How to reduce current energy usage and costs, as well as carbon emissions? How can moving to the cloud help us achieve greater efficiency? What tools are available to make this easier?

To support you in navigating this learning curve, we’re announcing technical guidance and skilling offerings that can help you plan your path forward, improve your sustainability posture, and create new business value while reducing your operational footprint. And this is just the beginning – stay tuned for more announcements in the months ahead.

Accelerate your sustainability progress with Azure

Our recent On the Issues blog, Closing the Sustainability Skills Gap: Helping businesses move from pledges to progress underscores the importance of equipping companies and employees with a broad range of new skills to enable sustainable transformation. We’re investing across the company to support this skill development in myriad ways, including a broad range of technical guidance and skilling initiatives to help you achieve your sustainability goals with Azure. This week we’re announcing a set of architectural guidance resources to help you get started:

  • Azure Well-Architected Framework sustainability guidance: this documentation set describes workload optimizations for Green IT within Azure, building on the industry leadership of the Green Software Foundation and aligned to their green software principles. Because sustainability considerations apply to all five pillars: security, reliability, operational excellence, performance efficiency, and cost optimization, we approach the topic as a lens across workloads rather than a standalone pillar.
  • Azure Well-Architected Framework sustainability self-assessment: as you plan your cloud workloads, use this self-assessment to review the potential impact of your design decisions and how to optimize them for carbon and energy efficiency. You’ll also receive specific recommendations you can act on, whether you’re implementing or deploying an application or reviewing an existing application.
  • Sustainable software engineering practices in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): the guidance found in this article is focused on AKS services you’re building or operating and includes design and configuration checklists, recommended design, and configuration options. Before applying sustainable software engineering principles to your application, we recommend reviewing the priorities, needs, and trade-offs of your application.

Supporting your sustainability journey in the cloud

With Azure, customers and partners can compound their benefits at each stage of the cloud journey, from migrating to the cloud to save on energy, carbon, and infrastructure costs, to optimizing in the cloud to achieve operational excellence, to reinvesting savings into new initiatives that will provide enduring business value.

Across industries, organizations are optimizing their cloud investments by aligning to patterns and practices in the Cloud Adoption Framework and the Well-Architected Framework. They’re also achieving market leadership through reinvesting to drive innovation. Sweden’s largest real estate company and a global leader in sustainability, Vasakronan, adopted an IoT and Digital Twins solution using Azure and expects to realize a year-on-year savings of six million kronor (USD 700,000) in energy consumption costs alone.

As part of Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to promote sustainable development and low-carbon business practices globally, our Azure guidance complements solutions such as Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability and Emissions Impact Dashboard for Microsoft cloud services. We’ll continue to work with customers, partners, and industry leaders, such as the Green Software Foundation to build, maintain, and promote best practices for green IT and innovation that further resilient, thriving, and just economies. From an industry-leading training company:

“This is the missing ingredient in our business; it gives purpose and meaning. If you could put an overlay on your environment or applications and say here are 20 recommendations to make it optimally sustainable, reduce carbon emissions, give the data so you can make incremental improvements over the years, and manage it—that’s huge!”— Todd Fine, Chief Strategy Officer, Atmosera.

As we continue to build out our guidance to help our customers achieve their sustainability goals using Azure, our goal is to meet you where you are and help you do more with less, whether you’re building cloud-native applications, operating in hybrid environments, or evaluating solutions for organization-wide emissions reporting.

Driving sustainability skilling across your organization

Research shows that cloud skilling programs can improve business outcomes and individual career advancement, as well as accelerate success in the cloud. For this reason, we’ve published a set of resources to provide a starting place to help your people and teams understand how they can contribute to their organization’s sustainability goals while developing highly relevant skills and expertise.

  • Azure sustainability guidance Cloud Skills Challenge: Azure sustainability guidance Cloud Skills Challenge: this fun, no-cost, interactive program helps skill individuals and teams on Microsoft cloud technologies via a gamified experience utilizing Microsoft Learn content. Teams can access a custom leaderboard, and individuals can compete with industry peers.
  • Azure sustainability guidance Microsoft Learn Collection: developed as a starting point to help you find relevant learning content on Azure sustainability initiatives, share this with friends and colleagues today and check back for updates in the weeks and months ahead. You can also make it yours—we invite you to copy this collection, personalize it, and share it with your network.
  • Principles of Sustainable Software Engineering course: This Microsoft Learn module provides a primer on the eight principles of Sustainable Software Engineering, covering a wide range of topics such as electricity and carbon efficiency, carbon intensity, and how to think through the trade-offs required for optimization. Accessible to any level of learner familiar with basic computing concepts.

Get started today

These resources will help you more easily plan your strategy, improve your current sustainability posture, and foster green innovation. Use them to chart a faster path toward internal and external sustainability goals and accelerate your organization’s Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) journey. As an added benefit, sustainable workloads are also more efficient and modern, which can reduce the total cost of an application or initiative.

As you move to the cloud, you gain the advantage of our decades of action and progress on carbon, waste, water, and ecosystems within our datacenter regions. Read more about how we’re building on what we’ve learned from our sustainability journey.

We look forward to hearing how we can continue to support your sustainability journey in the cloud.

1 CEO Climate Leadership & Sustainability Study (accenture.com)
2 Carbon emissions data to become key factor in cloud purchases by 2025, predicts Gartner (computerweekly.com)
3 CEO Climate Leadership & Sustainability Study (accenture.com)
4 Net Zero Stocktake 2022 | Net Zero Tracker
5 Going Green is No Longer Optional | Data Centre Magazine

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Windows 11 makes it easier to connect to your iCloud Photos right in the Photos app

Today, we are pleased to announce the start of availability of an exciting new feature. iCloud Photos is now directly integrated into the Photos app on Windows 11 and is beginning to roll out today via a Microsoft Store update to the Photos app. We expect it to be available to all Windows 11 customers by end of the month.

The recently updated Photos app on Windows 11 has been thoughtfully crafted to make organization of your photo collection easy, no matter where your photos and videos come from — your phone, your camera, your cloud storage:  iCloud Photos, OneDrive1 — see them all together in one gorgeous gallery.

We know that many Windows customers have photo and video collections on their iPhones that they would like to be able to view on their PC. This iCloud Photos integration will make it easier for those with an iPhone to have direct access to all their cherished memories in one organized place and is another step in our continued efforts to make experiences on Windows 11 seamless.

To bring your iCloud Photos into the Photos app, make sure your Photos app is updated and then install the iCloud for Windows app, all from the Microsoft Store.  From there, sign in and choose to sync your photos, and all your iCloud Photos content will appear automatically in your Photos app.

iCloud gallery

This is an exciting time for Windows 11, we recently launched the Windows 11 2022 Update in 190+ countries around the world. You can see what’s new in the Windows 11 2022 Update.  We also recently announced and launched a great lineup of new Surface devices available this holiday. If you missed that event, you can watch it now.

It is our aspiration that experiences like this make the things you do every day easier than ever. This announcement is a reflection of our commitment to deliver continuous innovation in Windows to inspire and empower you. As promised, we will continue to announce, document and deliver new features and experiences when they are ready (learn more).

1Access to images stored on OneDrive is contingent on the associated Microsoft Account the device is signed in with.

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It’s National STEM Day: Explore ways to NOV8 your classroom

November 8th is National STEM Day and Microsoft is excited to help you and your students celebrate! National STEM Day was founded in 2015 to encourage students to pursue careers in the fast-growing fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Celebrated on November 8th each year, it is an opportunity to introduce students to passions and careers they might not otherwise know exist. Fun fact: November 8th isn’t a randomly chosen day, Nov8 is a numeronym, pronounced: “innovate.”

Whether you want to explore an immersive learning experience with Minecraft: Education Edition or provide opportunities for students to innovate and solve real issues locally and globally in the Imagine Cup, Microsoft can help you inspire your students to embrace STEM.

Representation and encouragement matter

Historically, women and people of color are vastly underrepresented in STEM careers. Girls Who Code and Logitech found that teachers had the second greatest influence (50%) in helping people pursue a technology career, only after a family member or friend (60%). Incorporating STEM opportunities into classroom instruction and highlighting diversity in STEM fields can make a difference in access for all.   

A fast-growing and ever-changing field

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 10.8% increase in STEM fields between 2021 and 2031, where non-STEM occupations are only projected to grow by 4.9%. As a result, qualified STEM careers will be in high demand. STEM presents a vast number of exciting opportunities for students to blend their passions with their future careers. Those who love the outdoors may be interested in environmental engineering, working to preserve waterways, or wildlife. If students are interested in the effects of climate on weather patterns they could become meteorologists or storm chasers!

Microsoft can support those future skills now by giving students access to tools they’ll need to pursue these careers. For example, students who love video games can begin their journey in MakeCode Arcade and develop skills to help them pursue a future career in game design.

Embracing STEM in the classroom

STEM is very hands-on, accessible, and engaging. It can be incorporated into any subject or classroom because it’s more than a subject area, it’s an invaluable mindset. Approaching learning from a STEM lens fosters curiosity, creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking that can be applied to any content area making cross-curricular connections endless.

Educator Opportunities

Microsoft is committed to supporting educators by providing a variety of entry points for embracing STEM regardless of previous experience. The Learn Educator Center offers free learning pathways, modules, and resources to help you grow professionally and innovate your classroom.  

On Learn the Hacking STEM collection is a curated group of standards-based middle school lessons written by educators for educators. They are inquiry and project-based activities that help students visualize data across science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum in exciting ways.

Student Opportunities

Engaging in STEM encourages students to explore, collaborate, and innovate their ideas. What is more fun than finding a new solution to a real problem? Students use peer and real-world feedback to improve their process, design, or solution, helping them develop important skills for their futures.

Students can utilize Learn Student Hub to explore STEM careers or learn new skills to support their interest in STEM. They can learn valuable skills for free like GitHub Student Developer, Visual Studio Code or even become a Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador! They can also earn Microsoft Certifications that start with foundational skills, then additional topics are covered ranging from Azure to AI, to data analytics and cybersecurity, preparing them for the future.

Developing sustainable solutions with Minecraft Education Edition

John Dewey High School in Brooklyn, New York, was already incorporating projects that linked students with their local community and the natural environment. So, when the school decided to do a cleanup of Coney Island Creek, they immediately saw an opportunity to create a STEM collaborative. They reached out to the Minecraft Club which were already working on a sustainable urban design challenge.

“We have embraced tools like Minecraft in the classroom that help build the skills needed for young people to thrive: to express their ideas, learn confidently, and explore issues that matter to them and their communities.” – Heather Adelle, Principal, John Dewey High School

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk-65Uysay4?&wmode=opaque&rel=0&w=640&h=360]Learn how John Dewey HS and the NYCDOE are inspiring sustainability education and building career pathways in the green economy with tools like Minecraft. 

Minecraft Education Edition supports STEM skills like creative problem-solving, collaboration, and critical thinking in an immersive digital environment. Using Minecraft, John Dewey’s students were able to recreate the estuary environment and develop innovative solutions to environmental problems like pollution that threaten the oyster reefs in Brooklyn.

Microsoft makes it easy to get started using Minecraft Education Edition in the classroom. We offer training for educators from the basics of getting started to more focused content, including coding, computer science, and esports. Minecraft also provides over 600 standards-aligned ready-to-use lessons and worlds to explore.

Use these free training modules on Learn to get started.

Solving real-world issues with a global community

Microsoft supports students in their quest to create innovative solutions for impact with their annual global technology and innovation competition for students, the Imagine Cup. Over the past 21 years, more than 2 million student competitors have signed up to build and learn together, make a difference in their communities, and innovate for impact. Last year’s winner, the V Bionic team, created ExoHeal, an exoskeleton aimed at providing rehabilitation to patients with hand paralysis by effectively retraining and recovering their motor functions. Their device is 30% more effective than existing devices and solved the problems lacking in the already existent rehabilitation devices by being more precise, portable, quick, and responsive. 

The goal of Imagine Cup is to empower every student on the planet to achieve more. Young developers are invited to submit their original technology solutions utilizing Microsoft Azure for a chance to win cash, prizes, and mentoring. All students need is a passion for making positive change. Once they form an Imagine cup team, Microsoft provides training on creating a successful project for a hackathon or competition. Microsoft also provides $100 USD cloud credit and free downloadable developer tools for their project with Azure for Students.

When student teams compete in the Imagine Cup, they become part of a worldwide community of like-minded students and mentors. Encourage interested students to register as a team for the 2023 Imagine Cup now until December 2023 or inspire your students while watching the Imagine Cup World Championship in May 2023! 

Integrating STEM into the classroom can be an engaging and easy way to help students develop skills and mindsets for college and career readiness. Innovate the classroom using Microsoft’s exciting resources and opportunities for STEM teaching and learning

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More Azure VMware Solution enhancements unveiled, check out what’s new

I’m writing to you today from VMware Explore in Barcelona, where my team and I are presenting to 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. In today’s economic climate most organizations want to do more with less. They recognize that by running workloads in the cloud, they can respond more rapidly and reduce IT infrastructure costs.

“I can definitely say that Azure—and in particular Azure VMware Solution—is the right solution for us. It allows us to seamlessly move from on-premises to the cloud, thereby freeing up resources and capital investments that can be used where they are needed more.”—Giorgio Veronesi, Sr. Vice President of ICT Infrastructure, Snam.

Given that TCO is top priority for most companies in the current economic climate, migrating your VMware workloads to Azure is a great way to reduce the cost of maintaining an on-premises VMware environment. 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.

“With help from Microsoft and Mobiz, we were able to deliver a fully qualified landing zone in Azure in one-third the time and at one-third the budget compared to previous cloud efforts.”—Sam Chenaur: Vice President and Global Head of Infrastructure, Sanofi.

In keeping with the goal of doing more with less, 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. If you want to learn more about TCO in your organization read this Forrester paper.

Check out what’s new in Azure VMware Solution

I am excited to share some of the recent updates we’ve made to Azure VMware Solution.

  • Stretched Clusters for Azure VMware Solution, now in preview, provides 99.99 percent uptime for mission critical applications that require the highest availability. In times of availability zone failure, your virtual machines (VMs) and applications automatically failover to an unaffected availability zone with no application impact. Learn more.
  • Azure NetApp Files Datastores is now generally available to run your storage intensive workloads on Azure VMware Solution. This integration between Azure VMware Solution and Azure NetApp Files enables you to create datastores via the Azure VMware Solution resource provider with Azure NetApp Files NFS volumes and attach the datastores to your private cloud clusters of choice. Learn more.
  • Customer-managed keys for Azure VMware Solution is now in preview, both supporting higher security for customers’ mission-critical workloads and providing you with control over your encrypted vSAN data on Azure VMware Solution. With this feature, you can use Azure Key Vault to generate customer-managed keys as well as centralize and streamline the key management process. Learn more.
  • New node sizing for Azure VMware Solution. Start leveraging Azure VMware Solution across two new node sizes with the general availability of AV36P and AV52 in AVS. With these new node sizes organizations can optimize their workloads for memory and storage with AV36P and AV52. Learn more.
  • Microsoft Azure native services let you monitor, manage, and protect your virtual machines (VMs) in a hybrid environment (Azure, Azure VMware Solution, and on-premises). Here are some of the existing Azure services: Azure Arc, Azure Monitor, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Azure Update Management, and Log Analytics Workspace. Learn more.

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.

And if you are here at VMware Explore Barcelona, stop by the Microsoft booth, and say hello. We are excited to see you in person!

Check out all our Azure Breakout Sessions during the event.
Visit Booth #401 for our hourly in-booth theater sessions.

You can also attend our next Azure Webinar on December 15th: How to Modernize Your VMware Environment with Microsoft Azure.

As always, you can visit the Azure VMware Solution website or documentation for more information.

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From pledges to progress: What Microsoft is doing to support a sustainable world

Hello, and welcome to the place that will give you a glimpse into how Microsoft is helping the world move from pledges to progress and build a more sustainable world. As the 27th annual United Nations conference on Climate Change kicks off in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, we’ll be here with regular updates – don’t forget to keep checking in. 

Nov. 7, 2022 

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8:47am PT: Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft, highlighted the fundamental role that technology can play in ensuring that early warnings reach the last mile.

“This UN initiative will save lives by enabling people to adapt to climate change and respond to early warnings before disaster strikes.”

Read more about the Early Warnings for All Action Plan unveiled today at #COP27 

12:01 am PT: The eyes of the world turn to Egypt as the 2022 UN Conference on Climate Change (COP27) kicks off in Sharm El-Sheikh. Through its role as Strategic Principal Sponsor, Microsoft aims to help people and organizations better understand how technology can help solve many of today’s complex climate challenges. 

One way technology can do this is by supporting the needs of the Global South – countries with lower levels of economic and industrial development. To avoid the worst effects of climate change, which contribute to problems such as food insecurity and exacerbate existing challenges including poverty, decision-makers in the Global South need access to reliable climate data to inform adaption and resilience projects. Not only is there insufficient reliable climate data in the Global South, but there is also a significant lack of data scientists to work with the data available. Research shows that there are approximately five data scientists in the Global North for every one in the Global South – meaning there is a significant gap in the Global South’s ability to turn climate data into insights for decision-making and action. 

Today, Microsoft shared details of an expansion of the AI for Good Research Lab to Kenya and Egypt to help close this data divide. You can read more here:

Nov. 4, 2022 

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Last week, more than 100 CEOs of multinational organizations – members of the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders – shared an open letter for world leaders meeting at COP27. The letter, which was signed by Vice Chair and President of Microsoft Brad Smith, outlines the actions the leaders believe governments and businesses need to take to ensure the private sector’s potential in limiting global warming is fully realized. Read the letter here:

Nov. 3, 2022 

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When it comes to working our way out of the climate crisis, we’ll need all of the innovative solutions we can muster.  

That was the theme of Brad Smith’s keynote speech at the 2022 edition of the annual technology conference Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal last week. The Vice Chair and President of Microsoft spoke to the audience of technology CEOs, start-up founders and policymakers about the importance of ingenuity and inventiveness in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. 

Elsewhere, climate action nonprofit TerraPraxis announced that it will launch the first digital application to decarbonize coal plants at COP27. Microsoft helped develop the application, Evaluate, which is built on Microsoft Azure and designed to help plant owners and investors analyze how coal-fired power plants could be upgraded to carbon-free energy sources. 

And Microsoft announced Environmental Credit Service, a Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability solution that gives increased visibility into the provenance and quality of carbon credits. Read more here:

Nov. 2, 2022  

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If companies are to meet their climate pledges, they’re going to need a workforce with the right skills. But right now, there’s a global shortage of this talent. 

A new Microsoft report released last week, Closing the Sustainability Skills Gap: Helping Businesses Move from Pledges to Progress, addresses this issue. Based on research conducted by Microsoft and Boston Consulting Group, the report highlights this skills gap and offers concrete recommendations for business leaders and policymakers on what can be done about it. 

It’s a challenge that calls for sweeping changes, including equipping workers with specialized sustainability skills and embedding sustainability science into the day-to-day operations of organizations. But it can be solved – with collaboration, data, and a huge global effort.  

Ahead of COP27, Microsoft also shared news today of the latest improvements to efficiency in its datacenters across areas such as waste, renewables, and ecosystems. Read more about these improvements here:

What has Microsoft learned on its sustainability journey so far? Earlier this month, Elisabeth Brinton, Microsoft CVP Sustainability, captured several lessons from Microsoft’s sustainability efforts.

Sept. 22, 2022 

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At the end of September, more than 160 countries and 3,900 companies around the world have issued climate pledges. However, with a new United Nations Environment Programme report stating that the world is not on track to reach the Paris Agreement goals – and calling for immediate collective, multilateral action – the need to move from pledges to progress is clear.  

But what does that look like in practice? 

Microsoft – which believes it can help connect what technology can do with what the world needs it to do – breaks this transition down into three key areas: 

  • Advancing the sustainability of our own business 
  • Innovating our way out of the climate crisis and helping our customers achieve more 
  • Enabling and supporting a sustainable world. 

During the UN General Assembly, held in New York City in September 2022, Microsoft made some key announcements on how it plans to do this. 

Two papers were released: one on carbon policy and one on electricity policy, which help illustrate Microsoft’s principles and priority areas clearly and transparently – including how the company will engage with governments around the world in these areas. 

Microsoft also announced a partnership with Planet and The Nature Conservancy to map the entirety of the world’s solar and wind supply, producing a first-of-its-kind Global Renewables Watch. This tool will allow users to evaluate clean energy transition progress and track trends over a period of time, rather than as a moment in time.  

Sept. 15, 2022

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Back in September, Microsoft and climate action nonprofit TerraPraxis formed a strategic collaboration to repower 2,400 coal-fired power plants. It will see Microsoft help build and deploy a set of tools to automate the design and regulatory approval needed to decarbonize coal facilities with nuclear power. 

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Closing the climate data divide in the Global South

World and business leaders are facing pressing climate issues as they gather in Egypt for COP27 – and are focused on ways to come together on action and implementation. At Microsoft, we see these days ahead as an opportunity to engage in important discussions and take steps toward solutions.  

Today we are sharing details about our work to support new climate solutions by harnessing the power of data and artificial intelligence (AI), with an expansion of our AI for Good Research Lab into to Egypt and Kenya. The work of these data labs will be informed by a new Africa AI Innovation Council comprised of representatives from leading African organizations. We’re also announcing an expanded collaboration with Planet Labs, combining their high-quality satellite imagery of Africa with our AI technology to accelerate climate adaptation solutions.  

It’s a challenging time for our planet and no nation is immune from the risks and perils faced by the ongoing impacts of climate change. There is additional complexity in that the consequences of this existential threat to our planet’s survival are unevenly distributed amongst the world’s countries, with a greater burden falling on the Global South, which refers to countries with lower levels of economic and industrial development compared to more developed nations. The Global South has contributed far less than the Global North to the actual causes of climate change, yet they have been disproportionately impacted by extreme climate events including droughts, floods, storms and heatwaves, which contribute to other problems like food insecurity and exacerbate existing challenges like poverty. Between 2008-2018, there were 2.2 billion people in the Global South that were under high climate risk.  

Chart showing annual weather related displacementsIn order to avoid the worst effects of climate change, governments and decision-makers in the Global South equally need access to reliable climate data. This push to democratize access to data aligns with Microsoft’s broader effort to accelerate and support progress toward the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by United Nations member states in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Data has the power to unlock adaptation and resilience projects so that the resources available are directed to places that can make the greatest impact both before and immediately following climate-related disasters. We recognize that not only is there insufficient reliable  climate data in the Global South, but also a significant lack of data scientists to work with the data available. Our research shows that there are approximately five data scientists in the Global North for every one in the Global South – meaning there is a significant gap in the Global South’s ability to turn climate data into insights for decision-making and action. In Africa, the gap is wider still – one data scientist for 14 in the Global North. In short, we face a climate data divide – and at Microsoft we want to do our part to help close that divide. 

Chart showing ratio of African scientistsToday, we’re sharing more about our efforts to help close that climate data divide through an expansion of our AI for Good Lab and new partnerships underway across the Global South to accelerate action. 

Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab has been using AI, machine learning and statistical modeling to tackle climate change in partnership with leading nonprofits, research institutions, NGOs and governments as part of its portfolio to help solve humanity’s biggest challenges. By offering our technology and expertise, we are helping advance the local development of scalable solutions. Today, we are announcing the first global expansion of the Lab to Nairobi, Kenya, and Cairo, Egypt, building a new team of data scientists on the ground in Africa that will work to improve climate resilience. 

We know that addressing and mitigating the effects of climate change requires a collective effort across industry, government, academia and civil society. In early conversations about this expansion with the Kenyan and Egyptian Ministries of Information, Communications and Technology, we made it clear that our ideal outcome was African data researchers working on projects that benefit Africa in Africa. We will establish a new Africa AI Innovation Council, with membership drawn from leading African organizations such as the African Development Bank, African Risk Capacity and African Climate Foundation. The Council will convene a high-level, multi-sector group of African leaders who deeply understand the issues facing the continent, to inform the work of the new AI for Good Labs, identify opportunities to improve climate resilience through data and AI, and facilitate ways to generate additional climate data and drive continued research. In addition to the Africa AI Innovation Council members, we are pleased to be working in collaboration with the Kenya Red Cross Society, PATH, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), and Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) to turn data into climate action. 

Microsoft will also work to scale AI for Good projects across the Global South. Most recently, it has partnered with the government of Uruguay on a new Microsoft AI and IOT lab that will support startups in the region to deliver new AI innovations in many areas including climate change and other pressing societal issues. 

In September, we announced a collaboration with Planet and The Nature Conservancy to build the Global Renewables Watch – a first-of-its-kind living atlas intended to map and measure all utility-scale solar and wind installations on Earth using AI and satellite imagery. The Global Renewables Watch will provide data that helps both researchers and policymakers understand current renewable energy capacities and gaps and assist decision-makers in search of more efficient and effective options for renewable energy development. Access to high-quality data is critical to enabling measurement and realization of the SDGs. 

Through an expanded collaboration between the Microsoft AI for Good Lab and Planet, Africa-based data scientists will have access to satellite imagery from across the African continent to address challenges nominated by the AI Innovation Council with a special focus on adaptation – the process of adjusting to current or expected effects of climate change – and early warning systems. 

In the Global North, use of geospatial data has become commonplace in the response to natural disasters like wildfires, hurricanes and earthquakes, and this new collaboration will help extend this usage to the Global South. Planet Labs has been at the forefront of the geospatial revolution for more than 10 years. With approximately 200 satellites in orbit, Planet Labs capture more than 25 terabytes of imagery each day that helps businesses, governments, researchers and journalists understand the terrestrial world and take action.   

The climate crisis must be addressed, and to do that, a wide range of ideas and approaches must be considered. It’s essential that we support and enable those living in climate-impacted regions to be front and center in developing solutions. At Microsoft, we are committed to partnering with and providing digital technology, and resources for those living, working and innovating in the Global South to help close the climate data divide and create the climate solutions of the future.  

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How Microsoft 365 helps organizations do more with less

The role of IT has changed dramatically over the past few years as the world shifted to hybrid work. IT leaders today advise on a breadth of capital expenditures and play an increasingly central role in the employee experience—occasionally resulting in a complex patchwork of tools and solutions to support and manage.

Now more than ever, IT leaders need to reduce cost and complexity while empowering a digitally connected and distributed workforce in an uncertain economic environment. Microsoft 365 is the cloud-first platform that brings together the capabilities organizations need in a secure, integrated experience—powered by data and AI—to help people work better and smarter.

Do more with less

A new Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft 365 E3 study by Forrester Consulting, commissioned by Microsoft, found that adopting Microsoft 365 E3 saved composite organizations USD1,500 per user per year, with a return on investment of 205 percent and a payback period of less than three months. The report details three ways organizations can reduce cost and complexity with Microsoft 365:

  1. Eliminate redundant solutions. Moving to Microsoft 365 E3, the composite organization can cut licensing spending by an average of USD55 per user per month—a 60 percent reduction in per-user licensing costs—while also reducing device spending by another 23 percent. We’ve heard from IT leaders about the redundant and overlapping solutions they’ve been asked to support over the last two years. This latest study shows how Microsoft 365 can help free you to cut redundant licenses for products across communications, chat and collaboration, file sharing, endpoint management, email, storage, mobile device management, identity and access management, information protection and labeling, and endpoint protection.
  2. Simplify IT management. Moving to Microsoft 365 E3, the composite organization can reduce time spent deploying and managing new software by 25 percent using Microsoft Azure Active Directory and Microsoft Intune, decrease endpoint configuration times by 75 percent by using Windows Autopilot, reduce the time required to set up a user on a new endpoint by 75 percent by leveraging Microsoft’s modern application stack, and eliminate 15 percent of help desk tickets while reducing time to resolve remaining tickets by another 15 percent.
  3. Protect and support a digitally connected, distributed hybrid workforce. Finally, moving to Microsoft 365 E3, the composite organization can save users an average of 60 hours per year through improved productivity. Other benefits included reduced travel and related expenses by 25 percent, as well as a substantial reduction in the risk of a security breach using granular Conditional Access policies, detailed and integrated security logs, multifactor authentication, and the overall security of Azure.
Employees talking in a hallway.

Microsoft 365 E3

Maximize your IT investment.

Moreover, a top reason IT decision-makers gave for adopting Microsoft 365 E3 was gaining the flexibility to reallocate IT admins and operations full-time equivalent (FTE) to other functions. One manufacturing customer was simply quoted as saying: “Microsoft is an essential partner in our transition to supporting hybrid working models.”

Learn more

Download the Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft 365 E3 study now to learn more about the measurable impact Microsoft 365 can deliver for your organization and learn how Microsoft can help you do more with less.

Watch the on-demand Microsoft Ignite session, Unlock new experiences across Microsoft 365 to lower costs and empower employees, to learn more.