Recent News – Page 168

Posted on May 31, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Measles and mumps? Data sharing on the cloud to improve public health

As once forgotten diseases start to reappear, state and local government agencies are looking to find new ways to ensure positive health outcomes for their citizens. I had a conversation with Steve and Claire Murchie at Envision Technology Partners. Their WebIZ immunization registry system is leveraging new technologies to help state and local government combat the recent outbreaks of diseases like mumps, measles, and other preventable illnesses.

Steve and Claire, recent measles outbreaks have reignited focus on the importance of immunizations so I’m hoping you can provide an update regarding what state and local governments are doing to ensure proper tracking of children’s vaccinations.

Yes, measles is a big issue – already in early April 2019 we have exceeded the number of cases nationwide for all of 2018. But it’s also mumps, pertussis and even hepatitis A, which has killed more than 40 people in one state alone. These are all vaccine-preventable diseases, which points the cause to less vaccine acceptance. The reasons for that are complex, but information is the best tool to combat vaccine hesitancy, and immunization information systems (IIS) are the primary tool used to track, measure and understand vaccination patterns at a public health level.

I understand health agencies in Delaware and Philadelphia are embarking on immunization data sharing that has the potential to improve immunization compliance and in turn diseases outbreak outcomes. Please tell us about that.

Due to various laws in the US, we don’t have a national registry of immunizations, so responsibility is passed to the state or local jurisdictions to run their own IIS. Until recently, there hasn’t been a clear legal and technology mechanism to facilitate sharing of data between two independent jurisdictions. For the past several years, though, there has been a project sponsored by the Office of the National Coordinator in the Department of Health and Human Services to kickstart this sharing of immunization data, allowing states to maintain a more comprehensive view of patient protection within their populations. ONC’s contribution has included both standardization of the data use agreements between jurisdictions, and they have also stood up a messaging hub which supports the actual data integration.

While the pilot has been open to all public health jurisdictions, the first to complete a production connection were the State of Delaware and the City of Philadelphia. Both happen to use our IIS platform – WebIZ – but we’re actively trying to include some other neighboring jurisdictions as well. The project is described in this March 2019 issue of AIRA’s (American Immunization Registry Association) SnapShots newsletter.

So, Envision’s WebIZ solution is the backbone of this data sharing success. Please tell us more about that solution and where it’s implemented.

WebIZ is used in twenty state, local and territorial jurisdictions overseen by the Centers for Disease Control. We’re a standardized, commercial-off-the-shelf solution that is highly configurable but managed as a single code base. As a result, we can deliver software quickly and reliably without a lot of site-specific customization. And our customers benefit by receiving all enhancements which are paid for by any other customer, which leverages their investment dollars. Like many state and local government agencies, public health has faced years of diminished budgets, so that is a real benefit to them.

Some of the WebIZ implementations are on the Azure Government Cloud. Why are governments choosing that option, and what are the benefits?

State IT budgets are also under pressure, so there is both a movement away from home-grown IIS applications to vendor-supplied solutions, as well as increased support for cloud-based solutions. We were an early adopter of the Azure Government Cloud and have transitioned most of our larger sites over to it. We include hosting as a requirement, and it actually makes our job a lot easier. IIS tend to have a lot of moving parts – web interface, messaging interface, flat file and vital records imports – so it helps if we can have unfettered access to help diagnose problems that may arise. Managing the application infrastructure – which is mostly IaaS today, but starting to take on more PaaS flavors – also means that we have more control over operational upgrades for performance, scalability and security.

Please tell us about innovations in the immunization registry market. With AI being the center of so much attention, is there anything you’re doing to utilize AI to improve immunization registration?

If there is any silver lining to the recent outbreaks, it’s that public health agencies are spending more time slicing and dicing their data in order to learn more about their populations. We’ve been receiving many requests for assistance creating data extracts, and we’ve been adding functionality to make it easier for customers to analyze their own data, but there is a lot of variability in the technical resources available to immunization programs. So, we’ve been looking at tools like Power BI to increase the options available to less-technical users, while expanding the power of more advanced analytics through machine learning and related features. Some of the machine learning features have potential in our ongoing challenges with patient-matching, which plagues most large-population, multi-contributor databases.

Get more information about WebIZ. You can also request a free trial of Microsoft Azure Government and learn more about Microsoft’s Health and Human Services Solutions.

Posted on May 31, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft celebrates Pride, takes action for equity and visibility

Fifty years ago, on June 28, LGBTQI+ patrons and allies at New York City’s Stonewall Inn stood up for justice demanding an equal life free of persecution. This year, as more than 4,000 Microsoft employees march in Pride parades in more than 60 cities and 30 countries around the world, we invite you to join us in pushing inclusion forward.

To commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, we’re taking action for equity by donating to LGBTQI+ nonprofits. Plus, we’re releasing limited-edition products designed with and by the LGBTQI+ community.

Microsoft has a history of LGBTQI+ inclusion

For us, Pride is an opportunity to reflect on our past and galvanize for action. We started our inclusion journey early in the company’s history, introducing sexual orientation in our non-discrimination policies in 1989. In 1993, we were one of the first companies in the world to offer employee benefits to same-sex domestic partners. In 2004, we added gender identity to our Equal Employment Opportunity statement and started providing gender affirming healthcare services. Since 2005, Microsoft has attained a top score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, which indicates that Microsoft is establishing and applying policies to protect the LGBTQI+ community.

Our journey is just beginning

Today, Microsoft operates in over 120 countries, most of which still don’t provide legal protections for LGBTQI+ individuals. This year, Microsoft’s Pride campaign is all about the actions that our employees and customers are taking to advance inclusion. GLEAM (Global LGBTQI+ Employees and Allies at Microsoft), our LGBTQI+ resource group, worked with many of our teams to develop products to create visibility into the LGBTQI+ community.

In designing this year’s Pride campaign, LGBTQI+ designers and allies at Microsoft reflected on the LGBTQI+ rights movement of the 1970s. Dozens of LGBTQI+ community members and their allies submitted designs for campaign buttons displaying everything from personal statements to political slogans. These buttons reflect actions that people at Microsoft are taking and are encouraging others to take.

Microsoft is releasing all the button designs as a downloadable archive so everyone can use them, add to them and share their Pride with everyone, wherever they are.

For the first time, we’ve also created limited-edition products and curated content to show our continued support for the LGBTQI+ community.

Surface – Inspired by the rich and varied tapestry of the LGBTQI+ community, make a more colorful impact with the limited-edition Surface Pro Pride Type Cover and Pride Skin available in the US, Canada, Australia, and the U.K. (only Type Cover).

Windows – This Windows 10 special-edition theme was inspired by the many LGBTQI+ flags. Download the Windows Pride theme pack from the Microsoft Store.
Mixer – Discover Pride on Mixer with dedicated streams from select partners, unique stickers, and exclusive programs. Tune in on June 30^th to live stream the Seattle Pride Parade!
Bing – Learn more about Stonewall on Bing with uniquely curated content featuring LGBTQI+ activism dating back to 1969 with this quiz. And see Pride take over the Bing homepage in select countries around the world.
Office – Show your Pride colors with the exclusive Office theme and unique Pride templates for PowerPoint.
Skype – Celebrate Pride with Skype’s new LGBTQI+ flag emoticons, stickers, and more.
Xbox – Show your colors and celebrate your love of gaming with the Xbox Pride Sphere Pin available at xbox.com.
Microsoft Rewards – Support LGBTQI+ youth in crisis by donating to The Trevor Project in June, and we’ll match it. Not a Microsoft Rewards member? Join today and we’ll give you $1 free to donate.
Microsoft Store – Visit your local Microsoft Store to take part in a Pride celebration, march with us, or learn more at educational workshops, events, and other activities.

Actions speak louder than words!

We’re donating $100,000 to the following nonprofits in Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, and the United States to celebrate and support their work on LGBTQI+ equity:

Established in 1985, ACON is Australia’s largest health promotion organization specializing in HIV prevention, HIV support and LGBTQ health.
Egale works to improve the lives of LGBTQI2S people in Canada and to enhance the global response to LGBTQI2S issues. They do this by informing public policy, inspiring cultural change, and promoting human rights and inclusion.
Mermaids is the only U.K.-wide charity working to support transgender or gender non-conforming children, young people, and their families. Their goal is to create a world where gender-diverse children and young people can be themselves and thrive. Mermaids promotes education and awareness, and offers information, support, friendship and shared experiences to those in need.
The Trevor Project is the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning young people under 25.

We’re also happy to announce that LGBTQI+ nonprofit, Destination Tomorrow, was awarded a grant from the Microsoft Store to support their inclusion efforts for people of color. See what happened when we took action to help them thrive.

We invite everyone to join us in taking action for equality. Microsoft Pride 2019 products launch today! Follow along with our stories all month and learn more about actions you can take for equality by joining the social conversation using #MicrosoftPride.

Posted on May 30, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

First grads of Global Innovation Exchange tackle local and worldwide challenges

High mortality rates in chickens; loss of biodiversity; and the feeling of loneliness. These and other challenges are being addressed by the first graduates of the Global Innovation Exchange, or GIX.

GIX is a partnership between the University of Washington and Tsinghua University in Beijing, with foundational support from Microsoft. This project- and team-based program offers a 15-month Master of Science in Technology Innovation and a 21-month Dual Degree.

Most of the projects are sponsored by industry partners, including Microsoft, Boeing, T-Mobile, AT&T and Baidu. Leaders from the industry partner companies pitch loosely defined projects to GIX students, and then mentor the teams as the projects develop.

In this way, students tackle both local and global challenges, drawing on the expertise and technology of their project partners.

The first class, which included students from Seattle, Estonia, India and Paraguay, graduated in December 2019. Here’s a taste of what the students came up with.

CluckAI

Eggs are a critical source of food around the world.

But many poultry farmers must contend with a significant loss of flock, especially in egg-laying hens, because of disease, animal predators, heat and theft.

To help solve this problem, GIX students built a machine–learning program, CluckAI, that can identify when chickens are in distress. Listening devices placed around the flock monitor sounds, while algorithms analyze those sounds and alert the farmer, who can take action.

One team member, Padraic Casserly, likened it to a baby monitor for poultry farmers.

This project was developed in collaboration with Microsoft FarmBeats, which is helping farmers increase productivity and lower costs through employing a more data-driven approach to farming.

Diversita
As people encroach on the habitats of wildlife, there is a risk of losing species and reducing biodiversity. According to a recent study from the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, a sixth mass extinction is already underway. But what if we could train cameras to help protect wildlife?

A GIX student team created a motion-sensor camera called Diversita that uses machine-learning to identify up to 5,000 species of wildlife. Data captured by the camera is analyzed in real time.

This can save hours of work poring over photographs to spot animals. It can also be used to detect invasive species and study shrinking icebergs and other environmental changes.

This technology was built on research already carried out through Microsoft’s AI for Earth program, which uses artificial intelligence to address areas vital for building a sustainable future.

SparkEd

Parents sometimes need to leave their children in the care of relatives while pursuing educational or employment opportunities abroad.

This was the case for one of the GIX students studying in Seattle, who had a 10-month-old son in China. The separation made him think about how he could contribute meaningfully to his son’s development from afar.

It inspired SparkEd, an app that allows parents to customize and remotely guide their children’s learning.

This app is designed for children ages 4 to 8, and was built around a picture book, “The Stray Dog.”

As the child reads the story on the app, the parent can build in a question for them to answer.

For example, when the stray dog appears, the child is presented with a choice: should it shoo the dog away, or feed it, because it looks hungry?

The parent decides which answer is the most appropriate based on the beliefs and values they want their child to learn. In this way, the app helps parents teach their children how to react in everyday situations.

PlayerX
Many people move to a new city to take a up a new job or to study, without knowing a soul. Seattle is one of the fastest–growing cities in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The number of newcomers has increased by 20% in the last eight years.

Knowing this, a team of GIX students designed and developed PlayerX – an app that helps connect people in offline interactions.

The app “strategically connects people that frequent the same places and engage in similar activities,” according to its description. The more two users have in common, the more interaction is available through the app. Users can then decide whether to add people as a friend on the app, opening the possibility of meeting in person.

The goal is to help people make new, lasting friendships, and the app is aimed not just at newcomers but at locals too.

UbiRight

The process of getting legal copyright on content can be complex. One group of students used blockchain technology to remove the traditional barriers to getting copyright protection for a piece of work.

The platform, UbiRight, allows creators of written or visual content to instantly receive copyright protection when they post the content online. When users create a new piece of content and post it to the platform, UbiRight provides a tamper-proof timestamp to prove the copy is original.

With a focus on design thinking, entrepreneurship and technology development, the GIX program is appreciated by the students as the perfect grounding for careers as innovators.

Some of the students hope to launch start-ups and bring their projects into the real world.

Others have already received job offers from companies including Alibaba, Baidu, Electronic Arts and AMINO Capital, companies that recognize the key skills the students have learned in the program.

GIX is designed to train students to think globally and locally in an era of rapid change and increasingly short business and technology cycles. At the same time, they are bringing forth a raft of projects that show how technology can be used for good.

Lead photo credit: Scott Eklund/Red Box Pictures

To learn about what Microsoft is doing follow @MSFTIssues on Twitter.

Posted on May 30, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

‘Crackdown 3’ updates available for free now

It’s been an exciting few months since we first saw Agents band together to take on the cruel and corrupt TerraNova Corporation in Crackdown 3 with Xbox Game Pass and on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC, and today we’re excited to release, for free, the Crackdown 3 Extra Edition with boomtastic updates to Campaign and Wrecking Zone!

First up: Keys to the City, a deep menu of Campaign tools and cheats that gives you control of the world and access to a wide variety of overpowered abilities. Throw down with Elemental Fists, become invincible with God Mode or hit the jets with Super Speed! But why stop there? On your quest to reclaim New Providence, invite a co-op friend and create your own Faction Retaliations, or Lockdown the city and fight your way out with unlimited ammo and gadgets. Get creative by spawning enemies, vehicles, explosive barrels and other props wherever you’d like. When you have Keys to the City, the possibilities are endless!

But that’s not all… It wouldn’t be extra unless we talked about Wrecking Zone, Crackdown 3’s fully-destructible multiplayer battle arena. Today’s update brings a new vanity progression system to Wrecking Zone, with 100 tiers of items to customize your Agent! Earn Agency Points during matches to unlock holographic ‘LENS’ adornments, helmets, weapon skins—and more! We’ve also given the overall experience a fresh coat of paint, adding Agent customization screens, six different types of ‘Overdrive’ Skill boosts, and a host of other user interface updates. There’s never been a better time to jump into the cloud-powered destruction of Wrecking Zone!

On behalf of the whole Crackdown 3 team, thank you for playing, and we hope you enjoy this free Extra Edition update. You can read the complete list of update features here. Crackdown 3 is available now with Xbox Game Pass on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs. For the latest news stay tuned to Xbox Wire.

Posted on May 30, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer shares 3 steps we’re taking to contribute to the thriving PC gaming ecosystem

We believe the player should be at the center of their gaming experience and be able to harness the unique benefits of the devices they choose to play on.

Nowhere is that belief more important than on the PC. As the creators of Windows, we have a unique responsibility to ensure we’re investing in experiences that benefit players everywhere, while respecting the PC community’s preference for an open, highly customizable platform.

We’ve not always lived up to our aspiration of keeping gamers at the center of everything we do when it comes to the experience they’ve had on Windows.

Today I’d like to share three steps we are taking to contribute to the thriving PC gaming ecosystem:

Introducing Xbox Game Pass Designed for PC Players

Two years ago, we launched Xbox Game Pass on Xbox One, and since then we’ve seen how valuable a curated library of high-quality games can be for players and game developers alike. It offers a great way to discover and play your next favorite game. We researched whether a similar opportunity exists for PC players and PC game developers, and we believe that it does. We also considered the importance of bringing something new and additive to the PC gaming ecosystem, and we believe that we can. So, we designed a service specifically for the needs of PC gamers and PC game developers. It’s called Xbox Game Pass, just like the original, but it’s a new experience that we are building together with the PC community.

Xbox Game Pass for PC will give players unlimited access to a curated library of over 100 high-quality PC games on Windows 10, from well-known PC game developers and publishers such as Bethesda, Deep Silver, Devolver Digital, Paradox Interactive, SEGA, and more. And just as we committed on the console, it is our intent to include new games from Xbox Game Studios in Xbox Game Pass for PC the same day as their global release, including titles from newly acquired studios like Obsidian and inXile. We’re working with over 75 developers and publishers to bring PC content to the service and we’ll ensure the library remains curated and full of great PC titles across a variety of genres, with new games added every month.

Xbox Game Pass for PC members will also receive discounts in the Microsoft Store on Windows of up to 20% on games currently in the library and up to 10% off related game DLC and add-ons.

We look forward to sharing more at E3, including the great games coming to the library, as well as more details on when and how you’ll experience the new Xbox Game Pass service for PC gamers.

More Choice in Where to Buy Xbox Game Studios Titles

Enabling gamers to play together, through cross-platform play and cross-network play across Windows 10 PCs and console, is vitally important. Building communities across all of those players, regardless of the store or platform they’ve chosen (console or PC), is also vitally important because it helps bring players together, allows games to find their largest audience and allows gaming to deliver its true potential of uniting people around the power of play.

With that in mind, our intent is to make our Xbox Game Studios PC games available in multiple stores, including our own Microsoft Store on Windows, at their launch. We believe you should have choice in where you buy your PC games.

In March, we announced that Halo: The Master Chief Collection will come to PC later this year, launching on Steam in addition to the Microsoft Store on Windows. We will continue to add to the more than 20 Xbox Game Studios titles on Steam, starting with Gears 5 and all Age of Empires I, II & III: Definitive Editions. We know millions of PC gamers trust Steam as a great source to buy PC games and we’ve heard the feedback that PC gamers would like choice. We also know that there are other stores on PC, and we are working to enable more choice in which store you can find our Xbox Game Studios titles in the future.

We want to bring players together to create a shared player community regardless of where they play, so it’s our intent that new Xbox Game Studios titles include features such as voice and text chat, LFG, friends lists and cross-play across PC and console. On Windows 10 you’ll find this functionality in the Xbox Game Bar, which we’ll continue to evolve and expand.

Supporting Win32 Games on Windows 10

We want creators to be inspired to bring their best content to Windows 10, and we want Windows 10 to be the place where gamers come to discover their next favorite PC game. We recognize that Win32 is the app format that game developers love to use and gamers love to play, so we are excited to share that we will be enabling full support for native Win32 games to the Microsoft Store on Windows. This will unlock more options for developers and gamers alike, allowing for the customization and control they’ve come to expect from the open Windows gaming ecosystem.

When I think about the role we play as a company to support and evolve gaming on Windows, it’s critical that we make decisions that reinforce the open nature of the PC, focusing on how best to unite players on all devices around the games they love. That philosophy will guide us as we introduce new ways to discover and play games on WThese are just a few of our steps in a journey to contribute to gaming on Windows 10. We know that PC gamers want to see games, so I hope you’ll join us at our annual Xbox E3 2019 Briefing on Sunday, June 9 to hear more, including the amazing lineup of new games and offers coming to PC players.

Posted on May 30, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft unveils details of London flagship store opening July 11

This first physical retail store for Microsoft in the U.K. will open to the general public on July 11, joining other world-class Microsoft Store locations all over the world, including flagships in New York and Sydney and stores across the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico and online in more than 190 countries.

This store is the latest step in our almost 40-year investment in the U.K., including recently doubling the size of Microsoft’s Azure regions to help more organizations digitally transform. We’re also committed to supporting the growth of digital skills in the U.K. in partnership with computing education and youth communities.

The flagship Microsoft Store in London will be located on Oxford Circus and covers 21,932 square feet over three floors. It will feature an Answer Desk, offering a dedicated area for customers to get tech support, trainings, repairs and advice from trusted advisors on Microsoft products and services, no matter where the device was purchased, the brand or operating system. A community theater, a space for tech, coding and STEM learning, will run free, year-round workshops and programs for customers. So if you are a business owner looking for the latest tech to grow your business, a gamer who wants to join a community or show your skills in a tournament, a student wanting to brush up on coding or a teacher looking to bring Minecraft alive in the classroom, customers of all ages and abilities will be able to learn and develop their digital skills.

Those who work, live, shop in or visit the U.K. will also be able to test and experience the latest technology, products and services from Microsoft and its partners. Interactive zones, surrounded by immersive video walls running throughout the store will make this the best place to get hands-on with Surface, Windows, Office, Xbox and PC gaming, HoloLens mixed-reality and more.

The site also adds to the growing list of innovative facilities Microsoft runs in the region, including three gaming studios, the start-up hub Reactor London and the global center of excellence for the development of artificial intelligence and other computing disciplines in the Microsoft Research Lab in Cambridge.

Designed to build connections with the local community, customers and businesses, this store represents a unique way to deliver on our mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. A flagship store in London has long been part of our vision for our physical and digital store presence, and this opening represents another step in our journey to meet our customers – from consumers to businesses – wherever they are and deepen our connection with them. London is one of the world’s most exciting shopping destinations, and we look forward to empowering customers to explore all that is possible with Microsoft.

For more information and to keep up to date with the latest information on the U.K. store opening, please follow us @MicrosoftStoreUK on Instagram and Facebook and visit us online at www.microsoft.com.

Posted on May 29, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Building for the future: Microsoft’s new Swedish datacenters have sustainability firmly in mind

Viewed as a highly sustainable country, Sweden has made strong commitments to reduce environmental impact and the government is pursuing a progressive Fossil Free Sweden initiative. Microsoft is similarly committed to sustainability, and with the development of new world-class datacentres in Sweden, intends to create some of their most advanced and sustainable to date based on their design, power from 100 percent renewable energy sources, and plans for zero-waste operations.

Microsoft has operated as a carbon neutral company since 2012 and is continuously increasing the amount of energy the company uses from renewable sources – wind, solar, and hydropower. Earlier this year, Microsoft President Brad Smith confirmed that, by the end of this year, the company will achieve its target of powering its datacentres with 60 percent renewable energy, and will aim to reach 70 percent renewable energy by 2023, on the path to 100 percent.

“We intend for our datacentres in Sweden to be among the most sustainably designed and operated in the world with the ultimate ambition of achieving zero-carbon operations. The datacentre design we’re developing will further Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to transition to a sustainable, low-carbon future,” said Noelle Walsh, CVP, Cloud Operations & Innovation, Microsoft Corp.

Microsoft will collaborate with Vattenfall, one of Europe’s largest producers and retailers of electricity and heat with support from its Node Pole team, on the sourcing and supply of renewable energy for the future datacentres. The two companies will also collaborate to develop solutions to reduce the carbon footprint of the datacentres and construct new power infrastructure to provide stable power for the facilities and the surrounding areas in Sweden in the coming years. Over time, the new power infrastructure will help further reduce the carbon footprint of the datacentres.

Microsoft and Vattenfall previously announced the largest wind energy deal in the Netherlands in 2017. Microsoft purchased 100 percent of the wind energy generated from a 180-megawatt wind farm that is adjacent to its local datacentre operations in the Netherlands. The wind farm is being constructed and operated by Vattenfall in the Wieringermeer Polder, north of Amsterdam.

“Vattenfall is fully committed to help our customers make fossil free living possible within one generation, so this partnership fits very well with our overall strategy. In collaboration with Microsoft, Vattenfall will develop new energy infrastructure to support this datacentre development in Sweden to ensure ample and reliable power for the facilities and improved reliability to the region,” said Andreas Regnell, Senior Vice President, Strategic Development, Vattenfall. “We will support Microsoft on the sourcing and supply of renewable energy for the future datacentres and help provide innovative solutions to reduce the carbon footprint of the datacentres. Vattenfall Distribution as the regional network owner will construct and build the distribution infrastructure required to connect the large-scale facilities. Over time, the new infrastructure will help further reduce the carbon footprint of the datacentres, while at the same time reinforce an already strong electricity grid in Gävle and Sandviken to the benefit of the people who live there.”

Growing demand for the cloud

The proposed Microsoft datacentres in Sweden are in anticipation of future needs for cloud and internet services as demand in Europe continues to grow. In its recent Q3 2019 earnings report, Microsoft shared that demand for its cloud offerings drove commercial cloud revenue to $9.6 billion in its most recent quarter, up 41 percent year-over-year.

The datacentres in Sweden will add to Microsoft’s existing European datacentre footprint, joining the ranks of its other planned datacentres in Norway and Switzerland, and available datacentres in Austria, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

Microsoft continues to focus on research and development for even greater efficiency and increased renewable energy across its global infrastructure. As part of this process, it also plans to launch a new data-driven circular cloud initiative using the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor performance and streamline the reuse, resale and recycling of datacentre assets, including servers. With other innovations such as Project Natick, the world’s first underwater datacentre, and the award-winning Advanced Energy Lab, Microsoft continues to push the boundaries of datacenter innovation and sustainability for both new and existing projects.

Posted on May 29, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Computex 2019: Keynote showcases how Microsoft enables innovation and opportunity on the intelligent edge

Today, at Computex in Taipei, Microsoft executives Roanne Sones, CVP OS Platforms and Rodney Clark, VP IoT Sales, shared the keynote stage with me to showcase Microsoft 365, Windows platform and Azure IoT technologies and services that device partners can use to deliver innovative modern PC experiences and build a new generation of connected devices and IoT solutions. In addition, they provided perspective as to how intelligent edge ecosystem partners can fuel business transformation by working together to build edge to cloud IoT solutions.

Microsoft 365 and Windows

The PC ecosystem continues to innovate and build modern Windows PCs that deliver breakthrough performance, enable new scenarios and offer the ultimate in secure, intelligent edge devices that customers love. Partners including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and MSI have recently announced new modern PCs that will delight both creators and gamers.

Acer’s ConceptD 9 creator notebook features a 4K UHD IPS PANTONE Validated display. Colors are as accurate as possible as the display covers 100 percent of the Adobe RGB color gamut. This creator notebook stays quiet with Acer’s 4th generation AeroBlade 3D Fan with a noise reduction mechanism that emits less than 40 db of noise — equivalent to the sound level of a library — while maintaining high computing and graphics performance.

The ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo (UX581), an ultraportable laptop that includes a 4KOLED UHD ASUS ScreenPad Plus (3840 x 2160), a full-width secondary touchscreen (3840 x 1100) that expands and enhances the interactive capabilities of the original ASUS ScreenPad. The display is a frameless four-sided ASUS NanoEdge design, with ultra slim bezels for immersive visuals, in an ultra-compact form factor.The new Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 packs more performance in a thinner design and larger display. Dell’s first laptop with Intel’s Ice Lake-U 10nm 10th gen processors and features adaptive performance based on the latest Intel Dynamic Tuning Technology, which proactively changes the power of the CPU according to the performance of the workload. It comes with a redesigned thermal system to cool the higher performing processor, while creating an overall 8% thinner 2-in-1 than the previous generation.HP recently announced the OMEN X 2S. On top of a variety of awesome use cases for messaging, music apps, watching videos, stream chats and OMEN Command Center, it features a real-time screen mirroring feature further bolsters the OMEN X 2S, by cutting and magnifying parts of the main screen – such as copying the map portion of a racing game – to the second screen, ensuring centered vision and more vertical head movement.

The new Lenovo ThinkPad T495 offers feature upgrades without compromise, and provides a high level of hardware security and manageability. It has longer battery life, and increased performance by up to 18 percent (compared to benchmarks of prior generations). And since security is top of mind for everyone, Lenovo is delivering greater peace of mind with just a slide of the ThinkShutter, the all-in-one integrated camera security cover that physically protects ThinkPad users from malicious webcam snoopers.

Featuring the latest RTX graphics and 9th Generation Intel Core i9 processor and Wi-Fi 6, the new MSI GE65 Raider can easily handle demanding AAA game titles. Its ultra-fast 240Hz IPS-level thin bezel display ensures sharp and clear images in a compact form factor, and the new two-toned mesh design at the underside of the unit, inspired by a dragon theme, provides better ventilation and prevents hot air from recirculating.These new modern PCs and innovative devices the ecosystem will continue to build and bring to market in the future require a modern operating system. An OS that provides a set of enablers that deliver the foundational experiences customers expect from their devices, and includes a set of delighters that deliver innovative human centric experiences. Enablers include seamless updates – with a modern OS updates are invisibly done in the background; the update experience is deterministic, reliable, and instant with no interruptions! A modern OS, is also secure by default, the state is separated from the operating system; compute is separated from applications; this protects the user from malicious attacks throughout the device lifecycle. Always connected -with a modern OS Wifi, LTE 5G will just work – and users never have to worry about a deadspot. All of a users devices are aware and connected to each other. A modern OS provides sustained performance, from the moment a user picks up their device – everything is ready to go – without having to worry about the next time the PC needs to be charged. These enablers will satisfy customer’s basic needs, but to truly differentiate we must also delight them. A modern OS does this by enabling cloud-connected experiences that use the compute power of the cloud to enhance users experiences on their devices.  These experiences are powered by AI, so a modern OS is aware of what a user is doing tomorrow and helps them get it done, and it enhances applications making them more intelligent. A modern OS is also multi-sense. People can use pen, voice, touch, even gaze – what ever input method a user wants to use works just as well as the keyboard and mouse. Finally, a modern OS provides the ultimate in form factor agility. A modern OS has the right sensor support and posture awareness to enable the breadth of innovative form factors and applications that our partner ecosystem will deliver

These enablers and delighters underpin our vision for a Modern OS, they will provide the foundational elements for an evolution of the PC ecosystem and enable partners to deliver the more human-centric experiences of tomorrow. Microsoft is investing to enable these modern OS experiences, and to deliver new ones that take advantage of silicon advancements, powerful PCs, the cloud and power of AI. Experiences like an Asian Inking platform, cognitive recognition services that help with photo tagging and new Your Phone capabilities that let users mirror their Android phone screen on their PC and use the PC mouse and keyboard to interact with phone apps and content using either Wi-Fi or LTE.

Intelligent Edge and the Internet of Things

IoT is another area of tremendous growth and unparalleled innovation, and our broad ecosystem of IoT partners including chip makers, hardware manufacturers, solution providers and aggregators are building a diverse assortment of IoT devices and solutions for businesses across industries. At Microsoft our goal is to simplify IoT – from the cloud down to the smallest MCU based devices, and we do this by meeting our partners and customers where they are, with the right intelligent cloud services, software and development tools they need to get devices connected, and manage solutions at scale.

Device partners are utilizing Azure IoT Central, Azure IoT Edge and Windows IoT to build intelligent edge devices that can be connected to the cloud and used in solutions that deliver business results. Today at Computex, we announced that Microsoft and NXP are continuing their efforts to bring the full range of NXP systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) to Windows IoT. The board support package (BSP) for the i.MX6 SoloX applications processors will be generally available in June 2019. Additional BSPs for members of the i.MX6 series are expected to become available later this summer, with BSPs for the i.MX7 and i.MX8 series released later this year.

We’ve recently announced additional services and programs that hardware manufacturers can use to get their devices connected to the cloud and included in IoT solutions.

IoT Plug and Play, a new open modeling language to connect IoT devices to the cloud seamlessly, helps device partners navigate one of the biggest challenges they face — deploying IoT solutions at scale. Previously, software had to be written specifically for the connected device it supported, limiting the scale of IoT deployments. IoT Plug and Play provides partners with a straightforward way to model the capabilities and data coming from their IoT devices and will provide customers with a large portfolio of partner-certified devices that can easily be made to work with any IoT solution, often without writing any new code.

Azure IoT Central is a fully managed global IoT SaaS (software-as-a-service) solution that makes it easy to connect, monitor, and manage IoT assets at scale. Bring connected products to market faster while staying focused on customers. New custom dashboard features allow partners to bring their own brand and user experience to their IoT solution, and benefit from the built-in security, reliability, device connectivity and role-based user account management provided by IoT Central.

Microsoft Azure IoT Device Agent V2 for Windows 10 IoT, lets operators configure, monitor and manage their devices remotely from their Azure dashboard. It provides an open-source, ready to build package that: creates and manages the Azure IoT Hub identities on the device, manages the cloud connection and its renewal, provides a plug-in model for platform components, which allows easy onboarding to various Azure services, including discovery, initialization, error reporting and state aggregation, comes with a set of ready-to-ship plug-ins for commonly used platform components and leverages Azure IoT Module Twin so a separate UWP app is not required to connect to Azure IoT Hub.

Businesses who are implementing IoT solutions want to achieve time to value as quickly as possible. And, when partners take advantage of Microsoft’s comprehensive, trusted and easy to use edge to cloud platforms, embrace business model transformation and work together they can reduce the complexity of IoT, and accelerate time to value for customers. Leveraging a common architecture and repeatable solutions based on accelerators can eliminate up to 80 percent of the development work on a new solution, and collaborating with compatible partners offers greater speed, scalability, and depth of expertise. All of which means customers get their IoT solutions up and running faster — hastening ROI and increasing profitability.

Techsun is a great example of an ecosystem partner who is embracing IoT transformation. They successfully collaborated with Compal to design an AI camera, IoT sensor and IOT management platform that leverages Microsoft services including Edge AI, Azure IoT and cognitive services to develop cloud to edge AI algorithms, a data management platform and a business management platform for retail. A variety of retailers have implemented Techsun’s Retail Next solution and are using consumer flow and store operation data along with information on consumer behavior that the solution makes available to improve customer service, increase efficiency and enhance store layouts. By developing this new solution, Techsun has transformed itself from being a traditional Dynamics partner into a leading retail digital service provider in China.

Advantech developed an end-to-end industry safety solution that includes the BTI MIOTY LPWAN wireless solution running on an industry-standard Windows IoT gateway and a wearable device that monitors heart rates. Industrial customers can use this solution to gather health data for their people working in high-risk industrial environments, send the data to the Microsoft Cloud where Hitachi Solutions’ IoT Service Hub is used to provide actionable insights on workers’ health and to send alerts when people are in danger. Employers, such as mining site operators, can deploy this end-to-end solution to protect their workforce with unprecedented responsiveness at a fraction of the cost of previously available technologies.

The breadth of innovative intelligent edge devices and solutions our partners, across the PC and IoT ecosystems, have delivered in the last year is incredible, and we’re just getting started! The opportunities we all have to empower people, drive growth and enable business transformation, when we use the power of the cloud and AI to build intelligent edge solutions, are limitless. I look forward to the innovation we will deliver together.

Posted on May 28, 2019 by sick skills — Leave a comment

AI takes the pain out of car insurance in India

India’s drivers benefit as artificial intelligence transforms the business of policies and claims

Auto insurance is becoming a lot easier and quicker – with the help of artificial intelligence and smartphones.

India is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing auto insurance markets – but until now, the sector has had to rely on traditional ways to renew lapsed policies or make repair claims. Both services have required inspectors to physically look over vehicles and make damage assessments.

In a country with more than 230 million vehicles and 1200 auto accidents every day, scheduling inspections and getting approvals can keep cars and policyholders off the road for days or longer. A more convenient way was needed.

To ease the pain, ICICI Lombard has partnered with Microsoft to develop India’s first AI-enabled car inspection feature in its mobile app, “Insure.” The app allows customers to buy or renew policies anytime, anywhere. And, soon it will also simplify the process of making a repair claim.

In case of lapsed policy instead of a physical inspection, customers can simply take images of their vehicle and upload them with Insure. The app then uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to divide the images into frames and identify the various parts of the car to look for damage. In most cases the AI module can make a judgement very quickly, reducing the time from days to mere minutes.

Proving it’s possible

“We had been envisioning something like this for a long period of time,” says Girish Nayak, Chief Customer Service, Operations & Technology, for ICICI Lombard. “We were not really successful working with some start-ups. Therefore, we approached Microsoft to see if we could do this together.”

The two companies started collaborating where software engineers from both companies met and worked on a prototype.

“The prototype gave us confidence that something like this is possible,” said Nayak.

Using the Azure platform, computer vision, and machine learning (ML) technologies, they refined the process until the accuracy was fit for purpose.

The feature was launched in December of 2018 and has worked as expected. Nayak said, “real time renewals of expired policies makes the customer experience consistent and convenient.”

A person self inspecting car insurance through a mobile app — Real time renewals of expired policies makes the customer experience consistent and convenient.

With the app, insurance personnel are more productive as they no longer have to be physically present to inspect vehicles and can focus on less repetitive tasks. With improved efficiency, customer satisfaction has also increased considerably.

According to a new study by IDC Asia/Pacific and Microsoft, “Future Ready Business: Assessing Asia’s Growth Potential Through AI”, organizations in India that have adopted AI have seen tangible improvements of 22% better customer engagement and 21% more productive employees. Further improvements of at least 2.1 times are forecasted over a three-year horizon.

Expanding AI in auto insurance

Renewing policies online has proven to be successful — the company is currently processing between 150 to 200 cars per day — but as Nayak pointed out, using AI for renewals is just a “stepping stone” for the company. AI is a major thrust for the company, and they are very near to using AI to process repair claims as well. The solution is currently in beta stage and is expected to be launched in 2019.

A person clicking snapshot of a car's tyre — AI will soon assess images of damage uploaded by the customer and provide an estimated repair cost within seconds

When a customer’s vehicle is damaged in an accident, they must surrender it to a service center so a service engineer can assess the damage and provide an estimate for repair. Then, an insurance personnel examines both the car and the estimate, and either approves, rejects or modifies individual parts of the estimate.

Compare that to the new, AI-driven process; a customer will use the app to take photographs of car’s damage. Once uploaded, the system’s deep learning model and computer vision identifies in real time all the parts of the vehicle, like roof, window or bumper and then spots all the different types of damage – be it scratch, dent, crack, and so on. Most importantly, the app replies with an estimated cost quickly using historical data.

With AI, the company aims to complete simple claims in days, instead of weeks when the module is launched towards the end of 2019.

Improving customer experience and business outcomes

The advantages to the customer are clear. They can file claims whenever and wherever is convenient and will receive estimates much faster than before.

The app is also valuable to ICICI Lombard from a business perspective. Automating the process reduces the possibility of inaccurate assessments due to human error. And, increased efficiency and productivity improves the bottom line.

A person inspecting damage on the rare end of a car — AI is expected to free up insurance inspectors’ time to focus on complex claims like head on collisions and spend quality time with vehicle owners to help reduce their stress

The role of the human insurance inspectors is changing as well. AI is good at quickly handing the routine claims. That allows insurance inspectors to attend to more complex claims where their experience really matters, like those that involve lot of interior damage, for instance.

Nayak said inspectors are being trained in new skills. “With AI coming in, it frees up their time to prioritize complex cases and personal customer interaction, as well as providing career paths in learning new techniques as well.”

With the launch of the app, the company aims to substantially increase employee productivity and customer satisfaction.

As AI remakes their auto insurance business, ICICI Lombard is keen to employ the technology wherever it aligns with their vision of increasing efficiency and improving customer experience. Currently, they are working towards launching similar AI-powered apps for their health and marine insurance customers.

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