Tag: Recent News

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Now available: Azure Backup for SQL Server Virtual Machines – the simple, modern way to do backup in the cloud

How do you back up your SQL Servers today? You could be using backup software that require you to manage backup servers, agents, and storage, or you could be writing elaborate custom scripts which need you to manage the backups on each server individually. With the modernization of IT infrastructure and the world rapidly moving to the cloud, do you want to continue using the legacy backup methods that are tedious, infrastructure-heavy, and difficult to scale? Azure Backup for SQL Server Virtual Machines (VMs) is the modern way of doing backup in cloud, and we are excited to announce that it is now generally available! It is an enterprise scale, zero-infrastructure solution that eliminates the need to deploy and manage backup infrastructure while providing a simple and consistent experience to centrally manage and monitor the backups on standalone SQL instances and Always On Availability Groups.

Azure Backup for SQL Server running in Azure Virtual Machines

Built into Azure, the solution combines the core cloud promises of simplicity, scalability, security and cost effectiveness with inherent SQL backup capabilities that are leveraged by using native APIs, to yield high fidelity backups and restores. The key value propositions of this solution are:

  1. 15-minute Recovery Point Objective (RPO): Working with uber critical data and have a low RPO? Schedule a log backup to happen every 15 minutes.
  2. One-click, point-in-time restores: Tired of elaborate manual restore procedures? Restore databases to a point in time up to a second in one click, without having to manually apply a chain of logs over differential and full backups.
  3. Long-term retention: Rigorous compliance and audit needs? Retain your backups for years, based on the retention duration, beyond which the recovery points will be pruned automatically by the built-in lifecycle management capability.
  4. Protection for encrypted databases: Concerned about security of your data and backups? Back-up SQL encrypted databases and secure backups with built-in encryption at rest while controlling backup and restore operations with Role-Based Access Control.
  5. Auto-protection: Dealing with a dynamic environment where new databases get added frequently? Auto-protect your server to automatically detect and protect the newly added databases.
  6. Central management and monitoring: Losing too much time managing and monitoring backups for each server in isolation? Scale smartly by creating centrally managed backup policies that can be applied across databases. Monitor jobs and get alerts and emails across servers and even vaults from a single pane of glass.
  7. Cost effective: No infrastructure and no overhead of managing the scale, seems like value for the money already? Enjoy reduced total cost of ownership and flexible pay-as-you-go option.

Get started

Click on the image below to watch the video, “How to back up SQL Server running in Azure VMs with Azure Backup.”

Azure portal with ‘Restore’ blade open inside the vault view that shows the graphical view of continuous log backups.

Customer feedback

We have been in preview for a few months now, and have seen an overwhelming response from our customers:

“Our experience with Azure SQL Server Backup has been fantastic. It’s a solution you can put in place in a couple of minutes and not have to worry about it. To restore DBs, we don’t have to deal with rolling logs and only have to choose a date and time. It gives us great peace of mind to know the data is safely stored in the Recovery Services Vaults with our other protected items.”

– Steven Hayes, Principal Architect, Acuity Brands Lighting, Inc

“We have been using Azure Backup for SQL Server for the past few months and have found it simple to use and easy to set up. The backup and restore operations are performant and reliable as well as easy to monitor. We plan to continue using it in the future.”

– Celica E. Candido, Cloud Operations Analyst, Willis Towers Watson

Additional resources

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7 shopping prophecies from a retail futurist

Doug Stephens is always thinking about tomorrow. And about next year. And the year 2039.

The founder and president of Retail Prophet – one of the world’s top retail consultancies – has logged more than two decades in the industry, leading brands, authoring two books and offering his advice to numerous companies. As he likes to tell clients: “There’s no such thing as being fashionably late for your future.”

On a recent weekday in New York City, Stephens paused to predict how technology will vastly reshape the shopping experience, how retail marketing will change and how the stores themselves will look in the coming years. Yes, there will still be stores, he says.

Transform grabbed a few minutes with Stephens to hear seven futuristic retail realities he envisions, including his views on AI. Based on the interview, here is the thought leader’s forecast, in his words:

Artificial intelligence will become our go-to shopping buddy.

AI has the capacity to learn, to become smarter and more intuitive. It will reshape virtually every aspect of the retail industry – and the industry’s relationship with consumers.

Today, if we compare the development of AI to, say, the development of manned air flight, we are now at Kitty Hawk – the North Carolina town where the Wright brothers made their first controlled flight in 1903. We’re early.

Microsoft is working heavily in the AI field. Imagine where we’re going to be in 20 years. I fully believe that consumers will operate with an artificial intelligence that they can create and tailor in whatever form they like. They will make it look and sound like whatever they’re comfortable with. And it will go everywhere with them.

They will turn to it whenever they have a major consumer decision to make. And even when they make incidental consumer decisions, they will use AI just as they now use a map app – as soon as they leave the house, even if they know where they’re going. They will use AI to inform their consumer behavior and to make far better decisions.

AI will render today’s heart-tugging commercials and marketing campaigns useless.

AI will be a problem for marketers. If they want to appeal to a consumer, marketers may have to go through their AI-enabled, virtual assistant to get to that consumer.

The consumers are going to ask the assistant so many questions. What should I buy? Where should I eat? Which airline should I travel on?

AI is going to take all the emotion out of all those decisions. So consumers won’t be affected by the kind of emotional marketing we see today – ads that show families sitting eating together, traveling with their children, petting the dog. AI won’t care about any of that. Consumer decisions are all going to be based on hard-and-fast metrics.

Brick-and-mortar stores will retain a firm a place in our economy.

Many products still carry a level of immediacy. Waiting a day or two for them just seems silly.

Case in point: drug stores. Look in your medicine cabinet. When you need one of those products, you tend to go get it. That probably won’t change.

Similarly, stores that require significant interaction with the staff. A prime example: home improvement stores. They answer our questions. Is this item right for my needs? How do I install this? If this is beyond my abilities, who can install this for me?

It’s not just the product you’re purchasing. You’re also buying their expertise.

And let’s not forget: Many of us still like shopping in stores.

Another reason many traditional stores will stick around: Millennials like shopping there.

No doubt, today’s retail landscape was built for a different generation of consumers. So we shouldn’t be shocked that millennials aren’t pouring into the malls the way younger people did in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Millennials have lived their whole lives being stimulated by inordinate amounts of media. By comparison, most retail is relatively boring, if we get right down to it. How many times a week do you walk into a store and say, ‘You know, I need to take a selfie of this place?’ Zero.

However, we are starting to address these issues. And I’ve seen no evidence whatsoever that millennials just don’t like the physical shopping experiences. That will not change with time.

Doug Stephens speaks on stage to business professionals.
Doug Stephens on stage.

The grocery store of tomorrow will be far smaller.

With more grocery products coming to our homes from our online shopping, retailers will continue to collapse their spaces. I imagine no cereal aisles, no detergent aisles.

Instead I see maybe a restaurant in the middle of the store where people can learn how to cook things, like different ethnic dishes every week.

Discount stores also will go digital, adding value to shoppers’ time.

If your brand is largely about convenience, ease and taking the friction out of shopping, you will have to focus on those elements and bolster that story in the consumer’s mind.

These stores won’t ask you to stop and take 20 minutes to engage with a shopping experience. They will put the things you need right in front of you to make it easy, so you don’t have to think about price, so you can get right out the door.

If discount retailers do that through technology, they’re going to carve out a very strong position. When we use the word “experience,” often our minds jump to these highly immersive, physically engaged store environments. But “experience” isn’t necessarily tied to luxury.

No single retail brand has yet claimed victory in the digital revolution – but one will.

There hasn’t been a company that can say, ‘We’ve figured it all out. We’ve nailed it.’ That said, there are some courageous, adventurous and insightful things happening across numbers of brands. Nordstrom, for example.

They had the courage to say, ‘What if we were to create a 3,000-square-foot department store that doesn’t stock any products? What if, in that store, everything gets ordered online and delivered to that store. And people come, try on their products and have a glass of wine?’ Sure enough, that became Nordstrom Local.

At some point, after all of the cumulative learnings like that are gained from various digital initiatives, I believe there will be one retailer that is able to bottle it all up in one place.

Of course, the troubling thing is by the time that happens, the retail industry will have shifted once again. It’s always moving – and always quickly.

Watch Doug Stephens reveal the five most important decisions facing today’s retail CEOs during a free webinar, March 21 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time.

Top image: Doug Stephens. (Photos courtesy of Retail Prophet)

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Watch as Microsoft celebrates education changemakers April 3-4 at E2 in Paris

Just a few months ago, we announced our next Education Exchange (E2) event in Paris. This year’s Microsoft Education Exchange (E2) event will be held in Paris, France, from April 2 through April 4, 2019, with the support of local and international governments.

This will be our fifth annual E2 | Education Exchange. The event is all about celebrating the incredible work done by changemakers in education from around the globe. The essence of E2 is celebration, recognition, collaboration and inspiration.

This year, we’re excited to come together in Paris to congratulate the many heroes in classrooms around the world. You can tune in live on the Microsoft Education Facebook page.

Join us live on the Microsoft Education Facebook page for the Keynotes:

New this year: Check out our video series, “Who’s new in EDU,” streaming live from E2 in Paris, to better understand how these incredible educators became the changemakers they are today. Watch and see how you could become the next MIEExpert at E2 in 2020!

Join us on Twitter and follow along!

  • Road2E2: Check out the stream of amazing videos and social posts from educators all over the world by following #MicrosoftEDU and #Road2E2. Join the conversation and support your fellow educators!

More highlights to expect during the week of E2:

  • The Learning Marketplace and new “You Can in :90” videos shot live from the event. The Learning Marketplace is a mini trade show where educators showcase their work. It gives participating educators the chance to see how other teachers are using Microsoft technologies in their classrooms and lets Microsoft employees learn how teachers and students are applying the tools we create. Teachers gather new lesson ideas, make connections and leave inspired.
  • Microsoft Certifications: During the event, educators can get certified as a Microsoft Certified Educator (MCE), Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) or Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA). Over 180 educators took exams during the last event. This was an ambitious undertaking, as many of the courses were new and required increased proficiency in the tools.

Educators are our heroes. The community of Microsoft Innovative Educators, with all you do to serve your students, is truly humbling. Each day, you help your students thrive by providing the best learning experiences possible, preparing them to lead our world tomorrow. To attend E2, start by becoming an MIEExpert. 

For a chance to come to E2 next year, become a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert.  Here’s how to start!

We invite all educators to join the Microsoft Educator Community – there you’ll find on-demand professional development and training courses that can lead to becoming a certified Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE). After becoming a certified Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE), you can continue your journey toward becoming a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert (MIEE). Nominations will be open from April 15 – July 15, 2019.

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The evolution of Microsoft Threat Protection, RSA edition

Last week, the Microsoft Security team attended the RSA conference in San Francisco, California. We made several key announcements about Microsoft Threat Protection, the solution which provides end users optimal security from the moment they log in, use email, work on documents, or utilize cloud applications and offers security professionals the benefit of minimal complexity while staying ahead of threats to their organization. As we previously alluded to, Microsoft Threat Protection is on a journey to provide organizations seamless, integrated, and comprehensive security across multiple attack vectors. In this RSA edition, we want to share where we are in this journey, the most recent new capabilities launched, and the vision of where we’re going as we continue executing toward our goal of offering best-in-class security for modern organizations.

The journey taken

Microsoft Threat Protection is supported by tremendous investment and focus across multiple engineering teams. Each month, we report discrete enhancements to the solution, but Figure 1 shows the many years of strategic investments and designed capabilities which helped create the solution we offer today. As the timeline demonstrates, each discrete enhancement is tied to the larger vision of Microsoft Threat Protection and our effort to ensure customers are offered the best and most secure threat protection available on the market. The roots of Microsoft Threat Protection stretch back to 2014, with the launch of advanced identity protection capabilities offered in Azure Active Directory Premium. Development of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Graph, which weaves our security services together, began shortly thereafter. Building on these strong foundations in identity protection (including security for on-premises identities) and intelligence, we then launched services securing email and documents, cloud apps, endpoints, and infrastructure. Over the last few years, we have leveraged the connectivity of the Intelligent Security Graph to integrate and seamlessly correlate signals across all our services, to help provide an optimized security experience with minimal complexity for customers.

Figure 1. The development timeline of Microsoft Threat Protection.

The journey is continuing, as we further enhance and develop capabilities which secure customers with Microsoft Threat Protection. Next, we look at announcements made at RSA this year, which are significant strides on our evolution toward the full potential Microsoft Threat Protection.

Tomorrow’s SIEM, available today

Many organizations leverage Security Information and Events Management (SIEM) products to support their digital transformation. As the value of digital information continues to increase, so does the volume and sophistication of attacks. Several customers have told us their existing SIEM products are unable to keep pace.

To address this need, at RSA we announced the launch of Microsoft Azure Sentinel, which adds the benefits of a next-gen SIEM to the Microsoft Threat Protection solution. Azure Sentinel is a cloud-native solution, providing intelligent security analytics for the entire organization. With Azure Sentinel (Figure 2), collection of security data across the entire hybrid organization from devices, to users, to apps, to servers on any cloud is easy. It includes built-in artificial intelligence (AI) to help ensure threats are identified quickly and significantly reduces the burden of traditional SIEMs by eliminating the need to spend time setting up, maintaining, and scaling infrastructure. Since it is built on Azure, it offers nearly limitless cloud scale and speed to address your security needs. Traditional SIEMs are also expensive to own and operate, often requiring high upfront costs and continued high costs for infrastructure maintenance and data ingestion. With Azure Sentinel there are no upfront costs as you pay for what you use.  Additionally, organizations can bring their Office 365 activity data to Azure Sentinel for free. It takes just a few clicks to retain your Office 365 data within the Microsoft cloud. Learn more about Azure Sentinel and opt in for a trial today.

Figure 2. The Azure Sentinel – Overview portal.

Combining artificial intelligence with human expertise for unparalleled security

Human expertise will always be pivotal for strong security. However, by 2021, there will be an estimated shortage of 3.5 million security professionals. To help organizations benefit from the knowledge of seasoned security analysts, we announced Microsoft Threat Experts at RSA adding another significant capability to Microsoft Threat Protection to augment customers Security Operation Centers (SOCs). Microsoft Threat Experts is currently offered as part of our endpoint security service, Windows Defender ATP and blends the benefits of human analysts with our industry leading endpoint security service. Soon, Threat Experts will extend to cover more components of Microsoft Threat Protection. It is a new managed threat hunting service providing proactive hunting, prioritization, and additional context and data-driven insights, further helping SOCs identify and respond to threats quickly and accurately. Microsoft Threat Experts enables SOCs to jump-start threat investigations by providing context-rich intelligence. The feature offers:

  • Targeted attack notifications: Offers monitoring by Microsoft’s threat experts and provides notifications to customers in case a breach is identified. In cases where a full incident response becomes necessary, seamless transition to Microsoft incident response (IR) services is available.
  • Experts on demand (Figure 3): Security experts provide technical consultation on relevant detections and adversaries.

Figure 3. Microsoft Threat Experts “Ask a Threat Expert” button.

Learn more about Microsoft Threat Experts and check out these case studies that showcase the significant benefit of combined human and artificial intelligence. Get started on a Windows Defender ATP trial and begin your preview of Microsoft Threat Experts.

Experience the evolution of Microsoft Threat Protection

Take a moment to learn more about Microsoft Threat Protection, read our previous monthly updates, and visit Integrated and automated security. Organizations have already transitioned to Microsoft Threat Protection and partners are leveraging its powerful capabilities. Begin a trial of Microsoft Threat Protection services today to experience the benefits of the most comprehensive, integrated, and secure threat protection solution for the modern workplace. And check out part 2 of this blog, where we discuss a new unified SecOps experience, powerful new features to strengthen your cloud app security, unique automation capabilities launching in Office 365, and an early look at the full vision and scope of Microsoft Threat Protection.

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‘Minecraft’ coming soon to Xbox Game Pass

Excitement is building! Soon, Xbox Game Pass members will be able to build, create, and explore infinite worlds with Minecraft.

Beginning April 4, Xbox Game Pass members can join the Minecraft community of millions of players from around the world. Discover limitless ways to play and create anything you can imagine. Try to survive the night alone or share your adventure with friends in both split-screen or online multiplayer*. Build anything you can think of, explore your own unique overworld, discover mobs (both creepy and cute!) and play your Minecraft adventure your way!

Since its launch in 2009, the Minecraft community has remained one of the most active and passionate in gaming, attracting over 91 million players of all ages from virtually every country in the world. Those joining through Xbox Game Pass will enter a vibrant, global community that plays across 20 unique platforms like Windows 10, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and mobile. Xbox Game Pass players will also gain access to an ever-expanding array of content for purchase via the in-game Minecraft Marketplace, which contains over 1,000 pieces of content from 60 distinct creators.

Plus, with Minecraft´s free content updates, you´ll always find new environments to explore, tools to create, and mobs to meet. Last summer, the Update Aquatic filled Minecraft´s oceans with new items, blocks, and mobs like Turtles and Dolphins, and the upcoming Village & Pillage update will expand the game even further later this spring. There´s no better time to bring Minecraft to Xbox Game Pass!

Join Xbox Game Pass Today

Xbox Game Pass is the new way for you to discover your next favorite game. Enjoy Minecraft and over 100 other great games for one low monthly price. Plus, even more games are added all the time, including highly-anticipated Xbox One exclusives the day they’re released. If you haven’t tried Xbox Game Pass, join today and get your first month for $1.

For more information on Minecraft, stay tuned to Xbox Wire and Minecraft.net. To stay up to date on all the gaming goodness constantly coming at you from Xbox Game Pass, be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram. And don’t sleep on the Game Pass mobile app, where you can seamlessly discover and download your next favorite game to your home console, so it’s ready to play when you are.

*Online multiplayer on Xbox requires Xbox Live Gold, sold separately.

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Announcing Microsoft Game Stack for developers and studios

Microsoft is built on the belief of empowering people and organizations to achieve more – it is the DNA of our company. Today we are announcing a new initiative, Microsoft Game Stack, in which we commit to bringing together Microsoft tools and services that will empower game developers like yourself, whether you’re an indie developer just starting out or a AAA studio, to achieve more.

This is the start of a new journey, and today we are only taking the first steps. We believe Microsoft is uniquely suited to deliver on that commitment. Our company has a long legacy in games – and in building developer-focused platforms.

There are 2 billion gamers in the world today, playing a broad range of games, on a broad range of devices. There is as much focus on video streaming, watching, and sharing within a community as there is on playing or competing. As game creators, you strive every day to continuously engage your players, to spark their imaginations, and inspire them, regardless of where they are, or what device they’re using. Today, we’re introducing Microsoft Game Stack, to help you do exactly that.

Game Stack Resources

What Exactly is Microsoft Game Stack?

Game Stack brings together all of our game-development platforms, tools, and services—such as Azure, PlayFab, DirectX, Visual Studio, Xbox Live, App Center, and Havok—into a robust ecosystem that any game developer can use. The goal of Game Stack is to help you easily discover the tools and services you need to create and operate your game.

The cloud plays a critical role in Game Stack, and Azure fills this vital need. Azure provides the building blocks like compute and storage, as well as cloud-native services from machine learning and AI, to push notifications and mixed reality spatial anchors. Azure is already available in 54 regions globally, including China, and continues to invest in building highly secure and sustainable cloud infrastructure and additional services for game developers. Azure’s global scale is what will give Project xCloud streaming technology the scale to deliver a great gaming experience for players worldwide, regardless of their device and location.

Already with Azure, companies like Rare, Ubisoft and Wizards of the Coast are hosting multiplayer game servers, safely and securely storing player data, analyzing game telemetry, protecting their games from DDOS attacks, and training AI to create more immersive gameplay.

While Azure is part of Game Stack, it’s important to call out that Game Stack is cloud, network, and device agnostic. And we’re not stopping here.

What’s New?

The next piece of Game Stack is PlayFab, a complete backend service for building and operating live games. A year ago, we welcomed PlayFab into Microsoft through an acquisition. Today we’re excited to announce we are bringing PlayFab into the Azure family. Together, Azure and PlayFab are a powerful combination: Azure brings reliability, global scale, and enterprise-level security; PlayFab provides Game Stack with managed game-development services, real-time analytics, and LiveOps capabilities. Last fall, we saw what these two platforms can do together with PlayFab Multiplayer Servers, which allows you to safely launch and scale up multiplayer games by dynamically hosting your servers with Azure cloud compute.

To quote PlayFab’s co-founder James Gwertzman, “Modern game creators are less like movie directors, and more like cruise directors. Long-term success requires engaging players in a continuous cycle of creation, experimentation, and operation. It’s no longer possible to just ship your game and move on.” This is why a year ago, we welcomed PlayFab into Microsoft through an acquisition. PlayFab supports all major devices, from iOS and Android, to PC and Web, to Xbox, Sony PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch; and all major game engines, including Unity and Unreal. PlayFab will also continue to support all major clouds going forward.

Today we’re also excited to announce five new PlayFab services, in private preview today (contact us to join the preview):

PlayFab Matchmaking

Powerful matchmaking for multiplayer games, adapted from Xbox Live matchmaking, but now available to all games and all devices.

In public preview today:

PlayFab Party

Voice and chat services, adapted from Xbox Party Chat, but now available to all games and for all devices. Party leverages Azure Cognitive Services for real-time translation and transcription to make games accessible to more players.

PlayFab Game Insights

Combines robust real-time game telemetry with game data from multiple other sources to measure your game’s performance and create actionable insights. Powered by Azure Data Explorer, Game Insights will offer connectors to existing first- and third-party data sources including Xbox Live.

PlayFab Pub Sub

Subscribe your game client to messages pushed from PlayFab’s servers via a persistent connection, powered by Azure SignalR. This enables scenarios such as real-time content updates, matchmaking notifications, and simple multiplayer gameplay.

PlayFab User Generated Content

Engage your community by allowing players to create and safely share user generated content with other players. This technology was originally built to support the Minecraft marketplace.

Growing the Xbox Live Community

Another major component of Game Stack is Xbox Live. Over the past 16 years, Xbox Live has become one of the most vibrant and engaged gaming communities in the world. It is also a safe and inclusive network that has broken down boundaries in how gamers connect across devices.

Today, we’re excited for Xbox Live to become part of Microsoft Game Stack, providing identity and community services. Under Game Stack, Xbox Live will expand its cross-platform capabilities, as we introduce a new SDK that brings this community to iOS and Android devices.

Mobile developers will now be able to reach some of the most highly engaged and passionate gamers on the planet with Xbox Live. These are just a few of the benefits for mobile developers:

Trusted Game Identity

With the new Xbox Live SDK, developers can focus on creating great games and leverage Microsoft‘s trusted identity network to support log-in, privacy, online safety and child accounts.

Frictionless Integration

New a la carte service offerings and no Xbox Live certification pass give mobile developers flexibility in how they build and update their games. Developers just use the services that best fit their needs.

Vibrant Gaming Community

Reach Xbox Live’s growing community and connect gamers across a multitude of platforms. Find creative ways to enable achievements, Gamerscore, and “hero” stats, which have their own out-of-game experience, to keep gamers engaged.

Other Game Stack Components

Other components of Game Stack include Visual Studio, Mixer, DirectX, Azure App Center, Visual Studio, and Visual Studio Code, and Havok. In the coming months, as we work to improve and grow Game Stack, you’ll see deeper connections between these services as we unify them to work more seamlessly together.

As an example of how this integration is already underway, today we’re bringing together PlayFab and these Game Stack components:

App Center

Crash log data from App Center is now connected to PlayFab, allowing you to better understand and respond to problems in your game in real-time by tying crash logs back to individual player profiles.

Visual Studio Code

With PlayFab’s new plug-in for Visual Studio Code, editing and updating Cloud Script just got a lot easier.

Create Your World Today & Achieve More

As we expand our focus to the cloud, the nature of the platform may be changing, but our commitment to empower game developers like yourself is unwavering, and we’re looking forward to the journey ahead with Microsoft Game Stack. Our teams are inspired and excited by the possibilities as we start to pull together all these great services and technologies. Please be sure to share your feedback with us as we go, so we can help you achieve more. If you’re at GDC, stop by the Microsoft booth in the South Hall of the Moscone Center to try out many of the new services, and to learn more about the exciting opportunities ahead.

Thanx,

Kareem

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Jenny Lay-Flurrie: 4 key pillars of Microsoft’s journey with accessibility

By Jenny Lay-Flurrie, Chief Accessibility Officer

Theo demonstrates a program he created with the technology behind Code Jumper as his mother looks on. Photo by Jonathan Banks.

Kings College Student, Theo, demonstrates a program he created with the technology behind Code Jumper as his mother looks on. Photo by Jonathan Banks.

Hi folks, writing to you from Seattle and not from the CSUN Assistive Technology Conference in sunny Anaheim as planned. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to be there in person this year as a health condition is last minute preventing me from flying down. Gutted! I’ve been looking forward to it for months. But no fear, there are 94 Microsofties from across the company in attendance and eager to share what we’ve been up to, and more importantly, to listen, learn, and foster relationships.

Since I can’t be there, thought I would take the opportunity to share what I was going to cover during my presentation – which will go ahead tomorrow with some of our super stars at the helm!

Each year, this event brings together folks from across the accessibility community to share knowledge and best practices in the field of assistive technology. Accessibility isn’t a space where we can move the dial alone, so effective partnerships are a critical element to creating products that work better for everyone. There are some great examples of this that I want to share. As a company, we’re building a partnership mindset into our DNA and into each of our four key pillars which ground us on our journey with accessibility. Enough talk—here’s some examples:

Pillar One: People

Building accessibility into your company starts by building a culture that embraces accessibility and disability. Hiring diverse and talented people with disabilities and accessibility experts brings experiences that empower and accelerate efforts to build products that work for everyone. One of the programs we launched a few years ago is our Autism Hiring Program. While this program matures, we are equally focused on how we share our learnings and best practices in finding talent with other companies with similar ambitions. Today, 16 companies are working together to learn and share together via the Autism @ Work Employer Roundtable. We wanted to make it easier for folks to know how to get started, and in partnership with Disability:IN, SAP, EY, and JP Morgan Chase and the University of Washington, we’ve developed a new playbook that walks through all the top questions you may have. Do check it out.

Pillar Two: Systems

To really drive the business of accessibility, you need a systematic framework; an ecosystem for how you empower folks to deliver. That ecosystem covers all aspects of the company, and supporting our customers is a key part. We have many other partnerships, such as Be My Eyes, which last year started providing customers a direct connection to receive technical assistance from the Disability Answer Desk (DAD), a free consumer service for Microsoft’s customers with disabilities. Since launching the Be My Eyes service in 2018, and we’ve already taken over 4,000 calls and customer satisfaction is at 90%. This partnership was a great step forward in providing people with disabilities effective support in the way they prefer, and is just the start of what’s possible down the line. We’re also excited to announce that tomorrow DAD will be launching Twitter support in five markets. Customers will now be able to send us a direct message via Twitter for technical assistance through the DAD support page.

Pillar Three: Product

When you combine an inclusive culture with an ecosystem that empowers people, and you do it in partnership, you’re set up to create game-changing products that work for everyone.

Windows 10: We are looking forward to meeting users to get feedback about the latest accessibility improvements and to share what’s coming later this year. And yes, there are announcements for Narrator, including support for Chrome. Narrator is also getting new Home Page that makes it easier to find the User Guide, Quick Start tutorial, new settings to personalize your experience, and links to provide feedback so that we can continue to focus on the features that matter most to users. Narrator is also getting improved reading functionality; it is more efficient (less verbose), more natural and more responsive with apps like Outlook. It will also see additional support for the latest translation tables and braille displays.

We’re also building on the success of larger text options by adding larger pointers. Users can make their pointer easier to see by making it larger and adding a custom color – I recommend red. We’ve also polished “center mouse mode” in Magnifier to make your pointer find the center of your display. The team is very proud of its “buttery smooth” performance!

Office 365: Our enthusiastic partners are embedded in every part of our design process—from concept testing, to post-launch feedback from users leveraging the Disability Answer Desk – a number of experts have helped to build an accessible-by-design product that we hope makes it easier for digital inclusion to be part of your organization’s digital transformation.

The ATHEN group played a particularly crucial role in the development of the new and simplified ribbon found at the top of every Word document and OneNote notebook. The simplicity of the new simplified ribbon was designed to allow screen reader users to more easily find the commands they are looking for. Turns out, it is an easier experience for everyone!

Another important advancement is with our Accessibility Checker. We have updated the rules for accessibility checker to reduce false positives making accessibility even easier to achieve to empower everyone. In addition, you can now ‘check as you go’ by letting the accessibility checker keep an eye on your document while you’re building it. This provides an at-a-glance reminder in the status bar when issues exist in the document, and a 1-click action to investigate recommendations.

AT Partnerships: Our assistive technology partnerships are critical to ensuring we can truly empower people with disabilities. We are passionate about our first-party tools, but also passionate about empowering the ecosystem at large. We’re successful not only when we build ourselves, but when we empower others to build as well. A few examples include Eye Tech Digital Systems, which integrates with the built-in eye-tracker on surface; Dolphin Computer Access’ GuideConnect, a talking digital assistant; and InsideVision’s InsideOne, a tactile tablet with an integrated braille keyboard. These are just a few examples, and we’d like to say a huge thank you to our partners for their ongoing collaboration to push the boundaries of assitive tech.

Accessibility Insights: We also have great news for developers with the open sourcing of Accessibility Insights – a tool that helps developers find and fix accessibility issues in their code. Accessibility Insights offers developers the ability to run FastPass and identify common accessibility issues early in the dev cycle and provides tips on how to fix. In addition, we partnered with Deque Systems to add Windows platform support to the axe accessibility rules engine.  Now developers can test their code in development using a common, unified approach. I really encourage you to learn more about Accessibility Insights by checking out Keith Ballinger’s latest blog.

Pillar 4: Innovation/Future

Lastly, what we crave: innovation. It motivates, inspires and drives us. Building solutions with and for people with disabilities by harnessing so much of the knowledge we have across the industry and working in partnership with the community to ensure what we built has impact and purpose. Two projects that epitomize this:

Seeing AI: Designed for the blind and low vision community, this research project and free mobile app harnesses the power of AI to describe people, text and objects. The team announced new features and functionality inspired by feedback and recommendations provided by the Seeing AI user community. These updates are all live today – check them out!

  • Explore photos by touch feature: tap your finger to an image on a touchscreen to hear a description of objects within an image and the spatial relationship between them.
  • Native iPad support: For the first time we’re releasing iPad support, to provide a better Seeing AI experience that accounts for the larger display requirements.
  • Channel improvements: Customize the order of your channels, access face recognition function while on the Person channel, get audio cues while analyzing photos in other apps!

Code Jumper: Lastly, Code Jumper is a physical programming language for kids between 7 and 11 with all ranges of vision. It started as a Microsoft research project in the UK, but as it evolved the team worked to create a path to manufacture at scale. The research and technology behind Code Jumper is now in the capable hands of the American Printing House for the Blind (APH), a nonprofit based in Louisville, Kentucky, that creates and distributes products and services for people who are blind or with low vision. Over the next five years, APH plans to offer Code Jumper and related curriculum to students throughout the world. Learn more about the project here.

Check out this post for all the Microsoft sessions this week.  Our accessibility engineers, program managers, and world-class researchers are excited to talk to you.  Again, I wish I could be there with you!

For more information and to stay up to speed about Microsoft accessibility, visit www.microsoft.com/accessibility 

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Video: How social workers in Australia are making families and medicine safer

When people need help from the Department of Health and Human Services in Victoria, Australia, they are often slogging through their toughest days.

Some are grappling with prescription drug abuse. Some are recovering from violence. Some are escaping homelessness.

“The department’s vision is to improve the health and wellbeing of all Victorians,” says Fiona Sparks, assistant director of strategy and design for DHHS. “We have many clients who, at times in their lives, really struggle. Our focus is shifting the trajectory of people’s lives.

“To do that, we need our workforce and our clients to have the very best technology – good tools, good systems – that are secure and that ensure information can be shared easily,” Sparks says.

DHHS executives are relying on Microsoft Azure and Dynamics 365 to fuel an array of new initiatives, including a program to address family violence in Victoria, the most densely populated state in Australia with more than 6 million residents.

That system tracks police responses to domestic assaults, instantly dispersing the information across the government ecosystem and reducing the time needed to get victims help, Sparks says.

“For anyone who’s experienced family violence, it can be traumatizing,” she says. “We want to make that experience much less stressful by ensuring we’ve got information shared across multiple services and that people don’t have to share their story over and over again.”

A pharmacist helps a customer in Victoria
A pharmacist helps a customer in Victoria.

To improve health care, DHHS has launched a program called SafeScript. When physicians and pharmacists dispense medications like opioids, they get real-time alerts if those patients are prescribed drugs by other doctors.

“These medicines are a huge problem in our society and in many countries around the world where people are becoming addicted after medical treatment,” says Steve Hodgkinson, chief information officer for DHHS.

“A doctor or pharmacist needs to know what else is happening with this person in terms of their consumption of these medications,” Hodgkinson says. “The focus of our department is to encourage people to live the life they have the potential to live.”

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‘Power of Zero’ campaign launches, promoting digital civility and positive online behaviors

Earlier this week, Power of Zero, a new global campaign calling for zero violence, zero hate and zero bullying from age zero launched in New York City. Microsoft was on hand to support the lead organization NoBully and to promote civility and positive online behaviors among children, young people and all digital citizens.

The launch, held at UNICEF headquarters, follows nearly two years of research and planning in conjunction with technology companies, nongovernmental organizations and other groups focused on creating a global movement to combat online bullying and harassment. Collaborative efforts began at a global strategy session in London in April 2017.

“There is growing recognition that we have to invest in our youngest children and give them the foundation they need to thrive in this interconnected world,” says Nicholas Carlisle, founder of NoBully and campaign president for Power of Zero. “Power of Zero is about making digital civility – a concept pioneered by Microsoft – global. In this launch phase, we will be able to bring ‘The 12 Powers’ to young children across North America and then extend the campaign with the help of our partners into Southeast Asia, India, Latin America and beyond.”

In partnership with Scholastic, Power of Zero is providing early childhood educators and families with learning resources to help them leverage their “powers for good.” Critical thinking, inclusivity, respect and resilience are four of the 12 powers the program recommends to help children thrive in a digital world.

As part of the launch event, Power of Zero held a panel discussion with representatives of the technology industry, as well as UNICEF. I participated on behalf of Microsoft, along with representatives from AT&T, Facebook and Hasbro, all of which are also members of Power of Zero’s steering committee. The panel was moderated by Dr. Lewis Bernstein, a longtime research and education executive from Sesame Workshop.

We discussed the risks and opportunities that children and young people face online daily, as well as the need to instill values in young people at the earliest of ages. Some key themes that emerged included the need for parents and trusted adults to be involved, early and often, in children’s online activities; that children and teens needed to be equipped – skills-wise and attitudinally – to deal with online issues like fake news, misinformation, bullying and fraud, and the belief that a true, multistakeholder effort like Power of Zero has a strong chance of breaking through and inspiring adults to invest and assist children with their online growth and development.

Microsoft’s latest research, released Feb. 5, shows that now more than ever, teens are turning to parents and other adults, including teachers, coaches and counselors for help with online issues. This finding needs to stand as a testament that kids need help navigating the online world. What a better way to help arm them than with resources like those developed by Power of Zero.

Digital civility underpins Power of Zero

Microsoft was eager to join the Power of Zero collaboration and to support the campaign for two primary reasons. First, it fills a gap by targeting as its peak demographic children who are basically online as soon as they’re able to hold a cellphone. The debate is wide open as to whether such early online activity is advisable, but there can be no debate that it is, in fact, happening. Second, Power of Zero closely aligns to our own global campaign now entering its fourth year. At Microsoft, we seek to create a “human platform” to foster digital civility, online interactions among all people that are rooted in respect, inclusivity and kindness.

Along with other campaigns and online safety activities, our digital civility work builds on some of our earlier efforts to prevent and fight back against online bullying and harassment. We’ve been committed to combatting cyberbullying for more than a dozen years, conducting research in 25 countries, creating tools and resources to help parents and others identify and address online bullying incidents, and we’ve participated in international conferences and events designed to raise awareness and share best practices among key stakeholders.

Learn more

When faced with online bullying, we encourage young people to talk to adults, and we call on adults to listen, suspend judgment and plan any response or action plan together. We also ask adults to remember to model civil and respectful behaviors both in person and online.

To learn more, visit the Power of Zero and NoBully websites, and consult these Microsoft resources: fact sheet, second fact sheet, presentation deck, research paper. For more on online safety generally, visit our website and resources page. And, for regular news and information, connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

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New Microsoft 365 and business applications technologies enable government to modernize for the mission

Our government agencies have a unique opportunity to deliver massive impact on the lives of U.S. citizens – an impact that can be accelerated and emboldened by technology innovation. However, these same agencies are challenged to modernize and keep pace with the changing technology landscape, while simultaneously reducing costs, protecting data and meeting stringent compliance regulations. To ensure the government can achieve its critical, mission-driven work, and improve citizen services, hundreds of CIOs and top decision-makers from federal, state and local government agencies are turning to secure cloud infrastructure, which can seamlessly enable operations efficiencies, and provide services that are faster, more reliable and more secure.

Government is taking a Cloud Smart approach

Right now, we’re seeing the evolution across U.S. government from a Cloud First approach – with an emphasis on just getting everything in the cloud – to a Cloud Smart approach – with a focus on embracing modern capabilities and equipping agencies with the technology tools needed in accordance with their mission needs. The recently revised Federal Cloud Computing Strategy is the first cloud policy update in seven years. We believe it constitutes more than labelling and is the right way forward to make the most of the incredible possibilities of cloud in advancing agencies’ missions. In recent years, commercial technology has increasingly found a foothold in the government market and Cloud Smart embraces best practices from both the federal government and the private sector. Cloud Smart is about equipping agencies with the tools, knowledge and flexibilities they need to not only move to cloud, but to fully embrace the potential of its many value-added capabilities such as Platform-as-a Service (PaaS) and Artificial Intelligence.

Securely enabling the mission end to end

All government cloud offerings are not the same, and Microsoft is committed to supporting the needs of government across all branches and levels enabling them with capabilities that support the advancement of their mission from end to end. We’ve built the most trusted, comprehensive cloud for government which includes Azure Government, Microsoft 365 Government, and Dynamics 365 Government.

Government organizations across the United States increasingly are turning to our powerful cloud offerings to modernize – becoming more productive, collaborative and efficient all while protecting sensitive data and privacy. Microsoft is delivering them the right capabilities where they are needed, when they are needed as the sole provider with offerings that span infrastructure, platform and software capabilities and services (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS) designed to meet government’s unique compliance needs.

To make it easier for agencies to efficiently modernize quickly and accelerate the speed in which they achieve a return on their cloud investments, Microsoft has worked with our government customers to achieve the most certifications of any cloud provider with more than 91 compliance certifications supported at every level of government to help them achieve their necessary requirements. We also invest $1 billion dollars per year on security and much of that goes to ensuring we deliver our customers the most trusted cloud platform.

Today, we’re announcing several advances across our landscape of comprehensive government cloud solutions, demonstrating our commitment to the unique needs of our customers and further differentiating our offerings:

Microsoft Teams is now available across all government cloud environments

Since launching Microsoft 365 Government last year, we’ve continually made investments to empower government with the newest tools for mobile productivity and secure collaboration, bringing together the best of Office 365, Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS), and Windows 10 to meet agencies’ complex compliance and security requirements.

Today, we’re announcing Microsoft Teams, a product core to our vision for delivering intelligent and modern collaboration and communications, is now available in our Government Community Cloud (GCC) High and Department of Defense (DoD) environments exclusively for the U.S. government and its partners. This means Teams is now available across all our government cloud environments including GCC.

Microsoft Teams’ chat-based workspace enables teams of government professionals to be more productive by giving them a single and secure location that brings together everything they need including chats, meetings, calls, files, and tools. Integrated access through this hub for teamwork across multiple Office 365 services enables agencies to leverage their current investments and improves collaboration by providing central file sharing, co-authoring and many more functions making it possible for government customers to better deliver against their mission.

Introducing Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement for Government

Today we’re also announcing the availability of both Microsoft Power Platform (March 2019) and Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (April 2019) for government professionals. These two new products will enable government to unlock new capabilities and features in three core areas: new business applications; new intelligent capabilities infused throughout; and transformational new application platform capabilities.

Once agencies have the infrastructure for harnessing data, they also need a layer atop that data that enables them to get insights easily. Microsoft Power Platform for Government is a system that will allow them to take three key actions on data: analyze, act, and automate. The system uses Power BI, PowerApps, and Flow working together to help anyone, regardless of technical ability, to make data-driven decisions. Joining Power BI, PowerApps and Flow standalone apps are now generally available for government agencies and their partners in GCC. PowerApps and Flow general availability will also land in Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365 and Office 365 in spring 2019.

We are also offering Dynamics 365 Government Customer Engagement for GCC High. This means agencies can now access customer service, contact centers, correspondence management, grants management, task management, mission planning and even more purpose-built cloud applications than they were able to previously.

New Microsoft 365 Government security and mobile enhancements

Recently we introduced Outlook Mobile for our GCC High and DoD customers. This update means the architecture of Outlook mobile now meets the security and compliance needs of Office 365 U.S. GCC High and DoD customers. Now government employees have advanced capabilities across email, search, and calendar from their mobile devices, so they can focus on what’s important and get more done for their citizens.

Coming soon, government agencies using Office 365 Threat Intelligence in GCC will gain new capabilities that automate investigation and remediation of cyber threats  to help them reduce the burden on their IT security teams and decrease response times. This is the latest addition to comprehensive set of Microsoft 365 Government tools designed to help government protect, detect and respond to cyberattacks.

Continuing our investments in government innovation, security and compliance

Microsoft is helping customers across the full spectrum of government, from the state and local level, to every military branch and all federal cabinet departments. We currently serve nearly 10 million U.S. government cloud professionals across more than 7,000 government entities diligently meeting their unique needs by deliver the highest levels of security and compliance.

Microsoft enables the digital transformation of government by offering effective, modern, enterprise-class cloud capabilities. Our government customers are driven by critical missions, and we are committed to helping them evolve their IT modernization efforts with innovative and trusted cloud, productivity and mobility solutions. As government agencies face a range of new challenges in meeting their missions, we are committed to enabling them to work smarter, with agility and confidence – using technology that can unlock the opportunities ahead. Learn more about how government agencies are using Microsoft cloud technology here.

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