Microsoft has introduced Windows 365 Disaster Recovery Plus, an advanced add-on designed to drastically reduce downtime for Cloud PCs during unexpected outages. It’s currently available in preview and set for general availability later in the sprint 2025. It aims to minimise Recovery Time Objective (RTO) to just 30 minutes – down from the previous four-hour benchmark for large tenants.
Downtime is the ultimate disruptor for any business, especially when it comes to productivity-critical systems like Cloud Services and of course Cloud PCs. Recognising the demand for quicker recovery times, Microsoft has introduced Windows 365 Disaster Recovery Plus which is currently in preview and will be a paid-for / licensed add-on for Windows 365 Enterprise customers.
Disaster Recovery Plus will offers much faster recovery times to address the limitations of its predecessor “Windows 365 Cross-Region Disaster Recovery” which launched in July 2024. Disaster Recover Plus is due to generally available from during spring this year (2025).
This will be a cost option and is designed for users within organisation whose Cloud PC use demands the highest levels of disaster recovery performance and speed of recovery in the event on an outage.
Sharper Focus on Recovery Times
The original Windows 365 cross-region disaster recovery feature presented huge value, enabling business continuity for Cloud PCs during unforeseen events. This service worked by created snapshots of Cloud PCs, which were stored securely in a secondary region defined by the customer. In the case of the need to invoke recovery, users were able to access temporary replicas of their Cloud PCs, complete with all applications and settings based on the most recent restore point – it worked pretty well.
There were however, some limitations. You see, while applications and settings were restored, unsaved work was irretrievable, making OneDrive or SharePoint essential for active file management (which of course most us use right!). Additionally, the recovery process could take up to four hours for larger tenants – which is longer than it takes most physcial devices to be reprovisioned.
Microsoft’s new Disaster Recovery Plus addresses the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) issue reducing recovery time down to around 30 minutes.
Configuring Disaster Recovery Plus
Configuration of Windows 365 Disaster Recovery Plus is configured in the Windows 365 configuration section within Intune under Devices > Windows 365 > User Settings > Optional Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery.
These disaster recovery add-ons are designed to be used in case of a large outage and not individual or groups of users since this invokes the full disaster recovery process. During this outage (or of course when running a test) the Windows 365 Disaster Recovery Plus service will move selected users to their temporary Cloud PCs
Microsoft say that Windows 365 Disaster Recovery Plus may be applied to a set of individual users or user groups to provide fast and simple activation or deactivation.
Previews and Pricing
As is typical with Microsoft previews, IT admins will have the opportunity to try out this service free of charge. I have not yet seen pricing for the final service and how this will work, but I expect this to ROI based and of course optional for customers that need these higher level of RTO.
Conclusion and Thoughts
For customers for whom any loss of service costs money, the value proposition should be clear. Windows 365 Disaster Recovery Plus bridges a critical gap in the speed of recovery enabling businesses to restore operations significantly (around 8 times faster) in these high-stakes scenarios. The the ability to bring Cloud PCs back online within 30 minutes is a substantial improvement over the four-hour window that currently exists.
The question I guess remains, should this be a chargable extra or do customers just expect this level of performance as services like Windows 365 evolve.
You can read the full Microsoft article <– here —> :
This week, in a significant development amidst the backdrop of intensifying AI competitiveness, OpenAI has unveiled ChatGPT Gov
This customised version of the AI-powered chatbot platform is tailored specifically for U.S government agencies, providing them with an advanced tool to access and utilise Open AI technology.
Microsoft announced back in 2023 that its Azure OpenAI Service was available for Azure Government customers. The new service will allow government agencies to use generative AI capabilities in a way that meets security and privacy requirements. OpenAI can now also be deployed in Microsoft Gov Data Centres.
What is ChatGPT Gov?
So ChatGPT Gov mirrors many capabilities of OpenAI’s enterprise-focused tier, ChatGPT Enterprise. By leveraging this platform, Open AI say that government agencies can deploy specific OpenAI models on both Microsoft Azure commercial and government clouds as well as using Microsoft’s own Azure AI models for example. This integration brings enhanced management of security, privacy, and compliance concerns, which is crucial for handling non-public sensitive and classified data.
ChatGPT Gov also aims to streamline internal authorisation processes, making it easier for agencies to implement OpenAI’s tools effectively as easily with the relevant guard rails in place.
What about Azure Open AI for Gov
Microsoft Open AI, enables federal, state, and local government agencies to use GPT-3, GPT-4 and 4o along with embeddings via the Azure OpenAI Service REST APIs. This capability helps to improve natural language-to-code translation, semantic search, content generation, and summarisation and for Gov to build and use Microsoft Open AI services across Gov cloud.
Gen AI in Government
Since its introduction, ChatGPT has already seen extensive adoption across the U.S. government as well as here in the UK. I’m. Personally working with a dozen or so local governments and councils here in the UK on AI adoption.
Open AI says that more than 90,000 users from more than 3,500 federal, state, and local agencies have collectively sent over 18 million messages to support their daily operations. This widespread usage demonstrates Open AI and Microsoft’s potential to transform government workflows and decision-making processes.
What about Copilot
While ChatGPT Gov offers a robust AI solution for government agencies, it’s worth exploring how Microsoft 365 Copilot also serves these needs. Microsoft
For many organisations using or exploring Gen AI tools like ChatGPT, many are using a combination of tools and services from different vendors. Open AI and Microsoft are tightly partnered.
Microsoft 365 Copilot is built on Open AI (which in turns runs in Microsoft Azure) and integrates seamlessly with existing Microsoft 365 tools, providing personalised assistance across a range of applications such as Word, Excel, and Outlook and also supports the building (both professional and low code) of autonomous AI agents, and scheduled prompts (coming soon).
This integration ensures that users can enhance productivity and streamline tasks within the familiar Microsoft ecosystem. So how does Microsoft 365 Copilot differ to ChatGPT?
ChatGPT
Targeted for AI-powered chat and conversation but also supports connectors and extebsibikity to other services via extensions and APIs.
Recently launched the ChatGPT Gov version for U.S. government agencies and are expected to do similar in other global regions.
Deployable on Microsoft Azure commercial and government clouds
Doesn’t provide native integration into line of business office apps and services like Office 365, Power Platform and Fabric.
Microsoft 365 Copilot
Customised version of ChatGPT that runs in Microsoft 365 Tennant boundaries.
Provides chat based conversations and access to company agents and connectors on PAYG basis or via Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription.
Embedded within Microsoft 365 applications like Word, Excel, Teams, and Outlook as well as Dynamics 365 and Power Platform.
Designed to enhances productivity and efficiency within the existing Microsoft ecosystem and seen as add on to Microsoft 365 on a per user per month billing method.
Can provides contextual assistance and automation for daily tasks and workflows through agents and autonomous agents (public preview).
In conclusion, while both ChatGPT and Microsoft 365 Copilot are powerful AI tools, they cater to slightly different use cases
US Government agencies may find ChatGPT Gov particularly beneficial for secure, AI-driven interactions (in place of the general version of ChatGPT) , whereas Microsoft 365 Copilot excels in enhancing productivity and providing natively and seemlessly integration into their wider app services and data. Gov agencies using Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure AI or Open AI deployed in Azure also benefit from enhanced controls and security protection.
It’s great to see Open AI providing dedicated models and instances for central and federal governments.
Copilot was very much front and center at Microsoft Ignite last month. However, the Windows ecosystem also had lots of coverage. This includes Windows 11, new devices, Windows 365, and Windows 365 Link. Along with this, Microsoft talked in depth about the importance of the new Windows Security Initiative.
This forms part of the Secure Futures Initiative , a wider efforts to ensure everything access the Microsoft eco-system is secure by design and secure by default.
The Windows Security Intuitive is a comprehensive effort to ensure that Windows remains the most reliable and secure platform on earth. This blog summarise the key Windows and Devices announcements from Ignite 2024.
The Windows Keynote session at Ignite was delivered Pavan Davuluri, Aidan Marcuss, Navjot Virk and David Weston and can be viewed here on demand from Microsoft.
Windows 11 – The Most Secure Windows Ever
Windows 10 is end of life in October 2025, but Windows 11 has been mainstream now since 2021. Windows has always been the platform for innovation, meeting the needs of over a billion customers across enterprise, public sector, education, creators, developers and engineers. With this comes Microsoft’s responsibility to deliver the most reliable and secure platform.
The “CrowdStrike incident” back in July 2024, which impacted 8.5 million devices, was a stark reminder of the need for vigilance and innovation and the need to have better controls in place to protect the core of the Windows OS. “EU policy prevents Microsoft restricting access to its kernel”, but Microsoft have, following the global incident, announced the Windows Resiliency Initiative. This initiative aims at making Windows more reliable and secure for all customers, including those with mission-critical workloads but introducing changes to how both Microsoft and third-parties manage critical workloads and updates within Windows 11.
Changes After the Crowdstrike Incident
In the key note, David Weston shared insights from conversations with hundreds of customers, including CISOs, CIOs, and incident responders. The feedback highlighted the need for easier recovery, stronger resilience of critical security tools, and overall platform security. Microsoft is addressing these needs through the Windows Resilient Security Platform, which allows security product developers to build products outside of kernel mode, reducing complexity and improving recovery.
“In addition to the work we are doing with CISA as part of Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative, we are heavily investing in safe languages to enhance the safety of our code. This commitment also aligns with CISA’s secure by design pledge. We’re applying this new approach to our security platform and other key areas like Microsoft Surface’s firmware and the Pluton security processor firmware. Part of becoming resilient is also increasing the prevention of attacks, so more security has been built into the operating system and not bolted on later. This reduces complexity and ensures you deploy less software that could become the next failure point. This is why we are targeting the most critical elements of Windows 11.”
David Weston | VP Enterprise and OS Security | Microsoft
Changes in Windows coming…
Improving Windows Reliability – with new capabilities to enable security product developers to build their products outside of kernel mode. This is known as the Windows Resilient Security Platform, which provides a flexible security API set and data collection points that can be used to build endpoint security products like detection and response or antivirus outside of the kernel. This change will help end-user protection and antivirus products provide a high level of security and easier recovery, with less impact on Windows in the event of a crash or mistake
Quick Machine Recovery – This solution can execute targeted fixes from Windows Update on machines, even when Windows is unable to boot. This will allow for quick deployment of fixes that address files, drivers, or any other operation needed to recover a non-bootable machine.
Strengthening Security Tools and Drivers – Microsoft are working with industry-leading security partners and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to define new ways to increase resilience across the ecosystem. This includes adopting safe deployment practices, conducting additional security and compatibility testing for components like security kernel drivers, and developing strengthened incident response processes for streamlined coordination.
Enhancing Identity Protection – To combat the increasing risk and success in cases of sophisticated phishing attacks, Microsoft has hardened Windows Hello, the built-in industry leading multi-factor authentication (MFA) solution. Windows Hello now supports passkeys, which means much of the web can be protected with MFA seamlessly. This enhancement ensures that users no longer need to choose between a simple sign-in and a safe one. This is one step further to help customers remove passwords from their environment.
Local Administrator Protection – Microsoft is introducing administrator protection to address the challenge of over-privileged users and applications. With admin protection, everyone (even admins) will have standard user permissions by default and can make Windows system changes, including app installation, only when necessary and after authorising the change using Windows Hello. This reduces the risk of attacks by ensuring that employees, not malware, remain in control of Windows.
Deep Collaboration with CISA – Microsoft and the CISA are providing a framework for the IT industry as a whole to ensure that all partners, customers, and organisations can stay ahead of evolving security threats. This collaboration aims to deliver software that is safe, secure, and resilient through secure by design, secure by default, and secure through delivery practices.
These changes and improvements are part of Microsoft’s commitment to making Windows reliable and secure for all customers, including mission-critical workloads. The Windows Resiliency Initiative represents a significant step forward in ensuring that Windows remains the most secure and reliable platform on earth.
Windows 11 – Ease of Migration, Management and Updates
Windows 11 builds on Windows 10 technologies and further simplifies the management and migration process to Windows 11. Windows 11 can be managed with the same tools and processes used for Windows 10, ensuring minimal disruption to the workforce. The compatibility with App Assure guarantees that all apps will work seamlessly on Windows 11.
In contrast, Windows 11 updates are 40% smaller in size, making it easier to stay up to date and reducing impact on users/employees as well as on network bandwidth, disk-space and time.
Windows 10 to Windows 11 – Compatibility with App Assure
App Assure is a key component of the Windows 11 upgrade experience as it was in the Windows 7 to Windows 10 experience. App Assure ensures that all apps are compatible with the new operating system through millions of real life feedback, crash reports and user feedback. This application compatibility is backed by Microsoft’s promise to address any app issues that may arise, providing peace of mind for businesses transitioning to Windows 11. The App Assure portal provides guidance, assurance and clarity of application and application version compatibility.
Updates, Hotfixes, and Autopatch
Windows 11 is introducing several new features to streamline updates and hotfixes.
Quick Machine Recovery allows targeted fixes from Windows Update on machines that are unable to boot, ensuring quick recovery during incidents.
Windows Hotpatch, available through Autopatch settings in Intune, delivers Patch Tuesday security updates directly to employees seamlessly in the background without requiring a restart, reducing interruptions and speeding up the deployment of security updates.
Windows Hotpatch is one that is super important. By using Windows Hotpatch through Autopatch settings in Intune, Microsoft say that 65% of Patch Tuesday security updates are delivered directly without requiring a restart. This significantly reduces restarts and interruptions, allowing security updates to be deployed 60% faster.
According to Forrester research, moving to Windows 11 delivers an impressive 250% return on investment over three years compared to Windows 10.
Windows Backup for Entra ID
Another exciting new feature announced at Microsoft Ignite is Windows Backup for Entra ID. This feature, available in public preview in early 2025, will help organisations ensure a seamless transition of use settings and preferences when setting up a new PC or performing a traditional reinstall which is typical with OS upgrades in larger enterprises.
With Windows Backup, employees can easily transfer their desktop background, icon size, and other preferences to a new device, ensuring a consistent and familiar experience. This reduces the time spent on setup, allowing employees to be productive faster and significantly reducing IT overhead and help desk calls.
Windows 11 – New devices and un-paralleled performance
Speed and Performance
Windows 11 is designed to deliver superior speed and performance. Bear in mind WIndows 10 is 10 years old and was designed for a pre-pandemic world and a world where AI didn’t touch the end-point.
Newer Windows 11 devices offer double the battery life and more than three times the performance of older Windows 10 devices.
Microsoft’s introduction of Copilot+ PCs and AI-PCs, built for AI workloads, is setting a new new standard for productivity, combining advanced AI inferencing capabilities with top-notch security and performance. Satya said in his key note that all applications will be rebuilt as AI apps and Windows is no different. Microsoft are re-writing their apps and OS for the AI era and simple examples include simple in-box tools like Notepad and Paint that have advanced AI capability.
Leading vendors like Adobe are adding new capabilities in their applications that leverage local NPUs found in new Windows 11 Copillot+ and AI PCs
The New Generation of Devices in Copilot+ PCs
The new generation of devices in Copilot+ PCs is designed to harness the full potential of AI. These devices (again bvery centre stateg at Ignite) come equipped with advanced AI inferencing capabilities, enabling them to handle complex workloads with ease. Their Neural Processors (NPUs) can operate at more than 45 Trillion Operations a Second (TOPS) providing the fastes edge AI processing in the world. The integration of AI into these devices not only enhances productivity but also ensures that security measures are robust and effective.
With features like real-time threat detection and automated responses, Copilot+ PCs provide a secure and efficient environment for businesses and consumers.
The day after Ignite, Microsoft also released Recall and Click-To-Do into public preview for users enrolled on the Windows Insider Programme.
Windows 11 – Sustainability and Windows 365
Modernising isn’t just about cost savings; it’s about the collective responsibility and impact on the global economy, our business and the environment. Microsoft has committed to advancing sustainability, and adopting Windows 11 helps in achieving your company’s sustainability goals.
Microsoft boldly shared that Windows 11 reduces energy use as the “world’s first carbon-aware OS” and offers Energy Saver, increasing energy efficiency by up to 22%.
Microsoft talked about their own devices, Surface which are manufactured using recycled materials and more renewable energy. As an example, Surface enclosures use 100% recycled aluminum alloy and 100% recycled rare earth materials. They also used this time to share existing and new programs to help organisations reduce e-waste with the recycling and refurbishment opportunities available across our ecosystem partners such as Cisilion. There’s a dedicated sustainability site for Surface -> here <-
Microsoft also shared several examples of how organisations can extend the life of (and even breath new life into) older hardware with Windows 365 without sacrificing security protection or experience.
Windows 365 and Windows 365 Link
Microsoft shared how Windows 365 plays can not only play a crucial role in this sustainability effort but also used the opportunity to announce their new dedicated “thin client” device called Windows 365 Link.
Priced at $349 and available from Spring 2025, these dedicated low power, sustainability built devices can provide local compute power but with no IT footprint to securely streams employees full personal Windows 11 desktop with all their apps, content, and settings directly from the Microsoft Cloud.
Windows 365 can run on any device include Web, dedicated devices like Windows 365 Link, and even mobile devices on iOS and Android as well of course as legacy Windows 10 devices and even Windows 11.
The flexibility of Windows 365 allows businesses in any sector and any size to reduce their IT infrastructure and management complexity while providing a consistent and secure experience for employees. Windows 365 is designed to complement your Windows 11 end user computing estate, enabling more endpoints and form factors, and unlocking more value and options for businesses.
Windows 365 is also great for contractors, testing migrations to Windows 11 and also for running secure workloads as well as for education and front line workers.
What have I missed?
There were lots of announcement around Windows and Devices at Ignite. The Windows Security Initiative clearly represents a significant step forward in ensuring that Windows remains the most secure and reliable platform.
With new enhanced security measures, simplified management and migration, seamless compatibility with App Assure, and innovative update mechanisms, Windows 11 is promising to deliver unparalleled speed, performance, security, agility and management.
At Microsoft Ignite 2024, Microsoft announced Windows 365 Link to address the need to provide zero touch, secure, lightweight “thin client” device capable of running critical Windows workloads in the Cloud while enhancing security and flexibility,
Windows 365 Link represents the first move by Microsoft into the hardware space with a dedicated new class of devices purpose-built to connect securely to Windows 365 in seconds.
Yes, essentially a Thin Client device yes, Windows 365 Link, offers a simple, secure, purpose-built device for Windows 365, which will instantly book (using Windows 365 on a dedicated Windows 11 (light) device which boots instantly to the Windows 365 desktop.
The device is tuned and built to to provide responsive, high-fidelity experiences and will be available from April 2025 for around $349 RRP.
Windows 365 Link device is a compact, fanless and lightweight device. When powered up it boots in seconds, and provides modern power management including instant wake and localised processing for high-fidelity experiences, such as Microsoft Teams meetings and Webex by Cisco, helping users make the most of productive time.
Design and Build.
The device is built with 90% post-consumer recycled aluminum alloy in its top shield, 100% pre-consumer recycled aluminum alloy in its bottom plate, and its motherboard contains 100% recycled copper and 96% recycled tin solder. It also has 100% paper-based packaging, is ENERGY STAR®-certified device, with super low energy consumption.
Windows 365 Link has a fanless design, with the ability to boot quickly and wake instantly from sleep, according to the company.
There’s no local data storage, and no admin privileges for users. The device supports dual 4K monitors, with four USB ports, an audio port, an Ethernet port, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.3.and supports any Windows certified wired and wireless peripherals including webcams.,
Windows 365 Link is designed to be long-lasting with no moving parts, not even a fan—hence reducing the need for frequent replacements.
Secure By Design
Windows 365 Link is secure by design. The device stores no local, runs no local apps and has no local admin access. All corporate data will stay protected within the Microsoft Cloud under the Windows Cloud PC environment. The devices also ship with security baseline policies enabled by default and security features cannot be turned off or disabled.
Firmware and device updates are managed by Microsoft and the devices cannot be side-loaded or bypassed since they leverage the same secure by design principlans protecting Microsoft first devices like Surface.
Windows 365 Link supports DCFI, password less authentication using Microsoft Entra ID and the Microsoft Authenticator app or USB security keys.
Windows 365 Link Management
The device is managed via Intune ensuring a coherent and consistent management for IT. Windows 365 Link is designed to be long-lasting and can be remotely deployed and factory reset remotely in minutes, making it easy to reuse, secure and scalable.
The devices default to having a name starting with WCPC (for Windows CPC), and you can easily find them by looking for devices where the SKU family is WCPC. Windows 365 Link also automatically stays up to date: it downloads updates in the background and will apply them overnight when the device is not in use.
Microsoft has given the Windows App “GA” status and released to the masses along with long awaited mobile app support which will open more doors and use cases for Windows Cloud PCs and Virtual Desktops. This will allow businesses to bring the power of Windows to virtually any device. Whether you’re using macOS, iOS, iPadOS, Android, or even another Windows PC, you can now stream a copy of Windows seamlessly.
You can read the full Microsoft Blog on this > here <
What’s so good about the Windows App?
Havig been in preview for some time (previously there were multiple apps to use for different virtualised experiences on Windows such as Remote Desktop app, different websites and third-party apps etc) but now we have a new single experience 🙂 This provides:
Unified Experience: The Windows App serves as a single place to streaming all your corporate and development Windows desktops including Windows 365, Azure Virtual Desktop, and Remote Desktop services.
Customisable Home screen: Which allows users to tailor the app to suit their needs by pinning specific desktops, configuring the join experience and even simple configuration of things like multi-tasking and app switching with Windows 11 (known as Windows 365 Switch).
Multi-Screen Support: The Windows App lets users customise and extend their experience (just like a traditional / physical desktop) with multiple display support.
USB Redirection: Windows App allows full support of local USB devices including speakers, mics, webcams, storage devices, and printers as if they are directly connected to your Cloud PC.
Single Sign On – The Windows App supports single sign on with Windows 365 and AVD with Entra ID.
Who can use the Windows App?
Presently, the app is limited to Microsoft work and school accounts, making it ideal for professionals and students who need to access their work PCs remotely. It’s not available for consumers, but it does make Windows 365 and AVD simple to use on personal BYOD devices that need to access work devices. Something I do often.
Downloading the Windows App
The Windows app is available for download from the Microsoft Store and the Apple App Store. It is also available on the Google Play store but is now in public preview.
User Experience
The user experience is fantastic and shows the attention to detail, listening to user feedback and alignment with the core Windows Development team. Microsoft have said that the Windows App will start shipping as standard out of box app on Coporate Devices running Windows 11 too.
Windows 365 Desktop on Samsung S24 via TV
Windows App on Samsung S24 through TV
The image above (which is pretty cool) is Windows 365 Running on my Samsung S24 displayed through a TV (using Samsung Dex) – and yes, I am using Copilot on PowerPoint.
Windows 11 Experience below
The Future
I’d love to see Windows App come to more devices like high-end TVs and tablets in the future just like Microsoft have done with Xbox Game Streaming.
Cisco’s annual event, Cisco Live 2024, has seen a huge number of new AI-powered innovations and investments from a Cisco as they took to the stage in Las Vegas. This year the focus has been about powering the AI transformation and has been particularly impactful with the introduction and expansion of AI-enriched solutions across networking, security, and observability domains.
Here’s my take aways from the event based on snipits I watched and blogs from Cisco I’ve read over night on how these advancements are set to further transform the tech industry across almost almost every vertical.
Digital Resilience Through AI
Cisco talked about how their AI-powered innovations which are heavily focussed on the platform that drives transformation (the network and connectivity) are designed to enhance digital resilience, combining the power of the network with industry-leading security and observability. This integration simplifies adoption and provides comprehensive visibility across the digital landscape.
$1 Billion AI Investment Fund
Cisco annouced a new Global AI Investment Fund in a bold move to foster industry innovation and customer readiness and likely help them fund and invest into future aquisitions which is becoming common in the industry with start up innovation and backing. This strategic initiative supports Cisco’s vision of an AI-powered future, connecting and protecting organisations of all sizes through Cisco innovative networking and secure cloud technology platforms.
New Strategic Initiatives
Cisco’s collaboration with industry giants like NVIDIA, Splunk (who they aquired earlier this year) , and others, showcases its commitment to customer success and growth. Cisco referenced some of their largest clients including Steve Madden and McLaren F1 Racing that see Cisco continuing to play a vital role as a strategic ally in business and technology across their entire portfolio from network, security observability and collaboration.
New certifications to empower partners
Designed to prepare partners and ensure skills for the AI powered future, Cisco annouced new AI Fundamentals for their Partners including a new Certification in AI. Cisco plan to ensure they continue to equip partners and the workforce with the necessary skills to thrive in an AI-driven landscape which shows no sign on flowing down.
New innovations to their portfolio announced
Cisco has also announced new AI-powered features for their contact center solutions at Cisco Live 2024. These include.
New capabilities in Webex Contact Center will help organizations design and manage conversational self-service experiences. . This means businesses can automate their customer service to a greater extent, improving efficiency and customer satisfaction.
An AI Assistant is being provided for contact center agents. This assistant can help agents handle customer queries more effectively and efficiently, leading to improved customer service.
Cisco is also enabling the integration of third-party virtual agent solutions into their contact center offerings12. This allows businesses to leverage a wider range of technologies and services to enhance their customer service.
There is no AI without data and networking
With Cisco networking already the motorway for connectivity inside data centres, organisations IT and for connecting people, things and devices:
Nexus HyperFabric AI clusters. This is a “breakthrough” AI cluster solution developed in collaboration with NVIDIA and provides a single place to design, deploy, monitor, and assure AI pods and data center workloads. This means businesses can manage their AI workloads more efficiently and effectively.
Cisco Hypershield support for AMD Pensando DPUs and Intel IPUs,which Cisco say will enables enterprises to “realize an AI-driven, distributed security architecture” that seamlessly goes from the cloud to the data centers to the edge while still being highly performing and energy efficient.
Cisco will also combine the the power of the Splunk with their AppDynamics Application Performance Monitoring (APM) with the introduction of Splunk Log Observer for Cisco AppDynamics. This integration will enable users to drive faster troubleshooting across on-prem and hybrid environments.
Excitement overdrive
As a leading UK Cisco Partner, Cisco Live brought excitement to our teams and will give new innovation enablement for Cisco customers.
Cisco’s innovations will help us continue to help out customer build a more resilient, intelligent, and secure digital environment.
We’re thrilled to share incredible innovation and new AI-powered capabilities for our customers this week at Cisco Live… Cisco is uniquely positioned to revolutionize the way infrastructure and data connect and protect organizations of all sizes, and we are confident we are the right strategic partner for our customers in this era of AI.”
Chuck Robbins |Chair and CEO | Cisco.
For Cisco, it represents a step forward in leading the industry towards an inclusive AI-powered future. And for partners like Cisilion, it’s an opportunity to leverage these advancements to deliver cutting-edge solutions to our clients.
It’s not over yet.
Stay tuned for more updates from Cisco Live 2024, as we continue to explore the possibilities of AI and its impact on the world of technology.
Last week, Cisco reported its Q3 fiscal results which beat market in terms of both top and bottom-line.
Cisco achieved this despite a continued decline in overall revenue, showing that like many of the US tech giants, Cisco have become leaner and more cost effective as an entity. It is also recognition of their shift to a software organisation (that also sells hardware).
As a Cisco partner, we understand why Cisco have attributed the majority of their sales revenue decline being due to their customers still deploying data centre and networking equipment purchased late last year due to shifting busienss priorities and re alignment over hybrid work practices. This is certainly something we have seen some still an overspill from the huge chip and stock shortages we saw in COVID-19…
Cisco remain confident that Q4 will see a turn around. Personally, we (Cisilion) have already seen a great Cisco Q3 personally and expect a great Cisco Q4 with some large networking and data centre refreshes.
Riding the AI Wave
Cisco are also making big step forward in the new AI powered world in two parts.
Aquisitions and Parnering
Firstly, Cisco have recently closed the $28 billion acquisition of security and observability software Splunk. Whilst not yet assimilated and incorporated into Cisco’s mainstream portfolio (this won’t likely happen until mid to late FY25) the aquisition will boost their cybersecurity and AI goals. With Splunk, Cisco is gaining a tool to better compete with their competition such as Palo Alto and Crowd Strike and ensures they remain relevant.
Cisco is also well-aware that in order to grow, they need to join forces and work with the other tech giants that dominate the cloud and modern workplace technologies. Their partnership with Microsoft in the modern work space and alignment with building more services for Azure as well as supporting their digitial market place for software and service sales will also boost their reach.
Last month, Cisco have announced a new partnership with NVIDIA to enable enterprises to quickly deploy and manage secure AI infrastructure with new hardware being announced.
As a Cisco and Microsoft Partner, it is great to see the partnership paying off, and our customers live the choice, flexibility and sustainability offerings possible through the deep integration of Cisco meeting room technology on Teams, their integration with Microsoft Sentinel and the work they have done with Cisco Webex Contact Centre which now offers one of the most feature rich and mature customer experience platforms on both Cisco Webex and for Microsoft Teams.
Through these partnerships and aquisitions, Cisco seemed well placed to help organisations build, power, support, and secure AI
Partnership is great for our customers and for us (Cisilion) as a partner.
The Network: Powering the AI Wave
In a recent interview and video we did to celebrate the opening of our new Customer Experience Centre in London, Chintan Patel (Cisco UK CTO) said that “there is no AI without the network“.
This statement, made by Cisco CTO, underscores the critical role that networks play in the functioning and advancement of AI.
Cisco and Cisilion talking AI with Cisco UK CTO
AI rely heavily on data – they need to ingest, process, and learn from vast amounts of information to function effectively. This data needs to be transported, often across great distances, and this is where the network comes in. Without a robust and reliable network, data cannot be moved efficiently, and AI systems cannot operate at their full potential.
Cisco, with its extensive experience in network provision, is uniquely positioned to provide the high-speed, reliable network infrastructure that AI systems require. Their networks are designed to handle the high data volumes and fast data speeds that AI applications demand.
AI is fuelled by the Data Centre.
The Data Centre is the heart of any AI operation. They house the servers that store and process the data AI systems use and are vital for any organisation or service provider building out training their own AI models.
Having been along time leader in the data centre space, offers state-of-the-art technology, from a a compute and networking stack that help organisations design and build through their partners, modern environments that can handle the intensive computational needs of AI, providing a stable and efficient environment for AI operations.
When we come back to partnership and alliance, some of the largest AI service providers, including Microsoft and Adobe use data centres powered by Cisco (amongst others) and rely on their network and data centre (Azure) to power their AI services like Copilot and Azure AI. Cisco’s advanced network solutions and data centres provide the necessary infrastructure for these companies to run their AI applications effectively.
As we see more organisations look to build their own large and small language models, Machine Learning and AI computational and generative AI, Cisco will be helping to power this AI revolution.
As such their technology infrastructure will plays a crucial role in enabling AI service providers to deliver innovative solutions that drive business growth and societal advancement.
I’m confident this will re innovate the infrastructure market across both businesses and service providers. In conclusion, Cisco’s statement that “there is no AI without the network” rings true. As AI continues to evolve and become more integrated into our daily lives, the role of network and data centre providers like Cisco will only become more critical.
Of course Cisco aren’t the only provider in this space, but I’m impressed with shift and direction Cisco are moving to stay relevant and partner with the other AI giants. As a Cisco partner this is great to see.
To read more about Cisco technology, data centre, observability and network, you can check out their pages below.
Just ahead of Microsoft Build, the Azure team have announced the availability of GPT-4o, OpenAI’s latest flagship model on Azure AI. This innovative multimodal model combines text, vision, and audio capabilities, establishing a new benchmark for generative and conversational AI experiences. GPT-4o is now available in the Azure OpenAI Service for preview, with support for text and image inputs.
This is a preview for testing now
What does GPT-4o Bring?
GPT-4o represents a paradigm shift in the interaction of AI models with multimodal inputs. It integrates text, images, and audio to deliver a more immersive and engaging user experience.
What does the “preview” include?
Currently in preview, Azure OpenAI Service customers will be able to test GPT-4o’s broad capabilities via a preview playground in Azure OpenAI Studio. This initial version emphasizes text and visual inputs, offering a preview of the model’s possibilities and setting the stage for additional functionalities, including audio and video.
The preview is free to try but has limitations around usage and location availability.
Designed for rapidity and efficiency, GPT-4o’s sophisticated processing of complex inquiries with fewer resources has the potential to offer both cost efficiency and enhanced performance.
Note: At time of writing, this is preview is available in two US regions only West US3 and East US.
What about GPT-4o in Microsoft Copilot?
We don’t know yet, but we do know that there will exciting updates around the rest of the Microsoft AI stack this week. Microsoft has an agressive and innovation fuelled roadmap for Microsoft 365 Copilot so as Microsoft continues to update and integrate OpenAI’s latest models into Copilot – I’m looking forward to hearing more this week.
What else is coming?
This week is Microsoft Build 2024 in Seattle and online. I expect this to be (pretty much) all about Copilot, and AI so expect to hear more about GPT-4o and other Azure AI updates.
Further Reading
You can read more about GOT-4o at the official OpenAI Blog which is < here >.
Cisco has introduced a new product called Hypershield, which they claim is one of the most significant security products in Cisco’s history. It is expected to be generally available starting from July 2024.
What is Hyper Shield?
Hypershield is a cloud-native, AI-powered system designed to enhance the security of AI-scale data centers. Unlike traditional security products, hyper shield is integrated directly into the network’s fabric, offering a revolutionary approach to protecting digital infrastructure services in data centres, protecting applications, devices, and data across public and private data centers, clouds, and physical locations.
This is the Most Consequential security announcement In Cisco’s 40-Year History
Cisco.
The holistic system promises to bring the security advantages of a hyperscale model to enterprises, allowing security to be embedded in every software component of every application running on the network, on every server, and in both public and private cloud deployments.
How Hyper Shield is different.
Hypershield is different to traditional security “bolt ons” because it not just a new security product or the next version of something that already exists. What makes this different and unique, is that Hyper Shield represents a brand-new security architecture model built from the ground. It uses an open-source technology called eBPF that hyperscalers use to automate patching and other time-consuming jobs. It has the ability to transform every network port into a high-performance security enforcement point and works by blocks application exploits in minutes while preventing lateral movement of attacks.
Innovation from within
I think Hypershield is exciting because it represents a significant shift in how security is approached within the data centre fabric.
“Why we think this is the most consequential is we’re taking what used to be a firewall, an appliance, and we’re like melting into the network. It’s not a separate thing that you add on. It’s like magic. It writes its own rules, it tests its own rules, it qualifies its own rules, deploys its own rules, and then overnight it upgrades itself”
Tom Gillis | VP Security | Cisco
It is built with technology originally developed for hyperscale public clouds Cisco are making this technology available for enterprise IT teams of all sizes regardless of how big their data centre foot print is. It works by enabling security enforcement to be placed everywhere it needs to be, at the application and data layer, which is a major shift and change in how traditional data centre security works. Cisco say that it’s expected to have a significant impact on how businesses protect their digital assets.
With this innovation … we have actually been able to deliver something that’s unlike anything we’ve done in the last 40 years at Cisco. And I will say that we’re just getting started.
Jeetu Patel | Cisco’s EVP
Rather than relying on traditional network and application level firewalls in the datacentre, Hypershield works by essentially providing security boundaries around every application and service. It naturally uses artificial intelligence to learn and adapt, so it gets better at detecting and understand normal activity from attack attempts.
Last month, and now just a few weeks away from Cisco Live, Cisco have announced they are bringing a new “AI Assistant for Security” to market this year. This is an artificial intelligence tool that combines generative AI technologies with an “unparalleled scope of data” , giving IT/SecOps teams the ability to generate more secure, AI-driven insights that span devices, applications, security, networks, and the internet .
“AI Assistant for Security will help provide better protection to our customers by simplifying management for both seasoned administrators and novice users. Our aim is to inject generative AI and unify telemetry across all Cisco Security solutions to create a more effective experience and safeguard our customers”
Brian Feeney | VP Global security partner sales | Cisco
Cisco AI Assistant for Security marks a major step in making artificial intelligence pervasive in the Cisco Security Cloud. Starting with the Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, Cybersecurity professionals will be able to leverages Cisco AI Assistant for streamlining and automating firewall management both on premises and in the cloud.
Firewalls first – more later
Cisco have said that they will launch the AI Assistant for firewall as soon as Spring 2024, with this representing a great opportunity for their partners and customers to start leverage the advantages of AI.
Cisco say this will be included and integrated into their cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center with no additional charge. Longer term, Cisco said they plan to extend it to their other firewall management tools later.
Why? Well, according to Gartner, Configuration complexity and inconsistent rules are among the highest cause of security risks and breaches when it comes to configuring networks and firewalls with misconfiguration being the cause of nintey nine percent (99%) of all firewall breaches.
Image (c) Cisco
The AI Assistant for Security is built on “Ciscos foundation of security, data protection, and privacy, guided by Cisco’s responsible AI principles and framework”. Their AI assistant is trained on Cisco’s huge security-focused datasets, (Talos) which analyses more than 550 billion security events daily and helps IT and SecOps teams in making informed decisions, enhancing their tooling and reporting capabilities, and automating intricate tasks.
“Cisco is harnessing AI to reframe how organisations think about cybersecurity outcomes and tip the scales in favor of defenders. Cisco combines AI with its breadth of telemetry across the network, private and public cloud infrastructure, applications, internet, email, and endpoints. “
Jeetu Patel | VP security and collaboration | Cisco
Cisco say that their Cisco AI Assistant for Security is a major step forward in making artificial intelligence relevant and pervasive in the Cisco Security Cloud – their unified, AI-driven, cross-domain security platform. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center will be the first platform to leverage the AI Assistant for Security to simplify firewall management.
This should make it much easier to manage and maintaining firewall rules and policies, by enabling administrators to “talk to and administer” the platform to with natural language to find policies, understand rules, spot anonomises and even get suggestions for new rules.
How AI Assistant for Security is different to Microsoft SecurityCopilot?
Scope
Cisco AI Assistant for Security and Microsoft Security Copilot are both artificial intelligence tools that are designed to help IT and SecOps teams work do efficiently, smarter and safer users work faster, but the platforms and services are different in several ways when comparing to Microsoft Security Copilot.
Cisco’s AI assistant is designed to work across (initially) their firewall services (with other services that make up the Cisco Secure Cloud portfolio coming later), Microsoft Security Copilot is designed to assist cybersecurity professionals in investigating critical incidents across their entire security portfolio including Microsoft 365, their XDR platform, Azure and Sentinel. Microsoft Security Copilot doesn’t work across physical security devices like firewalls so the two services are potentially good complementing services.
Microsoft has combined the power of OpenAI’s large language model with Microsoft’s own threat analysis footprints which is informed by more than 100 different data sources across Microsoft 365,Azure and hundreds of this party data analysis companies. It uses the combined intelligence of more than 65 trillion threat signals every day to provide company and sector specific insights, alerts and guidance.
Use Cases
Currently AI Assistant for Security is designed to help organisations better configure their security services (starting with firewalls), detect inconsistencies (for example across different sites, service or offices). This will expand over time however and we expect more to be annouced in Feb 2024 at Cisco Live in Amsterdam.
Use cases for Microsoft Security Copilot include for example the ability to allow admins to use prompting language prompting to ask Copilot to acreste an exec level report on an incident response for a particular ongoing investigation. Copilot will pull data across multiple sources based on the set of interrelated and connected tools and services. Another change of prompt for example could the see Copilot provide more information, change how it displays or summarises the report, or even create lessons learned documents or suggest changes in process.
Cost
According to Cisco, the AI assistant for Security will be generally available for firewall customers in the spring of 2024 at no additional cost via the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center (FMC) and expanding to other management tools in the future.
Microsoft Security Copilot, however, which is currently in paid public preview is expected to cost >$100k when it’s officially availabily later this year.
A better together story?
As you can see the Cisco and Microsoft’s offering in this space is quite different. While Cisco see their AI Assistant for Security as a way of differentiating their brand in the cyber security space and to leap ahead of the competition in this traditional secoery space (think Palo, HPE, Dell, Checkpoint etc), Microsoft Security Copilot is more geared towards collating security signals from the organisations configuration, reports and signals from Microsoft’s own threat intelligence of 65 Trillion signals, the organisations configuration and third party connected signals to provide almost an AI powered cyber security team.
I very much see this as a “use both” better together theme.
Closing Thoughts
According to Gartner, Configuration complexity and inconsistent rules are among the highest cause of security risks and breaches when it comes to configuring networks and firewalls with misconfiguration being the cause of nintey nine percent (99%) of all firewall breaches.
As such, launching this with a “firewall first” approach is a sensible move by Cisco to add more value to their offering through the use of embedding generative AI into their core security product base without adding a surcharge or making it “Premium”. It should help to further position Cisco as a Leader in the security space against the fierce completion. I look forward to this being available and for Cisco to increase it’s reach over time to the rest of their portfolio.
Read more
You can learn more about Microsoft Security Copilot at and Cisco’s AI assistant below.
Microsoft has announced its biggest investment in the UK in its 40-year history, with a commitment to spend £2.5 billion over the next three years to expand their AI data centre infrastructure and train one million people for the AI economy.
This investment will more than double Microsoft’s data centre footprint in the UK, and will see them add more than 20,000 GPUs to the UK data centres for AI tasks by 2026. The new AI infrastructure will be located across in London and Cardiff, with future expansion into northern England.
Microsoft is committed as a company to ensuring that the UK as a country has world-leading AI infrastructure, easy access to the skills people need, and broad protections for safety and security.
Brad Smith | President | Microsoft
This investment was announcement at the Global Investment Summit, where the UK government unveiled they were investing £29.5 billion into the most innovative sectors, including tech, housing, science and medicine, renewables, and UK infrastructure.
Microsoft are one of the founding fathers of modern technology and today’s announcement is a turning point for the future of AI infrastructure and development in the UK.
Rishi Sunak | UK Prime minister
Microsoft’s investment will help bolster the UK’s growing AI sector, which already contributes nearly £4 billion to the UK economy and employs around 50,000 people. Microsoft are also extending their Accelerating Foundation Models Research (AFMR) programme to provide prioritised access to GPUs for science, medical and research purposes.
To ensure the funding drives tangible outcomes, Microsoft are also investing millions of pounds into training, with a goal to train one million people with the skills they need to build and work with AI, including diducated pots of training support for AI start ups with a join goal with the UK government to accerate the UK in becoming a technology, science and AI superpower.
We are proud to be making this significant investment in the UK’s future as a global leader in AI. This is a critical moment for the UK to harness the power of AI to drive innovation, create new jobs and improve lives. We are committed to working with the UK government, universities and businesses to make this vision a reality.
Brad Smith | President | Microsoft
The investment comes as the government agreed a new Online Fraud Charter with tech companies, including Microsoft, to clamp down on attempted fraud taking place on their and other platforms. This represents the first agreement of its kind in the world and will help protect enterprises and consumers from online scams, phishing attacks and fraud.
The pace of change in AI demands action today to build a prosperous future for the UK tomorrow. Today marks the single largest investment in our more than 40-year history in the UK.
As business and the public sector embrace the AI opportunity, we are building the infrastructure that will support the growth they need, training the people who can deliver it responsibly and securing our society against emergent threats.
I wanted to share my personal experience of using Windows 365 Cloud PC as my main device for the past 4 weeks since getting access to this as part of our partner internal use rights!
In short, I was using this both to test it out, but also because my new laptop had not arrived so I was left with the option to re-image an old one or repurpose our “home” laptop and use it as a gateway to Windows 365 – I chose the latter.
Four weeks later, using Windows 365 every day as main device, I simply can’t and don’t want to give it up. Even though I now have my brand new and awesome Surface Pro 9 device – I still haven’t get turned this on and am still choosing to use our seven year old Surface Laptop running Windows 10 (it won’t run Windows 11) with Windows 365 Cloud PC.
Why I love Windows 365
I keep asking myself the same question – why Windows 365 Cloud PC when I have a nice new Surface Pro to use. Well – Windows 365 Cloud PC gives me a seamless, secure, responsive, and flexible experience on the same device that I (and the family) share do everything else on – it’s essentially now become two devices in one and the experience is amazing – both for corporate use and for home use with out compromising anywhere!
It’s also great to have in your pocket when you bring the wrong device to work!
Here are some of the reasons why I love Windows 365 Cloud PC and how it is totally changing my perception on Cloud Computing.
Seamless experience: With Windows 365 Cloud PC, I can access my Windows 11 Enterprise Corporate Managed Desktop instantly on my personal device (or from any other device), anytime and anywhere I need to. I don’t have to worry about syncing files, installing apps, or using web apps.
Secure and Compliant: When traveling about, I also don’t have to worry about compromising my personal and work experiences, compromising corporate security or risk having any company data leak onto my personal device or stol n from dodgy WiFi hotspots. With Windows 365, my dideicated Cloud PC is in the Microsoft Cloud – ready for me to use at any time.
Connecting from almost anything: I can switch from my personal laptop to my phone (I can use Samsung DEX on a TV) or even access via my Xbox via the Edge Browser. Where ever I resume from – me session is exactly where I left off.
Responsive performance: Windows 365 Cloud PC is fast and smooth. I can run multiple apps, browse the web, and stream videos without any lag or stutter. This means the lowest spec device can perform like a powerhouse. The best part is that I don’t have to worry about the physical condition of my device, because the heavy computing work is done on the Microsoft Cloud.
Lightening fast Internet speed always since my Cloud PC is in Azure, I get superfast access to the web and my cloud apps regardless of the speed my physical device is using.
Flexible: Windows 365 Cloud PC is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s a service that can cater to different sized organisations and needs of each user.
Here’s a quote from myself about how Windows 365 Cloud PC improved my productivity and efficiency:
“Windows 365 Cloud PC is a game-changer for me. It allows me to work from anywhere, on any device, with the same performance and functionality as a physical PC. I can easily switch between tasks, collaborate with others, and access my files and apps in the cloud. I literally have my corporate desktop with me on any device at anytime, wherever I go.”
Pricing and Licensing
OK… So take a seat as on the surface the cost of Microsoft 365 can look expensive.
Firstly, Microsoft offers two subscription models, Windows 365 Business for smaller businesses and Windows 365 Enterprise for larger ones.
Prices are per user, per month subscription based and range from £26 per user per month for the base model (2CPU/4GB RAM/64GB HDD) but can be as much as £146 a month for a powerhouse configuration of 8 CPU/32GB RAM/512HDD.
Both models share the same range of features and provide thirteen Cloud PC configurations to choose from to blend the right spec with the right person and role of Cloud PC within the organisation. Here is the full range of specifications:
Image (C) Microsoft.
Unlike virtual apps and shared/pooled desktops (such as Azure Virtual Desktop), with Windows 365, each user gets a dedicated corporate Cloud PC, meaning it will run all the apps they need to use.
IT managers dream…
Managed by Intune: Like physical PCs, Windows 365 Cloud PC is managed from Intune. IT can Configure auto patch, install and schedule apps, use Autopilot for zero touch provisioning, reset and reissue devices, up size (upgrade) and down grade the specification on the fly. Intune provides details stats on performace, usage and even makes recommendations on down or up sizing of the PC based on usage and performace
Smooth Migrations: IT can choose between Windows 10 and Windows 11 (or make both available to users). This can also be helpful as a migration and training method to prepare users for Windows 11. IT can also choose to give users local admin control (or not) and can even allow users to reset their Cloud PC devices themselves.
Good bye to hardware failures: Since Windows 365 runs in the cloud, there’s no hardware to go wrong. If a users physical laptop (or TV, xbox, phone etc) fails, nothing is lost.. They can resume on a new/different device and session continues where they left of… Even the cursor stays in the sale place!
The downsides?
To be honest, from a user experience there aren’t many, unless you are working where there is no or poor internet access. Writing this, I am sat in Nero on “free wireless”, knowing my connection is secure and I’m accessing my Corporate Device through an encrypted connection, with no data leaking between the host (personal PC) and my corporate device.
The price tag can be “off putting” but the ROI is high when you take into account carbon reduction (runs in Microsoft carbon neutral data centres), cost of hardware, repairs, re imaging, recycling, replacement every 3 years, and costs due to lost or stolen devices. Do the maths…
Cloud PC is not for every one… You’ll find great use cases and bad ones.. Such as contractors, new starters, remote and over seas staff, developers, finance and other specific roles. I cover use cases in a separate blog post…
Note: Offline Access is coming for Windows 365
Free to try for 30 days
Organisations interested in trying out Windows 365 Cloud PC, can speak to their Microsoft Partner and obtain a free 30-day trial, or buy a subscription from Microsoft 365 admin centre.
I hope you enjoyed reading my blog about Windows 365 Cloud PC.
If you have any questions or feedback, please leave a comment below. Thank you for reading!
At Day One of Microsoft Ignite 2023 yesterday [Microsoft Ignite is Microsoft’s annual conference for IT techies, leaders and business decision makers, which is being held digitally and in-person at Seattle this week], the word Copilot certainly dominated almost every session (even those that weren’t specifically focussed on Copilot!).
The dominant themes of the event so far, has been around the role of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) in transforming businesses and empowering users.
With so many Copilots being announced since March this year (Microsoft 365 Copilot, Bing Chat, Security Copilot, GitHub Copilot etc.,) Microsoft used Ignite standardise the Copilot branding. Microsoft promoted the concept of a single “Microsoft Copilot” experience that works across all their apps and services, as well as a new Copilot Studio to allow organisations to build their own Copilots with “One experience across work and life“.
Copilot logo | Image (c) Microsoft
Whilst the branding made sense from a brand perspective, not all Copilots are the same which will no doubt make it difficult for many to understand – the previous names (whilst they did not roll of the tounge) were, IMO, easier to understand.
There are multiple different Microsoft Copilots. And GitHub Copilot and the Copilots used in Windows or Microsoft 365 apps have little in common and in some cases are trained on different LLMs to perform their core functions. Microsoft 365 Copilot is vastly different to Bing Chat for example – both are now simply called “Copilot”.
This blog attempts to summarise the key announcements and insights about the new Copilots from Microsoft Ignite 2023.
Recap: What is a Copilot?
In case you’ve been asleep for the past 8 months, “Copilot” is an AI assistant that helps users with specific tasks or scenarios, such as writing code, creating presentations, searching the web, or chatting with customers. In short, a Copilot can provide suggestions, recommendations, insights, or take in-app actions based on the user’s context, preferences, and goals. Copilot can also learn from the user’s feedback and behavior to improve its performance and relevance over time.
Microsoft has been developing and deploying Copilots across its product line since the start of the year and at Ignite 2023, they announced plans for a load more Copilots – some of which are now in preview, whilst others are still “to come”. Remember these will also be different and serve different purposes but will all fall under the new unified Copilot branding.
Microsoft have also launched a new and adaptive Copilot Website which will adapt to your experience dependent on your license entitlement. This can be found at https://copilot.microsoft.com
copilot.microsoft.com
We know how Microsoft like to name, rename, and then revert again (they did with Intune recently) so I wouldn’t be surprised if a different (or original) naming convention appears in the coming months!
Welcome to the new Copilots
Microsoft announced a bunch of new Copilots at Ignite 2023 which I have summarised below. I’ll share more updates on these are they move into preview or when I attend more of the live sessions.
Microsoft Copilot Studio: This is what will allow organisation to be build their own copilot and plug-ins using similar low-code tool as customers that use Power Platform will be familiar. This will allow organisations to build their own Copilots that can integrate their own data and back-end with the Microsoft eco system and Microsoft Graph. Copilot Studio can also work with OpenAI’s newly announced GPTs. Copilot Studio will be included within Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 licenses (aka Microsoft 365 Copilot).
Microsoft Copilot Dashboard: This is public preview now and has been designed to help organisations that have got Microsoft 365 Copilot Licenses. This will help IT better analyse usage across apps and measure the impact on productivity that Copilot provides. Microsoft also said that organisations with Viva Insights will also get enhanced dashboard capabilities around how Copilot is helping them be productive and manage time.
Copilot for Service: This new Copilot connect is designed to connect Microsoft Office applications with third-party CRM and Contact-Center solutions. This will have a $50 pupm price tag, but will include a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, and will be generally available sometime early 2024. There will be a public preview in December.
Copilot for Azure: Annouced and already in preview – Copilot for Azure is designed to help Azure customers with designing, operating, optimising and troubleshooting their Azure workloads, infrastrucutre and applications.
Copilot for Fabric: This was originally announced back in May 2023 and includes several new AI assistants across the platform such as Power Automate. Each one will use the underlying Fabric analytics platform but will be designed for a different Fabric “experience” This is in preview now.
Copilot for Cosmos DB: This is essentially about helping developer write “NoSQL” queries. It will be embedded into the Cosmos DB Data Explorer and is a free tool for developers.
Copilot for Viva: This was orginally announced back in April this year. These are going into Public Preview in stages over the next few months for each tool within the Viva Suite.
Copilot for Loop: Loop is a new collaborative work space that lets you share workspaces, pages and compents of conent across difereince apps and services. The went into General Availability yesterday and it too is getting it’s own Copilot. The license for this is included within the Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
A new single website for all your Copilots – see above.
What are the differences and similarities among the Copilots?
While Microsoft wants to promote the idea of a single “Microsoft Copilot” experience that works across its software and services, the reality is that each Copilot has a different license, is trained on different data models (LLMs), performs different functions, and has also have different security and data permissions.
For example, GitHub Copilot, which helps users write code in various programming languages, is powered by OpenAI’s Codex model, which is trained on billions of lines of public code. GitHub Copilot is available as a technical preview for GitHub users who sign up for the waitlist. It is free for open source projects and personal use, but requires a paid subscription for commercial use.
On the other hand, Microsoft 365 Copilot, includes Copilot for PowerPoint, which can helps people create, update and innovate presentations from different data sources across Microsoft 365. It is powered by Microsoft’s “business ready” GPT-4 model, which is private to an organiation (no data leakage) and is grounded in your organisations Microsoft 365 Graph data. It also has access to the a large corpus of text from the web and other sources and can search the internet. PowerPoint Copilot is part of Microsoft 365 Copilot . PowerPoint will also have access to the Open AI DALLE-3 image creator.
Another example is Bing Chat (Consumer version), which helps users chat with Bing and get answers, information, or entertainment. Bing Chat is powered by Microsoft’s own Turing-NLG model and Chat-GPT4, which is trained on a large corpus of text from the web and other sources. Bing Chat is available as a free service for anyone who visits Bing.com or uses the Bing app. It does not include data protection or compliance features.
On the other hand, Bing Chat Enterprise, which helps users chat with their organisation’s data and apps. This is powered by the same , is powered by the same ChatGPT4 model and Turing-NLG model as Bing Chat, but does include data protection and compliance so it can bve used safely within an orhanistion without risk of data leakage. Bing Chat Enterprise is available as a paid service for Microsoft 365 subscribers and is included in Microsoft 365 F3, E3, E5, A3/A5 (faculty only), Business Standard and Business Premium plans.
As you can see, there are significant differences among the Copilots in terms of their data sources, functions, security, and licensing. However, there are also some similarities and commonalities among them.
For example, most of the Copilots use natural language processing (NLP) and natural language generation (NLG) techniques to understand and communicate with the user. Most of the Copilots also use reinforcement learning and active learning methods to learn from the user’s feedback and behaviour, and improve their performance and relevance over time. Most of the Copilots also use a similar user interface and interaction model, where the user can type or speak to the Copilot, and the Copilot can provide suggestions, recommendations, insights, or actions in a conversational manner.
What are the benefits and challenges of using Copilots?
Copilots will no doubt bring many benefits for users and organisations on a scale we are only just begining to image.
Microsoft shared some data from their latest work tend index report (link here) that Early adoptors of Copilot said users don’t want to go back to working without it with 77% saying they don’t want to give itup.
Saving time and effort: Copilots can help users complete tasks faster and easier, by providing guidance, assistance, or automation. For example, GitHub Copilot can help users write code faster and with fewer errors, by suggesting code snippets or completing code blocks. PowerPoint Copilot can help users create presentations faster and with more impact, by suggesting layouts, designs, or content.
Enhancing productivity and creativity: Copilots can help users achieve more and better outcomes, by providing insights, feedback, or inspiration. For example, Excel Copilot can help users analyze and visualize data better, by suggesting formulas, charts, or tables. Word Copilot can help users write and edit documents better, by suggesting words, phrases, or paragraphs.
Enabling learning and discovery: Copilots can help users learn new skills and discover new information, by providing explanations, examples, or resources. For example, Power BI Copilot can help users learn how to use Power BI better, by providing tutorials, tips, or best practices. Bing Chat can help users discover new facts, trivia, or entertainment, by providing answers, information, or fun.
Data from Microsoft Nov 23 Work Trend Index image (c) Microsoft
However, using Copilots brings about challenges and risks – some real, some perceived – such as:
Trusting and verifying: Since Copilots work on the available data, that can “make mistakes” or provide inaccurate or inappropriate suggestions, recommendations, insights, or actions, due to the limitations or biases of their data, models, or algorithms. Organisations need to provide training to users and make sure they understand the need to verify and review any content generated by Generative AI in order to be able to trust and verify the Copilots’ outputs. This may include checking their sources, methods, or evidence. People can also, and should be encouraged to provide feedback and corrections to the Copilots, by rating, reviewing, or reporting their outputs.
Protecting and complying: There are concerns that these Copilots “could” access or expose sensitive or confidential data or information, due to the nature or scope of their tasks or scenarios. Copilot in fact, operates under the context of the person using it so t has the same level of access than it’s “pilot” has. Organisations will need to review their data security and compliance policies to ensure the right permissions, controls and protections are in place. Copilot wont break these polcies but may well expose weaknesses in them. Organisations need to review data sharing polcies such as Data Loss Prevention to prevent confidential data leaving the organisation that Copilot has created. Employees need to need to be re-educated on this in many cases to ensure they understand how to use the various Copilots and how they work with your organisational data, the language models and the web. Users may also need to be aware of the Copilots’ privacy and security policies, by reading, understanding, and agreeing to their terms and conditions.
Balancing and controlling: Another concern of using AI tools is that these Copilots may “influence” or affect the user’s decisions or actions, due to the power or authority of their suggestions, recommendations, insights, or actions. Users need to be able to balance and control the Copilots’ impacts, by applying critical thinking, judgment, or ethics. Users also need to be able to choose and customize the Copilots’ settings and preferences, by adjusting their levels, modes, or options. You can read Microsoft’s guidance on Responsible AI here.
Conclusion
GenAI is going to be infused into every tool and product Microsoft has and with Copilot Studio, organisations will be able to build their own plug-ins, connectors or deicated Copilots for every business need. 2024 will be the year all these annoucements really come into fruiotion. Its gonna be a roller coaster.
Copilot (what ever flavour) is still in preview or new and many will be looking to see real life ROI and drive organisational pilots to help.
Support for Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 ended on 10th Oct 23.
This means that the security updates that rolled out in this month’s Patch Tuesday was the last for Windows Server 2012, meaning that there will be no more security updates, non-security updates, bug fixes or technical support.
What are my options
With any end of support stages, there are always options. In short these can be summarised as:
Do nothing [not the best idea]
Upgrade to a supported version of Windows Server [this means upgrading to Windows Server 2022]
Purchase Extended Security Updates (ESUs) for Windows Server 2012 – [these provide one to three years of security updates only – no new feature or bug fixes]
Migrate the on-prem 2012 servers to Azure [by doing this and receive up to three years of free Extended Security Updates (ESUs) for free]
Option four is a logical choice for most – from an operational, cost and sustainability perspective – besides of course mitigating the immediate increased security risk (with free security updates for 3 years)
So why is now the right time to migrate and modernise with Azure?
Shifting on-prem servers to Microsoft Azure provides many benefits including reduced maintenance/support costs, less/no power usage (good for your CO2 numbers), flexible and predictable pricing, and an opportunity to migrate and modernise the workloads running on these servers to platform-as-a-service (PaaS) for example Azure SQL or Azure App Services. You can of course migrate to Azure and still upgrade to Server 2022 if you are not ready to move to PaaS 😊
Your Azure / Cloud Partner can help
Many organisations are eligible for “migration assistance”, usually in the terms of funded assistance from their Azure Migrate partner or directly through Microsoft. Depending on where you are on your Cloud journey, the Azure Migrate and Modernisation Program is designed to simplify and accelerate an organisations cloud migration and modernisation projects and offers by working with a certified Azure partner.
Working with Microsoft and your Azure partner (like Cisilion) can help you by providing: –
A Proven Approach: We use best practices based on the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure and Well-Architected Framework at every stage of your cloud adoption journey.
Expert Assistance: We provide industry and hands on guidance direct from certified Azure engineers – we help by assessing your environment, planning migrations, and can support your transition.
Inclusive support: If you choose to use us as your Azure partner, we can also provide your Azure licensing through the Cloud Solution Provider programme (CSP) which includes inclusive 24/7 support at no extra cost.
Cost Savings: Our expertise in cost optimisation, platform design and fin ops means that not only can we help you minimise migration costs (with funding assistance), but we ensure right sizing, the right licensing models and the right terms – typically saving organisations more that 38%.
Microsoft hosted a live Surface and AI event on Thursday 21st September where they announced a lot of new and exciting features and products across its various platforms and services. In this blog post, I have tried to summarise the most notable ones and explain how they might benefit you and your organisation.
Disclaimer (and product plug) - Since this was an AI event in whole, I also want to state that other than some slight tweaks, this blog post was written by Bing Enterprise Chat - Microsoft Designer created the image. The whole thing took less that 10 minutes.
Copilot: Your AI Assistant at Work and Beyond
Copilot is a new feature that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help you with various tasks, such as drafting emails, summarizing texts, creating images, and more. You can access Copilot from Windows 11, Microsoft 365, Edge, and Bing, and chat with it in natural language. Copilot will understand your intent and provide relevant assistance based on the context and your data.
For example, you can ask Copilot to draft an email for you with a specific tone, or to generate a graphic art based on your description. You can also use Copilot to answer questions, troubleshoot your PC, control your settings, and access recommendations. Copilot is designed to save you time, reduce your cognitive load, and ignite your creativity.
Copilot will be generally available for enterprise customers on November 1st, and for a select group of consumers and small business customers as part of the Early Access Program (EAP). It will initially be limited to three hundred licenses and will cost $30 per user per month.
Windows 11: The Most Powerful and Personal Windows Ever
Windows 11 is the latest (and IMO best) version of the Microsoft’s desktop operating system that powers millions of devices around the world. Windows 11 offers a fresh and modern design, improved performance, and security, and a more personalised and connected experience. They announced the latest update coming next week (Sept 26th). Some of the new features in Windows 11 will include:
An updated Start menu that gives you quick access to your apps, documents, and settings.
An updated Taskbar that lets you easily switch between multiple instances of each app, hide the time and date, and end tasks with a right-click.
A new Dev Home that helps you set up your development environment by downloading apps, packages, or repositories, connecting to your developer accounts and tools, and accessing experimental features in WSL.
A new Dev Drive that provides a fast and secure storage volume for developers, with a file system that delivers both performance and security.
A new WinGet Configuration that simplifies the setup process for developers by reducing it to a single command.
New Gallery in File Explorer that makes it easy to access your photo collection across all your devices.
A new Snipping Tool that lets you record your screen with audio and mic support, copy and redact text from a screenshot, and edit your images with Paint.
A new Photos app that has new editing capabilities to achieve stylish background blur effects and makes it easier to find specific images backed up in OneDrive.
Updated Narrator that uses natural human voices in new languages, and lets you use voice access to log in to your PC and access other areas on the lock screen.
Refreshed Notepad app that automatically saves your session state, allowing you to close Notepad without any interrupting dialogs and then pick up where you left off when you return.
A new Instant Games feature that lets you play your favorite casual games directly from the Microsoft Store without the need to download and install them on your device.
Windows Copilot – Your Copilot for Windows.
Windows 11 also announced general availability of Windows 365 Boot and Windows 365 Switch, which allow you to log into your Windows 365 Cloud PC as the primary Windows experience on the device or easily switch between the Cloud PC and the local desktop. Windows 365 is a cloud PC service that lets you stream a full Windows experience from anywhere on any device and is fully managed from Intune.
This update will start rolling out as a free update on September 26th.
Surface: The Ultimate Devices for Work and Play
Surface is Microsoft’s line of devices that combine innovative design, powerful performance, and versatile functionality. Surface devices are built to work seamlessly with Windows 11 and Microsoft 365, offering the best productivity and creativity tools for work and play. I am a massive fan of Surface
The new / refreshed Surface devices include:
Surface Laptop Studio 2: The most powerful Surface ever built, with the latest Intel Core processors, NVIDIA Studio tools for creators, touchscreen display, and flexible design with three unique postures.
Surface Laptop Go 3: The lightest and most portable Surface Laptop, with touchscreen display, premium features like an incredible typing experience and a Fingerprint Power Button, and four stylish colours.
Surface Go 4: The baby Surface Pro is this time, available only for corporate and not consumer market (why??), the device is the same dimensions as before but is more repairable (the most repairable and sustainable device int he Surface Fleet). It ditches the 4GB RAM option (good) and brings a higher spec entry level processor. Pricing increases too which is a shame as is ditching consumer market. These are great for school kids.
Surface Hub 3: The ultimate collaboration device for teams, with a large interactive display that runs the Microsoft Teams Rooms experience. Surface Hub 3 pairs seamlessly with Teams-certified devices and supports Hub on day one. There was also an upgrade announced for Surface Hub 2S customers to upgrade to Surface Hub 3,
The new Surface devices are available for pre-ordering now.
Microsoft 365: The World’s Productivity Cloud
Microsoft 365 is a cloud-based subscription service that offers the best productivity apps for work and life. Microsoft 365 includes apps like Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive, Teams, Stream, Loop, Clipchamp, and more.
Microsoft 365 Copilot (which will be available from 1st November) is an add-on service at $30 per user per month and provides in-built AI-powered features and services that help you get more done across all your Office 365 apps and services – with support also coming to Microsoft Designer, Loop and Clipchamp and more.
Some of the new features and services in Microsoft 365 include:
Copilot in Outlook, Excel, Word, Loop, OneNote, Stream, and OneDrive: Copilot is integrated into various Microsoft 365 apps to provide AI assistance for different tasks. For example, you can use Copilot in Outlook to draft emails, in Excel to create charts, in Word to summarize documents, in Loop to generate content blocks, in OneNote to take notes, in Stream to transcribe videos, and in OneDrive to find files.
Generative Expand, Fill, and Erase in Microsoft Designer: These features let you manipulate images in creative ways, such as expanding the canvas, filling in missing areas, or erasing unwanted objects. Generative Erase is generally available now, and Generative Fill and Expand are coming soon.
Copilot Lab: Copilot Lab is a feature that lets you learn how to use Copilot effectively, share your favorite prompts with coworkers, and get inspired by other users. Copilot Lab will be accessible to all Microsoft 365 Copilot users once it’s generally available in November.
Mobile Application Management (MAM) for Windows: This feature allows employees to access organisational resources through Microsoft Edge from an unmanaged device, while giving IT the ability to control the conditions under which the resources can be accessed.
Bing and Edge: The Smartest Way to Search and Browse
Bing and Edge are Microsoft’s search engine and web browser that offer a fast, secure, and personalized way to search and browse the web. Bing and Edge use AI to provide relevant information and assistance based on your needs and preferences.
Some of the new features and improvements in Bing and Edge include:
DALL-E 3 in Bing Image Creator and Microsoft Designer integration: Bing Image Creator is a feature that lets you create images from text descriptions using AI. Bing Image Creator is now powered by DALL-E 3, which produces more realistic and detailed images. You can also access Bing Image Creator directly from Microsoft Designer for further editing.
Content Credentials: Content Credentials is a feature that uses cryptographic methods to add an invisible digital watermark to all AI-generated images in Bing. This helps you verify the origin and authenticity of the images. Content Credentials will be supported in Bing Image Creator, Microsoft Designer, and Paint soon.
Bing Chat Enterprise: Bing Chat Enterprise is a feature that lets you chat with Copilot from the Edge mobile app. You can also use multimodal visual search and Image Creator from Bing Chat Enterprise.
Copilot in Microsoft Shopping: Copilot in Microsoft Shopping is a feature that helps you find what you’re looking for more quickly. You can ask for information on an item, and Bing will ask additional questions to learn more. Then, Bing will use that information to provide more tailored recommendations. This feature will be available soon on both PC and mobile.
Personalised Answers: Personalised Answers is a feature that uses your chat history to inform your results. For example, if you’ve used Bing to track your favorite soccer team, next time you’re planning a trip it can proactively tell you if the team is playing in your destination city. Personalized Answers will begin to roll out soon.
Microsoft Advertising: The Best Way to Reach Your Customers
Microsoft Advertising is a platform that helps businesses connect with their customers across the web. Microsoft Advertising offers various solutions and tools to create effective and engaging ads that reach the right audience at the right time.
Some of the new features and improvements in Microsoft Advertising include:
Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform: Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform is a feature that simplifies and enhances every aspect of your experience with the platform. You can use Copilot to create campaigns, get content recommendations, optimize your performance, and more. This feature will be coming soon.
Compare & Decide Ads: Compare & Decide Ads are a new type of ads that pull relevant data of various products or services into a succinct table. This helps users easily evaluate different options based on their criteria. Compare & Decide Ads will be available for cars initially and will be brought to closed beta in early 2024.
Conclusion
These are just some of the highlights from the Microsoft September 2023 News. There are many more features and products that we didn’t cover here, but you can find them on the current web page context. I hope you are excited about these new developments, and I would love to hear what you are most excited about.
Today (Thursday 21st September) at a live event in New York, Microsoft announced their “revised” vision, release date and confirmation of pricing for Copilot – a “digital companion for your whole life”. Microsoft have said this this Copilot will create a single Copilot user experience across Bing, Edge, Microsoft 365, and Windows (plus more services that will come later). There’s also a new logo!
The Copilot experience promises to be consistent across all platforms and products – Microsoft 365, Bing, and Windows 11.
This has been in preview with Windows Insiders for a while and is essentially the new and revamped “cortana” [ok its far more than that]. Microsoft describe this as “a digital companion for your whole life” and will be nested into Windows 11 from September 26, 2023.
Windows Copilot will be embedded into Windows 11 and will bring generative AI, search, and the ability to control apps and services within your desktop environment.
Currently in preview – will start rolling out starting from September 26 as part of 23H2.
Windows Copilot will also support third part app support like Spotify and Adobe.
Microsoft 365 Copilot
Described by Microsoft as “your AI assistant at work”, this was initially announced back in March as been in closed invite only Early Access Preview since June.
Microsoft 365 builds includes enterprise-grade security, privacy, compliance, and responsible AI to ensure all data processing happens inside your Microsoft 365 tenant—using which will be natively built into the Microsoft 365 apps and services everyone already uses like Teams, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
This will be available for enterprise customers for $30 per user per month
It requires a base license of Microsoft 365 E3, E5 or Business Standard or Premium
It will be available from November 1st to purchase
Includes the new Microsoft 365 Chat (formally Business Chat).
Rollout will be staggered – with release first to EA customers who were on the Early Access Programme and then will be available in phases there-after. Customers are advised to speak to their Microsoft Team for more information.
Note: Whilst this is great – IMO it is a little too soon (about 4 months sooner than most expected). Organisations do need to ensure their data lifecycle, governance, compliance, and security is in top shape to get the most from Copilot in Microsoft and there are strong recommendations about getting Copilot Ready – I have covered this here previously. This is an area I’m working a lot with organisation with at the moment – helping with use cases, data preparation, training, awareness, security, and governance.
Bing Chat Enterprise
This has been in public preview for a couple of months for Commercial and Education customers and is the same as Bing Chat for consumer (which is also free) but brings commercial data protection for AI
This is available free for Microsoft 365 E3 and E5, Business Standard, and Business Premium customers or at a cost of $5 as a standalone
Bing Chat Enterprise adds commercial data protection to Bing Chat, ensuring that sensitive business data is never seen by anyone, never stored, and never used to train the foundation models.
Support multimodal visual search and Image Creator and will also be available on Microsoft Edge and Bing mobile app
“Rival” tech giants Microsoft and Oracle have announced a deepening of their four-year cloud partnership in a move that will see Oracle physically locating their Exadata hardware in Microsoft’s data centers in order to speed up their apps and improve the customer experience.
Known as Oracle Database@Azure, this will result in Oracles’ customers having direct access to Oracle database services running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure but deployed physically into Azure data centers. Microsoft and Oracle said this this will mean their shared customers will be able to operate, monitor and manage their Oracle services directly from the Azure Cloud dashboard, instead of having to run a separate Oracle dashboard.
It’s all about AI and Data
AI needs data and and Oracle is big in data! The reason for the deeper integration between Oracle and Microsoft is to leverage more value in each others services – linking Microsoft’s middleware, AI and software and services with Oracle’s Autonomous Database in a way that will reduce the latency which usually occurs when accessing and acting on data from muti cloud environments.
This extended partnership aims to bring together Oracle’s hardware and software with all the advanced functionality Microsoft brings in their extensive and global cloud services.
“You have to have data to deploy AI, and that data might reside in an Oracle database. With this collaboration, we can bring Azure OpenAI to Oracle data.”
Sayta Nadella | Microsoft.
Accelerating Digital Transformation
Oracles’ Larry Ellison said that this is interesting for existing and new applications. He said that “Many customers have partially migrated to the cloud, but a lot of data is still on-prem… “
With further cooperation between Microsoft and Oracle, both claim this will help speed up and simplify the cloud migration and modernization process by making it easier for customers to get their data into the Cloud and to manage their Oracle and Microsoft cloud services from a single place.
Larry Ellison said at the end of the annoucement that hundreds of their customers are now using the interconnect between Microsoft and Oracle, but their customers still need faster, lower latency integration and this is what this will do. “We’ve made the network invisible and can now interconnect everything (Oracle) within Azure without realising you’re dealing with multiple stacks and multiple technologies”.
This level of partnership and collaboration demonstrates how technology and customer demand have driven more cooperation among software and cloud giants.
“Our expanded partnership with Oracle will make Microsoft Azure the only other cloud provider to run Oracle’s database services and help our customers unlock a new wave of cloud-powered innovation” .
Cisco has just published their 2023 Global Networking Trends Report. This report covers some of the emerging networking trends in the multi-cloud world, and how they affect the IT operations and security of organisations. The report is twenty-one pages long and covers some interesting trends and observations from more than 2,500 IT leaders in 13 countries across North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Western Europe (including the UK).
Image (c) Cisco
My key take aways from the report
Hybrid work and multi-cloud adoption are driving the need for innovative approaches to securely connect remote workers to corporate data and assets distributed across multi-cloud environments with a huge need (40% of respondents) to de-silo operations and bring together network and security controls and visibility.
Cisco says that “providingsecure access to applicationsdistributed across multiple cloud platforms” is the top challenge cited by 41% of networking professionals, followed by gaining end-to-end visibility into network performance and security (37%).
Growth and demand for SASE. SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) is a convergence architecture that delivers simplified and consistent security and performance for multi-cloud access and hybrid work. Cisco are a leading vendor in the SASE space which combines SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) and SSE (Security Service Edge) into a single, integrated SaaS security offering.
In the report, Cisco highlighted that 47% of respondents expect to connect their branches and remote clients using a SASE model by mid 2025, while 59% said that they will be prioritising centralising and consolidating cloud security over the same period.
Extending SD-WAN connectivity consistently across multiple clouds can automate cloud-agnostic connectivity and optimize the application experience. 53% of respondents prioritise integration with cloud service providers for this purpose5.
End-to-end network visibility and predictive analytics are essential for ensuring a consistent user experience across the complex digital service delivery chain, especially around SaaS apps with 51% of respondents prioritising end-to-end network telemetry and visibility. 47% of respondents said they will be prioritising predictive network analytics.
More organisations are multi-cloud than ever before with 92% of organisations reporting that they use more than one public cloud service (includes SaaS, IaaS and PaaS).
How Cisco Technology can help address these challenges
Cisco provide a comprehensive portfolio of products that can help organisations address many of the challenges of multi-cloud networking and security which fall into the SASE and SD-WAN categories. These include:
Cisco SD-WAN with edge security stack or SD-WAN with Umbrella Cloud Security (SASE) both leverage the Cisco Identity Service Engine’s Security Group Access Control Lists for segmentation policy management and enforcement across the WAN.
Cisco SD-WAN integrated with Cisco Umbrella SIG for a cloud-delivered SASE model that seamlessly secures access wherever users and applications reside.
Cisco Cloudlock, – Cisco’s cloud-native cloud access security broker (CASB) that helps secure your use of SaaS applications
The Cisco SD-WAN and these SSE collaborations provide a range of SASE deployment options for our Partners and Managed Service Providers (MSPs), allowing them to utilize a mix of networking and cloud security solutions to offer multiple managed options to enterprises at various stages of their SASE journey 3.
Cisco Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is a cloud-native platform that combines SD-WAN, SWG (Secure Web Gateway), ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access), DNS-layer security, CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker).
The table below shows the key challenges discussed in the report and the corresponding solutions from Cisco that can help address them:
Challenge
Solution
Providing secure access to applications distributed across multiple clouds
SASE (Secure Access Service Edge), a convergence architecture that delivers simplified and consistent security and performance for multi-cloud access and hybrid work. SASE It combines SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) and SSE (Security Service Edge) within Cisco’s cloud platform
Gaining end-to-end visibility into network performance and security
Cloud-based network detection and response solutions, such as Cisco Secure Cloud Analytics, which provides visibility and threat detection for an organisations’ network across public, private, and hybrid cloud environments.
Extending SD-WAN connectivity consistently across multiple clouds
SD-WAN multi-cloud integrations, which allow networking and cloud teams to accelerate and automate extensions from enterprise sites to various cloud providers and other enterprise sites through Internet, interconnect, or colocation and cloud provider networks.
Siloed cloud, network, and security operations
Cloud-centric operating model, which brings cloud operating model principles to the network and across the entire cloud/network IT stack, enabling more integrated workflows and better collaboration between network, security, and cloud operations.
Visibility into end user experience and performance of multiple Cloud SaaS apps
Cisco ThousandEyes provides real-time and historic view into the availability of thousands of different SaaS apps. It allows IT to monitor all employee’s user’s digital experience against software as a service and on-prem applications, regardless of where users are, through the essential elements of your SASE architecture. With ThousandEyes, organisations can gain back visibility and control over SaaS applications and ensure that they are performing optimally.
Table 1 – How Cisco technology addresses the challenges of securing and managing Networking and Security across multi-cloud environments,
Summary
Cloud is the new data center, Internet is the new network, and cloud offerings dominate applications. By gaining a view of global Internet health and the performance of top SaaS applications, IT teams can proactively detect and remediate major unexpected network or application issues affecting them as soon as they happen.
Based on the report, Cisco say that organisations can mitigate against many of the challenges discussed by adopting a cloud-centric operating model that brings cloud operating model principles to the network and across their entire cloud/network IT stack. This can enable more integrated workflows and better collaboration between network, security, and cloud operations.
Microsoft have unveiled another way for employers to empower their workforce with the announcement and preview availability of Bing Chat Enterprise by giving them better answers, greater efficiency, and new ways to be creative. Microsoft say it’s “Secure AI-powered chat for work.”
Bing Chat Enterprise | Microsoft
Secured with Microsoft Entra – Conditional Access
Bing Chat brings the power of generative AI to work, however, consumer Generative AI services like ChatGPT and Bing Chat (consumer), are helping people get answers, generate code, content and find things, but using these consumer servers for work, inadvertently puts corporate data at risk since it’s being shared with public AI services which use your data and your searches to train and teach their language models.
This is where Bing Chat Enterprise comes in! With Bing Chat Enterprise, organisations gets all the goodness of “AI-powered chat for work” with the commercial data protection organisations demand. “What goes in—and comes out—remains protected”, Microsoft say, which means employees get secure and managed access to better answers, greater efficiency, and new ways to be creative. User and business data is protected and will not leak outside the organisation, and chat data is not saved, viewed or accessible by Microsoft or used to train their language models.
What’s more, access to Microsoft Bing Chat Enterprise is secured and governed for seamless, managed access to using Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory) and organisations can also customise “Microsoft Search” to build out and map business answers within the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre.
How do you enable Bing Chat Enterprise?
To enable this, you need to ensure that Microsoft Search has not been disabled in your tenant and then go to https://aka.ms/TurnOnBCE as a Tenant Admin in Microsoft 365 and then enable the Bing Enterprise Chat feature as shown below ⬇️. The settings can take up to 4 hours to apply….
Enabling BCE in Microsoft 365 Admin Centre
How does Bing Chat Enterprise Work?
Video (C) Microsoft.
Privacy and Data Protection
Because workplace chats might contain sensitive data, Bing Chat Enterprise is designed with commercial data protection in place to keep organisational data safe.
Chat: When users ask questions in chat, it’s called a prompt. Those prompts can send generated searches (also known as queries) to Bing, and the resulting answer is called a response. User and business data is protected and won’t leak outside the organization. What goes in—and comes out—remains protected. Chat data isn’t saved, and Microsoft has no eyes-on access to it—no one sees it. And your data isn’t used to train the underlying models.
Search: Any searches generated by Bing Chat have workplace identities removed before they’re sent to Bing. The searches aren’t linked to users or business by Bing and any searches sent to Bing are under the terms of the Microsoft Services Agreement and covered by the privacy statement.
Organisational data: Bing Chat Enterprise doesn’t have access to organisational resources or content within Microsoft 365, such as Word documents or PowerPoint presentations. Only content provided in the chat by users is accessible to Bing Chat Enterprise.
Plugins: Importantly, Bing Chat Enterprise doesn’t have plugin support to prevent any commercial data from being sent to any external providers.
Chat history: Bing Chat Enterprise doesn’t retain chat prompts or responses. With Bing Chat history disabled for Bing Chat Enterprise users, no previous chats are maintained or available to users.
Today, Microsoft have announced the next milestone in their expanded vision for the unified secure access with some huge changes to their unified access and security offering Entra which has now become the brand name for all things identity and access management. Along with that is a name change to Azure Active Directory to Entra ID.
Is Azure AD discontinued?
No… This is a name change that is a result of the shift to a truly end to end multi cloud identity and access solution that spans beyond simply Microsoft 365 and Azure. The name change is designed to reflect it’s new and enhanced capabilities.
In the last 12 months, we saw an average of more than 4,000 password attacks per second, an almost threefold increase from the 1,287 attacks per second we saw the previous year.
Microsoft Security Intelligence Report
With this they have announced they are expanding their Microsoft Entra suite into the Security Service Edge (SSE) category with the launch of two new products.
Microsoft Security Service Edge
Microsoft Entra Internet Access and
Microsoft Entra Private Access.
Microsoft Entra Internet Access is an identity-centric Secure Web Gateway that protects access to internet, software as a service (SaaS), and Microsoft 365 apps and resources. It extends Conditional Access policies with network conditions to protect against malicious internet traffic and other threats from the open internet.
Microsoft Entra Private Access is an identity centric Zero Trust Network Access that secures access to private apps and resources. Designed to reduce operational complexity and cost by replacing legacy VPNs with simple yet granular security to ensure that any user can quickly and seamlessly connect to private apps across hybrid and multi cloud environments, private networks, and data centers from any device, from any location and from any network.
The goal and vision of Microsoft here is to help organisations secure access to any app or resource, from anywhere. Microsoft say in their security blog that the flexible work arrangements we have become accustomed too, along with continued increase cloud adoption continue to put strain on traditional and legacy corporate networks and network security approaches. Using VPNs to backhaul traffic to the legacy network security stack weakens security posture and damages the user experience while using siloed solutions and access policies leaves security gaps.
Both are now in preview….
The renaming of Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) to Microsoft Entra ID was also announced which Microsoft say has been done as Microsoft to simplify the product naming conventions and to unify their expanded product family. The change was made as Azure AD now supports multi-cloud meaning the name Azure AD no longer represented the breadth of its offerings.
Azure AD is now Entra ID
Personally not a fan of the name change even though their reasoning makes sense… Everyone knows what Azure AD is (or maybe that’s the problem… they think they do!)… Even Microsoft Teams wasn’t sure about it.!
😂
Microsoft say that that the currently capabilities and licensing plans, sign-in URLs, and APIs will remain unchanged, and all existing deployments, configurations, and integrations will continue to work as before.
You can read more about these recent changes and announcements here.
