Notes From Microsoft Inspire 2022
Microsoft recently held its annual partner conference, Inspire 2022, virtually for the third year running. This marquee event in the Microsoft conference calendar gives partners an insight into the Microsoft roadmap and associated innovations for the coming 12 months. In previous years, Microsoft has championed the need for digital transformation which we saw accelerate during the Covid-19 pandemic.
This year saw a change in posture from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, where he talked about delivering on the digital imperative for every organisation, which he believes is “what will make the difference between organizations that thrive and those that get left behind.” Satya went on to describe how “Digital technology is a deflationary force in an inflationary economy …” and now it is the only way to navigate the headwinds the world economy is confronting today.
My Inspire 2022 blog will examine some of the key announcements, showcased products and features that Microsoft aims to enable its customers to do more with less.
Digital Contact Centre Platform
Microsoft demonstrated what is referred to as its Digital Contact Centre Platform which is not one product, but a combination of technologies including:
- Azure — provides the underlying Infrastructure and communications services
- Dynamics 365 — Includes Customer Engagement Centre / Contact Centre as a Service, plus Omnichannel capabilities.
- Power Platform — Creates citizen developers with no code / low code capabilities, process automation and reporting.
- Teams — Enables collaboration between users and integration capabilities between the contact centre and the wider user base within an organisation.
- Nuance — Conversational AI and ambient intelligence.
When all of these technologies are combined, they can provide what Microsoft refer to as a next-generation digital contact centre. This platform as Microsoft describe is open and interoperable which provides organisations with a stepping stone to use some or all of the included technologies. From a licensing perspective, it's assumed Microsoft will license the platform with a blend of consumption metrics or per-user licenses with possible incentives to acquire the complete stack.
Hybrid Working
As we emerge from a world of rolling lockdowns driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, organisations need to meet employee demands to deliver flexible work models that support a blend of on-the-go, in-office, and remote working. At a glance, some of the features showcased by Microsoft that enable Hybrid working include the following:
- Excel live enables live collaboration on workbooks directly within teams.
- Collaborative annotations that give participants the capability to draw, type or react to shared meeting content via Microsoft Whiteboard.
- Video Clip feature that allows users to record and send a short video message within Teams chat.
- Teams webinar improvements were also plentiful including Presenter BIOS, Theming, Capacity Limits & Customer Question. To learn more, view the related Microsoft blog here.
- Viva engagement app was showcased as a way for employees to build connections and community with their colleagues.
Visio
Useful new Visio features were announced that would broaden the use case and appeal of this application. Below are some key updates that grabbed my attention:
- A forthcoming mind mapping template enables the capture of data in a structured fashion via Visio for the web. This will be of particular interest to customers that want to consolidate mind mapping software licensing and better control sensitive data.
- Infographic timelines provide an easy way for users to visualise important dates and milestones.
- Collaboration will be enhanced further with a new Visio app for Teams which will allow you to bring the entire Visio for the Web experience to the Teams platform.
Front Line Workers
Microsoft estimate that there are over two billion frontline workers worldwide — this translates to as much as 80% of the worldwide workforce.
This presents Microsoft with a significant opportunity to grow its user base where customers seek to implement technology and processes for frontline workers in a hybrid working world. Expect to see the Microsoft field focus more on Frontline Worker solutions in 2023 with investment programs and a solution-led approach to drive user adoption.
Frontline worker subscriptions provide customers with a way to streamline licensing costs by providing applicable features at an attractive price point. But beware, licensing terms can be ambiguous and may result in an inadvertent breach of use rights where Frontline Worker subscriptions are assigned to the wrong profile of users.
Oracle Database Service for Microsoft Azure
Microsoft announced that its Oracle Database Service for Microsoft Azure is now generally available and brings with it greater integration between Azure and Oracle database services.
The service is built on components which are already present in the respective clouds. Microsoft & Oracle have bundled the Oracle OCI Azure Interface product which creates a VPN connection (on a private link) between the two Clouds, and Oracle has exposed the API to configure PaaS Database instances to Azure.
From a licensing perspective, Oracle BYOL and License Included configuration options are available from the Azure interface. Though not all the features (just the most common ones) of the underlying database server are exposed through the Azure portal, Oracle provides an OCI link to access the OCI interface if needed.
In terms of billing, Oracle says that customers will be billed separately by Oracle and Microsoft for the services they use. It will be interesting to see how Oracle behave during an audit as the instances are set up and configured in Azure, but Oracle permits the use of more physical cores per license when deployed in OCI than in Azure. The instance shape used does reference the underlying OCI instance shape, so while Oracle could identify the shapes (and therefore Cloud provider) correctly, there may be some (deliberate) mistakes. However, it’s worth noting that instances are based on OCI sizing and so customers will need to ensure they work in a common unit (Oracle do also report in vCPUs for comparison so may do the same in Azure). An audit of Oracle products running would focus on OCI and Azure as distinct environments — the interface won’t be a factor.
Security
As we have seen at Inspire over the last years, Microsoft has championed its integrated security capabilities to consolidate point security solutions. This theme continued at this year’s event where Microsoft estimated that customers save as much as 60% through the consolidation of point security solutions.
Working with customers it is evident that many have indirectly invested in Microsoft security tools as a by-product of licensing M365. To drive consumption Microsoft announced partner funding to drive adoption of M365 E5 & Azure security features up to 25K USD per suitably qualified customer.
At the event, we saw Microsoft showcase recent announcements relating to Entra & Pureview services that further bolster the Microsoft security story. Entra bundles the capabilities of Microsoft Azure AD, CIEM and Decentralized Identity into a single package, while Purview enables centralisation of on-prem and device data protection.
Product Licensing for Hosting Providers
There were some sound bites on the pending licensing changes whereby customers will have increased BYOL rights when leveraging third-party cloud providers. Microsoft indicated that changes will apply to Europe and worldwide but will not apply to listed providers like AWS, Google and Alibaba.
Included in this change of BYOL policy will be the introduction of more flexible ways to license Windows Server VMs on-premises. There was an indication that these changes would take effect later this year with no specific date provided yet. For further information on these proposed changes please see my Microsoft product licensing update blog for June 2022.
Cloud Sovereignty
To support the accelerated growth in digital transformation within the public sector internationally, Microsoft is making investments to accommodate government data sovereignty. Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty is a solution that will serve the needs of government customers that seek to digitally transform while adhering to compliance, security and policy requirements. For more information on the details of this solution from Microsoft please refer to Microsoft’s recent blog here.
Azure Space Partner
To support its network of partners involved in the space industry, Microsoft has launched the Azure Space Partner Community.
Since 2010, investment in the space industry has increased by 70% from 2010 to 2020 and is well on its way to being a $1 trillion industry by 2040. This is an industry that has technology at its core therefore it is no surprise that Microsoft is placing a bet on this expanding industry. Solar cells, scratch-resistant lenses, artificial limbs, LED and baby food are just some of the many products that have origins in space programmes, so, who knows what new cloud innovations this new program from Microsoft will help enable?
It is no surprise that FY23 (starting July 2022) will see Microsoft continue to focus its attention on growing market share across a broad range of tightly integrated cloud services within its technology stack.
As Microsoft License experts, the SAM team within Version 1 are best placed to provide independent advice and guidance on a broad range of Microsoft license concerns and opportunities. From helping, organisations assess their license position, renewing your Enterprise Agreement / CSP or effectively licensing Microsoft technology in the cloud, contact us with any questions.
About The Author:
Karl is a Principal Licensing Consultant at Version 1, providing Microsoft license expertise to organisations globally and ensuring customers get the best value from their Microsoft assets.
