Microsoft Inspire: 5 takeaways from Satya Nadella's keynote
CPI has picked out the key highlights from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote at the vendor's annual conference
Microsoft's annual global partner conference Inspire 2022 was back this week in Redmond, Washington.
The marquee event for the channel kicked off with a keynote speech from Microsoft's chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, who addressed the vendor's partners on what to expect from the tech giant.
He opened on the topic of digital transformation, and stated Microsoft must go beyond "talking extensively" about the subject to delivering on the "digital imperative" for organisations.
"The time is now. It's what will make the difference between organisations that will thrive and those that will get left behind," Nadella told viewers.
"The case for doing this has never been more urgent or clear. It's existential, the next ten years are not going to be like the last ten.
"Digital technology is a deflationary force in an inflationary economy. It's the only way to navigate the headwinds we are confronting today."
Here are the main highlights Microsoft told Channel Partner Insight are the top lines for partners from Inspire 2022.
Infrastructure and datacentre global expansion
Organisations are accelerating their migration to the cloud.
Nadella said this is "not just lift and shift", stating 95 per cent of new digital workloads will be deployed on cloud-native platforms by 2025.
"Every customer I speak with is clear eyed about aligning their IT investments to scale with demand. And moving to the cloud allows them to do that, converting their spending from CAPEX to OPEX," he said.
"This creates an opportunity for [partners] to help organisations by providing your expertise.
"To share two examples. It's up to 80 per cent less expensive to run Windows Server VMs on Azure and SQL Server VMs on Azure than it is with our main competitor."
The Microsoft boss added it is significantly investing in migration and modernisation programs to help customers move forward "with confidence."
"We are building the next generation multi-cloud, multi-edge infrastructure to support this."
He also announced Microsoft will launch ten new datacentre regions in ten markets over the next year to help address data residency needs.
"Sustainability in all of this is going to be key to our approach," he continued.
"We are adding new capabilities to address our datacentres to reprocess used equipment, drastically reducing waste.
"We are committed to reusing over 90 per cent of our cloud computing hardware by 2025."
The vendor head also announced Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, a new solution for public sector customers, "specifically in Europe", that will enable them to build and digitally transform workloads in the Microsoft Cloud while meeting their compliance, security and policy requirements.
Nadella claims the new solution provides policies, controls and technologies that will enable customers to meet a government specific data sovereignty, security and privacy requirements.
Hybrid work
Nadella declared hybrid work is "here to stay", stating 73 per cent of employees would like the flexibility they've experienced during the pandemic to continue.
Whereas 67 per cent say they want more in-person time with colleagues.
"It's clear that flexibility and well-being are non-negotiable as new patterns emerge," he said.
"Technology can help us navigate this change. Every organisation requires a digital fabric that connects people, places and processes. And this creates a massive opportunity for all of you to help make hybrid work work."
To support this, Nadella announced new features across Microsoft 365 and Teams, including collaborative annotations that allow engagement on any content presented with screen share in Teams meetings; video clip, so you can capture and edit a short personalised video message; and Excel Live, which allows meeting participants do edit Excel files directly from a meeting window itself without needing to leave Teams.
[Read on to find out three more top takeaways from Microsoft's partner event... ]
Microsoft Inspire: 5 takeaways from Satya Nadella's keynote
CPI has picked out the key highlights from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote at the vendor's annual conference
Microsoft Digital Contact Center Platform launch
During his opener Nadella announced a second launch in the Microsoft Digital Contact Center Platform.
He explained the platform brings together Dynamics 365, Azure Communication Services, Teams, Power Platform and Nuance into one open, extensible and collaborative platform to deliver "seamless" omni-channel customer engagement.
"Today, siloed data systems - along with high interoperability and maintenance costs - too often get in the way of best-in-class personalised customer experience," he said.
"Because our digital contact centre is a single unified platform, it reduces costs and allows instant visibility into trends across all service channels."
Cybersecurity
Security is the top priority for every organisation going through digital transformation, Nadella affirmed.
He added the numbers are stark, with businesses experiencing an increase in both the volume and sophistication of cyberattacks.
"Cybercrime is now expected to cost the world $10.5trn annually by 2025," he claimed.
"Our solutions are informed by more than 24 trillion threat signals each day.
"It starts with Microsoft Entra, our new vision and portfolio for identity and access. It extends to Microsoft Purview, which is the future of compliance and data governance; Microsoft Priva, which includes new capabilities to help your customers manage privacy; and, of course, Microsoft Defender and Sentinel."
Closing statement
Nadella closed his keynote with more admiration for Microsoft Cloud.
"Everything I've talked about today accrues to the Microsoft Cloud.
"The Microsoft Cloud is the only cloud that allows you to take advantage of both best-of-category products as well as best-of-suite solutions across the entire tech stack in every area that matters most to our customers so that they can do more with less."
He also claimed the vendor has "made it easier" for partners to engage with Microsoft and drive their profitability.
"Which is why we lowered our marketplace transaction fee from 20 (per cent) to three per cent, so you can invest more deeply in your own growth.
"And today we're announcing additional investments including free access to our best-in-class developer tooling to help ISVs build and publish their apps faster.
"The numbers speak for themselves - partners who bet on us grow faster and generate higher margins. And for every dollar in revenue we generate, partners who build differentiated software solutions on the Microsoft Cloud generate $10 more."