Presidio is in full force at this year’s Microsoft Ignite 2024 and, as anticipated, a lot of talk of AI – and its infusion as functionality into all product suites. If you missed the keynotes or weren’t able to attend, check out the following announcements to get the TL;DR.
Microsoft 365 Copilot: Transforming Workflows Across Industries
Microsoft 365 Copilot is rapidly becoming an indispensable tool for businesses globally, with ~70% of Fortune 500 companies leveraging Copilot to enhance productivity and streamline operations. Couple of quick examples below:
- Bank of Queensland Group 70% user adoption saving between 2.5 to 5 hours per week
- Eaton accelerating internal documentation processes by an 83%
Copilot + AI Stack: Introducing Azure AI Foundry
Meet Azure AI Foundry, a unified platform where organizations can design, customize, and manage AI apps and agents at scale.
Key features:
- Dev Tool Integration:with GitHub, Visual Studio, and Copilot Studio
- Azure AI Foundry SDK: unifies AI toolchains accessible from preferred tools. In public preview.
- New Management Center: a centralized console in Azure AI Foundry portal that consolidates subscription info, streamlines security and compliance workflows. In public preview.
- Azure AI Agent Service: build, deploy, and scale enterprise AI-powered applications to automate business processes. Coming soon in public preview.
- Azure AI Content Understanding: Simplifies the development of multimodal AI apps by automating complex data extraction from documents, images, videos, and audio. In public preview.
Microsoft is also expanding its AI model catalog with specialized and industry-specific models from partners like Bria, Gretel, NTT DATA, and industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and finance. Collabs with Weights & Biases, Scale AI, and Statsig aim to streamline model customization.
Copilot+ Devices: The Future of Cloud PCs
Microsoft is expanding its Cloud PC solutions with devices purpose-built to connect securely to Windows 365.
Key announcements include:
- Windows 365 Link: A new device that offers secure, rapid connections to Windows 365, providing users with a Microsoft cloud-based Windows desktop. Now in public preview, with GA in April 2025.
- Windows Copilot Runtime Updates: Enhancements that improve the performance and capabilities of Windows Copilot.
- New Windows Security and Resiliency Features: Windows Resiliency Initiative to bolster security, including stronger controls for app and driver execution, improved identity protection, and the introduction of Windows Hotpatch for seamless security updates.
Additionally, the introduction of Surface and OEM Copilot+ PCs underscores Microsoft’s commitment to delivering hardware optimized for AI and cloud-powered workflows.
Strengthening Security: AI Advances and the Secure Future Initiative
Several significant advancements were announced:
- AI and Posture Management: New AI-driven tools for proactive threat protection, including Microsoft Security Exposure Management, now GA. It offers defenders a dynamic, graph-based view of their environment to identify and mitigate risks effectively.
- Zero Day Quest: Security research event with $4M+ in rewards focused on cloud and AI vulnerabilities – additive to Microsoft’s existing $16M+ annual bug bounty program
- Secure Future Initiative (SFI) Updates: Azure Integrated Hardware Security Module (HSM), in-house security chip designed to enhance infrastructure security. Scheduled to be installed in every new server in Microsoft’s datacenters next year increasing protection across Azure deployed HW for both confidential and general-purpose workloads.
Azure Innovations: Empowering the Next Wave of AI
Introducing new tools and services to streamline AI app development:
- Azure AI Search Enhancements: generative query engine optimized for RAG performance, significantly boosting recall and improving result ranking.
- Responsible AI Tooling: risk and safety evaluations for images and AI reports to document and share application use cases, model cards, and evaluation results. In private preview.
- Azure Container Apps: Serverless GPUs and Dynamic Sessions providing scalable, secure environments for running AI workloads and code execution.
Microsoft Fabric and Data Platform Innovations
All-in-one, AI-powered data platform designed to help organizations manage and analyze their data effectively:
- Fabric Databases: unify transactional and analytical workloads, simplifying AI application development with autonomous provisioning and security. In public preview.
- AI Functions in Microsoft Fabric: Enables users to perform text-related tasks with minimal code, such as text summarization and sentiment analysis. In public preview.
- OneLake Catalog: explore, manage, and govern the entire Microsoft Fabric data estate, providing an overview of data status and recommendations for enhancing data quality and compliance.
Looking Ahead: Embracing the Future with Microsoft
Microsoft Ignite 2024 showcased the company’s continued pursuit of innovation across AI, cloud computing, and security. Advancements in Microsoft 365 Copilot, Azure AI Foundry, and a robust commitment to security, Microsoft continues to fulfill the goal of simplifying use of AI for innovation while helping organizations to navigate the complexities of the digital landscape securely.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us today.
This blog was origionally posted on the LinkedIn by Robert Kim, Presidio CTO.
