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Microsoft
Company Profile

by Geoff Keston

Copyright 2020, Faulkner Information Services. All
Rights Reserved.

Docid: 00014719

Publication Date: 2009

Report Type: VENDOR

Preview

Microsoft’s dominance in the operating system and office software markets
continues to make it a financial juggernaut, even while other companies –
from Google to Facebook – have taken better advantage of the evolution of
the Internet. Microsoft’s occasional missteps in expanding beyond its
areas of dominance have not diminished its try-and-try-again approach,
recent examples being the 2016 acquisition of LinkedIn and the 2018
acquisition of GitHub. Those purchases are part of the company’s
continuing efforts to reorient itself to a world of social networking,
cloud computing, and mobile devices.

Report Contents:

• Fast Facts
• Profile
• Strategy
• Product Lines
• Activity

Fast Facts

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Name: Microsoft
Headquarters
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052-6399
Phone: (425) 882-8080
Fax: (425) 706-7329
Web: http://www.microsoft.com/
Type of Vendor: Operating System and Application Software
Provider
Founded: 1975
Service Areas: Global
Stock Symbol: MSFT (NASDAQ)

---

Profile

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Microsoft’s Windows operating system and Office software remain the de facto
standards in the corporate world and in home computing. Its enterprise
software is also a market force, spanning virtualization, servers, and
security platforms. But several years ago, the company began losing
some of its influence as a host of other players made better moves regarding
new technology and Internet services.¹ For
instance, after much effort, Microsoft’s search sites still rank a distant
second to Google, which has more effectively established itself in the
mobile market .² Google has been a persistent thorn in
Microsoft’s side, picking direct fights (such as by competing for share in
the market for online office software) and simply by gaining a reputation as
a new, innovative industry force in contrast to Microsoft’s reputation as an
older, less forward-thinking company.³ Microsoft is now led by
Satya Nadella, who replaced the retired Steve Ballmer as CEO in 2014. Since
taking over, Nadella has implemented what has been called a “less abrasive,
more open culture” and, more significantly, has changed the company’s
self-perception from being Windows-centric to being cloud-centric.⁴

Nadella began his tenure as CEO by defining the new technology
environment as a “mobile-first, cloud-first world,”⁵ and
certainly it is a much different world than that of the client/server
LAN environments in which Microsoft first gained market dominance.
Microsoft is now heavily focused on delivering cloud-based subscription
software, most notably its cloud platform Azure, its Office 365
suite, and software for mobile devices including mobile versions of
enterprise software such as Dynamics AX (an ERP system) and Dynamics CRM.
On a similar note, the company’s 2016 acquisition of LinkedIn may help it
better accommodate the needs of customers who heavily use social
networking and, by integrating LinkedIn with Microsoft’s CRM software, the
company is positioning itself to compete directly with Salesforce.com, the
cloud CRM market leader.⁶

In Nadella’s tenure, the company has become, compared to its previous
identify, “unrecognizable,” in the words of analyst Devindra Hardawar.⁷
In Hardwar’s view, a key change pushed by Nadella has been to focus more on
user preferences, such as Apple and Google have long been doing.

Another key change has been a shift away from focusing only on its own
platforms. In the past, Microsoft narrowly focused on its on operating
system and tried to get consumers and businesses to use only the company’s
software. But now it has accepted a market in which various platforms are
in use. Recently, Microsoft has:

• offered full versions of its software on competing mobile platforms,
  Android and iOS,⁸
• made its video games available at online stores other than its own,⁹ 
• based the new version of its Edge browser on Google’s Chromium
  platform rather than its own engine.¹⁰

History & Milestone Events

Microsoft was founded in 1975 when Bill Gates, then 19 years old, and his
high school friend, Paul Allen, teamed to sell their version of BASIC for
what was essentially the first affordable personal computer, the Altaire
8800.

One factor that contributed to Microsoft’s phenomenal growth was its role
in developing and marketing MS-DOS for the personal computer. In 1980, IBM
contracted Gates to provide the operating system for its new line of
personal computers (PCs). Gates purchased an obscure 16-bit OS called
86-DOS from Seattle Software and renamed it “MS-DOS.” Unaware at the time
of the immense profit potential in the software market, IBM focused on
hardware and allowed Gates to retain the rights to MS-DOS. (Only those
copies of MS-DOS sold through IBM were relabeled “PC-DOS,” and IBM paid
Microsoft a license fee for their use.) With the initial success of the
IBM PC (introduced in August 1981) and the PC clone market that soon
developed, MS-DOS quickly became the leading OS in the microcomputer
marketplace. This success was followed by the release of the Windows OS, a
graphical user interface for the personal computer, which, like DOS, was
embraced by most of the PC market. With such a large base of Windows
users, Microsoft’s Windows applications such as Word and Excel easily
became top sellers.

A timeline of significant events in Microsoft’s history is provided
below.

• 1975 – Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
  (originally named Micro-soft) in New Mexico, selling a version of the
  programming language BASIC.
• 1979 – Gates moved Microsoft to Bellevue,
  Washington.
• 1980 – Microsoft was tapped by IBM to write the
  operating system for its new machines. Gates purchased QDOS (short for
  “quick and dirty operating system”) for $50,000 USD from a Seattle
  programmer, renaming the platform the Microsoft Disk Operating System
  (MS-DOS). MS-DOS was later enhanced during the decade and the company
  introduced Windows, a graphics-based version of MS-DOS.
• 1981 – Microsoft incorporates.
• 1983 – Allen leaves Microsoft due to Hodgkin’s
  disease.
• 1986 – Microsoft becomes a public company, and
  Gates became the industry’s first billionaire the next year. Microsoft
  moves to its corporate campus in Redmond, Washington.
• 1989 – Microsoft unveils the earliest version of
  its Office suite.
• 1990 – Microsoft releases Windows 3.0.
• 1993 – Microsoft launches Windows NT to compete
  with the UNIX operating system.
• 1995 – Saw antitrust concerns scuttle a $1.5
  billion USD acquisition of Intuit. The company launched its Microsoft
  Network (MSN) and introduced its Internet Explorer Web browser. Licensed
  the Java Web programming language from Sun Microsystems and launched the
  Expedia online travel site. Launched Windows 95.
• 1997 – Sued by Sun for allegedly creating an
  incompatible version of Java, a move followed by a countersuit by
  Microsoft. Purchased WebTV Networks for $425 million.
• 1998 – The US Justice Department, as well as 18 US
  states, filed antitrust charges against Microsoft, claiming that it
  stifled Internet browser competition and limited consumer choice. Gates
  handed his president position to Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer.
  Microsoft launched Windows 98.
• 1999 – Agreed to invest $5 billion for a minority
  stake in AT&T as part of AT&T’s bid to acquire cable operator
  MediaOne. Acquired Windows-based technical drawing software specialist
  Visio for $1.3 billion and sold a stake in Expedia to the public.
• 2000 – Gates handed his CEO post to Ballmer,
  although he remained chairman and took the newly created role of
  Microsoft’s chief software architect. The company also appealed a US
  federal ruling that found it used its monopoly powers to violate
  antitrust laws. The ruling raised the possibility of splitting Microsoft
  into two separate companies. Microsoft released its Windows 2000
  operating system and introduced its .NET strategy for Web services.
• 2001 – Sun and Microsoft settled their Java suit
  with Microsoft paying $20 million and prevented Microsoft from releasing
  new Java tools or accessing any of Sun’s advances. Microsoft finalized
  its purchase of Great Plains Software for $1.1 billion USD. An appeals
  court refused to uphold a previous court decision to break up Microsoft,
  a ruling that eventually led to a settlement between Microsoft and the
  Justice Department. Among the terms of settlement were restrictions on
  the company’s licensing policies. Microsoft released its Office XP and
  Windows XP systems.
• 2002 – Sued by Netscape Communications, seeking
  unspecified damages and injunctions against the company’s alleged
  antitrust actions. Divested its controlling stake in Expedia to USA
  Interactive (later renamed InterActiveCorp). Purchased Navision for
  about $1.5 billion.
• 2003 – Microsoft settled its Netscape suit, paying
  AOL $750 million as part of a larger settlement that included AOL
  licensing Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and digital media technology.
  Microsoft also declared its first dividend for common stock. It
  eliminated stock options and instead, distributed shares of its stock to
  employees.
• 2004 – A European Union (EU) ruling found that
  Microsoft violated antitrust laws and fined the company 497 million EUR
  ($610 million USD). Microsoft was also ordered to change its business
  practices. Microsoft paid the fine but appealed the ruling. It also
  disclosed plans to spend up to $75 billion of cash reserves over four
  years, including boosting dividend payouts and repurchasing up to $30
  billion of stock.
• 2006 – Founder Bill Gates announced his plan to
  transition from day-to-day activities at Microsoft. Meanwhile, Microsoft
  signed a deal to allow the Windows OS to run on computers that use
  Novell’s SUSE Linux. Antitrust fines mounted: the company was ordered to
  pay 32 billion won ($33 million USD) in South Korea, and it was fined
  280.5 million EUR for failing to comply with the EU’s 2004 ruling.
• 2007 – Released Windows Vista, the first update of
  Windows in more than five years. Made its largest-ever purchase with the
  $6 billion purchase of aQuantive and bought a 1.6 percent stake in
  privately-held social networking site Facebook.
• 2008 – Made an unsolicited offer to acquire Yahoo!
  for about $44 billion USD, which was rejected by the Internet firm. The
  US extended its antitrust oversight of Microsoft until November 2009,
  while the EU opened new probes focusing on Microsoft’s Office software
  and the legality of integrating IE Web browser with Windows. The EU hit
  Microsoft with a record fine of $1.35 billion for non-compliance with
  its 2004 ruling. Chairman Bill Gates ended his day-to-day dealings with
  the company.
• 2009 – Launched Windows 7 OS, Bing search engine,
  Online Services, Internet Explorer 8, and many other products that were
  long in development. On July 29, Microsoft and Yahoo consummated their
  long-awaited partnership for search and advertising.
• 2010 – Steady Windows 7 sales return Microsoft
  to revenue growth. Microsoft invested in partnerships for unified
  communications (Polycom), cloud computing (HP), and search (Yahoo),
  among others. Windows Phone 7 debuts in time for holiday sales season.
• 2011 – On May 10, announced an agreement to buy
  Skype, which offers popular services for making voice and video calls
  across the Internet. The deal was completed in October.
• 2012 – Released Windows 8.
• 2013 – Acquired Nokia’s smart device and mobile phone
  business.
• 2014 – Satya Nadella becomes CEO, replacing Steve
  Ballmer. Lays off 18,000 positions, most of which were gained from the
  Nokia acquisition.
• 2015 – Released Windows 10. Announces upward of 7,800
  positions will be eliminated, many centered on the mobile phone business
  indicating the company’s intention to cease development of the line.
• 2016 – Agreed to acquire business-focused social
  networking company LinkedIn.
• 2018 – Agreed to acquire GitHub, an online service
  for hosting, managing, and sharing software code.
• 2020 – Attempted unsuccessfully to buy TikTok’s US
  operations.

Strategy

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Microsoft seeks to maintain its dominance in office and operating system
software while competing in new markets like cloud computing. It aims to
project the image of a product innovator that responds to the needs of its
users, despite its entrenched position in the market. The company also
wants to extend its software to every device and platform, including mobile
phones and television sets.

The company has often sought to expand into new areas through
acquisitions. One of these acquisitions, its 2013 decision to buy Nokia’s
phone business, has been acknowledged as a mistake. In 2014, Microsoft
reported that it would lay off 18,000 people, primarily from the phone
business, and then in 2015, it announced that it would eliminate another
7,800 positions, the bulk of which were from the portion of the company
acquired from Nokia. One analysis published at the time of these layoffs
said that “The move is a clear acknowledgment that the deal was a
multibillion-dollar strategic blunder.”¹¹ In 2016, the company
announced that it would sell its feature phone business, the low-end Nokia
phones, to Foxconn.¹² The judgment that the Nokia acquisition
was a mistake was reportedly what led former CEO Steve Ballmer to resign
and to be replaced by Nadella, who had been against the move.¹³

But this failure did not deter Microsoft. It acquired LinkedIn in
2016. Describing Microsoft’s vision for using LinkedIn, CEO Nadella says
that “It’s really the coming together of the professional cloud and the
professional network.”¹⁴ The integration
between Microsoft’s traditional business lines and social networking,
between the previous generation of technology and today’s cutting edge
services, could take the form of connecting LinkedIn to Microsoft Office
products, and the company could use its 2015 acquisition of training
content company Lynda.com in a similar way. The verdict remains out on
whether LinkedIn was a good investment, however. The direct financial
impact is unclear, but there have been indications that LinkedIn has lost
money since the acquisition. The benefits of the acquisition may take time
to be realized, however, in particular as Microsoft finds ways to extract
business value from LinkedIn’s more than 500 million users and the data
the site gathers.¹⁵

Getting access to a large user-base and data about them may also be the
ultimate value of the company’s 2018 acquisition of Github, which hosts
software and enables developers to manage and distribute their
applications.¹⁶ With LinkedIn and Github, Microsoft is now
closely connected to large, already established communities of
professionals and software developers, who are core users of its
traditional products.¹⁷

Mobile and Cloud Computing. Microsoft describes its core
philosophy as “mobile first, cloud first.” This approach is not simply
about having mobile and cloud products and services, but instead it aims
to orient the company’s entire thinking toward those two environments. “I
want to be able to be present on every mobile endpoint,” said Nadella
in an interview the year after taking over from Ballmer.¹⁸
“It’s not (just) the notion of having our application endpoints, Skype,
Outlook, Wunderlist, Sunrise, on every one of the two billion devices. We
want to have Microsoft experiences, because to me that’s a platform play.
It’s not like, oh, they’re just application endpoints. Guess what is
behind those applications? It’s One Cloud. It’s Office 365, either for the
consumer or for the enterprise. There’s MSA (Microsoft Account) in there.”
This mindset is, Nadella believes, changing the company’s thinking about
operating systems, which have traditionally been at the core of its
strategy. “So to me it’s very important to think of our operating
system more broadly than some old definition of an operating system,” he
said.

The company’s emphasis on the cloud puts it into direct competition with
cloud application providers such as Google, Yahoo, Salesforce.com, and
Amazon Web Services. Additionally, the company maintains cloud
partnerships. For example, it is aligned with HP to offer products for
creating public and private clouds. The offerings include Microsoft
software like Azure, Exchange Server, SharePoint, and Office 365, along
with HP products.

In its quarterly results released in July 2020, the company cited cloud
revenue as the primary driver of its growth,¹⁹ as it has done
for several recent quarters. An analysis of Microsoft’s thinking about the
role of cloud services in its business said this: “At its core,
Microsoft’s primary customers are other businesses and organizations, and
the company is betting its future that they will keep moving their tech
needs into the cloud.”²⁰ 

Partnerships are also a key element of Microsoft’s cloud strategy:

• In June 2019 it announced an agreement to link its Azure cloud
  platform with Oracle’s cloud-based database.²¹
• In October 2019, it formed a partnership with SAP to co-develop and
  co-market cloud-based versions of SAP’s ERP software.²²
• In November 2019, it agreed with Salesforce to further connect the
  Salesforce Sales Cloud and Service Cloud with the Microsoft Teams
  collaboration services.²³
• In July 2020, it made a deal with Citrix, agreeing to promote Citrix
  Workspace as a “preferred digital workspace solution,” while Citrix will
  designate Microsoft Azure as the company’s “preferred cloud services
  provider.”²⁴

Recently, Microsoft reported plans for a service called “Azure Orbital,”
which will connect the company’s existing cloud infrastructure to
third-party satellite-based data networking services.²⁵

Windows. Microsoft released Windows 10 in 2015, and an
important part of the company’s strategy has been encouraging customers to
transition to the new version.²⁶ Windows 10 maintains some of
the design elements first seen in Windows 8 (there was never a
Windows 9), while bringing back aspects of Windows 7 and other older
platforms. Windows 8 presented users with an interface that looked
more like a mobile phone’s touchscreen than like a traditional Microsoft
desktop. “Whereas previous versions of Windows featured a desktop with
folders, paired with a taskbar and ‘start’ button,” explained eWeek,
“Windows 8’s user interface is a set of colorful tiles that open
applications – a design that draws many of its visual cues from
Windows Phone.”²⁷ This new style of interface aims to narrow
the gap between the look and functionality of mobile device platforms and
that of desktops. But while Windows 10’s desktop has the tiles
introduced in Windows 8, it also brings back the Start menu and eliminates
some touchscreen-like elements.²⁸ The design of Windows 10,
with its mix of new and older elements, suggests that Microsoft is still
settling on a strategy for how to rethink Windows for the age of cloud and
mobile computing. Another noteworthy new feature of Windows 10 is that it
is offered “as a service,” so that new versions are routinely and
automatically installed, without the user’s intervention.²⁹

The next planned release of Windows is currently named 20H2, and
according to the company, changes will focus on improved quality rather
than introducing new features^.30

Search. Bing is Microsoft’s effort to fight Google directly
on its home turf, search. Bing has made strides, overtaking Yahoo for second
place. Yet despite heavy marketing, Google remains the clear leader. But
Microsoft is continuing its fight.

Server Management and Virtualization. One area in
which Microsoft sees growth is server management and virtualization.
Microsoft is using alliances to increase its ability to compete with
VMware and other virtualization leaders. Microsoft is also pushing its
Dynamics CRM software to help businesses improve sales and customer
retention. Dynamics CRM is offered in networked and cloud-based versions.

Tablets. Tablet computers are another market that is
drawing business from the traditional desktop and server operating system
segments. Microsoft continues to target this market aggressively – and
continues to struggle.A key part of Microsoft’s tablet strategy is
Surface, a device that is essentially a hybrid between a tablet and a
laptop. This hybrid design has helped to slightly boost the company’s
share of the tablet market.

The overall field has recently shown weakness, and Microsoft has never
secured a large share of the market, but the company’s Surface was one of
only two models whose shipments increased in the first quarter 2020,
driven by favorable impressions of the product in the business market.³¹

Internet of Things. Microsoft has been aggressively
pushing Azure as a platform for the Internet of Things. Azure can provide
analytics, artificial intelligence, security, and cloud connectivity for
devices. Customers can use this platform to create their own Internet of
Things solutions. Security has in particular become a focus with the 2018
introduction of Azure Sphere, a security platform for Internet of Things
devices.³² In addition, Microsoft has recently partnered with
some vendors to offer their commercial solutions on the Azure platform.
For example, it has a partnership through which GE runs its Predix
Internet of Things development tools on Azure.³³

Strengths

Universal Brand Awareness. Microsoft is a household name
and most people are familiar with the Windows interface. Sales are helped
by strong partnerships with manufacturers and third-party vendors, which
preload Microsoft platforms on all types of hardware and appliances. Even
Windows end-users can easily download unlicensed, open source software to
the platform. This strength in interoperability is not true of rival
systems maker Apple, which has a firmer grip on what software can operate
on its platforms.

Strong Product Releases. Over the past several years,
Microsoft has bounced back due to strong product releases. Windows 10,
Windows 8, Windows 7, and Office 2013 are just some of the products that
have found mainstream acceptance, unlike Windows Vista, which was received
poorly many years ago. Microsoft has launched several cloud products: the
Windows Azure cloud environment for developers, the Azure services
platform, and Office 365. Its vast cash reserves and human capital have
allowed it to venture into almost any product territory, even if some
never find mainstream acceptance. 

Extensive Market Penetration. Microsoft’s global
footprint and software code repository allow it to research and develop
products that cross into consumer, enterprise, industry, government, and
international markets. As a result, Microsoft is responding well to
enterprise and vertical market trends such as green IT, cloud computing,
and virtualization. By basing its R&D in global markets, Microsoft
develops and sells regionally specific products as well.

Weaknesses

Remaining Relevant in a Changing Marketplace. Microsoft
is a long-time market leader, but to respond to ever-changing
customer needs it must perform massive overhauls of proprietary software
every few years. Substantial research and investment precedes each major
product launch, so responding quickly is difficult. Over the past
several years, companies such as Facebook and Google have often seemed
more relevant to current trends.

Intense Competition. Because of its market stature and
its presence in many segments, Microsoft invites competition. The Internet
Explorer browser contends for market share again against Mozilla Firefox
and Apple Safari. Bing still trails Google in search. In gaming, the Xbox
competes with Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo’s Wii. And having declared
its virtualization strategy, Microsoft is threatened by VMware.

And now the company’s Cortana digital personal assistant, which is used for
controlling home devices, puts it in direct competition with Amazon’s Alexa
and Echo.³⁴

Legal Woes. Microsoft’s aggressive tactics sometimes
provoke legal action. Bundled software, alleged monopolies, and reluctance
to release code hurts its reputation. Attacks come from global regulators,
US federal and state governments, consumer lawsuits, and other
corporations. In all, Microsoft’s efforts to put out legal fires can be
damaging in terms of time, investment, and reputation.

Many of Microsoft’s legal problems have emerged from what were viewed as
attempts to use its market dominance to gain unfair advantage over
competitors in other fields, and a recent action by the company led to
comparisons to previous legal issues. In 2018, users began noticing that
when they tried to install browsers from rival companies, a dialogue box
opened telling them that Microsoft Edge was “safer” and “faster,” raising
concerns about monopoly practices.³⁰ Microsoft described the
pop-up window as a test and emphasized that users were not prevented from
using other browsers.³⁶

But there are indications that Microsoft’s new corporate vision, which
includes a desire to co-exist with other platforms rather than pushing the
dominance of Windows, is making it less of an anti-trust target. A September
2019 analysis in The New York Times even called it “the most
government-friendly of the tech companies.”³⁷

Security Concerns. Some people will always be wary of
Microsoft’s security issues. The company’s software is arguably the number
one target for hackers. To mitigate problems, Microsoft releases bundled
security updates and issues warnings.

Outlook

The company expects to continue its role as a market leader in several
segments, but competition is fierce, and it no longer enjoys the
insurmountable market advantages it once did. The role of cloud computing
is playing an increasingly greater role in its plans. This will in part be
done throughout partnerships, such as Microsoft’s work with Red Hat over
the past few years to offer cloud customers cloud development tools and
platforms.³⁸

Looking further ahead, Microsoft is making a strong effort to position
itself as a leader in the use of artificial intelligence in apps and user
interfaces.³⁹ The company views machine intelligence and natural
language processing not as specialized fields but as capabilities to be
built into all of its products. This fundamental transition in how
technology works is likely to take time to unfold, and how pervasive and
successful it will be remains uncertain. But it is likely for many years to
be a key focus area for Microsoft across many product lines. In the nearer
term, the HoloLens wearable device, which presents users with holographic
images, and the Windows Holographic platform, which enables Microsoft
partners to create applications for it, will be pushed heavily.

Two recent major AI moves are the following:

• In the summer of 2019, the company formed an alliance with AT&T to
  develop solutions that use AI (as well as 5G and other technology).⁴⁰
• In the same summer, Microsoft also invested $1 billion in the AI
  research lab OpenAI.⁴¹

Product Lines

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Microsoft offers products in several categories, as discussed below.

Table 1 outlines the company’s operating systems and software.

Table 2 outlines the company’s software for other platforms, including
Internet, entertainment, and mobile.

Major Competitors

• Apple http://www.apple.com/
• Google: http://www.google.com/
• HP: http://www.hp.com/
• IBM: http://www.ibm.com/
• Mozilla: http://www.mozilla.com/
• Open Office: http://www.openoffice.org/
• Oracle: http://www.oracle.com/
• Salesforce.com: https://www.salesforce.com/
• Samsung: http://www.samsung.com/
• SAP: http://www.sap.com/
• VMware: http://www.vmware.com/
• Yahoo: http://www.yahoo.com/

Activity

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Mergers, Acquisitions, and Divestitures

Microsoft revealed plans
to acquire ZeniMax
Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, for $7.5
billion. The transaction will give Microsoft access to “one of
the largest privately held game developers and publishers in the
world.” With the addition of Bethesda, Microsoft will grow from
15 to 23 creative studio teams and will add its current and
future gaming franchises to Xbox Game Pass. The purchase
remains subject to “customary closing conditions” and “regulatory
review,” and is expected to close “in the second half of fiscal
year 2021.”

(09/21/2020)

Microsoft noted in a
statement that it would not be acquiring the US operations of TikTok, a popular app
offered by China’s ByteDance. “We are
confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users,”
the company stated, “while protecting national security
interests. To do this, we would have made significant changes to
ensure the service met the highest standards for security,
privacy, online safety, and combating disinformation.”

(09/14/2020)

Microsoft announced in a press release
that it will “continue discussions” regarding acquiring TikTok
in the US and other countries. The popular app, which is owned
by China’s ByteDance
, has come under fire amidst user privacy and security
concerns. Microsoft noted in a statement that it “fully
appreciates the importance of addressing … concerns,” but is
nonetheless “committed to acquiring TikTok.” Discussions – which
include exploration of a preliminary proposal involving the
TikTok service in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand –
would result in Microsoft and potentially minority investors
owning and operating TikTok in these markets. The transaction
would necessitate a “complete security review” that includes
Microsoft outlining its “proper economic benefits to the United
States, including the United
States Treasury
in addition to concessions to improve transparency and security
oversight, transfer and retain private data to US-based servers,
delete the info from foreign servers, and engage in other
“strong” security protections. Microsoft plans to “quickly”
pursue discussions “in a matter of weeks,” and intends to
complete discussions by “no later than September 15, 2020.”
Negotiations, the software company noted, will also necessitate
“continuing dialogue” with the US government, in addition to
building on a previous notification the companies made to the
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
Talks, Microsoft noted, are “preliminary” and not guaranteed to
proceed.

(08/03/2020)

Microsoft has revealed that it is acquiring CyberX – which offers an
industrial cybersecurity platform for “defending critical
national infrastructure” – to complement its existing Azure IoT
(Internet of Things) security capabilities. The transaction is
expected to expand Microsoft’s cloud-based security portfolio to
areas such as industrial IoT, operational technology, and
infrastructure scenarios, further helping customers to discover
existing IoT assets, manage and improve security posture, and
view digital maps of “thousands” of devices to gather information
about their asset profile and vulnerabilities. The transaction is
part of Microsoft’s ongoing $5 billion investment in IoT
development to further its commitment toward building a “trusted,
easy-to-use platform” for building “connected solutions.” Terms
were not released.

(06/22/2020)

Microsoft has signed an
agreement to acquire Metaswitch Networks, a
provider of virtualized network software and voice, data, and
communications solutions. The transaction is expected to allow
Microsoft Azure to deepen its hyperscale cloud-based
infrastructure by offering specialized software for running
virtualized communication functions, applications, and networks.
Terms were not disclosed.

(05/14/2020)

Microsoft signed an
agreement to acquire Affirmed Networks.
Affirmed offers virtualized cloud-native mobile network
technology to help streamline network operations, reduce costs
and rapidly create and launch new revenue-generating services.
The transaction is expected
to allow Microsoft to “evolve” its work with the telecom
industry, building on its secure and trusted cloud-based operator
platform. Terms were not released.

(03/30/2020)

Microsoft has signed a definitive
agreement to acquire Affirmed Networks.
Affirmed offers virtualized, cloud-native mobile network
solutions to streamline operations to help create and roll out
services. This transaction is expected to allow Microsoft to
evolve its work with the telecom industry, building on its secure
and trusted cloud platform for operators by offering innovative
solutions for operators. Terms were not disclosed.

(03/26/2020)

Microsoft have introduced the Healthcare Bot service, which is
powered by Azure. The offering is designed to help “organizations
on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response” to help screen
patients for potential infection and care. The bot uses
Microsoft’s Healthcare Bot service and employs AI (artificial
intelligence) to bring patients directly into a telehealth
session; respond to inquiries; provide up-to-date information;
track exposure; triage new cases; and guide “next steps.” The
release will initially be available on the Center for Disease
Control (CDC) Web site.

(03/23/2020)

Microsoft has purchased Mover, a provider
of cloud-file migration services, among them admin-led and
self-service offerings. This transaction is expected to allow
Microsoft to offer migration services for shifting files to
Microsoft 365, with the goal of helping “move to the cloud with
confidence.” No terms were published.

(10/21/2019)

Microsoft purchased
Movere, a technology
provider for the cloud-migration space. The transaction includes
leadership, talent, technology, and “deep” expertise in
cloud-migration services. Movere’s discovery and assessment
capabilities are expected to complement Azure Migrate and its
integrated partner solutions. Terms were not disclosed.

(09/09/2019)

Products and Services

Microsoft has added new features to a number of its
cloud-based software products. Announcements include new
first-party voice channels, SCM (supply chain management)
add-ins, and inventory visibility functions for Dynamics 365; new
Azure Communications Services for delivering cross-device and
-platform communications; updates to Azure hybrid-enabled cloud
servers, services and devices; and an Azure AI update featuring
revamped Cognitive Services, among other options.

(09/22/2020)

Microsoft announced
the availability of a new Android Xbox app that will give users the ability
to stream games from their own Xbox consoles to their
Android-based mobile phones and tablets. The new offering brings
the option, whci had previously been exclusive to Xbox Insider
beta testers, to the general public. This app differs from
Microsoft’s Xcloud service, which offers cloud-based streaming,
in the fact that it requires the title being played to be owned
and downloaded onto the user’s Internet-connected Xbox console.
It should be noted that, despite being publicly available, the
app is still considered to be a beta release at the moment. The
app is also compatible with the upcoming, next gen Xbox Series X
and Xbox Series S consoles. Microsoft’s plans for a similar app
on iOS remain unclear, largely due to Apple’s recent conflicts
with Epic and its increasingly hardline stance on third-party
payment platforms being present on the Apple App Store.

(09/21/2020)

T-Mobile is rolling out
new Magenta for Business plans for customers. Both the Magenta
for Business and Magenta Plus for Business subscription tiers
include access to unlimited voice minutes, texting, and 5G data,
and cost $40/month or $50/month per line, respectively, for up to
four lines when enrolled in AutoPay. The promotion includes free
access to Microsoft
Office and Teams apps, as well as other cloud-based services on
“up to two lines per account.” The announcement comes as
T-Mobile revealed plans to upgrade its 7,000+ retail stores – and
more-than-double its staff – to specifically cater to helping
business customers. Further info is available via the
T-Mobile Web site.

(09/21/2020)

Microsoft announced
the Project OneFuzz framework open-source developer tool. Project
OneFuzz is designed to find and fix bugs “at scale.” The Azure
framework is available through GitHub as an open-source tool.
Additional details
are available via the Microsoft Security blog.

(09/15/2020)

To help reduce the number of e-mails wrongly marked as
phishing attempts, Microsoft Office 365 users
will be able to sift through messages that have been flagged by
the Exchange Online Protection (EOP) filtering stack. EOP is a
cloud-based filtering service that scans and quarantines spam and
e-mail containing malicious attachments in order to prevent them
from ending up in Exchange Online inboxes. Users will be to
review the flagged messages and request their release if
appropriate. “We understand that managing false positives is
important to ensuring e-mail is delivered appropriately, and in
the past, end-users weren’t granted access to the quarantine to
view messages,” the company said. Microsoft
expects to make the new tool generally available by the end of
September.

(09/14/2020)

After an increasing number of complaints over how game
streaming services are affected by the App Store, Apple has released a new set of
guidelines the company says will loosen some of its
restrictions. Some of its rivals, though, have a different
interpretation of the changes. Reversing previous rules, Apple
now says that game streaming services like Google Stadia and Microsoft xCloud are
explicitly permitted. But games offered through those services
need to be downloaded directly from the App Store rather than
through an all-in-one app. As CNBC points
out, “If a streaming game service has 100 games, then each of
those games will need an individual App Store listing as well as
a developer relationship with Apple.” One thing that hasn’t
changed is that games and their home services still need to offer
in-app purchases through Apple’s payment processing system –
and Apple still takes 30 percent of the revenue. Microsoft calls
the change “a bad experience for customers.” Making a
comparison with non-game streamers like Netflix or Spotify,
Microsoft says, “Gamers want to jump directly into a game from
their curated catalog within one app just like they do with
movies or songs, and not be forced to download over 100 apps to
play individual games from the cloud. We’re committed to putting
gamers at the center of everything we do, and providing a great
experience is core to that mission.”

(09/14/2020)

Cyber attacks emanating from Russia, China, and Iran are
actively targeting people and organizations involved in the
upcoming US presidential election. A blog post from Microsoft says the company
has detected activity from three state-sponsored threat groups
that have been conducting incursions against both the Donald
Trump and Joe Biden campaigns. Russia’s Strontium group (aka
Fancy Bear) has reportedly attacked more than 200 organizations
including political campaigns, advocacy groups, parties, and
political consultants. In addition to its US efforts, the group
has also conducted activity against political and policy-related
organizations in Europe. Meanwhile, Zirconium, operating from
China, has targeted high-profile individuals associated with the
election, including people associated with the Biden for
President campaign as well as prominent leaders in the
international affairs community. The third group, Iran’s
Phosphorus APT, has continued its previously reported efforts
against the personal accounts of people associated with the Trump
for President campaign. Tom Burt, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice
President for Security and Trust, says, “The majority of these
attacks were detected and stopped by security tools built into
our products. We have directly notified those who were targeted
or compromised so they can take action to protect themselves.”

(09/14/2020)

Microsoft announced
the addition of the Lists app for Microsoft Teams.
This function supports from-scratch and template-based list
creation, importing existing lists, standard list-related
features in SharePoint Web, channel conversations, and auditing.

(09/07/2020)

The Pentagon has completed its examination of the Joint
Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract and reaffirmed
its judgment in favor of Microsoft over Amazon Web
Services (AWS). “The
Department has completed its comprehensive re-evaluation of the
JEDI Cloud proposals,” Russ Goemaere, a Defense Department
spokesperson, told the Wall Street Journal, “and determined that Microsoft’s
proposal continues to represent the best value to the
Government.” Amazon quickly responded with a blog
post calling the finding “nothing more than an attempt to
validate a flawed, biased, and politically corrupted decision.”
Amazon also included sharp words aimed at President Donald
Trump. The company claims that the Pentagon was ordered to
change the original contract award from AWS to Microsoft based
on Trump’s animosity toward Jeff Bezos as owner of the
Washington Post. “The question we continue to ask ourselves is
whether the President of the United States should be allowed to
use the budget of the Department of Defense to pursue his own
personal and political ends?” Amazon says it will continue the
fight for the 10-year, $10 billion contract in court.

(09/07/2020)

Microsoft has released the Azure Spring Cloud, a managed service
for “Spring Boot” apps. The Azure Spring Cloud focuses on helping
build apps without managing infrastructure, automatically wiring
apps with Spring service runtime. The offering also includes
elements to monitor application performance, fix errors, and
issue real-time improvements. Azure Spring Cloud is jointly
built, operated, and supported by Microsoft and VMWare.

(09/02/2020)

Microsoft has released a new Research Mode for HoloLens 2,
available to Windows Insiders and as part of an upcoming release
of Windows 10 for HoloLens. Research Mode IMU (inertial
measurement unit) sensor access, new capabilities for articulated
hand- and eye-tracking, and support for a richer set of
experiments.

(08/31/2020)

Microsoft is expanding its Education Insights app within Microsoft Teams.
The update includes a series of “preview now” features, including
new views to show student engagement data; insights across
institutions, districts, and systems; and other elements to
promote equity and teaching continuity in remote settings, best
practices in remote instruction, and compliance with regulations
for digital engagement.

(08/31/2020)

Microsoft has added an Immersive
Reader function, among other elements to “help developers build
AI apps for remote education” to Azure Cognitive Services within
the Azure AI platform. Through this general availability,
developers and partners can integrate Immersive Reader within
their products, adding support for translating in over 70
languages, reading text aloud, focusing attention through
highlighting, and incorporating other design elements. The
introduction includes a version 1.1 SDK (software development
kit) with updates to include support for automatic page reading
and pre translation; support for 15 neural TTS (text-to-speech)
languages; and the addition of Code.org and SAFARI Montage as
partners for integrating the reader.

(08/25/2020)

Microsoft has updated Word for Microsoft 365, adding voice-to-text transcription and
other voice command options. Transcribe in Word can record one’s
conversations directly in Word for the Web, providing automatic
transcription that detects different speakers, adds time-stamps,
and offers an editing function. Transcribe in Word is now
available for all Microsoft 365 subscribers, and is supported in
Edge and Chrome.

(08/25/2020)

Microsoft revealed a
new
update to the Your Phone app for Windows 10 that will allow
Samsung device owners
to access supported mobile apps from their connected PCs. The
mobile apps will run in a discrete window on the user’s PC
desktop, giving them access to all of the same features as the
on-device versions of those apps. Applications used in this way
can be pinned to the user’s Start menu or their Taskbar and can
be used with a keyboard and mouse for non-touch-enabled PCs.
The new functionality will be available from any Samsung
smartphone running Android 9.0 (Pie) or newer. The PC and
smartphone in question must also be connected to the same Wi-Fi
network. While the updated build is available now to members of
the Windows 10 Insider program, Microsoft did not reveal a
specific date when the new feature is expected to reach the
general public.

(08/24/2020)

Microsoft says
it will enable the Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3
protocol by default in Windows 10 Insider Preview builds as it
prepares to roll out the feature to all Windows 10 systems. The
company also said the protocol will be added to .NET starting
with version 5.0, scheduled for final version release in
November. According to Microsoft, the protocol enables encryption
earlier in the handshake, providing better confidentiality and
preventing interference from poorly designed middle boxes. Also,
TLS 1.3 encrypts the client certificate, so client identity
remains private and renegotiation is not required for secure
client authentication. In late 2018, Microsoft, Google, Apple,
and Mozilla announced they would be retiring the insecure TLS 1.0
and TLS 1.1 protocols starting in the first half of 2020. That
transition, however, was delayed until the second half of 2020
due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

(08/24/2020)

Microsoft revealed
additional details about its return to the smartphone market with
the new dual-screen Surface Duo. The company held an online
press event to fully reveal the folding handset, largely
confirming all of the leaked and teased details already known
about the device. As expected, the model’s internal components
include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 CPU, 6GB of RAM, either
128 or 256GB of storage, and a single 11MP camera situated
behind one of the device’s two identical displays. Those AMOLED
displays are sized at 5.6-inches, with a resolution of
1,800×1,350 each, and a full 360-degree hinge in between them.
Thanks to Microsoft’s customized Android skin, users can either
multi-task with an app open on each display or run a single app
in dual screen mode. Users can also use any Surface Pen with the
device, although they will have to purchase it separately.
Microsoft is accepting pre-orders for the Surface Duo now, with a
planned September 10 launch date. The device retails for $1,400,
and will be available from Microsoft, Best Buy, and AT&T.

(08/12/2020)

Microsoft‘s highly
anticipated return to the smartphone market, the dual-screen
Surface Duo, is allegedly going to launch as an AT&T exclusive in the US. The
supposed leak comes from Patreon post shared by well-known
mobile device leaker Evan Blass (@evleaks). The
post, which also includes several never-before-seen renders of
the unit, claims that the folding smartphone will arrive soon as
an AT&T exclusive, though Blass did not predict how long that
exclusivity would last. While the unit has been shown off in
other leaks, and by Microsoft itself, relatively little remains
known about it, including an exact release date, or a retail
price. If the rumor proves true, it may limit the market for the
dual-screen device significantly at launch. However, if pricing
for the model is similar to folding smartphones launched by
Samsung and Motorola, a carrier-based payment plan may prove a
boon to shoppers that would otherwise be unable to afford the
$1,500+ prices such handsets have been asking.

(08/10/2020)

Apple is making waves
in the cloud gaming arena, but not for its own offerings.
Instead, the company is preventing cloud-based streaming
platforms like Microsoft’s xCloud, Google Stadia, and Facebook
Gaming from being sold in its App Store or from achieving full
functionality on the iOS platform. Apple claims that not all the
games offered have been reviewed according to the company’s App
Store guidelines. “Our customers enjoy great apps and games from
millions of developers, and gaming services can absolutely launch
on the App Store as long as they follow the same set of
guidelines applicable to all developers,” an Apple spokesperson
told Business
Insider, “including submitting games individually for review
and appearing in charts and search.” Because the platforms aren’t
submitting each game individually for review, Apple is blocking
apps that enable access to an entire platform. Microsoft issued a
statement that all its games “are rated for content by
independent industry ratings bodies such as the ESRB and
regional equivalents” and will for now only offer its cloud games
through Android. Google
and Facebook have
taken the step of removing games or key streaming components
from their iOS versions in order to comply with Apple’s dictum.

(08/10/2020)

Microsoft has released
its refreshed Microsoft Translator app for iOS. The release
includes an Auto mode that removes the need to press a
microphone button, simultaneous multi-language support, a
split-screen display, speech output and text-based options, and
support for 45 (speech) or 60 (text) languages. The app update is
available via the Apple App Store. Android support, Microsoft
noted, is “coming soon.”

(08/03/2020)

Microsoft announced a series of updates
to Teams. New offerings and capabilities – across “all ends of
the communications spectrum” – include new advanced
communications and 1:1 connections options, among them
elements to bolster scalability and admin control, custom-branded
backgrounds, and built-in Cortana support.

(08/03/2020)

Microsoft rolled out
the official, full version of its Family Safety app for iOS and
Android. This software offers features to protect one’s family’s
digital and physical safety. Features include weekly online
activity reports; support for screen-time limits; Web-based and
search filters; purchase request notifications; location sharing
and clustering; and app blocking. Additional information is available via the Microsoft 365 blog.

(07/28/2020)

Microsoft officially
incorporated
Azure portal integration and A/V redirect in Microsoft Teams.
Azure Portal Integration offers a streamlined interface for
deploying and managing apps and virtual desktops. A/V redirect,
meanwhile, allows one to locally handle audio and video calls and
meetings.

(07/27/2020)

Microsoft has released a preview
version of Azure IoT Connector for FHIR (fast healthcare
interoperability resources). The Connector software offers
technology to support a scalable, end-to-end pipeline to ingest,
transform, and manage PHI (protected health information) data
from devices using FHIR API (application programming interface)
security.

(07/20/2020)

Microsoft updated
Teams with a number of components to make virtual interactions
“more natural, more engaging, and ultimately, more human.”
Elements include the new Together Mode meeting function that
uses AI (artificial intelligence) segmentation; Dynamic View for
enhanced control over shared content and participants; custom
video filters; a Reflect Messaging extension for gauging
responses; chat bubbles; speaker attribution for live captions
and transcripts; enhanced support for meetings of “1,000
participants and overflow”; Whiteboard updates; a Tasks app;
suggested replies; added Cortana support; Teams displays; and
support for touchless meetings. Additional information is available via the Microsoft 365 blog.

(07/08/2020)

Microsoft updated its
Azure Cognitive Services product. This refresh includes a number
of expanded capabilities, among them a preview version of Text
Analytics for Health, the release of Form Recognizer and Custom
Commands, and new Neural Text-to-Speech voices. Additional info is available via the Microsoft Azure blog.

(07/08/2020)

Microsoft has
unveiled a new free-to-use initiative that can uncover evidence
of malware on virtual machines (VMs) running in the cloud. Project
Freta provides an automated full-system memory inspection
using VM snapshots, with capabilities to spot malicious software,
kernel rootkits, and other stealthy malware techniques. Rather
than running supporting software on each VM, which is not only
time-consuming but can also alert some malicious code that a
scan is taking place, Project Freta can scan large numbers of VMs
without running anything in it. System objects are worked out
based on a live in-memory snapshot of the Linux system,
examining processes, in-memory files, kernel modules, and
networks. Microsoft says it started by scanning for Linux because
there are so many different kernels available for that operating
system. “With Linux behind us, Windows support is on our
roadmap,” the company said.

(07/07/2020)

Microsoft noted that
it plans to roll out a public preview version of Add
to OneDrive software for incorporating shared folders directly
within OneDrive. Support will be available for foldered content
within OneDrive, shared Microsoft Teams libraries, or SharePoint.
The public preview will be available to business users and will
be enabled by default, with the option for admins to opt out.

(07/01/2020)

Microsoft added
several new features to its Microsoft 365 software. The June 2020
round of updates includes expanded Teams grid views; Graph
Connectors; app improvements; and revamped privacy settings
within Edge and Microsoft Search. Additional info is available via the
Microsoft 365 blog.

(06/29/2020)

Microsoft has updated the Digital Marketing Center app Garage
project. This refresh is based on collaboration with small
businesses, feedback, and requests “over the last few months.”
New features include added support for Twitter and Facebook Messenger; a
revamped Home Page that aggregates social and ad metrics; and
other advertising tools.

(06/29/2020)

Microsoft is updating
Teams with a number of new features. Upcoming elements include
expanded participant views, survey options, improved background
functionality, connectors for making data more searchable. The
functions will roll out over time to Teams subscribers within
Microsoft 365.

(06/25/2020)

Microsoft has issued a public preview version of the Defender
ATP for Android. This application delivers protection against
phishing and risky domain access; proactive scanning of malicious
applications, files, and PUAs (potentially unwanted
applications); elements to prevent and limit the impact of
breaches; and a generally more unified security experience
through Microsoft Defender Security Center.

(06/23/2020)

Microsoft is
extending its enterprise security protections to non-Windows
platforms with the general release of Microsoft Defender ATP for Linux and a preview of
Microsoft Defender ATP for Android. The public preview for
Android will include protections against phishing that go beyond
Google‘s built-in malware
protection. Unsafe Web sites sent via SMS, WhatsApp, e-mail, or
other apps are instantly blocked. Microsoft is also using its
Defender SmartScreen technology to also block unsafe network
connections that malicious apps might try to create without a
user’s knowledge. Microsoft Defender ATP for Linux supports the
most recent versions of CentOS Linux, Debian, Oracle Linux, Red
Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
(SLES) and Ubuntu. The release includes command line control for
an administrator to configure and manage user computers, initiate
antivirus scans, and monitor a network for potential threats.
Microsoft also says that Microsoft Defender ATP for iOS will be
released later this year.

(06/23/2020)

Microsoft has updated its
AccountGuard threat-notification service for securing elections.
This refresh – which is based on collaborations with various
political parties and campaigns – includes the free addition of
“enterprise-grade” IAM (identity and access management)
protections for US members; a partnership with Yubico to provide
phishing-resistant security keys; service availability through
the Defending Digital Campaigns nonprofit and non-partisan
organization; and a “range” of other IAM protections.

(06/22/2020)

Microsoft announced
that it has begun a 14-county pilot
of its Albert Network Monitoring-based election security service
in Florida – with plans to open the service up to more US states
and jurisdictions “moving forward.” This offering is designed to
help improve election security while also allowing officials to
take advantage of the advanced cloud-based computing
capabilities. Albert provides network security alerts for basic
and advanced network threats, helping identify malicious activity
while the data its sensors collect is sent to a Center for
Internet Security Operations Center for cybersecurity analysis.

(06/22/2020)

Microsoft has incorporated more than 20 new customizable
features as part of its new Xbox Family settings app preview. The
refresh is designed to help parents set screen-time limits,
content filters, and other management options to control “who
their children can play and communicate with.”

(05/27/2020)

Microsoft announced
initial
availability for the Windows 10 May 2020 Update. The refresh
is available via the Windows Insider Program’s Release Preview
ring, and focuses on offering the “latest features, security
improvements and control.” New elements include passwordless
options, kaomojis, Virtual Desktop naming, smoother graphics
presentation, support for third-party gaming widgets, go-to-app
improvements, Edge memory improvements, Calculator and
Notepad options, support for displaying phone calls, a revamped
Cortana chat-based experience, Narrator news features, a
Magnifier, improved drag-and-drop, and refreshed language
settings.

(05/27/2020)

Microsoft has announced several updates to its Cortana “personal productivity
assistant” in Microsoft 365. Additions include new chat-based
Cortana (Windows 10) elements for enhancing productivity; Play
My Emails, voice commands, and touch target options for listening
to correspondences (Outlook for iOS); a Briefing email (Exchange
Online in Microsoft 365 Enterprise) function review.

(05/27/2020)

Microsoft disclosed a
number of updates that it is incorporating within Windows 10 to
improve visibility for those “with low or no vision.” The
additions – which will be part of the May 2020 Update – text
cursor improvements, ease-of-access settings, an updated
Magnifier option with refreshed interface, improvements to make
Narrator “easier to use,” and new Outlook mail features for more
easily triaging mail. Further info is available
via Microsoft’s Windows Blogs.

(05/21/2020)

Microsoft plans to introduce a new supercomputer
service – in collaboration with “and exclusively for” OpenAI – that is hosted in Azure.
The system was created to train AI (artificial intelligence)
models, and is regarded as a “first step” toward making next-gen
large AI models – and the infrastructure needed to train them –
available as a platform upon which for other organizations and
developers to build. This model learns by examining “billions” of
pages of text, and can deeply absorb language, grammar,
knowledge, concept, and contextual nuances.

(05/19/2020)

Microsoft has unveiled a series of cloud-based tools and services.
Releases include Azure Synapse Link, which combines operational
database services and analytics; platform enhancements to Teams;
updates to Fluid Framework to make it open source while also
adding Fluid components and workspaces in Office.com and
Outlook for the Web; the Project Reunion developer platform; and
a Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare service to enrich patient
engagement, connect caregiving teams, and improve collaboration,
decision-making, and operational efficiency.

(05/19/2020)

Microsoft has announced a
public preview version of its redesigned Yammer app. This
application “connects people across departments and across the
organization,” and generally offers features for helping build
communities, share knowledge, and engage employees throughout
Microsoft 365.

(05/11/2020)

Microsoft released a
new limited preview of its new Family Safety app for iOS and
Android. This software offers digital and physical safety
resources for monitoring children’s online activity – replete
with controls over time spent online and creating customized
filters – and location data. Further information is available via the Microsoft 365 blog.

(05/11/2020)

Researchers from Microsoft and Intel have partnered to create a
new tool to identify and classify malware by using machine
learning to turn code into images. The approach, called static
malware-as-image network analysis (STAMINA), has been
found to achieve high accuracy in detecting malware with a low
number of false positives. The approach converts the binary form
of an input file of source code into a stream of pixels. That, in
turn, is converted into two-dimensional images by using the file
size to determine the width and height of the image. The images
are scanned by a deep neural network (DNN) that classifies the
original code as infected or clean. The DNN uses transfer
learning, which utilizes knowledge acquired for one task to solve
related ones. The study was performed on a dataset of 2.2 million
portable executable file hashes provided by Microsoft and
achieved a 99.07 percent success rate in properly identifying and
classifying malware samples. While acknowledging that their
research is still in an early phase, the Microsoft and Intel
teams are working toward allowing deep learning models to be
deployed on client machines with minimal performance impact.

(05/11/2020)

Microsoft released
new Surface Go 2 and Surface Book 3 convertible tablets. The
systems feature Intel Core
processing, with Surface Go 2 featuring a dual microphone and
5MP front-facing camera, and Surface Book 3 including 32GB
RAM. More detailed specs come via the Microsoft Web site.

(05/06/2020)

Microsoft has rolled out Microsoft 365
Records Management. This software offers “depth” to protect and
govern critical data. Elements include improved support for
classifying, retaining, reviewing, disposing, and managing
content without compromising security; the ability to leverage ML
(machine-learning) to identify and sort records at scale; and
defensible audit trails and proof of destruction. The release is
now available within the Compliance Center portion of Microsoft
365.

(04/30/2020)

Microsoft rolled out
its Azure DCsv2-Series release. This hardware-based TEE (trusted
execution environment) is built using Intel SGX (Software Guard
Extensions), and is designed to make confidential computing more
“broadly available.” This technology leverages cloud-based
computing to protect sensitive workloads.

(04/27/2020)

Microsoft has released its new Yammer “Communities”
app for Teams within the Microsoft app store. This interactive
software brings “communities and conversations directly into
Microsoft Teams,” and can be used to foster communication, share
announcements and event details, and connect with coworkers.

(04/20/2020)

Microsoft introduced
the Patient Scheduling and Screening Template. This software is
designed to help healthcare providers scale and manage COVID-19
screening and assessment. The release provides access to a portal with coronavirus information,
self-assessment tools to determine risk, and an automated process
for booking and performing screening. The Patient Scheduling and
Screening Template combines the capabilities of Power Apps,
Dynamics 365, and the Health Bot Service.

(04/20/2020)

Microsoft has introduced new software – the Patient Scheduling and
Screening Template – for assisting healthcare providers in
scaling and managing coronavirus screening and assessments.
The solution offers seamless workflow to allow patients, call
center agents, clinical technicians, and providers to meet
testing demand. The Template combines Power Apps, Dynamics
365, and the Health Bot Service to provide robust, end-to-end
coverage for patient outreach, self-assessment, scheduling, and
screening; and also extends the functionality of the Dynamics 365
Healthcare Accelerator to coordinate care, segment patients, and
improve access to clinical and transactional data.

(04/16/2020)

Microsoft announced
that it is making its
AccountGuard threat-notification service freely available. This
software allows “front lines” healthcare providers, human rights
groups, and humanitarian organizations monitors “nation-state
threat actors” that target “enterprise mailboxes” and “personal
e-mail accounts.” The release was first positioned toward
political campaigns via Microsoft’s “Defending Democracy
Program.”

(04/14/2020)

Microsoft announced
that it is making its AccountGuard
threat notification service available at no cost to healthcare
providers and human rights and humanitarian organizations
globally. First launched in 2018, AccountGuard warns account
holder of ongoing attacks by identified nation-state hackers.
While it had previously been made available only to political
parties and campaigns, members of the US Congress, and
democracy-focused non-profits, the recent upswing in attacks on
healthcare and human services groups prompted Microsoft to
expand its coverage. Both AccountGuard for Healthcare and AccountGuard for Human Rights Organizations will initially be
available to organizations using Office 365 for business e-mail
in the 29 countries where AccountGuard is already available.
Microsoft says it will be adding new countries based on need and
local law.

(04/14/2020)

Microsoft is updating Teams meetings with
several new features. This refresh includes options for custom
backgrounds, a “raise hand” feature for indicating one wants to
join a conversation within a meeting; a single “end a meeting”
function for meeting organizers; and downloadable “participant
reports.”

(04/09/2020)

In February, Microsoft issued a security
patch to prevent unauthorized access to their Exchange servers.
However, HelpNetSecurity reports that between 72 and 80
percent of the Exchange servers in use have not implemented the
fix. The exploit, CVE-2020-0688, is a remote code execution
vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange Servers that could allow an
attacker to turn any stolen Exchange user account into a complete
system compromise. Performing an Internet-wide scan, security
group Rapid7 found 433,464 total Exchange servers and at least
315,000, with possibly as many as 350,000, where the issue has
remained unaddressed. In the course of their investigation,
Rapid7 also found that some 31,000 Exchange 2010 servers have
not been updated since 2012, and nearly 800 Exchange 2010
servers have never been updated. Further, nearly 11,000 Exchange
2007 servers remain in operation, despite being no longer fully
supported, and over 166,000 Exchange 2010 servers are in use.
Exchange 2010 servers will reach end-of-support in October of
this year.

(04/08/2020)

Microsoft added new
voice and emotion styles as part of Azure Cognitive Services.
These elements are built on its Neural TTS (text-to-speech)
capabilities and were created to be “natural, reliable, and
expressive.” Styles include “newscast,” “customer service,” and
“digital assistant,” among others, and are designed to tailor the
voice of one’s apps and services to fit their brand or scenario.
Similarly, Microsoft noted, the emotion component allows one to
“adjust voices to express different emotions to fit in the
context. Further details are available via the Microsoft Azure Web site.

(04/06/2020)

According to NetMarketShare tracking highlighted by Microsoft, the company’s
Edge browser has reached 7.59 percent market share among
desktop users to surpass Mozilla‘s Firefox. The
increase puts it in second place while Firefox’s 7.19 percent is
a year-over-year decline from 9.27 percent and drops it into
third. Google‘s Chrome
meanwhile remains the undisputed leader with a whopping 68.5
percent share. Rounding out the top five desktop/laptop browsers,
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 11 was fourth with a 5.6 percent
share, while Apple‘s Safari
was fifth with 3.62 percent. In January 2020, a new version of
Edge was released using the Chromium source code along with
enhancements developed by Microsoft. Microsoft itself says that
it expects Edge market share to continue increasing. As the
company noted, “The new Edge currently needs to be downloaded
manually, but it will become a preinstalled feature on all
Windows 10 devices later this year. It’s possible that the market
share will increase significantly after the migration completes
and Windows 7 users upgrade to Windows 10.”

(04/06/2020)

Microsoft announced
a number of updates to its Dynamics 365 and Power Platform
releases. New Dynamics 365 additions include SCM (supply chain
management) options; out-of-the-box IoT (Internet of Things)
capabilities; integration with Dynamics 365 Field Service; and a
Finance Insights release. Regarding the Power Platform, Microsoft
also noted the addition of user interface flows and RPA (robotic
process automation) capabilities within Power Automate;
end-to-end automation; intelligent data understanding; and
support for connecting to enterprise applications without
requiring APIs (application programming interfaces).

(04/02/2020)

Microsoft announced
the preview release of Azure Edge Zones. The Azure Edge
Zones and Azure Private Edge Zones service use 5G services to
deliver Azure software, app platforms, and management to the
edge. Microsoft is also working with several carrier partners to
bring the Azure Edge Zones to mutual customers as a service,
“later this year.”

(03/31/2020)

Microsoft announced
that – effective April 21, 2020 – Office 365 will officially be
rebranded as Microsoft 365. This release infuses AI (artificial
intelligence), “rich” content, templates, and cloud-powered
elements, as well as, “in the coming months,” new Teams features
for connecting and collaborating with others, a Family Safety
app, and Edge browser features. In addition, Microsoft unveils
365 Personal and Family Subscriptions, a collection of consumer
offerings.

(03/30/2020)

Microsoft added a
new “sophisticated” AI (artificial intelligence) features to
Office 365 software. The revamped Editor function for Word,
Outlook, and “other platforms” is designed to offer automated AI
writing-assistance tools for rewriting, spelling corrections, and
grammar fixes.

(03/30/2020)

Microsoft and LinkedIn announced the addition of the Arkose Labs fraud- and
abuse-prevention platform to the M12 venture fund portfolio. Arkose Labs provides an
end-to-end anti-fraud platform that integrates detection and
prevention technology within its flagship products.

(03/24/2020)

Microsoft is expanding the Azure Stack Edge with NVIDIA‘s T4 Tensor Core GPU
processor preview. Azure Stack Edge offers a cloud-managed
appliance with compute, storage, and ML (machine-learning)
capabilities for local analysis and insight. The graphics
processor integration will support improved hardware acceleration
for ML workloads.

(03/24/2020)

Microsoft announced
a series of “behind the scenes” updates to its Mixer video game live-streaming
service. This rollout includes a refreshed Web site, “across all
platforms,” for providing smart AI (artificial intelligence)
recommendations; new content rows; auto-hosting support; a new
Auto-Hosting setting within the Broadcast dashboard; a beta
version of the Ad Break pre-roll; Clips Creation improvements;
and numerous user experience additions.

(03/17/2020)

Trump administration officials met with leading tech companies
to formulate strategies in the battle against COVID-19. Sources
say the phone-and-video conference focused on three areas:
tracking the outbreak, disseminating accurate information, and
assisting those who are out of work or school to use at-home
avenues and remain productive. The Washington Post
reported that the government would provide data that the
companies can analyze using artificial intelligence means to
better understand the virus. A statement from Michael Kratsios,
the White House’s chief technology officer, noted that “Cutting
edge technology companies and major online platforms will play a
critical role in this all-hands-on-deck effort.” Participants
included representatives from Apple, Amazon, Cisco, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Twitter.

(03/11/2020)

The FBI has issued a warning to users of Microsoft Office 365 and Google G Suite hosted e-mail
about Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams, Sophos’ Naked
Security blog reports. A BEC works when a scammer is able
to gain the credentials of a system user. Once they are in the
account, they seek evidence of financial transactions and
impersonate employees to redirect payments to a separate
account. In addition, a subsequent phishing attack may be launch
on contacts listed in the compromised computer or network to grab
even more credentials and provide a fresh supply of victims. “The
scams are initiated through specifically developed phish kits
designed to mimic the cloud-based email services in order to
compromise business email accounts and request or misdirect
transfers of funds,” the FBI said. “Between January 2014 and
October 2019, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received
complaints totaling over $2.1 billion in actual losses from BEC
scams targeting Microsoft Office 365 and Google G Suite.”

(03/10/2020)

Microsoft announced
that it is developing several new software releases for Microsoft
365 to address “prevalent and persistent health and business
challenges.” The releases – which will roll out “in the coming
weeks” – include a Bookings app for Teams-based scheduling and
virtual visits; support for tagging Teams members in messages
based on shift hours; and a HIPAA/HITECH assessment tool,
within Compliance Score, for addressing healthcare security and
compliance requirements. Other additions include IoT Signals, for
developing an Internet of Things strategy; a Healthcare Bot for
personalized virtual care; an Infermedica triage engine that is
based on advanced AI (artificial intelligence); and other “data
platform innovations.”

(03/09/2020)

Microsoft announced
the general availability of PowerShell 7.0. This major software
update features the open-source contributions of multiple
developers, features a cross-platform automation tool and
configuration framework for managing structured data, REST APIs,
and object models. PowerShell also includes a command-line shell,
object-oriented scripting language, and tools for executing
scripts / cmdlets and managing modules. More specific details are available via Microsoft DevBlogs.

(03/04/2020)

Cybersecurity firm Sift has
released a study showing
that payment fraud increased 73 percent in 2019, with more than
half of the attempts originating from mobile devices. While much
online fraud originates from Microsoft‘s Windows
platform devices (38 percent), Apple‘s iOS (28 percent) and Google‘s Android (23 percent)
combined to account for more than half the attempts. Physical
e-commerce is still the most popular target of payment fraud
schemes, while digital e-commerce, represented by credit and gift
cards, also remains popular among thieves. However, three of the
top five payment types that the study found were most associated
with fraud – online promotions, digital wallets, and
cryptocurrency – involve newer digital-only payment types.

(03/03/2020)

A study reviewed privacy risks in six Web browsers concluded
that the safest of the group was the Chromium-based Brave
browser. In addition to Brave, Professor Douglas Leith of Trinity
College Dublin reviewed Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Yandex
Browser, looking at the backend data exchange between the
browsers and their makers’ servers. He also conducted several
tests to find out if the browsers track users’ IP addresses over
time and whether they leak details of the Web pages visited. The
study concluded that Brave’s default settings did not exhibit any
use of identifiers that allow tracking of IP addresses, and no
sharing of the details of Web pages visited with backend servers.
Chrome, Firefox, and Safari all shared details of pages visited
with backend servers, particularly with the search autocomplete
feature that sends Web addresses to backend servers in realtime
as they are typed. Edge and Yandex, meanwhile, send persistent
identifiers than can be used to link requests (and associated IP
address/locations) to back end servers. Professor Leith also
notes that “As far as we can tell, this behaviour cannot be
disabled by users.”

(03/03/2020)

Microsoft is
preparing to roll out a new
RPA (robotic process automation) capability for Power Automate.
This addition, which is set to become available on April 2, 2020,
offers a special user interface that is designed to help automate
millions of processes, including legacy apps and manual
processes; attended and unattended scenarios; and other aspects
that support a flexible business model.

(03/02/2020)

KPMG released a new
security offering, with Microsoft Azure Sentinel, to
improve cyberdefense capabilities. The release is designed to
enhance security monitoring and incident response by combining
KPMG’s cybersecurity, incident response, and general industry
experience with Microsoft advanced cybersecurity technology.

(02/24/2020)

Microsoft released
Azure Sphere, its integrated security solution for IoT (Internet
of Things) devices and equipment. The software – which is now
available for the “development and deployment of secure,
connected devices” – is designed to address cybersecurity threats
by delivering device security for OEMs (original equipment
manufacturers) and organizations.

(02/24/2020)

Microsoft is offering a new Insider Risk
Management solution within Microsoft 365. This software uses ML
(machine learning) in order to intelligently detect potential
risk, in turn identifying even inadvertent security threats. The
Insider Risk Management product combines Microsoft 365
productivity tools, Azure cloud-based services, and ML
algorithms, and is based on collaboration with “internal security
analysts” and other “experts” within Microsoft.

(02/20/2020)

Microsoft announced
the general availability of Microsoft Threat
Protection. This release works to “proactively” hunt – searching
users, e-mail, applications, and endpoints on a PC, Mac, or Linux
machine – to provide customized alerts and take action using AI
(artificial intelligence) and automation.

(02/20/2020)

Microsoft announced that its Defender line of security
software is coming to other operating systems, including Google‘s Android and Apple‘s iOS. The new Defender
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) app will provide mobile device
users with protection against online destinations that Microsoft
deems unsafe, as well as applying artificial intelligence (AI) to
scan emails, documents, applications, and endpoints for
potential threats. If a threat is found, it will alert the user,
and provide options for mitigating or ignoring the issue, much
like its desktop counterparts. The iOS and Android app join other
recent expansions of the Defender brand, including the
introduction of a Chrome extension and MacOS support. No
release date for the iOS and Android apps was disclosed.

(02/20/2020)

Microsoft has rolled out a
generally available version of its Office app for iOS and
Android. This software specifically combines Word, Excel, and
PowerPoint in a streamlined interface; offers more features for
“common tasks”; and includes support for third-party storage
services such as Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and iCloud. The
release also features templates to help create new documents,
spreadsheets, and presentations, as well as other “general
performance” improvements.

(02/19/2020)

Microsoft announced
a major update to its Your Phone app that brings support for RCS
(Rich Chat Services) messaging features to the platform for the
first time. The company revealed in a tweet that the first devices to support the new feature will
be Samsung‘s Galaxy
S20 line. Users of Your Phone could already send and receive text
messages via their connected, Windows 10-based PC. Now, with
the added functionality, the Windows app will also support
functions such as typing indicators, read receipts, and other
RCS-based services, when paired with Samsung’s messaging app.
While Microsoft did not specify that the expanded support would
be coming to other smartphones, the spokesperson responsible for
the tweet strongly hinted at the fact that it would be expanded
to at least include other Samsung handsets by saying the rollout
was “starting with” the S20 line.

(02/18/2020)

Microsoft has piloted a deployment of its
ElectionGuard technology for the US Primary in Fulton, Wisconsin.
This system will specifically provide an encrypted digital tally
of votes – to complement traditional paper ballots – in the
state’s Supreme Court battle. ElectionGuard is designed to allow
voters to double-check that their votes have been counted and not
altered.

(02/17/2020)

Microsoft is updating its Microsoft 365 service
with two new capabilities for helping improve organizational
security and productivity. The refresh includes newly-available
Safe Documents, a public preview that brings the Intelligent
Security Graph function – for verifying that documents are safe
at the endpoint – to one’s desktop; and an expanded “private
preview” of Application Guard, a micro-VM (virtual machine)
feature. The elements will be available via Microsoft 365 E5 and
E5 Security.

(02/12/2020)

Microsoft announced
a partnership with the US Air Force toward helping “empower
airmen with modern IT.” This agreement will include a deployment
of cloud-based technology to allow the branch to roll out “modern
services” for collaboration, global access, and managing targeted
workloads. Initially, the contract calls for Microsoft 365
services such as Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive,
and “other capabilities.”

(02/11/2020)

Microsoft has made its XLOOKUP function available within its Excel
spreadsheet software. This feature is the successor to VLOOKUP,
and allows users to search for a value either vertically or
horizontally, in addition to supporting both column insertions
and deletions.

(02/10/2020)

Bing is working with LinkedIn to add a “Your
Commute” feature to the service. This function uses location
intelligence – via Bing Maps APIs (application programming
interfaces) – to provide insight into one’s potential commute
time regarding a potential job. It should be noted that both
properties are owned by Microsoft.

(02/04/2020)

Microsoft is preparing a
series of updates to Microsoft 365 for helping to manage
eDiscovery for Microsoft Teams and Yammer, in addition to
expanding visibility into case content. Specific elements include
a “legal hold” function within Teams private channel messages,
for preserving correspondences; a Teams-based “conversation
reconstruction” option to identify and thread-together relevant
chats; and “custodial data” for images in Microsoft 365’s
compliance dashboard. Other additions include “tenant-level”
reports for aggregating, filtering, and exporting info; as well
as a customizable dashboard for viewing reporting and eDiscovery
data.

(02/03/2020)

Microsoft released its first preview toolkit for the upcoming Surface
Duo smartphone. The Android-powered, folding smartphone still has
no release windows, but the Windows maker is already attempting
to help developers design software that can take advantage of its
dual displays. The new download includes both Java frameworks
and emulation for the device’s unique dual-screen design. While
it is very early days for the hardware, as well as any software
designed for it, this release is a necessary first step in
developing apps that can run natively on the unit. Microsoft also
noted that it will publish a pre-release version of its full
developers kit in the “coming weeks.”

(01/23/2020)

Microsoft determined that sLoad, the
PowerShell-based Trojan downloader which uses the Background
Intelligent Transfer Service for malicious activities, has
launched version 2.0. sLoad has added the ability to track the
stage of infection on every affected machine. Microsoft has
dubbed this version as Starslord based on strings in the malware
code.

(01/22/2020)

Microsoft exposed nearly 250 million
customer service and support records on the Web. The records
contained logs of conversations between Microsoft support agents
and customers, consisted of 14 years’ worth of records (from 2005
to December 2019), and all of the data was left accessible to
anyone with a Web browser, with no password or other
authentication needed. The Comparitech security
team led by Bob Diachenko uncovered five Elasticsearch servers,
each of which contained an apparently identical set of the 250
million records. Diachenko reported his findings to Microsoft and
the vendor took action to secure it.

(01/22/2020)

Microsoft announced that its Microsoft Edge update has
graduated from preview version and is now available
to download. This Web browser – which
is available in over 90 languages on “all supported versions of
Windows and macOS,” as well as on iOS and Android – focuses on
offering improved performance, privacy, and productivity. New
features of note include tracking prevention features;
customization options; Azure AD support; an Internet Explorer
mode; the ability to run 4K streaming and Dolby audio; inking
within PDF; and improved support for Bing integration and
Chrome-based extensions.

(01/15/2020)

Microsoft is preparing to roll out Dynamics 365 Commerce,
which it is calling “an evolution of Dynamics 365 Retail,” on
February 3, 2020. This release adds e-commerce features and is
built on the content-management system employed by Microsoft
online storefronts. Dynamics 365 Commerce is designed to help
unify customer shopping experience; offer end-to-end commerce;
merge e-commerce, in-store, back office, and call center
features; and facilitate improved integration with emerging
channels through an API (application programming
interface)-driven headless commerce engine. Additional
information is
available via the product’s Web site.

(01/13/2020)

Microsoft announced
a pair of retailer services: PromoteIQ and Bing for Commerce. The
PromoteIQ commerce marketing platform, which is based on the
company’s purchase of PromoteIQ in August 2019, is designed to
help increase revenue from digital vendor marketing programs,
while offering features to manage monetization and better engage
brand partners. Bing for Commerce, meanwhile, offers an
intelligent search, personalization, and product recommendation
solution to give retailers improved support for meeting shopper
expectations, grow revenue, access more relevant and customized
results, and drive conversions.

(01/09/2020)

Microsoft took measures
to disrupt the operations of Thallium, a North Korean threat
entity which included the seizure of 50 domains from the group.
With this action, the sites can no longer be used to execute
attacks. Thallium uses spear phishing tactics and the BabyShark
and KimJongRAT malware families to attack its targets, most often
government employees, think tanks, university staff members,
members of organizations focused on world peace and human
rights, and individuals that work on nuclear proliferation
issues. Most targets were based in the US, Japan, and South
Korea. Microsoft filed a court case in Virginia, which resulted
in a court order enabling the vendor to take control of 50 of
Thallium’s domains.

(01/06/2020)

Microsoft introduced a new feature called campaign
views in Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection. The capability
gives users a better understanding of the cyber attacks that
target their organizations. Among the details campaign views will
provide are the URLs that manifested during attacks, the list of
IP addresses and users that orchestrated attacks, and if any
individuals clicked on phishing URLs.

(12/10/2019)

Microsoft began
tracking Dexphot, a polymorphic type of malware, in October 2018
and has released its analysis of
this threat. Dexphot uses sophisticated methods to evade security
and then utilizes fileless techniques to run malicious code
directly in memory. It leaves very scant traces behind, hijacks
legitimate services to disguise its malicious activity, and later
runs a cryptominer. Dexphot exhibits multiple layers of
polymorphism across the binaries it distributes.

(11/27/2019)

Microsoft and AT&T announced “select preview
availability” for a joint NEC (network edge compute) offering
that “weaves Microsoft Azure cloud services into AT&T network
edge locations closer to customers.” This release is based on the
companies’ July 2019 strategic alliance, which focuses on
enabling new 5G, cloud-based, and edge computing technology,
worldwide. The integration will specifically allow AT&T
software-defined and virtualized 5G core offerings to deliver
access to Azure services. The release will first be available for
a limited set of customers in Dallas, with Los Angeles and
Atlanta to follow “next year.” Further info is available via the Microsoft Stories blog.

(11/26/2019)

Microsoft announced
the OSS Connector, a new tool for more securely ingesting,
normalizing, and persisting PHI (protected health information)
from IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) devices. This release
serves as part of the company’s expanded ecosystem of FHIR (fast
healthcare interoperability resources) for developers.

(11/18/2019)

Microsoft announced
a series of new Azure HPC software-based services. The releases
include preview versions of VM (virtual machine) software such as
HBv2 Azure VM for HPC (high-performance computing), NVv4
Azure VM for virtual desktops, NDv3 Azure VM for AI (artificial
intelligence), and NDv2 Azure GPU VM. The software developer
also introduced a newly available version of HPC Cache for Azure;
a version 7.9 update to Azure CycleCloud for large MPI workloads;
an Update 3 version of the HPC Pack 2016; and general
improvements to its user interface error detection and reporting
capabilities, “time-to-live” capabilities, VM placement
group-management, ephemeral OS disk support.

(11/18/2019)

Microsoft announced it will observe the
requirements of California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
throughout the entire country. The law, which goes into effect on
January 1, states that California consumers have the right to
know how data collected about them is being used. “We are strong
supporters of California’s new law and the expansion of privacy
protections in the United States that it represents. Our approach
to privacy starts with the belief that privacy is a fundamental
human right and includes our commitment to provide robust
protection for every individual… we will extend CCPA’s core
rights for people to control their data to all our customers in
the US,” Julie Brill, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for
global privacy and regulatory affairs and chief privacy officer,
said in a statement.

(11/13/2019)

McAfee announced
updates to MVISION Cloud for Microsoft Azure, which
includes security scans for Azure Resource Manager templates
and integration with developer tools. In addition MVISION Cloud
is now Certified for Microsoft Teams, meaning that partners and
customers can allow employees to collaborate on the cloud-native
security platform while enforcing capabilities they need to keep
data safe.

(11/06/2019)

Microsoft launched
the Surface Pro X “2-1″ laptop. The release measures 5.3
millimeters thick and features a 13” display, with optional Slim
Pen support. Additional features include support for LTE
connectivity, a Microsoft SQ1 processor that was developed
alongside Qualcomm, a
Snapdragon mobile DNA chipset, and an integrated AI (artificial
intelligence) accelerator. Further info is available via
the Windows Blogs.

(11/05/2019)

Microsoft is
introducing new tools and services for helping put “data to
work.” Releases include the Azure Synapse Analytics service, for
pulling insight from data sources, data warehouses, and Big Data
analytics systems; a preview version of Azure Arc services and
management for third-party clouds and infrastructure; and the
public preview release of a “UI flows” RPA (robotic process
automation) feature in Power Automate. In addition, Microsoft
also announced the Project Cortex Microsoft 365 service, as well
as other new “experiences” across the 365 portfolio.

(11/04/2019)

Microsoft tracked new attacks linked to
the Strontium (also known as Sofacy, Fancy Bear, and APT28)
threat entity that focused on anti-doping authorities and
sporting organizations around the world. At least 16 national and
international sporting and anti-doping organizations across three
continents were targeted in these attacks which began September
16. The methods used in the attacks are similar to the those
previously used by Strontium: spear phishing, password spray,
exploiting Internet-connected devices, and the use of both
open-source and custom malware.

(10/29/2019)

Microsoft rolled out
its new Microsoft Project cloud-based service. The Project
offering features a redesigned interface for making collaboration
more intuitive, and includes features to add members, set up
tasks, toggle between grids, boards, and timeline charts. The
Project service is part of the Microsoft 365 family.

(10/29/2019)

Microsoft released
the full version of its Automated Machine Learning in Power BI
tool. This software – which is also known as “AutoML” – will be
generally available in “all public cloud regions where Power BI
Premium and Embedded is available.” The AutoML software
specifically offers features for training ML (machine learning)
models, performing binary prediction, offering classification and
regression, viewing model-training reports, applying ML models to
data, and viewing other predictions and explanations.

(10/28/2019)

Microsoft issued
updates to several of its Azure IoT (Internet of Things) services
for helping better “embrace IoT.” These refreshes are generally
designed to help better predict equipment failure, optimize smart
buildings, improve patient and worker safety, and track assets
across a supply chain. Particular updates include the IoT Central
managed platform, with features for building and deploying
scalable applications; IoT Hub gaining message enrichment
elements and integration with Azure Event Grid; and Azure Time
Series Insights, with features for multi-layered storage,
flexible “cold” storage, “rich” analytics, and scale /
performance enhancements.

(10/28/2019)

Microsoft has updated the Microsoft Defender Advanced
Threat Protection (ATP) service to include direct access to
“real-life” threat analysts for use in security investigations.
This offering – which also provides customized targeted attack
notifications – is designed to provide guidance and insight to
“understand, prevent, and respond to complex threats.” The
capability was shaped through partnerships with “multiple
customers across various verticals.” A free 90-day trial of Defender ATP is now available.

(10/28/2019)

Microsoft is gearing
up to roll out its Azure Sphere service in February 2020. This
cloud-based offering is designed to help “connect and create
secured and trustworthy IoT devices,” in turn providing security
and OS updates “directly to each device.”

(10/28/2019)

Microsoft released
its new Surface Pro 7 and Surface Laptop 3 in the US and several
other markets. These 13.5″ and 15″ units are powered by Intel 10th-Gen Core processors,
and include a kickstand as well as touch-based and pen input
options.

(10/22/2019)

Microsoft is teaming
up with PC manufacturing and silicon partners to design
“Secured-core PCs,” devices that would meet specific security
criteria and apply minimal trust at the firmware layer. These
devices would be used specifically in industries like financial
services, government, and healthcare, and for workers that handle
highly-sensitive IP, customer, or personal data. Secured-core PCs
combine identity, virtualization, operating system, hardware and
firmware protection to add security underneath the operating
system and protect against targeted attacks.

(10/21/2019)

Microsoft introduced
the Azure API for FHIR, a first-party managed cloud-based service
that is designed to “ingest, persist, and manage healthcare data
in the native FHIR format.” The release is now generally
available for Azure users. This release provides a turnkey
platform to provision a cloud-based FHIR service, securely manage
PHI data, and access PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) resources.

(10/21/2019)

Microsoft has unveiled the Digital Marketing Center, a Garage project for
managing and optimizing one’s digital marketing. This
cross-platform offering is powered by AI (artificial
intelligence) and can be deployed across Microsoft Advertising,
Google Ads, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

(10/16/2019)

Microsoft added a
new hardening feature to Defender ATP (Advanced Threat
Protection). Tamper protection is designed to protect against
malicious and unauthorized changes to security features. Certain
types of malware, including Nodersok and Trojan Trickbot, attempt
to disable antivirus protections.

(10/15/2019)

Qualcomm revealed
that it is developing a cellular chip that is “optimized and
certified for the Microsoft Azure Sphere IoT
(Internet of Things) OS (operating system). This chipset will
specifically include hardware-level security, come preconfigured
with the Azure Sphere, and automatically connect to Azure Sphere
security cloud-based services.

(10/15/2019)

Microsoft introduced
its new Sketch Pal UWP (Universal Windows Platform) app. This
Garage project – which is now available for download worldwide
via the Microsoft Store – offers a “modern” tool to “sketch in
new, seamless ways with the Surface Pen.” Key features include
advanced inking elements; a reference mode for adding a reference
picture; support for cross-device connection; and other features
to “draw naturally” such as pressure sensitivity, tilt
recognition, and Surface Dial support. Further info is available via the Microsoft Web site.

(10/14/2019)

Microsoft
Genomics has announced the release of an open-source project entitled
Cromwell on Azure. This GitHub-based software – which was
initially developed by the Broad Institute –
offers a workflow-management system for scientific workflows.
Cromwell employs the GA4GH TES (Task Execution Service)
backend and orchestrates computing resource dynamic
provisioning via Azure Batch. The development can be used to take
advantage of the hyperscale compute capabilities of Azure to
execute one’s genomics pipelines.

(10/14/2019)

Microsoft is
developing a new Azure Spring Cloud service. This jointly built /
operated / supported service, alongside Pivotal, is designed to support
“demanding applications.” The Azure Spring Cloud is a cloud-based
service that uses Azure to support functions such as dynamic
scaling, security patches, compliance standards, and high
availability. The service will be available in public preview
“before end of the calendar year.”

(10/08/2019)

The threat group known as Phosphorus increased its activity
between August and September, making more than 2,700 attempts
to identify consumer email accounts belonging to specific Microsoft customers and
then attack 241 of those accounts. The targeted accounts are
associated with a US presidential campaign, current and former US
government officials, journalists covering global politics and
prominent Iranians living outside Iran. Four accounts were
compromised as a result of these attempts but they were not
associated with the US presidential campaign or US government
officials. Phosphorus used information gathered from researching
its targets to gain password reset or account recovery features
and attempt to take over some targeted accounts. Microsoft has
provided further details regarding its investigation
into this Phosphorus campaign. ClearSky reported that the
Iranian-based Charming Kitten threat group used new spear
phishing techniques in a campaign in August and September and
believes that this activity is closely related to the Phosphorus
campaign described by Microsoft. ClearSky’s team noted that there
was a time overlap in the escalation of attacks, the same victims
were profiled, and both Charming Kitten and Phosphorus used
similar attack vectors.

(10/07/2019)

Microsoft updated its
government cloud portfolio with new features to improve compute,
data analysis, and insight “to the tactical edge.” Particular
refreshes include new versions of Azure Data Box and Azure
Stacks, for bolstering remote operations and providing access to
other cloud-based capabilities; revamped “AI-enabled” edge
computing appliances; and other business applications for
offering proactive customer service and citizen engagement. In
addition, Microsoft expanded availability for its PowerApps and
Flow to GCC High environments, and also began offering other
features for accelerating ML (machine-learning) inferencing at
the edge.

(10/07/2019)

Microsoft made a
surprise re-entry into the smartphone market at its recent
Surface product reveal event. The company’s new, dual-screen
Surface Duo smartphone was shown off for the first time,
alongside several new and updated Surface PC models. The
Surface Duo foregoes the folding screens found on many recent
foldable smartphones in favor of two discrete, 5.6-inch displays,
connected by a 360 degree hinge. Both screens can be used as a
single display with the device folded flat or at an angle, while
either screen can also operate independently as a smaller display
or input method (keyboard or touchpad). Making phone calls is
handled by folding the unit’s screens back-to-back, creating a
narrower, if still somewhat wide smartphone form factor. As for
an operating system, Microsoft chose to acquiesce to the dominant
player in the market, and is pre-loading the Surface Pro with an
undisclosed version of Android. The company has remained
relatively cagey about the unit’s internal components, although
it did reveal that the unit will be powered by Qualcomm’s
Snapdragon 855 chipset. While this is currently a top-of-the-line
core, it may have aged somewhat when the Surface Duo makes its
planned debut during its holiday season 2020 release window.

(10/02/2019)

Microsoft is adding new Office 365 “innovations” to help make
users “more productive when away from their desk.” These features
include support for transcribing voice, using a digital pen, and
accessing other touch-based features across Office 365 and
Surface devices.

(10/02/2019)

Microsoft announced
several new Surface laptop releases. Among the products in this
rollout is a new 15″ device that, among other components,
includes a specialized AMD
Ryzen “Microsoft Surface Edition” processor. This chip
technology, it was noted, comes as a result of an ongoing
“multi-year co-engineering program” between the companies, at the
“silicon, platform, and software levels.” Among other releases,
Microsoft also previewed a new Surface Laptop 3 unit that runs Intel‘s 10th gen Core “Ice Lake”
architecture, a dual-screen “Surface Neo” notebook that is
powered by Intel’s recently announced “Lakefield” chipset, and
new Surface Pro 7 and Surface Pro X options. Additional information is
available via Microsoft Windows Blogs.

(10/02/2019)

Unisys updated its
Stealth security software to leverage Microsoft’s new Azure
Service Tag Discovery API (application program interface). This
integration is designed to provide added security when accessing
Azure cloud-based services, automatically updating security
configuration rules and providing uninterrupted access to Azure.
The Service Tag Discovery API is now available for public
testing. Further information is available via
the Unisys Web site.

(09/30/2019)

Microsoft released
the Windows Virtual Desktop worldwide. This service was created
to streamline management for a “multi-session Windows 10
experience,” and offers optimization for Office 365 ProPlus,
support for Windows Server RDS apps, and other features to help
deploy and scale Windows desktops and apps on Azure “in
minutes.” Additional info is available via the Microsoft 365 blog.

(09/30/2019)

Microsoft is updating the OneDrive cloud-based storage service. This
refresh includes access to several new features, among them its
Personal Vault function for securing files with identity
verification; expandable storage options; automatic folder
backup; a “dark” mode; and other elements. Regarding Personal
Vault, the recently developed capability is now available for
“all OneDrive consumer accounts.”

(09/30/2019)

Google announced that
its Google Assistant AI will now work with users’ Microsoft Xbox consoles.
The new interactivity will allow Xbox owners to turn on their
consoles, launch a specific game from their library of owned
titles, and to capture screenshots and video clips, all using
simple voice commands issued to their smartphones or smart
speakers. The beta version of the new functionality is currently
limited to English, but Google plans to expand it to other
languages in the near future. Google and Microsoft have posted a
full list of supported
commands on the Xbox Insider subreddit.

(09/26/2019)

Microsoft announced
an update to Excel within Office 365 that is designed to
incorporate AI (artificial intelligence) functions. Elements,
among others, include new data types, support for inserting data
from picture, and dynamic arrays.

(09/24/2019)

Microsoft‘s
ElectionGuard free open-source SDK (software-development kit) is
now available via GitHub. This
software source-code, which comes via the company’s “Defending
Democracy Program,” is designed to make voting more secure,
verifiable, and efficient. The resources have been extended across four repositories.

(09/24/2019)

In a survey of the personal computing industry, the American Customer Satisfaction Index found that Apple for the second year leads
the pack for satisfaction with their laptop and tablet products.
Apple’s score of 83 out of 100 leads all competitors as well as
the overall industry score of 78. Samsung beat all
manufacturers in desktop satisfaction at 81, while improvements
were shown by Acer, Dell, and Toshiba. Meanwhile, customer
satisfaction with software for desktops and laptops fell 1.3
percent with Microsoft
suffering the largest decrease, slipping 3 percent to a score of
77. According to ACSI, “Customer perceptions of quality have
deteriorated significantly for Microsoft over the past year, as
the manufacturer has encountered a host of customer issues with
its Windows 10 updates.”

(09/24/2019)

Microsoft is now
sampling Microgravity Lab, a Microsoft
Garage project. This project offers VR (virtual reality)
elements for Windows MR (Mixed Reality), as well as
corresponding lesson plans for instructors to simulate
microgravity. Interested educators can request an invite to try the VR application.

(09/23/2019)

Microsoft is unveiling new features and
applications that are powered by the Azure AI (artificial
intelligence) service. These “tightly integrated capabilities,”
the software developer noted, are designed to “make AI real” and
help “proactively drive decisions and action.” Announcements
include new capabilities to extend Dynamics 365 Customer
Insights “beyond B2C”; a Dynamics 365 Product Insights
application for managing data culled from connected physical
products; new IoT Intelligence for Dynamics 365 Supply Chain
Management; and other elements to “improve operational
efficiencies” for its software in more than 170 countries.

(09/23/2019)

Microsoft released a
new Automated Incident Response function within Office 365
Advanced Threat Protection. This element will apply automated
capabilities for investigating and responding to workflows.
Microsoft’s Automated Incident Response will offer both automatic
and manually-triggered investigations into suspicious content.
Further info is available via the Microsoft Security blog.

(09/09/2019)

Microsoft is adding support for handwritten and “mixed-mode” forms within
Form Recognizer. This preview capability allows one to extract
structured data from handwritten text in medical, financial,
insurance, and manufacturing forms, and employs OCR (optical
character recognition) and ML (machine learning) technology.

(09/03/2019)

Alliances and Joint Ventures

Microsoft and AT&T are teaming to create services to seamlessly connect machines and equipment to
the cloud using secure network connectivity. In particular, AT&T
is working with Microsoft to deliver an integrated IoT (Internet
of Things) solution with Azure Sphere. The solution will allow
enterprises to connect existing equipment to the cloud and Azure
IoT Central, relying on the combined security benefits of the
AT&T’s cellular network and Sphere device security.

(09/22/2020)

Microsoft has embarked on
a new strategic alliance with Shell International Petroleum. The
agreement is designed to support progress toward achieving
“net-zero” emissions, and includes access to Shell renewable
energy; collaboration on AI (artificial intelligence)
developments; creating digital tools to reduce carbon footprint;
joint work to advance sustainable aviation fuels; and improving
operational safety, risk analysis, prediction, and prevention
using Azure and data from Shell assets.

(09/22/2020)

Microsoft is partnering with OpenAI to
exclusively license GPT-3. The agreement is expected to help
Microsoft to leverage its technical innovation to develop and
deliver advanced AI (artificial intelligence), create new
technology that harnesses advanced natural language generation,
and expand the Azure-powered AI platform. OpenAI will continue to
offer GPT-3 and other models via the Azure-hosted API.

(09/22/2020)

Qualcomm is collaborating with Microsoft in a bid to
“further enhance the performance and app compatibility” of
Windows 10 devices that are powered by Snapdragon. In particular,
Microsoft has committed to providing consistent applications,
engaging vendors, and delivering improved compatibility.

(09/22/2020)

Microsoft and bp are
collaborating in a co-innovation effort
focused on digital solutions. The “strategic” partners will
specifically focus on furthering digital transformation for
energy systems, advancing net zero-carbon goals, co-innovating,
continuing the use of Azure as a cloud-based solution for bp
infrastructure, and supplying bp renewable energy to help
Microsoft meet its renewable energy goals.

(09/15/2020)

Microsoft announced
an integration deal with Nuance
Communications. This partnership will see Nuance’s Dragon
Ambient eXperience ACI (ambient clinical intelligence) solution
integrated into
Microsoft Teams. The incorporation is expected to help support
broad scaling for virtual consultations.

(09/15/2020)

Cisco Systems‘ Meraki is collaborating with Microsoft to streamline the
process for migrating workloads to the cloud. Specifically, the
companies announced an integration effort that will allow
organizations to employ Cisco SD-WAN to securely connect to
Azure Virtual WAN services.

(09/10/2020)

Microsoft has announced
that Mercedes-Benz USA will outfit its authorized dealerships
with HoloLens 2 headsets. The devices, which will be equipped
with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist software, will offer MR
(mixed reality) options to collaborate with technicians during
hands-free video calls.

(09/09/2020)

Microsoft is working
with researchers from Copenhagen University to demonstrate
“heterostructure,” a technology formed out of a “sandwich”
between different solid materials. The device described features
a heterostructure between a semiconductor, superconductor, and
ferromagnet that features materials fabricated within an
“ultra-high-vacuum” MBE (molecular beam epitaxy). The device, it
was noted, has gate-tunable superconductivity and ferromagnetism
that is induced and coexists in the semiconductor. “When such
coexistence occurs in a quantum wire device,” the parties noted,
“Majorana zero modes can result, enabling such a wire to be an
integral component of a topological quantum computer.” Additional
information is available via the Microsoft Web site.

(09/09/2020)

Microsoft joined Allianz, Amazon, and S&P Global to announce the forthcoming
launch of the Climate Finance Foundation. This initiative – which
will be led by the Linux Foundation –
will focus on building an OS-Climate Platform that leverages
open-source analytics and open data to “help better model
companies’ exposure to climate change.” Microsoft, in particular,
is committing to sharing “significant and relevant”
sustainability data to advance financial modeling and understand
climate change impact.

(09/01/2020)

Microsoft and Universal Filmed
Entertainment Group have announced a
strategic partnership to “cloud-optimize” live-action and
animation film productions. The partnership is expected to
empower the creative community with cloud-based production
workflows to support remote collaboration and content creation.
The teams will specifically collaborate to extend DreamWorks
Animation’s production platform to include live-action
production, bring workflows to Microsoft Azure, and allow
Universal partners to connect to them in “open, standards-based
ways.” The partnership will also focus on developing “near-term”
solutions to accelerate a return to industry production during
the global pandemic.

(08/24/2020)

Microsoft has expanded
on its digital alliance with the city of Houston, Texas to
“innovate in Big Data, artificial intelligence and the digital
economy.” The renewed partnership will see the software
development bring its new “Accelerate” program, for addressing
economic recovery through skilling and re-skilling underserved
communities. Other aspects of the alliance include the
development of a “holistic” plan for professional development and
support; digital literacy workshops; empowerment programs;
development through LinkedIn Learning; Imagine
Academy Learning Paths for students; and other efforts to advance
civic innovation and smart city initiatives, economic development
and recovery, and digital skilling. In all, Microsoft plans to
invest more than $1 million toward programs to support social
entrepreneurship and initiatives in partnership with Houston’s
Innovation District at The Ion.

(08/24/2020)

Microsoft and
Standard Chartered Bank have forged a three-year strategic partnership to accelerate the bank’s
digital transformation via a “cloud-first” strategy. The
agreement – which will see the financial institution leverage
Azure as its “preferred” cloud platform – is designed to extend
Standard’s “vision for virtual banking, next-generation payments,
open banking and banking-as-a-service.” The parties will also
work to co-innovate regarding open banking and real-time payments
to “unlock new banking experiences.”

(08/11/2020)

Microsoft and Samsung expanded on their existing partnership
to extend integration between Samsung “productivity” devices and
Microsoft 365, Windows 10, and Xbox apps and services. Particular
support is now available for linking Your Phone and Link to
Windows to select Samsung devices; pinning Android apps to the
Windows 10 taskbar or Start Menu; accessing Note20 on one’s
PC; viewing and editing Notes across various devices; adding
Samsung Reminders to Windows 10; extending integration for
Samsung Galaxy watches; and, coming soon, automatically
connecting Samsung Notes and OneNote.

(08/05/2020)

Microsoft, Google, IBM and its Red Hat unit, and other
“industry partners” are establishing
the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF).
This cross-industry collaboration is hosted by the Linux
Foundation, and will bring together work from the group’s Core
Infrastructure Initiative, GitHub’s Open Source Security
Coalition, and other open-source security efforts to improve
software security. Primary OpenSSF areas of coverage will include
identifying security threats to open-source projects, security
tooling, best practices, and vulnerability disclosure.

(08/03/2020)

Microsoft and
Mastercard have announced a collaboration
agreement to accelerate Mastercard Labs’ cloud-native R&D
activity. The partnership will include access to Azure and AI
(artificial intelligence) technology to help “de-risk and
commercialize” emerging technology and digital commerce
platforms. The integration will provide access to cloud-based
technology, AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality), and IoT
(Internet of Things) for Mastercard’s fintech partners.

(07/28/2020)

Microsoft expanded
its existing partnership with the NBA to introduce a “reimagined
fan experience” based around the league’s relaunch. The company
roll
ed out a new “Together mode” feature, within Microsoft Teams,
that uses AI (artificial intelligence) segmentation to bring
people together into a shared background, such as a conference
room, coffee shop, or arena. The Together Mode virtual background
employs cognition and social perception to support natural eye
contact and register participants’ emotion.

(07/27/2020)

Microsoft has established a five-year
partnership with PepsiCo to become the company’s “preferred
cloud provider” for accelerating PepsiCo infrastructure, ERP
(enterprise resource provisioning), and data estate consolidation
and modernization. PepsiCo will specifically roll out Microsoft
Azure, 365, and Teams services, worldwide.

(07/27/2020)

Microsoft and MSCI have formed a strategic alliance to
accelerate global investment industry innovation. Together, the
companies plan to integrate Microsoft cloud-based and AI
(artificial intelligence) technology with MSCI’s investment
decision support tools. Initially, Microsoft and MSCI will focus
on migrating existing products, data, and services to Azure as
its “preferred cloud platform.” Ultimately, they plan to explore
collaboration into other areas to help “better understand and
interpret the business risks and opportunities that climate
change brings.”

(07/23/2020)

Microsoft joined a
group of nine vendors to establish the Transform to Net Zero
initiative. This program is designed to transition to a “net
zero” global economy by developing research, guidance, and
roadmaps. Other partners include Unilever, Wipro, AP Moller – Maersk,
Danone, Mercedes-Benz, Natura &Co, NIKE, and Starbucks, as
well as the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

(07/21/2020)

Microsoft, Accenture, and Halliburton
entered into a five-year strategic agreement
to advance Halliburton’s digital capabilities in Microsoft Azure.
Under the deal, Halliburton plans to migrate to cloud-based
digital platforms, enhance real-time platforms, improve
analytics, and accelerate new technology and application
deployment. The companies expect to complete the staged
migration by 2022.

(07/20/2020)

Microsoft and Land
O’Lakes announced a
multiple-year strategic alliance to enhance SCM (supply chain
management) and expand sustainability practices for the
agricultural industry. In particular, the companies plan to
develop a connected AgTech platform, built on Azure collaborate
to advance data aggregation within Land O’Lakes’ Data Silo; and
create a Digital Diary offering that harnesses AI (artificial
intelligence) and edge computing to capture farming data in areas
with poor Internet coverage.

(07/15/2020)

Microsoft and Citrix Systems are
collaborating to develop technology to “accelerate the move to
the cloud” and “speed adoption of digital workspaces and virtual
desktops.” The multi-year agreement builds on existing strategic
partnerships. Under the new terms, Microsoft will select Citrix
Workspace as a “preferred digital workspace,” and Citrix will
employ Azure as a “preferred cloud platform.” The companies also
plan to provide joint tools and services to streamline the
transition of on-premise Citrix customers to Azure, and will
devise joint offerings that include Citrix Workspace, Citrix
SD-WAN, Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft 365, sold through their
direct sales forces via the Azure Marketplace and channel
partners.

(07/14/2020)

Microsoft and CH Robinson are
joining forces to focus on digitally
transforming “supply chains of the future.” The parties plan to
integrate CH Robinson’s Navisphere, Microsoft Azure, and Azure
IoT to “enable real-time visibility for CH Robinson customers.”
CH Robinson also noted that it will leverage Dynamics 365 and
Power BI to streamline its CRM (customer relationship
management).

(07/14/2020)

Microsoft and Samsung have established a global collaboration agreement to focus on digitally
transforming real estate development and property management.
The deal will combine Samsung smart appliances and Microsoft
digital cloud technology to “optimize building operations,
equipment maintenance, energy management, asset performance,
and new tenant experiences.”

(07/13/2020)

Microsoft and Allscripts Healthcare
Solutions have extended their existing strategic alliance. The
renewed partnership will focus on enabling the expanded
development and delivery of cloud-based health IT solutions. The
five-year agreement will support Allscripts’ cloud-based Sunrise
EHR (electronic health record) to make Microsoft Azure its cloud
services provider, in addition to “opening up co-innovation
opportunities” to develop healthcare with “smarter, more scalable
technology.”

(07/13/2020)

Capgemini has joined the Open Manufacturing Platform. This group, which
was founded in 2019 by Microsoft and the BMW
Group, works to help manufacturing companies accelerate
innovation at-scale through cross-industry collaboration,
knowledge- and data-sharing, and access to new technology.
Capgemini is specifically expected to lend expertise in
“Intelligent Industry, including industrial and technology
company digital transformation, with a particular focus on the
IoT Connectivity working group.

(07/07/2020)

Microsoft established
a strategic partnership with sports media property ONE
Championship. This agreement will see Microsoft named a
“preferred cloud and data services provider,” with ONE harnessing
Microsoft Azure, 365, and other cloud-based products.

(07/07/2020)

Microsoft and Adobe Systems have expanded their ongoing strategic
partnership with the Walgreens Boots
Alliance. This agreement will see the parties launch a
digital experience and customer insights platform for offering
personalized healthcare and shopping offerings from the
retailer’s global pharmacy and store. This deal specifically
includes access to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights as
CDP (customer data platform) and Adobe Customer Experience
Management for delivering “unmatched customer experiences.”

(06/30/2020)

Microsoft and Hitachi have forged a strategic multi-year alliance
to accelerate digital transformation for the manufacturing and
logistics industries. The companies will collaborate to integrate
their respective technology – including Hitachi’s Lumada and IoT
(Internet of Things) controllers, as well as Microsoft’s Azure
cloud platform – to help “meet the growing demand for predictive
maintenance and process automation in remote areas.” The groups
will also work to support various “skilling initiatives” to
empower organizations to “grow their digital capabilities” and
“unlock new business opportunities.”

(06/29/2020)

KPMG and Microsoft have entered into a collaboration agreement. This
partnership will see KPMG use Microsoft Power Platform tools –
including Power Apps, Teams, and Azure – to specifically offer
services and data models, analytics, and access to cloud-based
products.

(06/29/2020)

Microsoft, in
collaboration with the Harvard University’s OpenDP
Initiative, has developed and released an
open-source platform for “differential privacy.” This technology
is designed to allow researchers to preserve privacy while fully
analyzing datasets. Microsoft specifically granted a royalty-free
license under Microsoft’s differential privacy patents to the
world through OpenDP, as part of an effort toward “encouraging
widespread use of the platform, and allowing anyone to begin
utilizing the platform to make their datasets widely available to
others around the world.”

(06/24/2020)

Microsoft and Johns
Hopkins Medicine (JHM) have announced a five-year
relationship that will center around Microsoft’s Azure and
analytical tools. In particular, this collection will support new
discoveries as part of JHM’s inHealth precision medicine
initiative, bringing together Johns Hopkins’ global research with
Microsoft Azure and its AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities
in order to advance “discoveries that will benefit personalized
health care.” JHM, it was noted, will maintain total control over
its data.

(06/22/2020)

Facebook has joined
Google, Microsoft, and a collection
of “15 other tech companies” to establish “Project Protect.” This
initiative – which is part of a renewed commitment and investment
by the Technology
Coalition – will work to fight online child sexual abuse.
Project Protect will focus on five areas over the next 15 years:
Tech Innovation, Collective Action, Independent Research,
Information and Knowledge Sharing, and Transparency and
Accountability. Further information is available via the Facebook
Newsroom.

(06/11/2020)

Microsoft and Adaptive
Biotechnologies have launched ImmuneCODE, an open
database platform for sharing “detailed,” real-time views of
immune response to novel coronavirus. Data is based on
de-identified data generated from “thousands of COVID-19 blood
samples” worldwide. The software contains information on diverse
T cell sets to identify unique virus features – or “antigens” –
with “unprecedented speed and scale.” Additional info
is available via the Microsoft Stories blog.

(06/11/2020)

Microsoft is jointly
pursuing “strategic opportunities” with NTT DATA, including the
expansion of an alliance to accelerate enterprise customer
digital transformation. This partnership will see Azure named
NTT’s “preferred” cloud solution; bring together NTT DATA global
IT services with Microsoft’s trusted cloud platform, AI
(artificial intelligence) technology, and productivity tools. Key
initiatives will focus on Client Digital Transformation,
Workstyle Innovation, Capability Development, and using
“Technology For Good.”

(06/10/2020)

HP Inc – in conjunction with
Microsoft and Valve – unveiled the
Reverb G2. This VR (virtual reality) headset offers
high-resolution options, cutting-edge optics, inside-out
tracking, spatial 3D audio, natural gestures, support for
generally “long-wearing comfort,” and plug-and-play availability
for Windows Mixed Reality and SteamVR.

(05/28/2020)

Microsoft and Workday have forged strategic partnership to prioritize enterprise
planning in the cloud and expand access to business solutions.
The agreement will give Workday customers access to Workday
Adaptive Planning services on Azure; allow Microsoft to adopt
Adaptive Planning for its global finance teams; extend support
for these products; and see the companies unveil other
integrations between Workday applications and Microsoft Teams
and Azure Active Directory.

(05/27/2020)

Microsoft has partnered with Sony
Semiconductor to develop new AI (artificial intelligence)
“smart” camera and video analytics technology. The companies will
specifically work to embed Azure AI capabilities on Sony’s IMX500
intelligent vision sensor; create a “smart” camera-managed app
that is powered by Azure IoT (Internet of Things) and cognitive
services; and bring together Microsoft cloud and AI expertise
with Sony imaging and sensing technology. These efforts, it was
noted, are designed to facilitate hands-on co-innovation as part
of Microsoft’s AI & IoT Insider Labs program.

(05/19/2020)

Microsoft joined Giving Tech Labs in offering a preview of the X4Impact
“innovation hub.” This Azure-based software offers an AI
(artificial intelligence)-powered market intelligence platform
for defining social challenges, contributing ideas, accessing
solutions, and identifying funding. X4Impact – which aggregates
content from “hundreds of thousands” of IRS 990 and 990-PF
filings, private investment filings, federal grants, and other
“trusted” sources to collect and sort “over 30 million units of
knowledge” – was created to help social entrepreneurs,
nonprofits, citizen developers, funders, and foundations identify
where to best deploy time and talent to “collectively build a
better world.” The platform launches “this July”; users can register to receive an
invitation to trial the software.

(05/19/2020)

Microsoft and FedEx
forged a new multi-year
collaboration to “transform commerce.” The strategic alliance
represents a long-term commitment, and will combine the breadth
and scale of FedEx’s network and the Microsoft cloud. Together,
the companies will offer joint Azure- and Dynamics 365-powered
offerings that employ data and analytics technology.

(05/18/2020)

Microsoft and United
Health Group joined forces to launch the ProtectWell “return-to-workplace protocol”
app. This software is designed to allow employers to “bring
employees back to work in a safer environment.” ProtectWell
incorporates CDC guidelines
and clinical research to assist coronavirus symptoms screening
and establish workforce health and safety guidelines. The release
combines UnitedHealth’s clinical and data analytics with assorted
Microsoft technology. The app is powered by Azure, and takes
advantage of the Microsoft Healthcare Bot service.

(05/18/2020)

Dell
Technologies is announcing the addition of the Enterprise
SONiC Distribution to PowerSwitch Open Networking hardware.
Spearheaded by Microsoft, the SONiC
(Software for Open Networking in the Cloud) open-source project
offers networking software that is designed to “modernize and
simplify” data center operations and management, at scale. The
integration is designed to “remove complexity” and “create an
agile and flexible network.”

(05/12/2020)

Microsoft and Redis Labs have partnered to add new features to Azure Cache for
Redis. This partnership represents native integration between
Redis technology and the Azure cloud platform to “extend the
range of use cases for developers to utilize Redis,” while also
providing “enhanced operational resiliency and security.” The
companies are working together to build an expanded offering,
powered by Redis and integrates with Azure Cache for Redis.
Modules include RediSearch, RedisBloom, and RedisTimeSeries,
each of which providing data structures to further enable use
cases such as data analytics and ML (machine-learning).

(05/12/2020)

Microsoft previewed
its next-gen Azure VMWare solution. This
release – which is designed, built and supported by Microsoft and
endorsed by VMware – can seamlessly extend or migrate
existing on-premise VMware-based applications to Azure to
improve security, data, AI (artificial intelligence), and unified
management.

(05/04/2020)

Microsoft and IBM‘s Red Hat have announced a collaboration agreement to “extend
Azure services to hybrid environments.” Deployments will be
supported across on-premise and multi-cloud environments, as well
as, in the future, both Azure Arc for OpenShift and Red Hat
Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The Azure Arc preview specifically
expands Linux and Kubernetes management capabilities, adds
support for Red Hat customers, and helps to centrally manage,
secure, and control RHEL servers and OpenShift clusters “at
scale.” Features include the ability to view inventory and search
via Azure Portal; apply policies and manage connected server and
cluster performance using Azure Policy; enhance security posture
through built-in Azure security policies; and, as Arc moves
toward general availability, enable policies, report on expiring
certificates, manage passwords and SSH keys, and enforce disk
encryption. In addition, with SQL Server 2019 for RHEL 8 is now
quicker to deploy via new images now available in the Azure
Marketplace, we’re expanding Azure Arc to manage SQL Server on
RHEL, providing integrated database and server governance via
unified Azure Policies.

(04/28/2020)

Microsoft has forged a five-year
agreement to standardize Coca-Cola’s business operations on
Microsoft’s cloud. This deployment is designed to deliver “rich”
digital experiences to “modernize how the company engages with
employees and customers.” The agreement will include Azure,
Dynamics 365, Teams, and Microsoft 365 to provide improved data
insight, 360-degree business views, and other enhanced services.

(04/27/2020)

Microsoft has re
ached an agreement to provide intelligent cloud-based
technology to C3.ai, a firm that
develops enterprise AI (artificial intelligence) software for
“digital transformation.” This collaboration will work to elevate
C3.ai’s sales performance and customer “experience” by providing
access to Dynamics 365 Sales and Microsoft Teams.

(04/27/2020)

Microsoft and the
NBA established a multi-year partnership to
“transform the way fans experience the NBA.” This collaboration
sees Microsoft named the “Official AI Partner” as well as an
“Official Cloud and Laptop Partner” for the league and its
affiliate groups: the WNBA, NBA G League, and USA Basketball,”
effective the start of the 2020-21 NBA season. In particular,
Microsoft will team with NBA Digital to create an Azure
direct-to-consumer platform that uses ML (machine-learning) and
AI (artificial intelligence) to deliver personalized content;
provide ML, cognitive search, and advanced data analytics
services; and serve as the “Entitlement Partner” for the NBA
Draft Combine and “Associate Partner” for future events.

(04/20/2020)

Microsoft and UNICEF have expanded their joint global learning platform for
educating children impacted by novel coronavirus. The Learning
Passport – which is part of a partnership with the University of
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, and Cambridge
Assessment – is designed to provide a digital remote learning
platform for “displaced and refugee children.” The program was
set for pilot this year, but modified to specifically address the
pandemic.

(04/20/2020)

Microsoft and BlackRock formed a
strategic partnership. This agreement will see the Microsoft
Azure cloud-based platform host BlackRock’s Aladdin
infrastructure. The integration is expected to help BlackRock to
improve computing scale, enhance the client experience, and
leverage Azure’s network of global data centers and capabilities.

(04/07/2020)

Microsoft teamed
with C3.ai and a collection of
research universities and government research laboratories to establish the new C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute.
This alliance – which also includes the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign; the University of California, Berkeley;
Princeton University; the University of Chicago; the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Carnegie Mellon
University; the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and the
National Center for Supercomputing Applications at UUC – focuses
on accelerating AI (artificial intelligence) innovation,
advocacy, invention, and collaboration, as well as scaling
digital transformation. The group plans to work toward
accelerating AI applications to speed the pace of digital
transformation, and will sponsor and fund scientists in a
coordinated effort to advance digital transformation for
business, government, and society.

(03/26/2020)

Software developers from a number of tech companies are
joining a hackathon to address aspects of dealing with the
coronavirus pandemic. Facebook, Microsoft, Giphy, Pinterest,
Slack, TikTok, Twitter, and WeChat are partnering with the World
Health Organization (WHO) on the BuildforCOVID1
9 project. Areas identified for particular focus are health
issues, working to help vulnerable populations, business,
community, education, and entertainment, although developers are
encouraged to be creative in coming up with their own areas. The
overall deadline for ideas – which must include a two-minute
video explanation via YouTube or Vimeo – is March 30, with the
highlighted projects announced on April 3.

(03/25/2020)

Arkose Labs, a fraud detection and prevention platform, has
raised $22 million in a funding round that included an investment
firm Microsoft‘s M12
venture fund. Microsoft now joins PayPal as backers of the San
Francisco-based company. The Arkose system consists of two
sections: Arkose Detect and Arkose Enforce. As Security Week describes it, Arkose
Detect learns behavioral patterns across devices and networks,
using a risk score to determine genuine users from fraudsters. If
there is any doubt as to the user, the Arkose Enforce application
presents a visual puzzle that must be solved. If it isn’t,
further visual puzzles are presented to engage the attacker’s
resources in a useless cycle of effort. The intent, said Arkose
in a statement, is “to bankrupt the business of online fraud and
abuse … by making cybercriminals expend massive effort to
conduct their attacks, which eliminates the ROI and profitability
of fraud.”

(03/24/2020)

Microsoft and Adaptive
Biotechnologies revealed plans to leverage their existing
partnership to map “population-wide adaptive immune responses to
diseases at scale.” This research agreement, which will
specifically focus on coronavirus, will see the creation of a
data access portal that is made freely available to researchers,
public health officials, and other organizations. In particular,
Adaptive will collect anonymous Covid-19 blood samples using a
LabCorp-enabled device, leveraging Microsoft hyperscale machine
learning and the Azure cloud-based platform to improve immune
response signature accuracy.

(03/23/2020)

Bing announced that Facebook‘s RapID Editor
now includes access
to Microsoft Building
Footprints. This partnership is designed to enrich the RapiD
editor by adding aspects of the Missing Maps initiative – of
which Microsoft is a partner – to improve mapping options.
Facebook’s RapiD editor is an enhanced version of the OSM
(OpenStreetMap) editing tool.

(03/18/2020)

Microsoft and Kubota signed multi-year
strategic alliance to accelerate Kubota’s digital transformation. Kubota
will migrate its IT infrastructure and SAP mission-critical systems
onto Azure’s trusted-cloud platform.

(03/16/2020)

Microsoft and Swiss Re established a
strategic alliance. This partnership will see the launch of Swiss Re’s
Digital Market Center, for developing next-gen tools for
insurance industry predictions and risk management. The Digital
Market Center will draw on Microsoft Azure cloud-based, IoT
(Internet of Things), and AI (artificial intelligence)
technology.

(03/12/2020)

Microsoft and Accenture are creating a joint initiative for providing “social enterprises”
with access to “hands-on” support and technology. In particular,
Microsoft Research India and Accenture Labs will work together to
provide resources for startups to test and validate PoCs
(proofs-of-concept), “design thinking,” impact, and other
elements for exploring and using Microsoft technology, in
addition to helping build scalable business models.

(03/04/2020)

Microsoft and Cisco Systems have entered into a
collaboration agreement to provide a pre-integrated version of
the Cisco Edge to Microsoft Azure IoT Hub. This integrated
product is designed to provide access to design tools, global
connectivity, advanced analytics, and cognitive services,
specifically for analyzing IoT (Internet of Things) data, thus
supporting “simple” device provisioning and “at scale”
management.

(03/03/2020)

Microsoft and the
NFL have extended on their “deep” technology partnership.
This multi-year expansion will provide NFL personnel with
enhanced communication and collaboration services via Surface
devices and access to Teams within Office 365; see the conducting
of joint work toward a “modern” collaboration technology; and
developing unique business- and consumer-facing integration for
“real-world productivity.”

(03/03/2020)

The Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA) announced that it has
approximately doubled in size, to
102 members, including new ecosystem partners such as RSA, ServiceNow, and Net Motion. The
additions include ecosystem partners, product teams, and
integration firms will join Microsoft in drafting an
expanded partner strategy for Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat
Protection. Other aspects of the alliance include general work
with ecosystem partners to develop “critical integrations” to
benefit shared customers; allow APIs to better “extend the power
of … combined platforms” to strengthen network and endpoint
security; and improve security validation, attack simulation,
incident response, threat intelligence, and Web-content
filtering. Microsoft also noted that it makes its Azure DDoS
Protection services – for fighting Distributed Denial-of-Service
attacks – available to group partners.

(02/24/2020)

Microsoft and Nuance
Communications have released the Nuance Dragon
Ambient eXperience (DAX) product. This jointly “innovated” ACI
(ambient clinical intelligence) software works with EHR
(electronic health record) systems to offer secure capturing,
contextualizing for physician-patient conversations, and
generally improving the physician-patient experience. Nuance DAX
is based on “in-depth” research investments into conversational
AI (artificial intelligence) and cloud-based services, and is the
result of a multi-year joint-development effort between the
companies.

(02/24/2020)

Microsoft is working
with automotive technology provider Cerence to integrate the
latter’s products within the Microsoft Connected Vehicle
Platform. This integration is part of Cerence’s commitment to
delivering “interoperability across voice-powered platforms and
operating systems,” as well as Microsoft’s focus on CASE
(connected, autonomous, shared, and electric) scenarios – and
their underlying technology – within the connected car
environment.

(02/11/2020)

Microsoft announced
that it will serve as a technology partner for Commonwealth Bank’s X15
Ventures. This group was established – which is focused on
helping Commonwealth remain “at the leading edge” of the
financial services sector – will work with a party of 25 startups
over the next five years to specifically create services for
accessing such technology and expertise. Of note, Microsoft will
commit to continually investing in “digital solutions, security
and trust.”

(02/04/2020)

Microsoft and Genesys have expanded an existing
partnership to provide a new cloud-based service for contact
centers. This development – which is part of a joint co-selling
and go-to-market strategy – will focus on delivering “superior
interactions,” and will see the omni-channel CX (customer
experience) solution Genesys Engage run on Azure. Genesys
Engage on Microsoft Azure will be available in “late 2020.”

(01/23/2020)

Microsoft issued a
series of announcements to specifically target the international education sector.
This news includes the forging of new partnerships with T-Mobile (US) and Vodafone (Europe and
Africa) toward establishing pilot programs for school districts
in rural and under-served areas to “test the newest connected
PCs.” The collaborations, which begin “next month,” include pilot
school access to SIM cards, 4G LTE coverage, and other types of
“education-specific cellular connectivity.” Microsoft also
announced new hardware in the form of connected PCs that are
“built and priced especially for education.” The new JPIK Turn
T101 and Positivo Wise N1212S, which both ship “this Summer,”
will feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c
processor, as well as features for improved battery life and
performance. Finally, Microsoft is releasing new in-classroom
software such as PowerPoint for Web (audience training and
engagement) Stream (video creation); Teams Class Insights
(student performance and activity data access); an Edge browser
update for supporting “inclusive classrooms”; and OneNote Live
Captions (captioning and translation streams).

(01/20/2020)

Microsoft and Lloyds
Banking Group (LBG) forged a
strategic partnership to focus on accelerating the latter’s
digital transformation. This agreement – which is part of a GBP3
billion (US$3.94 billion) LBG investment in new technology – will
include the development of Managed Desktop with productivity
tools within Office 365; improved security that is based on
Windows 10; and support for evergreen currency management. The
new service is designed to provide a modern digital workplace for
LBG employees.

(01/20/2020)

Microsoft announced that it is sharing a “grooming detection technique” –
code-name “Project Artemis” – for detecting tactics used by
potential online child predators. The function was developed in
collaboration with The Meet Group, Roblox, Kik, and Thorn, and
builds off of Microsoft technology that will be made freely
available via Thorn for use by “qualified online service
companies.” In particular, the technique is applied to
historical, text-based chat conversations, and can evaluate and
rate conversation characteristics, assigning an overall
probability rating for potential

(01/13/2020)

Microsoft and DXC Technology‘s Luxoft are expanding their
collaboration to focus on accelerating the delivery of connected
vehicle and mobility technology. In particular, Luxoft will
leverage Microsoft’s Connected Vehicle Platform to more easily
deliver “vehicle centric” products and services; offer features
such as advanced vehicle diagnostics, remote access and repair,
and preventative maintenance; and help collect usage data to
support vehicle engineering and improve manufacturing.

(01/02/2020)

Microsoft announced
that it is working with Ericsson to build the
company’s Connected Vehicle Cloud on top of the Microsoft
Connected Vehicle Platform, which runs on Azure. This integrated
product is designed to allow auto manufacturers to more easily
deploy and scale global vehicle services such as fleet
management, OTA (over-the-air) software updates, and “connected”
safety services, in addition to accessing various modular design
and deployment options.

(12/23/2019)

Microsoft is
collaborating with ZF
as part of a bid to “transform ZF into a provider of
software-driven mobility.” Together, the companies are working to
integrate software engineering processes, methods, and solutions
in order to more easily scale global resources. ZF will
specifically leverage Azure cloud-based services and developer
tools and agile software development experience in order to
provide software for the automotive industry.

(12/23/2019)

Microsoft Taiwan
established a global partnership with media technology company
KKBOX Group. With this
agreement, KKBOX will migrate its music-streaming service to
Azure; join Microsoft’s global partner network; release a
next-gen BlendVision commercial video-streaming platform; and
use data and AI (artificial intelligence) technology to optimize
music-creation and listening systems for consumers.

(12/23/2019)

Microsoft and Oracle have expanded their existing cloud
interoperability partnership agreement. This continued deal will
see the addition of a new interconnect location for helping
seamlessly interoperate between the companies’ respective
cloud-based services in Canada.

(12/19/2019)

Microsoft and NTT developed a multi-year
strategic alliance toward “delivering secure and reliable
solutions” to help accelerate digital transformation. This
partnership will bring together NTT ICT (information and
communications technology), managed services, and cybersecurity
expertise, with Microsoft “trusted” cloud platform and AI
(artificial intelligence) technology. Key initiatives will
include the creation of a Global Digital Fabric; digital
enterprise solutions built on Azure; and next-gen technology in
the area of “all-photonics network” and “digital twin computing.”

(12/10/2019)

Microsoft and KPMG are strengthening their
global partnership by way of a five-year agreement to “accelerate
digital transformation” for KPMG member firms and mutual clients.
This partnership – which is part of an ongoing $5 billion KPMG
investment in digital strategy – sees the latter deploy Microsoft
365 collaboration and productivity tools, as well as Azure and
other AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities, as the backbone
for a new common, global cloud-based platform.

(12/05/2019)

Microsoft is teaming
with NVIDIA to provide new
resources for developers and startups. Of note, the companies
plan to offer “eligible” partners developing AI (artificial
intelligence) technology with “preferred access” to the Microsoft
for Startups and NVIDIA Inception programs. Benefits will include
free and discounted technology, go-to-market support, and access
to technical experts.

(11/21/2019)

Microsoft
Philanthropies, the Cognizant US
Foundation, and Walmart.org announced a
collective, $3 million investment to deliver “industry-informed” computer
science curriculum. This investment in the CodePath.org nonprofit
will specifically provide resources to 150 US colleges in support
of “women and students of color studying and pursuing careers in
technology.” The round of funding is expected to triple the
number of participating schools, expanding the initiative’s
presence to over 75 cities, nationwide, and accommodating as
many as 7,000 students by 2021.

(11/19/2019)

Microsoft is teaming with Baker Hughes and C3.ai forged an alliance to provide
enterprise AI (artificial intelligence) services via Microsoft
Azure. The partnership is designed to improve adoption of
scalable AI by leveraging Baker and C3 expertise and technology.

(11/19/2019)

Software AG
announced its participation in the Open Data Initiative (ODI) as a “Partner Advisory Council” member. This group – which
was founded by Microsoft, Adobe Systems, and AP in
2018 – aims to help companies transform customer experience
through “real-time insights” from the cloud. Software AG’s
webMethods.io is expected to play a “key” role in helping
customers access and integrate data across multiple sources and
application areas, providing pre-build connecters, integration
recipes, and templates for connecting real-time data sources.

(11/18/2019)

Microsoft and Nokia have established a strategic collaboration to “accelerate transformation and
innovation” using cloud-based, AI (artificial intelligence), and
IoT (Internet of Things). This partnership will combine Microsoft
cloud technology – including Azure, Azure IoT, Azure AI, and ML
(Machine Learning) solutions – with Nokia expertise in
mission-critical networking, LTE/5G-ready private wireless, IP,
SD-WAN, and IoT connectivity technology.

(11/05/2019)

VMWare announced
the continuation of its partnership with Microsoft. Together, the
companies outlined a series of new initiatives, including
combined solutions that feature VMware Workspace ONE and
Microsoft Endpoint Manager, to accelerate “modern management”;
a global expansion for the Azure VMware Solutions hybrid cloud
service; and the addition of new cloud-migration capabilities via
VMware HCX. Other plans include improved certification and
support for SQL Server 2019 on vSphere; plans to collaborate on
improved customer “experience” features for Azure Data Services
on VMware cloud infrastructure; and an extension of Azure to
branch and edge environments, via VMware SD-WAN by
VeloCloud.

(11/05/2019)

Microsoft and
Mastercard introduced a new service to make online shopping “easier
and more secure.” This collaboration, which includes researchers
from both companies and leverages Microsoft infrastructure that
is based on its Windows Hello technology for accessing devices
via a fingerprint or facial-recognition technology. The companies
noted that the service can screen a user’s biometric information
for comparison against Windows Hello identification in order to
authenticate the user.

(10/28/2019)

Dynabook Americas
announced a partnership with Microsoft to build more
secure Windows devices. The new class of Windows 10
“Secured-core” PCs are designed with deep integration between
hardware and software, feature Intel processing, and are
designed to “ensure resistance to current and future
cyber-threats.” Dynabook’s Portege X30, Tecra X40, and Tecra X50
will be the first laptops to offer this “next-level” hardware,
software and identity protection. Secured-core PCs are intended
to handle mission-critical data and protect workers in
data-sensitive industries, areas often targeted for phishing and
other attacks, and businesses that employ mobile workers.

(10/21/2019)

Microsoft and SAP announced a go-to-market
partnership to accelerate the use of SAP’s S/4HANA and Cloud
Platform on Microsoft Azure. This “preferred cloud” agreement
will allow the companies – as well as a “global network of system
integrators” – to offer holistic bundles for unified reference
architectures, road maps, and other resources for cloud
migration. Microsoft plans to re-sell components of the SAP Cloud
Platform alongside Azure.

(10/21/2019)

Microsoft forged a
strategic partnership with Human
a that focuses on building “modern” healthcare solutions. The
collaboration will see Humana develop a set of predictive
solutions and intelligent automation services that are based on
Azure, Azure AI (artificial intelligence), and Microsoft 365
collaboration technology, as well as interoperability standards
such as FHIR.

(10/21/2019)

Microsoft and Nuance
Communications established a new strategic partnership
toward accelerating / delivering ambient clinical intelligence in
a healthcare setting. The companies plan to develop joint
technology that makes use of ambient sensing and conversational
AI (artificial intelligence) in order to streamline
administrative tasks, provide clinical documentation, and,
ultimately, allow doctors to better take care of patients.
Further details are
available via Microsoft’s AI Blog.

(10/17/2019)

Microsoft and Alibaba Cloud announced
the co-creation of a new Open Application Model (OAM) project
under the Open Web Foundation. This specification describes
applications so that the software’s description is separated from
the details of how the application is deployed onto – and managed
by – the infrastructure. Additional details are available via
Microsoft’s Open Source Blog.

(10/16/2019)

Microsoft is
partnering with T-Hub on The Bridge
Accelerator initiative. This program will specifically offer
custom programs for the manufacturing industry, entrepreneurs,
and other companies. In particular, the companies plan to work to
accelerate business growth by combining technology, business
acumen, and other “advantageous connections between
entrepreneurs and corporations.” The Bridge Accelerator includes
an early-investment venture capital fund, a digital fabrication
lab, and a cohort of 10 local businesses.

(10/14/2019)

Microsoft entered
into a collaboration with Novartis to explore the
integration of Microsoft’s AI (artificial intelligence)
technology within Novartis’ “deep” life sciences expertise. The
groups are looking, in particular, to better address
drug-development challenges, including research, clinical trials,
manufacturing, operations, and finance.

(10/01/2019)

Microsoft announced
that its Azure AD offering now supports “deep” integration with
F5 Networks. This addition is designed to streamline secure
access to one’s legacy applications – using protocols such as
header-based and Kerberos authentication – for more “seamless
and secure” use, helping protect legacy-auth-based applications
and better manage and monitor access through identity
governance.

(09/30/2019)

T-Mobile announced a
new collaboration with Microsoft surrounding the
Windows maker’s recently-announced Project xCloud game
streaming service. Under the terms of the agreement, T-mobile
will serve as the US technical partner for Microsoft’s public
preview of Project xCloud, which allows users to stream high-end
video games from their Xbox consoles to mobile device, via LTE
connections. The preview is scheduled to begin in October, and
will allow Android users to play several Xbox titles via their
smartphone or tablet, with full gamepad support. Those titles
include Gears 5, Halo 5: Guardians, Sea of Thieves, and Killer
Instinct, with more games to follow. T-Mobile customers
interested in participating in the preview event can sign up at
Microsoft’s
Web site.

(09/25/2019)

Three dozen major tech companies are banding together to
create the
Voice Interoperability Initiative, an effort to have multiple
voice assistants work next to each other on devices, rather than
forcing customers to lock themselves into one voice ecosystem.
The goals of the group are to develop voice services that can
work seamlessly with others while protecting the privacy and
security of customers; build voice-enabled devices that promote
choice and flexibility through multiple, simultaneous wake words;
release technologies and solutions that make it easier to
integrate multiple voice services on a single product; and
accelerate machine learning and conversational AI research to
improve the breadth, quality, and interoperability of voice
services. Charter members of the coalition include Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce,
Sonos, Sony Audio Group, Spotify, Verizon, Orange, and Qualcomm. Notably absent
from the lineup are Google,
Apple, and Samsung, who also happen
to be three of the leading smartphone producers. Smartphone, of
course, account for the vast majority of voice assistant
interaction.

(09/24/2019)

The members of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism
(GIFCT) have announced that the group will become an “independent
organization” that will be led by an Executive Director and
supported by “dedicated technology, counterterrorism and
operations teams.” The new, independent GIFCT will integrate
existing work to develop technology, cultivate strong corporate
policies, and sponsor research under the mission statement:
“Prevent terrorists and violent extremists from exploiting
digital platforms.” GIFCT was formally established by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and Google‘s YouTube, and also now
includes contributions from Amazon, Microsoft’s LinkedIn, and Facebook’s WhatsApp, with “an even
broader group” collaborating on critical initiatives for tech
innovation, knowledge-sharing, and research.

(09/23/2019)

Microsoft is
partnering with Nextlink
Internet as part of an agreement to help “close the broadband
gap in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.”
This agreement – which is designed to expand high-speed Internet
services to “hundreds” of rural communities – will allow Nextlink
to expand coverage areas as part of the Microsoft Airband Initiative.

(09/18/2019)

Microsoft,
Schlumberger, and Chevron announced a three-party collaboration.
This agreement is designed to accelerate the creation of
petrotechnical and digital technology, build Azure-native
applications in the DELFI cognitive environment, and allow
organizations to process, visualize, interpret, and collect
insight from multiple data sources.

(09/17/2019)

Microsoft and Oracle forged a
cloud-interoperability partnership. This agreement will see
Oracle announce the availability of an integration between Oracle
Digital Assistant and Microsoft Teams, allowing customers to
access Oracle Cloud Applications through an AI (artificial
intelligence)-powered voice “experience” in Teams.

(09/17/2019)

Microsoft and Walt Disney
Studios established a five-year agreement to pilot methods
for creating, producing, and distributing content on Azure.
Through Disney’s StudioLAB technology hub, the companies will
work to deliver cloud-based technology to accelerate innovation
“from scene to screen.”

(09/16/2019)

Personnel and Organizational

Microsoft revealed
plans to establish a new sustainable datacenter region – the
“West US 3 region” – in Arizona. The datacenter region will
deliver enterprise-grade, cloud-based services to support Azure,
Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and compliance / security / privacy
initiatives. Additional info
is available via the Microsoft Web site.

(09/21/2020)

Microsoft has announced new technology, partnerships, and educational efforts toward
combatting “disinformation.” The revelations – which come as part
of Microsoft’s Defending Democracy Program – include the Video
Authenticator, for analyzing still images and video to detect
artificial manipulation, as well as Azure-based technology for
assessing manipulated content. Microsoft also established a
series of partnerships, including alliances with the AI
Foundation, to make Video Authenticator available to
organizations involved in the “democratic process”; a consortium
of media companies to test its authenticity technology; and the
University of Washington, Sensity, and USA Today to promote
media literacy initiatives.

(09/01/2020)

Microsoft and LinkedIn have introduced the
Microsoft Learn free online learning platform. This resource
combines training, browser-based interactive coding, scripted
environments, and task-based achievements to help advance
technical skills and prepare for certifications. The program
includes more than 225 “learning paths,” 1,000 modules,
role-based training, Microsoft product certifications,
instructor-led courses, and other new elements such as Learn TV,
Cloud Skills Challenge, Q&A, Learn Catalog API, among others.

(07/01/2020)

Microsoft has established its
new “Accelerate” program. This initiative will focus on
addressing economic recovery by skilling under-served
communities, re-skilling those impacted by COVID-19, and further
developing digital skills and employment partnerships. The
program will first launch in Atlanta.

(07/01/2020)

Microsoft has announced a strategic change
in its retail operations that includes the closure of a number of
physical store locations. As part of this change, Microsoft noted
plans to invest in digital Microsoft, Xbox, and Windows stores;
serve customers from corporate facilities; and ramp up remote
sales, training, and support services. The plan also includes the
reimagining of spaces that serve all customers, including
Microsoft Experience Centers and campus locations. The store
closings are expected to result in pre-tax charges of
approximately $450 million.

(06/29/2020)

Microsoft has established a five-year, $1.5 billion investment plan in Italy.
This commitment – which the software developer is calling a ”
significant” initiative to “support local innovation and growth”
– includes the creation of a local datacenter region and other
efforts to empower organizations and support economic growth.
Specific areas of focus will include improved access to AI Hubs
and SMB programs, cloud-based services, digital skilling and
“smart” working programs, and the creation of a new
Sustainability Alliance and other expanded partnerships.

(05/11/2020)

Microsoft added Jeff
Ma as GM, Microsoft for Startups. Ma – whose knowledge of
mathematics is profiled in the 2008 film 21 – will support “global
efforts” with a specialty in “deep understanding of analytics.”
The new exec is also the founder of CircleLending, Citizen
Sports, and tenXer, which were sold to Virgin, Yahoo, and Twitter, respectively.

(05/07/2020)

Microsoft has introduced the Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Expert program.
Members can connect with the global educator community in order
to learn “new ways to innovate with tech tools,” and share best
practices.

(05/06/2020)

Microsoft revealed
plans to establish a datacenter region in New Zealand. This
location will deliver enterprise-grade cloud-based services in
the country. The New Zealand datacenter region is the latest
addition to Microsoft’s global datacenter footprint, which will
total 60 areas worldwide.

(05/06/2020)

Microsoft has
established a $1 billion investment plan to “accelerate
innovation and digital transformation” in the “Polish Digital
Valley.” This multifaceted initiative includes tenets such as
opening a datacenter region in the country; a partnership with
domestic cloud-based services provider Chmura Krajowa to provide
digital transformation expertise; and other elements designed to
provide “broad access to cloud solutions across all industries
and enterprises in Poland.”

(05/05/2020)

Microsoft has established an Open Data Campaign to
address the looming “data divide.” This initiative will
specifically work to “advance a much-needed discussion about how
the world uses and shares data.” Tenets include the release of
new principles to guide approaches to data-sharing, developing
collaborations based around shared data, and investing in
“essential assets – including tools, frameworks, and templates –
to facilitate data sharing.

(04/21/2020)

Microsoft, as part of
its AI for Earth biodiversity initiative, established a new program to
“aggregate environmental data,” worldwide, and put it to work as
part of a new “Planetary Computer.” The technology will allow
partners and customers to use output to “enhance environmental
decision-making in their organizational activities.” This
Planetary Computer will provide insight into critical questions
“with no easy way to obtain a locally relevant answer.” Examples
given include understanding tree density and land use, water and
food availability, and wildlife populations. The AI for Earth
community includes over 500 grants in 81 countries, and grants
access to “critical” environmental datasets, a computing platform
to analyze datasets, and investments.

(04/15/2020)

Microsoft is updating
its nonprofit commitment to “free up scarce resources, support
remote work and training, and enable organizations to securely
utilize data analysis.” Specifically, the company will double its
Azure credits, increase Windows benefits, and add pro bono
services to help critical-care and first-response nonprofits.
Further info is available via the
Microsoft On the Issues blog.

(04/13/2020)

Microsoft announced
a series of updates to its partner program.
Of note, the company announced an increase in learning and
incentives opportunities; tools such as the Partner Center,
on-demand support, and “evolved” co-selling programs; a general
commitment to “investing in and delivering what partners need”;
and upgraded Teams for modern business, tech “intensity,” Azure
migration opportunities, and bolstered security options.
Microsoft also announced access to new products and services for
advanced specialization, Teams practice development, and – via
partner Wipro – the launch of a dedicated Microsoft Business
Unit.

(04/13/2020)

Microsoft announced
new products, services, and resources via its Defending Democracy
program. Additions include a new Election Security Advisors
service, for giving political campaigns and election officials
“hands-on” help securing systems and recovering from
cyberattacks; an expanded AccountGuard threat-notification
service to cover election and officials working remotely; an
extending Microsoft 365 for Campaigns product for state-level
campaigns and parties; and revised public policy recommendations
for securing elections and addressing COVID-19. Further info is available via the
Microsoft On the Issues blog.

(04/06/2020)

Microsoft has announced that its
legendary Co-Founder and Technology Advisor, Bill Gates, has
stepped down from the company’s Board of Directors to “dedicate
more time” to “philanthropic priorities.” Gates – who will
continue to serve as an advisor to CEO Satya Nadella and “other
leaders in the company” – will focus on charity work related to
global health, development, education, and tackling climate
change. The figurehead stepped away from a day-to-day role with
the company in 2008, but served as company Chairman until 2014.

(03/16/2020)

Microsoft has announced that Gretchen O’Hara will take on the role of VP, AI Country
Strategy & Sustainability Partnership. O’Hara, who formerly led
Go-To-Markets, will focus on “driving cross-boundary
collaboration”; promoting transformation “at scale”; shaping new
technology; and creating connections and opportunities to
“empower people, and drive growth and economic prosperity at a
global level.”

(03/02/2020)

Microsoft announced
the opening of a
new Datacenter Region in Spain. In particular, Microsoft plans to
deliver “intelligent” cloud-based services – including Azure,
365, Dynamics 365, and the Power Platform – from one of its four
Datacenter Regions, bolstered specifically by way of an expanded
partnership with Telefonica. Together, the
companies plan to accelerate digital transformation by helping
mutual customers leverage the cloud to more quickly, securely and
easily innovate and scale their operations to create new business
opportunities and improve competitiveness. As part of this
agreement, Telefonica has selected Microsoft as its “strategic
cloud partner” in order to accelerate its own digital
transformation. Key initiatives between them will include
collaborating to better serve “critical” sectors such as
government, healthcare, education, travel, manufacturing, retail,
finance, and insurance; delivering joint capabilities that
leverage Telefonica’s infrastructure; and drafting a
collaboration framework to provide joint “go-to-market” plans.

(02/25/2020)

Microsoft is establishing a new Global Social Entrepreneurship program. This initiative
will offer qualified startups access to new technology,
education, customers, and grants. The program will be targeted
toward companies that meet a number of criteria, among them:
employing a metric that measures social or environmental impact,
offering a product or service that would benefit the enterprise
customer, and generally committing to the “ethical and
responsible use of AI (artificial intelligence).” Microsoft’s
Global Social Entrepreneurship program will first launch in 140
countries.

(02/24/2020)

Microsoft announced
that it is experiencing
“continued progress” in its five-year, $1.1 billion “Innovate for
Mexico” initiative. This plan specifically focuses on
“accelerating Mexico’s digital transformation” and “democratizing
… access to technology.” Specific plans underway include the
establishment of a cloud datacenter region for delivering
intelligent cloud-based services for public agencies,
organizations, and society; an education and skills program;
laboratories and a virtual classroom; initiatives for applying AI
(artificial intelligence) and digital transformation; and an
Advisory Board to identify the demand for skills-development
initiatives, sharing best practices, tracking progress, and
improving employability. A second and third pillar, meanwhile,
includes focuses on “Skilling for the Future,” including
developing skills in new technology for students, and fostering
“Digital Innovation for Mexico,” respectively.

(02/24/2020)

Microsoft expanded
its Microsoft for Startups “founder-first” program to include
access to both GitHub Enterprise startup resources and the
Microsoft Power Platform. Specific coverage will now include
elements for streamlined account administration; expanded
security, compliance, and deployment controls; and other features
for analyzing data, building solutions, automating processes, and
creating virtual agents.

(02/13/2020)

Microsoft launched
AI for Health, a $40 million,
five-year program. This initiative will specifically work to
“empower researchers and organizations with AI” in order to
“improve the health of people and communities around the world.”
Key areas of focus will include accelerating medical research to
advance prevention, diagnoses and treatment of diseases;
increasing shared understanding of mortality and longevity; and
reducing health inequity and improving access to care for
underserved populations.

(01/29/2020)

Microsoft revealed
plans to establish its
first “cloud region” and campus in Israel. This investment is
designed to specifically deliver “intelligent, trusted cloud
services” through a “local datacenter region.” The deal expands
Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure to 56 cloud regions in 21
countries, and is expected to become available, starting with
Azure, in 2021. In addition, 2020 will also see the launch of a
new Microsoft Israel campus to compliment its local business
branch, R&D center, venture capital fund, and Startups programs.

(01/22/2020)

Microsoft pledged to commit an additional $250 million toward its
“affordable housing initiative.” This funding – which brings its
total investment to $750 million – will come in the form of a
line of credit to the Washington State Finance Commission to support the “preservation or
creation of over 6,500 affordable housing units in the greater
Seattle area.”

(01/15/2020)

Microsoft announced
a new initiative with select partners to focus on the design of
“Secure-core PCs.” This alliance will work toward establishing
new device-security requirements for protecting against targeted
firmware attacks. The devices in question will be created
alongside Microsoft “PC manufacturing and silicon partners,” and
will apply “isolation” and “minimal trust” practices to the
firmware layer of a Windows OS. More details are available
via the Microsoft Security blog.

(10/21/2019)

Microsoft has announce
d a new international track for the Airband Initiative. This
plan – which will focus on bringing Internet access to “40
million unserved and underserved” worldwide by July 2022. Initial
areas of focus will include laying technology in Latin America
and Sub-Saharan Africa, in addition to honing in on “regulatory
interest” in solving connectivity issues. In particular,
Microsoft will work with “local partners” toward solving
last-mile connectivity challenges by removing regulatory
obstacles, partnering with local ISPs (Internet service
providers), enabling rural digital transformation, and generally
building a larger support ecosystem.

(10/07/2019)

Microsoft has
nominated Emma Walmsley, the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, as a Board
member. Walmsley will be presented for election at the annual
shareholders meeting on December 4, 2019, and would replace
Charles Noski, who is stepping down after 16 years as a Director.
If Walmsley and the other nominees are elected, Microsoft’s Board
would consist of 13 members.

(09/23/2019)

Financials

Microsoft noted a 13
percent year-on-year increase in both company sales and earnings
for the full, 12-month fiscal year ended June 30, 2020. Revenues,
in all, were $143 billion, compared to year-ago fiscal period
sales of $126 billion. Profits, meanwhile, totaled $44 billion,
or $5.76 per share, from a year-ago fiscal net income of $39
billion, or $5.06 per share. For the fourth quarter, Microsoft’s
revenues were $38 billion, an amount that is up by 12 percent
from year-ago Q4 sales of $34 billion. By-segment revenue
included Productivity and Business Processes, which grew 6
percent year to year to $12 billion; Intelligent Cloud, which
increased 17 percent to $13.4 billion; and More Personal
Computing, which is up 14 percent to $13 billion. Microsoft’s Q4
profits were $11 billion, or $1.46 per share. This amount marked
a 15 percent decline from year-ago quarterly earnings of $13
billion, or $1.71 per share.

(07/22/2020)

Microsoft recorded
26 percent year-on-year income growth for the fiscal 2020 third
quarter ended March 31, 2020. Earnings were $10.8 billion, or
$1.40 per share, compared to fiscal 2019 third quarter profits of
$8.8 billion, or $1.14 per share. Coronavirus, it was noted, had
“minimal net impact” on Microsoft’s results. The software
company’s revenues, meanwhile, totaled $35 billion. This amount
is up by 16 percent over year-ago quarterly sales of $31 billion.
In terms of revenue by line of business, Microsoft noted that
Productivity and Business Processes – as well as Intelligent
Cloud – each improved 20 percent year to year to $12 billion,
while More Personal Computing increased 3 percent to $11 billion.

(04/29/2020)

Microsoft reported 38
percent year-on-year earnings growth for the fiscal 2020 second
quarter ended December 31, 2019. Profits totaled $11.6 billion,
or $1.51 per share, compared to a fiscal 2019 second quarter net
income of $8.4 billion, or $1.08 per share. These results, it was
noted, include charges of $157 million related to US tax
regulations. Revenues, meanwhile, were $36.9 billion, which is up
by 14 percent from FY19Q2 sales of $32.5 billion. By segment,
Productivity and Business Processes revenue improved 17 percent
year to year to $11.8 billion; Intelligent Cloud sales grew 27
percent to $11.9 billion; and More Personal Computing revenue
increased 2 percent to $13.2 billion.

(01/29/2020)

Microsoft logged
solid earnings and revenue gains, year to year, for the fiscal
2020 first-quarter period ended September 30, 2019. The software
company’s profits totaled $10.7 billion, or $1.38 per share, an
amount that is up by 22 percent when compared to a FY19Q1 net
income of $8.8 billion, or $1.14 per share. Revenues, meanwhile,
were $33 billion, which is up by 14 percent from fiscal 2019 Q1
sales of $29 billion. Each business segment recorded $11 billion
in revenue, with Productivity and Business Processes up 10
percent year to year, Intelligent Cloud improving 22 percent, and
More Personal Computing gaining 3 percent.

(10/23/2019)

Microsoft, the King
County Housing Authority, and King County announced a combined
$245 million investment in King County, Washington. This spending
will focus on helping to protect affordable rental housing
throughout the area.

(09/26/2019)

Legal News

Amazon has filed a
new protest in its battle to win the Pentagon’s Joint Enterprise
Defense Initiative (JEDI) cloud computing contract. But rather
than going through the courts, this time Amazon and its Amazon
Web Services (AWS)
division are going straight to the US Department of Defense
(DoD). After losing a court ruling to force the DoD to conduct a
wide-ranging review of its decision to award the $10 billion deal
to Microsoft, FedScoop reports that the
new protest was made after the Pentagon denied “repeated efforts”
by Amazon and AWS to get more detail on the nature of the more
limited review that is undergoing. “AWS repeatedly sought clarity
from the DoD around ambiguous aspects of the amended
solicitation and the DoD refused to answer our questions,” an
Amazon spokesperson said. “We simply want to ensure a common
understanding of the DoD’s requirements and eliminate ambiguity
that could impact a fair evaluation.” The Pentagon did not
comment.

(05/11/2020)

Amazon suffered a
setback in its legal suit with the US Department of Defense (DoD)
over the Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative (JEDI) cloud
computing contract when a federal judge granted the Pentagon’s
request to reconsider aspects of the $10 billion contract awarded
to Microsoft. The order
puts Amazon’s case on hold for at least the next four months
while the DoD updates the contract to deal with at least one
shortcoming the Court of Federal Claims had already identified.
Amazon had objected to the Pentagon’s proposed reconsideration
of the project, arguing it should be much broader. This ruling,
the company said in a statement, amounted to a mere “do-over” to
help Microsoft preserve its win in the face of Amazon’s protest.
Federal News Network reports that Amazon said it would
seek relief with the court if DoD’s remand process does not
address all of its concerns.

(04/20/2020)

The inspector general for the US Department of Defense (DOD)
issued a report saying that, based on the evidence it has, there
was no White House interference in the award of a $10 billion
cloud computing contract to Microsoft over Amazon. However, the IG
also stated that Pentagon officials were instructed not to
respond to investigators’ queries, and White House employees
invoked presidential privilege and were unwilling to disclose
their communications. Amazon has been suing to have the
decision overturned, claiming that President Trump interfered
with the award due to a personal animosity toward CEO Jeff Bezos.
Reuters reports that the DOD issued a statement
saying that the inspector’s report “should finally close the door
on the media and corporate-driven attacks on the career
procurement officials” involved with awarding the Joint
Enterprise Defense Initiative (JEDI) contract. Amazon, however,
issued its own statement that the “White House’s refusal to
cooperate with the IG’s investigation is yet another blatant
attempt to avoid a meaningful and transparent review of the JEDI
contract award.”

(04/15/2020)

Following the US Department of Defense’s (DOD) request that it
be give additional time to review aspects of its decision to
award a $10 billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft over Amazon Web
Services (AWS), Amazon has asked the US
Court of Federal Claims to require the Pentagon to broaden the
scope of its JEDI contract reevaluation. According to Bloomberg, Amazon’s position is that the DOD’s “proposed
corrective action focuses on allowing Microsoft to fix its
fatally deficient proposal, while paralyzing AWS’s proposed
pricing in the face of planned changes to the Defense
Department’s request for proposals. It does not promise to
address the other procurement flaws in any meaningful way.”
Amazon calls on the Pentagon to allow bidders to revise more of
their pricing plans and to evaluate other alleged errors that
Amazon is highlighting.

(03/24/2020)

Following the disclosure that a federal judge questioned how
the US Department of Defense (DoD) decided to award Microsoft a lucrative cloud
computing contract, the Pentagon has now requested time to
“reconsider certain aspects” of its process. Amazon is suing the DoD
over its decision to award the centralized Joint Enterprise
Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) project to Microsoft, alleging that
President Donald Trump improperly interfered with the
determination. The Washington Post reports that the DoD has now asked for
120 days to review its process as well as “its approach to online
marketplaces that Defense agencies can use to select cloud-based
applications.” Although a seeming win for Amazon, the Post says
that the company’s attorneys oppose sending the case back to the
Pentagon, with an Amazon spokesperson calling the award to
Microsoft “flawed” and saying that “corrective action” is needed.

(03/16/2020)

Newly unsealed court documents in Amazon‘s pursuit to overturn
the US Defense Department’s decision awarding a lucrative cloud
computing contract to Microsoft indicate that the
Pentagon did not use a fair method of weighing the companies’
competitive bids. Reuters reports that US Court of Federal Claims Judge
Patricia Campbell-Smith said in the papers that the department
improperly evaluated a Microsoft price scenario for data storage
that Amazon claims is not “technically feasible” under the terms
of the contract. Amazon claims that Microsoft’s data storage
approach caused a “significant variance” in price between Amazon
Web Services’ (AWS)
and Microsoft’s proposals. Judge Campbell-Smith found the point
material and noted that Amazon “is likely to succeed on the
merits of its argument that the DOD improperly evaluated”
Microsoft’s pricing outline.

(03/09/2020)

A US federal judge ordered the Pentagon to halt work on the
Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud computing
project as the court determines the merit of Amazon‘s case that the $10
billion contract was unfairly awarded to Microsoft. Amazon, long
considered the frontrunner to be the main cloud services provider
for the nation’s military, lost the deal due to an alleged animus
on the part of President Donald Trump against Amazon founder and
CEO Jeff Bezos. Bezos is also owner of the Washington Post,
which has published articles critical of the president and his
administration. According to CNBC,
Amazon must be ready to pay as much as $42 million for any
“costs and damages” that could be incurred in the event that the
“injunction was issued wrongfully.”

(02/17/2020)

As part of its legal battle to overturn the government’s
decision to award a lucrative Pentagon cloud computing contract
to Microsoft, Amazon has asked a federal
court for permission to depose President Donald Trump. The
President was named as one of seven “individuals who were
instrumental” in the JEDI vendor selection and who “played
pivotal roles” in the ultimate contract award. Others named are
former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, his successor Mark
Esper, and the department’s chief information officer. The court
papers state that “While other individuals can testify about
specific conversations he had with them individually, President
Trump is the only individual who can testify about the totality
of his conversations and the overall message he conveyed.” A
follow-up statement released to CNBC by
Amazon Web Services (AWS) noted, “The
preservation of public confidence in the nation’s procurement
process requires discovery and supplementation of the
administrative record, particularly in light of President Trump’s
order to ‘screw Amazon.'”

(02/10/2020)

Amazon has
requested a restraining order in US Federal Claims Court to
prevent Microsoft from
carrying out any work requests from the Department of Defense
related to the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI)
Enterprise cloud contract. Amazon Web Services (AWS) issued a
statement to Reuters saying, “It is common practice to stay contract
performance while a protest is pending, and it’s important that
the numerous evaluation errors and blatant political interference
that impacted the JEDI award decision be reviewed.” AWS claims
the JEDI contract process, as well as the final awarding of the
contract, was affected by political influence, including public
comments by President Donald Trump against Amazon and its
founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.

(01/22/2020)

A workers’ advocacy group has filed a class action suit against a number
of tech companies alleging the use of child labor in the mining
of the rare earth mineral cobalt. International Rights Advocates
(IRAdvocates) named Apple,
Alphabet (parent company of Google), Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla as
defendants in the case on behalf of 14 anonymous plaintiffs. The
plaintiffs are either guardians of children killed in tunnel or
wall collapses while mining cobalt in the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) or children who were maimed in such accidents.
Cobalt is an essential element for the rechargeable lithium-ion
batteries used in many products made by tech and electric car
companies. IRAdvocates contends that these companies knowingly
entered into business with the mining firms despite knowledge of
their child labor supply chains. The suit seeks damages for the
forced labor and also for “unjust enrichment, negligent
supervision, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
As IRAdvocates claims, “Rather than step up to help these
children with a negligible portion of their vast wealth and
power, these companies do nothing but continue to benefit from
cheap cobalt mined by kids robbed of their childhoods, their
health, and for far too many, their lives.”

(12/16/2019)

After losing the multi-billion dollar US Department of Defense
(DoD) Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud
computing deal to Microsoft, Amazon Web
Services (AWS) says
it will protest the decision on, among other issues, grounds of
political interference. “Numerous aspects of the JEDI evaluation
process contained clear deficiencies, errors, and unmistakable
bias, and it’s important that these matters be examined and
rectified,” AWS said in the statement. “We also believe it’s
critical for our country that the government and its elected
leaders administer procurements objectively and in a manner that
is free from political influence.” While Amazon does not mention
names, the implication is that the DoD was improperly influenced
by President Trump, an action prohibited by Federal acquisition
laws. Trump has been highly critical of Amazon and its founder
Jeff Bezos. The contract, which AWS was expected to win, was
held up when the president ordered Defense Secretary Mark Esper
to conduct a review of the process. The Wall Street Journal
reported that on July 9 the president called for an investigation
of the JEDI deal, saying “I’m getting tremendous complaints about
the contract with the Pentagon and Amazon. I will be asking them
to look very closely to see what’s going on.” The Pentagon says
the final decision was made on the merits of the contenders and
without regard to political considerations.

(11/18/2019)

After years of challenges to the process, accusations of
favoritism, and lawsuits alleging conflicts of interest, a $10
billion Pentagon cloud computing contract was awarded to Microsoft over rival Amazon
Web Services (AWS). But the deal may
not yet be finalized, according to experts. The move to name
Microsoft the winner of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Joint
Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) program came as a
surprise to many who expected AWS to come out on top. Now,
Reuters reports that AWS is
weighing its options, including which path to take to challenge
the decision. The company has two possible courses: It could
request an immediate stay from the Government Accountability
Office while the company meets with Pentagon officials about the
decision, or it can file an appeal with the US Court of Federal
Claims. This step might allow AWS to strengthen its case through
discovery and the examination of DoD documents relating to the
contract. One point Amazon may raise is whether the process was
swayed by President Donald Trump, who publicly called on the
DoD to investigate the contract over the summer. Trump questioned
if the process unfairly favored Amazon after meeting with
executives from contending vendor Oracle.

(10/28/2019)

Regulatory

ByteDance, the
developer behind the popular TikTok video-sharing app,
will now be required to gain Chinese regulatory approval prior to selling its
assets in North America and other regions. A “person familiar”
told Bloomberg that this
new rule – which focuses specifically on limiting exports of AI
(artificial intelligence) technology from China – is “aimed at
delaying” the divestiture to Microsoft or another
US-based company. The interface technology at question includes
speech and text recognition for analyzing data to make content
recommendations. According to Bloomberg, China’s Ministry of
Commerce Web site added the tech to its “revised list of
export-control products,” necessitating a government permit on
the grounds of helping “safeguard national economic security.”
The news comes at a difficult time for US-based TikTok users,
which saw President Trump announce plans to restrict access to
the service in mid-September, sans a US company buying the
assets and transferring all customer server data to the US. Other
rumored buyers, the news outlet noted, have included Oracle, Centricus Asset
Management, and Thriller. Chinese officials did not
immediately respond to requests for comment, although ByteDance
noted that it “was aware of the new restrictions” and would
“strictly comply with” them.

(08/31/2020)

President Donald J. Trump has signed into law a pair of
executive orders that serve to essentially ban popular Chinese
apps TikTok and WeChat in the US. TikTok and WeChat, which are
respectively owned by China’s ByteDance and Tencent
Holdings, have drawn increased scrutiny in recent months
amidst public pressure to restrict access over fears of threats
to consumer privacy and security. In particular, Trump noted that
the TikTok app – which has been downloaded 175 million times in
the US alone – “continues to threaten national security, foreign
policy and [the] economy of the United States.” TikTok, it is
alleged, “automatically captures vast swaths of information,”
including Internet and network activity, location data, and
browsing and search history, in addition to “consumer personal
and proprietary information.” Potentially, Trump noted, this info
can be used to allow Communist Party officials to “track the
locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of
personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate
espionage.” The apps also, by virtue of their parent company
locations, allegedly censor content that is “politically
sensitive” in China, and may potentially be used to engage in
“disinformation campaigns.” Under Trump’s ban, individual users
and organizations alike will be prohibited from accessing either
app after 45 days, under punishment by law. It has not been
revealed as to the impact that this order may have on Microsoft‘s ongoing negotiations to acquire the TikTok service in the US
and other countries. This transaction would necessitate
concessions to improve transparency and security, transfer
private data to US-based servers, delete the info from foreign
servers, and engage in other “strong” security protections.

(08/10/2020)

Standards

For more than 18 months, browser developers have been
planning to remove TLS 1.0 and 1.1 from their products due to
outdated security, but that process has been put on hold. Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla announced in October
2018 that support would be disabled in March 2020. But the
worldwide upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its
resulting increase in online traffic has forced the companies to
reschedule that move. According to Security Week, Microsoft is aiming
for to remove the protocols from its Edge browser with the July
release of version 84 and implement the change in Internet
Explorer 11 in September. Google will remove support for both
protocol versions in the stable release of Chrome 83, which is
set to arrive in mid-May. Meanwhile, Mozilla had disabled TLS 1.0
and 1.1 in Firefox 74 in early March but, according to the
company, “reverted the change for an undetermined amount of time
to better enable access to critical government sites sharing
COVID-19 information.” No new date was provided.

(04/06/2020)

References

¹ For one analysis of the beginning of Microsoft’s strategic
problems, see:

“Remember Microsoft?” The New York Times
(editorial). June 10, 2011.

² J. Clement. “Online Search Usage — Statistics
& Facts.” Statista. August 1, 2019.

³ Ben Kepes. “Google Comes Out Swinging About Microsoft
Customer Win Claims.” Forbes. August 2014.

⁴ “What Satya Nadella Did at Microsoft.” The Economist.
March 16, 2017.

⁵ “Steve Ballmer Steps Down as Board Member at Microsoft.”
Microsoft. August 19, 2014

⁶ Barb Darrow. “How LinkedIn May (or May Not) Pay Off for
Microsoft.” Fortune. July 21, 2017.

⁷ Devindra Hardawar. “Microsoft Is Evolving by Focusing on
People.” Engadget. May 9, 2019.

⁸ Jordan Novet. “Microsoft’s Strategy of Cozying Up to Other
Platforms Is Working, So the Company Is Extending It.” CNBC.
August 12, 2019.

⁹ Jared Newman. “Microsoft Just Rebooted Its Entire PC Gaming
Strategy.” Fast Company. May 30, 2019.

¹⁰ Tom Warren. “Microsoft’s Chromium Edge Browser Moves Closer
to Release with New Beta Version.” The Verge. August 20,
2019. 

¹¹ Nick Wingfield. “Cutting Jobs, Microsoft Turns Page on Nokia
Deal.” The New York Times. July 8, 2015.

¹² Daniel Cooper. “Microsoft Sells Nokia’s Feature Phone
Business to Foxconn.” Engadget. May 18, 2016.

¹³ Matt Weinberger. “Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Says He Voted
Against Steve Ballmer’s $7.6 Billion Nokia Mistake.” Business
Insider. September 25, 2017.

¹⁴ Jay Greene. “Microsoft to Acquire LinkedIn for $26.2
Billion.” Wall Street Journal. June 14, 2016.

¹⁵ “How’s Microsoft’s Marriage with LinkedIn Working Out?” The
Associated Press. January 31, 2018.

¹⁶ Ari Levy. “Nadella’s M&A Strategy Is Much Different
than Ballmer’s — And Investors Are Rewarding Him.” CNBC. June
4, 2018.

¹⁷ Ibid.

¹⁸ Mary Jo Foley. “CEO Nadella Talks Microsoft’s Mobile
Ambitions, Windows 10 Strategy, HoloLens and More.” ZDNet. July
14, 2015.

¹⁹ Microsoft. “Microsoft Cloud Strength Drives Fourth
Quarter Results.” Microsoft. July 22, 2020.

²⁰ Karen Wise. “Microsoft Earnings: Sales Jump 12
Percent, Fueled by Cloud.” The New York Times. July 18, 2019.

²¹ Microsoft. “Microsoft and Oracle to Interconnect Microsoft
Azure and Oracle Cloud.” Microsoft. June 5, 2019.

²² Microsoft. “SAP Partners with Microsoft for
First-in-Market Cloud Migration Offerings.” Microsoft. October
20, 2019.

²³ Microsoft. “Microsoft and Salesforce Expand Strategic
Partnership to Accelerate Customer Success.” Microsoft. November
14, 2019.

²⁴ Kurt Mackie. “Microsoft and Citrix Partnership Shifts to
Citrix Workspace and Microsoft Azure.” Redmond Magazine. July
15, 2020.

²⁵ Michael Sheetz and Jordan Novet. “Microsoft Unveils Azure
Orbital, Competing with Amazon to Connect Satellites to the Cloud.” CNBC.
September 22, 2020.

²⁶ Todd Bishop. “Satya Nadella Reveals Microsoft’s New Mission
Statement, Sees ‘Tough Choices’ Ahead.” GeekWire. June 25, 2015.

²⁷ Nicholas Kolakowski. “Microsoft’s Windows 8: What We Know
So Far.” eWeek. June 6, 2011.

²⁸ Ed Bott. “Windows 10: A New Beginning.” ZDNet.
July 28, 2015.

²⁹ Emil Protalinski. “Microsoft Releases New Windows 10
Preview with Acrylic Sign-In Screen.” VentureBeat. September 12,
2018.

³⁰ Arif Bacchus. “Contrary to Rumors, the Next Version of
Windows 10 Will Be Another Minor Update.” Digital Trends. June 16, 2020.

³¹ Steve Ranger. “Microsoft Surface Is a Hit with Business,
but Outlook for Other Tablets Is Bleak.” ZDNet. May 28, 2020.

³² “Microsoft Announces New Intelligent Security Innovations
to Help Businesses Manage Threats from Cloud to Edge.” Microsoft. April
16, 2018.

³³ “GE and Microsoft Enter into Their Largest Partnership to
Date, Accelerating Industrial IoT Adoption for Customers.” Microsoft.
July 16, 2018.

³⁴ Ashley Carman. “Microsoft Starts Letting Windows 10 Users
Control Smart Home Devices from Their PC.” The Verge. October 6,
2017.

³⁵ Stephen Shankland. “Windows Derails Chrome, Firefox
Installation, Promotes Microsoft Edge Instead.” CNET. September
12, 2018.

³⁶ “Microsoft Tests Rival Browser ‘Warnings’.” BBC. September
13, 2018.

³⁷ Steve Lohr. “How Top-Valued Microsoft Has Avoided the Big
Tech Backlash.” The New York Times. September 8, 2019.

³⁸ For example, see the following extension of the companies’
partnership:

“Red Hat and Microsoft Fuel Hybrid Cloud
Development with Azure Red Hat OpenShift.” Microsoft. May 7,
2019.

³⁹ Casey Newton. “Why Microsoft Is Betting Its Future on AI.”
The Verge. July 7, 2016.

⁴⁰ “AT&T and Microsoft Announce a Strategic Alliance to
Deliver Innovation with Cloud, AI and 5G.” Microsoft. July 17,
2019.

⁴¹ Cade Metz. “With $1 Billion from Microsoft, an A.I. Lab
Wants to Mimic the Brain.” The New York Times. July 22, 2019.

⁴² “Minecraft to Join Microsoft.” Microsoft. September
15, 2014.

⁴³ Matthew Johnston. “Microsoft’s Strategy to Become the
‘Netflix for Games.'” Investopedia. June 24, 2019.

⁴⁴ Nick Statt. “Why Microsoft Bought Bethesda for $7.5
Billion.” Microsoft. September 21, 2020.

About the Author

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report]

Geoff Keston is the author of over 250 articles that
help organizations find opportunities in business trends and technology.
He also works directly with clients to develop communications strategies
that improve processes and customer relationships. Mr. Heston has worked
as a project manager for a major technology consulting and services
company and is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and a Certified
Novella Administrator.

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