Microsoft Amplifies Its Digital Transformation Theme at Ignite 2016

The theme of Microsoft’s Ignite conference is helping businesses with their digital transformation. One way to achieve this, the company said, is with its cloud-friendly server Windows Server 2016.

Julia White, Microsoft corporate vice president and emcee of Microsoft Ignite 2016, called the event the biggest conference focused on IT: Innovation and Transformation.

Scot Guthrie announced Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016. “Solutions that take advantage of an intelligent cloud platform make IT the heroes within every company,” he said.

Microsoft forged a new partnership with Adobe, which is moving its Marketing Cloud, Creative Cloud and Document Cloud to the Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure platform. Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella (left) gushes about the partnership with Adobe President and CEO Shantanu Narayan onstage.

Microsoft has 34 Azure regions around the world, which is twice the number of regions that Amazon Web Services has today, Guthrie said.

Microsoft’s Dublin cloud data center has enough concrete to pave a sidewalk from London to Paris, the company said.

Microsoft says its Azure cloud platform has more certifications than any other cloud provider.

The Microsoft Azure cloud provides users with hybrid cloud capabilities to support business applications, big data, productivity, identity and more.

Approximately 85 percent of Fortune 500 companies use some form of Microsoft cloud services, the company claims.

Microsoft Azure features developer tools for building cloud apps, a set of core platform services and core infrastructure.

Microsoft Azure provides log analytics, automation, security and more.

Customers can now download evaluation copies of Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016. However, general availability is scheduled for mid-October.

The Visual Studio family consists of the flagship Visual Studio developer toolset, Visual Studio Code and Visual studio Team Services.

Visual Studio Team Services provides a set of cloud-powered collaboration tools for developers to work in teams to build complex applications. It provides a complete DevOps solution.

Donovan Brown, Microsoft’s senior DevOps program manager and resident DevOps guru, gets seriously excited talking about how DevOps can transform the process of creating and delivering software. Brown previewed a new capability called Azure Monitor.

Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Windows and Devices group, said: “What’s changing is not just the technology, but our own workforce.”

In 2020, 50 percent of the workforce in the United States will be millennials. And 43 percent of all U.S. workers will be freelancers.

Microsoft says the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) will deploy Windows 10 across the department by January to strengthen cyber-security and streamline the IT operating environment. “It is important for the department to rapidly transition to Windows 10 in order to improve our cyber-security posture, lower the cost of IT and streamline the IT operating environment,” a DOD memo said.

Microsoft protects 1 billion logins per day with Azure Active Directory.

Microsoft eliminates 1 million suspicious files each day and a whole lot more.

Microsoft touts its security tools as a reason why the company’s platform can be trusted.