On July 19 and 20, we were all hooked on Microsoft Inspire (and pizza #Inspiredbytechnology #atypicalbynature) at Xylos. As Microsoft Partner Of The Year runner-up in Belgium, we are eager to deliver their solutions even more impeccably than we have been doing so far. Who knows where it may lead us.
Below are some key takeaways we’ve duly noted, to be of service to our current and new customers, during the coming period.
Whoever thinks about innovation in today’s economy, nine chances out of ten, looks up at the sky and aims for the cloud. Businesses continue to find ways to differentiate themselves by optimizing their services with cloud technology, with the help of IT partners that can pinpoint opportunities and bring clarity.
It’s therefore very encouraging that Microsoft has announced a continuing focus on getting customers and partners to build, run and modernize applications. Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform is obviously a key catalyst we have been excited about since it was announced in May. Our own cloud practice team at Xylos has defined App Modernization as a key focus area from day 1.
Of course, not everything in this world is cloud native, so the attention Microsoft has confirmed to continue directing at migration of infrastructure and mission-critical workloads with the Azure Migration and Modernization Program (AMMP) is something we are really happy about too.
There was also great news for the public sector. It goes by the name of Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty. Public sector organizations often have to deal with particular requirements on the level of compliance, security and policy. Of course, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t benefit from cloud flexibility as much as private organizations. They sure would and with Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, their IT staff will now be able to build customized workloads.
The digital fitness of our public sector, from healthcare to public finance, is paramount for our society to flourish and resilient when challenges come along. Obviously, we are eager to help them with wield the power of public cloud, making solutions more scalable, agile and cost-effective.
With hybrid work becoming the new normal in many sectors, workplace security has been a key priority for business. And rightly so. IT security requires not only 100% up-to-date expertise, but also 24/7/365 vigilance, although that vigilance should not obstruct efficacy. In other words, highly accurate detection and response are very important. Since this has proven to be hard to manage for organizations and their IT security staff, we have completed our Xylos security portfolio with managed detection and response services, built on top of Microsoft Sentinel for security information and event management (SIEM).
During Inspire, Microsoft clearly acknowledged that organizations see and need to see security as an expansive package. Some of the latest Microsoft security product additions, like Microsoft Entra and Microsoft Purview for identity and compliance, on which Microsoft also shone some light, encourage us at Xylos to continue unburdening our clients from A to Z with our security services.
The term “modern workplace” is a rather broad one. For us at Xylos, it basically entails anything that contributes to better, more efficient and sustainable delivery of work. That comes with what Satya Nadella called a “digital imperative” in his opening talk.
We were especially thrilled to hear Microsoft continues to integrate great tools in their solutions to cover the needs of diverse key stakeholders in the workplace: from O365 for agile collaboration, to Microsoft project for the web for project management and Power BI for management roles. Speaking of Power, it is predicted that the percentage of new enterprise apps built using low-code or no-code will increase up to 70% by 2025.
A Microsoft survey last year already established that a very high percentage of employees want to keep the flexibility they discovered during the pandemic (73%), while also a high percentage look forward to collaborating more in-person (63%). The bottom line is that hybrid work is here to stay and comes with four quadrants Microsoft talked about during Inspire: different place, different time, same place and same time.
Therefore, it’s fantastic to see continued focus on employee experience. The announcement of Viva Goals now becoming generally available was met with a lot of positivity. On top of that, thanks to the introduction of Viva Engage, employees will get to build their personal networks within their organizations. Indeed, improving the employee experience is one essential thing. Getting everybody to truly share and strive to meet objectives is what every healthy business ultimately wants as a result.
Of course, we were triggered by many more topics during Microsoft Inspire, but there is only so much one should fit in a blog article. If you want to enhance your business and organization with the newest and best Microsoft is offering, but you are not quite sure where to start, how about letting Xylos inspire you?
Contact us directly, or discover some of our services first: from cloud practice, to digital adoption and Workplace as a Service.
