BARCELONA, Spain, Oct. 28, 2014 /CNW/ -- Tuesday at TechEd Europe,
Microsoft Corp. announced new cloud services, mobility solutions,
APIs, tools and an expanded ecosystem of partner solutions, all
designed to help IT professionals and developers compete and thrive
in today's mobile-first, cloud-first world.
"Today's enterprise is always on, and IT professionals and
developers are under constant pressure to keep up with the demands
of the business," said Jason Zander,
corporate vice president of Microsoft Azure, Microsoft. "We are
using the power of our cloud platform — Azure, Office 365 and
Microsoft Dynamics — to deliver technology solutions that empower
IT professionals, developers and end users to do more."
Azure innovations to help streamline operations and enhance
security
At TechEd Europe, Microsoft announced several cloud services to
help intelligently automate and streamline IT operations, including
these:
- Azure Operational Insights brings together Azure,
HDInsight and Microsoft System Center to gather and analyze machine
data across cloud environments and turn it into actionable insights
that inform business decisions. Available in preview in
November 2014.
- Azure Batch allows customers to deploy massive scale-out
jobs, with access to thousands of cores, to solve complex problems
with just a few clicks and no infrastructure investment. Available
in preview.
- Azure Automation automates time-consuming tasks across
Azure and third-party environments, reducing the risk associated
with repetitive manual processes. Generally available.
Microsoft also announced a number of security enhancements,
generally available now, to Azure Virtual Machines and Cloud
Services, including these:
- Support for multiple network interface cards (NICs) so
customers can bring their own networking and security appliances
such as load balancers and firewalls
- New Network Security Groups that enable customized
security boundaries for network access and provide greater control
over traffic flow
- Microsoft Anti-Malware for Virtual Machines and Cloud
Services, a free service that provides real-time threat
protection
Comprehensive enterprise mobility management for nearly any
device and data
Microsoft also announced management, security, privacy and
compliance enhancements for the Enterprise Mobility Suite and
Office 365. These new capabilities give IT the ability to enforce
policies, protect corporate assets, and empower today's always-on
and on-the-go workforce.
- Microsoft Intune updates. These updates will enable
customers to comprehensively manage Office mobile apps, wrap
management technology around their own line-of-business
applications, enable more secure mobile app viewing and provide
powerful conditional access features that allow better control of
corporate resources with conditional access features. Available
within the next few months.
- Built-in Mobile Device Management (MDM) for Office 365.
New, built-in Intune MDM capabilities for Office 365 on iOS,
Android and Windows Phone devices will provide administrators with
policy-driven device management and the ability to wipe corporate
data to prevent unauthorized access and use — all while preserving
personal data. Available in the first quarter of 2015.
- Azure Active Directory (AD) Premium updates. Azure AD
Application Proxy, generally available by the end of 2014, will
make it possible to publish on-premises applications to external
users via the cloud. Azure AD Connect, available in preview by
the end of 2014, will make it easier to connect on-premises assets
to the cloud and synchronize directories to Azure AD.
- Extending Data Loss Prevention (DLP) technology across
Office 365. Over the next few months, DLP capabilities will be
added to SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business to provide
protection for sensitive content across Office 365. In addition, in
2015, Office apps will support DLP notifications to provide users
with helpful prompts related to information protection.
Office 365 APIs and tools for developers
Microsoft also introduced new APIs and tools that allow
developers to access the Office 365 API and create new, data-rich
productivity applications using the platforms, tools and devices of
their choice.
- New Open APIs for Office 365. These REST-based APIs for
mail, files, calendar and contacts will empower Android, iOS,
Windows or Web developers to leverage over 400 petabytes of Office
365 content to deliver enhanced productivity to the millions of
Office 365 subscribers. Available now through the Microsoft API
Sandbox for Office 365.
- New mobile software development kits (SDKs) for native app
development. These SDKs make it easier for developers to use
Office 365 APIs to create applications for any platform using tools
and languages they're familiar with. A new iOS SDK for Xcode is
available in preview. Android and Visual Studio SDKs are generally
available.
- Office 365 App Launcher. Office 365 App Launcher
provides a single, customizable place in Office 365 where people
can access their favorite apps. Developers can use App Launcher to
increase visibility of their apps alongside apps such as Outlook,
Yammer and OneDrive.
In addition, Visual Studio Online customers in Europe can elect to use the Azure Amsterdam
Region for their projects and store their data closer to home.
An expanded ecosystem of cloud partners
Microsoft continued to deliver new partner-powered cloud
solutions, including:
- An expanded Cloud OS Network, with partner
support now available in over 100 countries, gives customers broad
access to hybrid cloud solutions.
- A new Azure Certified for Application Services program,
part of Azure Certified, which covers managed APIs and data
services. Customers can now access over 50 solutions from more than
30 partners, through the Azure Marketplace, including New Relic,
Cloudera, Hortonworks, CommVault, CoreOS, DataStax, NGINX and
Veeam.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide
leader in software, services, devices and solutions that help
people and businesses realize their full potential.
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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.