Microsoft Ignite 2017 and me in ignition!

Microsoft Ignite just ended with an applause. I remember back in summers, I received an email, maybe it was late May or early July, and it was for the registration and participation of the upcoming Microsoft Ignite event somewhere in US. To which I spent some time thinking on the email and imagining<daydreaming actually> what a fantastic event it would be. And then I snapped out the thought, that event is a luxury I can’t afford. Traveling to US and taking at least a week off from my second last semester, did seem to be impossible

​From the time I know computers- two decades ago I have been in adore of Microsoft and watching its new products and technology releases have made me in some way proud of the progress of Microsoft Corporation. Although I do not like Xbox < Proud owner of Sony Playstation console > and Lumia<disappointing>, but still they are Microsoft. Also, I m glad Microsoft staffing website really considers even after years of my registration.

Microsoft Karachi Office & Microsoft Dynamics 365

Moreover, I was also eagerly excited last year for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 launch in mid-October 2016. I went to the Microsoft Sales Karachi Office and met the Microsoft Business Solutions Expert or Dynamics Specialist and did a report and presentation for SCM-310: Intro to ERP course. And this year I continued expand the presentation scope for my MIS- CRM & Applications course.

Reality-Concept

So when you fall down to the rabbit hole, you realize you are in a matrix and reality is an illusion. I would also like to talk about my History of Ideas< Philosophy course> assignment/presentation, that I did on Virtual Reality & Simulation. It was philosophical narrative on what is reality< the ultimate question I guess> and the Nick Bostrom postulates of Are We Living in A Simulation? <hint: popular with Elon Musk> and the concepts of Hyper Reality<its implication unfortunately today> and Augmented and Virtual Reality. Although I a tech enthusiast but some of the concepts were quite different and possessed much deeper insights and meanings to the mix of human, tech, AI and VR.

However, the next day after Microsoft Ignite started, I was able to see an hour and 20 minutes video keynote session, in which CEO Microsoft, Mr. Nadella introduced his company’s tech achievements and products, in his own humble way. Although I could see everything in that video, but now I wished I was there and hands on experience, live visualization and interactions at the expo event. I hope the next even is in Dubai, at least it’s closer<and tickets not costly either>.

Ignite 2017

The event began with sympathizing with Irma effects and thanking the local community to attend the event. And to start off, Satya Talks about Technology and enabling the Digital Transformation. Allowing technology to help empower employees, engage customers, optimize operations and transform products. Transform the organization culture, transform the products and how we do things. He talks of ‘one microsoft’ now as Microsoft 365; that brings creativity, simplicity, teamwork and security

Microsoft Mission

"Empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more."

Its for every person and the institutions people build; on a global scale.

Mixed Reality and the Holo lens.

Holo lens by Microsoft is itself an achievement, we have to see more of it. And now we were able to see some practical applications of Holo lens to create Mixed Reality. That pretty much looked like Augmented Reality. Not sure but the kind of stuff being done by Facebook Spaces, Apple Iphone Camera, and snapchat too. But this one was way bigger better and real thing. Unlike Facebook spaces it consisted of Holograms in the real world available for interactions unlike the SC and Iphone camera features.

Raanah Amjadi and her 2 colleagues further demonstrated Microsoft teams work on mixed reality. It was impressive to see how they collaborated with Ford Motors for their designing of cars. How engineers can utilize this technology was easier than ever. At they used clay models, or dummies, then they must have used super computer processing for simulations and modelling. But this was far beyond visual graphics, simulations and animations done multimedia and super computer processors.

The best part thing was that it was ‘work done in real time and place’ Also with the help of Microsoft Teams and Skype tools, it allowed the collaboration of multiple teams on that design project of the car, with security – utilizing mobile login too. It allowed engineers to use precise location and pin pointing notes for a design project so complex. For example: they should how side mirrors designs and sight visibility can be adjusted easily.

It was amazing to see such technology now visualizing an operation, a complete process in a real time, in connectivity with any location based team. Allowing manufacturing, design, engineering and sales to work together on a mixed reality design. This technology empowers people to collaborate on same shared experienced around the world, innovate and make critical decisions. All these such meetings could be saved on Microsoft Teams as videos and utilizing AI could be directed search. Seeing holograms come time is always fascinating. `

Microsoft Graphs & Linkedin

Microsoft Graphs could identify who were all attending that event and they all can now connect on Linkedin. Integration of data from Microsoft graph and Linkedin graph. External and Internal people. Clientele, employee or client experience, documentations, communications, meeting. AI first information search and discovery; utilizing the data as an asset.

Bing for Business

Utilizing Microsoft graph makes bing more powerful and personalized. Although, as far as search engines are concerned I m a big fan of google on that domain. Google is ace at Search Engine Marketing and Application Innovations. But the way Bing was able to study, interpret, evaluate and answer a particular conceptual query was so much more than just a search. It used machine learning and deeper learning modules to search a database to get a meaning and exact answer. If I were to ask a particular specific and relevant question to my incomplete understanding: Bing was able to search thousands of database, locate and read what I asked for and then answer. Not just simple keyword searches, right.

Cortana our own personal productivity assistant

Also the cool thing was Cortana was like an assistant, who was asked to check our schedule and talk to our HR and make booking for vacation on a simple voice command such as “schedule a vacation to Singapore next week” Without hissing on further details Cortana had seen the schedule, took a leave from the HR, booked a vacation and set up an auto reply email for next week for vacation trip.

Dynamics 365

Dynamics 365 is platform to create intelligent systems for sales. talent, field service, customer service and operation. Harnessing these intelligent tools by Microsoft graph, Linkedin graph and Dynamics 365. Connect data from IoT and use in Dynamics 365 with people end to end. Using Azure at the core. AI first Business Applications. Create your own AI first apps and create your own mixed reality apps. Mr. Nadella showed how Mixed Reality was used in mining & Tetra Pack productions, Land O Lakes in agriculture for yield and AI for Chemotherapy and Epic preventive care for diseases

Quantum Computer The next big thing is coming. Microsoft wants to work on unsolved problems by solving computational problems via quantum computer. Mr. Nadella invited two physicist, a computer scientist and a mathematician on the intuition behind Quantum processor.

End note.

Once again I wished I was there. It was a fascinating event for tech minion like me. A great event for great people networking too. Mixed Reality and its applications were truly promising. Microsoft 365 is a complete solution package one could ask for. Dynamics 365 and Linkedin power along power BI has brighter future. Once again Microsoft is going to leap for the next big thing. I would love if Microsoft reshapes industries and solve problems in my dear Pakistan and just recently I saw some HDI indicators in South Asia, we all know there is too much talent in South Asia; from Pakistan to Srilanka, if Microsoft channels this area well, there will be lot more room for opportunities and innovation.

**Just some thoughts of the author

** For my MICROSOFT DYNAMICS CRM PPT, just click on the hyperlink

** For my Virtual Reality & Simulation PPT, you may click on the hyperlink.

** For Simulation postulates by Nick Bostrom, again click on the hyperlinks.

** To check out HDI indicators, I studied just click here