MICROSOFT QUARTERLY HIGHLIGHTS, PRODUCT RELEASES AND ENHANCEMENTS
FY22 Q3
Every quarter, Microsoft delivers hundreds of products, either as new releases or services or as enhancements to current products and services. These releases are a result of significant research and development investments made over multiple years. They are designed to help customers be more productive and secure and to deliver differentiated value across the cloud and the edge.
Following are the major product releases and other highlights for the quarter, organized by product categories, to help illustrate how we are accelerating innovation across our businesses while expanding our market opportunities.
Microsoft 365 Consumer/Commercial
Recording Studio in PowerPoint enables customers to tell their story in their own words to deliver more impactful and engaging presentations.
Microsoft Loop components in Microsoft Teams offer a new way to ideate, create and make decisions collaboratively.
Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides IT with the ability to target devices, apps and policies in a granular way, supporting experience and data protection across the device landscape based on the needs of specific business scenarios. Endpoint Manager can also be used to configure Android Enterprise dedicated devices to clear app data between users, even if the app is not enrolled in Azure Active Directory Shared Device Mode.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows supports Azure Active Directory (AAD) device-based conditional access controls. Admins can use identity-driven signals to control access for Teams Rooms on Windows device accounts, including access to Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Exchange online services, based on device compliance status.
Transcription and recording for Microsoft Teams calls can be enabled via the control bar within the call window.
Microsoft Search in Teams makes finding messages, people, answers and files faster and more intuitive.
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) for one-to-one Teams calls includes GCC-H and DOD tenants for Teams desktop and mobile apps as well as iOS and Android Teams mobile apps.
Microsoft Teams electronic health record (EHR) connector for Cerner streamlines integrations of virtual appointments into clinicians’ existing clinical workflows.
Teams Shifts connector for Blue Yonder supports organizations that rely on it for precise labor scheduling, accurate time and attendance tracking, reduced associate turnover, and simplified compliance with labor laws and corporate policies.
Google calendar integration gives users the option to make Google Calendar a default setting.
Microsoft Purview Customer Lockbox for Microsoft Teams ensures that Microsoft cannot access users’ content to perform a service operation without the user’s explicit approval.
Improvements to third-party Teams app developers’ experiences provides greater testing opportunities before apps or offerings become available to the public. Additionally, developers can now use Azure Communications Services to deliver a better customer experience by easily connecting users of a custom-built app with users on Microsoft Teams via voice, video or chat.
Windows
Accessibility updates to the taskbar enable window-sharing and mute controls for Microsoft Teams users with a work or school account.
Weather content on the taskbar provides live weather updates in the left corner.
Display updates in the taskbar showcase the clock and date display on both screens when a secondary monitor or monitors are connected.
Updates to the Media Player app support users’ abilities to browse and play music as well as to create and manage playlists. Media Player replaces the Groove Music app; if your music collection is in Groove Music today, your library and playlists will migrate automatically.
The Notepad app features new and familiar designs from Windows 11, with the hallmark simplicity and ease of use that Notepad is known for.
Microsoft Teams Live Captions on Windows 365 provides real-time captions for users who prefer visual cues when engaging with meeting participants.
Windows 365 PowerShell scripts enable administrators to script various tasks for easier automation and administration and streamlines the process to share scripts with the Windows 365 Tech Community.
Dynamics 365
Dynamics 365 Finance provides finance insights and AI-powered capabilities that help customers improve the efficiency and quality of financial processes by leveraging intelligent automation.
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management provides an independent and scalable microservice that enables real-time on-hand inventory change postings and visibility tracking across all your data sources and channels.
Microsoft Power Platform
Power Apps pay-as-you-go capabilities provide a new and more flexible way to pay for Power Apps and related Power Platform services.
The Microsoft Power Automate Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) Integration Starter Kit includes a list of templates that are designed to help orchestrate and scale virtual machines used to run desktop flows.
Career breaks on profile gives global members the ability to reflect career breaks on their LinkedIn profiles with 13 options to choose from, including volunteer work, full-time parenting and travel.
Launched new analytics, updates to profile video features and a subscribe bell and enabled creators to feature newsletters on their profiles.
Launched skills-first tools, focused on hiring and developing talent.
Supported the launch of the LinkedIn Podcast Network, an advertiser-supported pilot with the potential to connect our community of over 810 million professionals with quality podcast programming.
Launched the Sales Navigator search experience to help sellers pinpoint the right leads and accounts faster.
Launched new Sales Navigator SKUs to drive improved customer experience and bring more value to users.
Security, Compliance, Identity and Management
Microsoft Defender for Cloud extends Cloud Security Posture Management and Workload Protection capabilities to the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Microsoft Sentinel adds capabilities that include new Basic Logs, an Archived Log option and a new search experience that enables security analysts to search massive volumes of security data quickly and easily from all logs, analytics and archives.
Microsoft Defender for Business brings cross-platform endpoint security capabilities to Microsoft 365 Business Premium customers.
Azure
Following is a select list of generally available Azure products, services and enhancements for the quarter. A full list can be found at https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/.
Azure Security and Management
Azure Front Door is a Microsoft native, unified and modern cloud content delivery network (CDN) catering to dynamic and static content acceleration.
Azure Data
Deployment enhancements for SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines include the following configuration options: move system databases to a data disk, configure tempdb data and log files, change collation from default collation, configure Maximum Degree of Parallelism, configure Min Server Memory and Max Server Memory, and configure Optimize for Adhoc Workloads.
Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server includes a timescaleDB extension and orafce designed to enhance Postgres with additional functions and operators.
Always Encrypted for Azure CosmosDB encrypts sensitive data inside client applications and complies with regulatory requirements.
Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Hyperscale (Citus) is compliant with the U.S. Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) High.
Azure Cosmos DB API for MongoDB version 4.2 includes aggregation functionality and improved security features such as client-side field encryption.
Azure Analytics
Azure Stream Analytics enables users to easily use an endpoint in Azure Machine Learning workspace to do real-time scoring and tackle scenarios such as anomaly detection and predictive maintenance.
Azure Purview is a unified data governance solution that helps users manage and govern on-premises, multicloud and software-as-a-service (SaaS) data.
Azure Purview also allows data stewards to manually endorse assets to indicate that they’re ready to use across an organization or business unit.
Azure Serverless and App Dev Services
Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) support containerd for Windows server containers.
Azure PlayFab
Azure PlayFab User Generated Content (UGC) offers users solutions for hosting an in-game marketplace. It includes Game Manager improvements and features to help developers better manage their User Generated Content catalog.
FastTrack for Azure
The Azure Migration and Modernization Program (AMMP) supports more Windows Server and SQL Server migration projects, including partner assistance with planning and moving customer workloads and Azure credits that offset transition costs to Azure SQL Managed Instance and Azure SQL Database.
Surface
Microsoft Surface Hub 2 Smart Camera gives remote Teams users dynamic views of in-room interactions. Automatic framing technology within the device dynamically adjusts the view of the room, reframing when someone leaves, when more people come in, or when a person interacts with content on the display.
Gaming
Microsoft Flight Simulatorreleased the Fokker F. VII airplane, the second plane in the “Local Legends” series.
Minecraft and PUMAreleased a clothing and footwear collection inspired by the game. In addition, Minecraft launched an accompanying Spring Dash DLC (downloadable content) for the Minecraft Bedrock edition.
Rare launched Season Six, the latest free content update for Sea of Thieves across Xbox, Windows 10 and Steam.
Minecraft and Lacoste released a clothing, accessories and footwear collection inspired by the game. In addition, Minecraft launched an accompanying DLC called Croco Island.
TUNIC launched with Game Pass for console and PC during the /ID@Xbox Showcase with /twitchgaming.
Shredders, a snowboarding game by FoamPunch, launched with Game Pass for console, PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) and Steam.
The television series “Halo” debuted on Paramount+, with new episodes releasing weekly. Game Pass Ultimate members can enjoy a free month of Paramount+ in markets where both services are available.
Microsoft Search, Advertising and News
Following is a list of recently released Microsoft Edge enhancements and improvements:
· Enhanced security protections that provide an additional layer of protection when browsing the web and visiting unfamiliar sites; administrators can apply group policies to end-user desktops (Windows, macOS and Linux) to help protect against in-the-wild exploits (also referred to 0-days).
· Ability to configure a list of domains for which Microsoft Edge should disable the password manager. Users have the option to create a custom primary password with a custom string of their choice. Once enabled, users will enter this password to authenticate themselves and will have their saved passwords autofilled in web forms.
· Personalize multiprofile experiences with preferences for sites. Users are able to personalize their multiprofile experiences by creating a customized list of sites for automatic profile switching in Microsoft Edge. Microsoft Editor functionality, available on Word and PowerPoint, is built into Microsoft Edge.
Following are product announcements, enhancements and improvements to Microsoft Advertising:
· Microsoft Advertising brings advertisers access to a new audience and enables them to reach consumers in 29 markets and 19 languages.
· LinkedIn Profile Targeting unlocks the ability to market to business influencers, decision-makers and executives with content that aligns with specified interests. Only available on Microsoft Advertising.
· Cost per mille (CPM) pricing on the Microsoft Audience Network enables advertisers to bid and pay for native advertising on a CPM basis and to create campaigns optimized for ad impressions.
· Shopping Campaigns enable marketers to drive more customers to products with engaging retail experiences.
· Smart Pages give U.S.-based small- and medium-sized businesses a powerful suite of tools to create, edit, publish and share websites.
· Portfolio bid strategies help marketers ensure that budgets are spent efficiently.
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