Monitoring MSFT: TechEd's New Cloud, Mobile Focus

Microsoft (MSFT) wrapped up another TechEd conference last week and it marked the first one since cloud-focused CEO Satya Nadella took over leadership of the company. Here’s a drill down of the news you need to know, from SharePoint to Office 365 to Azure, plus a preview of what’s coming for Windows InTune.

Let’s start with the big wrap. WindowsIT Pro put together an uber list of announcements from the event here in this “long shortlist.”  To frame the discussion, the author notes that “there was very little announced around on-premise products, but instead, Microsoft focused heavily on its Public Cloud offering.”  Many announcements focused on connecting various cloud components to other cloud components, as companies look to hybrid clouds. That includes news around Azure API Management, which exposes APIs through the cloud.

There’s plenty more in this wrap including, but not limited to, news around mobile productivity, Office mobile app management with Windows Intune, Microsoft Azure RemoteApp, developing for mobile-first/cloud-first, optimized .NET for the cloud, advanced mobile development, and agile software development. Sort of just what you’d expect from a cloud-centric CEO.

Microsoft itself put together a wrap on Office 365 in one of its own blogs, noting right up top that Office for iPad has been downloaded 27 million times. Among the news items are the following: Microsoft released a new set of APIs to let developers build business applications into Office 365 and adds forecasting capabilities into Power BI for Office 365.  Check out the whole thing right here.

And if you are looking for some more information what Microsoft said about SharePoint during TechEd 2014, check out coverage here from SharePointPro Mag. Plus, here’s some more coverage about new features for Azure designed to help IT pros trust the cloud.

Finally, here’s the promised preview of what’s to come with Windows InTune in the next quarterly update. The next one will include support for Windows Phone 8.1 and Samsung KNOX Standard.  But the Q4 update adds much more in terms of enhancements for management. Microsoft said it will roll out managed mobile productivity that includes managed applications and data protection, plus bulk enrollment and support for Apple Configurator.

Got any tips about what’s happening with Microsoft and its channel? Send them to us in the comments below.