Microsoft Ignite 2022, the tech giant’s annual conference for technology leaders was held last week. This conference is known to reveal strategy and plans for its products and solutions. This year, Microsoft’s Ignite conference had both in-person and virtual options, with an emphasis on “Do more with less in the Microsoft Cloud.” 

There were many different areas covered at the conference, here are just some of the key announcements that we have summarised from the event. 

New Intune product family and branding 

We already know how much Microsoft love to change their naming conventions, and the first one to be announced at Ignite was Microsoft Endpoint Management (MEM). Endpoint Management products going forward will be rolled into Intune. With Endpoint Management no more, cloud-based management will be known as Microsoft Intune and on-premises management as Microsoft Configuration Manager. You can see the full announcement on this update here. 

It was also announced that Microsoft will launch an Advanced Management Suite in March 2023 as a new, cost-effective premium endpoint management plan.

Power Pages is now generally available 

For those of you that aren’t familiar with this solution, Power Pages is a low-code development and hosting platform ideal for building business-centric websites, both for low-code makers and professional developers. Announced as a stand-alone product at Microsoft Build 22, Power Pages is now generally available. To learn more about this and the updates available head here.

Introducing Microsoft Syntex 

Microsoft is unveiling Microsoft Syntex, a new set of content apps and services that use AI to index and organise large quantities of unstructured content so it can be easily searched and analysed. Syntex can also automate content-based workflows, such as contract processing and e-signatures. It integrates Microsoft Search capabilities to make it easy for people to navigate and discover content. Users can use the advanced viewer to add secure annotations and redactions to any file, as well as build new content and integrate Syntex eSignature into business processes. 

Microsoft has already started to roll out these features and will continue to release more until early 2023. 

Microsoft Teams Premium

Microsoft unveiled a Premium version of the popular collaboration platform Teams. From advanced security features as well as options for larger meetings such as live translation for captions, Teams will use AI to trigger recaps and to-do lists. In addition, it will allow customised branding for backgrounds and landing pages. The public preview is due to be out in December and if you’re interested, you can sign up for updates here.

Managed Environments for Power Platform now generally available

Announced in July, Managed Environments for Power Platform is now generally available. Managed Environments are a collection of features that enable IT admins to manage Microsoft Power Platform environments and govern low-code solutions at scale with enhanced control, more visibility and less effort. 

Offerings for Managed Environments for Power Platform now available include: 

  • Weekly Digest provides proactive notifications to give insights into most-used and least-used apps in low-code environments, allowing admins to clean up unused resources or celebrate apps that are being extensively used. 
  • Limit Sharing controls can be used to rein in app sprawl and reduce oversharing by limiting who can use apps in a Power Platform environment, removing sharing among security groups and limiting the number of users. 
  • Environment-scoped Data Loss Protection (DLP) policies deliver Power Platform admins visibility into environment-specific DLP polices to ensure if policies have been created. 
  • Simple environment activation allows Power Platform admins to easily activate Managed Environments for Power Platform in the Power Platform admin center in a few clicks. 

You can learn more about this update here.

Please note this is not an exhaustive list of all the areas covered in the event. To find out more, you can head to the Book of News page which highlights all of the announcements from the event. If you’d like to about any of the announcements mentioned in this blog, you can reach out to our team here.