Manufacturing a better future: Microsoft announces intelligent industry innovations

It’s a time of great disruption but great opportunity in the manufacturing industry, as businesses seek to find novel ways to create new business value, empower and upskill their workforce, optimize their operations and innovate for a sustainable future. Advanced technologies like AI, mixed reality and automation are helping drive Industry 4.0, creating a future where “intelligent manufacturing” is a reality. Today, we are introducing updates that help bring this reality even closer for our customers and partners, to deliver increased security, productivity and efficiency, which will help them achieve new business outcomes.

As we head to Hanover, Germany, next week to join global leaders at the world’s biggest trade show for industrial technology, we are announcing several improvements to our trusted, innovative manufacturing solutions, including:

1. Azure is now the first major public cloud with end-to-end security for IoT for your devices, hubs and cloud resources. We are adding advanced threat protection for IoT to three key services: Azure Security Center for IoT can now be used to implement security best practices and mitigate threats across entire IoT projects including hubs, compute and data. Azure Sentinel, the first cloud-native security information and event management (SIEM) offering, can now protect the entire enterprise from threats including those affecting IoT devices. Azure IOT Hub now integrates with Azure Security Center for IoT to provide IoT security information directly inside the hub portal experience.
2. The introduction of OPC Twin and OPC Vault in our Azure Industrial IoT Cloud Platform solution, which respectively provide manufacturers a digital twin of their OPC UA-enabled machines and significantly enhance security and certification management. We’re also announcing important enhancements to the Connected Factory solution accelerator, which now integrates with OPC Twin to greatly simplify the process of installing IoT Edge.
3. An expansion of Azure IP Advantage to IoT, which extends Azure IP Advantage benefits to Azure customers with IoT devices connected to Azure, and devices that are powered by Azure Sphere and Windows IoT. Additionally, qualified startups who join the LOT Network have the ability to acquire Microsoft patents through LOT for free.

You’ll find more details on the Azure IoT Platform updates in this blog from Sam George, and more information on Azure IP Advantage below. We will also share additional business updates including:

• Intelligent innovations for industry: Onsite at Hannover Messe we will showcase our wide range of offerings for manufacturers including breakthroughs in AI experiences, mixed reality with HoloLens 2, business-ready solutions with Dynamics 365 and tools to close the skills gap with Microsoft 365.
• Customers achieving business outcomes: We’re supporting leading manufacturers including Bühler, Electrolux, Siemens Gamesa and ZEISS as they accelerate their own innovations, as outlined below.
• New partner solutions: We continue to grow the ecosystem of partners collaborating with Microsoft to help manufacturers succeed, with several announcing news this week.
• The latest in our Future Computed book series: The Future Computed: AI and Manufacturing explores the way manufacturers from across the world are embracing AI. It shares insights from our customers on the importance of creating the right company culture and talent pipeline to realize AI’s potential, and explores the role of public policy in addressing labor market disruption and fostering the ethical use of AI. We’ll preview the book’s key themes at Hannover Messe ahead of its release in May.
• More than 25 innovative companies will join us in our Hannover Messe booth to showcase how we are working together to harness IoT, mixed reality, AI and other key technologies that revolutionize manufacturing.

Microsoft Build 2019: 5 things we're dying to see

Microsoft's Build developer conference is back this May, and as usual, we're expecting lots of long talks about Visual Studio, the cloud, and other super powerful developer tools and platforms. However, we're secretly hoping that Microsoft puts a little more emphasis on Windows this year, with things like Windows Core OS, HoloLens 2, and Anaheim in the works internally.

Here's what we're hoping to see at the Build 2019 developer conference.

Windows 10 20H1

Microsoft recently started flighting 20H1 preview builds to Insiders in the Skip Ahead ring, which is notable as 20H1 isn't scheduled to be released until April 2020. That means 20H1 will be in testing by Insiders for at least 13 months, the longest of any official Windows preview phase since Windows 8. Microsoft's only official word on the matter is that it's planning new features that need longer lead time for development and testing.

While nothing is confirmed, we have heard whispers that Microsoft may finally be planning to introduce more "CShell" universal shell elements to desktop with 20H1, including an updated XAML taskbar, system tray, and more. This would explain why Microsoft is giving 20H1 a long lead time. It would be awesome if Microsoft finally opened up about its new universal shell at Build 2019, talking about how it can adapt and showcase improved animations and consistency across UI elements.

Whatever Microsoft is planning for 20H1, we think Build 2019 would be a great place to start talking about it.

Windows Lite

Another Windows-related thing in the cards for Build 2019 is Microsoft's rumored lightweight version of Windows, known publicly as "Windows Lite". This is a new flavor of Windows Core OS that's designed to take on Chrome OS and iOS for iPad, with a new user interface that drops live tiles in favor of the more familiar static app launcher but still has deep ties with web experiences and puts the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) front and center.

If Microsoft announces Windows Lite, we'd also like to see Microsoft give out a developer device to those in attendance that comes with Windows Lite preinstalled. This would give them an incentive to support Microsoft's new Windows OS.

More on HoloLens 2

Microsoft is expected to announce HoloLens 2 at Mobile World Congress (MWC) on February 24, but we're not expecting there to be a huge deep dive into new developer opportunities at its unveiling. So, that makes Build 2019 the perfect time to open up more about its plans for HoloLens 2 and detail to developers what exactly they can do to take advantage of HoloLens 2's new capabilities.

It's worth noting that HoloLens 2 is another Windows Core OS-powered device from Microsoft. Windows Core OS is the magic behind Windows Lite, Surface Hub 2X, and HoloLens 2, so perhaps a discussion about Windows Core OS itself will happen at Build 2019.

Microsoft's new 'Anaheim' browser

We might actually see this show up before Build 2019, but even so, we'd love to see Microsoft talk more about its plans for its new Chromium version of Edge, codenamed "Anaheim". It would be great to see Microsoft detail its roadmap for Anaheim and talk more about why it's switching to Chromium and what kind of improvements and new features to expect because of the change.

An update on PWAs on Windows 10

This kind of ties into both Windows Lite and Anaheim, but it'd be great if Microsoft started talking more about its progressive web app (PWA) plans for Windows. Considering Windows Lite is all about the web, you'd think Microsoft would be making some big strides in ensuring PWAs work well on Windows, and it might even want to convince developers that building PWAs is a great idea if you're considering building an app.

What do you want to see?

That's our list of things we're hoping to see talked about at Build 2019. What are you hoping to see? Let us know in the comments.

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