Author: Microsoft Stories

Expanding its verticals to retain the market leadership, Microsoft has open sourced its next-generation hyperscale cloud hardware design. The new offering by the Redmond giant is a part of the Open Compute Project (OCP) that was jointly launched Facebook, Google, Intel and Microsoft in 2014. The design, called Project Olympus, is a new model for open source hardware with the OCP community. “We are taking a very different approach by contributing our next generation cloud hardware designs when they are approximately 50 percent complete – much earlier in the cycle than any previous OCP project,” writes Kushagra Vaid, General Manager, Azure Hardware Infrastructure.

Microsoft put an end to sales of Windows 7 licenses to computer makers, marking a major milestone for the seven-year-old OS. The Redmond, Washington company stopped selling Windows 7 Professional or any version of Windows 8.1 to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) as of October 31, 2016. The end of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 left only Windows 10 as a long-term choice for OEMs that pre-load Windows on their wares.

LinkedIn, which calls itself the social network for professionals, is adding a service that provides members with salary information for a variety of jobs, including a break-down by such factors as location, industry, education and experience. It’s based on anonymized data submitted by LinkedIn members, including details about base pay and other compensation, such as bonuses and stock grants. The new service comes two weeks after Glassdoor, a competing online job site, introduced a feature that promises to help workers determine their “personal market value” by comparing their current job title, salary and related information with data from other workers and current hiring trends.

eScan, an end point and content security solution providers, has once again achieved the Microsoft Gold Partnership status in security solutions. Govind Rammurthy, MD and CEO, eScan said, “It is an honor to receive the Microsoft Gold Partnership Certificate and to be associated with world’s largest vendor, Microsoft. This reinstates our efforts towards providing world class security solutions for our customers and to stand the test of customer satisfaction at the highest level.”

Technology decision makers in Indian companies have said that they are highest adopters of public cloud solutions in the world. A survey by Microsoft and market research firm Wakefield Research shows that 57% respondents from India have adopted public cloud solutions. 33% respondents stated that their companies use hybrid cloud (a combination public and private cloud) solutions. The Microsoft Azure Survey was conducted among 1,281 ITDMs – including 261 in India, between August 31 and September 13, 2016, for a total of 2,546 respondents.

Microsoft unveiled Microsoft Teams, a new chat-based workspace that further enhances the collaboration capabilities in Microsoft Office 365, the cloud-based productivity offering with more than 85 million monthly active commercial users. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said, “At Microsoft we aim to empower every person and organization with the technology to be more productive as individuals and in groups. Office 365 is the broadest toolkit and platform for creation, communication and collaboration. Microsoft Teams adds a new experience to Office 365 as the chat-based workspace designed to empower the art of teams.”

Project Scorpio, Microsoft’s next big Xbox console, has garnered quite a bit of hype even if it hasn’t been properly showcased. The “most powerful console ever built” is out in Holiday 2017 and arrives four years after the Xbox One, which is still weird considering the Xbox 360 lasted a good eight to nine years. Speaking to Game Informer, Xbox boss Phil Spencer discussed the possibility of Microsoft releasing new console hardware on a regular basis. While plans could always change, Spencer did note that he wasn’t interested in regularly releasing new console iterations.

A new report shows the Xbox One S led all UK Sales among consoles for the second straight month. Gameindustry.biz has reported this is the first time a Microsoft console has outsold the PS4 for two months in a row since the two consoles first launched. These kinds of numbers are underlined by comments from Microsoft that the Xbox One S is the fastest selling console in America.

The Xbox One seems to be gaining steam when it comes to sales. While there were, some who wondered if the console was ever going to catch up to the PS4, Microsoft seems to be making some strides. A new ad surfaced earlier that is touting some of the best features the Xbox One and Xbox One S having going for them these days. In the very short video, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown is enjoying some gaming time as he and his screen mate talk about the 2TB hard drive console Microsoft is offering.

Microsoft had promised that stand-alone, mixed reality headsets would be coming in March at a starting price of around $300. In an interview with Polygon, Alex Kipman, HoloLens Project Head at Microsoft, explained that Microsoft’s headsets would address the two main problems pertaining to VR headsets, movement constraints and high minimum system requirements. Describing the headsets, Kipman told Polygon that the “first wave of headsets will be opaque” and that they would be tethered, just like traditional VR headsets.