In the News

Microsoft has done an about-turn on one of their most controversial statements. Quantum Break will no longer remain a Windows 10 and Windows Store exclusive and will be coming to Steam this September. The plan in question was gunning for PC, Xbox cross-buy, shared saves, achievements, and maybe even cross-play, across platforms. Of course, it’s entirely possible that Microsoft had nothing to do with this decision because the game’s developers, Remedy Entertainment, aren’t a Microsoft company.

Microsoft completed its retreat from its controversial policy regarding support for Intel’s “Skylake” processors on its older Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 operating systems. Now Skylake PCs running those OSes will receive the standard length of support. In a controversial move, Microsoft had previously said this past January that it would only support Skylake PCs running its older operating systems for about 18 months. Now, the support lifetimes for “Broadwell” and “Skylake” PCs are the same: Windows 7 support will expire on January 14, 2020, and support for Windows 8.1 will end January 10, 2023.

Onvia, the leader in business-to-government (B2G) commerce intelligence, announced new integration capabilities with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Onvia’s single-click send-to-CRM feature gives clients who use Dynamics the ability to respond to government sales leads more quickly and efficiently. Onvia’s integration with Dynamics follows the recent announcement of integration with Salesforce CRM.

Brocade announced the availability of the Brocade Virtual Application Delivery Controller (vADC) solution on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. With just a few clicks, customers can now deploy the Brocade vADC solution to optimize and secure applications in the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, paying only for the specific resources they use. Reshmi Yandapalli, Principal Program Manager, Azure networking, Microsoft, said, “We’re pleased that customers looking to extend their application workloads on Microsoft Azure now have access to the Brocade vADC solution.”

Microsoft released another batch of security patches, fixing 27 vulnerabilities in Windows, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, and its new Edge browser. The patches are organized in nine security bulletins, five of which are rated critical and the rest important, making this Microsoft patch bundle one of the lightest this year in terms of the number of patches. All of the issues resolved this month are in desktop deployments, but Windows servers might also be affected depending on their configuration.

Netmagic, an NTT Communications Company, has announced the launch of SimpliVPC (Virtual Private Cloud), a cloud service that leverages hybrid IT strategy to scale, optimize and manage the technology environment real-time. Peter Gartnerberg, General Manager, enterprise partner group (EPG), Microsoft India said, “We are excited to partner with Netmagic and offer Hyper-V on the Azure stack that enables SimpliVPC, the hybrid cloud scenario for our customers. Cloud adoption by enterprises in India continues to grow and we are witnessing an increasing number of businesses moving to public and hybrid cloud.”

Crossing the 37-million-users mark rapidly in the country has helped jobs portal LinkedIn speed part the 100-million-members mark in the Asia Pacific region. As a result, its user base has doubled in the past two years. Currently, India is LinkedIn’s second-largest user base after its home country, the US. Now, the social network for professionals is targeting campus recruits to grow even faster. Olivier Legrand, Managing Director, Asia-Pacific and Japan, LinkedIn, said, “At this scale, LinkedIn is in an even stronger position to help members connect to economic opportunity, whether it’s a new job, a promotion or other business opportunities.”

Microsoft announced the appointment of Sriram Rajamani as the new Managing Director of its India Research Lab, effective from August 1. Rajamani will spearhead Microsoft India’s continued focus on world-class research, innovation and collaboration with the scientific community, the company said in a statement. “I look forward to leading and expanding Microsoft’s commitment to world-class research and innovation in India and deepening our partnerships with our academic partners,” he said.

Inaugurating the first edition of Machine Learning & Data Sciences (ML&DS) Conference in Bangalore, Joseph Sirosh, Corporate Vice President of Data Group at Microsoft, said, “Cloud based services for Machine Learning and Big Data, together with the Internet of Things have the potential to revolutionize every aspect of our lives, from sports, healthcare and education and even government. At Microsoft, our ambition is to democratize the access to these technologies so that software developers can build, innovate and transform the world with them.”

Data centre company Net Magic today said it is investing over $12 million in its virtual private cloud offering. It has also tied up with Microsoft and Cisco to launch the product called “SimpliVPC” in the country and already signed up clients like cement maker Lafarge. The company, a part of Japan’s NTT Group, is offering the newly-launched service from its data centres in the financial capital and Bengaluru.