In the News

Microsoft announced that customers can now purchase a joint licensing agreement for its cloud-based Operations Management Suite and its on-premises System Center Infrastructure Manager. Packaging these separate but related management platforms will encourage customers to use public cloud resources and make it easier to manage hybrid clouds. Jeremy Winter, Product Manager for System Center and Services, Microsoft, says, “As customers look to be more agile and efficient, they’re exploring how they can leverage the cloud. Organizations are straddling both on-premises infrastructure management and cloud resources. There’s no longer a single set of management technology inside a company, they’re really using multiple tools.”

HyperX has launched the Cloud X Pro Gaming headset worth Rs 9,999 to be sold on both retail and online platforms. The headset has been designed specifically for Xbox users and matches the consoles style and convenience. Microsoft and HyperX partnered up back in January to develop a licensed headset for the Xbox One. Hyper X is a high-performance product division of Kingston Technology and works on gaming accessories, DDR4 and DDR3 memory, USB flash drives and SSDs.

The HRD ministry is mulling launching its Massive Open Online Courses platform ‘Swayam’ on August 15. The ambitious project will host over 2,000 courses for up to three crore students across the country and is likely be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Swayam is an Information Technology platform which will host Massive Open Online Courses and provide high quality education on various subjects from school level (class 9-12) to Under Graduate and Post Graduate students covering all disciplines. The HRD Ministry has roped in Microsoft as the technology partner for this venture.

Encouraging consumers to buy the new Surface Pro 4 as well as the soon-to-be-old version of the Xbox One, Microsoft will be giving them away in a July to August deal on the Store. The Surface 3 line is coming to an end at the end of the year and the smaller, 4K and HDR-supporting Xbox One S is around the corner with an August release date.

The robot revolution is coming, and people like Elon Musk and prominent scientists are concerned about what this could portend for humanity. They have suggested that we carefully think through what it would mean to live with artificial sentinels that could easily outstrip our own intelligences, and whether it’s really worth bringing them into the world to make our chat apps a little better. As part of a lengthy June 28 op-ed for Slate on the future of AI, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella outlined six imperatives for artificial intelligence, and four things that humans must impart into AI systems they build.

Students at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications will cover the 2016 Presidential election season for a global audience through a unique partnership with Skype in Media. Eugene Ho, Director, Product Management for Skype, said, “We’re thrilled to partner with the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. By outfitting the Newhouse School with studio-grade broadcasting Skype TX units, student broadcasters can offer viewers from around the world access to a unique political perspective, enabling them to perceive the election through the eyes of millennial voters.”

MasterCard has collaborated with Microsoft to bring simple and secure e-commerce payments to Microsoft Dynamics users, the company said. Simplify Commerce, a cloud-
based payments platform, helps businesses grow by maximizing online and mobile sales. Through this collaboration, Microsoft Dynamics customers will have one system that connects their end-to-end planning and sales.

Microsoft’s best Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 models are now available outside of North America. Both of the laptop-tablet hybrids can be bought with a 1TB SSD in eight additional markets: Australia, Austria, China, France, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Switzerland and the UK. Germany and Japan will be joining the list in July; Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands will get the 1TB Surface Pro 4 later this summer.

eSignLive, the e-signature choice for business, has partnered with Certified Gold Microsoft Partner, A Hundred Answers, to build efficiencies into business processes by enabling a completely digital business process to organizations using Microsoft Dynamics CRM. With the eSignLive for Microsoft Dynamics CRM add-on, sales, marketing and service teams can quickly obtain secure, legal and compliant e-signatures for contracts, documents and forms of all kinds, meeting advanced workflow and authentication needs, transaction management and remote, mobile, and in-person signing.

Axway, a market leader in digital business enablement, announced that its key secure email and file sharing solution, Axway MailGate Secure Collaboration (SC) is now available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. It is available through a subscription-based model in 32 countries, with global availability coming soon. Microsoft enterprise users can now benefit from a global, enterprise-class solution that is easy-to-access, easy-to-deploy and easy-to-use in any IT environment.