In the News

Microsoft India has announced the India launch of SQL Server 2016, the data platform built with advanced predictive analytics capabilities. Karan Bajwa, Managing Director, Microsoft Corporation India, said, “Data is the new electricity for businesses today. It gives our customers the opportunity to catapult their growth. Microsoft’s SQL Server 2016 is built for this data driven world customer tested and battle ready. SQL 2016 supports encrypted query processing capabilities for advanced analytics, machine learning, mobile business intelligence, and data integration that address the security concerns of customers. It is today the world’s only relational database to be born ‘cloud-first’ with the majority of features first deployed and tested on Azure.”

Microsoft India hosted Confluence, its signature annual diversity and inclusion conference in Hyderabad. Confluence is a platform for employees to engage with the company’s leaders, industry experts, and public personalities, and discuss the power of diversity and inclusion in driving innovation, growth, and societal impact. Rohit Thakur, Head HR, Microsoft India, said, “We need the best minds on this planet to help us build technology that makes a positive difference in the world. And the best minds come from myriad backgrounds, different genders, age groups, and physical abilities. We welcome them all to our workplace and create an environment to help them do their best work. Confluence 2016 is a celebration of the power diversity and inclusion brings to Microsoft India.”

The latest Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview, build 14327, will now let users send and receive cellular text messages from their Windows 10 PC or tablet. The Messaging Everywhere app will later be replaced with the Universal Windows Platform version of the app in the upcoming build. Gabe Aul, Corporate Vice President, Engineering Systems Team, Microsoft, revealed, “In the meantime, you can use the existing Skype for Windows Phone app available in the Windows Store.”

Panzura, leading in removing the barrier to the cloud, announced that Panzura Cloud Controllers are now certified for Microsoft Azure and available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. Nicole Herskowitz, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Microsoft Azure, said, “Customers want their applications to run with high performance regardless of location, whether running in their datacenters or in Microsoft Azure. The addition of Panzura to the Microsoft Azure Marketplace will help applications developed for use within the corporate datacenter run as-is in Microsoft Azure, letting customers realize the benefits immediately, by providing a high performance global file service that spans all their locations.”

Leading software development outsourcers, Future Processing, have partnered with technology giant Microsoft on City Next, a partner-led initiative that empowers cities to be more sustainable, prosperous, and economically competitive. Wojciech Zyczynski, Sales Director, Public Sector, Microsoft Poland, said: “Progressive development, including the Internet of Things trend, transforms cities into communication mediums. Therefore, the data generated by citizens can be interpreted in order to look for ways of modernization, savings and enhancements of the quality of life in cities. We believe Future Processing’s IT solutions can help us deliver these improvements as the needs of cities now and in the future continue to change”

marQuake, which aims to set a new benchmark in access and analysis of online information sources, has been accepted into the prestigious Microsoft BizSpark Plus Program. Caroline Phillips, Director of Developer Experience & Entrepreneurship, Microsoft Netherlands, said, “Our mission at Microsoft is to empower developers and startups and help them to be successful and so we are delighted to welcome marQuake to the BizSpark Plus family. We believe that marQuake has a lot of future potential, with its disruptive, innovative technology and its differentiated approach in a highly competitive marketplace. We look forward to watching marQuake grow and develop into a successful company fueling new innovation and the national economy.”

Microsoft is finding its home in the cloud, but not quite fast enough for investors. Microsoft hopes to revive its fortunes by placing a big bet on software and mobile services delivered from the cloud. Microsoft’s revenue for its “Intelligent Cloud” segment grew 3% (8% adjusted for currency exchange rates) to $6.1 billion in the latest quarter. Its Azure offering, saw a 120% jump in revenue over the previous quarter. It expected to adopt a mix of software subscriptions and “hybrid” licenses to boost revenue from its cloud offerings.

Microsoft Corp and Intel Corp’s financial results this week brought into sharp relief the onetime PC partners’ attempts to gear up for cloud computing, where Microsoft is soaring and Intel has not quite taken off. Microsoft’s cloud business is growing strongly whereas Intel is dominating the market for processor chips that run data center computers. Much of the difference in the companies’ fortunes boils down to Microsoft’s fundamental business as a software company versus Intel’s as a hardware company.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed the assessments for Microsoft Corporation, including the ‘AA+/F1+’ long- and short-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs). The Rating Outlook is Stable. Fitch expects Microsoft to remain a leading cloud services provider over the intermediate term, driven by a significant Windows operating system (OS) footprint and competitive advantage in the hybrid cloud.

Microsoft Philanthropies announced grants for over 100 nonprofit organizations globally, including NASSCOM Foundation and Quest Alliance in India. The software giant is partnering with these nonprofits in the country to enable under-served youth to embrace computer science. They aim to develop computer programming curriculum and integrating IT and computer science training into current employability and entrepreneurship curriculum respectively.