In the News

Microsoft revealed that security of customer data and compliance with regulations are both “enduring principles” that the company keeps in mind while designing its products. Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft, said, “Around data, we are at the very beginning of even understanding what are the frameworks of law, what are the regulations because there got to be enduring principles that you have to navigate and keep constant. These are the enduring principles on a worldwide basis, not just in one jurisdiction, not in one country…you really have to think through not after the fact but in the design decisions of the products that you use and the products that you build.”

Microsoft wants to help businesses bring their meeting rooms into the future of video-conferencing without compromising on their budget. The software giant has announced two new Skype for Business initiatives aimed at getting existing technology connected to its work communications service. One of them, named Project Rigel, is aimed at helping companies turn meeting rooms into video-conferencing centers able to host interactive Skype meetings.

Microsoft Ventures had announced its latest batch of 12 this week. Nine of these startups have already raised funding, with some having as much as US$4 million in their pockets. Together, they have raised US$18 million. The 16-week program that generally focuses on later stage startups consist of CanvasFlip, CloudCherry, and Teewe as alumni among others. Apps that have been created by these startups include chats for education, IoT for industrial equipment, Big Data for banks and actuaries and more.

UCWeb’s mobile browser ‘UC Browser’ has tied up with Microsoft search engine Bing ahead of the cricket season with debut of a revamped UC Cricket. The deal will provide a mobile gateway to all things associated with cricket. This is part of a broader plan by UC Browser, a part of Alibaba mobile business group, to ride on the digital content trend and shape how content will be consumed on mobile Internet. Bing will provide predictions to upcoming games via Bing Predicts.

Microsoft Corporation, showcased an array of technology innovations across its products and service portfolio to make Hindi language computing more accessible for users. At an event in Jaipur, the company displayed the integration of Hindi on Office 365, Sway, Skype IM translator, Bing and Windows Phone that is available at no extra cost for consumers. Alok Lall, Director, Office Marketing, Microsoft, said, “In our commitment to empower users to achieve more, we are delighted to announce a suite of Hindi compatible products and services that users can use at no extra cost. We continue to enhance capabilities, making it easy for users across geographies to use our products and services without facing the language barrier.”

With the country moving ahead with 3G and 4G technology and most small businesses taking a smartphone first approach, Microsoft believes that it is in a much better position to cater to these SMBs in different parts of India. Meetul Patel, General Manager, SMS&P (Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partners), Microsoft India, said, “Under our mobile first approach, we provide SMBs various efficient and low cost tools. Our target is to reach out to the maximum number of the 40 million SMB base in the country. Therefore we are raising awareness via various industry bodies, government agencies, academia, NGOs. SMB organizations are adopting the cloud more quickly than larger enterprises, which gives them a distinct advantage to adapt faster, quickly and enable employees to work anywhere at any time. All this has led to a growing demand of customized and/or tailor-made solution from different industry sectors.”

Via Technologies, the third-place x86 chip maker is making new x86 chips and bringing Windows 10 support to existing processors. The company’s chips are still used in thin clients and ITX boards. The company has added Windows 10 compatibility to its EPIA-P910 and EPIA-M920Pico-ITX boards, motherboards that have PC-grade components. The boards run on older quad-core Via processors originally designed for low-cost PCs. It will be possible to run Windows 10 on the Pico-ITX boards.

Microsoft has joined the open source Eclipse Foundation. Shanku Niyogi, General Manager of the Visual Studio Team, Microsoft said, “Today, I’m happy to share that Microsoft is taking its relationship with the Eclipse community to the next level by joining the Eclipse Foundation as a Solutions Member. Joining the Eclipse Foundation enables us to collaborate more closely with the Eclipse community, deliver a great set of tools and services for all development teams, and continuously improve our cloud services, SDKs and tools.”

Microsoft Corporation and Polycom, Inc. announced that they would expand the reach of Skype for Business meetings. This would enable Polycom customers to leverage their existing video investments as they move to Microsoft Office 365 and Skype for Business environments. In addition, Microsoft customers will have the option to use Polycom’s proven technologies in their new deployments. Zig Serafin, Corporate Vice President, Skype for Business, Microsoft, said, “Uniting Skype for Business in Office 365 with Polycom’s high-quality audio and video solutions gives customers the most complete collaboration toolkit for the modern workplace.”

Microsoft made waves in the tech industry when it announced that it is giving away the Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC) software for free. It was created by the tech giant for its own internal use. SONiC is used to run an up-and-coming type of computer network switch that is rising in popularity. Microsoft is giving SONiC software away as part of its work with the Open Compute Project, an organization founded by Facebook to build “open source” hardware for data centers the same way that the people behind the Linux operating system do with free, open source software.