Recent News

Satya Nadella took the stage at the Worldwide Partner Conference, where he elaborated on Microsoft’s strategy for the mobile-first and cloud-first world, and what this would mean for partners. He discussed a repositioning in the company’s vision as the lines between personal and professional computing continue to blur. In that direction, Nadella promised brisk development that established products, such as Skype, Lync and OneDrive, as mainstays of both the enterprise and consumer-tech space.

In an opinion piece, Madhu Khatri, Associate General Counsel, Microsoft India discusses the organization’s work with youth for employability and entrepreneurship. By 2020, India will have around 500 million citizens aged below 25, and a growing number of India’s youth need the right educational infrastructure to cultivate skills and adequate opportunities to get employed or become entrepreneurs. Recognizing this, Microsoft has launched a series of programs and initiatives, such as YouthSpark, which focus on developing the potential of young citizens.

The two tech giants have inked a three-year agreement through which they will drive deeper integration across their data center portfolios and incent their mutual channel partners with joint Cisco and Microsoft technologies. The new partnership is aimed at driving integration between Cisco and Microsoft cloud and data center technologies, such as Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS), Cisco’s Nexus switching line and Microsoft Cloud OS solutions—including Windows Server, System Center, SQL Server and Microsoft Azure.

Nokia has announced that the Lumia Cyan update for Nokia devices is now ready to be launched. The company put out a video via the Nokia YouTube channel informing users about the new features expected with the update. As this is a global roll-out, it will reach users in a number of waves, with the Lumia 625 and Lumia 925 owners receiving the first update notifications.

The sales of Xbox One have significantly increased since May, after Microsoft added a lower-priced version of the machine. “Over the past month, we’ve seen a strong spike in interest in our Xbox One console options, including the new $399 offering,” the Redmond, Washington-based company said in a blog. Microsoft introduced a cheaper machine on June 9 after an initial $499 launch price tag on the console.

Microsoft Azure is the preferred cloud platform for Itron Inc. This cloud computing infrastructure platform will provide a secure, reliable and cost-effective option for hosting Itron Analytics, while harnessing the value of data generated by utility smart grid and smart distribution investments. With Microsoft Azure, Itron adds that it will have access to highly-available, scalable and durable cloud storage, backup and recovery capabilities.

Microsoft Research India has launched a new app called Climatology for both Android and Windows Phone users via their respective app stores. Instead of providing current temperature and a forecast for the next few days like most weather apps, as the name suggests, the Climatology app informs people about the weather conditions of different places at different time periods of the year. WPCentral notes that the app delivers the climate information through Research’s FetchClimate project.

Nikhil Srivastava, an Indian mathematician from Microsoft Research India, became the first joint winner of the prestigious 2014 George Polya Prize for finding a solution to a problem that had eluded mathematicians for more than half a century. Srivastava, who has a PhD from Yale University and is presently based in Bangalore, is part of a three member team which found a solution to the Kadison-Singer conjecture that pertains to the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics.

Next week’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference is set to attract a large number of attendees to Washington DC, where Microsoft is expected to unveil its latest plans for Azure, alongside other roadmaps for fiscal 2015.

The Windows Phone version of Blackberry’s messaging service—BBM is now ready for public testing, having entered the open beta phase. Interested users can download the test version, which supports group chats of up to 50 contacts and includes photo album sharing features.