Microsoft Ignite 2024 Book of News

Microsoft Ignite 2024 event completed last week with lot of great announcements and new innovations that would shape the future of Technology. 

You can access this Book of News post to understand all the key updates in detail: Microsoft Ignite 2024 Book of News 

Recorded Keynote and other key sessions are now available on demand access them to know more.

If you are specifically looking for Microsoft 365 Copilot Sessions you can access the below post to review the sessions and understand the latest updates through the available on-demand videos 

Access here: Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft Ignite 2024 Event Guide

Microsoft Copilot for Security Flight School Series

If your organization is on the Journey to adopt Microsoft Copilot for Security, you have a new essential resource from Microsoft to know more on product and how to utilize the same for better for Organization Security.

Access the Series here: Microsoft Copilot for Security Flight School

AI on Azure Guidance

Microsoft has published new guidance on AI Adoption under their Cloud Adoption Framework, this guidance provides a structured approach for integrating AI into your organization using Azure. The guidance is relevant for organizations of any size and industry. It covers both generative and nongenerative AI adoption guidance. It is your roadmap for AI adoption and a central hub to find the resources you need.

You can access the guidance here: AI on Azure

Access the 6 Phases directly below,

• AI Strategy
• AI Plan
• AI Ready
• Govern AI
• Manage AI
• Secure AI

If you are building an AI Center of Excellence, then below guidance will be the starting point.

Access here: Establish an AI Center of Excellence

Microsoft Learn Challenge | Ignite Edition

It's time for The Microsoft Learn Challenge | Ignite Edition starts on November 19, 2024, at 4:00 PM (16:00) UTC and ends on January 10, 2025, at 4:00 PM (16:00) UTC. 

You have 8 challenges available to choose from, and you can complete them timely to earn your Digital badge and show case the same in your Microsoft Learn profile.

More details with registration are available here: Microsoft Learn Challenge | Ignite Edition

Register soon!

 

Copilot Developer Camp

Microsoft launched a new Copilot Developer Camp, a workshop for professional developers who want to learn how to build agents for Microsoft 365 Copilot.

You can access here to know more: Copilot Developer Camp

Register for In person or Live Stream Event once available for your region here : Copilot Developer Camp Series 

It's now time for Microsoft Learn AI Skills Challenge

It's now time for Microsoft Learn AI Skills Challenge and it starts on September 24, 2024, at 4:00 PM (16:00) UTC and ends on November 1, 2024, at 4:00 PM (16:00) UTC. Dive into advanced AI technology with these six curated topics designed to elevate your skills.

Access the official site to know more register: AI Skills Challenge

Once you complete the Challenge successfully you will receive a receive a digital badge via email that you can add to your Microsoft Learn profile.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 – Announcements

Microsoft has announced some great features and updates on Microsoft 365 Copilot during yesterday's Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 event.

Access the official Blog post here to know more: Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2: Pages, Python in Excel, and agents | Microsoft 365 Blog

Microsoft New site here: The next phase of Microsoft 365 Copilot innovation

You can view all the announcements in nutshell using the below one pager.

Join the upcoming Copilot for Microsoft 365 AMA Event to get your questions answered by Microsoft team of experts following the news from the Microsoft 365 Copilot: Wave 2 event on September 19.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 AMA - Microsoft Community Hub

Get ready to Upgrade to Exchange Server SE !

 Microsoft Exchange Team recently published a blog post outlining the timeline when the next version of On-Premises Exchange Server 2025 aka Exchange Server Subscription Edition (SE) will be available, and how you can prepare your organization to prepare for this upgrade journey.

As of today, most of the large Enterprise Customers still has Exchange Hybrid deployment in their environment, and the existing Exchange Server 2016 (Currently on Extended support) and Exchange Server 2019 will go completely out of support next year October 2025, so to stay supported with Hybrid deployment these Organizations need to start their upgrade plan asap and the article clearly explains the supported deployment model like with which version Co-existence is supported when RTM gets released and when CU1 gets released etc. 

The blog post also answers most of the FAQs and upgrade guidance, if you are using Legacy Version of Exchange Server, it's now time to start reviewing your landscape and plan for the upgrade journey.

Access the Blog post here: Upgrading your organization from current versions to Exchange Server SE

Join Microsoft 365 Copilot: Wave 2

The next phase of Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 innovation is designed to help optimize your customers’ daily operations. Join Satya Nadella and Jared Spataro on September 16 for Microsoft 365 Copilot: Wave 2 to discover the next phase of Copilot for work.

RSVP here: Microsoft 365 Copilot: Wave 2

Do I Extend or Build my Own Copilot ?

Most Organizations that had adopted Copilot for Microsoft 365 has this dilemma on when to extend and when to build Custom Copilots, both options provide benefits and choosing the right approach provides enhanced productivity features as desired.

Having the fundamental understanding of each of the available options will help you decide the suitable option and you have related guidance from Microsoft with various options to extend or build your Custom Copilots.

Microsoft have updated their guidance to reflect the recent updates, which can be accessed here to know more: Extending Microsoft Copilot versus building your own copilot

Recently Microsoft team added a new MS Learn module to help you understand how you can extend Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 with Copilot Studio.

You can access the learning path here: Extend Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 with Copilot Studio

Also register for the Upcoming Microsoft Adoption - Customer Hub Sessions on Copilot for Microsoft 365 Extensibility scheduled in coming Months and on demand to know more.

Register here:  Copilot for Microsoft 365 extensibility

Copilot for Microsoft 365 Risk Assessment QuickStart Guide Now Available !

As Organizations started to adopt Copilot for Microsoft 365, Microsoft team has recently published the Quick start guide to assist organizations in performing a comprehensive risk assessment of Copilot for Microsoft 365. The document serves as an initial reference for risk identification, mitigation exploration, and stakeholder discussions.

You can download guide from Service Trust portal here: Microsoft 365 - Copilot for Microsoft 365 Risk Assessment QuickStart (Aug 2024)

Review the official blog post to know more: Now Available: the Copilot for Microsoft 365 Risk Assessment QuickStart Guide

Copilot Learning Hub

Microsoft has published a new learning hub for Microsoft Copilot, this is your one stop resource to know more on Copilot and Start your learning journey.

Access the Hub here: Copilot learning hub

Official blog post here: Copilot Learning Hub: Your Gateway to Mastering Microsoft Copilot

Get to know how Microsoft deployed Copilot for Microsoft 365

Copilot for Microsoft is being widely adopted by multiple Organizations and Microsoft has provided lot of guidance on how to learn, adopt and deploy Copilot for Microsoft 365, and as a part of this journey they have published detailed write up, deployment and adoption guide on how Microsoft deployed Copilot for Microsoft 365 internally, this will serve as a good starting point to understand how Organizations can adopt the service efficiently through their first hand experience.

Access the Blog post here: Deploying Copilot for Microsoft 365 internally at Microsoft

You can download the Ebook versions below

Download here: Deploying Copilot for Microsoft 365 at Microsoft

Download here: Executive Adoption Guide: Copilot for Microsoft 365

Also read the detailed series below

Deploying Copilot for Microsoft 365 in four chapters

Copilot for Microsoft 365 for executives: Sharing our internal deployment and adoption journey at Microsoft

Copilot for Microsoft 365 Adoption Playbook

Microsoft Copilot products are being adopted across the globe and Copilot for Microsoft 365 has gain lot of momentum and multiple organizations have started their adoption journey and started to get the benefits of enhanced AI capabilities.

Microsoft has published a play book on how to adopt Copilot for Microsoft 365, a good resource to understand the product and effectively adopt the same.

You can access the play book here: Copilot for Microsoft 365 Adoption Playbook

Access the Official Adoption site here:  Microsoft Adoption: Copilot for Microsoft 365

MS Build: Developer’s Guide to Customizing Microsoft Copilot

 Microsoft Build 2024 Sessions are now available on demand amongst various sessions on AI and Copilot, one of the sessions explaining how customize and how to build Copilot extensions grabbed my attention, this session servers as a developer guide for customizing Microsoft Copilot, explaining when to Customize and when to build your own Copilot etc. and recommended to watch for Organizations adopting and exploring capabilities of Copilot.

Access the session here: Developer’s Guide to Customizing Microsoft Copilot

Watch the other associated sessions above to get more insights on Copilot.

Also read this exhaustive blog that covers the key updates: The present and future of Copilot extensibility: Top 10 takeaways from Build 2024

New Whitepaper: GDPR & Generative AI – A Guide for Customers

 Microsoft team recently published a Whitepaper on GDPR Compliance in the context of using Generative AI services. This is an essential guide for Organizations adopting Microsoft AI technologies.

You can download the Whitepaper here: GDPR & Generative AI – A Guide for Customers

More details is available in the official blog post here: Introducing Our New Whitepaper: GDPR & Generative AI – A Guide for Customers

Microsoft 365 Community Conference Videos on Demand !

 Microsoft 365 Community Conference event was completed earlier this month with lot of great announcements on Microsoft 365 product line powered by latest AI capabilities. 

Now Microsoft team has shared some of the great content presented in this conference on-demand under the Microsoft 365 Community Conference Youtube Channel.

You can access the Channel here: Microsoft 365 Community Conference

Also Microsoft team has launched the new Community News Desk on the Microsoft Tech Community, your one stop resource for engaging with Community experts, events and get to know latest updates to stay updated on the Microsoft products.

The above on-demand content is part of the Community News Desk initiative and more updates are on the way.

Access here to know more: Introducing the Community News Desk with essential content from Microsoft 365 Community Conference

You can pre-register for next year event here : https://m365conf.com/#!/

Microsoft Build 2024 Updates !

Microsoft largest developer event of the year Microsoft Build 2024 has begun yesterday and we had lot of great announcements made during the event from the announcement of new Teams Copilot, Copilot Connectors and Agents, GPT-4o GA on Azure Open AI Service, new Copilot + PCs, General availability of SharePoint Embedded and much more.

If you have registered for the event, you can access the Keynote session and more details here: Your home for Microsoft Build

Refer the below key update posts for more information

• (1) The age of AI transformation | LinkedIn
• What’s next: Microsoft Build continues the evolution and expansion of AI tools for developers - The Official Microsoft Blog
• Unlock a new era of innovation with Windows Copilot Runtime and Copilot+ PCs - Windows Developer Blog
• New agent capabilities in Microsoft Copilot unlock business value | Microsoft 365 Blog
• Microsoft Copilot Studio: Building copilots with agent capabilities | Microsoft Copilot Studio
• Accelerate business growth with AI: your guide to Copilot extensions with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams
• New ways of development with copilots and Microsoft Power Platform
• Announcing SharePoint Embedded General Availability - Microsoft Community Hub
• Microsoft Build 2024: Create custom copilots from SharePoint - Microsoft Community Hub
• Live at Build: Microsoft Learn releases new AI skill-building resources - Microsoft Community Hub
• Announcing Partner Center to certify and publish Power Platform Copilot connectors and plugins

For detailed information review the below Book of News.

Microsoft Build keynote highlights

Watch the Entire Microsoft Build 2024 sessions here:

Microsoft Build 2024: Day 1 #MSBuild (youtube.com)

Microsoft Build 2024: Day 2 #MSBuild (youtube.com)

Microsoft Build 2024: Day 3 #MSBuild (youtube.com)

Access the Microsoft Build home site for on-demand content.

Follow #msbuild in LinkedIn and @msdev@msdev X handle for latest updates.

Exchange Server Roadmap Update Just Released !

Microsoft Exchange Team published a new update today on the Exchange Server Roadmap, this brings the update on the last CU For Exchange Server 2019 and availability of the Exchange vNext aka Exchange Server Subscription Edition (Exchange Server SE) in 2025.

As of today most larger Organizations follow the Hybrid Exchange deployment Model, and keeping the On-Premises Exchange Server under the supported version becomes essential to stay supported, and if you are still on Legacy Exchange Versions, its time to upgrade your environment to supported 2019 version and plan for the vNext upgrade accordingly.

You can view the below table specified in the blog post for the update path based on your current environment.

Exchange Server Subscription Edition follows the new modern Lifecycle Policy and more details are available in the blog post.

Access here to know more: Exchange Server Roadmap Update

Microsoft Purview AI Hub available in Public Preview !

Microsoft team announced the Public Preview of Microsoft Purview hub, your one stop solution to mitigate and manage the risks associated with AI usage, and implement corresponding protection and governance controls. You can use AI hub in conjunction with other Microsoft Purview capabilities to strengthen your data security and compliance for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365.

For Organizations adopting AI, including Microsoft Copilot products, having the right level of data governance becomes essential including proper classification of data, control how data is being labelled to protect sensitive data,  how data is being shared inside and outside the Organization etc. and Purview hub gets these requirements addressed efficiently as outlined by Microsoft. As the product is in preview we can expect few changes and updates as we move forward until it becomes GA.

More information is available in the Tech Community post here: Secure your data to confidently take advantage of Generative AI with Microsoft Purview

MS Learn articles 

Microsoft Purview data security and compliance protections for generative AI apps

Considerations for Microsoft Purview AI Hub and data security and compliance protections for Microsoft Copilot

Another great post on Securing your Organizational AI journey: Secure your AI transformation with Microsoft Security