I am really excited to be on the Microsoft MVPs and Regional RDs wall at Microsoft Ignite.
There are lots of amazing announcements this year for Microsoft Fabric, SQL Server, AI Copilot and Microsoft Purview to name but a few. The Microsoft Ignite 2024 Book of News is full of innovations to enable businesses to be AI Ready
This week it is PASS 24 Data Community Summit
The session abstract: Data is the fuel for innovation, driving the development of transformative AI applications. In this keynote, join Shireesh and the Microsoft engineering team as they explore harnessing the power of data across the Azure databases portfolio to drive ground breaking advancements. Take your first step on the journey with vector search, multi-agent apps and more and learn to unlock new patterns like retrieval augmented generation (RAG). Explore the latest database innovations in SQL Server, Azure SQL, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Database for PostgreSQL and Azure Database for MySQL that enhance operational efficiency, deliver personalized user experiences, and revolutionize the way we interact with technology.
There were some great announcements
Announcing
Preview
Generally available
Alpine Coaster is our shorter 3 time zone end of year unconference event. You know we like to mix things up with this version of Data Toboggan, so this time:
Sessions are around 20 minutes long.
There are three session editions to join. APAC 7:30 8:40 | EMEA 12:30 - 1:40 | AMER 5:30 - 6:10 GMT, join one or all
Please note, there will be no recordings taken on the day. We feel that kinda takes the pressure off a little for this short session more interactive type of event.
Register now for the Alpine Coaster event: Friday 8 November 2024
APAC Edition - https://www.meetup.com/data-toboggan/events/304285946/
EMEA Edition - https://www.meetup.com/data-toboggan/events/304285953/
AMER Edition - https://www.meetup.com/data-toboggan/events/304285956/
There are changes to Microsoft Purview Data Catalog billing beyond 1 November 2024.
NOTE: The new pricing model for Microsoft Purview Data Governance now goes into effect on January 6, 2025.
The article on Microsoft Purview Data Catalog billing
consent explains the new pricing model for Microsoft Purview Data Governance.
Users who have been using the data catalog for free will need to consent to the
new pay-as-you-go billing model to continue using the service beyond this date.
The consent process involves accepting the terms and conditions through a
pop-up in the Microsoft Purview portal.
If the necessary consent is not provided by the Entra Global
Admin, data governance concepts created in the unified portal will be retained
for 120 days. The roles required to provide consent include the Microsoft Entra
Global administrator or the Microsoft Entra Compliance administrator role,
along with the DataMap curator role.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/purview-portal-billing-consent
Microsoft Purview's Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies have been extended to Fabric lakehouses and are now in public preview. This extension follows the success of DLP for Power BI and the general availability of Microsoft Fabric last year1. DLP policies help automatically detect sensitive information as it is uploaded into lakehouses and take risk remediation actions to comply with regulations like GDPR and HIPAA. Compliance and Security administrators will receive audit logs for every detection and can set up alerts for sensitive information found in their Fabric lakehouses. There will be no charge for lakehouses scanned by DLP policies during the preview period.
You can read more here
The Microsoft AI Tour in London on 21 October 2024 talked about solving the biggest challenges and uncovering new opportunities to empower your organization. The Opening Keynote was with Clare Barclay, Satya Nadella and Jared Spataro. There were discussions on building an agentic world where personal agents, organisational agents, business process agents and cross organisation agents enable the use of AI in business to assist you with work. An example of this is Pages for AI artifacts that enables you to work with the organisation and AI . The 3 areas of innovations
These innovative areas will increase value and reduce waste and Copilot Studio for autonomous agents was announced.
A very important announcement, for us in the UK, is that Microsoft and UK Government have signed a five-year agreement to support the new era of digital transformation. So a very exciting time for the UK to grow.
There is gravity with data. AI needs to bring all the data together in one platform like Microsoft Fabric, to simplify data and have App servers, AI apps and tools. Microsoft showed its unified data offering in IaaS, PaaS and SaaS to unify the data estate, at what ever stage a business is at, for databases and analytics.
Trust is the most important thing in #AI. You must have a set of principles considering Security, Privacy, Safety at the core
AI is redefining Britain. It can take longer to realise value as change and adoption management takes time. It is cheaper to innovate than before so we need to think big, think bold and be ambitious
Satya finished with 4 important points to note: expand opportunity, earn trust, protect fundamental rights and advance sustainability.
The announcement today can be read here
