Microsoft Build | All the news

As every year in spring, Microsoft gathers the worldwide community of developers, software engineers, IT professionals, and companies again to announce the news of its services and platforms.

The 2022 edition is one of the most expected, as it will give us the latest developments on Windows technologies such as Windows 11, Microsoft Teams, metaverse, Microsoft Edge, or the latest in security, among many others. Here are the details!

* We will update this post with daily releases and news

Microsoft Build 2022 dates

For the third consecutive year, and given the great reception of recent years, thanks to greater accessibility, the event will be online and free for anyone who registers. The dates have already been confirmed: May 24, 25, and 26.

If you don’t want to miss anything live, visit the official Microsoft Build 2022 website and register. This will give you access to non-stop content on the most innovative technological solutions of the moment.

Microsoft Build Conference 2022

This edition will be full of new innovative proposals and sessions ranging from the latest code and application development innovations to case studies from world experts.

The sessions will feature renowned figures such as Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft), Amanda Silver (CVP of product, development tools), or Scott Guthrie (Executive Vice President, Cloud + AI Group). In addition, they will be organized in several virtual modes to connect attendees with Microsoft engineers, experts, and other presenters during the meeting:

• Connection Zone: Discover new and different ways to engage with community experiences.
• Learning Zone: From introductory content for students and people who want to get started with technology to live in-depth learning sessions.
• Personal consultations: You will be able to book a time during the event with an expert to find the technical answers you need.
• Featured partners: You will have a list of partners to discover how to connect with new developer communities and accelerate your projects.

New this year will be exclusive content targeted at specific markets to connect opportunities such as France, Germany, Japan, Latin America, and the United Kingdom.

Microsoft Build 2022 | Recap

Here we will summarize the most important news of the event without losing any detail. Stay tuned!

To begin with, we leave you with Satya Nadella’s summary of the Keynote.

Day 1 | Recap

The first day has been full of new releases and announcements of upcoming features or services. Here we compile the most important ones and the summary of the highlights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL7aFxkTYEU

News on Microsoft Azure AI

The artificial intelligence platform will get two updates to Azure Cognitive Services to help developers deploy high-quality models as APIs and language capabilities in their applications more efficiently.

The first is the release of the preview version of Azure OpenAI Service. This service helps customers enable new reasoning and understanding capabilities to create cutting-edge applications for use cases such as scripting assistance, code generation, and unstructured data understanding.

The second is the Azure Cognitive for Language update, which now offers the ability to summarize documents and conversations, making it easier to detect key information from documents and calls.

Azure Machine Learning responsible AI

They introduced a new feature, in preview, within Azure Machine Learning to help developers and data scientists more easily implement accountable AI.

This new dashboard brings together multiple capabilities such as data explorer, fairness, error analysis, counterfactual and causal inference, etc. In addition, AutoML features have been added, managed endpoints are now widely available, and the Python v2 SDK is in preview release.

Updates on Applied AI

Clearly, it has been a big day for advances in artificial intelligence, where they have unlocked three new capabilities:

• Azure Form Recognizer: customers can now unlock new document processing scenarios, such as streamlined registration, verification with pre-built models, or more accurate text extraction.
• Azure Bot Service and Power Virtual Agents: both are integrated to enable collaborative bot building. Thus, they will incorporate additional capabilities such as a new audit canvas, enriched responses, new telephony channels, etc.
• Azure Metrics Advisor: still in a preliminary version, allows users to customize the service to display only customized anomalies. Thus, users can quickly evaluate the effectiveness of the configuration with the generated estimate.

Intelligent Data Platform

They did not want to leave data management aside and have launched the Intelligent Data Platform, a platform that unifies databases, analytics, and governance.

This allows developers to adapt to different scenarios, add layers of intelligence to their apps, and obtain information that enables them to make predictions and govern data from any point in the world.

Metaverse

There was also time to talk about the big trend of the moment: the metaverse. The idea of Mesh, which started as the perfect collaborative work tool, is now moving more towards a model focused on industrial work.

The idea is to create digital twins of a workspace that can accelerate processes such as repairs and start new manufacturing lines.

In addition, Meta (formerly Facebook) has selected Azure as a strategic cloud provider to help accelerate AI research and experimentation for developers. You have all the information in the video below.

SQL Server 2022

In preview, they have released what they believe to be the most Azure-enabled version yet, with continued innovation in performance, security, and availability.

It integrates with Azure Synapse Link and Microsoft Purview to enable customers to get deeper insights, predictions, and governance of their data at scale. In addition, for the first time, everyone can download the preview to try out the new features.

Microsoft Dev Box

Designed to provide the flexibility developers need, Microsoft Dev Box will offer them self-service access to high-performance, cloud-based workstations that are pre-configured and ready to code for specific projects.

In fact, Azure Deployment Environments will facilitate the rapid deployment of application infrastructure with project-based templates.

.NET Multi-platform App UI or .NET MAUI

Now generally available, it is a new framework for creating modern, cross-platform, natively compiled applications for iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows using C# and XAML in a single codebase.

In addition, .NET MAUI allows web developers to create hybrid web applications with C# instead of JavaScript.

Microsoft Teams

It is one of the jewels in Microsoft’s crown, so they have used this edition of Build to launch significant new features focused on creating richer and more collaborative experiences:

• Live Share: this new collaboration experience allows meeting participants to interact in new ways, such as annotating, editing, zooming in and out, or accessing shared content in new ways.
• SFDK JavaScript 2.0: together with manifest tools, they allow developers to create Teams applications that can extend the functionality of personal tabs and message extension to other applications.
• New API approvals: developers can now extend the functionality of approvals in their applications and workflows. They will also be able to use, create, read, update and delete approvals to enable permissions within line-of-business applications.
• Microsoft Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio: it will enable you to create, build, debug and publish applications for Teams on web and mobile devices in just minutes. You will save time by automating configuration in portals, templates, and workflows.
• Collaborative applications: new and updated partner applications have been added, including Figma, MURAL, Observable, the new SAP S/4HANA chatbot, and ServiceDesk Plus Cloud.

Third-party Widgets in Windows 11

One of the prominent features of Windows 11 was the removal of the classic Start menu for a more simplified one in which applications are displayed. However, this meant that widgets were lost and separated in another taskbar area.

Now, Microsoft has announced that, before the end of the year, developers will have the ability to create their own widgets and customize their experience even further.

Improved OneNote appearance

Following the simplified style of Windows 11, they are working on a similar aesthetic, with translucent borders and the same look and feel approach.

In addition, they will also offer support for the new Surface Slim Pen 2, aiming for a pen and paper-like experience.

Power Pages

Power Pages existed as a feature within Power Apps but have now become a standalone offering within the Power Platform portfolio. It is a low-code development and hosting platform ideal for building enterprise-focused websites and allows professionals to design, configure and publish desktop and mobile sites through a seamless, visual experience.

It has been redesigned to offer a refreshed user experience with new capabilities such as design studio, template center, learning center, Pro-Developer tools, security and governance tools, Microsoft Dataverse, Microsoft Dataverse, etc.

Express design in Power Apps

This new capability, available to all Power Apps builders, leverages Azure Cognitive Services object detection models.

Now users simply upload a PDF, PowerPoint, paper form, or Figma design. Power Apps will turn it into a functional Power Apps application with a user interface and data schema in just a few seconds.

Project Volterra

It was the last launch of the day as one of its big bets for the future. It is a tool that will allow you to take advantage of the powerful integrated neural processing unit (NPU) to create applications that run local workloads accelerated by AI.

Day 2 | Recap

After the big announcements made during the first day of this edition of Microsoft Build, the second day focused on the Imagine Cup World Championship, local connections, and core thematic sessions. In addition to being a much more participatory day, the main themes were AI, low-code solutions, and collaborative applications.

Here’s the summary of everything!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CViMXsPE2k0

Imagine Cup World Championship

It was one of the most eagerly awaited moments of this edition, especially for the young promises of the technological world. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of this competition, students from all over the globe created inclusive projects using cutting-edge technologies. The prize? A mentorship with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and $100,000.

From many applicants from over 160 countries, three teams were chosen to make it to the finals. After an exhaustive evaluation of technology, accessibility and inclusion, marketability, and potential to generate impact, V Bionic was the winner of this edition with ExoHeal. This is a modular exoskeletal hand rehabilitation device that uses neuroplasticity and Azure technology to provide adaptive and playful rehabilitation exercises. Congratulations!

The future of AI development tools

In a session to further explore day one releases such as Azure OpenAI Service, Azure Cognitive for Language, and Azure Machine Learning Responsible AI, they delved into the latest Azure AI technologies through customer testimonials and examples of value generation in different industries.

The talk focused on integrating pre-compiled capabilities to extract intelligence quickly or how they have tailored custom models for their application needs.

Microsoft Store Ads

Due to the significant growth in the number of developers bringing their apps and games to the Microsoft Store, the platform has been rebuilt from the ground up to help them connect with customers.

Out of this comes Microsoft Store Ads, powered by Microsoft Advertising, to help apps reach the right user at the right time. In fact, a pilot program will soon be launched in which developers will be able to create advertising campaigns.

Azure Container Apps

Also, they discussed Azure Container Apps, which is now generally available and allows customers to run microservices and containerized applications on a serverless platform.

This new service is based on the powerful open-source technology of the Kubernetes ecosystem.

Azure Spring Apps

The formerly known as Azure Spring Cloud changed its name to Azure Spring Apps to reflect the expanded scope of the service as a platform for all types of Spring apps.

This service solves the challenges of running Spring applications at scale by eliminating the need to worry about infrastructure, app lifecycle, monitoring, and container complexities.

Azure Communication Services

The Azure Communication Services Mobile UI Library is now generally available and will aim to help save time and reduce complexity when developing applications.

It provides production-ready UI components and supports 13 languages, and includes component accessibility and the ability to view shared screen content.

Improvements in Azure Kubernetes

Several key enhancements have been made to AKS to make the experience easier for developers with Draft 2. This reboot of the open-source project makes it easier to build applications running on Kubernetes and generate a GitHub Action workflow file to develop and deploy applications on any cluster.

Also, in preview, other updates have been included:

• Draft of the Azure CLI, Azure portal, and Visual Studio Code extensions.
• Web application routing add-on.
• An add-on for Kubernetes-based autoscaler (KEDA).

MYSQL Flexible Server Business Critical

Renamed Azure Database, the Azure Database for MySQL Flexible Server Memory Optimized service improves mission-critical workloads with lower inbound/outbound latency, higher availability service level agreements, more excellent resiliency, and faster recovery from database failures.

Customers can now redirect their analytics and reporting queries to their secondary read-only replica, improving better load balancing and increasing speed.

Low-code/no-code

Microsoft also used the event to unveil the low-code trend index survey results.

After interviewing almost 1,000 business decision-makers and users, the research has shown that low-code/no-code is an untapped superpower that solves many of the leading business challenges.

You can see all the data in this video.

Do not miss this post because we will be updating in detail the releases on day 3 of Microsoft Build 2022!