Microsoft Build 2022: Keynote insights from CEO Satya Nadella

Microsoft Build 2022 is now underway, bringing with it a slate of over 50 new product announcements and important insights about Microsoft’s roadmap for the year ahead. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella kicked off the event with a keynote presentation, highlighting some of this year’s biggest themes.

Following on last year’s announcement of GitHub Codespaces, Nadella introduced Microsoft DevBox. The offering encompasses new capabilities and network tools to get to production quickly, compatible with Azure Games DDC. Developers can use Copilot, AI-based coding recommendations, to support their initiatives.

“With the ubiquity of the cloud, [we’re] seeing build out of highly distributed computing fabrics,” Nadella said.

Microservices and containers are increasingly used to scale from “zero to infinity.” Nadella touted Azure Container Apps as a way to build modern apps on open source, which are generally available now, along with updates to Azure Kubernetes Service.

Ferrovial, a multinational infrastructure company is using Azure private MEC with private 5G to support road and infrastructure projects, or satellites with Azure Orbital—and even simulating different road hazards with Azure. Meanwhile, the International Space Station is using Azure ML to model space suit integrity.

Microsoft has redesigned the Microsoft Store, expanded Azure public MEC to improve latency for areas like construction sites with poor wi-fi service, and continues to integrate its Office 365 offering with the cloud.

To achieve related goals, Azure Confidential Computing offers protection for data in zero trust environment enclaves in use, at rest, and in transit.

“We’re also the only ones with a confidential code to cloud serverless offering, and we’re seeing [uptake] across regulated industries,” he said. BeeKeeperAI, a spin off of UCSF that uses Confidential Computing, allows developers to access datasets without revealing algorithm or datasets and eliminates the need to de-identify data because data is never shared in the first place.

Because many data analysts are struggling with siloing, Microsoft is also launching Intelligent Data Platform, for use in scenarios like e-commerce. “You can build on Cosmos DB or SQL Hyperscale, with Synapse Link for real-time analytics. With Power BI, insights can be shared across the organization. We’ve deeply integrated with Microsoft Purview to [achieve] governance wherever [data] resides,” he noted.