Azure Updates: IoT; AI with Zero Trust; App Dynamics; Sentinel

Microsoft director of channel marketing Justin Slade discussed five new trends in the 2021 IoT Signals report. Microsoft’s report indicates that 90 percent of the 3,000 organizations surveyed are adopting IoT. Covid-19 is accelerating this change, although IoT security remains a primary concern. A large number of organizations are also adopting edge computing, AI, ML and Digital Twins. Microsoft was also recently named a leader for Industrial IoT Platforms in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant.

CTO for Health and Life Sciences John Doyle explored ways to improve AI with Zero Trust. Microsoft worked with University of California-San Francisco, Fortanix, and Intel to setup Beekeeper AI, which relies on Azure Confidential Computing for secure collaboration between algorithm owners. The company envisions AI and ML being used by physicians to analyze chest x-rays, predict breast cancer, and spot collapsed lungs. Scott Woodgate, Senior Director, Azure Security and Management at Microsoft stated:

When researchers create innovative algorithms that can improve patient outcomes, we want them to be able to have cloud infrastructure they can count on to achieve this goal and protect the privacy of personal data. Microsoft is proud to be associated with such an important project and provide the Azure confidential computing infrastructure to healthcare organizations globally.

Among geographic updates Monitor Log Analytics and Application Insights support for Availability Zones is generally available in West US 2. General availability announcements include ExpressRoute IPv6 support for Private Peering, governance policy for Key Vault, Sphere version 21.10, Backup support for Archive Tier with Azure portal, Data Explorer Insights, Advisor recommendations for Data Explorer Clusters, and a slew of Cost Management and Billing updates.