IDG Contributor Network: Getting ready for Microsoft Ignite
Next week is Microsoft Ignite (disclosure: Microsoft is a client of the author) and a whole bunch of us are flying into Orlando on Sunday to spend the week with Microsoft. In anticipation of this sold out event, I thought I’d list my expectations for this event which is largely focused on enterprise customers. (You can stream many of the sessions if you want to attend this thing remotely. As an aside, I wonder when we’ll be able to attend events like with Mixed Reality?)
Let’s get to it.
Push to the cloud
While I expect there will be sessions that cover the breadth of what Microsoft provides I also expect that most of the focus for this show will be on Azure and the cloud. Azure is Satya Nadella’s baby and he takes incredibly good care of it. With the coming of 5G, I’ve been expecting a big pivot from Microsoft toward even more comprehensive cloud services, and my expectation is that is exactly what we will see at the show. There is very little you can’t do in the cloud these days with the only limitations, at least when it comes to personal technology, being bandwidth. With 5G networks starting to get lit up in a few short months (2019 event), the ability to truly pivot to the cloud is near, and I’m looking forward to seeing just how far that pivot will be at Ignite.