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Welcome to Microsoft Ignite 2023! The previous yr has been one in all true transformation. Companies are seeing actual advantages as we speak and are desirous to discover what’s subsequent—together with how they will do extra with their information investments, construct clever functions, and uncover what AI can do for his or her enterprise.
We not too long ago commissioned a research via IDC and uncovered insights into how AI is driving enterprise outcomes and financial impression for organizations worldwide. More than 2,000 enterprise leaders surveyed confirmed they’re already utilizing AI for worker experiences, buyer engagement, and to bend the curve on innovation.
The research illustrates the enterprise worth of AI however it actually involves life via the tales of how our prospects and companions are innovating as we speak. Customers like Heineken, Thread, Moveworks, the National Basketball Association (NBA), and so many extra are placing AI applied sciences to work for his or her companies and their very own prospects and workers.
From fashionable information options uniquely suited to the period of AI, beloved developer instruments, and software companies, we’re constructing Microsoft Azure because the AI supercomputer for purchasers, irrespective of the place to begin.
This week at Ignite, the tempo of innovation isn’t slowing down. We’ll share extra tales about how organizations are turning to new options to drive their enterprise ahead. We’re additionally saying many new capabilities and updates to make it simpler than ever to make use of your favourite instruments, maximize current investments, save time, and innovate on Azure as a trusted platform.
Modern information options to energy AI transformation
Every clever app begins with information—and your AI is barely pretty much as good as your information—so a contemporary information and analytics platform is more and more essential. The integration of information and AI companies and options generally is a distinctive aggressive benefit as a result of each group’s information is exclusive.
Last yr, we launched the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform as an built-in platform to carry collectively operational databases, analytics, and governance and allow you to combine all of your information belongings seamlessly in a manner that works for your online business.
At Ignite this week, we’re saying the overall availability of Microsoft Fabric, our most built-in information and AI answer but, into the Intelligent Data Platform. Microsoft Fabric can empower you in ways in which weren’t attainable earlier than with a unified information platform. This means you may carry AI on to your information, irrespective of the place it lives. This helps foster an AI-centered tradition to scale the ability of your information worth creation so you may spend extra time innovating and fewer time integrating.
EDP is a worldwide vitality firm that goals to remodel the world via renewable vitality sources. They’re utilizing Microsoft Fabric and OneLake to simplify information entry throughout information storage, processing, visualization, and AI workflows. This permits them to totally embrace a data-driven tradition the place they’ve entry to high-value insights and selections are made with a complete view of the info atmosphere.
We’re additionally saying Fabric as an open and extensible platform. We will showcase integrations with lots of our companions like LSEG, Esri, Informatica, Teradata and SAS, who’ve been demonstrating the chances of bringing their product experiences as workloads into Fabric, widening their attain and breadth of capabilities.
Every group is keen to save lots of money and time as they rework. We’re saying a number of new options and updates for Azure SQL that make Azure the perfect and most cost-effective place in your information. Updates embody decrease pricing for Azure SQL Database Hyperscale compute, Azure SQL Managed Instance free trial supply, and a wave of different new options.
Lufthansa Technik AG has been operating Azure SQL to help its software platform and information property, leveraging totally managed capabilities to empower groups throughout features. They’re becoming a member of on stage throughout a breakout session on cloud-scale databases, so you may be taught extra about their expertise immediately.
Easily construct, scale, and deploy multimodal generative AI experiences responsibly with Azure
The AI alternative for companies is centered on the unbelievable energy of generative AI. We’re impressed by prospects who are actually nimbly infusing content material era capabilities to remodel every kind of apps into intuitive, contextual experiences that impress and captivate their very own prospects and workers.
Siemens Digital Industries is one firm utilizing Azure AI to reinforce its manufacturing processes by enabling seamless communication on the store ground. Their latest answer helps discipline engineers report points of their native language, selling inclusivity, environment friendly downside decision, and sooner response instances.
Today organizations want extra complete, unified instruments to construct for this subsequent wave of generative AI-based functions. This is why we’re saying new updates that push the boundaries of AI innovation and make it simpler for purchasers to responsibly deploy AI at scale throughout their enterprise.
Everything it’s essential to construct, check, and deploy AI improvements in a single handy location
At Ignite, we’re thrilled to introduce the general public preview of Azure AI Studio, a groundbreaking platform for AI builders by Microsoft. Everything organizations have to deal with generative AI is now in a single place: cutting-edge fashions, information integration for retrieval augmented era (RAG), clever search capabilities, full-lifecycle mannequin administration, and content material security.
We proceed to develop alternative and suppleness in generative AI fashions past Azure OpenAI Service. We introduced the mannequin catalog at Build and at Ignite, we’re saying Model as a Service in managed API endpoint coming quickly throughout the mannequin catalog. This will allow professional builders to simply combine new basis fashions like Meta’s Llama 2, G42’s Jais, Command from Cohere and Mistral’s premium fashions into their functions as an API endpoint and fine-tune fashions with customized coaching information, with out having to handle the underlying GPU infrastructure. This performance will assist remove the complexity for our prospects and companions of provisioning sources and managing internet hosting.
Large language fashions (LLM) orchestration and grounding RAG are high of thoughts as momentum for LLM-based AI functions grows. Prompt stream, an orchestration software to handle immediate orchestration and LLMOps, is now in preview in Azure AI Studio and usually obtainable in Azure Machine Learning. Prompt stream gives a complete answer that simplifies the method of prototyping, experimenting, iterating, and deploying your AI functions.
We’re additionally saying at Ignite that Azure AI Search, previously Azure Cognitive Search, is now obtainable in Azure AI Studio so every little thing stays in a single handy location for builders to save lots of time and increase productiveness.
Azure AI Content Safety can be obtainable in Azure AI Studio so builders can simply consider mannequin responses multi functional unified growth platform. We’re additionally saying the preview of recent options inside Azure AI Studio powered by Azure AI Content Safety to handle harms and safety dangers which might be launched by giant language fashions. The new options assist determine and stop tried unauthorized modifications, and determine when giant language fashions generate materials that leverages third-party mental property and content material.
With Azure AI Content Safety, builders can monitor human and AI-generated content material throughout languages and modalities and streamline workflows with customizable severity ranges and built-in blocklists.
It’s nice to see prospects already leveraging this to construct their AI options. In simply six months, Perplexity introduced Perplexity Ask, a conversational reply engine, to market with Azure AI Studio. They had been in a position to streamline and expedite AI growth, get to market sooner, scale shortly to help tens of millions of customers, and cost-effectively ship safety and reliability.
If you’re making a customized copilot, bettering search, enhancing name facilities, growing bots, or a mix of all of this, Azure AI Studio presents every little thing you want. You can try Eric Boyd’s weblog to be taught extra about Azure AI Studio.
Generative AI is now multi-modal
We are excited to allow a brand new chapter within the generative AI journey for our prospects with GPT-4 Turbo with Vision, in preview, coming quickly to the Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Studio. With GPT-4 Turbo with Vision, builders can ship multi-modal capabilities of their functions.
We are including a number of new updates to Azure AI Vision. GPT-4 Turbo with Vision together with our Azure AI Vision service can see, perceive, and make inferences like video evaluation or video Q&A from visible inputs and related text-based immediate directions.
In addition to GPT-4 Turbo with Vision, we’re blissful to share different new improvements to Azure OpenAI Service together with GPT-4 Turbo in preview and GPT-3.5 Turbo 16K 1106 generally availability coming on the finish of November and picture mannequin DALL-E 3 in preview now.
Search within the period of AI
Effective retrieval strategies, like these powered by search, can enhance the standard of responses and response latency. A typical observe for data retrieval (retrieval step in RAG), is to make use of vector search. Search can energy efficient retrieval strategies to vastly enhance the standard of responses and scale back latency, which is crucial for generative AI apps as they have to be grounded on content material from information, or web sites, to reinforce responses generated by LLMs.
Azure AI Search is a sturdy data retrieval and search platform that permits organizations to make use of their very own information to ship hyper-personalized experiences in generative AI functions. We’re saying the overall availability of vector search for quick, extremely related outcomes from information.
Vector search is a technique of looking for data inside varied information varieties, together with pictures, audio, textual content, video, and extra. It’s some of the essential parts of AI-powered, clever apps, and the addition of this functionality is our newest AI-ready performance to return to our Azure databases portfolio.
Semantic ranker, previously generally known as semantic search, can be usually obtainable and gives entry to the identical machine learning-powered search re-ranking expertise used to energy Bing. Your generative AI functions can ship the best high quality responses to each person Q&A with a feature-rich vector database built-in with state-of-the-art relevance expertise.
Accelerate your AI journey responsibly and with confidence
At Microsoft, we’re dedicated to secure and accountable AI. It goes past moral values and foundational rules, that are critically essential. We’re integrating this into the merchandise, companies, and instruments we launch so organizations can construct on a basis of safety, threat administration, and belief.
We are happy to announce new updates at Ignite to assist prospects pursue AI responsibly and with confidence.
Setting the usual for accountable AI innovation—increasing our Copilot Copyright Commitment
Microsoft has set the usual with companies and instruments like Azure AI Content Safety, the Responsible AI Dashboard, mannequin monitoring, and our industry-leading dedication to defend and indemnify industrial prospects from lawsuits for copyright infringement.
Today, we’re saying the enlargement of the Copilot Copyright Commitment, now referred to as Customer Copyright Commitment (CCC), to prospects utilizing Azure OpenAI Service. As extra prospects construct with generative AI inside their organizations, they’re impressed by the potential of this expertise and are desirous to commercialize it externally.
By extending the CCC to Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft is broadening our dedication to defend our industrial prospects and pay for any opposed judgments if they’re sued for copyright infringement for utilizing the outputs generated by Azure OpenAI Service. This profit shall be obtainable beginning December 1, 2023.
As a part of this enlargement, we’ve printed new documentation to assist Azure OpenAI Service prospects implement technical measures and different greatest practices to mitigate the danger of infringing content material. Customers might want to adjust to the documentation to benefit from the profit. Azure OpenAI Service is a developer service and comes with a shared dedication to construct responsibly. We sit up for prospects leveraging it as they construct their very own copilots.
Announcing the Azure AI Advantage supply
We wish to be your trusted companion as you ship next-gen, transformative experiences with pioneering AI expertise, a deeply built-in platform, and main cloud safety.
Azure presents a full, built-in stack purpose-built for cloud-native, AI-powered functions, accelerating your time to market and providing you with a aggressive edge and superior efficiency. To assistance on that journey we’re blissful to introduce a new supply to assist new and current Azure AI and GitHub Copilot prospects understand the worth of Azure AI and Azure Cosmos DB collectively and get on the quick observe to growing AI powered functions. You can be taught extra in regards to the Azure AI Advantage supply and register right here.
Azure Cosmos DB and Azure AI mixed ship many advantages, together with enhanced reliability of generative AI functions via the pace of Azure Cosmos DB, a world-class infrastructure and safety platform to develop your online business whereas safeguarding your information, and provisioned throughput to scale seamlessly as your software grows.
Azure AI companies and GitHub Copilot prospects deploying their AI apps to Azure Kubernetes Service could also be eligible for extra reductions. Speak to your Microsoft consultant to be taught extra.
Empowering all builders with AI powered instruments
There is a lot in retailer this week at Ignite to enhance the developer expertise, save time, and improve productiveness as they construct clever functions. Let’s dive into what’s new.
Updates for Azure Cosmos DB—the database for the period of AI
For builders to ship apps extra effectively and with decreased manufacturing prices, at Ignite we’re sharing new options in Azure Cosmos DB.
Now in preview, dynamic scaling gives builders new flexibility to scale databases up or down and brings price financial savings to prospects, particularly these with operations across the globe. We’re additionally bringing AI deeper into the developer expertise and growing productiveness with the preview of Microsoft Copilot for Azure enabling pure language queries in Azure Cosmos DB.
Bond Brand Loyalty turned to Azure Cosmos DB to scale to greater than two petabytes of transaction information whereas sustaining safety and privateness for their very own prospects. On Azure, Bond constructed a contemporary providing to help in depth safety configurations, decreasing onboarding time for brand new purchasers by 20 p.c.
We’re saying two thrilling updates to allow builders to construct clever apps: common availability of each Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB vCore and vector search in Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB vCore.
Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB vCore permits builders to construct clever functions with full help for MongoDB information saved in Azure Cosmos DB, which unlocks alternatives for app growth due to deep integration with different Azure companies. That means builders can get pleasure from the advantages of native Azure integrations, low complete price of possession (TCO), and a well-known vCore structure when migrating current functions or constructing new ones.
Vector search in Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB vCore permits builders to seamlessly combine information saved in Azure Cosmos DB into AI-powered functions, together with these utilizing Azure OpenAI Service embeddings. Built-in vector search allows you to effectively retailer, index, and question high-dimensional vector information, and eliminates the necessity to switch the info exterior of your Azure Cosmos DB database.
PostgreSQL builders have used built-in vector search in Azure Database for PostgreSQL and Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL since this summer season. Now, they will benefit from the public preview of Azure AI extension in Azure Database for PostgreSQL to construct LLMs and wealthy generative AI options.
KPMG Australia used the vector search functionality once they turned to Azure OpenAI Service and Azure Cosmos DB to construct their very own copilot software. The KymChat app has helped workers pace up productiveness and streamline operations. The answer can be being made obtainable to KPMG prospects via an accelerator that mixes KymChat’s use instances, options, and classes discovered, serving to prospects speed up their AI journey.
Building cloud-native and clever functions
Intelligent functions mix the ability of AI and cloud-scale information with cloud-native app growth to create extremely differentiated digital experiences. The synergy between cloud-native applied sciences and AI is a tangible alternative for evolving conventional functions, making them clever, and delivering extra worth to finish customers. We’re devoted to repeatedly enhancing Azure Kubernetes Service to fulfill these evolving calls for of AI for purchasers who’re simply getting began in addition to those that are extra superior.
Customers can now run specialised machine studying workloads like LLMs on Azure Kubernetes Service extra cost-effectively and with much less guide configuration. The Kubernetes AI toolchain Operator automates LLMs deployment on AKS throughout obtainable CPU and GPU sources by choosing optimally sized infrastructure for the mannequin. It makes it attainable to simply break up inferencing throughout a number of lower-GPU-count virtural machines (VMs) thus growing the variety of Azure areas the place workloads can run, eliminating wait instances for larger GPU-count VMs, and reducing total price. Customers also can run preset fashions from the open supply hosted on AKS, considerably decreasing prices and total inference service setup time whereas eliminating the necessity for groups to be specialists on obtainable infrastructure.
Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager is now usually obtainable and permits multi-cluster and at-scale situations for Azure Kubernetes Service clusters. Fleet supervisor gives a worldwide scale for admins to handle workload distribution throughout clusters and facilitate platform and software updates so builders can relaxation assured they’re operating on the most recent and most safe software program.
We’ve additionally been sharing learnings about the right way to assist engineering organizations allow their very own builders to get began and be productive shortly, whereas nonetheless making certain techniques are safe, compliant, and cost-controlled. Microsoft is offering a core set of expertise constructing blocks and studying modules to assist organizations get began on their journey to determine a platform engineering observe.
New Microsoft Dev Box capabilities to enhance the developer expertise
Maintaining a developer workstation that may construct, run, and debug your software is essential to maintaining with the tempo of recent growth groups. Microsoft Dev Box gives builders with safe, ready-to-code developer workstations for hybrid groups of any measurement.
We’re introducing new preview capabilities to give growth groups extra granular management over their pictures, the flexibility to hook up with Hosted Networks to simplify connecting to your sources securely, and templates to make it simpler to stand up and operating. Paired with new capabilities coming to Azure Deployment Environments, it’s simpler than ever to deploy these tasks to Azure.
Build upon a dependable and scalable basis with .NET 8
.NET 8 is a giant leap ahead in direction of making .NET among the best platforms to construct clever cloud-native functions, with the first preview of .NET Aspire – an opinionated cloud prepared stack for constructing observable, manufacturing prepared, distributed cloud native functions. It contains curated elements for cloud-native fundamentals together with telemetry, resilience, configuration, and well being checks. The stack makes it simpler to find, purchase, and configure important dependencies for cloud-native functions on day 1 and day 100.
.NET 8 can be the quickest model of .NET ever, with developer productiveness enhancements throughout the stack – whether or not you’re constructing for cloud, a full stack internet app, a desktop or cellular app suing .NET MAUI, or integrating AI to construct the following copilot in your app. These are obtainable in Visual Studio, which additionally releases as we speak.
Azure Functions and Azure App Service have full help for .NET 8 each in Linux and Windows, and each Azure Kubernetes Service and Azure Container Apps additionally help .NET 8 as we speak.
There aren’t any limits to your innovation potential with Azure
There’s a lot rolling out this week with information, AI, and digital functions so I hope you’ll tune into the digital Ignite expertise and listen to in regards to the full slate of bulletins and extra about how one can put Azure to work for your online business.
This week’s bulletins are proof of our dedication to serving to prospects take that subsequent step of innovation and keep future-ready. I can’t wait to see how your creativity and new improvements unfold for your online business.
You can try these sources to be taught extra about every little thing shared as we speak. We hope you have got a fantastic Ignite week!