Juni 2024 - Seite 31 von 32 - Cloud Computing Köln

I’m thrilled to share news about the evolution of our enterprise mapping software development kit (SDK) and API offerings. Today, we’re announcing the unification of our enterprise maps offerings under Microsoft Azure Maps.1 We are combining the technologies and data in Bing Maps for Enterprise with Azure Maps and retiring Bing Maps for Enterprise. This marks a significant milestone as we transform our enterprise maps offerings to focus on creating a platform that empowers our customers to innovate and bring their ideas to life using cutting-edge innovations in AI and cloud—all on a trusted platform.

This unification enables our customers to accelerate innovation by leveraging other Microsoft Azure cloud services while retaining many familiar features from Bing Maps for Enterprise within Azure Maps. Moreover, Azure Maps introduces several features not found in Bing Maps for Enterprise, including advanced service authentication methods, data residency compliance, geolocation, weather information, and custom indoor maps. Unifying our enterprise maps offerings under Azure Maps will greatly simplify our enterprise mapping offerings making it easier for customers to buy and use our services in a way that is consistent with other services at Microsoft.

Microsoft Azure Maps

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The concept of “where” has become integral to the decision-making and how organizations navigate through the complex business environment. While the demand for geospatial information continues to grow, the context of “when” and “how” we utilize this information is evolving. At Microsoft, we have observed how technologies in cloud and AI are reshaping how our customers engage with the services we offer.

Making the transition to Azure Maps

Bing Maps for Enterprise customers will have ample time under their existing and renewed contracts to transition to Azure Maps. Bing Maps for Enterprise will be retired on June 30, 2028, existing Bing Maps for Enterprise customers can continue to license Bing Maps for Enterprise APIs and services until then. We will however no longer be accepting new Bing Maps for Enterprise customers from June 30, 2024. Customers with an enterprise license have until June 30, 2028, to transition to Azure Maps, while customers on the free and basic license for Bing Maps for Enterprise have until June 30, 2025. We are committed to facilitating this transition and look forward to having you join us on this journey.

Simplifying and enhancing through Microsoft products

Currently, millions of developers and businesses have access to geospatial information through a range of Microsoft products—Excel, Power BI in Microsoft Fabric, and Dynamics 365. Customers use our geospatial services to manage wildfires, respond to public emergencies, deliver products to consumers doorsteps, and so much more.

IT managers and developers are increasingly seeking tools that help them adapt to the growing demands for more data and greater agility in the business-critical solutions they build. These demands extend beyond the solutions themselves; they also apply to the building blocks used to construct those solutions. As application complexity rises, our customers are increasingly requesting ways to simplify development, enhance collaboration, and create robust solutions with fewer integration points. By unifying our offerings, we can prioritize investments in supporting the ways that developers are building enterprise applications today.

Integrating with Azure solutions

Our customers seek to deliver business impact by leveraging AI services and tools within their solutions. The inclusion of Azure Maps in the Azure platform brings geospatial data closer to other Azure services, facilitating seamless integration. Azure Maps customers already benefit from AI deeply embedded in industry-leading functions like geocoding. Being part of the Azure ecosystem also streamlines access to complementary services from the Azure Marketplace. At Microsoft Build 2024, we announced the availability of NVIDIA’s cuOpt service within the Azure Marketplace. NVIDIA cuOpt, a world-record holding graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated optimization AI microservice, assists teams in solving complex routing problems with multiple constraints. By combining cuOpt with Azure Maps, customers can achieve dynamic routing and real-time re-optimization at scale, driving efficiencies and revenue growth. Azure Maps, alongside the Azure Marketplace, opens up new avenues for innovation, enabling businesses to tackle diverse challenges.

The aggregation of geospatial information with additional data unlocks new insights for businesses, enabling them to reduce operating costs, generate new revenue, and deliver better services to their customers. Azure Maps provides a holistic view, allowing you to understand not only what happened but also where it happened. By leveraging Azure Maps, you can make intelligent decisions and pivot faster by correlating the location of your business elements with your overall business goals. This orientation empowers your team to comprehend the situation and chart a path forward.

Start enhancing your location data today

Understanding “where” translates to knowing how to improve and move ahead. With Azure Maps, your organization gains easier access to, utilization of, and insights from location data. By combining our industry-leading cloud infrastructure with accurate, reliable location data and Microsoft applications like Power BI, you can generate predictive insights for your business.

Explore our new Azure Maps solutions.

1 Azure Maps is the next generation geospatial cloud service offered by Microsoft Maps. It has been created specifically, with Microsoft Developers and Enterprise Customers in mind, to provide scalable location capabilities and relevant geographical data.

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
The post Azure Maps: Reimagining location services with cloud and AI innovation appeared first on Azure Blog.
Quelle: Azure

1. Juni 2024

da Agency

IT trends show customers need computing power to take advantage of AI

This is part of a larger series on the new infrastructure of the era of AI, highlighting emerging technology and trends in large-scale compute. This month, we’re sharing the Tech Pulse: March 2024 to help businesses harness the power of AI now.

IT professionals today are focused on generative AI and its potential benefits, but one of the biggest challenges they face is securing the necessary computing power. In a recent study, Microsoft surveyed more than 2,000 IT professionals across 10 countries on their tech readiness for and adoption of AI. The report highlights their concerns and challenges along the way and is now available to help inform your business’s AI strategy. Stay ahead of the game with the latest insights from Microsoft.

Read the Tech Pulse: March 2024 study

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Leading the charge in AI adoption and use

IT professionals are at the forefront of AI adoption and use, with 79% of professionals using it multiple times a week. They are positive AI will have a positive impact on their company and role, make their jobs easier, and enable them to be strategic. The positivity crosses both the professional and personal spheres.

IT professionals’ expectations of AI

AI in the professional sphere

68% of IT professionals surveyed have already implemented AI in their work, a testament to the field’s eagerness to embrace this cutting-edge technology. This widespread adoption is not just a trend; it reflects the strategic importance placed on AI as a tool for enhancing productivity, driving innovation, and maintaining a competitive edge in a rapidly changing digital economy.

AI in personal lives

The influence of AI extends beyond the confines of the workplace, with 66% of those surveyed incorporating AI into their daily routines. This integration of AI into personal life underscores the technology’s versatility and its capacity to improve efficiency and decision-making in various aspects of life. It shows that people are not being pulled along in the newest IT trend—they are ready and excited to find additional uses outside of work to enhance their own productivity.

Rethinking their tech stack requirements

The emergence of AI is already changing many aspects of cloud computing. Even companies that started in the cloud have questions to consider when it comes to their future cloud strategy. While IT professionals remain positive about the cloud amid the changing landscape of AI, they increasingly cite the need for changes to the infrastructure they support. 72% of respondents agreed that AI will fundamentally change their tech stacks.

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With AI integration and a changing tech stack, proactively addressing uncertainties and changes that impact cloud computing is crucial. This includes adapting to new security paradigms, managing evolving skill requirements for AI-driven tasks, and optimizing cloud resources amid dynamic shifts in workload patterns. Additionally, IT professionals will need to ensure compliance with emerging regulations to effectively navigate the evolving landscape of AI-optimized cloud services.

Building AI confidence

As the IT landscape rapidly evolves with the integration of AI, professionals in the field are facing a mix of emotions and questions about the future. There’s a general optimism about the potential of AI to enhance productivity and innovation, yet IT experts are also mindful of skilling requirements and the pace of technological advancement.

IT professionals are confident in their skills and the positive changes AI can bring to their roles and organizations. A significant 78% of IT pros surveyed have AI deployed or in pilot stages within their companies, indicating a strong move towards embracing AI technologies. However, this rapid adoption comes with its own set of challenges and questions around the pace of AI evolution, costs, and governance.

As organizations continue to invest in AI, it’s now more important than ever to focus on these concerns and drive the appropriate opportunities and messaging internally. Skilling will continue to be front of mind as IT Pros grapple with the rapid changes and investments that are happening in the space. The good news is there are a lot of tools and resources to help as people start to ramp up their AI skilling. Great places to find training are online through providers and partners, hands-on labs, and events like Microsoft Build (developers), Microsoft Ignite (all audiences), and NVIDIA GTC (developers).

Looking for AI model accuracy, increased privacy and security

IT professionals are prioritizing AI model accuracy, privacy, and security when selecting a technology partner. AI model accuracy ranks highest, followed by a commitment to privacy and security, and a strong reputation as a technology leader.

5 most important AI provider characteristics

Accuracy remains the key to success

The march towards AI integration in IT is marked by a meticulous search for precision and a shield of privacy and security. Alliances with the right partners can guarantee the highest degree of AI model accuracy while accelerating usage of AI. Precision is paramount, as it forms the foundation upon which reliable and effective AI solutions are built. As IT professionals continue to grapple with skilling up in an accelerated timeframe, utilizing partners help relieve some of the gaps and accelerate the timeline for organizations wanting to integrate AI as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality.

A commitment to privacy and security

Beyond accuracy, IT professionals demand a steadfast commitment to privacy and security. In an era where data breaches are all too common, a technology partner’s ability to protect sensitive information is a critical criterion. IT professionals understand that robust security measures are not just a feature but a necessity, ensuring that AI solutions enhance rather than endanger their operations.

Learn more about the future of AI

Many organizations will need to make significant tech and infrastructure changes to fully leverage AI’s benefits. You can read more about our findings in the Tech Pulse: March 2024 report. To better help your teams be AI-ready, consider attending one of our events this year or reading our State of AI Infrastructure report. Whether you’re a CEO, working hand-in-hand with the infrastructure, a developer, or end user, you can see firsthand how to design infrastructure that has the necessary computing power to support all your workloads and AI solutions.

Celebrating customers’ journeys to AI innovation at Microsoft Build 2024

Ever since I started at Microsoft in August 2023, I was more than excited for Microsoft Build 2024, which wrapped up last week. Why? The achievements of our customers leveraging Azure AI to drive innovation across all industries are astounding, and I’ll happily take every opportunity to showcase and celebrate them. From enhancing productivity and creativity to revolutionizing customer interactions with custom copilots, our customers demonstrate the transformative power of generative AI and truly, brought Build 2024 to life. So, how’d they do it?

Fostering creativity and innovation

By creating Muse Chat, a copilot for coding and documentation, Unity Technologies showcases how AI can foster creativity in the gaming industry. This tool, developed with Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Content Safety, allows developers to create and perfect their own video games. At Build, Unity gave a live demo on Muse Chat during the Multimodel, Multimodal and Multiagent Innovation with Azure AI, which resulted in a video game prototype based on prompts, without typing a single line of code. Unity also provided a gaming station at our event celebration and gave out Unity trial subscriptions to developers.

Figure 1: Live demo of Unity Muse Chat, powered on Azure OpenAI Service, to create a space-inspired video game.

Pushing the boundaries of creative expression and efficiency, WPP explores the use of video, images, and speech to accelerate content creation with Azure OpenAI Service (GPT-4 with Vision). Generative AI and multimodality are central to their innovation. Additionally, WPP is a leader when it comes to accessibility. Featured in the Day 1 keynote and the Accessibility in the era of generative AI, WPP showcased their solutions with Seeing AI.

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The New York City Department of Education is leveraging generative AI through Azure OpenAI Service to create a specialized teaching assistant capable of providing instant feedback and addressing student inquiries. This solution is developed using the Azure platform, ensuring seamless integration and enhanced educational support. During the Build session, safeguard your copilot with Azure AI, event-goers learned how NYC built this solution and how they are keeping the experience safe for teachers and students alike.

Figure 2: New York City Department of Education uses Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Content Safety to safeguard their educational generative AI tools.

Enhancing productivity and efficiency

Utilizing AI Tax Assist with Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Studio, H&R Block is helping tax professionals and filers reduce the time and effort needed to file taxes. The integration of Azure AI Search for RAG exemplifies how AI can streamline complex processes to enhance productivity.

Featured in the Azure AI Studio—creating and scaling your custom copilots session, Sweco focused on freeing up time for more creative solutions in client projects by developing SwecoGPT using Azure AI Studio. This digital assistant automates document creation and analysis, allowing consultants to quickly find critical project information and deliver more personalized services. As a result, consultants report increased productivity and added client value.

By leveraging the full Microsoft Azure stack, Sapiens International enhances developer creativity and streamlines the development of automated customer solutions. The use of Azure Kubernetes Service and Azure-managed databases significantly improves tasks like underwriting, claims processing, and fraud detection.

For PwC, the creation of ChatPwC, a scalable and secure GenAI solution using Azure OpenAI Service, Azure AI Search, and Azure AI Document Intelligence, has been a game-changer. This tool helps employees summarize, assess, and identify themes in client data, benefiting hundreds of thousands of employees daily.

Transforming customer interactions

Revolutionizing customer interactions, Vodafone introduced TOBi, a public-facing virtual assistant which efficiently handles calls and empowers agents through context-aware conversations and call transcriptions. SuperAgent, a company-wide internal conversational AI search copilot, enhances agent efficiency, helping customer journeys.

To transform their MBUX Voice Assistant and dashcams, Mercedes-Benz integrates GPT-4 Turbo with Vision via Azure OpenAI Service. This technology enables the car to understand its surroundings and provide context for speech assistance with the ‘Hey Mercedes’ cue. In the new multimodal vision AI models and their practical applications breakout session, Mercedes showcased the power of multimodality by demonstrating the capabilities of ‘Hey Mercedes’ including the ability to add DALL-E generated images to vehicles’ dashboards by a simple voice command.

Figure 3: Mercedes-Benz utilizes Dall-E to display an image of Olympic National park on the car’s dashboard using a simple voice command.

Offering an immersive in-car infotainment system, TomTom utilizes Azure OpenAI Service, Azure Kubernetes Service, and CosmosDB. Their Digital Cockpit demonstrates the impact of advanced technologies in creating a seamless and enriched driving environment. In the TomTom brings AI-powered, talking cars to life with Azure session at Build, staff data scientist Massimiliano Ungheretti showcased how he led the development of the Digital Cockpit.

Detecting suspicious activity by analyzing millions of daily transactions, Kinectify uses its AI-powered anti-money laundering (AML) risk management platform. Built with Azure Cosmos DB, Azure AI Services, and Azure Kubernetes Service, the platform is scalable and robust.

Elevating business operations

Featured in the Build sophisticated custom copilots with Azure OpenAI Assistants API breakout session, Coca-Cola aims to improve the productivity of its 30,000 associates by leveraging the Assistants API with GPT-4 Turbo for KO Assist, their genAI copilot. These standardized assistants help with enhanced business intelligence, data synthesis, strategic planning, and risk management across all departments.

Figure 4: Cola-Cola demonstrates the power of their KO Assist chatbot, powered by Azure OpenAI Assistants API.

Increasing productivity and enabling more intuitive app development, Freshworks uses Freddy Copilot to provide conversational assistance and informed insights to employees and customers. This tool is supported by the Assistants API. Freshworks showcased Freddy Copilot in Build sophisticated custom copilots with Azure OpenAI Assistants API.

Featured in the Day 2 keynote, the fastest growing consumer experience in history, OpenAI, now offers enhanced features like GPTs for customizing ChatGPT with external knowledge and Assistants API for developers to create AI-powered assistants with scaled-up external knowledge integration using retrieval augmented generation (RAG). Leveraging Azure AI Search, OpenAI API users can now upload 500 times more files, transforming it into a powerful retrieval system, solving significant present and future challenges.

Thank you

We are proud to celebrate the remarkable achievements of our customers at Microsoft Build 2024 and beyond. These examples underscore the transformative impact of Azure AI across various industries, showcasing how innovative solutions can revolutionize the way we act, think, and work.

As we continue to develop and support cutting-edge AI technologies, we are excited for even more groundbreaking advancements to come from our customers, driving the future of digital transformation and setting new standards for excellence. Together, we are shaping a smarter, more efficient, and more connected world.

Curious how your enterprise can unleash their potential with generative AI? With Azure, the opportunities are endless.
The post Celebrating customers’ journeys to AI innovation at Microsoft Build 2024 appeared first on Azure Blog.
Quelle: Azure

1. Juni 2024

da Agency

Microsoft and Broadcom to support license portability for VMware Cloud Foundation on Azure VMware Solution

Co-authored by Ahmar Mohammad, Vice President, Partners, Managed Services, and Solutions GTM, VCF Division, Broadcom

Microsoft and Broadcom have partnered closely for many years to support our mutual customers, and we continue to build and innovate together as customer needs change. Today, we are pleased to share that Microsoft and Broadcom are expanding our partnership with plans to support VMware Cloud Foundation subscriptions on Azure VMware Solution. Customers that own or purchase licenses for VMware Cloud Foundation will be able to use those licenses on Azure VMware Solution, as well as their own datacenters, giving them flexibility to meet changing business needs.

This provides an additional purchase option for Azure VMware Solution, which has been sold and operated by Microsoft since 2019. Customers can currently purchase the solution with VMware licenses included, and this option will continue to be available for customers that prefer to purchase their VMware licenses as part of their solution from Microsoft.

Azure VMware Solution delivers a fully managed VMware environment that is operated and supported by Microsoft. Customers can move VMware workloads to Azure “as is” with minimal to no refactoring. This streamlines migration and allows customers to continue using familiar skills while learning new Azure skills.

By migrating to Azure VMware Solution, now available in 33 regions around the world, organizations can take advantage of Azure’s scalable and high-performance cloud infrastructure. Customers can deploy with business-critical capabilities such as backup, high availability, threat protection, and performance monitoring. Moreover, workloads running on Azure VMware Solution can be integrated with Azure’s portfolio of more than 200 cloud services to accelerate innovation, gain deeper insights from data with advanced AI services, and to modernize business applications.

VMware Cloud Foundation delivers a private cloud platform that is ubiquitous, flexible, and integrated across cloud endpoints. By deploying VMware Cloud Foundation on Azure, customers benefit from a highly optimized cloud operating model that provides the scale and agility of public cloud with the security and performance of private cloud. Running VMware Cloud Foundation on Azure enables organizations to modernize IT infrastructure with demonstrable TCO, provide developers a self-service private cloud experience resulting in greater productivity, and achieve better cyber resiliency and security.

With improved license portability for customers with eligible VMware Cloud Foundation entitlements, customers will be able to purchase subscriptions of the new VMware Cloud Foundation software and have complete mobility to and from their on-premises environment to Azure VMware Solution. VMware customers that have already purchased and begun deploying the new VMware Cloud Foundation will be able to transfer the remaining value of an existing subscription to Azure VMware Solution. Additionally, customers will be able to move their VMware Cloud Foundation subscription between on-premises and Azure VMware Solution as their needs and requirements evolve over time. Customers will retain the rights to their software subscription when moving their VMware Cloud Foundation subscription to Azure VMware Solution.

VMware Rapid Migration Plan: Reduce your migration time and cost

In addition to the new VMware license portability benefit, the VMware Rapid Migration Plan provides an additional and comprehensive set of licensing benefits and programs to reduce the cost and time it takes for organizations to migrate to Azure VMware Solution.

The plan includes:

Price protection: With reserved instances customers can lock in pricing for one, three, or five years.

Savings for Windows Server and SQL Server: Windows Server and SQL Server are common workloads on VMware environments. With Software Assurance for on-premises Windows Server and SQL Server licenses, organizations can qualify for the Azure Hybrid Benefit discount to use existing Windows Server and SQL Server licenses in Azure VMware Solution. Free Extended Security Updates are available for older versions that face end of support.

Migration support: Use Azure Migrate and Modernize to get resources, expert help, and funding from Microsoft and its partner ecosystem.

Azure credits: Customers that purchase a new reserved instance for Azure VMware Solution can get additional Azure credits valid for Azure VMware Solution or other Azure services.

Supporting your cloud journey with Microsoft and Broadcom

We are committed to continued partnership and innovation to support our mutual customers as they adapt to changing business needs. VMware Cloud Foundation license portability to Azure VMware Solution will be available later this year, so now is a great time to contact your account team or Microsoft partner to start planning your move.

Here are a few resources to help you get started:

Learn more about Azure VMware Solution.

Take advantage of the VMware Rapid Migration Plan from Microsoft.

Azure VMware Solution

Move or extend on-premises VMware environments to Azure without refactoring

Learn more

The post Microsoft and Broadcom to support license portability for VMware Cloud Foundation on Azure VMware Solution appeared first on Azure Blog.
Quelle: Azure