Transcript 0:00 [on-hold music] So I was happy to see that some of the new tools for AI and machine learning in Azure, and I'm especially happy to see so many tools and verbiage dedicated to preserving fairness and privacy, and I think that's a really important point. 0:18 [upbeat music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation, with your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:39 Hello, listeners, and welcome to today's edition of The Peggy Smedley Show. I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:45 I'm probably not the only person who experienced Build twenty-twenty, Microsoft's annual developer conference reimagined in this time of extraordinary circumstances. 0:56 Build took place digitally last week on Tuesday and Wednesday, and honestly, I think this was a groundbreaking event. 1:03 A lot is going on, and it's changing the way things are happening, and the change actually happened because of COVID-19 pandemic, I guess we should say passes, in terms of how we approach healthcare, how supply chains plan, and for unexpected events and, of course, how we work. 1:24 What Build twenty-twenty has shown me is that COVID-19 may also change how industries meet together annually. Build twenty-twenty worked. 1:34 It just worked, and nobody knew for sure whether it would work, and that's the honest truth. Would Microsoft be able to pull it off? 1:43 It wasn't without incident, let's be honest, but Microsoft certainly put on a good show, and today we're going to cover the conference in this whole kind of news brief this morning here and on the show. 1:56 But for this first segment of the show, I'll get you kind of up to speed with what went on in the conference, two days of non-stop broadcasting. It was kind of a celebration, they like to say. 2:08 And then later on in the show, I'm gonna be interviewing Sam George for the rest of the show, and he's the corporate vice president of Azure IoT. 2:16 And you all know I've had Sam on before, and we're gonna take a deep dive into what went on in Build. And, uh, if there's anyone who could talk about it, it's Sam. 2:25 And then I want you to keep your eye on the web for some in-depth coverage we're gonna put out there from Build twenty-twenty, some news, and what it means to enterprises. 2:33 So we've got a lot coming on, so, uh, keep your eye out for that as well. 2:36 So let's get started with some of the high-level trends I saw at Build this year before I talk about some of the specific announcements because I think it's important for you to kind of get a view of what I thought. 2:48 Obviously, this conference is for developers. There's no question about it. 2:51 So I definitely saw a focus on defining the role of developers and how they'll play kind of their role in the coming years, as well as exploring what tools will be necessary to accelerate application development. 3:05 There was a lot to do with the future of work, especially in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic. We're seeing a lot of that in how Microsoft is positioning itself to enable remote work. 3:17 But finally, Azure was a huge focal point during the event, and this is no surprise since the company has really been focusing on Azure for the past, I'd say, at least a year or more. 3:29 But let's, let's get on with, I think, the specifics because I think this is important. There were a lot of announcements this year that will benefit, I think, the remote work, and I'll mention some of those. 3:42 There's, uh, this new fluid framework, is what I would call it, that takes Office documents into the realm of Google Docs and beyond, and there's this new Microsoft Lists apps for businesses, and there's these new fu- features, uh, for the Edge browser, and there's these new PowerToys that run Search Toolbox and as well, so there were all these kind of things. 4:07 But Microsoft is definitely positioning itself, it- itself as a leader in the remote work, uh, revolution. So I think, you know, we heard a lot about Teams, and there were all kinds of things like that. 4:19 But I think the first major Build twenty-twenty announcement that I wanna focus on today is Azure Synapse Link. 4:26 I really thought this was kind of cool because Azure is Microsoft's cloud platform, for any of you who don't know that, and that's helping enterprises meet critical business challenges. 4:36 And you'll remember that Microsoft de- kind of debuted Azure Synapse Analytics in November of last year, and this re-release has helped data professionals, I think, do their jobs better. 4:50 And it bulldozed barriers between enterprise data warehousing and big data analytics. 4:55 And for instance, Microsoft is saying analytics in Azure is up to fourteen times faster than any other cloud provider, and it's simply cheaper. 5:07 So and now Microsoft has announced Azure Synapse Link, a capability that removes even more barriers for all of the data professionals. 5:17 Now, Synapse Links removes barriers between operational database services and analytics, creating a real-time connection between the two. 5:26 So the goal here is to help customers lower costs and reduce the time it takes to gain valuable insights from their data. 5:34 So it's really a cool solution, and one that I want to talk more about, um, and I will later on in the show with Sam because I want to get his take on it. 5:44 But there's a ton more I could talk about relating to Azure, but let's focus on some of the machine learning toolsIn Azure, because I thought that was pretty interesting. 5:54 Microsoft is pretty forward-thinking, um, in its commitment to responsible AI and machine learning. 6:01 Uh, I think they have a webinar series on developing AI responsibly u- using Azure, and I appreciate that they're kind of taking time to educate developers, and I think it's always a good thing. 6:13 At Build, the company announced innovations in responsible machine learning that can help developers understand, I think protect, and control their models throughout the machine learning life cycle. 6:23 And Fairlearn, which is a tool which I thought was kind of interesting in Azure, machine learning that can help developers assess model fairness during both, I think, the model training and deployment and mitigate unfairness while optimizing model performance. 6:40 I thought that was kind of cool when I was looking at that and learning a little bit about it. 6:43 It also uses interactive visualizations to kind of compare a set of recommended models that mitigate unfairness, and we know we've talked about what happens when you're doing machine learning. 6:54 So there's a lot of new privacy toolkit called, uh, White Noise, which helps developers build machine learning solutions that preserve privacy. 7:04 So it does this by injecting statistical noise into data to help prevent the disclosure of private information, and it also helps manage exposure to risk. 7:14 So I was happy to see that some of the new tools for AI and machine learning in Azure, and I'm especially happy to see so many tools and verbiage dedicated to preserving fairness and privacy, and I think that's a really important point here. 7:30 Uh, so I don't have to, uh, a whole lot of time to talk about a lot of things, but I did want to mention a couple of other announcements from Build. 7:39 Um, we'll have a lot of time to talk to Sam, but including Microsoft's acquisition of Softmotive, a, uh, robotic process automation technology company, as well as Microsoft's Cloud for Healthcare, uh, I think is really important in light of what's going on. 7:56 Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare is notable in part because it's the company's first industry-specific cloud offering. 8:04 It's also notable because the platform aims to help alleviate some of the most pressing challenges healthcare faces today, including things like improving collaboration among health teams, enhancing patient engagement, and addressing concerns like interoperability, security, and trust, things we've, you've heard me talk about on the show many times before. 8:28 Uh, I think we can talk a little bit about some of these other things, um, in an article that we're looking to do or we have done in the past on some of these areas, but we've dug into some of these in announcements in an upcoming news analysis that I'm gonna put up on the site, so you can read more about that on connectedworld.com. 8:48 But before we break for a quick commercial, here's my tip, and I think it's pretty simple. 8:54 I think you got to keep listening, 'cause there's so much, and we're gonna have a great in-depth interview lined up for you today, and it's gonna help flesh out really what Build was all about. 9:05 And Microsoft really is making a name for itself in cloud, the Edge, Azure, digital twin, remote w- work, you name it. There's just so much. You know, IoT Hub Central, there's just so much that they've got going on. 9:19 So my opinion for today is this: digital virtual conferences, whatever you wanna call them, are going to become a thing, and not just in 2020 and in 2021. 9:31 I think we're gonna see a lot more of them because they open up a lot of opportunities. I think Microsoft just proved that it can be done, and it can be done well. 9:40 And while there were certainly, you know, some downsides to maybe, maybe that's what you might perceive, to presenting information digitally, I got to say, one of the upsides was the attendance. 9:52 You know, way more people tuned in digitally than were planning to attend in person or be there in person. 9:59 You know, digital events have the potential to involve so many more people than in-person events at so many different hours, you know, 48 hours, and they do. You know, that they're able to participate. 10:12 They involve them as immersively, you know, that they're able to. Certainly, you know, can they do this otherwise? I don't know that they can, so certainly not. I just don't think they can. 10:23 But maybe they will change that too eventually. Who knows, you know, how, how you can do that? You know, technology's changing. 10:30 But, you know, COVID-19 has taught us a lot, and I think one lesson has been a vital importance of leveraging technology to enable remote collaboration and remote work. I think, you know... 10:44 But I can tell you, I watched Build at some of the craziest hours I would have never have been able to do if I was at a live event, so it was interesting. 10:54 So I think, do you think we'll start seeing more digital events even after this pandemic is open, is over? You know, um, I guess the question, I think we will. 11:06 But I also think we still need live events because we need that in-person kind of collaboration. 11:14 But I do think what's interesting is if you can have a combination of both, you get the best of both worlds, and that's what I think was nice that we were able to see, is that ability to kind of do some things. 11:28 So, uh, I, I like, you know, I like meeting people in person, but, you know, right now we can't do it, and I think Microsoft did a great job. We learned a lot. So in the meantime, you know, get cozy, stick around. 11:40 You know, for my next interview with Sam George, we're gonna get into a lot of great discussion. 11:45 We're gonna talk about a lot of things that happened at Build, um, and I'm pretty certain that, uh, it's never a dull discussion when I have Sam here. But I'm curious, what are you all thinking about? 11:57 I would love to know, do you think that we're gonna have to do some things? You know, are we gonna change the way we think about things? Um, but I'm, I really wanna know what your thoughts are. 12:07 But you know what I want you to do most importantly? I want you to go out to the website. Check out our website at connectedworld.com or thepeggySmedleyShow.com for any of our past archives. 12:16 But I also want you to tweet at me, @ConnectedWMag. That's the mostly important thing we can do, is get engaged. 12:22 I wanna hear what you think, 'cause we've got a conference coming up in August that's gonna be in Chicago, and we're going to do things a little differently. 12:31 So I wanna know what you think about all the things that are out there right now, 'cause that's the most important. I'm curious of your thoughts and everything that you feel about what's happening right here. 12:40 So all right, we're out of time. Go get that quick cup of coffee, 'cause we're gonna take a quick break. This is The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. 12:49 And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. We'll be right back with Sam George, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft. [upbeat music]
