Microsoft demonstrated the power of its intelligent cloud in concert with the intelligent edge, at the 37th Gitex Technology Week began yesterday (October 8) in Dubai, UAE.

The four-day ICT show is running at the Dubai World Trade Centre's International Convention Centre.

Microsoft’s Gitex focus this year is “Ignite Your Digital Transformation” through showcasing its innovations for all workloads and industries ranging all the way from education to healthcare, and manufacturing to retail - that are allowing millions of organizations worldwide to engage customers, empower employees, optimise operations and transform products and services.

Spanning across Productivity, Business intelligence, Security, Cloud, Mixed Reality, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of things, the exhibits include Intelligent Cloud, Modern Workplace, Windows 10 Creators Update and Devices, and the Partners Zone.

Microsoft’s professional network provider LinkedIn also showcased its Sales Navigator combined with the power of Dynamics 365 to empower sales teams in building strong relationships.

“Digital transformation has extraordinary potential for businesses and organisations of all scales and industries,” said Sayed Hashish, regional general manager, Microsoft Gulf. “It has the power to automate the mundane and give a freer hand to natural innovators, through the intelligent cloud and the intelligent edge. Our continued participation at Gitex, demonstrates Microsoft’s commitment to Dubai, the UAE and the wider region by showcasing our portfolio of innovations - empowering organizations to achieve more”.

Intelligent cloud experience zone

Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud exhibit focused on the all-new Azure Stack and Azure 10, on which enterprises of all types and sizes can build their hybrid clouds, by combining public and private cloud environment to seamlessly share data and applications.

The Azure 10 exhibit showcased a specially selected group of 10 Azure solutions, identified by marketing, sales, and engineering thought-leaders as having the broadest possible applicability among customers. These include Data Centre Transformation; Back-up, Archival and Disaster Recovery; DevTest and DevOps; Redhat on Azure; internal and customer-facing applications; and the Internet of Things. Azure Stack is an extension of Azure that allows the delivery of Azure services from a data centre, while balancing flexibility and control, for truly consistent hybrid-cloud deployments.

Modern workplace zone

At the Modern Workplace Zone where AI is just another member of the team, Gitex delegates witnessed the versatility of Office 365 Business Applications for businesses of all size, from intelligence, collaboration and interactive conferencing, to cutting-edge AI and professional animation. Visitors learned how to share, store, edit and work on common files with colleagues who are an ocean away; create impressive animations in PowerPoint, through the Morph feature; and discovered how to translate documents and emails in other languages into their native tongue.

Microsoft also demonstrated how Office 365 can be used to enhance team fusion on iPhone and Android phones and mentors showed visitors how to manage group and personal security, using advanced permissions features.

Office 365’s Delve Analytics also made a star appearance. Microsoft showed how AI can help visualise the productivity of the entire workplace, by monitoring hours spent in meetings, work habits, multitasking, work-life balance, hours of uninterrupted work and other metrics.

Windows 10 creators update and devices zone

Microsoft, along with partners HP, Acer and Lenovo, showcased the latest exciting devices, and demonstrated how Windows 10 Fall Creators Update makes the intelligent edge come to life.

Creators Update features include enhanced Windows Inking, which allows manual pen-style amendments on top of PDFs, making it easier and faster to collaborate. Smart Ink applies artificial intelligence to inking, automatically perfecting the squares users draw, or turning boxes into a table for them, with no extra work.

Microsoft has reimagined the Windows 10 Photos app to deliver the ability to present collections the way users want, with music, 3D, and even inking. Security features include a smarter Windows Defender that consults the intelligent cloud to enable new defences against ransomware and exploits.

Windows Mixed Reality is central to the Creators Update, and Gitex 2017 attendees experienced a unique combination of the physical and digital worlds through Mixed Reality headsets from Microsoft Partners, Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo - that will start to become available from October 17

LinkedIn Showcase

Microsoft’s professional network provider LinkedIn also appeared at Microsoft’s Gitex stand to showcase visitors how Dynamics 365 for Sales can work with LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator to build stronger relationships with customer leads.

Sales teams can ensure they focus on the right prospects with Microsoft Lead Scoring, combined with LinkedIn’s 400-million-strong member-network and its Sales Navigator Search and Recommended Lead. LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator Account and Lead Updates keep sales teams current on the most relevant news about prospects. And tight integration with Dynamics 365 delivers up-to-the-minute predictions on opportunities and risks, through advanced engagement signals from Office 365, Dynamics 365 and LinkedIn.

Adobe Showcase

Leading software organisation, Adobe, was also present at the Microsoft stand to showcase the collaboration between the two companies for creating standardized data models for their marketing and business applications. Adobe demonstrated its Adobe Marketing cloud, Adobe Creative cloud and Adobe document cloud powered by Microsoft Azure; providing the company with a global and trusted platform with comprehensive machine learning and cognitive capabilities in Microsoft Cortana Intelligence Suite and SQL Server.

Partners Zone

Microsoft’s Partners Zone hosted 32 regional partners and ISVs at its Gitex Stand. Each of them showcased solutions and services for all industries, built on top of Microsoft’s intelligent cloud platform, including IoT, machine learning, Mixed Reality, disaster recovery and Web apps.

Platinum partners this year include AuraPortal, Crayon, Halian International, Sable37, Sitecore, Veritas. Gold partners Alpha Data, Almoe, Ascent, Archinnova, Avid, BlinkStudios, Business Experts, Citrix, Comtrade, Consensys, Diyar, Commvault, F5, Hitachi, Honeywell, Informatica, MedApp, Mindtree, Mobile Doctors, Palo Alto Networks, Parallels, Polycom, Resemble Systems, Riverbed, Sprinklr and Veeam. – TradeArabia News Service