Windows Weekly 485: Live From Microsoft Ignite

Hey, It's time for Windows Weekly. It's the show that sticks in your brain like a Windows 10 nag screen.

I'm Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ. The digitial jesuit in for Leo the Fourth who is currently, on a boat.

But of course, it's a special edition because we got Paul Thurott and Mary-Jo Foley, they are bringing the fire to Microsoft Ignite.

Uh, Mary-Jo, Paul, so good to see you, you're in some sort of?

Mary-Jo: It's a connector.

Paul: It's a connector.

I'm not sure what that means,at ome point you're going to have to tell me, but,

You look good, you sound good, and it's nice to have you straight from one of the biggest microsoft events of the year.

Tell me, for the folks who haven't watched windows weekly, and are joining us for this show,

What is Microsoft Ignite supposed to be?

Paul: What is it supposed to be?

What it is, is the biggest show in the world for IT hosts

20,000 people

Mary-Jo: 25

-25,000 people, all of them crammed into this room
Off of a small hallway between two gigantic conference centers

Mary-Jo: It's the show for everything.

-It's like the show for all microsoft technologies.
Windows, sharepoint, (inaudible)...everything you would like in one show, no xbox.

(Fr. Ballecer) Wait, no xbox?

There was a small bit of onedrive news this week, that justified my travelling here.

Now, every year at Ignite, we seem to be walking away with takeaways.
Things that you like the most.

You've had just a little bit of time and I understand
it was a late night because

Mary Jo decided you need to try every craft beer in Atlanta,
But, what have been the big ticket items so far?

Big Picture, I would almost say security.

-Yep, for sure.

Security, artificial intelligence, machine learning, as well.

Well the transformation of the cloud.

-Right.
-Which is kind of ongoing.
-Definitely.

So I feel like the messaging we hear is microsoft is all in, in the cloud.

All in on security.

All in on sharepoint. I have to keep going back to sharepoint.

- Who doesn't.

-Everyone.

I know, security is pretty across the stack. When you think that its a big deal its not just high tech security

Not just server icloud security

It's security even in the fabric.

Right, it's a hybrid.

The message was hybrid.

What microsoft means by hybrid cloud is a little more comprehensive than some of the other members.

I found a new way to get quite excited,
Hybrid is an activity, right?

-Oh, that would get her very agitated.

(Fr.) Has there been much talk about Windows 10, internet of things edition?

No.
-No.

A little but not alot.

Actually, there really hasn't been alot of windows 10

There was obviously some security enhancements in the anniversary update, some coming things as well.

-Right.

Edge is getting some sort of security isolation technology.

That may or may not make it's way to other apps,

Browsers.

- That was code named Barcelona. Did you know that?
- Now I do.

Thats a really interesting feature because it's suppose to use containers in windows 10.

In the browser to isolate possible malicious attacks, and be able to detonate those to the side.

So, very interesting technology, something we'd heard rumored.

I thought it might have been a previous version windows 10. Never made it, so its looking like red stone 2.

-Yea, Spring.
-Spring. "Whatever that means".

Some of the news has been trickling back here from the day 1 keynote when Scott officially made the announcement that

Windows 10 is now on 400 million devices. How solid of a number do you find that?

Of course we've dropped down from the official target of a billion devices by the end of the year.

Will they make half a billion before the holiday season?

Thats interesting.
- I think so, do you?

So at the current clip, no.

Of course you see a seasonal bump because of the holiday. It's possible.

They don't have that kind of a goal, right?

They were talking about 1 billion active PC's by 2018.
-2018

That's moved out a bit obviously since the original proclamation.

Which I'm sure they regret.

But they do still plan and expect to get up to 1 billion active devices.

-Around that time or slightly later, perhaps.

They still are saying 1 billion, yes.

Right, I would be surprised if they hit half a billion by the end of the year.

(Fr.) Would that count devices that have been upgraded then downloaded several times?

Paul: Yea, that would get counted twice, ha ha!

Because, I've got like 15 devices on this laptop.

Actually it's interesting as you move from selling software to store

Where you can say we shipped x number of these boxes

To counting something that seems a little more ebulous

Just monthly average users or in windows 10 case,

active devices.

This is actually an instance where this is a more meaningful real world number

because it's instances of the op system running and being used actively.

It's actual users,

In the past when ms used to sell 20 million in windows 7 licences a month.

It was a real sale. It was something they could put down in the books.