Microsoft Ignite 2017 conference coverage

Editor's note

Microsoft's surge to get ahead of cutting-edge IT shows no sign of slowing as the company's investments in cloud bear fruit.

With Azure as the engine, Microsoft wants users to get on the digital transformation bandwagon -- swap out older technologies and approaches for more nimble substitutes, and invest in the company's products, preferably ones based in the cloud.

An intriguing amalgam of Azure infrastructure and platform as a service (PaaS), rolled into an appliance that sits in the customer's data center, should play a prominent role at the Microsoft Ignite 2017 show in Orlando at the end of September. Azure Stack, in the works since 2015, aims to give enterprises a consistent application development platform in a private cloud.
Microsoft's cloud emphasis is equally pronounced in Office 365. The company claims it has more than 100 million users that depend on the suite's services. Several significant features added over the last year include additional calling features to its Skype for Business product and the rollout of Microsoft Teams, the company's answer to the popular Slack chat service. Out of just over 1,100 sessions in the Ignite catalog, more than 200 focus on topics that range from basic digital literacy training to advanced records management for Office 365 administrators.

Bookmark this Microsoft Ignite 2017 guide for news about product developments and analysis from experts making sense of Microsoft's efforts to shape the technological landscape.