by Contributed | Apr 19, 2024 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Microsoft is partnering with leading industrial connectivity partners Advantech, PTC, and Softing to unlock industrial data for AI and accelerate digital transformation for industrial customers leveraging Azure IoT Operations through Azure’s adaptive cloud approach.
We are committed to empowering customers to achieve more with their data and unlocking new insights and opportunities across the industrial ecosystem. This includes overcoming the challenges of proprietary interfaces and data models from an array of industrial assets on the factory floor. We believe that the key to addressing those challenges is enabling data to flow consistently and securely to the people and places where it’s needed to drive collaboration and better decision-making, leveraging open standards like OPC UA and MQTT. This is why we are working closely with our connectivity partners, who play a vital role in bridging the gap between legacy or proprietary assets and our standardized edge interfaces. They provide data translation and normalization to open, standardized data models across heterogeneous environments.
The adaptive cloud approach brings just enough Azure and its capabilities to any environment, from the factory floor to both 1st party and 3rd party cloud infrastructure, using Kubernetes and other open technologies. We enable interoperability and integration across diverse edge devices and applications, providing a single control and management plane using Azure IoT Operations (Preview), enabled by Azure Arc. We aim to unify siloed teams, distributed sites, and sprawling systems and to provide our customers with an open, interoperable, and secure Industrial IoT platform that can scale to meet their current and future needs quickly.
We are leveraging leading solutions from our connectivity partners Advantech, PTC, and Softing to achieve the necessary frictionless data flow that our customers need. Each connectivity partner is integrated with Azure IoT Operations to enable data interoperability and management across the industrial edge and cloud.
Advantech is a leader in Industrial IoT, providing comprehensive system integration, hardware, software, and customer-centric design services. Their iFactory solution offers device-to-cloud visibility and a strong hardware-led connectivity story. Advantech has integrated their iFactory solution with Azure IoT Operations, enabling data flow from their edge devices and applications to Azure. They are also exploring to build an Akri connector for LoRaWAN, enabling an integration with Azure Resource Manager and benefiting from Azure’s security, monitoring, and management features.
“Azure IoT Operations offers a highly flexible approach to swiftly onboard IoT assets within the same network hierarchy. Data from devices can be easily captured using Akri discovery plugins and visualized in Grafana for user consumption. With the Azure AIO solution stack, our customers can seamlessly transition to a digital operational environment with success.”
– Ihen Tsai, Product Manager of WISE-iFactory, Advantech
PTC Kepware is a premier provider of industrial connectivity software, and their solutions access data from virtually any device – legacy or modern – and seamlessly and securely move the data to other OT and IT software applications. Their flagship product, Kepware+, enables secure and reliable data transfer between industrial assets and Azure IoT Operations, leveraging MQTT and OPC UA. Customers can ingest, process, and publish OPC UA data to services such as Azure Data Explorer or Microsoft Fabric, and can leverage Microsoft’s AI capabilities.
“PTC is proud of our long collaboration with Microsoft to accelerate digital transformation for industrial companies with our portfolio of manufacturing solutions. The announcement of Azure IoT Operations marks a significant milestone in empowering companies to leverage data for innovation and heightened efficiency. Together, PTC Kepware+ and Azure IoT Operations seamlessly and securely integrate to access, normalize, and process asset data at the edge and derive insights in the cloud.”
– Ted Kerkam, Senior Director of Product Strategy, PTC Kepware
Softing is a leading provider of industrial connectivity. Their edgeConnector, edgeAggregator and dataFEED OPC Suite family of products offer access to process and machine data in PLCs from various vendors such as Siemens, Rockwell, Schneider, Beckhoff, Mitsubishi, Fanuc, Omron, and more. Softing has integrated their connectivity product portfolio with Azure IoT Operations, enabling data flow from OT assets via open standards OPC UA and MQTT. This allows customers to send their asset data to services such as Azure Data Explorer or Microsoft Fabric, and they can leverage Microsoft’s AI capabilities.
“Our customers require standards-based and scalable machine connectivity for their Industrial IoT solutions. Microsoft’s adaptive cloud approach supports Kubernetes, MQTT and OPC UA on edge level, so we can offer a seamless integration of our dataFEED products into the Azure platform meeting our customers’ critical requirements regarding connectivity and efficient operation.”
– Thomas Hilz, Managing Director at Softing Industrial Automation GmbH
Engage with Microsoft on our adaptive cloud approach and data connectivity
We believe when working together across a robust partner ecosystem, Microsoft can deliver the best possible solutions to our customers and help them realize the full potential of their data across the industrial edge and cloud. We are also committed to supporting open standards and protocols and providing a single management and control plane, to enable a seamless and secure data flow from assets to the cloud.
To learn more, visit the Microsoft booth at Hannover Messe (Hall 17, Stand G06) from April 22-26. We invite you to come see us and our partners, and we will be showcasing our connectivity partner solutions. You can learn more about our adaptive cloud approach and discuss your Industrial IoT opportunities with our experts.
We hope to see you there!
by Contributed | Apr 18, 2024 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Today marks a pivotal moment in the 2024 Imagine Cup as we reveal the top three teams selected to progress from the semifinals to the highly anticipated Imagine Cup World Championship, live at Microsoft Build!
The Imagine Cup, the premier student technology startup competition, has attracted thousands of visionary student entrepreneurs worldwide. Each team has developed an AI-driven solution to tackle pressing challenges including accessibility, sustainability, productivity, and healthcare.
This year’s semifinalists have demonstrated exceptional innovation with Azure AI services and OpenAI, showcasing their innovation, grit and ability make a positive impact through entrepreneurship. Congratulations to all the semifinalists for their remarkable achievements!
However, only three teams have been selected to progress to the World Championship where they will live on the global stage as they vie for the Imagine Cup Trophy, USD100,000, and a mentorship session with Microsoft Chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella! You can watch these startups live at Microsoft Build on May 21 to see who wins.
Drumroll, please, as we unveil FROM YOUR EYES, JRE, and PlanRoadmap! These startups represent the pinnacle of creativity and resilience, embodying the spirit of innovation that defines Imagine Cup.
Meet the Teams! Listed in alphabetical order.
FROM YOUR EYES
Turkey
About: Using Azure Computer Vision and Text Translator, FROM YOUR EYES has built a mobile application that offers both fast and qualified visual explanations to visually impaired users.
In their own words…
Who/what inspires you? “After being selected as one of Microsoft’s leading women in technology in 2020, I was invited to join the experience team of Microsoft’s Seeing AI program. It was there that I took on responsibilities and crossed paths with visually impaired developers worldwide who held significant roles. They encouraged me to delve into coding. In addition, Onur Koç, Microsoft Turkey’s CTO, also greatly inspired us, he addressed all student ambassadors saying, ‘Software is magic. You can change the life of someone you’ve never met on the other side of the world.’ We were deeply moved by this, and with this motivation, we worked to reach people…with our developed technology, and we succeeded.”
How do you want to make an impact with AI? “The issue of blindness directly affects 330 million people worldwide and indirectly impacts over a billion individuals. For a visually impaired person, using image processing solutions means freedom. With the technology we have developed, our goal is to enable visually impaired individuals to live freely, remove barriers to their dreams, and solve the problem of blindness through technology. This competition will provide us with the opportunity to promote our technology to millions of visually impaired individuals worldwide. They do not have time to waste. We also want to quickly deliver our technology to those in need.”
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JRE
United Kingdom
About: Using Azure Machine Learning, Microsoft Fabric, and Copilot, JRE has built a slag detection system used in the continuous casting process of steel. Accurately detecting slag optimizes yield while improving quality.
In their own words…
Who/what inspires you? Jorge: “I learned how to code out of necessity. Even though I took courses as an undergrad, I never really liked the type of projects we did because they were primarily simulations about atomic interactions and molecular optimizations. I found these problems beautiful but very abstract. After college, many people wanted to create businesses around apps, and I learned how to code front and back-end applications to sell these apps. Later on, when I started working in the steel industry, I was frustrated by the lack of automation and unsafe and repetitive processes, so I started creating more complex integrated systems in this space.”
How do you want to make an impact with AI? “Our aim is to redefine manufacturing for the 21st century—making it smarter, more efficient, and sustainable. The Imagine Cup represents a unique opportunity to showcase our solution to a global audience, garnering support and resources necessary to scale our impact. We’re driven by the challenge of solving real-world problems and believe that through this competition, we can take a significant step towards achieving our vision.”
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PlanRoadmap
United States
About: Using Azure OpenAI Service, PlanRoadmap has built an AI-powered productivity coach to help people with ADHD who are struggling with task paralysis get their tasks done. Their coach asks questions to identify the user’s obstacles, suggests strategies, and teaches the user about their work style.
In their own words…
Who/what inspires you? Aaliya: One of my biggest inspirations has been my father… as he helped guide my direction within computer science. He has always been an advocate for women in STEM, and at a young age, that was incredibly powerful to be supported on. It enabled me to overcome feelings of imposter syndrome and have confidence in myself. He has always painted a vision of who I could be before I really believed in myself, and he inspires me to be dedicated, passionate, and ambitious.”
Clay: “At a young age, I was diagnosed with dysgraphia, a condition that impairs writing ability and fine motor skills. Even if not explicitly stated, when everything in school is handwriting, you are at a pretty severe disadvantage when you struggle to even write a few sentences.”
Ever: “Some of my biggest inspiration in pursuing computer science and engineering has been from cinema. I didn’t really have many people in my life who were in the tech field growing up, so I got a lot of inspiration from seeing tech in movies. In cinema you can see tech exactly as the artist imagined it, without the restrictions of the real world.”
How do you want to make an impact with AI? Clay: “As I became increasingly proficient in programming, I realized that not only did I want to do something big, but that I had the potential to make it happen. We are unified under the mission to help people with ADHD achieve their dreams. Our customer discovery efforts have revealed that despite significant increases in technological tools, there are still millions of people facing barriers caused by their ADHD symptoms and related executive function deficits. We want to change that. The mentorship from Microsoft will help us with the technical innovation and provide that frictionless experience to provide a novel approach towards supporting neurodivergent people.”
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Up Next…
These top three teams will be live on the global stage at Microsoft Build on May 21 for the Imagine Cup World Championship, showcasing the depth and promise of their startups. Follow the journey on Instagram and X to stay up to date with all the competition action – and join us live to find out who is crowned champion!
by Contributed | Apr 17, 2024 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Seattle—April 17, 2024—Today, we are pleased to announce the release of document translation (preview) and transliteration features for Azure AI Translator containers. All Translator container customers will get these new features automatically as part of the update.
Translator containers provide users with the capability to host the Azure AI Translator API on their own infrastructure and include all libraries, tools, and dependencies needed to run the service in any private, public, or personal computing environment. They are isolated, lightweight, portable, and are great for implementing specific security or data governance requirements.
As of today’s release, the following operations are now supported when using Azure AI Translator containers:
- Text translation: Translate the text phrases between supported source and target language(s) in real-time.
- Text transliteration: Converts text in a language from one script to another script in real-time. E.g. converting Russian language text written in Cyrillic script to Latin script.
- Document translation (Preview): Translate a document between supported source and target language while preserving the original document’s content structure and format.
When to consider using Azure AI Translator containers?
You may want to consider Azure AI Translator containers in cases where:
- there are strict data residency requirements to ensure that sensitive information remains within the company’s security boundary.
- you reside in industries such as government, military, banking, and security enforcement where the ability to translate data without exposing it to external networks is a must.
- you require the ability to maintain continuous translation capabilities while operating in disconnected environments or with limited internet access.
- optimization, cost management, and flexibility to run on-premises with existing infrastructure is a priority.
Getting started with Translator container.
Translator containers are a gated offering. You need to request container access and get approved. Refer to the prerequisites for a more detailed breakdown.
How do I get charged?
The document translation and transliteration features would be charged at different rates similar to the cloud offering.
Connected container: You’re billed monthly at the pricing tier of the Azure AI Translator resource, based on the usage and consumption. Below is an example of document translation billing metadata transmitted by Translator connected container to Azure for billing.
{
"apiType": "texttranslation",
"id": "f78748d7-b3a4-4aef-8f29-ddb394832219",
"containerType": "texttranslation",
"containerVersion": "1.0.0+2d844d094c930dc12326331b3e49515afa3635cb",
"containerId": "4e2948413cff",
"meter": {
"name": "CognitiveServices.TextTranslation.Container.OneDocumentTranslatedCharacters",
"quantity": 27.0
},
"requestTime": 638470710053653614,
"customerId": "c2ab4101985142b284217b86848ff5db"
}
Disconnected container: As shown in the below usage records example, the aggregated value of ‘Billed Unit’ corresponding to the meters ‘One Document Translated Characters’ and ‘Translated Characters’ is counted towards the characters you licensed for your disconnected container usage.
{
"type": "CommerceUsageResponse",
"meters": [
{
"name": "CognitiveServices.TextTranslation.Container.OneDocumentTranslatedCharacters",
"quantity": 1250000,
"billedUnit": 1875000
},
{
"name": "CognitiveServices.TextTranslation.Container.TranslatedCharacters",
"quantity": 1250000,
"billedUnit": 1250000
}
],
"apiType": "texttranslation",
"serviceName": "texttranslation"
}
References
by Contributed | Apr 16, 2024 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
The beginning of 2024 was filled with exciting new announcements and events all over the world. Coming up, we’ll be at Open Source Summit North America (16-18), LinuxFest Northwest (April 26-28), and Red Hat Summit (May 6-9). If you’ll be at any of these events, we’d love to meet you!
What’s new with Linux on Azure
Red Hat Enterprise Linux pricing update
Red Hat announced that it is updating its Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) royalty model to a scalable model, which is expected to affect all Red Hat resellers across the market. In response to Red Hat’s price changes, Azure will also be rolling out price changes for all Red Hat Enterprise Linux instances. These changes started occurring on April 1, 2024, with price decreases for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and RHEL for SAP Business Applications licenses for vCPU sizes less than 12. All other price updates will be effective July 1, 2024. Read the blog for more details.
Azure Red Hat OpenShift updates
Azure Red Hat OpenShift now offers Resource Health for clusters with integration with Azure Monitor via Signals and Alerts. Check out the following documentation to learn more: Azure Resources Health overview, Azure Red Hat OpenShift documentation, and Create Azure Monitor alert rules.
Azure Monitor VM Insights Dependency Agent support for RHEL 8.6 Linux VMs
Azure Monitor VM Insights now supports Dependency Agent for RHEL 8.6 Linux VMs, enabling you to monitor their network connections and processes in the Azure portal.
Azure IoT Edge supports Ubuntu Core Snaps
We announced that, in collaboration with Canonical, we addressed a longstanding request from our shared customers to support Ubuntu Core Snaps in Azure IoT Edge. The Tier 1 supported operating systems for Azure IoT Edge were expanded to include Ubuntu Core Snaps on AMD 64 and ARM 64. This expansion not only broadened the horizons for Azure IoT Edge applications, but also ensured seamless integration and development across a wider range of devices and systems. For more details, see documentation on Azure IoT Edge documentation.
End of support for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for Batch pools
Batch pools with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS VM images and the Batch node agent SKU batch.node.ubuntu 20.04 will no longer be supported in Batch after 23 April 2025. If you are impacted, learn what required action you need to take and how you can get help and support if needed.
New features for Azure Linux
We’ve recently released new features for Azure Linux, including OSsku in-place migration which enables you to trigger a node image upgrade from one Linux distro to another on an existing nodepool. Read the blog from to learn about the latest Azure Linux features, upcoming feature features, and ways to stay connected with the Azure Linux team.
What’s new with Azure and open source
New documentation for capturing real-time insights (in just one click!) from your AKS cluster using Inspektor Gadget
We recently published new documentation outlining common use cases of how you can troubleshoot and debug your AKS cluster using the CNCF sandbox project, Inspektor Gadget. The documentation features a one-click experience where you can deploy Inspektor Gadget on an AKS cluster and easily experiment with the gadgets detailed in the documentation.
Microsoft open sources Retina
We released Retina as an open-source repository that helps with DevOps and SecOps related networking cases for your Kubernetes clusters. Retina is a cloud-agnostic, open-source Kubernetes Network Observability platform which helps with DevOps, SecOps and compliance use cases. It provides a centralized hub for monitoring application and network health and security, catering to Cluster Network Administrators, Cluster Security Administrators and DevOps Engineers. To learn more, visit our Retina page and read the announcement blog.
Linux and open source events
The last few months have been a busy time for events! Microsoft was speaking and attending events across the world, including FOSDEM, SCaLE 21x (Microsoft was a Gold sponsor), WASM I/O, Cloud Native Rejekts, and KubeCon Europe. Check out Brendan Burns’ blog to learn more about important enhancements and innovations in Azure, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and our open-source projects. You’ll also find us at more events soon, we hope to see you there!
What’s coming up next
Open Source Summit North America (April 16-18)
Join Microsoft at Open Source North America in Seattle! Come meet us at booth P6 to connect with Microsoft experts and see the latest open-source technologies in action. Also, be sure to check out all the exciting Microsoft sessions to learn more about Microsoft’s contributions to the open source community, best practices for using open source technologies, and insights into emerging trends in open source. Read this blog to learn more.
LinuxFest Northwest (April 26-28)
Attending LinuxFest Northwest? Be sure to check out the session from Sudhanva Huruli, Senior Product Manager at Microsoft, who will share learnings from releasing Azure Linux, Microsoft’s open source Linux distribution.
Red Hat Summit (May 6-9)
Microsoft will be a Platinum sponsor at Red Hat Summit, which is taking place in Denver, Colorado on May 6-9. Visit the us at booth #202 to connect with experts and attend the Microsoft sessions to discover best practices for running Red Hat workloads on Azure.
Upcoming End of Life (EOL), End of Support (ES), and/or End of Maintenance (EOM)
- CentOS Linux 7: CentOS 7 will reach EOL on June 30, 2024. Customers will need to migrate to a new operating system to continue receiving updates, security patches, and new features. Read the documentation for CentOS migration options and paths in Azure.
- RHEL 7: RHEL 7 will reach EOM on June 30, 2024. Customers will need to upgrade to a newer version of RHEL or purchase Extended Lifecycle Support (ELS) from Red Hat to continue to receive security updates and bug fixes. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of RHEL if possible to take full advantage of new features, ongoing support and more.
- RHEL 6: RHEL 6 Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) will end on June 30,2024. Customers will need to migrate to a newer version of RHEL to take full advantage of new features, security enhancements, bug fixes, ongoing support and more.
Bonus content
- Watch the Red Hat on Azure Microsoft Mechanics video to learn why Azure is the right place to run your Red Hat workloads
- Watch the Linux on Azure Mechanics Video discover why you should run your Linux workloads on Azure.
- Are you currently using CentOS and looking to migrate to a new operating system on Azure? Watch the on-demand webinar on navigating the end of CentOS with Ubuntu on Azure.
- Did you know you can use Inspektor Gadget on AKS clusters via VS Code? Check out the demo here.
If you have any feedback or questions, please drop them in the comments.
by Contributed | Apr 15, 2024 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
With more than 800,000 organizations depending on Microsoft Entra to navigate the constantly evolving identity and network access threat landscape, the need for increased transparency regarding product updates — particularly changes you may need to take action on — is critical.
Today, I’m thrilled to announce the public preview of What’s New in Microsoft Entra. This new hub in the Microsoft Entra admin center offers you a centralized view of our roadmap and change announcements across the Microsoft Entra identity and network access portfolio. In this article, I’ll show you how admins can get the most from what’s new to stay informed about Entra product updates and actionable insights.
Discover what’s new in the Microsoft Entra admin center
Because you’ll want visibility to product updates often, we’ve added what’s new to the top section of the Microsoft Entra admin center navigation pane.
Figure 1: What’s new is available from the top of the navigation pane in the Microsoft Entra admin center.
What’s new is not available in Azure portal, so we encourage you to migrate to the Microsoft Entra admin center if you haven’t already. It’s a great way to manage and gain cohesive visibility across all the identity and network access solutions.
Overview of what’s new functionality
What’s new offers a consolidated view of Microsoft Entra product updates categorized as Roadmap and Change announcements. The Roadmap tab includes public previews and recent general availability releases, while Change announcements detail modifications to existing features.
Highlights tab
To make your life easier, the Highlights tab summarizes important product launches and impactful changes.
Figure 2: The highlights tab of what’s new is a quick overview of key product launches and impactful changes.
Clicking through the items on the highlights tab allows you to get details and links to documentation to configure policies.
Figure 3: Click View details to learn more about an announcement.
Roadmap tab
The Roadmap tab allows you to explore the specifics of public previews and recent general availability releases.
Figure 4: The Roadmap tab lists the current public preview and recent general availability releases.
To know more, you can click on a title for details of that release. Click ‘Learn more’ to open the related documentation.
Figure 5: Learn more about an announcement by clicking its title.
Change Announcements tab
Change announcements include upcoming breaking changes, deprecations, retirements, UX changes and features becoming Microsoft-managed.
Figure 6: Change announcements tab displays changes to the existing features.
You can customize your view according to your preferences, by sorting or by applying filters to prepare a change implementation plan.
Figure 7: Apply filters, sort by columns to create a customized view.
What’s next?
We’ll continue to extend this transparency into Entra product updates and look forward to elevating your experience to new heights. We would love to hear your feedback on this new capability, as well as what would be most useful to you. Explore what’s new in Microsoft Entra now.
Best regards,
Shobhit Sahay
Learn more about Microsoft identity:
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