Microsoft Ignite 2022 took place from October 12-14, happily as a hybrid event, online and onsite in Seattle. Under the headline “Do more with less with the Microsoft Cloud“, Microsoft presented over 100 new solutions or updates to existing products. This blog article presents my top 10 takeaways from Microsoft Ignite 2022 with a focus on Modern Workplace, Microsoft 365 and Security. In conclusion, I will honor my favorite session and give my overall impression of Microsoft Ignite 2022.

1. Modern Workplace
   1. #1 New Microsoft Intune name branding
   2. #2 New Microsoft Intune product family
   3. #3 New Microsoft Intune suite of advanced solutions
   4. #4 Deliver organizational messages with Windows 11 and Microsoft Intune
   5. #5 What’s new in Windows 365
2. Microsoft 365
   1. #6 Office is becoming Microsoft 365 and New Microsoft 365 Announcements
   2. #7 New Microsoft Teams Premium Features
3. Security
   1. #8 Conditional Access Authentication Strengths
   2. #9 Azure AD certificate-based authentication (CBA)
   3. #10 Workload Identities GA in November 2022
4. Favourite session from Microsoft Ignite 2022
5. My overall impression of Microsoft Ignite 2022

Modern Workplace

#1 New Microsoft Intune name branding

For Workplace Engineers, the new Intune name branding has triggered most Twitter tweets. The name Microsoft Endpoint Manager will no longer be used. Client cloud management will be called just Microsoft Intune and client on-premises management will be named just Microsoft Configuration Manager.

The Microsoft product name change madness has struck again. But this name change makes sense. Because when people talked about Microsoft Endpoint Manager, they could never be sure whether they meant Intune or Configuration Manager. Not so much fun will be the whole name convention adjustments for system engineers those who used the shortcut “MEM”.

Source and further details: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/endpoint-management-blog/introducing-the-microsoft-intune-product-family/ba-p/3650769

#2 New Microsoft Intune product family

In addition to the new branding name, a completely new Intune product family was introduced. To the already known and established Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Configuration Manager, four new products are added:

1. Microsoft Intune suite of advanced solutions
2. Microsoft Intune Remote Help
3. Microsoft Tunnel for Mobile App Management
4. Microsoft Intune Endpoint Privilege Management

Microsoft Intune Remote Help, Microsoft Tunnel for Mobile App Management and Microsoft Intune Endpoint Privilege Management are components of the Microsoft Intune suite of advanced solutions.

Source and further details: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/endpoint-management-blog/introducing-the-microsoft-intune-product-family/ba-p/3650769

#3 New Microsoft Intune suite of advanced solutions

Starting in March 2023, a new Microsoft Intune advanced endpoint management plan will become generally available and will include the following premium add-ons:

Premium add-ons	Availability	Description
Remote Help	Currently generally available	The first version of Remote Help for Windows was released back in April 2022. The March 2023 version will receive numerous updates. For example, there will be ServiceNow integration to bring service management event information into Intune. Support for Android was also announced.
Microsoft Tunnel for Mobile Application Management (MAM)	Expected to be generally available January 2023	Microsoft Tunnel for MAM provides convenience for end users, who can use one device for work and personal use (rather than carrying two devices). It does not require device enrollment, meaning corporate data can still be protected without the need for end-users to give IT control over their personal device should they not want to.
Endpoint Privilege Management	Public preview expected early 2023	Allows users with standard user permissions to complete IT admin tasks, including support.
Advanced endpoint analytics	No dates announced yet	Allows admin to see scores and insights to help them proactively avoid user disruptions for a subset of devices they manage.
Automated app patching and packaging	No dates announced yet	Helps admins create a catalog of third-party apps to manage app updates including review, approval, deployment, and monitoring.
Cloud certificate management	No dates announced yet	Provides a SaaS-based public key infrastructure (PKI) that can issue certificates to Intune-managed devices for authentication and signing scenarios.

I’m most pleased that Microsoft has finally produced a solution for assigning temporary administrator privileges, rather than having to rely on third-party solutions. With Endpoint Privilege Management, you no longer must make users local administrators. Instead, your users can have default account privileges and be designated administrators for specific tasks.

Cloud certificate management will also certainly simplify things for many, so that there is no longer any need to build an on-premises PKI infrastructure with NDES/SCEP or to rely on third-party solutions.

Source and further details: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-endpoint-manager-blog/reduce-your-overall-tco-with-a-new-microsoft-intune-plan/ba-p/3650725

#4 Deliver organizational messages with Windows 11 and Microsoft Intune

The new organizational messages feature is designed to better involve, connect, and engage users. This will make it easy to send taskbar messages, taskbar area notification and “Get Started” app messages to end users. A public preview will be available starting in November 2022.

Source and further details: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-it-pro-blog/deliver-organizational-messages-with-windows-11-and-microsoft/ba-p/3651011

#5 What’s new in Windows 365

Feature	Availability	Description
Windows 365 app	Public preview	The Windows 365 app is available via the Microsoft Store on Windows and is optimized for Windows 11. The Microsoft Store will ensure that the Windows 365 app remains up to date, eliminating the need for the IT admin to maintain the application.
Windows 365 Government	General availability	Windows 365 Government is now available for US Government Community Cloud environments GCC and GCC High (US Only).
Citrix HDX Plus for Windows 365	Public preview	Once endpoint admins have completed a few simple steps to enable environments and assign licenses, Citrix components are automatically installed to Cloud PCs. After installation, licensed employees can begin using their Cloud PC from the same Citrix environment they use today.
Cloud-optimized IT management	No dates announced yet	Allows IT admins to get visibility into roundtrip time, time to connect, and available bandwidth. Allowing admins to take actions to optimize network configurations to reduce latency. Allow to identify devices with low utilization and take actions to either deprovision, reallocate to new users, or downsize Cloud PCs.

It was also announced that Windows 365 will soon be available to shift and part-time employees who only need a Cloud PC for part of their working day.

Source and further details: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-it-pro-blog/what-s-new-in-windows-365-microsoft-ignite-2022-edition/ba-p/3645364

Microsoft 365

#6 Office is becoming Microsoft 365 and New Microsoft 365 Announcements

There will also be a change in the brand name Office, which has been used for years, so in the future, we will only speak of Microsoft 365.

The following new Microsoft 365 apps and new features were also announced:

App	Availability	Description
New Microsoft 365 App	Rolling out starting in November 2022	A completely new Microsoft 365 app was announced which is to replace the current Office App. The new Microsoft 365 app experience based on Microsoft Graph brings together all documents, files, contacts, and meetings.
Microsoft Clipchamp	Already available with Windows 11 22H2	A video editor bought by Microsoft that lets you create videos and clips quickly and easily.
Microsoft Designer	Currently you can sign up for a waiting list	A new app powered by AI technology, including DALL-E 2, that helps you quickly create social media posts, invitations, and graphics just by entering a text prompt or other content.
Microsoft Editor	New Features rolling out starting now	Microsoft Editor is an AI-powered service that launched in 2020 that helps you present your best writing in more than 20 languages, whether you’re writing a Word document, composing an email message, or publishing an article on a website. Microsoft Editor is continuing to bring enhanced intelligent capabilities, including features like Tone suggestion, Summarization and Conciseness.
Microsoft Loop	Currently in private preview	Microsoft Loop was announced back in 2021 and is still in private preview. Microsoft Loop will help teams to think, plan and create together. Microsoft has now announced even more new features like pool, checklist or task list components, functionality to copying and pasting existing components to Whiteboard in Teams and Q&A features.
Microsoft Personal Toolbar	Currently in preview	A new feature in Word, Excel and PowerPoint that will save time by having the most frequently used commands available and accessible as needed.
Microsoft Places	Coming soon in preview	New workplace app specifically designed to help with the challenges of hybrid working. Microsoft Places helps everyone understand who will be in the office when, where people are sitting, what meetings to attend in person, and how to book space on the days your team is already planning to come in.
Microsoft Syntex	Syntex features are beginning to roll out now and will continue to roll out through early 2023	A new set of content apps and services that use AI to index and organize large quantities of unstructured content so it can be easily searched and analyzed.
Microsoft Viva	Microsoft Viva Insights: updates now generally available Microsoft Viva Learning: now in private preview	Microsoft Viva was announced back in 2021 and has been available for some time. Microsoft Viva is an employee experience platform that combines communication, knowledge, learning, resources and insights. Microsoft has now announced various new features for Microsoft Viva Insights (Meeting effectiveness surveys, new Focus mode experience) and Microsoft Viva Learning (Learning paths and collections)

Source and further details: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2022/10/12/microsoft-365-at-ignite-re-energize-your-workforce-in-the-office-at-home-and-everywhere-in-between/

#7 New Microsoft Teams Premium Features

As usual at every Ignite, several new Microsoft Teams chat, collaboration and meetings features were announced. Most interesting this time were the Teams Premium features presented. What stuck with me the most were the new AI-driven features. For example, there will be a feature called Intelligent recap that automatically compiles a summary of the most important points in a meeting, so that if you are unable to attend a meeting, you can still get all the relevant information. Another very useful feature is Live Translations for captions, which allows you to get real-time subtitle translations in your preferred language.

Below is a complete overview of all featured Teams Premium features:

Feature	Availability	Description
Meeting guides	Preview in Dezember. General availability in February 2023	Meeting guides that will help users pick the right meeting experience.
Brand the meeting experience	Preview in Dezember. General availability in February 2023	The ability to brand the meeting experience with custom logos and backgrounds.
Intelligent recap	Rolling out in the first half of 2023	Will give users personalized highlights from Teams meetings to help discover information that matters most. Users can miss a meeting, but not miss out.
AI-generated tasks	Rolling out in the first half of 2023	Tasks that are automatically assigned from meetings, so action items are not missed. It’s like having a virtual assistant attend every meeting.
Intelligent playback	Rolling out in the first half of 2023	Automatically generated chapters to easily navigate a Teams meeting recording and help understand the content of a meeting discussion.
Personalized insights	Rolling out in the first half of 2023	Meeting recordings that will call out important moments in the meeting, such as when a user’s name was mentioned, a screen was shared and when people have joined and left.
Intelligent search	Rolling out in the first half of 2023	Will make searching the transcripts easier with suggested speakers personalized for the user so they can quickly refer to a specific point for reference.
Live Translations for captions	Rolling out in the first half of 2023	Will deliver AI-powered real-time translations for 40 spoken languages, so users can read live captions in their own language. This capability will help break down language barriers to help create more inclusive meetings.
Advanced meeting protection	Preview in Dezember. General availability in February 2023	Safeguard confidential meetings, such as board meetings, financial discussions, or an undisclosed product launch review.
Advanced webinars	Preview in Dezember. General availability in February 2023	Advanced webinars in Teams Premium feature a registration waiting list and manual approvals, automatic reminder emails, a virtual green room for hosts and presenters, and the ability to manage what attendees see.
Advanced virtual appointments	Preview in Dezember. General availability in February 2023	Enhanced virtual appointments in Teams Premium allow users to manage the entire appointment experience, including SMS reminders, a branded lobby experience, and post-appointment follow-up. Organizations also get both scheduled and on-demand appointments, a simplified view of all virtual appointments to track customer walk-ins and wait times, and pre-appointment chat capabilities to communicate with customers and analytics.

Source and further details: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/what-s-new-in-microsoft-teams-microsoft-ignite-2022/ba-p/3614158

Security

#8 Conditional Access Authentication Strengths

Conditional Access supports authentication strengths available in public preview. You can now enforce 3 specific authentication methods based on the resource:

1. Multi-factor authentication (Combinations of methods that satisfy strong authentication, such as Password and SMS.
2. Password less multifactor authentication (Passwordless methods that satisfy strong authentication, such as Microsoft Authentication
3. Phishing-resistant multifactor authentication (Phishing-resistant Passwordless methods for the strongest authentication, such as FIDO2 Security Key)

Source and further details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/authentication/concept-authentication-strengths

#9 Azure AD certificate-based authentication (CBA)

Azure AD certificate-based authentication (CBA) enables customers to allow or require users to authenticate directly with X.509 certificates against their Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) for applications and browser sign-in. Users who need certificate-based authentication can now directly authenticate against Azure AD and not have to invest in federated AD FS. Azure AD CBA is a free feature, and you don’t need any paid editions of Azure AD to use it.

Source and further details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/authentication/concept-certificate-based-authentication

#10 Workload Identities GA in November 2022

Workload Identities is an identity and access management solution that manages and secures identities for digital workloads such as applications and services, and controls access to cloud resources. Customers can create risk-based policies with Conditional Access, detect and respond to compromised workload identities with Identity Protection and perform Access Reviews to enforce least-privileged access to workload identities more securely. Workload Identities will be generally available in November 2022.

Source and further details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/workload-identities-overview

Favourite session from Microsoft Ignite 2022

Unfortunately, there were many interesting sessions that were in-person only sessions and were not available for digital participation. Therefore, I can only evaluate the digital and hybrid sessions (Digital and In-Person). The most interesting were the hybrid live breakout sessions. The digital sessions are mostly recorded, contain a lot of marketing stuff and are not of the same quality, but are good to get a first impression of a product that is not yet available in preview. But now enough of the whining, next year I just have to go on site again. 😉

Below I would like to highlight my favorite session from Microsoft Ignite 2022:

My favorite session was by far Modernize your File Server infrastructure with Azure, because it generated nostalgia, missed Ignite atmosphere that I last had in 2019 onsite, had very sympathetic and skilled speakers and 90% consisted of interesting and well explained demos! The session includes how to migrate a Windows Server 2008 R2 file server including DFS to Windows Server 2022 & Azure File Sync and use Storage Migration Services to easily migrate the data.

My overall impression of Microsoft Ignite 2022

Even though I couldn’t be present this year, it was nice to see that many people were able to be back live on site after 2 years of digital only. As already mentioned, the hybrid events in particular were the highlights, as they brought back a bit of an Ignite atmosphere at home. As in previous years, the focus was on innovations for Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams and Cloud Security. Microsoft Intune is becoming even increasingly more important, which Microsoft underlines with the new branding and the new Microsoft Intune product range. What is noticeable is that Microsoft wants to establish more and more paid premium features such as the new Microsoft Intune premium add-ons or Microsoft Teams premium. These premium features will only be finally evaluated and classified next year, as soon as they are available for testing and, above all, as soon as the exact prices are known. With all these new announcements, I’m definitely looking forward to 2023, it definitely won’t be boring! 🙂

Now I’d be interested to hear how you enjoyed Microsoft Ignite 2022 and which announcements and sessions you found most interesting?