Three key takeaways from Microsoft Ignite 2024

In late November, Microsoft Ignite 2024 lit up Chicago, Illinois, for five days. Amidst snowy weather and a packed agenda, thousands gathered to explore the future of technology, including groundbreaking developments in AI, multi-cloud, and security.

Luke Matthews, Brennan’s Head of Cloud and attending on behalf of Team Brennan, managed to pack a staggering 23 sessions into just four days, furiously burning through notepads along the way.

Here are his three key takeaways, as viewed through the lens of customers, partners, and technologists.

1. AI & Copilot: From Assistants to Autonomous Agents

The buzzword of the conference? Copilot. Microsoft’s vision for Copilot extends far beyond task automation, presenting three levels of AI engagement:

1. Request/Retrieve
Think of this as a smarter search, gathering information for specific tasks.

2. Task On-Demand
AI handles specific tasks, such as drafting reports or scheduling follow-ups.

3. Autonomous Agents
These AI tools can plan, learn, and escalate tasks as needed, mimicking an executive assistant or even a full team driving a business process.

A standout feature was Copilot Actions, which combines the intelligence of Outlook rules with Power Platform functionality. This tool can proactively gather information, schedule tasks, and summarise results—perfect for report generation or streamlining executive workflows.

For businesses, the key to unlocking AI’s potential lies in mapping these roles to tangible benefits. For instance, Microsoft shared that a Copilot agent was able to do the work of 13 full-time employees handling internal information requests for their own People & Culture department.

For technologists, the potential runs even deeper. A Copilot lab session demonstrated how mid-level developers could use Copilot in GitHub to modernise apps, including adding observability features. Autonomous agents may soon augment or replace certain Power Platform workflows, making solutions more efficient and scalable.

2. Multi-Cloud Management: Simplifying the Complex

With businesses navigating multi-cloud environments, Microsoft is positioning Azure as the ultimate solution for simplifying cloud complexity. Azure Arc stood out as a pivotal tool, offering streamlined inventory management, automated Server OS patching, and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments—all accessible through a single Azure portal.

Azure Arc enables OS patching with just one reboot per quarter, lifesaver for IT teams managing enterprise environments. It also helps reduce “cloud sprawl,” addressing the challenge of tracking workloads and assets across platforms.

For partners, Azure Migrate adds another layer of value by creating business cases for cloud migrations and executing them. This now includes re-platforming workloads to Azure PaaS and/or a hybrid solution, remaining on premises with Azure Local.

Despite these advancements, resiliency remains a pressing issue. Where only 13% of businesses currently consider their cloud implementations resilient, Microsoft claim that 74% of outages could be prevented with proper resilient deployment practices—a figure that underscores the importance of building with tolerable downtime in mind.

FinOps driving Cloud Maturity. From a partner perspective, multi-cloud management opens massive opportunities. Microsoft is encouraging partners to think bigger, leveraging tools like Azure Arc and Azure Migrate to not just manage infrastructure but to re-architect solutions that deliver long-term ROI.

Every day’s a school day. Doubly so in an era where technological disruptions are becoming more prevalent. So how can Australian schools and universities build resilience into IT?

Never let a good crisis go to waste. And as the dust settles on what has been labelled as the largest IT outage of all time, many are using the episode to entirely reboot the concept of resilience. But what are some of the practical considerations IT organisations can harness to be better prepared for whatever comes next?

In the words of the philosopher Alain de Botton, resilience is, “A good half of the art of living”. As the waves of chaos unleashed by the recent global outage (#CrowdStrike) recede, it turns out that resilience may also be the smartest half of the cost of business.

Many were heaving a sigh of relief that the incident wasn’t malicious. Which must come as cold comfort to the many businesses and their customers who lost billions in revenue, millions of hours in inconvenience, and the expense of technical remediation.

The global outage is another timely reminder of not only how deeply interlinked the world’s technology infrastructure, systems, and software is, but how this interdependence is both its strength and its weakness.

Even if your organisation wasn’t directly impacted, odds are it was incidentally. When the system folds, it doesn’t matter how robust the walls of your house are when a wrecking ball crashes into the common wall you share with your neighbours.

Business continuity is how a company reacts in times of trouble. Resilience prevents it. In this particular incident, the software and hardware vendors in question have released mea culpas and long lists of practical, technical, and ethical upgrades. All of which is needed. But perhaps one of the most discussed and arguably most beneficial upsides is the renewed focus on systems and infrastructure resilience, and what it might look like.

These are five thought starters on our minds here at Brennan.

1. A connected response. A thorough review.

When you smashed the “Break in case of emergency” glass, what happened? Much will have been revealed over the past month, including the durability of your strategies, plans, and protocols. Did a well-oiled Disaster Response kick in? Were back-up systems in place and ready to deploy? Were recovery protocols followed? Was your in-house and partner support able to turn on a dime? Was everyone singing from the same hymn sheet? Had you run drills to pressure test your responses? If so, how did the actual delivery match up? A Post Incidence Review (PIR), prepared internally and augmented by third-party providers, can be an indispensable tool for forensically analysing what happened, and what didn’t.

2. Cool heads. Steady hands.

As bad as the outage was, the killer wasn’t the disruption alone. It was the physical hands-on intervention needed to remediate the 8.5 million affected machines – some of which were in extremely far-flung locations or physically inaccessible spots. Automated remediation works up to a point. But in this instance, there was no substitution for cool heads and steady hands. In short, living breathing humans, responsive to calls, proficient in the challenges, and adept in knowing and deploying the fixes. From CIOs rolling up their sleeves and going desk-to-desk to roll out resets to tech specialists driving through the night to outback locations, stories of how the tribe came together was a humbling reminder of how the tech community rallies together during a crisis.

3. Know thy neighbours.

One of the key characteristics of any organisation’s key value chain is understanding that the risks no longer sit just within your own walls. They’re interlinked with the customers you serve, the partners you align with, and even their partners. When one goes, all go. While the Security of Critical Infrastructure (SOCI) Act holds organisations to account across eleven sectors earmarked as critical to Australia’s sovereignty, security, and economy, events of the nature we’ve just experienced highlight the value in knowing where your neighbours’ systems and infrastructure intersect with yours, how response-ready they are in times of crises, as well as their appetite for and activity in mitigating risks.

4. Think disastrously.

Whether it’s a cyber breach, an IT failure, human error, or a natural disaster, the damages inflicted by unexpected events may look different, but the impact hurts the same. Over the past few years, cyber risks and cyber threats have dominated discussions on prevention and mitigation strategies. But the recent outage has underscored the need for organisations of all stripes to take a 30,000 ft view to risk tolerance, risk assessment, and risk management. Whether it’s a renewed focus on recoverability (driven by robust and always-on back up protocols), a drive to inject more diversity across infrastructure and operating systems, a doubling down on policies and procedures, or a mix of all, there’s no substitute for prosecuting a higher order interrogation of what can go wrong to inform the program of works needed to avoid the pain.

Residents, clients, patients, and the people who care for them in aged care settings are the living embodiment of resilience. Could their lifelong lessons also set the template for IT providers? John Sutherland, HammondCare’s Chief Information Officer, and Dave Stevens, Founder and Managing Director of Brennan, sat down with Aged Care Insite to find the answers.

Defined as ‘the capacity to withstand, adjust to, or recover from misfortune, difficulties, or change’, resilience is, in the words of the philosopher Alain de Botton, “A good half of the art of living.”

Resilience picks us up after knock-backs, conditions us to adapt to unavoidable change, and trains us to move on when we should. People in aged care settings and the staff who provide their care are the living embodiment of resilience.

Earlier this year, we made the case for IT maturity as the answer to today’s opportunities and tomorrow’s challenges in the aged care sector. But could resilience prove just as powerful?

In an era upended by digital transformation, an economy buffeted by unprecedented headwinds, and an aged care sector grappling with generational challenges, resilience and continuity have become operational necessities.

The compounding power of continuity.

HammondCare, a leading care provider, are pressing the charge on both fronts. The core services that knit together their daily operations – Service Deck and telephony are two prime examples – can have a profound effect on the continuity of patient care. Often taken for granted when working as they should, everyone feels their absence when they don’t.

“The outsourced service desk and telephony services are pivotal in bolstering resilience across critical areas of our operations,” says John Sutherland, HammondCare’s Chief Information Officer. “These foundational services are significant for any organisation.”

The provision and management of resilient services fulfil a number of HammondCare’s core operational needs. But it’s the ripple effect of this resilience that HammondCare value.

Systems resilience is creating an efficiency lift. In turn, those efficiency gains are expanding HammondCare’s organisational capacity to focus on projects and areas that matter most to the business – improving quality of life for people in need.

“HammondCare, like most providers across the aged care sector, have been making significant investments to modernise systems and processes,” explains Sutherland. “Service desk and telephony, when managed effectively, ensure seamless operations. When employees can rely on timely and efficient issue resolution, it frees our internal teams to prioritise impactful projects, all with the aim of improving the quality of care for our clients, residents and patients.”

Weathering the storms of change.

Resilience isn’t a position confined exclusively to aged care settings. It’s a posture a multitude of sectors are mindful of, as Dave Stevens, the founder and Managing Director of Brennan, Australia’s leading systems integrator and outsourced IT partner, explains.

“Resilience is not just about weathering storms,” says Stevens “But thriving in the face of adversity. Resilience is about being prepared. It’s how well an organisation can absorb the stress of unforeseen circumstances and how swiftly they can restore critical operations.”

“This includes reducing vulnerabilities by eliminating single points of failure, and implementing robust data governance, back up and security.”

All of these issues were thrown into stark relief at the outset of COVID and were keenly felt across the aged care sector.

“As a black swan event that impacted everyone, COVID underlined how deeply interlinked IT resilience is to business resilience,” says Stevens.

“As it was unfolding, a majority of organisations had to redefine how they did business. They had to stand up new ways of working overnight. Post-pandemic, it’s been about how you attract staff back to the office, but also how you securely manage and govern remote workers and the rise of SaaS based platforms that aren’t on your network.”

Navigating the complexities.

Stevens is keenly aware that the challenges in creating business resilience are multifaceted and increasingly demand a diverse blend of skills spanning the entire IT environment, including cloud and infrastructure, networks, cybersecurity, applications, and telecommunications.

“As the technology mix has grown, so have the challenges in managing it all. Navigating those complexities requires best-of-breed partners. Not because organisations lack the will to take those challenges on, but simply because they don’t have the resources or headcount to do it in-house,” says Stevens. “With the technology and business landscape only set to grow in complexity, businesses should absolutely call on experienced specialists, rather than shouldering the burden of building up those specialist skills in-house.”

Sitting across it all are growing concerns about cybersecurity, and the steps needed to safeguard business operations.

“From a security perspective, the vast majority of incidents happen at the edge on a user’s device, rather than a system bug that gets exploited,” says Stevens. “With 24×7 Security Operations Centre and Network Operations Centre, Brennan remains vigilant, running in preventative mode to enable proactive security measures. Incident response capabilities need to be always-on and proactive – not only to prevent dips in service delivery, but to avoid reputational damage.”

Copilot has the potential to lift efficiency and productivity to a higher plane for organisations of all sizes. But it pays to work through a pre-launch checklist to make the flight smoother.

Unless you’ve been cloistered in a remote mountain-top retreat, you’ll be keenly aware of AI’s everywhere, all-at-once ubiquity.

On the upside, AI has been loudly heralded for its awesome power and game changing potential to unlock productivity and turbocharge efficiency.

On the downside, AI comes with a large side dish of unanticipated risk. Data permissions and data integrity, to name just two. All of which makes it entirely understandable as to why companies short on in-house AI expertise (and, for now, that’s a lot of organisations) are hesitant on where or how to begin.

But starting carefully and strategically, using proven solutions from leading AI builders, like Copilot for Microsoft 365, and the guidance of a trusted IT partner, can be a canny way to board the plane of progress.

These are the steps you’ll want to consider to get your organisation Copilot ready.

Who is Copilot for?

With Microsoft nesting their AI offering across their application ecosystem—Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more—one of Microsoft Copilot’s drawcards is how their AI solution has been seamlessly and securely integrated into the already familiar user experiences most of us use daily.

And organisations that stand to benefit most from Microsoft Copilot most include:

Organisations looking to leverage AI in any capacity.
Whether analysing trends, enhancing decision making, supporting creativity, and coaching, or streamlining communication and collaboration, the applications for AI are endless. And here to stay. Like the introduction of PCs, email, and the internet, it makes business sense to master new and fundamentally transformative technology as it emerges.

Organisations with workloads already in Microsoft 365.
Because Copilot out-of-the-box can’t access or return data sitting outside of 365 tenants, it only comes into its own for organisations that have already migrated workloads into Microsoft 365.

Organisations looking to streamline functions.
One of the promises of Copilot is its ability to action common, repeatable tasks with far greater accuracy and speed than its human counterpart, making it ideal for organisations looking to streamline costs and resources associated with onerous administrative functions.

Who can fly Copilot?

Like private jet ownership, Microsoft initially launched Copilot to a select few, before extending its availability to any organisation willing to purchase 300+ licenses through a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement.

Then, in early 2024, Microsoft scrapped that limit entirely, opening the door for organisations of any size to buy and assign Copilot licences, either directly through Microsoft or via a credentialed service provider.

But those licences are not standalone. As of writing, Copilot is only available as an add-on, which means you’ll need one of the following active Microsoft licenses to use it:

Microsoft E3 & A3

• Microsoft 365 E3
• Office 365 E3
• Microsoft 365 A3 for faculty
• Office 365 A3 for faculty

Microsoft E5 & A5

• Microsoft 365 E5
• Office E5
• Microsoft 365 A5 for faculty
• Office 365 A5 for faculty

Microsoft Business

• Microsoft 365 Business Standard
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium

If you have one of these licenses, you’ll already have seen Microsoft flagging Copilot availability inside most Office 365 apps, including Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

And for apps outside of the Office 365 bundle? They enjoy their own dedicated Copilot, like Microsoft Copilot for Security, or Microsoft Fabric.

As of writing, there’s no floor on the number of licenses you’ll need. Which means you can kickstart your organisation’s Copilot experience with as few as one or two licenses.

Yes, there is an upfront cost (currently $44.90 per licence, per month). And yes, you’ll be expected to commit to at least one year upfront. But that should be ample time to trial Copilot with your company’s structure, workflows, and teams, without an onerous financial burden.