November 24, 2023

Microsoft Ignite | Arinco Wrap-up

Written by Arinco

The recent Microsoft Ignite conference has unveiled groundbreaking innovations and enhancements across various technological areas.

Arinco’s incredible Tech Stream Leads have come together to create a comprehensive update, dissecting key announcements and vital updates from the conference. They delve into enhancements within Intune, Azure, Defender, Copilot, Purview and more, offering insights into technological advances expected to redefine the landscape of Microsoft’s IT infrastructure and security.

Keep reading to dive into the new features anticipated to revolutionise Intune’s certificate management, application security, and overall endpoint protection, among other essential aspects. Explore vital updates, understand their significance, and gear up for the new technologies and changes coming soon!

Major Updates and Announcements

Technology Area: Intune/Certificates

Update/News: Microsoft introduces Cloud-Based PKI in the Intune Suite, streamlining certificate lifecycle management for Intune-managed devices.
Why is it important/interesting: Simplifies complex PKI processes, making certification more accessible and less time-intensive for organisations who are looking to leverage certificates to Intune-managed devices.
Link to more information: Microsoft Cloud PKI launches as a new addition to the Microsoft Intune Suite | Microsoft Intune Blog
When is this feature expected to be released: February 2024

Technology Area: Intune/Application Management

Update/News: Intune’s new enterprise app catalogue offers a secure selection of ready-made first-party and third-party apps, with an automated update feature.
Why is it important/interesting: Keeps applications consistently updated with the latest features and security patches, reducing vulnerabilities.
Link to more information: Introducing Microsoft Intune Enterprise App Management | Microsoft Intune Blog
When is this feature expected to be released: February 2024

Technology Area: Intune/Security

Update/News: Intune integrates an AI-powered Security Copilot, enhancing cybersecurity through informed decision-making.
Why is it important/interesting: Simplifies policy creation, reduces time and complexity, and improves deployment outcomes with what-if analyses.
Link to more information: Microsoft Intune introduces Security Copilot-embedded experience | Microsoft Intune Blog
When is this feature expected to be released: December 2023 for private preview

Technology Area: Intune/Analytics

Update/News: Intune introduces Advanced Analytics, providing real-time data and AI-driven insights for endpoint management.
Why is it important/interesting: Enhances security and management efficiency with proactive detection and recommendations.
Link to more information: Announcing Microsoft Intune Advanced Analytics | Microsoft Intune Blog
When is this feature expected to be released: February 2024

Technology Area: Azure, AI

Update/News: Microsoft Copilot for Azure is now available in public preview.
Why is it important/interesting: In the same way that Github Copilot has been a game changer for developers — Microsoft Copilot for Azure is a game changer for anyone who builds and operates in the Azure cloud because it accesses and combines data from multiple sources (ARM, ARG, cost/usage data, documentations, support, best practices guidance, etc) to help us to design, operate, troubleshoot, or optimise services.
Link to Ignite video/or article: Simplify IT management with Microsoft Copilot for Azure – save time and get answers fast

Technology Area: Defender for Cloud, IaC

Update/News: IaC template mapping via Defender for Cloud is now available for Azure DevOps.
Why is it important/interesting: This announcement is interesting because being able to map Infrastructure as Code (IaC) templates from Azure DevOps to Azure resources and have Defender for Cloud visibility allows us to identify, trace, and remediate potential security threats or misconfigurations at scale.
Link to Ignite video/or article: Enhancing Defender CSPM across the application lifecycle, Map Infrastructure as Code Templates to Cloud Resources

Technology Area: Azure, Applications

Update/News: Azure Chaos Studio is now generally available.
Why is it important/interesting: With this announcement we can use Azure Chaos Studio as a GA tool for running manual Business Continuity and Disaster Relief drills, or as part of our CI/CD pipeline to programmatically gate code flow. To visualize and experiment impact we can also integrate Azure Chaos Studio with existing monitoring and observability tools, such as Azure Monitor, Application Insights, or Log Analytics.
Link to Ignite video/or article: Build Resilient Applications by Simulating Outages with Azure Chaos Studio

Technology Area: Azure, Networking

Update/News: Virtual Network Private Subnets is now in public preview.
Why is it important/interesting: This announcement is important because the Private Subnets feature allows us to prevent outbound connectivity for any newly created subnets by setting ‘default outbound access’ to false. Enabling this feature means any virtual machines created on a private subnet will be prevented from connecting to the Internet without an explicit outbound method specified.
Link to Ignite video/or article: Secure your subnet via private subnet and explicit outbound methods, Default outbound access in Azure

Technology Area: Azure Policy, AKS

Update/News: AKS mutation via Azure Policy is now in public preview.
Why is it important/interesting: With this announcement we have the ability use Gatekeeper’s mutation capability allowing us to change and remediate AKS resources at create/update time based on different criteria defined in mutation templates embedded in custom Azure Policy definitions.
Link to Ignite video/or article: Remediate your Azure Kubernetes Service clusters at scale using Azure Policy’s mutation support!

Technology Area: Dev Box, CaC

Update/News: Configuration-as-code for Microsoft Dev Box is now in private preview.
Why is it important/interesting: This announcement is important because configuration-as-code allows us to provide dev teams with self-service customisation of Dev Box whilst still allowing IT admins to apply guardrails that are common with secure production environments.
Link to Ignite video/or article: New capabilities help simplify and streamline the experience with Microsoft Dev Box

Technology Area: Microsoft 365 Copilot, Purview.

Update/News: Microsoft Security Copilot embedded into Microsoft Purview.
Why is it important/interesting: Security investigations are complex and time consuming. Security Copilot assists security operations teams by summarising incidents and providing suggested workflows to reduce the mean time to resolve incidents. Security Copilot integrates with data loss prevention, insider risk management, communications compliance, and e discovery.
Link to more information: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/supercharge-security-and-compliance-efficiency-with-microsoft/ba-p/3980765
When is this feature expected to be released: November 2023.

Technology Area: Microsoft 365 Copilot, Purview

Update/News: New auditing capabilities within Microsoft Purview audit for Copilot interactions.
Why is it important/interesting: This will allow organisations to better understand wen a user requests assistance from Copilot, and what assets are affected by the response. This includes audit logs that show ID of teams meetings, as well as files and sensitivity labels assigned to the documents that Copilot accesses.
Link to more information: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/securing-data-in-an-ai-first-world-with-microsoft-purview/ba-p/3981279

Technology Area: Security Copilot, Entra ID

Update/News: Security Copilot integrated with Entra ID to assist security analysts investigate and remediate risks.
Why is it important/interesting: Risk investigations can be time consuming. Security Copilot will assist in investigating identity risks and help with troubleshooting daily identity tasks, such as why a sign-in required multifactor authentication or why a user’s risk level increased. IT administrators can instantly get a risk summary, steps to remediate, and recommended guidance for each identity at risk, in natural language.
Link to more information: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-entra-azure-ad-blog/identity-at-microsoft-ignite-securing-access-in-the-era-of-ai/ba-p/2747279
When is this feature expected to be released: Early 2024.

Technology Area: Purview, Insider Risk Management, Data Loss Prevention (DLP).

Update/News: Enriched, high-fidelity security alerts to empower data security teams in preview, helping in data loss prevention.
Why is it important/interesting: Traditional DLP alerts typically highlight a specific incident and files impacted. Insider DLP alerts will be enriched by Insider Risk Management to report user context, allowing DLP analysts and security operations center (SOC) analysts, with appropriate permissions, to see a summary of past user activities that may have led to potential data security incidents.
Link to more information: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/empower-data-security-teams-to-proactively-manage-critical/ba-p/3975623
When is this feature expected to be released: November 2023 (Preview), May 2024 (Rollout).

Technology Area: Purview, Information Protection

Update/News: Information protection features generally available.
Why is it important/interesting: Discovering and protecting sensitive and business critical data safeguards against unauthorised access, data leaks, and misuse. Additional features include automation, additional policy tip features to provide end user feedback, and improved tracking and revocation of access to sensitive data.
Link to more information: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/insightful-and-intelligent-classification-and-protection-are-key/ba-p/3974278
When is this feature expected to be released: Now.

Technology Area: Microsoft 365 Copilot, Security Copilot, Purview.

Update/News: Microsoft Purview to provide more visibility of Generative AI Apps and the use of sensitive data.
Why is it important/interesting: Many organisations do not where or what their business-critical data is, and as generative AI generates more data, its crucial to have visibility into how sensitive data is flowing through AI and how your users are interacting with generative AI applications. Security Copilot will introduce a Purview AI hub provide a centralised location to gain insights into generative AI activity including the sensitive data flowing in AI prompts – both for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 and non-Microsoft AI applications.
Link to more information: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/securing-data-in-an-ai-first-world-with-microsoft-purview/ba-p/3981279
When is this feature expected to be released: Microsoft 365 Copilot – Generally available, Security Copilot (Preview AI Hub) – March 2024 (Preview), June 2024 (Rollout).

We hope this summary of all the recent Microsoft Ignite updates helps you understand the new capabilities being added to Intune, Azure, Defender, Copilot, Purview and more!