Power Platform enhances pipelines in Power Apps with new updates for Admins and Makers

Power Platform has introduced new updates to its pipelines feature in Power Apps, bringing enhancements designed to benefit both Admins and Makers. With this latest release, Admins can now enable Makers to seamlessly discover their custom host instead of the default tenant-wide platform host when navigating to Pipelines. This update simplifies the process by removing the need for Admins to manually set up a custom host and link it to Makers' development environments. Associating new development environments with the default custom host is now more streamlined than ever.

Pipelines in Power Apps feature summary:

• Easily associate new development environments by deploying through a pipeline in the host.

• Provide an environment ID under Advanced Settings to enable pipelines in unlinked environments.

• Admins can control pipeline creation by assigning the "Deployment pipeline default" role.

• Copilot-generated deployment notes are now available in 20 languages, including Chinese, Czech, and Danish.

• All pipeline-deployed solutions are now accessible in the solution import experience.

Power BI October 2024 feature summary

Power BI's latest release introduces a range of enhanced features, with a strong focus on improved visualization and reporting capabilities. These updates are specifically designed to elevate data insights, empowering Power BI users to make more informed decisions with greater clarity and precision.

Power BI’s latest features:

• Copilot-powered report creation: Build more insightful and transparent reports with Copilot, now available in public preview.

• Smarter DAX queries: Quick Measure Suggestions have evolved into Microsoft Fabric Copilot, making it easier to write DAX queries with precision.

• Enhanced combo charts: Visual calculations in combo charts just got better, with field parameters now supported in preview mode.

• Data-bound Azure Maps: Seamlessly integrate reference layers with your business data for a smoother mapping experience.

• Visual storytelling boost: Enjoy improved rendering of columns, bars, ribbons, lines, area charts, and markers for more impactful visuals.

Check the full list here:

Microsoft Azure shares expert tips for AI readiness through modernization

Generative AI is revolutionizing businesses worldwide, transforming the way people live and work. By integrating AI into their operations, companies can drive sustainable growth, future-proof themselves against economic challenges, and gain a lasting competitive edge. But what does it take to be truly AI-ready? Microsoft Azure offers valuable insights and strategies on modernization to help businesses achieve AI readiness.

Microsoft Azure essential tips for modernization:

• Modernization is a holistic journey that enhances every aspect of your business to integrate seamlessly with digital tools and the cloud.

• Revitalize your legacy tech to prepare it for AI, driving operational efficiency and cost savings.

• True modernization starts with the cloud but requires a strategy to scale and unlock AI’s full potential.

• Aligning your people, processes, and skills is key to maximizing AI’s impact on your organization.

Data Workspace is now generally available in Power Platform's Dataverse

Data Workspace is now generally available in Power Platform's Dataverse, following outstanding feedback during its public preview. This powerful new feature offers a seamless, user-friendly experience for creating and managing multi-table data models. With its intuitive Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) view and Copilot assistance, Data Workspace provides a one-stop solution for building complex data models more efficiently than ever before.

Data Workspace feature summary:

• Create tables effortlessly: Use natural language to create tables and bring in data from Excel files or SharePoint Lists with simple drag-and-drop functionality.

• Global reach: Data Workspace supports 9 different languages worldwide and adheres to geo-availability policies.

• AI-powered precision: Copilot in Data Workspace leverages the latest GPT models (GPT 4o mini and GPT 40) for more accurate data model generation.

• Seamless integration: Access Data Workspace directly within your solutions, simplifying the way you create and manage tables and apps.

• Build modern apps: Create both canvas apps and model-driven apps directly from the workspace based on your data model.

Power Automate releases picture-in-picture for seamless multitasking and automation

Microsoft has unveiled a game-changing picture-in-picture feature that lets users run their attended desktop flows within a virtual window, mirroring their desktop. This innovative addition empowers users to multitask effortlessly, enhancing their overall experience and boosting productivity. With this feature, there's no need to pause and wait for a flow to finish—users can now continue their work without interruption.

How to set up picture-in picture feature:

• Run attended desktop flows in a virtual window for seamless multitasking and productivity.

• Enable Picture-in-Picture mode from the Power Automate console by selecting your flow and choosing "Run in Picture-in-Picture."

• Set flows to always run in Picture-in-Picture mode by enabling the flow property for local execution.

• Trigger desktop flows from cloud flows in Picture-in-Picture mode using Power Automate for desktop.

Transform enterprise data management with Microsoft Dataverse and Copilot Studio

As companies continue to expand and deploy new applications, the volume of enterprise data grows rapidly each year. This increase in data brings challenges, including the complexity of managing information from multiple sources and the rising costs and time involved in deriving actionable insights. Additionally, the surge in global security threats poses significant risks to data integrity. To address these challenges, Microsoft has showcases Dataverse and Copilot Studio, powerful solutions designed to streamline data management and enhance security.

Discover how Microsoft Dataverse and Copilot Studio can transform your data management:

• Seamlessly ingest data at scale with AI-driven mapping in the Dataverse table section.

• Simplify large-scale data needs using robust APIs and Power Platform connectors.

• Unlock valuable insights with Direct Querying, SQL capabilities, and Microsoft Fabric integration.

• Maintain compliance with clear visibility into storage capacity for regulatory requirements.

• Enable secure, multi-user access backed by enterprise-grade Microsoft Entra ID.

Microsoft launches Azure ND H200 v5 series cloud-based AI supercomputing clusters

As AI continues to advance, the demand for scalable, high-performance infrastructure is on the rise. Microsoft is meeting this need by introducing cloud-based AI supercomputing clusters powered by Azure ND H2100 v5 series virtual machines (VMs). Now generally available, these clusters are designed to support the increasing complexity of advanced AI workloads, from foundational model training to generative inferencing. The capabilities of the ND H2100 v5 VMs are already gaining traction, driving adoption among customers and Microsoft AI services like Azure Machine Learning and Azure OpenAI Service.

Benefits of using Azure ND H200 v5 series cloud-based AI supercomputing clusters:

• Boost efficiency with Microsoft's systems approach, featuring eight NVIDIA H200 Tensor Core GPUs.

• Access model parameters faster with increased High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), reducing overall latency.

• Seamlessly handle complex Large Language Models (LLMs) in a single VM, eliminating the need for distributed processing.

• Optimize GPU memory for improved throughput, latency, and cost-efficiency in LLM-based AI workloads.

• Achieve higher batch sizes for better GPU utilization and enhanced performance for both SLMs and LLMs.

Power Apps September 2024 feature updates

Microsoft's latest Power Apps update for September 2024 brings a host of enhancements designed to elevate app development and governance. With features like AI-powered development tools, advanced data security, and expanded cross-tenant capabilities, this update reflects Microsoft's ongoing commitment to empowering organizations with robust, scalable solutions. These improvements not only streamline the app-building process but also strengthen enterprise-grade governance, setting a new standard for innovation within the Power Platform ecosystem.

Some of Power Apps latest enhancements and features:

• Iterative development: Build a plan in Power Apps Studio and solve business challenges with Copilot in an interactive workflow.

• Formula Bar enhancement: Explain the Formula using Copilot function is now live for GCC (Government Community Cloud) users.

• New documentation: Explore the latest on Intelligent Application Workloads as part of the Power Platform Well-Architected framework.

• Enhanced data security: Mask sensitive fields with column-level security to prevent bulk data exports in public preview.

• Multi-tenant recognition: Cross-Tenant license recognition for canvas and model driven apps using Dataverse is now generally available.

View the full list here.

Microsoft Azure Incubation team launches Drasi as an open-source project

Microsoft has unveiled Drasi, its latest open-source project, aimed at revolutionizing event-driven architectures. Designed to streamline change detection and automate reactions in complex systems, Drasi demonstrates Microsoft's ongoing commitment to enhancing real-time data processing. By simplifying how organizations monitor, analyze, and respond to critical changes, Drasi sets a new standard for efficiency and responsiveness in managing sophisticated digital infrastructures.

Drasi’s benefits and features:

• Seamless automation: Achieve real-time insights using sources, continuous queries, and reactions, without traditional data processing complexity.

• Sources: Connect to data sources like logs, database updates, or metrics to gather real-time information.

• Continuous queries: Continuously evaluate incoming changes using predefined criteria.

• Reactions: Automate actions like alerts, system updates, or remediation tasks.

• Versatile applications: Use Drasi for IoT integrations, security enhancements, or advanced application management.

Azure OpenAI Service unveils GPT-4o-Realtime-Preview with audio and speech

The public preview of GPT-4o-Realtime-Preview for audio and speech marks a significant advancement in the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, enhancing its capabilities with cutting-edge voice technology. By integrating advanced voice capabilities into GPT-4o, this update significantly broadens its multimodal functionalities, highlighting Azure's continued leadership in AI, especially in speech technology.

GPT-4o-Realtime-Preview powerful voice capabilities and multimodal features:

• GPT-4o-Realtime API: Go beyond text-driven AI with natural voice interactions for innovative voice-driven apps.

• Azure AI Studio early access: Test GPT-4o-Realtime’s audio features in a playground before production.

• Faster responses: Get near-instant voice replies that outshine typical text-to-speech engines.

• Natural conversations: GPT-4o provides human-like conversations for an authentic experience.

• Multilingual support: Enjoy a wide range of supported languages that can be applied to global-facing applications.