Pedro Hernandez

Microsoft this week announced new cloud-based data protection capabilities for U.S. government agencies that adhere to tough security and data privacy standards. Now, Azure Government customers can back up their Azure infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) virtual machines (VMs) using Azure Backup. “Azure IaaS VM backup provides application-consistent backups, with zero ongoing maintenance and infrastructure deployment for backup. […]

Microsoft’s wants businesses to float their Internet of things (IoT) projects on the company’s cloud. Azure IoT Hub, a cloud services suite for connecting and managing sensors, smart electronics and other IoT devices, is now generally available. And judging by remarks from Sam George, partner director for Microsoft Azure IoT, the company anticipates that enterprises […]

Microsoft has released a new feature to help data wonks and bloggers share their Power BI charts and graphs. “I am very excited to announce that today we are releasing the Power BI ‘publish to web’ capability in preview,” announced Faisal Mohamood, a Microsoft Power BI group product manager, in a Feb. 3 blog post. […]

Yammer, the business-focused social platform Microsoft acquired in 2012 for over $1.2 billion, is now standard issue with Office 365. “Today, I’m excited to announce that we are activating Yammer for every eligible Office 365 tenant—new and existing—without requiring additional action on the part of admins,” said Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Office. […]

Add another company to the growing list of mobile acquisitions by Microsoft. Confirming recent rumblings, the Redmond, Wash., software giant said today that it has snapped up SwiftKey, a maker of predictive software keyboard apps, for an undisclosed amount. The buy instantly and massively expands Microsoft’s presence in the competitive mobile marketplace. In a Feb. […]

Large corporate accounts are Microsoft’s bread and butter, but the IT heavyweight isn’t overlooking small and midsized businesses (SMBs) in its quest to be the go-to provider of cloud productivity software. FastTrack, an Office 365 user onboarding and support services suite for enterprises, is now available to smaller organizations. “Starting today, customers with 50 to […]

HoloLens, Microsoft’s Windows 10-powered augmented-reality headset, isn’t on the market yet, but expectations are already building. IT analyst firm Juniper Research released a forecast today predicting that device vendors will ship more than 12 million consumer smart glasses, a massive increase from the fewer than 1 million units expected to ship this year. The market […]

Water and IT equipment generally don’t mix. Nonetheless, that’s not preventing Microsoft from floating a cloud data center in the unlikeliest of places: the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Today, the Redmond, Wash., software giant took the wraps off Project Natick, an experiment in establishing an energy-efficient, low-latency cloud computing facility on the ocean floor. […]

Microsoft has just crossed a major milestone with its 6-month-old operating system, Windows 10. Having officially launched last summer on July 29, Windows 10 has already surpassed its predecessor, according to Web analytics firm StatCounter. As of January 2016, Windows 10 has claimed a 13.7 percent share of the worldwide desktop OS market versus 11.7 […]

In another busy week for Microsoft’s Azure cloud-computing platform, the company announced a new integration aimed at helping its customers and cloud developers test blockchain-based applications. “Blockchain technologies will become even easier to build and test using Azure’s DevTest Labs currently in preview,” Marley Gray, director of Technology Strategy at Microsoft U.S. Financial Services, announced […]

Xerox today announced its fourth-quarter 2015 financial results, but during an earnings call this morning, the company’s announced split took center stage. In October, Xerox had kicked off a sweeping structural review to determine the future of the company, said Ursula Burns, chairman and CEO of the document printing giant. “It became clear through this […]

Microsoft generated $25.7 billion in revenue during the second quarter of the company’s 2016 fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2015, a 10 percent year-over-year decline. Net income was $6.3 billion, with earnings per share of 78 cents, beating Wall Street analyst expectations of 71 cents. The Redmond, Wash., software giant, meanwhile, is inching closer to […]