Author: Security – Computerworld

Parallels 20 turns Macs into cross platform DevOps powerhouses

September 12, 2024 /

Here’s an exciting development that almost got missed during Apple’s heady week of iPhone news: Parallels has hit version 20 and now provides a series of powerful features designed to streamline artificial intelligence (AI) development. 

If you run Windows on your Mac, you’re likely already familiar with Parallels Desktop. It is, after all, the only solution authorized by Microsoft to run Windows in a virtualized environment on Apple Silicon. 

If you think back to when Apple introduced the M1 Macs, you might recall the entire industry was impressed by the performance Apple Silicon unleashed. One tester went on the record to say running Windows for ARM on an M1 Mac using Parallels Desktop 16 was “the fastest version of Windows” they’d ever used. “Apple’s M1 chip is a significant breakthrough for Mac users,” Nick Dobrovolskiy, Parallels senior vice president of engineering and support, told me at the time.

Parallels now says its software can run in excess of 200,000 Windows applications quite happily on Macs. With M4 Macs on the horizon, you can anticipate further performance gains — and with Parallels, Apple Intelligence has now come to Windows. 

Apple Intelligence meets Windows?

If you are running a virtualized Windows environment on your Mac using Parallels, you will be able to use Apple’s AI-powered Writing Tools once macOS Sequoia ships. 

Parallels hasn’t told us whether we’ll also be able to access other AI features from within the Windows environment, but it has said we’ll be able to sign into Apple ID across multiple macOS virtual machines on the same Mac. What this means is that developers can fully leverage virtual Macs for building and testing software in an isolated environment.

But the big hook for Parallels in this release is the AI development tools packed inside. The new Parallels AI Package is designed to make building AI models more accessible. To do so, it offers a virtual machine pre-loaded with 14 AI development tools, sample code, and instructions. The idea is that people who want to build AI solutions can install the package and run third-party small language models inside the virtual environment, even while they are offline.

This is included free in Parallels Desktop for Mac Business and Enterprise editions and is free to install in the Desktop for Mac Pro Edition for the rest of the year.

Why did Parallels do this?

“As PCs become more AI-capable, we believe AI will soon be standard on every desktop,” said Prashant Ketkar, CTO at Parallels. “This shift challenges developers to update their applications to fully leverage AI-enabled PCs.

“That’s why we created the Parallels AI Package: to equip development teams, whether experts or beginners, with accessible AI models and code suggestions. This enables ISVs to build AI-enabled applications in minutes, significantly boosting productivity for every software development team using a Mac.”

What else has improved?

Parallels, now owned by Corel Corporation, might have put a lot of effort into support for the AI wave, but the company has also delivered additional features that should improve the experience of running Windows on a Mac.

One big change: you might experience up to 80% better performance while running legacy Windows apps using the Prism emulator on Arm.

Another enhancement comes with a new shared folders technology, which makes it much easier to work across Mac and Windows files on apps. This feature also supports Linux virtual machines, which in combination with the power of Macs and the new AI toolkits from Parallels makes for a powerful DevOps machine. The Visual Studio Code extension lets you manage multiple machines, and even lets you access Microsoft Copilot when you do. 

The enterprise connection

Lots of people working with Windows on a Mac work at companies in which both platforms are used. For IT, this can raise challenges around licensing and deployment of operating system licenses.

For them, Parallels now offers a new enterprise portal that IT can use to manage virtual machines, licensing issues and more. To achieve this, Parallels built new tech to make it possible to deploy Parallels Desktop without resorting to complex scripts.

“These advancements mark a significant milestone in our ongoing commitment to improving the IT admin experience. With these new features, deploying Parallels Desktop across a network of Macs is simpler and more flexible than ever before,” the company said in a blog post.

You’ll also find GitHub Actions to transform CI/CD workflows. In a related move, the software has attained a SOC Type 2 report, which means it is undergoing regular aggressive tests to ensure it remains secure. 

Smart for business

I’ve been watching Parallels since it first appeared on the Mac, and I’m liking the direction in which the company is going. While it remains a solid option for consumers who just want to run a few Windows apps (including games) on their Mac, it is becoming a powerful adjunct for developers, enterprise pros, and (with version 20), a useful passport to enable AI development as well. This edition builds on the many enhancements introduced in 2023.

That’s not bad for something that costs from $99 to $149 per year (Windows licenses extra).

Please follow me on LinkedIn, Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill group on MeWe.

Mistral releases ‘Pixtral 12B,’ its first multimodal AI model

September 12, 2024 /

French AI startup Mistral has released its first multimodal model, the Pixtral 12B, which can handle both text and images, according to Techcrunch. The model uses 12 billion parameters and is based on Mistral’s Nemo 12B text model. Pixtral 12B can answer questions about images via URLs or images encoded with base64 such as how many copies of a certain object are visible.

Most generative AI (genAI) models have been partially trained on copyrighted material, which has led to lawsuits from copyright owners. (AI ​​companies claim that the tactic should be classified as fair use.)

It is unclear what image data Mistral used to develop the Pixtral 12B.

The multimodal model checks in at about 24 gigabytes, can be downloaded via Github and the Hugging Face machine learning platform, and can be used and modified under an Apache 2.0 license without restrictions.

Adobe unveils additional AI-based video-generation tools

September 12, 2024 /

Adobe has offered another glimpse into upcoming generative AI (genAI) video features  by previewing a tool that lets users create video clips from text and still image prompts. 

Adobe announced the Firefly Video model in April as the latest addition to its genAI models, which also handle image, design, and vector graphic generation. 

On Wednesday, the company released a preview video that shows how the Firefly Video model will be used in the Firefly web app when it becomes available later this year. In the web app, users can generate short video clips from text prompts, with adjustable controls for camera angles, motion and zoom. Images can also be uploaded as prompts to turn illustrations into live action clips, Adobe said.

The videos will have a maximum length of five seconds, an Adobe spokesperson told The Verge. 

The Firefly video generation model is “designed to help the professional video community unlock new possibilities, streamline workflows and support their creative ideation,” Ashley Still, senior vice president for Adobe’s Creative Product Group, said in a statement.

Adobe first discussed its genAI video plans earlier this year whenit previewed features coming to its Premiere Pro video editing app. These include text-to-video generation, a “generative extend” tool that creates additionalframes to lengthen a video clip, and “object addition and removal,” which which lets editors replace items in a scene — such as changing the color of an actor’s tie — or remove them from a shot altogether, such as removing a mic boom.

The features in Premiere Pro will be available in beta later this year. 

Google faces EU investigation over AI data compliance

September 12, 2024 /

European privacy regulator, Data Protection Commission (DPC), has launched an inquiry into Google over its use of the personal data of users in the region, adding to the tech giant’s growing legal challenges.

In a statement, DPC said that the inquiry focuses on whether Google complied with obligations under GDPR to conduct a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) before processing personal data of EU or EEA individuals in developing its AI model, Pathways Language Model 2 (PaLM 2).

DPIA is a process designed to help data controllers identify and mitigate data protection risks associated with high-risk processing activities. It aims to ensure that the processing is necessary and proportionate and that adequate safeguards are implemented based on the identified risks.

The investigation is part of the DPC’s broader efforts to ensure generative AI adheres to privacy regulations.

Recently, the commission initiated court action and reached an agreement with social media platform X, requiring the company to stop using EU users’ personal data for AI training until they are given the option to withdraw consent.

This inquiry adds to Google’s mounting legal challenges. In August, a US District Court ruled that the search giant is a monopoly, stating it used its dominance in the online search market to suppress competition.

A separate trial focused on Google’s advertising business is also currently being conducted.

Impact on Google

Despite mounting regulatory concerns for Google, analysts do not expect the inquiry to have a significant short-term impact.

Priya Bhalla, practice director at Everest Group, noted that most large enterprises are aware of these issues and have taken internal measures to protect their AI initiatives.

These steps include investing in data and AI governance, limiting applications in high-risk areas, and using fine-tuned versions of large language models (LLMs), among others.

“Additionally, if we take a broader lens on this, enterprises understand that this is not the first company that has been put into the spotlight, and it’s not going to be the last, so I don’t see any goodwill impact for Google,” Bhalla added.

A likely scenario is Google following the example of X, who recently agreed to pause or stop using content from European users to train their models.

DPC’s impact on AI usage

In a recent blog post about large language models, DPC said that organizations using AI products based on personal data could be classified as data controllers and should consider conducting formal risk assessments.

The commission advised that before deploying an AI system, users should understand the personal data it processes, how it is used, whether third parties are involved, how long the data is retained, and how the product complies with GDPR obligations.

This means that while localizing the training of foundation models is crucial, transparency about the data used for training is becoming a baseline requirement.

“Enterprises racing to train their AI models using foundational models from Google or Meta may need to pause and assess compliance with user privacy and local regulations,” said Neil Shah, partner and co-founder at Counterpoint Research. “This could slow AI rollouts, especially in the EU, where businesses rely on tech giants with large-scale, advertising-driven models.”

Regulatory gray areas

Enterprises partnering with the likes of Google or OpenAI would prioritize regulatory compliance, which mainly addresses consent-based data collection. However, this creates a gray area of concern, according to Faisal Kawoosa, chief analyst at Techarc.

“Legally and technically, regulations may be followed,” Kawoosa said but added that users often face a dilemma – without consent, the service cannot be accessed, but with consent, their data is used, and they may not fully understand how.

 “It’s also tricky to establish in court that there are gaps in the way data is collected and used,” Kawoosa added. “Given this, enterprises will primarily look at whether regulatory compliances have been followed. They may also check if the best practices have been adhered to, but that’s the extent of what they can do.”

Intel won’t sell off its programmable chip business: Altera CEO

September 12, 2024 /

Intel’s plan to spin off its Altera programmable chip business and pursue an initial public offering (IPO) by 2026 remains unchanged, despite recent speculation about the company potentially selling the unit outright.

Sandra Rivera, CEO of Altera, reaffirmed the company’s commitment to the IPO during an interview with CRN, addressing rumors reported by Reuters.

“There’s so much […] that gets written that is not true and not sourced from anyone that actually knows what’s happening,” Rivera said, clarifying that Intel remains committed to the plan it outlined over a year ago.

Rivera emphasized that Intel has always planned to sell a stake in Altera rather than fully divesting from it, to take the company public by 2026.

Intel’s decision to spin off Altera and take it public could reshape the competitive dynamics of the FPGA market, according to analysts.

“Intel’s decision to spin off Altera and take it public has the potential to significantly impact the competitive landscape for FPGAs,” said Arjun Chauhan, an analyst at Everest Group. “AMD’s acquisition of Xilinx already positions it as a formidable player in this space, and a more independent Altera could enhance its ability to compete by focusing more closely on innovation and emerging use cases, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI), data centers, and cloud computing.”

Competitive impact on the FPGA market

Altera — which designs field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), allowing chips to be reprogrammed for diverse applications — has been operating independently of Intel since early 2024. However, the company is still decoupling from Intel’s administrative functions, a process expected to be completed by January 2025. According to Rivera, Altera is “ahead of schedule” in this transition, the CRN report added.

Intel acquired Altera for $16.7 billion in 2015, integrating the FPGA business into its operations under the name Programmable Solutions Group. In 2023, Intel announced plans to spin off the unit as a standalone company to attract private investment and support Intel’s broader financial strategy under CEO Pat Gelsinger. In early 2024, Altera was spun off from Intel as a separate business.

Rivera noted that Altera is well-positioned in the FPGA market, particularly after the acquisition of competitor Xilinx by AMD in 2022. In an earlier press briefing, Rivera had said that Altera aims to capitalize on a $55 billion FPGA market opportunity, spanning sectors like cloud, data centers, automotive, and aerospace.

The ultimate goal, according to Rivera, is to make Altera a leading player in the FPGA industry, with the IPO being a critical milestone in that journey.

This move will intensify competition between Altera and AMD’s Xilinx, especially as demand for programmable chips increases across sectors, Chauhan said. “This move could heighten competition between Altera and Xilinx, especially as the demand for programmable chips continues to grow. While AMD/Xilinx currently has an advantage, the spinoff could allow Altera to attract strategic investments and partnerships that would help it close the gap.”

Despite these potential opportunities, Intel’s decision to sell a stake in Altera is also a strategic move to unlock liquidity, which can be reinvested in areas critical to its future growth, such as advanced process technology and AI.

“Intel’s decision to sell a stake in Altera signals a strategic shift aimed at unlocking liquidity, which could be reinvested into its core growth areas, such as advanced process technology, AI chips, and its IDM 2.0 strategy,” Chauhan said.

The risk, however, lies in how Altera’s independence could create overlap with Intel’s core businesses. “There’s a slight risk that this new competitive dynamic could lead to some overlap with Intel’s core businesses, especially if Altera establishes itself as a strong independent entity – but this risk could be mitigated if both entities coordinate their product roadmaps,” Chauhan observed.

Reports about Intel’s divestment plans

Citing undisclosed sources familiar with the situation, Reuters had earlier reported that Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, along with top executives, is expected to present a strategic plan to the board of directors later this month, aimed at cutting non-essential businesses and revising capital expenditures.

The proposal reportedly included selling off units, such as the programmable chip division Altera, as part of broader efforts to reduce costs and refocus resources amid declining profits at the once-dominant chipmaker.

The chip giant is going through its worst phase currently and it may look at alternatives to improve its financials. In its latest quarterly results, the company reported an 85% year-on-year drop in its profit and also announced a slashing of 15,000 jobs as it grapples with significant financial difficulties.

“We are focused on reducing operating expenses, capital expenditures, and cost of sales while maintaining core investments to execute our strategy,” Intel’s CEO Pat Gelsinger said in a note to employees as part of its “next phase of our multiyear transformation strategy.” He also hinted at taking “decisive actions” to improve operating and capital efficiencies.

A few weeks later, another report suggested that Qualcomm is eyeing Intel’s struggling chip business units. Though there was no clarity on which business units Qualcomm is evaluating to buy, speculations were rife that it may look at Intel’s Altera and Movidius businesses. Analysts believed it would help “fill gaps in Qualcomm’s portfolio.”

However, for now, as per the CRN report, Rivera remains focused on executing the IPO plan and positioning Altera as a specialized leader in the FPGA market.

While this spinoff could initially be seen as Intel stepping back from a rapidly growing market, the long-term view could be different. “In the short-term, the move to spin off Altera could also be viewed as Intel stepping back from a market that is seeing increasing demand, potentially giving AMD/Xilinx an upper hand, but the picture can change in the long-term view,” Chauhan said.

Microsoft 365 explained: Office 365, rebranded and expanded

September 12, 2024 /

Microsoft 365 arrived to much fanfare at its launch in July 2017, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella promising a “fundamental departure” in how the company thinks about product creation. Seven years on, Microsoft 365 has become Microsoft’s core brand for workplace productivity software, having largely replaced Office 365 in this regard.

In that time, the breadth of apps and features in Microsoft 365 has grown, with new additions such as Lists, Loop, and various Viva apps available alongside Copilot, Microsoft’s generative AI assistant. The (at times perplexing) range of licensing options has also broadened, and many new features require extra fees over and above standard subscription costs.

“Microsoft would say it’s the foundation for modern work — it’s the centerpiece of their modern work business unit,” said Jason Wong, Gartner distinguished VP analyst and lead analyst for Microsoft. “Microsoft 365 is really a way to make the Office products more strategic as a set of technologies to empower ‘work hub’ activities.”

In this article:

  • What is Microsoft 365?
  • How many versions of M365 does Microsoft sell?
  • Can enterprise customers buy the M365 components separately?
  • What add-ons are available for M365?
  • How are M365 sales doing?
  • What are some of the newest M365 features?
  • What’s next for M365?
  • A Microsoft 365 glossary

What is Microsoft 365?

At its most basic, Microsoft 365 (M365) is a collection of Microsoft software and services sold as a subscription. Loosely, the term refers to a licensed suite of Microsoft productivity apps for document creation, collaboration, communication, and more, sometimes bundled with Windows and a variety of security and management tools. All M365 subscriptions include some version of the core Office apps: Word (document editing), Excel (spreadsheets), PowerPoint (presentations), and Outlook (email). But beyond that, the specific set of software and services included with each M365 plan varies wildly.

Since it’s sold as a subscription, Microsoft 365 incurs monthly or annual fees for each user. As long as the subscription is maintained, all software updates and upgrades, including new features, are included at no extra charge. Because that software is continuously refreshed, it is always supported by Microsoft. But if a customer stops paying for the subscription, the software eventually stops working.

Most apps in the Microsoft 365 suite are available as desktop applications you can install on Windows or macOS, mobile apps for Android or iOS, and web apps you use in a browser. Some of the more recent apps are web only, and some M365 subscriptions don’t include the desktop versions of the apps — all of which adds to the confusion over what Microsoft 365 means.

To understand how we got here, let’s take a step back and see how Microsoft 365 came to be.

It all begins with Microsoft’s decades-old Office suite. When it was introduced in 1988, Office packaged together the company’s three main productivity apps: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Over the years, Outlook, OneNote, and numerous other apps were added to the suite. Throughout the ’90s and ’00s, the Office suite was sold as “perpetually licensed” desktop software: you paid for the software once and didn’t pay again until you upgraded to a newer version of the suite, which was typically released every three years or so. You also didn’t get any new features until you upgraded to a new version of the suite, and eventually Microsoft would stop supporting the older software with security patches.

In 2010, the company introduced Office 365, a subscription version of Office for enterprises that incorporated Microsoft services such as Exchange and SharePoint. In subsequent years, Office 365 plans became available for smaller businesses and consumers, and the suite continued to expand, with notable additions including OneDrive, Teams, and Power BI. You can still buy the perpetually licensed version of Office — the current version is Office 2021, with Office 2024 coming in October — but the subscription model gradually overtook it in popularity.

Related: Microsoft 365 vs. Office 2021: How to choose

The Microsoft 365 subscription was introduced in 2017 as a higher-level offering for business and enterprise customers that bundled Office 365 with Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security, a suite of security and management tools. At that time, Office 365 subscriptions without those additions were still available for business and enterprise customers, and all consumer subscriptions still used the Office 365 moniker.

So far, so good. Then Microsoft muddied the waters in 2020 by slapping the Microsoft 365 branding on most of its Office 365 plans. At the enterprise level, the original Microsoft 365/Office 365 branding distinction remains: M365 plans include Windows, O365 plans don’t. But all small business and consumer plans are now called Microsoft 365, even though they don’t include Windows.

So when you hear “Microsoft 365,” you know it means a set of Microsoft’s popular productivity apps and services, but it could be anything from a small group of web-based apps for consumers to a soup-to-nuts enterprise package that includes licenses for Windows and a laundry list of Office apps on desktop, mobile, and web, plus an array of advanced storage, security, and management tools. (See the glossary at the end of this story for quick definitions of the product names for apps and services included with M365 plans.)

How many versions of M365 does Microsoft sell?

More than one and fewer than a score. The primary options are:

Microsoft 365 Enterprise: Available in E3 and E5 configurations for firms subscribing more than 300 employees in a plan. The E3 plan ($34/user/month) includes user licenses for Windows 11 Enterprise and a long list of Office apps on desktop, mobile, and web; services such as Exchange, SharePoint, and OneDrive; 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage; and core security and identity management tools. The E5 plan ($55/user/month) adds advanced security, compliance, and analytics tools.

(All prices are shown in US dollars; prices may vary in other countries.)

Office 365 Enterprise: No, these technically aren’t Microsoft 365 plans, but organizations with more than 300 users should be aware that they are still available (for now, at least). Available in E1, E3, and E5 configurations with costs ranging from $8/user/month to $36/user/month, these plans are similar to the M365 Enterprise subscriptions but do not include Windows licenses.

Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard, and Premium: Suitable for small and midsize companies, the plans have a hard limit of 300 seats and cost from $6/user/month to $22/user/month. The Basic level includes only the web and mobile versions of Office apps, along with 1TB of OneDrive storage and key business services including SharePoint and Exchange. The Standard plan adds the desktop apps and a few additional apps such as Clipchamp and Loop. The Premium package includes advanced security and access management features. Unlike the enterprise M365 plans, these small-business plans currently include Teams, Microsoft’s chat and videoconferencing app.

Microsoft 365 Apps for Business and Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise: The “just the apps” version of Microsoft 365 for small businesses ($8.25/user/month) includes the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook desktop apps and 1TB of OneDrive storage. The enterprise version ($12/user/month) includes several more Office apps and enterprise-grade security, management, and compliance tools.

Microsoft 365 F1 and F3: Targeted at frontline workers — the employees who ring up sales, take calls, or work on factory floors or in the field — these less-expensive bundles (from $2/user/month to $8/user/month, depending on whether Teams is included) offer enterprise-grade security but rely on web-based and mobile apps.

Microsoft 365 Education, Microsoft 365 Government, Microsoft 365 Nonprofit: Various subscription plans with varying blends of Windows 11, Office apps, and associated tools at prices suitable for each market (including a donated license for nonprofits). Government plans, for example, offer several compliance levels to meet regulatory requirements.

Microsoft 365 Family, Personal, Basic, and Free: These consumer plans range from free (really!) to $100 per year. The free tier demonstrates just how much the company has diluted its Microsoft 365 brand: it’s limited to a handful of web and mobile apps, includes just 5GB of cloud storage, and uses an ad-supported version of Outlook. The Basic plan adds more storage and an ad-free version of Outlook, while the Personal plan offers the desktop Office apps 1TB of cloud storage. The Family plan is meant for up to six users and offers 6TB of cloud storage.

For help using Microsoft 365 apps, see our extensive collection of M365 tutorials.

Can enterprise customers buy the M365 components separately?

Yes. Microsoft continues to sell Windows 11 Enterprise E3 and E5, Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS), and services such as Exchange Online and SharePoint Online à la carte. And the aforementioned Office 365 and Microsoft Apps for Enterprise plans offer subsets of the complete M365 Enterprise packages.

Buying all the contents of a Microsoft 365 subscription separately is almost always more expensive — just as buying each issue of a magazine (remember magazines?) individually is more expensive than a subscription. But the option may be attractive to customers who don’t want to commit to all things Microsoft.

As an example, EMS E5, the priciest plan for that part of the M365 bundle, runs more than $16 per user per month. In some cases, organizations can purchase the individual parts of just that leg of M365. Again, citing EMS E5, customers can buy bits separately, such as Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) and Intune.

What add-ons are available for M365?

There are many.

Following an EU antitrust investigation, Microsoft no longer includes its collaboration app Teams in enterprise Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscriptions for new business customers. Microsoft initially unbundled Teams from its Office suites in the EU, then subsequently opted to remove Teams from M365 and O365 bundles for customers globally too. This means enterprise customers must pay an additional $5.25/user/month for Teams Enterprise.

(Teams is still included with M365 Business, Education, Government, and Nonprofit plans, and M365 F1 and F3 customers can choose between plans with Teams bundled or omitted.)

That’s just one example: there’s a large and growing list of optional paid M365 apps and features, many of which are not included in even the most expensive E5 subscription tier. These add-ons can quickly bump up monthly costs.

Copilot for M365 is one such example; the AI assistant costs an extra $30/user/month on top of enterprise and small-business M365 subscriptions. Other add-ons include custom app builder Power Apps Premium ($20/user/month for less than 2,000 seats; $12/user/month for more) and analytics tool Power BI Premium ($20/user/month).

There’s also a Teams add-on package, Teams Premium, which provides access to several features not included in the core app for an additional $10/user/month (currently on offer for $7/user/month). This includes live caption translations, custom branding in Teams meeting “lobbies,” AI-generated tasks and notes, end-to-end encryption for group calls, and more.

Microsoft has also introduced premium add-on packages branded as “suites.”

Take Microsoft Viva, for instance, the set of employee experience applications that includes Viva Learning, Viva Engage, Viva Connections, Viva Glint, and more. While certain features of each Viva are available within most enterprise M365 subscriptions, others can be purchased individually (Viva Glint, for example) or via one of three Viva add-on bundle tiers. Viva Suite is the most comprehensive of these, with access to all the Viva features for an extra $12/user/month.

Entra Suite, a collection of identity and access tools, and Intune Suite for endpoint management and security are other examples of bundled add-ons available for additional monthly fees.

Such is the range of optional extras now available that rumors abound that Microsoft is gearing up introduce a new licensing tier — presumably called E7 — that would make all or most of these additional features available for a single monthly fee. Analysts at Directions on Microsoft have written about this on multiple occasions.

Whether or not Microsoft introduces an E7 tier, “we are clearly headed to a place where Microsoft expects customers to buy services above and beyond even Microsoft 365 E5,” said Wesley Miller, research analyst at Directions on Microsoft.

How are M365 sales doing?

It’s hard to say exactly, since the definition of Microsoft 365 is so nebulous and Microsoft itself doesn’t distinguish between M365 and O365 subscriptions in its sales and customer adoption figures.

At a high level, the best indication is that there are now more than 400 million paid Office 365 seats globally; that’s according to the most recent figures announced in Microsoft’s Q2 FY24 earnings in January this year. It’s not clear what proportion are M365 customers specifically.

As a rough comparison, Google’s Workspace software suite, M365’s closest competitor, has 10 million “paying customers,” the company said in August last year. These stats may include paid consumer as well as business subscriptions, and it’s not clear if “paying customers” refers to individual seats or whole companies.

Microsoft does provide some figures around commercial adoption of M365 and O365 that offer at least a glimpse into how the suites are faring in the business world. For instance, the company announced last year that 11 million small to medium businesses are using M365, and there have been some notable enterprise customer deals in the past year or so — Microsoft pointed to oil and gas firm BP and financial services giant ING Bank as two E5 customer wins in its Q2 FY24 results, for example, while Amazon reportedly agreed to a $1 billion deal last year for one million M365 licenses over a five-year period.

Convincing customers to move to the highest E5 tier is central to Microsoft’s revenue growth plans for M365. “We see Microsoft heavily pushing E5 upon renewal to sell more security and governance and other features,” said Gartner’s Wong. “Growing revenue means moving clients to these higher-value, higher-cost bundles.”

Miller from Directions on Microsoft agreed. “Microsoft is adding new features to lots of services this year — but most require licensing a higher tier for all users than most orgs are used to or may be comfortable [with],” he said.

The number of paid Office 365 commercial seats rose 7% year on year, according to Microsoft’s Q4 FY24 financial results in August, with Office 365 commercial revenues up 13% year on year during this time. Again, it’s not clear what portion of these are O365 vs. M365 customers, or what portion are enterprise vs. small business.

It’s also possible to gauge how some of the other components of M365 are faring. The EMS installed base is up to 281 million, said Microsoft CFO Amy Hood in the Q4 investor call. And Windows 11 adoption continues to grow, accounting for around 31% of Windows desktops globally, according to StatCounter, though it’s still some way off Windows 10 adoption (65%).

Although Gartner notes business clients’ interest in other productivity suites besides Microsoft 365 — Google Workspace in particular — M365 is “a dominant player” in the market, said Wong, with an entrenched position in the enterprise, thanks in part to its legacy of on-premises Office use.

It’s not just Google, of course. Microsoft faces competition from a variety of sources: Slack, Zoom, Notion, Zoho, and a variety of others offer alternatives to M365, either rivalling individual M365 apps, or — as is increasingly the case — broadening their product sets with a view of becoming the main hub for digital work at customer organizations.

That doesn’t necessarily affect Microsoft, though — businesses will often deploy multiple tools to cater to various parts of their workforce. “Usually it’s not either/or,” said Wong. “For a lot of these tools, it’s coexistence rather than displacement.”

What are some of the newest M365 features?

The integration of Copilot across M365 apps has undoubtedly been the major focus for Microsoft in the past couple of years. It’s rare to see a product news update on the Microsoft 365 blog that doesn’t reference the AI assistant in some way.

Recent features additions include a new Team Copilot that provides AI assistance in group meetings and makes suggestions for task management; Copilot Studio for customizing Copilots in M365; access to OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo model; and the general availability of Microsoft’s Designer AI image generator.

Other new apps and features include Mesh immersive meetings for Teams, Places for hybrid work coordination, and a UI refresh for the Loop collaboration app.

What’s next for M365?

Whether or not Microsoft will add a new licensing tier that offers access to the various premium M365 add-ons remains to be seen. As Directions on Microsoft analysts have noted, it may be more lucrative for Microsoft to continue with its current approach. But with so many new features available outside of E5 subscriptions, it’s likely that speculation along these lines will continue.

As for M365 products, given Microsoft’s huge investment in integrating Copilot across the app suite, it seems fair to assume that the AI assistant will continue to be at the center of the company’s plans for some time. That’s despite question marks that remain over the scale of business and employee interest in Copilot for M365, the propensity for the AI assistant to hallucinate, and how businesses can deploy the AI assistant without compromising sensitive data.

“The question is: can they make Copilot the center of activity like they make Teams or Outlook the center of activity?” said Wong. “How can Copilot be the orchestrator, the starting point for organizations that want to interact with AI and genAI workloads? That will really be the key.”

A Microsoft 365 glossary

Browsing through M365 plans and add-ons turns up a bewildering list of included apps and services. Here’s a very brief guide to what the main product names mean.

Core M365 apps and services

  • Word: word processing app
  • Excel: spreadsheet app
  • PowerPoint: presentation app
  • Outlook: email, calendar, and contacts app
  • OneNote: notes app
  • Teams: group chat and video meeting app (not included with enterprise plans)
  • OneDrive: cloud storage with versions available for both individuals and corporate users
  • SharePoint: business/enterprise platform for shared content, sites, and apps
  • Exchange: hosting/management service for business/enterprise email, calendar, and contacts
  • Windows: desktop operating system (included only with M365 E3 and E5 plans)

Additional M365 apps and services (not included with all plans)

  • Access: database creation app (Windows only)
  • Bookings: appointment scheduling and management app
  • Clipchamp: video editing app
  • Delve: search app for M365 (will be discontinued Dec. 16, 2024)
  • Forms: survey and form creation app
  • Lists: spreadsheet/work tracking app
  • Loop: shared workspace app
  • Publisher: desktop publishing app (Windows only, will be discontinued Oct. 2026)
  • Planner: work management app
  • Power Apps: low-code development platform
  • Power Automate: workflow automation app
  • Power BI Pro: analytics and data visualization app
  • Stream: enterprise video streaming and sharing platform
  • Sway: publishing app for presentations, reports, newsletters
  • Teams Phone: enterprise telephony service for Microsoft Teams (requires additional monthly fee per user)
  • To Do: task management app
  • Visio: diagram and vector graphics app
  • Viva Amplify: employee communication management app
  • Viva Connections: intranet app
  • Viva Engage (formerly Yammer): enterprise social network app
  • Viva Glint: organization-wide employee feedback/survey app
  • Viva Goals: objective setting and tracking app
  • Viva Insights: productivity and wellbeing analytics app
  • Viva Learning: learning and development app
  • Viva Pulse: self-service employee feedback app for team leads

Security and management tools (not included with all plans)

  • Defender: set of enterprise security apps and services, or a security app for consumers
  • Entra: set of enterprise identity and access management tools, includes Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory)
  • Intune: set of enterprise endpoint management tools
  • Priva: set of enterprise data privacy management tools
  • Purview: set of enterprise data governance, security, risk, and compliance tools

This article was originally published in May 2018 and updated in September 2024.

How iOS 18 can help you at work

September 11, 2024 /

Beyond the Writing Tools coming in Apple Intelligence, significantly faster processors, and the luxurious look of the iPhone 16 Pro models, there was little of explicit interest for enterprise users at Apple’s Monday product launch. Sure, the new iPhones are better in a multitude of ways, but it’s the platform — in this case, iOS 18 — that remains the key selling point for business professionals.

Here’s a rundown of some of the ways iOS 18 will help users get more done.

For many, iPhone 16 is a software story

We now know Apple will introduce iOS 18, the software that runs Apple’s devices and supports iPhones, on Monday, Sept. 16. When it does, it will also ship an iOS 17.7 update for customers who don’t yet want to upgrade to the new mobile operating system. 

With interest in Apple Intelligence running high (even though it won’t arrive til later this fall), enterprise purchasers should note the products removed from sale as Apple introduced its new iPhones. These include the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPhone 13. (The company still sells the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 15, and iPhone 15 Plus.) It’s likely Apple will add additional models (such as the iPhone XR) to its vintage and discontinued products list in the coming months.

This is a fairly standard cadence, but it is important to note that only the iPhone 15 Pro devices and iPhone 16 range will run Apple Intelligence. Apple usually provides service and parts for five to seven years, but the move to Apple Intelligence means some users (including enterprise customers) will find they must invest in more recent devices to use it.

They might want to bite the hardware bullet. Apple Intelligence provides several useful business tools, including powerful writing tools and contextual intelligence applied in useful ways (in Mail or Calendar, for example) to help busy professionals stay on top of things. Some may choose to use these tools on other Apple devices, as they are just as useful on a Mac. 

Otherwise, iOS 18 provides a grab bag of enterprise-useful improvements that don’t require the latest hardware. As it usually does, Apple has tweaked a feast of items across its operating system, and published a PDF containing 250 of these improvements.

Better for calls

While many younger employees may prefer messaging, phone calls remain critical in business, and iOS 18 has a range of improvements that can help:

Available for the iPhone 12 or newer, live audio transcription makes it possible to record audio within Notes or during a Phone app call from within the app. When you record a call, a warning message will let others know you are doing so. The conversation will be automatically transcribed and made searchable.

You can also search call history, dial smarter, and switch SIM cards more easily. If you use AirPods Pro you’ll benefit from much improved voice isolation through advanced computational audio. Finally, if you use messages for business communications, you can now also schedule messages as well as emails for despatch at a certain time. And RCS is now supported.

Better for missed calls

It would be nice if operators would expedite support for Live Voicemail. When you miss a call, this generates a real-time transcription of the message someone is leaving you as they speak – you can physically see it on your iPhone screen. It helps you stay focused while remaining responsive to important communications.

With iOS 18, Live Voicemail will gain support for additional languages and countries, including English (UK, Australia, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Puerto Rico), Spanish (US, Mexico, Spain, Puerto Rico), French (France), German (Germany), Japanese (Japan), Mandarin (China, Taiwan, Macao), Cantonese (China, Hong Kong, Macao), and Portuguese (Brazil).

Cross-platform password management

The new Passwords app essentially revamps a service already available on iOS, surfacing it to make it easier. The app will sync and be made available across all your devices, including Windows systems. Combined with MDM tools, this facilitates provisioning, while maintaining the secure end-to-end encryption for which Apple is famous. The Passwords app makes it easy to search for the right account, while passwords will automatically be added to the app. Developers also gain an automatic passkey upgrade API to create a passkey when someone signs in to your app to let then know the passkey was saved.

Because some apps need to be secret

One feature that might be useful to some business users lets you lock and hide apps. A locked app gains an additional verification step that requires a passcode, FaceID or TouchID authorization before it can be opened. That’s good, but for enterprise app developers it’s important to note that information from a locked app cannot then be surfaced for use elsewhere on the system, including in search. You can also hide apps from view.

What time was I meant to be where?

While Apple Intelligence promises some excellent contextual AI features, Apple has also looked to the basics of its Calendar app. This now provides a redesigned month view to help you achieve a better overview of what’s coming up. Integration between Calendar and Reminders has also improved, so you can create Reminder app interactions from inside Calendar. This small but significant improvement should help dramatically reduce the number of missed appointments.   

A Lock Screen that works for you

While users might enjoy swapping out the flashlight or Camera app triggers from the Lock Screen for other apps, developers will want to tweak their apps for easier use from that screen using Apple’s new Controls API. App Intents will enable Siri to handle many more actions, so your enterprise warehousing app might end up being fully voice-controlled, for example, enabled by a single tap on that Lock Screen button.

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What does Qualcomm’s interest in buying Intel’s chip design business mean for the future of PCs?

September 11, 2024 /

Qualcomm, Intel, AMD, and Apple have been in a fierce battle for domination of the chip market for AI PCs, which are touted as the future of computing.

Further ramping up competition in this fiery landscape, Qualcomm has reportedly explored buying portions of Intel’s design business, most notably client PC design, as Intel looks to spin off units ahead of an upcoming board meeting, anonymous sources told Reuters.

While it is said to have been considering an acquisition for months, Qualcomm has not formally approached Intel, the sources said.

“If Qualcomm makes this move, it could mark a significant shift in the balance of power in the PC chip market, potentially setting the stage for a more competitive landscape driven by AI-focused innovation,” said Scott Dylan, founder of NexaTech Ventures.

It would ultimately be a win for Qualcomm’s strategy to diversify beyond mobile chipsets, he added, “but it may also signal Intel’s retreat from its once-dominant position in the semiconductor market.”

Moving beyond a ‘saturated’ smartphone market

Qualcomm is most known for its smartphone chips, serving some of the biggest names in the market, such as Samsung, but it has continued to push hard into the chip market for AI PCs, and is taking direct aim at Intel as the company continues to struggle. Unlike Intel and AMD, with their x86-based architectures, Qualcomm offers ARM-powered chips, which are said to have better power efficiency and battery life — somewhere between 18 and 20 hours.

The company recently announced its PC processor, Snapdragon X Plus 8-core, which it said is designed for PCs as inexpensive as $700. It also entered into an exclusive partnership with Microsoft, with the computer giant’s Copilot+ PCs featuring Qualcomm’s X Series chips. Intel and AMD are not yet featured in these PCs.

“That gives Qualcomm a couple quarters of lead,” said Mario Morales, IDC’s group VP for enabling technologies and semiconductors. Still, he emphasized, “Qualcomm has an early lead, but it’s a long race.”

In an interview with CNBC, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said that the PC market is changing “fundamentally” due to the convergence of AI and desktop devices, and also because people expect the same performance from their computers as they get from their phones.

The company is probing the space because the smartphone market has become so saturated, Morales explained. Qualcomm is dominant in that market and is seeking out areas for growth and diversification. AI PCs are becoming increasingly important and “you cannot be a key semiconductor player and not get into the space,” said Morales.

Intel continues to struggle

Just last week, Intel announced its Core Ultra 200V line of processors, formerly Lunar Lake, to help keep Qualcomm and AMD at bay and maintain its share of PC chips and the laptop market. The processor line is designed to meet Microsoft’s requirements for powering a Copilot+ PC. Microsoft has said Core Ultra 200V, as well as AMD’s Ryzen AI 300, will likely be able to run apps on the PC as early as November.

“That way they can be AI PCs, not just AI-enabled,” Morales explained.

However, Intel’s stock is approaching record lows, and it has reduced staff by 15% and paused dividend payments. Its CEO, Pat Gelsinger, and other top execs are looking to trim operations, which could include the sale of its programmable chip unit, Altera. Morales explained that Intel has also recently gone through restructuring, splitting its design and products business from its manufacturing business.

“This is why you’re seeing the rumors going, because of that split,” said Morales.

Battery life has been a significant hurdle for Intel’s laptop chips, but in testing, the company said the Core Ultra 200V performs better than both Qualcomm’s and AMD’s chips. Intel calls the series the “latest evolution of AI PCs.”

ARM taking aim at x86

x86 (the architecture used by Intel and AMD) is the standard in the PC space today, comprising about 90% of the market (the remaining 10% is ARM-based), Morales explained. With this architecture, most components have separate chips (controllers), allowing them to be changed without impacting connectivity or the larger platform.

ARM (Qualcomm’s architecture), in contrast, does not have a separate CPU. The benefits of this architecture are lower power consumption and a longer battery life. This is “pretty compelling,” said Morales. However, x86 architecture has supported the PC market for decades.

“ARM Is still fairly new,” Morales explained. “What separates x86 from ARM is that legacy; x86 architecture will continue to play an important role in data centers and PCs.”

Yes, there have been gains for ARM, he noted, but those have so far been minimal. The architecture is “more pervasive” in other markets, including networking, storage, and embedded technologies.

It’s unclear what Qualcomm’s intentions would be around architecture: Should it acquire parts of Intel’s design business, would it seek to dominate both ARM and x86, or attempt to stifle the latter?

Morales, for his part, said: “Both architectures could have a position in the market. That’s been the case for the last few years.”

A fundamental pivot in the semiconductor space

Morales pointed out that Intel has a “very strong play in the enterprise. That enterprise play is what Qualcomm lacks today,” he said.

It’s highly unlikely that these rumors will come to fruition, he forecast — but if Qualcomm is eyeing Intel, it would more likely be interested in the company’s data center and networking segments than its design units.

In any case, it could signal a “broader strategic pivot” taking place in the semiconductor space, said Dylan.

“This move isn’t just about Qualcomm bolstering its existing portfolio; it’s a sign that the market is moving towards a more fragmented and specialized approach to chip design,” he said, pointing out that Intel’s struggles to generate cash and the 8% decline in its PC client business indicate that its PC division isn’t as central to its future as it once was.

“Qualcomm could potentially accelerate its move into the PC space, especially in AI-driven computing, which both companies are eyeing as the next frontier,” Dylan said.

Microsoft starts to force update Windows 11 computers to 23H2

September 11, 2024 /

Computers running an older version of Windows 11 will soon receive a forced update to version 23H2, according to Bleeping Computer.

Support for Windows 11 22H2 ends Oct. 8, and Microsoft argues users need to update to a newer version to gain access to important security fixes. By moving to Windows 11 version 23H2, users get continued access to support and monthly updates, Microsoft said in a message on the Microsoft 365 message center.

Also coming this fall: Windows 11 version 24H2.

Will potential security gaps derail Microsoft’s Copilot?

September 11, 2024 /

Microsoft has bet big on Copilot, the generative AI (genAI) assistant it’s integrating into nearly its entire product line, notably Microsoft 365. The company believes businesses of all sizes will buy into the productivity gains the tool might deliver — and in so doing, deliver billions of dollars to Microsoft’s bottom line. 

As evidence, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently said sales of Copilot for Microsoft 365 were up 60% in the last quarter alone and that the number of Copilot for Microsoft 365 customers with more than 10,000 seats doubled in that same period.

Copilot for Microsoft 365, he said, “is on a growth rate that’s faster than any other previous generation of software we launched” for the office suite.

That’s certainly good news for Microsoft. But there may be bumps in the road ahead. Researchers and analysts are warning about a variety of serious Copilot security problems, especially for enterprises that use it in concert with Microsoft 365. Gartner has weighed in with its own security warnings and at least one researcher says companies are already shying away from buying Copilot because of it. 

Are the security woes overstated, or does Microsoft have a real problem on its hands? 

Here’s what companies need to keep in mind as they eye deployment.

Data access: Copilot for Microsoft 365’s main problem

Many of the potentially serious security issues with Copilot start with what kind of access the genAI tool is given to corporate data, and how that access can be misused by hackers, or even by people within a company. 

Ivan Fioravanti, co-founder and CTO for CoreView, which focuses on Microsoft 365 management configuration and security, notes in a blog post that when a company installs Copilot for Microsoft 365, it gets the same permissions model for data access already in place for Microsoft 365. That model, he says, is designed to ensure “only authorized users can interact with sensitive information.”

However, there are security gaps enterprises could easily miss. Fioravanti warns that risky Copilot configuration settings could be enabled by default. These settings can give Copilot “access to sensitive data without appropriate safeguards in place. Default settings could allow Copilot to interact with external plugins and access web content, introducing new attack surfaces.”

Beyond that, Copilot reporting tools are insufficient “to identify potential areas of concern, such as users accessing sensitive data inappropriately,” he warns. “…Copilot can inadvertently expose existing security gaps, making it easier for users to discover and share information they shouldn’t have access to.” 

Overall, he concludes, “Copilot’s broad access to data across Microsoft 365 creates additional security risks. If a user’s account is compromised, an attacker could leverage Copilot to extract confidential information. The AI models powering Copilot also present potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited.”

Fioravanti is not alone in his concerns. Gartner points out many of the same issues. And it adds one more: Copilot “has inherent risks of being susceptible to prompt injection attacks, generating undesired output including hallucinations, toxic content or copyright-protected materials.”

Prompt injection attacks, can do even worse than that. A hacker who gains access to Copilot for Microsoft 365 could use prompts to find private company data and steal it. A prompt injection attack could also create and execute malicious code without detection. And it could allow hackers to impersonate someone in a company with high-level access to sensitive information and use that information for nefarious purposes.

Are companies already shying away?

There’s some evidence companies may well already be avoiding Copilot for Microsoft 365 because of potential security woes.

Jack Berkowitz, chief data officer of the security firm Securiti, warns that in large companies with complex permissions rules, employees often have access to information that should be off limits because of “conflicting authorizations or conflicting access to data.” Copilot makes it easier for hackers to get that information because they only need prompts to find it.

Berkowitz argues that security problems associated with Copilot are causing companies to pause their use of the product. “A few weeks ago,” he says, “we hosted a little dinner in New York, and we just asked this question of 20-plus CDOs [chief data officers] in New York City of the biggest companies, ‘Hey, is this an issue?’ 

“And the resounding response was, ‘Yeah, it’s a real mess.'”

According to Berkowitz, half of the businesses at the dinner had cut back or halted a Copilot for Microsoft 365 implementation because of security fears.

What’s next?

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is so new that it’s difficult at this point to tell whether the security concerns are overstated or understated and whether they’re actually making companies leery of adopting it. 

But Microsoft needs to address the issue quickly. The US House of Representatives has banned congressional staffers from using it because the Office of Cybersecurity has said it poses a risk of leaking sensitive government data. (That mirrors the warning from Gartner.) 

As I’ve written before, Microsoft doesn’t have a stellar record when it comes to security. This time around, it has to get security right. The company is the world leader in AI. Security woes could change that. 

Microsoft is working on an AI suite aimed at government agencies, and is apparently taking security into account. That’s a good initial step. But it’s only a small one. If it doesn’t quickly fix Copilot’s AI security issues, it could find itself a laggard in field, not the world leader.