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Identity at Ignite 2018 – What a great Week!
Published Oct 04 2018 11:00 AM 4,605 Views
Microsoft

Wow what a week! I am thrilled to give you the Identity division’s Ignite retrospective (with a little bit of an Identity Security bias :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes:)! Ignite is so inspiring for us as members of the Azure AD team – it is so cool to talk to people who are using identity to extend the horizon of productivity for their organizations – for users, partners, and customers, in hybrid and – increasingly – in pure cloud environments.

 

I was struck this year by how many people I met personally who are using Azure AD to empower users in their organizations. I am a pretty outgoing guy, so when I was changing planes in Atlanta I struck up a conversation with someone I figured was on the way to Ignite. When I asked him what he did for his company, he said he was an Identity admin, rolling out Conditional Access and Privileged Identity Management, going to learn the latest on our security features. Be still my beating heart.

 

This played out over and over – conversations on the bus, in the halls, at breakfast in the conference center. I have spent the last 20 years working in Identity, and I have never seen this level of energy for identity and security. As Joy Chik said in her general session – and as you clearly know - Identity is at the center of productivity and security.

 

You have put identity at the center of your strategy, and it has been amazing to learn from your journeys. Azure AD has made leaps this year based on your feedback, and you have made leaps in adopting Zero Trust, deploying MFA, and using Azure AD for all apps. From provisioning to governance, sync to security it was a parade of feature innovations built from your feedback – thank you.

 

And the world took notice! From being #2 in Tech Crunch’s top announcements to PC Magazine’s summary of our new security tools, it shows how important your role in identity is in organizations today. 

 

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Some of the coolest moments of Ignite:

 

  • Satya and Ron Markezich showing off password-less sign in in the keynotes! We’ve seen a jump of 10,000 new tenants provisioning Authenticator password-less credentials just since the keynote!
  • Rob and Joy showing off Identity secure score, baseline protection, and identity governance in the Security general session – the average Identity secure score has gone up 10 points since the announce – thanks to all of you who proactively enable MFA for your admins!
  • 2,000+ of you taking the auditorium to standing room only for Alex and Melanie’s “What’s new in Azure AD” session – even after they opened extra seating in the balcony!

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There were more than 40 Identity sessions with the best attendance we’ve ever had! Based on attendance and NSAT, here were some of your favorite sessions based on attendance and overall satisfaction – check them out!

 

  1. Azure AD Features and Roadmap
  2. Hybrid IAM best practices

  3. Getting to a world without passwords
  4. Govern access to your resources
  5. Conditional access  
  6. Comprehensive Identity protection
  7. Granting access to B2B partners
  8. Shut the door to cybercrime
  9. Azure Active Directory security insights with Conditional Access and Identity Protection
  10. Architecting your app’s access and security

 

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The Azure AD booth in the Expo hall was packed! Attendees had a chance to talk with our product team experts there and get questions answered. We asked you some questions too, and here’s what we heard:

 

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I know you want to go even deeper on some of these topics, so over the next few weeks, we’ll give you a set of themed “Ignite Recaps” for

  • Provisioning, Sync, and Hybrid deployments
  • B2B/B2C External Identities
  • Application platform
  • Security, Compliance and Zero Trust
  • and oh yeah - a little something on Password-less logins, Standards, and the road ahead!

In the meantime, let me know in the comments what your favorite moments were, and what questions you’d like us to cover in the recap series.

 

And again, thank you for using Azure AD and for being part of the community that has made it what it is today!

 

Thanks!

Alex Weinert, GPM for Identity Security

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