UPDATED 16:00 EDT / JUNE 11 2020

CLOUD

Microsoft boosts Azure with new edge video analytics and authentication features

Microsoft Corp. today introduced a new edge video analytics product for its Azure cloud platform, as well as improved authentication features to help organizations better address the shift to remote work.

There’s a growing trend of analytics workloads moving from data centers to the so-called edge of the network. A manufacturer, for instance, might wish to analyze temperature alerts from industrial equipment directly on the factory floor to avoid the delay of sending the data to the cloud.

Live Video Analytics on IoT Edge, the video analytics software product announced today, makes it possible to process footage in real-time and locally on an Azure-connected edge computing device. Microsoft is placing a particular focus on use cases that involve artificial intelligence. Companies can integrate custom AI models, from Azure or elsewhere, into Live Video Analytics to automate footage analysis. 

Microsoft is hoping to court a broad array of segments with the offering. The company says Live Video Analytics can power industrial applications, such as scanning video from production line cameras with AI to flag manufacturing bottlenecks. A retailer, meanwhile, could use Live Video Analytics to automatically detect when a customer is pulling into the parking lot and start preparing their curbside pickup order. 

Public transit is another area Microsoft is targeting. “It can also be used for public transportation to monitor queues and crowds and identify capacity needs, enabling organizations to add capacity or open new entrances or exits,” Microsoft principal program manager Milan Gada wrote in a blog post. “By feeding business data, pricing can be adjusted in real time based on demand and capacity.” 

The company today also launched an integration between on-premises Active Directory Domain Services and Azure Files. It’s a niche but potentially powerful feature that could make it easier for companies to use Azure to host virtual desktops, which are often a core element of remote work initiatives in the enterprise.

Active Directory Domain Services is the set of features in Microsoft’s ubiquitous Active Directory software that administrators use to manage user accounts in the corporate network. Azure Files is Microsoft’s managed file storage service. Azure Files is commonly used to support virtual desktops and, thanks to the new integration, companies can use their existing on-premises Active Directory deployment to authenticate employees who use virtual desktops. 

“Most importantly, you do not need to reconfigure your clients,” Microsoft principal program manager Mike Emard wrote in a post. “As long as your on-premises servers or user laptops are domain-joined to AD DS, you can sync Active Directory to Azure AD. On-premises AD DS integration also simplifies the setup experience of using Azure Files as the user profile storage for Virtual Desktop scenarios.”

Photo: Microsoft

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