Microsoft kicked off this week with its first Ignite Conference, where the company announced a range of new products and services for IT professionals, including the next generation of Windows management, Microsoft Office, hybrid cloud infrastructure and SQL Server. Microsoft announced Windows Update for Business, a new management option for Windows 10 to always keep devices up to date with the latest security updates and Windows features. It will be a free service for all Windows Pro and Windows Enterprise devices.

With Windows Update for Business, the IT Pros will be able to specify which devices go first in an update wave, and which ones will come later (to ensure any quality kinks are worked out). They should also have the option to specify the critical timeframes when updates should and should not occur.

By supporting peer to peer delivery, IT will enable to make delivery of updates to branch offices and remote sites with limited bandwidth very efficient.

Windows Update for Business will be integrated with existing tools like System Center and the Enterprise Mobility Suite – so that these tools can continue to be that 'single pane of glass' for all of systems management.

Microsoft says that Windows Update for Business will reduce management costs, provide controls over update deployment, offer quicker access to security updates, and provide access to the latest innovation from Microsoft on an ongoing basis. It’s part of our intelligent cloud – Microsoft will update and maintain Windows devices, while still giving busimesses the control.

Also at Ignite today, Microsoft annouced the following to address challenges and opportunities for IT professionals:

• System Center Configuration Manager for managing Windows 10, available today in technical preview, gives IT professionals tools to deploy, update, manage and secure Windows 10, and will integrate with Windows Update for Business. In addition, next week, Microsoft will release service packs for existing Configuration Manager 2012 and 2012 R2 customers, as well as an update to Microsoft Intune for Windows 10 support.
  
• Office 2016, available in broad public preview today, brings in-app, real-time co-authoring to the Office desktop applications. Real-time presence and the ability to see changes to text and formatting as they happen will help teams stay on the same page as they create content.
• Skype for Business broadcasting, introduced today, enables customers to broadcast meetings to up to 10,000 people. The service uses Azure Media Services for streaming audio, video and PowerPoint presentations, and offers built-in interoperability with Bing Pulse for sentiment tracking and Yammer for audience conversations. Extensibility enables third parties to add audience polling, formal Q&A and other functionality.
• Organizational analytics in Office Delve, introduced and demonstrated today, is powered by the Office Graph, expanding upon personalized insights from Office Delve to provide organizational insights to individuals and teams from Office 365 data. A dashboard measures, tracks and identifies key trends such as engagement, reach and work-life balance across individuals’ interactions within their organization and with external teams.
• SharePoint Server 2016, showcased today and in preview later this year, will deliver enhancements and new capabilities, compliance and reporting. The new version gives on-premises SharePoint customers access to new capabilities in the cloud through hybrid deployments with Office 365.
• Exchange Server 2016, also demonstrated at Ignite and in preview later this year, delivers new features first delivered in Office 365, such as a new approach to document collaboration, faster and more intelligent search, improved eDiscovery, and developer extensibility for mail, calendar and contacts.
  
• Next-generation hybrid cloud. Introduced today and in preview this summer, Microsoft Azure Stack brings the Azure user experience and both infrastructure and platform-as-a-service capabilities into customers’ datacenters. With Azure Stack IT teams can blend enterprise applications with modern, distributed applications and services while maintaining centralized oversight. The next preview of Windows Server 2016 is available today, providing a platform for enterprise and cloud applications, with technologies such as Nano Server, a lightweight installation option. Available today, Microsoft Operations Management Suite (OMS) is a cloud-based solution that extends System Center capabilities for management across almost any hybrid cloud, including Azure, third-party clouds such as Amazon Web Services, Windows Server, Linux, VMware or OpenStack. OMS extends System Center 2016, which is also available in preview this week.
• SQL Server 2016, in preview this summer, takes a leap forward with a database and analytics platform that provides breakthrough performance for mission-critical applications and deeper insights on any data across on-premises and cloud. Key capabilities include enhanced in-memory technologies with real-time operational analytics, new security and encryption technologies, built-in advanced analytics with the R language, and mobile BI for on-premises data. The new Stretch Database capability is an industry first that allows for cost-effective access to historical data by dynamically stretching data to Microsoft Azure.
• Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics (ATA), technology based on Microsoft's recent acquisition of Aorato, is available in preview. ATA helps IT security professionals identify security breaches and threats, using behavioral analysis and machine learning to provide actionable information.
• Office 365 transparency and control enhancements, highlighted at Ignite, give Microsoft's customers enhanced visibility and security of their data residing within Office 365, including Customer Lockbox that provides explicit approval rights for Microsoft interaction with their data.