Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella delivers his keynote address at Microsoft Developer Day Singapore

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella delivers his keynote address at Microsoft Developer Day Singapore

Shy of leaping on stage and yelling "Developers, developers, developers….", Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calmly took stage to speak at Microsoft Developer Day event, which was held this morning at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

He reiterated the vision of Microsoft, its mobile-first, cloud-first strategy, where the focus is on people, and their computing experiences across different devices and platforms. He also talked about the mobility of the single device; for example, 2-in-1 devices that straddle between personal and corporate computing as people switch seamlessly between their personal and professional affairs. This phenomenon also underscored the mobility of human experience across multiple devices, multiple screens.

With people in focus, Microsoft is on a transformative path, in particular, with developers in their sights. The company wants to work closely with developers to bring their ideas to reality. For example, CEO Nadella highlighted how local start-up, Astoria Solutions has developed solutions on the Microsoft Azure platform to help numerous companies, in the oil and gas industry, improve their business operations, especially in the aspects of safety and productivity. With the support of Microsoft, Astoria Solutions is in the midst of expanding their business solutions to customers in the United States and Middle East.

CEO Satya Nadella also showcased a young, local start-up, Overdrive, who also leveraged on Microsoft Azure platform to provide an IoT (Internet of Things) environment, encompassing smart devices and sensors on the move, and developing digital feedback loops for data collection. Their business solutions have proven to be useful for companies in the logistics industry, where business owners can better manage their delivery fleets. He also expounded the strengths of the Azure platform, where machine learning development can be democratize to the general populace instead of limiting machine learning to the confines of laboratories and other inaccessible institutions. Besides being open to people, the Azure platform is also host to open source development platforms, he mentioned the Azure cloud actually hosts Linux virtual machines so that Linux developers can make use the company’s intelligent cloud platform.

Part of Microsoft’s transformative journey is the embracement of open source development languages like R and Python, which are supported on its intelligent cloud platform. In this new light, developers aren’t categorized or segregated by their programming languages; instead, they are seen as enablers and Microsoft wants to provide the platform to bring the developers’ ideas and vision to fruition. In the same breath, the company hopes to foster collaboration amongst these developers.

By embracing all, Microsoft understands the need of people to communicate and the importance of conversation as a canvas and a platform. This is where Cortana will play an essential role to bring the three actors; people, digital assistants, and bots, together on the conversation platform. Cortana will rely heavily on machine learning and data analysis to understand natural language.

CEO Nadella also mentioned the company’s focus on large screen computing experience. He envisions the Surface Hub to be an essential collaboration tool in corporate boardrooms and offices. Microsoft’s vision isn’t device bound as the company’s focus is still on people and their compute experiences across many devices. It hopes to achieve this vision with its Unified Windows Platform.

Speaking of unification, Microsoft is also banking on its HoloLens to bring mixed reality to the fore where HoloLens users can annotate their physical world with personalized digital artefacts, with the ability to interact with these artefacts. In the past, Microsoft used to ask where do you want to go today. Now and for the foreseeable future, the Redmond giant just wants to be present from anywhere to everywhere.