Microsoft Insider: 2 Days On Redmond Campus
Ever wonder what life is like in Redmond? Here's what I saw during a two-day experience on Microsoft's massive campus.
![](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt69509c9116440be8/blt0c2642f2d5356f7a/64cb5236f185c3301b5ff27d/Microsoft-Logo.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Fun fact: This photo was taken in the exact building on Microsoft's campus (RedWest A) where its iconic logo was designed.
This was one of many things I learned during a two-day trip to Microsoft headquarters, where I joined a group of fellow technology watchers in visiting different parts of campus and speaking with employees from across the company.
While there wasn't nearly enough time to explore all of Microsoft, we toured the buildings that house its research facilities, cybersecurity labs, and "The Garage," where hackathons take place and employees can work on their own projects.
[Windows 10: 75 Million Downloads and Counting]
We also heard several Microsoft execs in divisions including the cloud, Office, security, and research discuss their ongoing projects. Some demonstrated new tools and upgrades we can expect to see over the coming months.
The interior HQs of most tech giants are a mystery to most of us. We hear plenty of stories about employee life, but much of what we learn is found via Google searches and online forums.
While I may never bike across the Googleplex or dine with coders at One Hacker Way, it was interesting and cool to explore Redmond, see where Microsoft employees work, and meet the people behind the products and services we use each day.
Read on to get a peek at the different parts of Microsoft's campus and learn more about what I heard from executives during my visit.
(All images by Kelly Sheridan except where noted)
Microsoft's research department has been exploring new technologies for about 24 years, with the goal of "catching" accidental discoveries.
Peter Lee, corporate vice president of technology and research at Microsoft, has an interesting approach to discovering and building innovative products and services: "Bet on the person, not the idea," he said, noting that unplanned outcomes are the most important results of research.
Hiring top talent is a key part of his strategy, but difficult to put into practice. Lee explained there are three components to his recruiting pitch. Microsoft Research employees control the publicity of their work and accept the consequences that come with their decisions. They join objective-oriented groups to work on technologies that most interest them, and they benefit from a stronger commitment to research that Satya Nadella has supported during his time as CEO.
Rather than celebrate the launch of new products, the research team is changing to instead reward impact. This is another result of Nadella's influence, Lee explained. The CEO favors projects with a greater effect on users over those that make it to market in a shorter timeframe.
One such project is the NUI (Natural User Interaction) Graph, which was demonstrated by senior research software development engineer Dave Brown. NUIGraph is a data visualization tool that leverages the intelligent cloud to identify and display patterns within data sets.
Brown used NUIGraph to depict data detailing the frequency of tornadoes across the US and the gender of Titanic survivors, demonstrating how the tool enables users to visualize data in different formats and spot patterns that aren't immediately present.
NUIGraph is still a research prototype, but Brown noted it could eventually become a universal app for Surface and Windows Phone. It may also be integrated with Office or other services. It's currently undergoing internal testing so employees can provide feedback.
Disclaimer: I did not take this picture because Microsoft doesn't allow visitors to photograph inside the REC. However, I can say the tool works exactly as pictured.
Microsoft's REC is a 23,000 square foot warehouse containing new technologies we could eventually see in retail stores. The REC is not a "store of the future," said director of retail and industry tech strategist Marty Ramos, because the tools are ready to use (albeit slightly slow on the demo front). Their purpose is to help brick-and-mortar retail outlets leverage data to improve the user experience.
Some of the technology applications we saw were admittedly creepy. For example, retailers are conserving energy by implementing LED lights that can serve a dual purpose: tracking your movements inside the store. With beacon technology, which senses smartphones containing beacon-enabled apps, the lights can scan your information and send it to the person behind the counter. This can give retailers a "heat map" of where people are most likely to browse, but it can also provide more specific information like your name, photo, and number of orders you've placed.
Other REC technologies were less unsettling. A coffee shop may place beacons around its driveway, for example, to sense the arrival of customers who have pre-ordered, so baristas can start making their coffee. "Smart" theft detectors placed near doorways can emit different sounds depending on the value of an item stolen. A digital vending machine can display information on its products and their nutritional data.
The intelligent cloud is core to Microsoft's vision, as indicated by the demos of new technologies in machine learning and analytics the company is developing for businesses.
Expanding the cloud is "absolutely critical," said Frank Shaw, corporate vice president of corporate communications. As more customers move to the cloud, Microsoft is working to develop its Azure platform and other services to be more scalable and accessible from anywhere.
Joseph Sirosh, corporate vice president of Azure Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, explained how new cloud-based tools will help businesses make the most of their data. He pointed to the Azure Machine Learning Gallery, which he described as "the Pinterest of machine learning," as an example. The cloud-based gallery contains APIs and publicly shared experiments from data scientists around the world.
Sirosh also elaborated on the Cortana Analytics Suite as a tool for helping businesses gain insight from disparate data sources through the Power BI interface.
Azure CTO Mark Russinovich discussed how Microsoft is keeping up with the "containerization of the world" and working to attract developers by supporting technologies like Docker containers. Containers give developers greater agility in testing code and a more consistent experience with their apps, he explained.
The Garage is a Microsoft facility for hosting community projects. It was built with the intention of giving engineers a space to build, but has become popular for hackathons, accelerators, and other groups focusing on small-scale projects.
There are several geographical and topical Garage "chapters" around the world comprised of Microsoft employees and interns. More than 3,280 projects have come through the Garage, ranging from formal team projects to informal experiments.
In the Advanced Maker Garage, employees have access to tools for working on professional or personal projects. When we arrived in the late afternoon, the workshop was pretty quiet. Two employees were in there, one of whom was working with a laser cutter to create build-your-own robots for his child's birthday party.
David Finn, director of Microsoft's cybercrime center and assistant general counsel, took us inside the facility where a team of employees (130 total, 35 in Redmond) battle malware and digital risk. The center receives a constant feed of data showing where cybercrimes are occurring throughout the world, and receives 450 million calls per day from infected devices.
While the goal is to prevent all breaches, experts are also specifically working to protect vulnerable populations from cybercrime, such as children and the elderly. Between May 2014 and May 2015, Microsoft received 140,000 complaints from elderly victims who had been affected by malware. To help child victims of cybercrime, a cloud service called PhotoDNA identifies images that exploit children.
The challenge of addressing global cybersecurity is growing. Here, David Finn, director of Microsoft's cybercrime center and assistant general counsel, displays a map of 5 million devices affected by the botnet-based Citadel malware that Microsoft disrupted in partnership with the FBI two years ago. The Microsoft team and its financial services partners discovered Citadel was analyzing keystrokes as a means of stealing identities and gaining access to victims' bank accounts.
"Productivity is no longer a solitary pursuit," said Bryan Goode, senior director of Office Collaboration Experiences. Businesses face the challenge of giving employees the tools they want while maintaining ownership over their data.
In terms of strategy, Goode described how mobility and cross-platform capabilities, Office 365 Groups, and Office Graph will work across all products and interact with different apps.
Graph, for example, will serve as a foundational technology that pulls data from apps, compiles it, applies machine learning, and provides data insight. The preview for this service was released at the 2015 Build conference, said Goode, but we likely won't see it exit preview mode until next year.
Microsoft apps such as Office Delve, Yammer, Skype for Business, and Gigjam, as well as third-party apps, will sit on top of these capabilities and contribute data.
Of the 75 million PCs that have been upgraded to Windows 10, 1.5 million are enterprise devices, said Jim Alkove, corporate vice president of Enterprise and Security at Microsoft.
Organizations need to protect enterprise data and the identities of enterprise users while providing a positive end-user experience. The only way to safeguard against security threats, Alkove explained, is to tie together hardware and software. An example of this is in Microsoft Passport, which leverages biometric authentication for secure user access.
Windows 10 is the "most secure version of Windows we've ever delivered," said Alkove. With Windows Update for Business, Microsoft is trying to boost security by delivering OS patches while continuing to give enterprises control over when they are deployed.
The problem? IT pros don't get many details on what each patch contains. This is a security concern for enterprise customers, and Microsoft has so far been unclear on how business patch descriptions will be delivered. It's currently working on a solution for this. Alkove also noted members of the Windows Insider program will receive Windows Update for Business soon. It will be made public later this year.
The above image depicts another feature of Windows security for business. If a user tries to transfer secure data to a public source like Twitter, the system detects it and asks if this was the user's intention.
Of the 75 million PCs that have been upgraded to Windows 10, 1.5 million are enterprise devices, said Jim Alkove, corporate vice president of Enterprise and Security at Microsoft.
Organizations need to protect enterprise data and the identities of enterprise users while providing a positive end-user experience. The only way to safeguard against security threats, Alkove explained, is to tie together hardware and software. An example of this is in Microsoft Passport, which leverages biometric authentication for secure user access.
Windows 10 is the "most secure version of Windows we've ever delivered," said Alkove. With Windows Update for Business, Microsoft is trying to boost security by delivering OS patches while continuing to give enterprises control over when they are deployed.
The problem? IT pros don't get many details on what each patch contains. This is a security concern for enterprise customers, and Microsoft has so far been unclear on how business patch descriptions will be delivered. It's currently working on a solution for this. Alkove also noted members of the Windows Insider program will receive Windows Update for Business soon. It will be made public later this year.
The above image depicts another feature of Windows security for business. If a user tries to transfer secure data to a public source like Twitter, the system detects it and asks if this was the user's intention.
-
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like