TOP STORIES #54
This is a quiet week, but there is important news regarding the licensing of PowerApps and Dynamics—it seems the licensing rules for Dymanics and PowerApps are changing.
Read below.
You can read last week's TOP STORIES #53 here
If colleagues would like to join, they can click here.
Hardware
What we know about Intel Lunar Lake
News is changing all the time, and this is the latest on the generation after Meteor Lake (which we are still struggling to get hold of). This is expected to be released at the end of 2024 and actually ship around March 2025. This is expected to be 1.5 X Improvement on Meteor Lake. You can read more on what to expect here.
AMD beats Intel Meteor Lake
It's not going Intel's way, and it looks like when it comes to AI performance AMD is beating Intel by a wide margin. You will also find AMD based computers to be quite a bit cheaper than Intel. If you are committed to vPro as a corporate, then of course AMD is not much of an option.
In today's world of changes happening so fast, it is a good idea to try be open to Intel and AMD as equal choices for your company notebooks. Read more here.
NVIDIA 5090 - what to expect
The rumours are starting to swirl around what performance we may see from the 5090 and when we may expect it. It looks like we may see it late 2024 at the earliest and may be 1.7X faster than the 4090, and at a price that may need you to mortgage your house!
Read more here.
Microsoft
Possible Increases to Power Apps license costs
It appears that with the publication of the latest Dynamics Licensing Guide for March (63 Pages!), users with Power Apps licenses will no longer be able to access data in Dynamics 365 Applications and instead will have to switch to paying for Dynamics Licenses, which will cost considerably more (like a LOT more!). Microsoft furthermore kindly links you to a "Solution Checker" that helps you verify your license compliance. Essentially, the list of restricted tables has now gotten longer. You can read more about this here.
If you are concerned that this may impact you, please reach out to your FT account manager to get our Licensing and Power Apps experts onboard to assist.
Microsoft Office 2024 LTSC preview announced
The new Office will no longer include Publisher (retired) and Teams (separate download). You will be able to download a preview in April. Read more here.
Excel for Web App now exports in CSV format
This may appear to be a small change, but now you no longer need a full Office Install to allows users to export CSV files. Read more here,
There will be Only One (Teams)
This will be a very welcome update for those who have to work with more than one Teams account.
It will be rolled out later this year, along with Windows 24H2. Read more about it here,
CoPilot for Security Available 1 April
This service will be capacity-based billed as Security Compute Units per hour at $4 per hour.
You can read more about the availability of the Service here. It is highy recommended that you take advantage of the M365 CoPilot Readiness Workshop to help you get ready. You can register here.
Cloud & AI
Meet Devin the AI Software Engineer
With the rather controversial statement from Jensen Huang predicting the end of coding as a job, here is a demonstration from Cognition showing how their AI Software engineer can take on a coding task. It's amazing to watch knowing that this is early days - we are still just watching prototypes!
Security
Ransomware targets individuals
There are many ransomware programs out there, but this one has evolved to be exceptionally dangerous, which is important to read up on.
What's up at FTG
Johannesburg - Microsoft Envision
You are invited to Register at the Microsoft-hosted Envision Connection, where FTG will also be presenting represented by Dirk Prinsloo
When
Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 7:30 AM – 5:00 PM
Where
Heaton Lane Longlake 20 Modderfontein Lethabong, Sandton
Register here.
CoPilot M365 Readiness
Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now available to businesses of all sizes and BUI is offering readiness workshops for licensing, advisory and support services to help you succeed with AI technology from Microsoft - BUI has a number of workshops available which you can choose from here.
Movies
Now Playing: Arthur The King
Now Playing: The Bush Knife
22 March: Kung Fu Panda 4
| 