Microsoft Build is happening May 10th-May 12th There will be a lot to talk about. Every year Build provides a platform for both announcements as well as engaging the development community in “all the things” Here are my 2017 predictions

Announcements

Every year Build features some sort of announcements. Some years are snooze fests. Other years are really exiting. This year should be an exiting year.

My Opinion: This year will preview the tick of the tick-tock cycle of development highlighting major new features of Redstone 3. Of these announcements I predict major UI changes via Neon and core refactoring. I also expect to see advancements in tooling highlighting a doubling down on DevOps

Mobile

Microsoft must explain their mobile strategy. Sure my Windows Mobile device is just running “Windows” now but what about hardware? Does Windows Universal matter if there is no hardware to take advantage of it? We’ll see.

My Opinion: Lots of people a are shipping advanced hardware. Why not run Windows on it. I predict Microsoft will begin to co-ship Android devices that can be boot loaded with Windows. e.g. Samsung GS8 Microsoft Edition that mysteriously turned up lately.

Cloud

Cloud is not really renting hardware. Cloud is an architecture; Cloud is a culture. You need to be doing both if you expect to compete in just about any business.

My Opinion: Azure gets cheaper. Azure becomes part of my data center via Azure Stack GA this year. AI becomes the key differentiator powering your enterprise.