Microsoft Ignite Made it Clear the Future is AI and Cloud
Microsoft made it clear Windows is no longer just an operating system; it is an AI-powered vehicle for efficiently working from anywhere. Whether it was the expansion of Microsoft Copilot, enhancements to Microsoft Intune, new automation capabilities through Computer Use Agents, and more, the message was clear:
The future of enterprise IT is AI-driven, cloud-first, highly automated, and continuously modernizing.
This future enables breakthrough productivity, but it also tightens the pressure on organizations to modernize legacy approaches to applications, infrastructure, and personnel. Fortunately, that’s what Numecent is all about.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Now Features Agent Mode
One of the most interesting developments with Agent Mode is its application to Excel (Agent Mode is also generally available in Microsoft Word and available via the Frontier program in PowerPoint).
These Agents are designed to help you streamline the creation of professional-grade documents, spreadsheets, and presentations through the Copilot chat.
Agent Mode represents a shift from Copilot as a helper to Copilot as an autonomous task executor. With Agent Mode, Microsoft 365 applications can now:
- Execute multi-step workflows without user intervention
- Automate document workflows, formatting, and data processing
- Learn from inputs and continuously improve
- Increase consistency and productivity across business units
This is part of a broader pattern at Ignite: Copilot is moving from a productivity accelerator to a pre-trained digital employee capable of performing real work.
For this model to be successful, enterprises must ensure employees always have access to the applications they rely on, which becomes difficult when applications are:
- Installed directly into desktop images
- Not compatible with modern Windows operating systems
- Deployed through multiple tools and workflows based on desktop type
- Unable to be dynamically provisioned to non-persistent desktops
This is exactly where Cloudpaging® containers bridge the gap.
Computer Use Agents Provide AI-Driven Automation
Computer Use Agents (CUAs) extend Copilot capabilities into an entirely new domain: AI-driven digital assistance that can operate Windows just like a human user.
Instead of just drafting content or summarizing research, CUAs can now:
- Launch applications
- Navigate Windows interfaces
- Execute system actions
- Complete interactive processes end-to-end
This is a significant milestone, because it means:
- Applications must be consistently available on any endpoint, physical or virtual
- The user experience must be predictable regardless of device type
- Legacy applications that were never built for this model must still be able to run
Cloudpaging containers take a fundamentally different approach to virtualization, ensuring applications can be easily deployed and managed across all modern Windows desktops – including non-persistent desktops, cloud PCs, and even Windows on Arm – so CUAs always have the tools they need to execute tasks reliably.
Microsoft Intune is Being Further Secured and Optimized with AI
Eugene Burrage and Jason Roszak led a breakout session, What’s new in Intune: empower IT, protect endpoints & optimize with AI, exploring Intune’s expanded support across Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Android. It’s clear Microsoft is emphasizing the importance of transitioning to cloud-native management to support the scale of increasingly distributed workforces.
New capabilities introduced included:
- Intune Recovery
- Maintenance scheduling
- Improved application reporting and visibility
All of this reinforces that modern desktop management needs to be cloud-first so you can unify it across device types, enable rapid change, and increasingly automate Windows desktop IT operations.
Cloudpager ensures you can instantly modernize by providing IT with a centralized, cloud-native application container management platform for Windows desktops that makes application provisioning effortless for personnel of any tenure.
Explore how Cloudpager® further enhances disaster recovery in our blog Strengthen Multi-Cloud Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery with Cloudpager.
How Can Numecent Help You Navigate the Future of Windows?
Containerize Everything to Maximize the Value of AI and Cloud
Modern desktop solutions are only as valuable as the applications that can run on them. With the future of Windows being cloud and artificial intelligence (AI), enterprises need to ensure any application can run on all Windows endpoints in an effortless fashion. That’s where application containerization comes in.
By packaging applications into Cloudpaging containers, your most complex legacy applications (watch Rory Monaghan deploy Family Tree from 1993 to Azure Virtual Desktop here), resource-intensive engineering applications (Visual Studio and AutoCAD), and modern applications alike can be dynamically provisioned to any physical or virtual Windows desktop; regardless of OS version, device type, or architecture.
Cloudpaging ensures:
- No application conflicts
- No heavyweight packaging overhead
- Instant application deployments, updates, and rollbacks
- Future compatibility across OS upgrades
It’s modernization without rewrites.
Ignite Your Endpoint Strategy with AI Packaging, Intune, and App attach in Azure Virtual Desktop
Our CEO Arthur Hitomi, PhD took the stage with Ryan Will (Technical Solutions Manager, Numecent) to showcase how Cloudpager’s AI Packaging capabilities enable you to:
- Automate the creation of Cloudpaging application containers
- Accelerate Intune application deployments up to 20x
- Establish comprehensive application usage reporting for Intune app deployments
- Eliminate application conflicts for Intune and App Attach in Azure Virtual Desktop
They demonstrated how the Microsoft ecosystem is evolving to deliver applications more dynamically than ever before; highlighting the real challenge is getting applications packaged and ready for this new world in a fast, secure, and reliable fashion.
Ultimately, Cloudpaging containers solve all these problems by:
- Metering and reporting on all containerized application usage
- Eliminating application packaging complexity
- Maximizing application compatibility and portability across physical and virtual desktops
- Rapidly provisioning applications directly to users outside your desktop images
Enhance Your Disaster Recovery Strategy with Windows 365 Reserve and Cloudpager
Windows 365 Reserve Cloud PCs were a huge talking point throughout Ignite with new and familiar folks alike, as organizations continue rethinking how they ensure business continuity for distributed workforces. The model is simple: instead of waiting for a device to fail, enterprises can maintain pre-provisioned Cloud PCs that are always available, ready to step in at a moment’s notice.
Microsoft highlights three core advantages:
- Rapid restoration of productivity
- Simplified IT management
- Security by design
But like many modern Microsoft solutions, the value dramatically increases when the surrounding architecture is built to support it. The biggest challenge in disaster recovery scenarios is not accessing the OS; it’s accessing the applications, data, and configurations users rely on to do their jobs.
Together, Cloudpager and Windows 365 Reserve take you from a backup plan to an always-ready safety net.
A Week of Conversations, Connections and Community
One of the best parts of Ignite this year wasn’t just the announcements. It was the people. Our booth was constantly buzzing, not because of traffic numbers, but because so many attendees stopped by to share their experiences, challenges, and successes with modern Windows management.
Every conversation reminded us that Ignite is more than a conference; it’s a community of people solving real problems together. We heard stories about everything from stalled Windows 11 migrations to legacy apps blocking VDI and DaaS adoption, to creative implementations of containerization and IT teams continuing to do amazing things amid limited time and resources.
Tuesday evening we were blown away to have hundreds of people on the wait list for Zetta Bytes Brews, Billiards, and More at Hotel Zeta – Playroom!
And the party didn’t stop there! We had the privilege of hosting an intimate dinner with Citrix and our partners at Ferroque Systems the next day at Fang. Amid a jam-packed week, we’re grateful to everyone who took the time to spend the evening with us.
Last but not least, congratulations to Clay for winning the ROG Xbox Ally on Thursday!
If you stopped by to talk, learn, or just say hello, THANK YOU! We left Ignite inspired, energized, and more committed than ever to helping the IT and EUC community simplify application packaging, provisioning, and management across Windows desktops.
Join the Movement to Containerize Everything
For All Things Applications, Stick with Numecent
Cloudpaging containers are the key to maximizing application compatibility, portability, security, and performance across all physical and virtual Windows endpoints. Whether you’re upgrading physical Windows machines to Windows 11, incorporating Windows on Arm devices into your enterprise, adopting or migrating between VDI and DaaS platforms, trying to get legacy applications deployed to modern Windows OS, alleviate image management, or anything in between, we’ve got you covered.
Join the movement to Containerize Everything so you can run ANY Windows application on ALL Windows endpoints. Schedule a demo with our technical solutions team at numecent.com/demo and sign up for our email list below: