Dispatch from Microsoft Build Conference 2018

It's day two of the Microsoft Build Conference, the annual gathering of developers coming together to get a glimpse of the future. As Marc Andreessen said in 2011, "software is eating the world." Perhaps Microsoft Build is the ultimate gathering of the world's carnivores. You can feel the innovation, energy, and devouring of anything inefficient and old-fashioned. 

There have been some fascinating comments and insights, such as Nadella saying that the world is becoming a computer and that privacy is a human right. But after a full day of learning and thinking, I just felt like there was a story to tell and I wasn't quite sure how to articulate it. There is a change in the air here that needs to be expressed. The takeaway is that we are on the precipice of another period of rapid technological change. It's been on the horizon for a while, so this isn't new, but I think Microsoft Build convinced me that change has finally arrived.

Why? Well, for the Information Technology industry, progress has never been a linear smooth line of increased efficiency. It happens in steps. Periods of relative calm and refinement punctuated by innovation. These changes then lead to rapid and dramatic shifts as old technology is abandoned, in favor of something new and better.

The mainframe era gave way to the Desktop PC era. After that PCs had a maturation and golden age in the 90s, there was a shift to the web, and then after that to mobile, then to social. Now we are at another shift; some call it the ubiquitous computing era, the Internet of Things (IoT) era. Perhaps the realization of Marc Andreessen's comment, from "software is eating the world" to "software has swallowed the world."  

Everything will be smart. Everything alive. Everything you know and want is there for you at all times. AI transcribes you meeting notes. Your action items were already taken for you and put on your calendar. Your timesheet was filled out by AI. The computer knows who you should meet. The drones are already fired up knowing you are about to order an Amazon prime toothbrush.  

I know we have been talking about this for awhile, so why now? Well, Operating System providers (such as Microsoft) are the drivers of changes. They commoditize the latest innovations by breaking them down into usable tools for developers who can build these innovations into everyday products and services of our lives. A.I. was unapproachable by 99% of developers two years ago, but Microsoft's new cloud Operating System, Azure, will makes it easy for everyday developers to build it into their products. Which is why this conference is significant - at Microsoft Build 2018 what I see is a whole-hearted shift from Microsoft. None of the old terms make sense here anymore. All the tools for developers are new and different.

So with that, I bit you adieu. I'm off to learn a thousand new things such as the Intelligent Edge, neural networks, cloud-scale databases such as CosmosDB. I think you should too. In short, the big takeaway so far is this: For the techno-optimists, it's time to learn a new Operating System, and for the comfort-seeking technology traditionalists, the wolves of change are finally at the door.