Will Microsoft Mesh solidify an already powerful MSFT as the way to do work?

Microsoft Office has never been taken off the mountain. Slack challenged Microsoft in messaging only to be significantly eclipsed with Microsoft Teams, leading in part to Slack's decision to join Salesforce.

For decades, their tools have been the way many do their work. Acquisitions like GitHub and LinkedIn expanded their footprint.

But innovations like Microsoft Mesh, announced at Ignite, may push them ahead of the pack, especially when combined with tools like Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams, GitHub, LinkedIn, and their entire network of tools.

Microsoft Mesh is basically a way to be present when remote. Unlike a "box on a screen" via video conferencing, it provides the experience you've seen in Star Wars, with holograms using hardware like their HoloLens. It's better for you to watch it than for me to explain.

Microsoft Mesh will power virtual presence as well as the "hybrid work world" through mixed reality. This means it can be useful in situations where some people are in-person and some remote, which is likely to be the way work looks going forward.

Here's the part that should really get your attention though. It will be a platform for others to build upon as noted in the announcement post:

We’re starting with the ability to virtually travel and meet with people as if you’d gotten on that airplane and were sitting with them in a conference room. But like everything with Microsoft, this is a platform opportunity for the ecosystem to build on. And the opportunities for this are really unlimited. A travel company could create an experience for you to virtually tour the ruins of ancient Greece, or an architectural firm could design a first-of-its-kind building by creating a virtual model that allows team members to create and collaborate no matter where they reside; and on a manufacturing floor, a remote expert could work virtually right next to their colleague... It’s really interesting and inspiring to imagine what’s possible.

Since Microsoft has already announced Mesh will be integrated with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Dynamics 365, you can imagine what the next decade might look like for the future of work. Mesh will have the attention of Google, Apple, Salesforce, Zoom, and anyone involved looking to be "the way to do work."