In only 2 weeks, the Microsoft Ignite event will be held at Chicago, USA. With the demise of Microsoft Exchange Conference, this is the major Microsoft conference this year. Its the place where people involved with Exchange will get updated on next version of Exchange. It is also the place to be informed in related areas, such as Office 365, Office 2016 or Azure, or catch up with your peers.

Microsoft recently revealed a small glimpse of what’s coming in Exchange 2016, such as modern attachments in OWA, which will allow you to send links to attachments stored on OneDrive for Business instead of embedding them in the message.  The article not only provides teasers as Exchange on-premises will – hopefully – be brought more up to par with the Exchange Online offering. It will also give many people peace of mind as there will be another version of Exchange on-premises.

In just 3 days, a whopping number of 82 sessions related to Exchange or Exchange Online will be held, so creating a schedule could be challenging. I expect these sessions t to reveal a lot more details on Exchange 2016 and its new features or enhancements. Million dollar question: will the IOPS requirement again change significantly? Be advised that the schedule is still not 100% fixed, so check back often for updates or plan for alternative sessions.

I am sure Microsoft will make this new consolidated conference a success. For those attending or presenting, I wish you a great time in Chicago at Ignite or one of the side events or at one of the many parties such as ENow’s Scheduled Maintenance. Unfortunately, I will not be attending Microsoft Ignite. For myself or others looking for session contents, Microsoft stated Ignite sessions will be recorded and be made available within 48 hours.

On another note, I will be at IT/DEV Connections later this year in Las Vegas. With Jaap Wesselius, I will be hosting a workshop on ‘Managing Exchange Online and Exchange On-Premises using Powershell’. If you plan to visit another conference this year, be sure to consider Connections, which will be held from September 14th-17th in Las Vegas, USA. Connections is independent, will have lots of sessions on Exchange on-premises as well as Office 365 topics. Sessions will be hosted by well-known speakers from the industry.