Microsoft faces criticism from Amazon and Google over policy changes
This week, the biggest news on the SaaS scene is how Amazon, Google, and other rivals have hit back at Microsoft for the recent cloud changes.
Following Microsoft’s recent commitment to changing unfair software licensing terms that cover the company’s cloud hosting operations, the new changes have now been criticized by some of its fiercest rivals.
Recently, Microsoft revealed that from October 1, 2022, competitors that were previously placed at an advantage should be able to claw back some business. However, Reuters claims that Google, Amazon, Alibaba, and Microsoft’s own services will be excluded from the deals – a loophole that has come in for some criticism.
The changes were first considered earlier in 2022, when Microsoft’s President and Vice Chair, Brad Smith, hinted that the company was working towards its responsibility to support a healthy competitive environment.
However, just days after its latest announcement, Microsoft has faced criticism from many of the industry’s key players, including Amazon and Google. According to tweets from Google’s SVP for Government Relations, Microsoft should not be in the position to decide the platform and technology that works best for customers; rather, it should be the customers.
New Microsoft Teams App Camp Details How to Build, Sell Teams Apps
Making the news for the second time this week, Microsoft has launched its new Microsoft Teams App Camp, detailing how to build and sell Team apps.
The brand-new Microsoft Teams App Camp is an on-demand workshop with labs featuring videos and more that detail the ins and outs of building apps for Microsoft Teams collaboration software and selling those apps in the product’s app store.
The Microsoft Teams App Camp On Demand site follows from the Teams Toolkit that features project templates that provide all the code, files, and configuration needed to help developers get started with a Teams app project and guidance such as Build apps with Microsoft Teams platform.
However, it takes a tech-agnostic approach by not requiring special tools, just ubiquitous JavaScript. In fact, the only parts of the camp that aren’t technically agnostic are those needed to integrate with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365.
Accordingly, after App Camp, you’ll have a working Teams application running in your own Microsoft 365 Developer tenant.
YouTube Premium subscribers can now test Google Meet live sharing
Less than a month ago, Google announced that it would be bringing direct integration of YouTube, Spotify, ‘Kahoot!’, and more into live Meet calls to make them more fun and interactive. This week, users of YouTube got the very first show of this.
YouTube Premium subscribers can now test this feature on their android devices. On the devices, it appears as a “Watch YouTube together with Google Meet” experiment, with a Pinch to zoom feature that will be removed before the end of the week.
This ability to co-watch videos was first announced for Samsung devices with Google Duo at the start of this year.
Google expands bug bounty program to cover GitHub and other open source projects
Google is adding to its bounty program that pays for the discovery of application vulnerabilities. This week, the company launched the Open Source Software Vulnerability Rewards Program (OSS VRP) to reward discoveries of bugs in Google’s open-source projects.
This covers all up-to-date versions of open source software (including repository configuration settings such as GitHub Actions) stored in the public repositories of Google-owned GitHub organizations (such as Google, GoogleAPIs, Google Cloud Platform, as well as projects that Google maintains, such as the Golang Go programming language, the Angular web developers platform and the Fuchsia operating system.
Depending on the severity of the vulnerability and the project’s importance, rewards will range from US$100 to US$31,337. The larger amounts will also go to unusual or particularly interesting vulnerabilities, so creativity is encouraged.
Palo Alto Networks reinforces its protection for SaaS applications with new capabilities
With hybrid work well established as the norm for the post-pandemic workforce and vast amounts of sensitive data now stored in SaaS apps, the risk of SaaS misconfiguration poses a serious security threat to businesses.
As a result of this, Palo Alto Network announced this week that they are embarking on a security strengthening position that will help SaaS apps through their Next-Gen CASB, which allows customers to easily view and configure security settings for multiple SaaS apps in a single place.
Also, the company added that the new ZTNA 2.0 security inspection capabilities would help to simplify networking and security operations for customers.
Bitskout Joins Asana Partners
This week Bitskout announced its status as an Asana technology partner delivering no-code AI solutions for the future of work.
Currently, Asana has over 260 Technology Partners worldwide that enable these organizations to move faster and coordinate work effortlessly, no matter where their employees are located.
This new addition of the Bitskout platform allows Asana users to set up AI-powered automation in their projects in minutes, without any coding required. Users can automatically extract data from documents, text, and even images and videos, and they can then make use of that readily accessible information however they see fit.
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ServiceNow just gave SaaS investors a green light
In recent times, ServiceNow is proving to stand the test of time as a SaaS that helps organize IT workflows across all business segments, creating a seamless interface for employees and customers.
However, to expand on ServiceNow’s offerings, it is all about making IT workflows more efficient. With businesses utilizing multiple software and hardware products, it’s easy for something to go wrong. And when something inevitably goes wrong, it’s usually not an easy fix.
ServiceNow’s software allows its customers to predict issues and also minimize the impact when something goes wrong due to response automation.
Meesho builds a logistics SaaS platform to widen its network
Lastly on the news digest this week, an eCommerce company, Meesho, is building a logistics-focused enterprise software solution that can be used by small and medium-sized industry players, according to people aware of the matter.
While this product is still being developed internally, its eventual release will reduce Meesho’s dependence on large third-party logistics players like Xpressbees, Ecom Express, and Delhivery.
This allows Meesho to work more closely with local and regional players who typically may not always have access to software solutions to service large volumes of eCommerce deliveries. While the software solution would be open for Meesho’s existing delivery partners, it will essentially widen the logistics network for the local-based eCommerce firm.