I had the awesome opportunity to talk with a few people innovating with some of the most exciting next-generation tech in our latest episode of the Inside Azure for IT fireside chat series. Many of us, myself included, spend a lot of time focused on challenges that need to be addressed today—in this minute—leaving less time for creativity and longer-range planning. The same is true for many organizations. When businesses are faced with downtime, traditional hardware restrictions, or have to adapt quickly to new changes afoot, it can limit productivity and stifle innovation.

What we hear from IT leaders is that digital transformation becomes a reality when they can go from doing their job despite technology limitations to innovating and delivering on priorities because of the technology they’re using—specifically global, cloud-based infrastructure.

In this episode, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how three companies are using cutting-edge technologies like high-performance computing, Quantum, and AI to solve complex challenges, power innovation, and generate new kinds of business impact.

Driving innovation across industries with Azure

The episode is divided into three separate segments so you can watch them individually on-demand, at your convenience.

Part 1: Jeremy Smith and Karla Young on how Jellyfish Pictures virtualized their entire animation and visual effects studio with Azure

In this segment, you’ll hear from Jeremy Smith, CTO, and Karla Young, Head of PR, Marketing, and Communications at Jellyfish Pictures about how they create the amazing visuals we see in movies like How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming, or some of the recent Star Wars films—both big favorites for my family! Using Azure high-performance computing to accelerate image rendering, they can spin up tens of thousands of cores at a moment’s notice and manage all that rich content securely in a single place, without replication.
Watch now: Virtualizing animation with Azure high-performance computing.

Part 2: Anita Ramanan and Viktor Veis on using quantum computing to address a complex scheduling challenge for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

In the second segment, I’m joined by members of the Azure Quantum team—Anita Ramanan, Technical Program Manager Lead for Optimization in Azure Quantum, and Viktor Veis, Azure Quantum Group Software Engineering Manager—to talk about a project they worked on with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They share how they used quantum-inspired algorithms to create schedules for spacecraft communications in minutes rather than hours—and how Azure Quantum can address similar challenges in almost every industry, from manufacturing to healthcare.
Watch now: A quantum-inspired approach to scheduling communications in space.

Part 3: Alex Oelling on how Volocopter is powering an urban air mobility ecosystem of self-flying air taxis and drone services with Azure infrastructure and AI

In the third segment, I chat with Alex Oelling, Chief Digital Officer at Volocopter about how they are bringing urban air travel to life in major cities. A true pioneer in providing air taxi and drone services in urban environments, Volocopter is building a cloud-based solution to work with smart cities and existing mobility operations using Azure infrastructure and AI.
Watch now: Pioneering urban air travel in major cities with Azure infrastructure and AI.

When we launched Inside Azure for IT last July, our goal was to create a place where cloud professionals could come to learn Azure best practices and insights that would help them transform their IT operations. Whether you’ve tuned in for our live ask-the-experts sessions, watched deep-dive skilling videos, or joined us for fireside chats—we want to say "thank you" for engaging with us and bringing us your hardest questions.

Stay current with Inside Azure for IT

Beyond this latest episode, there are many more technical and cloud-skilling resources available through Inside Azure for IT. Learn more about empowering an adaptive IT environment with best practices and resources designed to enable productivity, digital transformation, and innovation. Take advantage of technical training videos and learn about implementing these scenarios.

• Watch the free Azure Hybrid, Multicloud, and Edge Day event on-demand.
• Watch past episodes of the Inside Azure for IT fireside chats.
• Watch part 1: Virtualizing animation with Azure high-performance computing.
• Watch part 2: A quantum-inspired approach to scheduling communications in space.
• Watch part 3: Pioneering urban air travel in major cities with Azure infrastructure and AI.