To provide an opportunity to conduct a remote audit of Azure data centers during the coronavirus restrictions, Microsoft began to use a mixed reality headset HoloLens. An employee, at the request and under the supervision of an auditor, demonstrates a certain procedure or checks various functional tasks of the infrastruсture. The HoloLens headset combines both virtual and actual reality support components, allowing one to create and add text blocks, diagrams and graphs, instructions, and drawings to create a complete picture. In turn, the presence of a microphone and speaker allows the user to give answers to the auditors’ questions.

Microsoft also noticed that the application of mixed reality devices reduced the audit time along with carbon emissions due to the limited number of employee trips. Moreover, the relevant study has demonstrated that this improvement had a positive impact on Azure’s compliance control group’s employees and brought “an invaluable improvement in the balance between private life and work time.”