Microsoft Insights: Issue 7

Table of contents

Licensing and Partner Programme

Copilot and AI

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft 365 and Windows

Azure

Welcome to your August update

August was quieter on pricing than July, but it made up for it with changes to Microsoft's CSP and partner programmes, new routes into advanced security, and some hard deadlines that businesses need to have on their radar.

There is also a noticeable shift in Microsoft's approach to Copilot. Alongside adding new capabilities, Microsoft is making it easier for businesses to trial AI, connect it securely to more organisational data and bring it into everyday work such as managing tasks and projects.

This issue includes:

• New Copilot Business trials through CSP
• Security changes and new routes beyond Microsoft 365 E3
• Microsoft partner badge and skilling updates
• Copilot expanding across organisational data and everyday work
• Teams security, calling and administration updates
• The Microsoft 365 feature freeze on Windows 10
• Azure Firewall and upcoming Azure retirements

Licensing and Partner Programme

What's new? – Microsoft launches Copilot in 30 through CSP

From 1 August, partners can transact Microsoft 365 Copilot Business trials directly through CSP New Commerce as part of Microsoft's new Copilot in 30 programme.

Designed for organisations with fewer than 300 employees, the programme combines a 25-user, 30-day Microsoft 365 Copilot Business trial with guidance to help customers identify priority users, test relevant use cases and assess potential value before deciding whether to deploy more widely.

Microsoft is also introducing a customer evaluation tool that tailors prompts and scenarios by industry, giving businesses a more structured way to test Copilot against real working practices rather than simply experimenting with the technology.

What does it mean for you?

This lowers the barrier for SMB customers that are interested in Copilot, but not ready to commit to a wider deployment. More importantly, the structured trial creates an opportunity to establish what success should look like before licences are purchased.

Identify a small group of relevant users, agree the tasks or processes Copilot should improve and use the 30 days to build a business case around actual usage.

What's changing? – Defender Threat Intelligence retires as new security add-ons arrive

Microsoft retired the standalone Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence (MDTI) SKU on 1 August. Its capabilities are now available through the Microsoft Defender portal at no additional cost for customers with Microsoft Defender or Microsoft Sentinel, removing the need for a separate MDTI subscription.

Alongside this, Microsoft has introduced new CSP security add-ons with consistent pricing across CSP and Enterprise Agreement purchasing. These include Microsoft Entra ID P2, Defender for Endpoint P2 for Microsoft 365 E3 and Defender for Office 365 P2.

The result is a more flexible route for Microsoft 365 E3 customers that need stronger identity, endpoint or email security but do not yet need the full Microsoft 365 E5 suite.

Do you need to do anything?

Yes, if you have customers with active MDTI subscriptions. Microsoft will issue CSP partners a credit memo for any remaining subscription term beyond 1 August, which partners are responsible for passing on to affected customers.

It's also worth reviewing Microsoft 365 E3 estates against the new security add-ons. Some customers may have a clear requirement for specific E5-level security capabilities without needing to make a full licence-tier change.

What's changing? – Solutions Partner badges renamed as AI skilling expands

Microsoft has reorganised its customer-facing Solutions Partner badges around three commercial solution areas: AI Business Solutions, Cloud & AI Platforms, and Security.

The underlying six solution paths, scoring, requirements, benefits and specialisations remain in place, so existing partner investment still counts.

Microsoft has also confirmed that the Frontier Partner badge will retire at the end of June 2027 and evolve into a Frontier Partner specialisation. Wider skilling requirements are already changing too, with new AI-focused certifications being introduced across areas including Business Applications, Digital & App Innovation and Security.

What does it mean for you?

There’s no immediate requirement to requalify, but customer-facing marketing materials should be updated to reflect the new badge names.

More strategically, the changes show how quickly Microsoft is moving AI expertise into its core partner competency framework. Partners planning future specialisations should review their existing certification coverage now rather than waiting until renewal.

Copilot and AI

What's new? – Copilot is becoming more connected to the information behind your work

Microsoft continues to expand the information Copilot and Copilot agents can work with.

Copilot Chat in Outlook can now reason across a user's wider inbox, calendar, meetings and other Microsoft 365 organisational data they already have permission to access, rather than being restricted to an individual email thread.

Microsoft is also improving its external data connections. Federated Copilot Connectors can provide real-time access to supported third-party business data, while connectors for platforms including ServiceNow and Confluence are gaining stronger support for hierarchical permissions.

This is particularly important.

Parent-level permissions can now be taken into account when Copilot determines whether a user should be able to access a ‘child item’, helping its responses respect the way permissions are already structured in those systems.

What does it mean for you?

Copilot becomes considerably more useful when it understands the wider context behind a request, but broader access makes good permissions and data governance even more important. Before expanding Copilot into additional data sources, businesses should understand what users can already access and whether those permissions still reflect their roles.

The technology is increasingly capable of finding the right information. The bigger question is whether the underlying data environment is ready for it.

What's new? – Planner capabilities come to Copilot Chat

Microsoft is bringing Planner capabilities into Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, allowing users to ask questions about their tasks and plans through natural language.

Rather than opening Planner and manually working through different projects, users can ask Copilot about their workload, priorities and outstanding activity directly from the Copilot experience. This continues the wider shift we've covered throughout this series: Copilot is moving beyond content generation and becoming a way to interact with the work already happening across Microsoft 365.

What does it mean for you?

This could make Copilot particularly useful for employees managing work across multiple projects. Being able to ask what is outstanding, what needs attention or where work sits reduces the time spent moving between tools and manually checking task lists.

It also gives businesses another practical Copilot use case to include in adoption programmes. The value is easier to demonstrate when AI is helping people manage real workloads rather than simply drafting content.

Microsoft Teams

What's new? – Teams strengthens calling and device administration

Microsoft continues to improve the administration of larger Teams environments. Teams Rooms administrators can manage settings across multiple Android devices through the Pro Management portal rather than configuring devices individually.

Teams Phone is also expanding multi-line experiences, making it easier for users responsible for several numbers or business identities to manage calling from mobile devices.

These changes are particularly relevant to organisations running larger Teams Phone or meeting-room estates, where seemingly small improvements to administration can remove significant amounts of repetitive work.

What does it mean for you?

If Teams has grown organically across the business, this is a good opportunity to review how devices and calling are being managed. Centralised controls can reduce repetitive administration and help ensure settings remain consistent as the estate grows.

What's changing? – Simpler meeting passcodes bring a security trade-off

Microsoft is introducing the option for administrators to use simpler numeric meeting passcodes for selected users or groups.

The change can make joining meetings easier in scenarios where accessibility or manual entry is important, but simpler passcodes are inherently easier to guess. Microsoft therefore surfaces a warning when the setting is enabled.

Do you need to do anything?

Only where there is a genuine requirement. This should be treated as a targeted accessibility or usability option rather than a default tenant-wide configuration. Where it is enabled, make sure the convenience benefit justifies the reduction in passcode complexity.

What's changing? – Cross-tenant meeting audit visibility expands

Microsoft is expanding Meeting Participant Detail audit records for cross-tenant Teams meetings. Participating organisations will be able to see audit records relating to their own users, even when another organisation hosted the meeting. Data boundaries remain in place, so organisations do not gain visibility of participants belonging to other tenants.

What does it mean for you?

For businesses that collaborate heavily with customers, suppliers or partners through Teams, this closes a useful audit gap. Security and compliance teams gain better visibility of their own users' participation in externally hosted meetings without compromising the other organisation's data.

Microsoft 365 and Windows

What's changing? – Microsoft 365 feature updates stop on Windows 10

Microsoft has reached an important milestone in its move away from Windows 10. Microsoft 365 Apps running on Windows 10 will receive feature updates and eligible Copilot support only until Version 2608. For Current Channel devices, that version arrives in August 2026. Monthly Enterprise Channel devices reach the same point on 13 October 2026, followed by Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel devices on 12 January 2027.

After Version 2608, those devices remain on that feature set and receive security updates only. Microsoft has committed to Microsoft 365 Apps security updates on Windows 10 until 10 October 2028. There’s another operational consideration too: while customers can still raise Microsoft 365 support cases, Microsoft states that issues specific to Windows 10 may have limited troubleshooting options, and customers may ultimately be asked to move to Windows 11.

Do you need to do anything?

Yes. Businesses with a meaningful Windows 10 estate should now have a migration plan rather than treating Windows 11 as a future project. The security-update runway provides breathing room, but remaining on Windows 10 increasingly means accepting a frozen Microsoft 365 feature set, limited support options and no access to future productivity improvements.

Start by identifying devices that can move directly to Windows 11, those requiring remediation or replacement, and any business-critical applications holding the migration back.

Azure

What's new? – Azure Firewall explicit proxy reaches general availability

Azure Firewall's explicit proxy capability is now generally available.

Normally, Azure Firewall operates transparently, with user-defined routes directing traffic through it. Explicit proxy gives organisations another option by allowing applications and browsers to send outbound HTTP and HTTPS traffic directly to the firewall's private IP address.

It also supports proxy auto-configuration files and can be governed using Azure Policy.

What does it mean for you?

This provides greater flexibility for businesses that need centralised control and inspection of outbound web traffic, but where traditional route-based deployment is awkward.

It’s particularly worth exploring in more complex Azure and hybrid environments where application-level proxy configuration is preferable to changing network routes.

What's changing? – cc_v5 confidential VMs retire on 1 September

Microsoft is retiring the nested confidential cc_v5 VM series on 1 September 2026. Affected workloads that have not been resized before the deadline risk disruption, making this an immediate migration item for businesses using the affected VM family.

Do you need to do anything?

Yes. Check Azure estates for affected cc_v5 deployments now and move workloads to an appropriate supported confidential VM family before 1 September. With the deadline only days away, this is an operational change that should be escalated rather than left to a routine infrastructure review.

August has been a housekeeping month as much as a features month. The most important changes combine new opportunities to adopt Microsoft AI with increasingly practical questions around licensing, security, governance and platform lifecycle.

The common thread is readiness.

Microsoft's newest capabilities are becoming easier to access, but getting value from them increasingly depends on what sits underneath: the right licences, well-managed permissions, current platforms and a clear idea of where new technology can improve the way people work.

And if you would like help reviewing your Microsoft environment, or your customers’, our specialists can help.