News

Microsoft is removing Copilot Chat from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote for unlicensed users at organisations with more than 2,000 Microsoft 365 seats. The change takes effect 15 April 2026.

Microsoft unified consumer and commercial Copilot under new EVP Jacob Andreou. Mustafa Suleyman pivoted to in-house model development. Rajesh Jha retired after 35 years. Five restructurings in two and a half years amid 3.3% paid seat penetration.

Three Product Terms changes in one update: Azure Arc pay-as-you-go no longer needs a pre-existing licence, ESU Cloud Managed drops the Enterprise edition requirement, and Entra ID Governance gets a new name.

For four months, SPLA providers lacked the right to deploy Power BI Report Server under their SQL Server licences, even though on-premises customers already had it. The March 2026 SPUR update closes that gap.

Microsoft’s July 2026 Microsoft 365 price increase adds 5–8% to list prices. For large enterprises, the prior removal of EA volume discounts raises the effective increase to 15–23%. This article analyses the combined cost impact and renewal timing options.

Microsoft’s Q2 FY2026 brought $81.3B revenue but a 10% stock drop. Azure growth is slowing, Copilot adoption sits at 3.3%, and M365 price increases hit in July 2026. What the numbers mean for your licensing costs and renewal strategy.

The February 2026 Product Terms update adds Defender for Endpoint P2 and Entra ID P2 as add-ons for Microsoft 365 E3 and introduces Dragon Copilot Physician Practice Per User with a tenant isolation requirement.

Microsoft replaces the free CSP grace period with a paid Extended Service Term from April 2026, shifting renewals to a 23% premium model that trades free buffer time for uninterrupted service.

Power Apps per App Plan removed from January 2026 licensing guide — but not for everyone. EA and CSP customers keep the SKU. MPSA faces end of sale. SAMexpert breaks down the channel-by-channel impact and replacement options.

Microsoft Defender Experts Suite combines MXDR, Incident Response, and advisory engineering into a single managed security offering. Promotional pricing in 2026 comes with strict prerequisites, high seat minimums, and opaque pricing.

GitHub reduced prices for hosted runners, but quietly introduced a fee for self-hosted usage. The developer backlash was immediate. Within a week, GitHub reversed course — but the cost problem remains.

Microsoft’s January 2026 Product Terms update formalises Security Copilot in M365 E5, rebrands Azure AI Foundry to Microsoft Foundry, adds new third-party AI model licensing terms, and clarifies Teams Phone carrier liability.