News

Microsoft’s June 2026 Product Terms make AI compliance universal across Azure, publish Agent 365 licence prerequisites, and narrow Azure Hybrid Benefit for Azure Local to hyperconverged deployments. Several changes, including a dropped Copilot Studio copyright designation, went unannounced.

Microsoft is retiring all four standalone SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business plans: no new sales after May 2026, no renewals after January 2027, full retirement by December 2029. Affected customers must move to Microsoft 365 suites, but Microsoft’s other named alternatives still have no published pricing.

Microsoft’s May 2026 Product Terms launch Microsoft 365 E7 at $99 per user per month, introduce Agent 365 at $15, broaden multiplexing to cover AI agents and automation, ban RPA outputs from AI training, and disclose automated AI policy classifiers.

SAMexpert launches Pulse, a free results portal for industry surveys. The first survey, State of SPLA 2026, is open now — anyone who registers can read the public report, and participants who leave an email unlock personalised benchmarking against the market.

Microsoft’s April 2026 Product Terms update consolidates SQL Server and Windows Server subscription rights into SA benefits, adds Windows 10 LTSB 2016 ESU terms, expands Azure AI guardrails registration, and shifts Teams recording notification liability to customers.

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.