Windows 365 updates

There are two updates for Windows 365. First of all, Windows 365 Frontline is generally available in Dedicated Mode for Government Community Cloud (GCC) and GCC High customers – find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/4h15yXf. And, secondly, Cross-Region Disaster Recovery, previously only available as an Add-on licence to Windows 365 Enterprise is now also available for Windows 365 Frontline in Dedicated Mode.

Find the announcement article with useful information on how it all works here: https://bit.ly/3IYJWOt.

Microsoft 365 Local and SE products

Microsoft introduced us to the notion of their Sovereign Private Cloud in June 2025 (see the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3KYvuqj). It’s designed for customers who need to meet strict sovereignty requirements and combines Azure Local and Microsoft 365 Local. Azure Local’s been around a while, but Microsoft 365 Local is new. It’s built on the Azure Local infrastructure, and enables organisations to deploy the traditional Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, and Skype for Business Server products entirely within their sovereign environment. To that end, the new SE versions of these products will be supported until at least 31 December, 2035.

Find information on Microsoft 365 Local here: https://bit.ly/3Wosztx, and the earliest End of Support date information here: https://bit.ly/48QNrRC.

Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence

Microsoft announced back in July 2025 (see the article here: https://bit.ly/477RoR8) that Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence (MDTI) would be made available free of charge for Defender XDR and Microsoft Sentinel customers. This is due to happen in several phases with completion by the first half of 2026, with existing customers having access to their current MDTI experience until the product is retired on 1 August, 2026.

And the new news? The October 2025 Product Terms is updated with the removal of the standalone MDTI licences.

Licence management for Dynamics 365 ERP apps

Microsoft announce a change to the schedule for the licence enforcement of the Dynamics 365 ERP apps. The original date when licences needed to be assigned to users was 1 September, 2025 and that was then moved out to 1 November, 2025. Now the date is the customer’s first anniversary/renewal after 15 January, 2026. After that time unlicensed users will get alerts 30 days before the renewal, and then if licences aren’t assigned within 15 days of the anniversary/renewal date, users will lose access to the apps.

You can find an updated announcement here: https://bit.ly/4pSzaKd, and a useful FAQ here: https://bit.ly/3Kqzq39.

Subscription Editions added to SPLA

SharePoint Server Subscription Edition (SE) has long been available, and Microsoft made Exchange Server SE and Skype for Business Server SE generally available in July 2025 through the traditional Volume Licensing agreements. In the VL agreements you always need to have active SA on the Server and CAL licences to use the product, and thus there’s been a question mark over what happens in SPLA, especially since Exchange and Skype for Business come to end of support on 14 October, 2025. Well, the latest updates to the SPUR give us our answer – all three SE products are added for the October 2025 SPUR update.

Find the SPUR website here: https://bit.ly/4q0DmYK.

Microsoft rebrand security and compliance suites for Enterprise plans

Microsoft rebrand the security and compliance suite Add-ons for Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans from 1 October, 2025. This aligns the names with the recently introduced SMB security and compliance suites which you can read more about on our blog here: https://bit.ly/3IsVjhH. The functionality remains the same, with Microsoft 365 E5 Security now becoming the Microsoft Defender Suite, and Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance becoming the Microsoft Purview Suite.

Find out the details here: https://bit.ly/46R1KTE.

Changes to price levels for Online Services

Microsoft announce that they will remove the programmatic discount price levels for Online Services in the EA and MPSA from 1 November, 2025. Existing customers will be affected by this change at their next agreement renewal or when they purchase new Online Services not on their Customer Price Sheet after 1 November. There’s no change to the price levels for on-premises software and the price lists for US Government and education customers aren’t affected.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/45Ivy5J.

Windows Server 2025 Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (September 2025) Windows Server Licensing Guide which corrects a couple of previous errors by removing text which states that customers need a minimum of 16 Core licenses when licensing by virtual machine.

Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/3IbVyxo.

Teams or no Teams?

Microsoft announce that the inclusion of Teams will once more be an option for Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suite customers. From 1 November, 2025 Office 365 E1/E3/E5 and Microsoft 365 E3/E5 will be available both with and without Teams, alongside the Frontline Worker and Business suites which continue to be available with or without Teams.

Find the details in the announcement article here: https://bit.ly/3WccCXc, along with information about other changes made in response to European competition concerns.

Power Platform Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (September 2025) Power Platform Licensing Guide with just a minor change for the renaming of Copilot messages to Copilot Credits.

Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/3JGHyfv.