Endpoint DLP and Teams DLP in GCC High: What Do They Catch?

As of September 2026, Microsoft Purview endpoint DLP can audit or block sensitive files being copied to USB drives, network shares, the clipboard, printers, unallowed Bluetooth apps and remote desktop sessions, or uploaded to restricted cloud domains, on onboarded Windows 10, Windows 11 and macOS devices (the three latest released...

Is Power Pages Included in Microsoft 365?

When a business unit asks for a supplier or claimant portal and somebody in the room says the company already pays for Microsoft 365 so this should be free, the answer as of September 2026 is that it is not free, and Microsoft settles it in a table rather than...

Power Apps in GCC High or Commercial: Which Should Contractors Use?

Build your Power Apps in GCC High if they will handle ITAR or DFARS-governed data, and plan for your Microsoft 365 identity to be in GCC High too; build in a commercial tenant only for apps that touch no such data, which needs no eligibility validation and avoids the government-cloud...

IT Infrastructure Strategy: What Should the Engagement Cover?

A complete IT infrastructure strategy engagement covers four stages: a current-state assessment against your actual environment (not a generic checklist), a gap analysis tied to your specific compliance and operational constraints, a sequenced modernization roadmap with named dependencies, and a governance handoff so the roadmap survives the consultants leaving. Evaluate...

Hiring a SharePoint Consultant vs Doing It In-House

The SharePoint consultant versus in-house decision is really a project-versus-steady-state question. A consultant brings concentrated depth for a defined piece of work: a build, a migration, a rescue. In-house staff are the right owners for ongoing, steady-state operation once the work is built. The honest answer is frequently both, in...

SharePoint Add-ins Stopped Working in GCC High: How Do You Recover?

As of September 2026, SharePoint Add-ins and Azure ACS have been fully retired in SharePoint Online since April 2, 2026, for all tenants and all environments, Government Clouds and the U.S. Department of Defense included, and Microsoft’s Azure ACS retirement in Microsoft 365 announcement said there would be no option...

Power Apps Licensing in GCC: What Does It Cost vs Commercial?

When you price Power Apps for a government tenant, no public list gives you the number: Microsoft’s US Government documentation names the standalone Government plans and publishes no price for them. The commercial cloud publishes its per user prices openly, so the tier comparison starts with what changes.

Phased Power Automate Rollout for a 500-User Finance Organization

Five phases, and the first one produces no automation at all. Phase 1 closes the default environment, authors a tenant data policy, and names owners, because Microsoft states the default environment “doesn’t provide any backup guarantees and shouldn’t be used for production workloads” and every licensed user already holds the...

Microsoft 365 Copilot or Copilot Cowork: Which Do Your Teams Need?

As of September 2026, this is a population decision rather than a product decision. Microsoft describes the two as doing different jobs: Microsoft 365 Copilot works inside the Microsoft 365 apps, grounded in organizational data, while Microsoft Copilot Cowork “can carry out tasks on your behalf” across the same environment,...

Banking System Integration With Microsoft: How Do Banks Start?

As of September 2026, integrating a bank’s core banking, loan origination and payment systems with the Microsoft estate is a design decision made before any transport is chosen. Name the book of record for every field two systems could both claim to hold, so that a balance or a status...

ABAC vs RBAC: Which Access Model Fits Your Environment?

When the access rule you have to enforce changes while the person’s job stays the same, no role can express it: start with RBAC for standing access, and add ABAC where project, data classification, time or location has to gate the decision. PAM is a separate control layer for privileged...

Sharing CUI Across GCC High Tenants: How Do Primes and Subs Do It?

As of September 2026, the way to share CUI with a prime or subcontractor in Microsoft 365 depends first on which Azure cloud the partner’s directory sits in: a GCC High tenant collaborates with another GCC High tenant under same-cloud B2B, but reaches a GCC or commercial partner only after...

Documentum or OpenText Content Server to SharePoint Online: A Migration Guide That Keeps Records Under Microsoft Purview

If your source is Documentum or OpenText, Microsoft’s Migrate to Microsoft 365 guide, as of September 2026, lists Box, file shares, Google Workspace, Dropbox and SharePoint Server as sources, not those two. Import the schedule as a file plan, migrate under its labels, verify records and holds, decommission last.

Missouri Insurance Data Security Act: What Is Due and When?

As of September 2026, Missouri’s Insurance Data Security Act (RSMo 375.1400 to 375.1427) gives every licensee until January 1, 2027 to implement section 375.1405’s written information security program, and a separate year, until January 1, 2028, to extend the same due diligence to third-party service providers, according to section 375.1427...

Hiring for Power Apps: Builder, Staff, Governance Lead or Advisor?

Hiring for Power Apps starts with one decision that comes before any request for proposal: which of four roles the need actually is, build (a developer), staff (staff augmentation), govern, or advise (an advisory partner). Build is for an application that is already defined and needs delivering; staff is for...

Standalone SharePoint and OneDrive Plans Retire: Where Do Users Go?

As of September 2026, Microsoft’s standalone SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business Plan 1 and Plan 2 SKUs have already stopped selling to new customers (no new purchases after May 31, 2026), stop renewing entirely at the next renewal on or after January 2027, and fully retire in December 2029,...

Alaska Insurance Data Security Act: What Must Insurers Do?

As of September 2026, Alaska’s Insurance Data Security Act (AS 21.23.240 to 21.23.399) has required a licensee to maintain a written information security program since January 1, 2026, but its third-party service provider duty, AS 21.23.260(c)(7) and (c)(8), does not take effect until a full year later, on January 1,...

Applying CISA’s SCuBA Baselines to a Government Microsoft 365 Tenant: BOD 25-01 Scope, the Mandatory Policies and Conformance Evidence

As of September 2026, BOD 25-01 requires federal civilian agencies to implement the mandatory (“shall”) policies in CISA’s SCuBA Microsoft 365 baselines on every production or operational tenant that is part of an agency information system, whether the tenant is commercial, GCC or GCC High and whether the government or...

Windows Server 2016 and SQL Server 2016 End of Support

As of September 2026, choose per server: SQL Server 2016 reached end of support on July 14, 2026 and Windows Server 2016 follows on January 12, 2027, according to Microsoft, and for each machine Microsoft offers Extended Security Updates for up to three years, a supported upgrade, or a move...

EWS Shutdown in Exchange Online: How Do Apps Move to Microsoft Graph?

As of October 2026, according to Microsoft, blocking of EWS in Exchange Online was scheduled to begin on (or soon after) October 1, 2026, rolling out tenant by tenant, in every tenant with EWSEnabled “still set to Null on October 1, 2026” (Null is the default); an administrator can still...