M365 News Roundup for March 2025
An interesting idea for paid M365 tenants for testing
Before we dive into the news this month, I wanted to talk about this idea from Andrew Connell:
Microsoft 365 Dev Tenants: A Paid Model Could Save Them.
As you may know, Microsoft discontinued the ability to create a free Dev tenant last year because of misuse. You could only get a new tenant if you paid for a Visual Studio license. Those of us with an existing tenant could keep it subject to quarterly approvals. (I’ve been lucky enough to be still approved, but it’s unclear what the requirements are beyond showing that you use it. The mystery makes me want something more concrete because the environment I rely on one day may be gone.)
Andrew’s request for a paid dev tenant subject to restrictions makes sense for developers and anyone interested in learning about Purview and Security features. Let’s face it: You can’t create new policies to see what they do in your production environment.
However, the cost of having a separate environment to test is not sustainable for most of us. For example, I use my dev tenant to create much of the content for this newsletter. To replicate that with a paid tenant would cost me:
$54.75 per month/user for e5
$5.25 per month/user for Teams
Various additional costs to test Copilot, Teams and SharePoint premium, etc.
For the testing I’ve done, I’d need a minimum of 3 users. (It isn’t easy to test any group features when you only have 2.) The cost starts at $180 per month, paid annually.
$2,160.00
This newsletter makes me some money, but not enough to add that expense to the balance sheet annually. Even then, it only gets me to where I am today without any premium features or access to Copilot, Copilot for Security, etc. Those would add to the cost.
It also assumes that I can purchase only three licenses. I guess I can, but does anyone know?
Either that or I purchase Visual Studio, a tool I have no use for, which seems to cost at minimum $99.99 monthly, but possibly $499.92 monthly for access to everything if I’m reading this page correctly.
Either way, trying to test and learn M365 is expensive and out of reach for many individuals. Microsoft should have devised a solution to that problem but has not done so. Andrew’s suggestion isn’t perfect, IMHO, but it’s something that most of us could afford, at least.
Unless a bunch of you want to pay for a subscription or sponsor it? ;-)
I’ll settle for sharing it with a friend.
On to the rest of the news:
Copilot News:
Surprisingly, I haven’t seen much news about Copilot in recent weeks. Maybe it’s just me, but there seems to be a bit of a lull from Microsoft regarding rolling out new features. Perhaps that ties into what Satya had to say about the hype or the pause in building some of the latest data centers they had planned. Or maybe not.
Microsoft Copilot to analyse content shared onscreen in a Teams meeting - in case something is being shared in a meeting that we can’t spy on. ;-)
This isn’t directly about Copilot but about AI and Security in M365 - Eric's Elevator Pitch: DSPM for AI.
Increase Your Productivity with Copilot on OneNote Web and OneNote in Teams.
Non-Copilot News:
This month, a plethora of educational content seemed to be getting my attention. I guess I’m following a lot of smart people on social media these days.
I want to start with a series from Anna Bordioug on sensitivity labels:
How to Configure Purview Sensitivity Labels to Protect Your Data
Applying Sensitivity Labels to Content in Cloud Apps and On-Premises Repositories
Speaking of sensitive information:
Testing sensitive information types in Microsoft Purview.
I also want to share this because SharePoint embedded is challenging to wrap my head around sometimes:
M365 Admins, pay attention - Microsoft 365 Accounts Get Sprayed by Mega-Botnet.
Is this a sign of how important keeping your M365 environment secure has become? Offering the e5 security add-on to Business Premium licensees indicates that MS would like to sell the various security tools to mid-sized businesses as well, and they should.
Power Automate is one of those tools that I wish I knew more about. I could do more than I currently do, but I haven’t found the time to research it. I was glad to see someone talking about it.
Also, regarding PowerAutomate - Power Automate Desktop: AI Recorder for Flawless Automation.
I’m bookmarking this one. - Microsoft Purview permission guide.
A few more educational links, in no particular order:
Mastering Document Versioning in SharePoint Online: A Guide for Administrators.
Master Microsoft Forms: Your Ultimate Guide to Surveys, Quizzes, and Polls.
3 simple techniques to use Microsoft Loop for project journals.
As I said earlier, smart people are creating a lot of educational content. I’m sure I’m missing some other posts that you may have seen. Let me know if there’s someone I should follow or a post you’ve seen recently that taught you something new about M365. I'm always happy to add more sources to my reading list!