Microsoft Technology Briefing - April 2025

This is a technical deep dive and demo rich event covering essentials to enable successful enterprise-grade genAI development and deployment to production at your organization. We will share learnings from the field, common challenges, and common success patterns we see with enterprise customers developing and deploying generative AI at scale. Location: Microsoft Office, Regeringsgatan 25.

Det kan vara svårt att hänga med i alla förändringar som sker inom Microsoft 365 Copilot. Vi har därför nöjet att bjuda in dig till detta webinar som fokuserar på de senaste nyheterna i Microsoft 365 Copilot. Under detta webinar kommer vi att belysa viktiga uppdateringar, både inom produkt, material och insikter. Detta inkluderar nya funktioner, förbättringar av befintliga verktyg och intressanta användarfall som visar hur du kan dra nytta av dessa uppdateringar i din dagliga verksamhet.

Welcome to an exclusive event designed to showcase the future of work with generative AI, featuring Microsoft Copilot and Agents. Join us for an inspiring agenda that includes executive insights on AI, best practices and examples from others as well as interactive sessions. Location: Microsoft Office, Regeringsgatan 25.

Security innovation is accelerating to match the needs of a complex and evolving cyber threat landscape. As bad actors become better resourced and better prepared, organizations can’t afford to lag behind. Join us in Stockholm for the Microsoft Security Summit 2025, where top experts, decision-makers, and industry leaders gather to redefine what’s possible in cybersecurity. Location: Microsoft Office, Regeringsgatan 25.

Under årets Pre-Day kommer vi att dyka djupt in i hur AI kan fungera som kraftfull accelerator i vård-Sverige. Årets agenda är uppdelad i olika block, fokuserade på hur AI kan bidra till en jämlik vård, skapa mer tid för kärnuppdraget och hur vi kan se till att maximera nyttoeffekter. Microsoft Pre-Day på Vitalis riktar sig till dig som har en ledande roll inom svensk hälso- och sjukvård. Location: Svenska Mässan, Ingång 5.

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Collaborate with peers to grow your technical skills through challenge-based group sessions at a free Microsoft Hackathon. We are partnering with NVIDIA to bring you this Microsoft Azure Hackathon—combining technical content and AI scenarios to accelerate your productivity and advance your skills in building intelligent applications. Location: Microsoft Office, Regeringsgatan 25.

Discover how Microsoft Sentinel, a cloud-native SIEM and SOAR solution, can modernize your security operations by improving threat detection, prevention, and response.

Your front-row seat to the future of work: Reimagine what's possible for your career, your team, your business - and for work itself. Connect with hundreds of Microsoft executives, subject matter experts, and product makers to unlock solutions that will accelerate your AI transformation. Location: Las Vegas.

Join us to explore this year's topics: AI, Copilot, Azure, Developer Tools and .NET, GitHub, and even tech that's not out yet. Go beyond the announcements and get into the code at an event by developers, for developers. Location: Seattle and online.

Equip frontline workers with tools to boost productivity, engage with company culture, and simplify security. Learn about tech trends and success stories.

This month, the Microsoft Security Response Center recently welcomed some of the world’s most talented security researchers at Microsoft’s Zero Day Quest, the largest live hacking competition of its kind. The inaugural event challenged the security community to focus on the highest-impact security scenarios for Copilot and Cloud with up to $4 million in potential awards.

The dynamic nature of containers can make it challenging for security teams to detect runtime anomalies or pinpoint the source of a security incident, presenting an opportunity for attackers to stay undetected. Microsoft Threat Intelligence has observed threat actors taking advantage of unsecured workload identities to gain access to resources, including containerized environments. Microsoft data...

The Microsoft Secure Future Initiative (SFI) stands as the largest cybersecurity engineering project in history and most extensive effort of its kind at Microsoft. Now, we are sharing the second SFI progress report, which highlights progress made in our multi-year journey to improve the security posture of Microsoft, our customers, and the industry at large.

Read about the initiatives Microsoft has undertaken over the past 18 months to support secure by design, secure by default, and secure in operations objectives as part of our SFI Initiative.

Microsoft maintains a continuous effort to protect its platforms and customers from fraud and abuse. This edition of Cyber Signals takes you inside the work underway and important milestones achieved that protect customers.

Since October 2024, Microsoft Defender Experts has observed and helped multiple customers address campaigns leveraging Node.js to deliver malware and other payloads that ultimately lead to information theft and data exfiltration.

Microsoft Secure Score is important, but the increasing sophistication of security requirements has driven the development of more comprehensive security initiatives using Microsoft Security Exposure Management.

Register to attend one or all our Learn Live sessions to learn how to secure your environment for AI adoption.

For RSAC 2025, Microsoft Security is bringing an exciting lineup of sessions, expert panels, and exclusive networking opportunities to empower security professionals in the era of AI.

Exchange Server and SharePoint Server are business-critical assets and considered crown-jewels for many organizations, making them attractive targets for attacks. To help customers protect their environments and respond to these attacks, Exchange Server and SharePoint Server integrated Windows Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI), providing an essential layer of protection by preventing harmful web requests from reaching backend endpoints.

Read how cyberattackers exploit domain controllers to gain privileged system access where they deploy ransomware that causes widespread damage and operational disruption.

The AI revolution is transforming how businesses work, and Microsoft 365 Copilot is at the forefront of this change. By integrating more data sources directly into Microsoft 365, organizations can unlock new levels of productivity, efficiency, and intelligence. With the introduction of new Microsoft Graph connectors , businesses can now connect additional external content repositories, making information retrieval, insights generation, and knowledge discovery easier than ever before.

Welcome to the April 2025 edition of What's new in Microsoft 365 Copilot! Every month, we highlight new features and enhancements to keep Microsoft 365 admins up to date with Copilot features that help your users be more productive and efficient in the apps they use every day. This month, we want to highlight announcements as part of the Copilot Wave 2 Spring release to continue making Copilot the UI for AI, transform workflows with reasoning and agents, and create a platform for AI makers.

First announced in February , Microsoft is rolling out a new Microsoft-managed policy to help further secure your tenants against potential threats to accounts using device code flow (DCF) authentication. Rollout began in February and will continue until May. The policies will initially be created in report-only mode, allowing admins to review their impact before they’re enforced.

Last week several of our team members attended the 2025 Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) annual conference in Denver, Colorado. This marquee event in our field brings together industry leaders, practitioners, and academic professionals to discuss, learn, and share on the most important topics. This year we heard a lot about building AI with “humans in the loop,” agents disrupting employee experience workflows such as hiring and skills-based learning, and the future of.

To meet customers’ needs for a one-stop destination to configure, monitor, and manage Teams rooms devices, we will be transitioning all Teams Rooms on Windows devices, irrespective of their licenses, to the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal on May 1, 2025 . This change delivers a unified device management and admin portal experience. Teams Rooms on Windows devices will no longer be available in Teams admin center (TAC) after June 1, 2025 .

Microsoft is once again the headline sponsor of the Microsoft 365 Community Conference, the ultimate Microsoft 365 & AI learning experience, May 6-8 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. What: Microsoft 365 Community Conference 2025 Register today | Note: Use the SAVE150 discount code to save $150 USD. Content: 3 Microsoft keynotes + 1 Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA) | 200+ overall sessions Microsoft-led sessions | 21 full-day workshops (pre-day and post) Microsoft is sending over 150+ product makers to..

Customers with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses will begin to see two first-of-their-kind reasoning agents for work – Researcher and Analyst through our new program, Frontier. What is the Frontier program? Frontier offers our customers the ability to get hands on with the latest model innovation as soon as it’s available, and provide feedback before experiences are made generally available.

The 2025 Work Trend Index is here—and it signals a profound shift in how businesses will operate and grow. The report reflects insights from organizations of all sizes, and this blog takes a deeper look into what the data reveals specifically about small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). We are entering a new reality—one in which AI can reason and solve problems in remarkable ways.

Today’s Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 Spring release highlights new capabilities for the new era of human-agent collaboration. Teams are now empowered to address unique business needs by creating and customizing secure, enterprise-grade agents faster and more easily than ever—and as an IT pro you’re probably wondering how you’re going to manage that. We hear you, and are excited to share new capabilities in the Copilot Control System (CCS) to help IT administrators and security professionals...

Copilot Analytics is our set of reporting capabilities, included with Microsoft 365 Copilot, designed to help organizations measure the impact of AI on their business. Reports are already available to track the usage and impact of Microsoft 365 Copilot. Now it’s time for agents. The use of AI agents within an organization has tremendous potential to usher in a new era of productivity.

Agents are fundamentally shifting how businesses operate, allowing companies to scale quicker and generate value exponentially faster. According to the 2025 Work Trend Index , this will be a pivotal year for companies to rethink their core strategies and operations, with human-AI teams powering a new kind of hybrid work. 83% of leaders are confident their company will use agents to accelerate product development or innovation through human-agent collaboration.

We are excited to announce the general availability of People Skills, a powerful new data layer in Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 and the Viva portfolio of apps and services. People Skills is the evolution of the service previously known as Skills in Viva . Built on this new data layer, we’re also introducing the new Skills agent that helps leaders create dynamic skill-based teams to tackle any project, and lets employees find and connect with people with the skills they need.

Microsoft is introducing a powerful new Exchange Integration feature in Dynamics 365 Field Service, designed to seamlessly sync work order bookings with Outlook and Teams calendars. This feature lets technicians see their work assignments, personal appointments, and other work meetings in one place. With this integration, work order bookings from Dynamics 365 Field Service will automatically appear on resources’ Outlook and Teams calendars, provided they are set up for syncing.

We’re continually improving Dynamics 365 Customer Service to help organizations deliver faster, smarter, and more efficient customer experiences. Today, we’re excited to announce that administrators will now be able to maintain routing rules in bulk. This enhancement empowers administrators to update routing configurations across the board with just a few clicks—a game-changing update for teams...

The quote lines represent the high-level components of work being delivered, while the quote line details capture granular estimates, tying in scheduling, cost, and revenue details. Each quote line is also linked to contracting models and chargeable components, allowing for accurate modeling of revenue spread, project spending, and profitability, both at the quote level and also for each individual component.

Agreements in Dynamics 365 Field Service help streamline recurring operations consistently. You define the terms and conditions of your service contracts, such as frequency, duration, resources, products, and services involved--automate recurring work orders in Field Service. Through agreements, you can automate work order and booking generation, eliminating the need for manual creation and reducing administrative overhead.

When optimizing the schedule, the agent considers existing bookings as well as additional unfulfilled requirements. You can influence the schedule generated by the agent by crafting requirement views according to business objectives. For example, if you are trying to compensate for cancelled bookings, you may want to select requirements which have promise windows which are soon to expire.

In today's digital era, many organizations still rely on paper for inspections, leading to inefficiencies and extra effort to digitize data. Dynamics 365 Field Service's new inspection builder, powered by Copilot, addresses these challenges by seamlessly converting paper forms into digital templates, streamlining the process and enhancing data management.

There are many benefits to beginning the migration to Business Central now, with many resources that Microsoft has to support you.

An update is coming to the closed conversation form in Dynamics 365 Contact Center. If the administrator has enabled the option, service reps can view the recordings and transcripts at the end of the conversation. They can also view sentiment analysis, key metrics, AI summary, post call survey results, and sessions in the conversation journey.

We’re pleased to share that the Sales Order Agent for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is now available in paid public preview.

The study provides a clear picture of the financial, operational, and strategic benefits of adopting Dynamics 365. With the increasing complexity of manufacturing operations and the need for digital transformation, it’s crucial for organizations to understand how Dynamics 365 can help them meet the challenges they face.

It’s important for organizations to determine their level of readiness, or maturity index, for AI-powered, low-code tools.

Microsoft Learn has a growing list of Power Platform training modules. Based on community feedback, we’ve added a new learning path: Work with Power Fx functions. Power Fx functions enable the creation of server-side business logic using Power Fx, a low-code, declarative language. These functions were previously called instant low-code plug-ins. They provide reusable, parameterized...

Application Insights integration for Java and Node microservices is now available in Public Preview. You can now easily monitor your Java and Node deployments without changing your code by leveraging auto-instrumentation that is integrated into the AKS cl...

We're excited to share a wave of exciting new enhancements to Azure Files and Azure File Sync, designed to simplify how you manage and access your file data.

Azure CNI overlay now supports dual-stack networking with Azure CNI powered by Cilium, enabling customers to enforce IPv6 network policies and leverage Advanced Container Networking Services (ACNS) in dual-stack environments. This update allows customers...

Previously available in 6 limited regions, Azure Bastion Developer has now expanded to a total of 36 public regions with support for more regions coming soon. Bastion Developer provides secure-by-default RDP/SSH connectivity to VMs without the need for a...

Azure Load Testing now supports simulating managed identity based authentication flows in load tests. As you transition to more secure authentication methods like managed identities, this capability ensures that you can seamlessly and effectively run load...

Wow, KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2025 in London was a fantastic time! Our Azure Storage team was thrilled to exchange insights and success stories at this vibrant community event. If you missed it, don’t worry! We are here to share what we showed off at the con: how we are enhancing performance, cost-efficiency, and AI

You can now use MongoDB version 8.0 on vCore-based Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB. This release provides access to the latest MongoDB features, helping you build and manage your applications more efficiently. Learn more.

In mid-April 2025, the following updates and enhancements were made to Azure SQL: Read-access geo-zone redundant storage (RA-GZRS) as a backup storage type is now generally available for non-hyperscale service tiers. Pricing for RA-GZRS is now the same as...

We are excited to announce that several parameters in Azure Database for PostgreSQL 17 can now be modified. This enhancement provides greater flexibility and control over your database configurations, allowing you to optimize performance and tailor settin...

You can now use the migration service in Azure Database for PostgreSQL to easily migrate time-series databases—without dropping the extension. With the click of a button, you can use the Migration tab on the Flexible Server portal page or go through the A...

PostgreSQL minor versions 17.4, 16.8, 15.12, 14.17, and 13.20 are now supported by Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server. These minor version upgrades are automatically performed as part of the monthly planned maintenance in Azure Database for...

We are excited to announce that you can now use service principal Entra authentication to connect your Azure Database for PostgreSQL instance with Azure Synapse Analytics and Azure Data Factory. This feature enhances security and simplifies the authentica...

At FabCon 2025, customers from around the world will share how they are pushing the boundaries of data at scale and unlocking new possibilities for business innovation.

Azure AI Foundry's latest innovations empower businesses to optimize AI investments and differentiate in a competitive landscape. New tools like Azure AI Agent Service and Microsoft Fabric data agents enhance operational efficiency, while NVIDIA NIM microservices boost performance and cost optimization. Discover how these advancements can transform your AI strategy.

Today, AI stands on the brink of a similar leap, evolving from assistants awaiting instruction to agents capable of serving as workplace teammates. At Microsoft's 50th anniversary, we're not simply celebrating our history—we're laying the groundwork for tomorrow's digital economy with Azure AI Foundry.

We are excited to share the launch of the next generation of the GPT-4o model series with GPT-4.1, 4.1-mini, and 4.1-nano to Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service.

Fabric Espresso – Episodes About Performance Optimization & Compute Management in Microsoft Fabric...

Data engineering often presents challenges with data quality or complex data analytics processing that requires custom logic. This is where Fabric User data functions can be used to implement custom logic into your data processes or pipelines. Here are the most common cases where Fabric User Data Functions...

Record-Breaking Attendance The Microsoft Fabric Community Conference (FabCon) was a monumental success with over 6,000 attendees, 200+ breakout sessions, 20 workshops, and 70+ sponsors. Day 1 keynotes at the T-Mobile Arena featured a packed auditorium of Fabric enthusiasts ready to discover the future of Microsoft’s unified AI platform. While FabCon was an in-person only event, …

Introducing distributed session-scoped temporary (#temp) tables in Fabric Data Warehouse and Fabric Lakehouse SQL Endpoints. #temp tables have been a feature of Microsoft SQL Server (and other database systems) for many years. In the current implementation of Fabric data warehouse, #temp tables are session scoped or local temp tables. Global temp tables are not included …

Here is the April2025 release of the on-premises data gateway (version 3000.266).

As a data engineer, it is important to be able to efficiently organize, analyze and derive insights from your data so that you can drive informed and data-driven decisions across your organization. Having a well set up Data Warehouse, you can ensure data integrity, improve your query performance and support advanced analytics. Optimizing a Data …

In this blog post, we will walk through the process of creating, testing, and deploying a user data function using Visual Studio Code, based on the official Microsoft Fabric documentation. This guide will help you understand the steps involved and provide a practical example to get you started.

Microsoft Fabric’s GraphQL API offers a powerful way to query data efficiently, but performance optimization is key to ensuring smooth and scalable applications. In this blog, we’ll explore best practices to maximize the efficiency of your Fabric GraphQL API. Whether you’re handling complex queries or optimizing response times, these strategies will help you get the best performance out of your GraphQL implementation...

We’re thrilled to announce the public preview of the Trusted Launch feature for Generation 2 (Gen2) Virtual machines (VMs) in Azure DevTest Labs! 🌟 This game-changing feature is designed to enhance security of virtual machines (VMs), protecting against advanced and persistent attack techniques. Here are the key benefits: Securely deploy VMs with verified boot loaders, OS kernels,

Are you tired of switching between your IDE and command-line tools to manage Git tags? We’ve got the perfect solution for you! With the latest update, Visual Studio empowers you to seamlessly view and manage Git tags directly within the Git Repository window. This streamlined workflow ensures you remain within the familiar environment of the...

Introduction Following up on the exciting announcement about Anthropic’s state-of-the-art models becoming available to Azure Databricks customers, this post provides a detailed, step-by-step guide on how you can start using Claude 3.7 Sonnet model directly within your Azure Databricks environment using Model Serving. We’ll walk through deploying the necessary Azure Databricks workspace, finding the Claude...

Understanding Multi-Agent Workflow Automation At its core, a multi-agent architecture is like a team of specialized experts working together on complex tasks. Instead of having a single AI agent trying to handle everything, multiple AI agents—each with specific roles and capabilities—collaborate to achieve common goals. Think of it as the difference between having one person...

Learn how to leverage GitHub Copilot to make your code more secure.

Comparing GitHub-hosted vs self-hosted runners for your CI/CD workflows? This deep dive explores important factors to consider when making this critical infrastructure decision for your development team.

There are 60,000+ climate-focused projects on GitHub, explore one this Earth Day!

Discover the latest trends and insights on public software development activity on GitHub with the quarterly release of data for the Innovation Graph, updated through December 2024.

Last updated: April 21, 2025 🎯 Introduction Are you an IT admin, platform engineer, or a developer looking to explore a developer-centric, cloud-powered workstation experience? In this post, I’ll show you how to start quickly and try out Microsoft Dev Box using either a Microsoft 365 Business Premium or Microsoft 365 E3 plan — both...

Discover practical tips and tricks for forming effective GraphQL queries and mutations.

Find yourself needing to adjust pasted code to actually work in your project? Visual Studio 2022 introduces the capability to adapt your pasted code with Copilot to reduce the time you spend on making tedious changes. Streamline manual code modifications with adaptive paste When you’re copying and pasting code, the process often comes with extra...

See how I built a developer-focused landing page in under 30 minutes using GitHub Copilot agent mode and Claude 3.5 Sonnet—with just screenshots and prompts.

We are thrilled to join the community at this year’s KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2025 in London!

Microsoft is committed to working with our media and entertainment customers and partners to advance AI while addressing key obstacles to adoption.

Microsoft and our partners are playing a pivotal role in transforming the industry by building industry-specific solutions that integrate data unification and more.

Microsoft and our partners can help you unlock the full potential of AI for OSS and BSS transformation to strengthen network security, enhance customer engagement, and more.

Our kickoff celebration’s 24-hour learning blitz was an amazing start to the Microsoft AI Skills Fest ! The festivities continue through May 28, 2025, and we’ve lined up multiple learning experiences for you. From self-paced tutorials and Microsoft Learn Challenges to live, in-person and online training sessions, hackathons, and community events, the AI Skills Fest has something for everyone.

Microsoft offers AI solutions helping retailers address challenges and enhance store operations to focus on delighting and assisting shoppers.

Our new guide, Reduce risk, create resilience: Advancing supply chain sustainability, outlines how data intelligence and collaboration can transform supply chains to be more agile, sustainable, and resilient.

This story reflects updated guidance from Microsoft Digital—it was first published in 2024. At Microsoft, we’re leaning on AI to enhance our internal device management strategy. AI is helping us to simplify and improve the experience our employees have with their devices by predicting and auto-remediating issues, supporting proactive solutions, and enhancing the operating system’s...

The new Interpreter agent in Microsoft Teams meetings is transforming the lives of our employees who must speak a second language at work. We in Microsoft Digital, our internal IT organization, have enabled Interpreter across Microsoft, providing our employees with live, real-time interpretation in their meetings. Interpreter is especially helpful because it goes beyond regular...

Deploying Windows Hello for Business internally here at Microsoft has significantly increased our security when our employees and vendors access our corporate resources. This feature offers a streamlined user sign-in experience—it replaces passwords with strong, phishing-resistant authentication by combining an enrolled device with a PIN or biometric user input for sign in. Windows Hello was...

This year, 127,000 business and government leaders from 150 nations gathered at Hanover Messe to see how technology is shaping the future.

At MWC 2025, Microsoft demonstrated its commitment to innovation in telecom through real-world applications of agentic AI.