Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast

Welcome to Episode 436 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben and Scott dive into Microsoft Entra Tenant Governance. Almost nobody runs one Microsoft Entra tenant. Mergers, divestitures, dev and test environments, regional partitioning, that one AI proof-of-concept somebody spun up on a credit card. Organizations accumulate tenants the way they accumulate SharePoint sites. The difference is that nobody ever built an inventory of the tenants, and central IT frequently cannot name them, let alone say whether they are configured safely.

Microsoft Entra Tenant Governance, now generally available, is Microsoft’s first-party answer. It is...

Welcome to Episode 435 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben and Scott take a lap around what’s new in Power BI, starting with the two MCP servers now in preview, one local and one remote, that can clean up your data model, write DAX for you, and turn a messy pile of tables into an actual usable semantic model. Ben shares how it helped him tame a 44 table QuickBooks Online mess, and why he had way better luck with it than with Copilot in Power BI.

From there they get into PBIP, th...

Welcome to Episode 434 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. Microsoft announced Project Perception on 2026-07-27 with a lot of “workforce of AI agents” language. In this episode, Ben and Scott discuss what Perception really is, what it needs from your tenant, what it costs, and what happens the first time an agent asks you to approve something. Six agents. Seven playbooks. Every one manually triggered. Each agent gets its own Entra Agent ID and a permission grant. There’s a lot to unpack.

Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for ac...

Welcome to Episode 433 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben and Scott discuss how Microsoft 365 authentication is moving from “make passwords safer with MFA” to “remove phishable authentication wherever possible.” The practical conversation for IT pros is no longer just whether MFA is enabled. It is which methods are allowed, which users are still on SMS or voice, how passkeys change the user experience, and how to balance security, accessibility, recovery, and support load.

Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for access to live shows and more. Check ou...

Welcome to Episode 432 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben and Scott discuss how AI is not eliminating Microsoft 365 and Azure consulting, but it is changing what clients think they are buying.

Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for access to live shows and more. Check out our membership options.

Show Notes

Sponsors

Welcome to Episode 431 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben and Scott get into why agent governance is quickly becoming one of the most pressing challenges for Microsoft 365 administrators. As agentic workflows become more common across Copilot, Copilot Studio, and third-party platforms, organizations are dealing with a sprawl problem that looks familiar but hits differently. Agents bring their own identity, data access, permissions, lifecycle, and security concerns all at once, and unlike traditional apps, a single user can now have dozens of agents acting on their behalf or autonomously across Teams, SharePoint, Exchange, and beyond.<...

Welcome to Episode 430 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, where Scott and Ben dig into Microsoft Scout, the new desktop AI application announced at Microsoft Build. They walk through the real onboarding experience on both Mac and Windows, the licensing maze and admin controls needed to activate it, and how Scout’s architecture ties together models, automations, and integrations like MCP, GitHub Copilot, and Work IQ. Along the way they cover the model selector and personality options (everything from professional to sarcastic teenager), the automations and heartbeats that run on schedules to update you on industry news, monitor wo...

Welcome to Episode 429 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Scott and Ben dig into the concept of LLM wikis, specifically building personal knowledge management vaults using Obsidian, markdown, and AI tooling like Claude Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, and Copilot Cowork. The core idea comes from a gist by Andrej Karpathy and involves creating a structured folder of markdown clippings that an LLM can reason over to extract entities, concepts, and sources, building a searchable, graph-linked knowledge base over time. Scott walks through how he wired up Obsidian Web Clipper and an RSS Dashboard plugin to...

Welcome to Episode 428 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben and Scott unlock the secrets to modernizing your IT management by ditching pesky on-prem GPOs and embracing the future with Intune. They discuss how savvy IT pros are migrating thousands of GPOs into clean, manageable cloud policies. Dive into real-world workflows: from exporting and analyzing legacy GPOs with AI tools, to recreating policies in Entra ID, and finally decommissioning AD. You’ll discover how to think through the migration, avoid common pitfalls like leftover legacy configs, and implement a phased migration that minimizes disruption.

...

Welcome to Episode 427 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben and Scott open with a quick look at YAKO (getyako.com), a browser extension built by community member Merrill that replaces the new tab page with a customizable dashboard of Microsoft 365 and cloud links. From there, the conversation turns into an extended follow-up on Copilot Cowork, covering some of their recent hands-on experience with custom skills, artifact management, session crashes tied to an Anthropic API outage, and the friction of working with IRM-protected documents in Copilot Cowork.

The bigger thread running through the...

Welcome to Episode 426 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast.Ben and Scott are back together this week to talk through Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork, including how it compares to Claude Cowork and where each one makes sense. The two products share a name but work pretty differently. Claude Cowork runs locally on your desktop and can access files on your machine, supports MCP server connections while M365 Copilot Cowork runs in the cloud, requires files to be in OneDrive, and does not support MCP connectors yet. On the flip side, the Microsoft version runs scheduled tasks without needing your machine...

Welcome to Episode 425 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this audio and video episode recorded live at Microsoft headquarters during the MVP Summit, Ben welcomes a return guest, Joy Apple, to the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast and discuss her 20-year career in the Microsoft collaboration space, from financial services to SharePoint training, consulting, and her current role at Orchestry Software. Joy explains Orchestry as a Microsoft 365 governance automation layer covering templated provisioning for SharePoint and Teams, archiving policies (including Microsoft 365 Archive), guest management, and OneDrive governance. They emphasize that AI and Copilot amplify existing information architecture, permissions...

Welcome to Episode 424 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben and Scott dig into the newly announced Microsoft 365 E7 SKU which bundles M365 E5, Microsoft 365 Copilot, the Microsoft Entra Suite, and Microsoft Agent 365. Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for access to live shows and more. Check out our membership options. Show Notes Partner Blog | Introducing Microsoft 365 E7: The Frontier Suite Powering Frontier Transformation with Copilot and agents Microsoft Entra Suite Microsoft Entra Suite deployment scenarios introduction Microsoft Agent 365 Overview of Microsoft Agent 365 Use Microsoft Intune Suite add-on capabilities About...

Welcome to Episode 423 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben is live from Workplace Ninjas, joined by Eric Woodruff, Chief Identity Architect at Semperis and Microsoft MVP in Security focused on identity, and Chris Brumm, Cyber Security Architect at glueckkanja and Microsoft MVP in Security with over 16 years of experience in cybersecurity. Together they dig into the often-overlooked world of non-human identities in Microsoft Entra ID. They cover what service principals are, why they tend to fly under the radar compared to user accounts, and how attackers actively exploit that gap. The conversation spans credential management...

Welcome to Episode 422 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Scott and Ben discuss their growing use of   in their daily workflows, particularly Claude Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, and Gemini CLI. They explore how these command-line interfaces offer powerful ways to interact with local files and MCP servers beyond traditional desktop AI chat interfaces. They share how they are using these tools in their day-to-day roles to perform different tasks and accelerate their workflows. Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for access to live shows and more. Check out our membership op...

Welcome to Episode 421 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode Ben sits down for a conversation with Frank Lesniak, the lead of the Microsoft 365 team at West Monroe. In this episode, they dive into the intricacies of mergers and divestitures within Microsoft 365 environments. They discuss the initial due diligence phase, planning and approach, building and configuring new environments, and the final migration and cutover phase. Frank shares insights on common challenges such as integration of different licensing models, the handling of workstations and applications, and the importance of security assessments. The episode provides a detailed look at...

Welcome to Episode 420 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Scott is back for a lighthearted discussion on some of the new tech and toys and that Ben and Scott picked up over the holidays. Listen in as Ben tries to convince Scott he needs a 3D printer and some feedback on the gadgets they both picked up. Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for access to live shows and more. Check out our membership options. Show Notes Bambu Lab P2S 3D Printer ViewSonic VP2788-5K 27" 5K Mac-Ready Monitor...

Welcome to Episode 419 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben is once again live from Workplace Ninjas and is joined by John Joyner, an 18-year Microsoft MVP in Cloud Security and Azure Management. They discuss some of the announcements from Microsoft Ignite focused around Microsoft Security as well as diving deep into the new Security Store, AI agents, Security Compute Units (SCUs), and how Microsoft is making enterprise AI security more accessible and affordable than ever. Key topics include the phishing triage agent, conditional access optimization, E5 integration with included SCUs, and the strategic consolidation of...

Welcome to Episode 418 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben sits down with Cat Schneider during a lively conference to discuss a variety of topics, focusing on the theme of “anti-AI.” They reflect on life and technology before AI became prominent, sharing tales of conferences, hackathons, and explorations of older tech solutions. They also discuss some of Cat’s adventures in SharePoint and Power Platform, including managing SharePoint permissions with flows, the challenges of migrating file shares to SharePoint, syncing issues with OneDrive, and practical uses of Power BI for troubleshooting and managing SharePoint data. Additionally, they d...

Welcome to Episode 417 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Jay Leask joins Ben once more as the two of them recap their experience at Workplace Ninjas US in Dallas, Texas. They discuss conference highlights, the unique hackathon, engaging sessions, the Clippy Bucks system, and the importance of community and inclusion. The conversation also covers upcoming events, memorable attendee interactions, and new traditions for future conferences. Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for access to live shows and more. Check out our membership options. ...

Welcome to Episode 416 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this week's episode, Ben finally has a chance to sit down with Henrik Wojcik. Henrik has been a long-time listener as well as a fellow Microsoft MVP in Security and we finally had the chance to sit down and record an episode together, something we've talked about doing for years. As they sit down and enjoy a sunny afternoon in at Microsoft Ignite in San Francisco they discuss security in the financial sector, EU regulations (N2 and DORA), integrating Data Lake with Sentinel, optimizing log analytics, and the latest...

Welcome to Episode 415 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. Ben and Scott discuss the major announcements from Microsoft Ignite 2025, focusing on the dominant themes of AI agents and security. The conversation centers on three key areas: Security Copilot updates, Agent 365 for governance, and the broader security and management implications for IT professionals. Key Discussion Topics Security Copilot Expansion to E5 Customers 12 new Security Copilot agents coming to Defender, Entra, Intune, and Purview 30+ partner agents being added to the ecosystem Major announcement: Security Copilot will now be available to all Microsoft 365 E5 customers Rollout begins with Frontier program (Microsoft's insider...

Welcome to Episode 414 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast.This episode covers the major cloud service disruptions that impacted both AWS and Azure in October 2025. Even the biggest cloud providers face operational challenges. Learn what happened, how it was resolved, and what IT pros should keep in mind for future resilience planning. Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for access to live shows and more. Check out our membership options. Show Notes Back to the Future: 40th Anniversary in IMAX [RESOLVED] Increased Error Rates and Latencies Azure Status History All Changes to Azure...

Welcome to Episode 413 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. Microsoft has introduced a new file share-centric management model for Azure Files, aiming to eliminate the complexity of managing storage accounts. This model treats file shares as top-level Azure resources, allowing for easier automation, granular access control, and independent scaling. It also simplifies billing with transparent pricing and supports up to 1,000 file shares per subscription per region in the current preview. Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for access to live shows and more. Check out our membership options. Show Notes Simplifying file share...

Welcome to Episode 412 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, we explore three announcements from Microsoft that are reshaping how security teams work with Sentinel. From a reimagined data architecture to AI integration and new visualization capabilities, Microsoft is doubling down on making security operations more intelligent, efficient, and accessible. Whether you're a seasoned SOC analyst or just getting started with cloud security, these updates offer powerful new ways to detect threats, investigate incidents, and understand your security posture. Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for access to live shows and...

Welcome back to another episode of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast! In this episode, we dive deep into one of Microsoft Purview's AI monitoring and protection capabilities: Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) for AI - your secret weapon for monitoring and securing AI usage across your organization. Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for access to live shows and more. Check out our membership options. Show Notes Learn about Data Security Posture Management Learn about Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) for AI Governing AI Shadow IT with the Microsoft Purview Browser Extension Get...

Welcome to Episode 410 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast where hosts Jay Leask and Joy Apple are joined by special guest Ben Stegink for a discussion recorded live from the North American Cloud and Collaboration Summit in Branson. In this episode we focus on how organizations must adapt their change management approaches for the Microsoft 365 cloud environment.We discuss the fundamental shift from traditional IT operations, where organizations controlled software update timing, to cloud-based services with continuous updates outside of their control. Jay and Joy emphasize that successful modern IT requires cross-functional teams where IT partners closely with business...

Welcome to Episode 409 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben and Scott explore the configuration decisions tenant administrators face when preparing their Microsoft 365 environment for Copilot deployment. They dive into the key questions every IT professional should be asking: How do you identify and remediate oversharing in SharePoint sites before Copilot can access that content? What governance controls should be in place to prevent sensitive data from being discoverable through organization-wide search? The hosts examine practical tools for identifying high-risk sites and content, how to control which sites appear in Copilot results, and other configuration options...

Welcome to Episode 408 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. Part two of our exploration into Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers continues our hands-on discussion about finding, implementing, and getting the most out of MCP servers in your daily workflows. Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for access to live shows and more. Check out our membership options. Show Notes Silicon Valley: Gilfoyle Made A Bot (Season 6 Episode 1 Clip) | HBO Lokka What is the Azure MCP Server (Preview)? Microsoft Learn Docs MCP Server overview Notion MCP Introducing Slack MCP Support Model Context Protocol servers ...

Welcome to Episode 407 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, we dive deep into the Model Context Protocol (MCP) - a game-changing specification that's extending the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) and creating exciting new possibilities for IT professionals working with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365. MCP represents a significant shift toward more extensible and domain-specific AI interactions. Instead of being limited to pre-trained knowledge, you can now connect your AI tools directly to live data sources, APIs, and services that matter to your specific role and organization. Whether you're managing Azure infrastructure, creating content, or developing...

Welcome to Episode 406 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben and Scott discuss their recent experiences and thoughts on Microsoft's Copilot features and agents, specifically focusing on the Researcher and Analyst agents. They share practical applications and benefits of these tools, such as using Researcher for meeting preparations and Analyst for exploring data, summarizing data, and even coming up with python script to use with data. Additionally, they cover the upcoming migration of Microsoft Sentinel to the Defender portal, discussing its implications and potential future changes for other security tools. The episode ends with a teaser...

Welcome to Episode 405 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben and Scott tackle the increasingly complex world of Microsoft's notebook ecosystem, exploring the new Copilot notebooks feature and how it relates to existing tools like OneNote and Loop. They break down the confusing landscape where "a notebook is not a notebook unless a notebook is a notebook in the right place." Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for access to live shows and more. Check out our membership options. Show Notes Overview of Copilot Pages and Copilot Notebooks storage | Microsoft...

Welcome to Episode 404 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben and Scott discuss the latest change Microsoft has rolled out to the Microsoft 365 user experience, redirecting users from the familiar portal.office.com to a new Copilot-centric landing page. This shift has caught many IT professionals off guard, rendering existing training documentation obsolete and creating user confusion across organizations. Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for access to live shows and more. Check out our membership options. Show Notes WTF is happening with office.com? New Microsoft 365 Home Page How...

Welcome to Episode 403 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast where Ben and Scott catch up on some of their favorite announcements and news from Microsoft Build 2025. Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for access to live shows and more. Check out our membership options. Show Notes Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot Tuning New Microsoft 365 Copilot Tuning | Create fine-tuned models to write like you do Behind the Curtain: A white-collar bloodbath Announcing Microsoft Entra Agent ID: Secure and manage your AI agents Enterprise-grade controls for AI apps and agents built with Azure AI Foundry and Copilot...

Welcome to Episode 402 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In today's episode, we’re thrilled to have Andrew Connell (AC) joining us once again. If you’ve been with us for a while, you’ll recognize AC as a repeat guest and one of the early voices who encouraged us to launch this podcast. In this episode, we’re diving deep into the world of Microsoft Copilot agents from a bit of a developer’s perspective . We expand on insights from Episode 400 and helping us understand some additional intricacies of how Copilot works under the hood. We’ll break down the dif...

Welcome to Episode 401 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben Stegink and Scott Hoag dive into the intricacies of implementing Zero Trust principles within Microsoft 365 environments. They explore the foundational aspects of Zero Trust, starting with identity management and the importance of Entra ID. They also cover: Identity Management: The critical role of identity in Zero Trust, including MFA, password policies, and least privilege access. Endpoint Security: Strategies for verifying and managing devices, including compliance checks and the balance between corporate and BYOD devices. Networking: The complexities of securing network traffic in a SaaS environment, including...

Welcome to Episode 400 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Ben and Scott explore how IT professionals and developers can leverage Microsoft 365 Copilot’s declarative agents and the Copilot Studio Agent Builder to enhance productivity and streamline workflows within their organizations. Declarative agents allow you to define specific tasks and workflows, enabling Copilot to assist users more effectively. With the Copilot Studio Agent Builder, creating these agents becomes a streamlined process, even for those with minimal coding experience. Listen and learn how to build, deploy, and manage these agents, licensing considerations, and best practices to maximize their im...

Welcome to Episode 399 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, we bring you another interview from the MVP Summit. In this episode, we were able to meet up with long time listener Greg Suttie and talk about his path to becoming an MVP as well as some of what he's been working on in Azure. We cover everything he been doing with Infrastructure as code around Bicep, Azure Verified Modules, Azure Bicep Configuration files and more! Greg Suttie Greg is an Azure MVP and Microsoft Certified Trainer. He also a passionate developer with 25 years experience, mainly with...

Welcome to Episode 398 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode Ben meets up with Harm Veenstra at the annual Microsoft MVP Summit. They chat a bit about Harm experience as an MVP and his path to becoming an MVP. Then the move into a few technologies near and dear to Harm, PowerShell and Microsoft Intune. They start off talking about some of the ways Harm uses PowerShell and some of his favorite scripts. They talk about how he uses PowerShell with Intune, in particular using it with remediation scripts. Harm Veenstra Harm started working at 18, from a...

Welcome to Episode 397 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode, Scott and Ben dive into the world of local LLMs—large language models that run entirely on your device. We’re going to explore why more IT pros and developers are experimenting with them, the kinds of models you can run, and how you can integrate them directly into your workflow, including in Visual Studio Code for AI-assisted coding. Your support makes this show possible! Please consider becoming a premium member for access to live shows and more. Check out our membership options. Show Notes Ollama Running LLMs...