Microsoft Ignite 2025:

The TL;DR

 

What mid-market IT teams really need to know

Microsoft Ignite 2025 was packed with product announcements. But most of us don’t have time to watch all the keynotes, and not every flashy feature is relevant to your day-to-day.
So here’s the short version – the updates that actually impact your infrastructure, your security posture, and your ability to keep up with Microsoft’s evolving roadmap. And crucially, what to do next.

Copilot gets an agentic upgrade

The headline story is that Microsoft is expanding Copilot from a productivity tool to something much bigger. At Ignite, we saw the rollout of Azure Copilot alongside a whole new class of AI-powered agents designed to support infrastructure, security, and cloud operations.

In theory, this is massive for overstretched IT teams. These agents can help with things like resource optimisation, deployment management, observability, and even threat detection, without needing a human to lift the hood every time.

But these tools only work if the underlying infrastructure is ready. If your environment is fragmented, under-secured or lacking visibility, Copilot can’t help you properly. Too often, businesses try to layer new AI tools on top of legacy systems, systems that weren’t built with automation in mind. Instead, the focus needs to shift to auditing your infrastructure and ensuring your data is accessible and protected.

The shift from migration to optimisation

Another standout theme was, of course, cloud technology. We’re officially past the era of “just get to the cloud.” Ignite made it clear that Microsoft is now focused on refining how organisations use its platforms – more performance, more automation, more efficiency.

With tools like Azure Boost and the new Cobalt 200 chip, Microsoft is making the foundations of the cloud faster and smarter. There are also new managed services to help modernise old apps without rewriting them.

You don’t need to rebuild everything from scratch, but you do need to know which legacy apps to modernise, where you can safely lift and shift, and where to invest in newer, AI-ready platforms.

That’s exactly where a Microsoft-aligned partner like Ekco comes in, to help:

• Audit infrastructure to spot risks and inefficiencies
• Prioritise workloads for modernisation or migration
• Secure and optimise cloud environments for Copilot and AI tools
• Fill critical skills gaps without expanding internal teams

Security is being redefined (again)

In a year dominated by breach headlines – Harrods, Gucci or M&S to name a few – it’s no surprise Microsoft leaned hard into AI-powered security.

From automated detection of new threat types to deeper compliance tooling and identity management. The focus is on security scaling as fast as AI does.

Our own 2025 Infrastructure Modernisation Survey found that while 85% of organisations have a cyber response plan, only 38% feel confident it’s strong enough to deal with AI-driven threats. Worse still, only 20% say their cloud setup is fully optimised.

This is exactly the kind of gap that needs closing before Copilot and AI workloads can be rolled out with confidence.

What this means for you

If you’re running IT in a mid-sized business, here’s the bottom line. This year’s Microsoft Ignite made clear that tools are evolving fast, and the window to prepare is narrowing. To take advantage of what’s coming, businesses need to focus now on building tighter security and better visibility across their environments.

Get Copilot-ready

Ekco helps mid-market businesses modernise with confidence. If you’re not sure whether your infrastructure can support what’s coming next, we can help you find out.

Book your Copilot readiness consultation