Two Major Admin Control Updates for Copilot and Agent Management

on
At Ignite Microsoft showcased and talked about two new admin controls for Copilot and Agents. These controls drew a significant amount of attention for their potential to simplify management and strengthen governance across Copilot experiences and AI agents. These capabilities are now emerging in preview, offering administrators early access to improved insights, expanded control surfaces, and more secure operational foundations. Copilot Overview Page Refresh in Microsoft 365 Admin Center First off is the redesigned landing page for Copilot in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center (MAC), giving admins an at-a-glance view of the Copilot journey across Chat, Agents, and M365 Copilot. This update  centralizes critical insights and success metrics, helping organizations accelerate adoption and maintain security posture. The refreshed page introduces success metrics such as Chat active users, assisted hours for licensed users, and satisfaction rate. Each Copilot pillar now includes multi‑...

Back from Brussels, and not at all happy.

on
You might even say I'm "pi$$ed". Not by any means on any one related to the ccie lab, but at myself. Why? because I've tricked myself into believing I knew what I was doing.

I've simply been blinded by believing I knew how to configure a million different features and settings in CUCM and CUCME. And for what? Only to fail because of some "stupid" error.

The first time I sat the lab, I realized I didn't have enough configuration skills. And I was really pressed for time when I ran into a few bugs. Instead of waiting 30 days, i spent 2 months trying to prepare for the second attempt.

This time I thought I had it all covered. Only to sit down at a desk where there was a lot pre-configured (and wrongfully so, to test me, the candidate) for me to troubleshoot. This came as a surprise to me. Here I am, having prepared so well for configuring the systems, I really did not know where to look for answers on some of the tasks. I could argue the lab is somewhat artificial, and in a real life scenario I would either call a colleague of mine or simply just "Google" it. But such is the nature of the ccie lab. It's not like the real world.....

I am obviously not really ready for the ccie lab just yet, but close. And on a lucky day, I might even have passed it. So where does this leave me? I've spent most of my spare time on reading and testing for the past 6 months. It was truly disappointing when I realized how I had failed. I am really tired and fed up with it all. but at the same time, I can't just give it up, can I?

I will take a break over the summer and, as I tweeted some time ago, "..rethink my life". Then I'll try to negotiate a deal with the family (and work) to really go in deep for a few intense week before I'll resit the lab. I know I have the skills, I know I have the knowledge, I just lack the practice and speed. (I'll obviously have to do some troubleshooting labs ;)