We recently learned that Microsoft is retiring Office Online Server, which is an interesting hybrid implementation of Office web apps that are hosted in on-premises servers. The main reasoning behind this was that the company wants to focus on cloud-first productivity solutions like Microsoft 365. That said, there are other on-prem products that the Redmond tech giant still offers, such as Exchange Server, but it looks like Microsoft wants to modernize that, too.
Microsoft is currently surveying customers to gauge interest in Copilot integration in on-prem Exchange Server deployments. The survey consists of 10 questions, which include multiple-choice, single-choice, and long-form questions.
Through this survey, Microsoft is trying to understand how your organization has deployed Exchange Server (on-prem versus hybrid), the applications you use for online communication, the reason for using on-prem infrastructure, and if there is usage for Microsoft 365 Copilot.
When it comes to the potential integration of Copilot, Microsoft wants to know how your organization would like to use Copilot if it were made available in Exchange Server. Potential use-cases include summarization of emails, drafting emails, natural language search, monitoring the health of Exchange Server and troubleshooting problems, monitoring audit logs, and smart scheduling of meetings.
But perhaps the most important part of the survey is the non-negotiable requirements that Microsoft must meet in order to build trust among customers regarding the use of Copilot in Exchange Server. Respondents can select between the following options:
- Assurance that email and user data remain within the organization"s boundary
- Compliance with regional or industry regulations (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, RBI)
- Ability for administrators to manage and restrict Copilot usage (per user or role)
- Must work in disconnected or isolated environments (no direct internet connectivity)
- Other (details can be mentioned in the next question)
If you"re associated with this particular domain and would like Microsoft to know your thoughts, check out the survey here. Do keep in mind, though, that the availability of this survey does not guarantee the integration of Copilot in on-prem Exchange Server.