Busy month? No problem. Welcome to the Tech Recap - our new recurring quick reads segment for time-poor IT professionals. Get your dose of tech news in under 90 seconds.
It's hard to keep up to date with everything, so we'd like to help.
Each month, we'll be bringing you key moves from Microsoft and the wider tech world, boiled down to what matters for IT leaders, decision makers, and teams on the ground.
đź’Ą SharePoint finally adds CTR analytics: Internal comms, rejoice.
Rolling out in July 2025, SharePoint is introducing a long-requested feature to its page analytics: click-through rate (CTR) tracking for news posts. This update brings a new level of clarity to how users are engaging with internal content.
What’s new:
A new analytics card will display the percentage of unique viewers who clicked on a link within a news post, giving content creators a more accurate measure of effectiveness beyond page views.
Example scenario:
Imagine your HR team posts an article about a new employee benefits enrolment process. The post is viewed by 500 people, but only 45 click through to the enrolment portal. That 9% CTR is a clear indicator that the message or call-to-action might need improvement.
Why it matters:
This feature helps intranet managers and internal communicators assess the real impact of their posts, identify weak points in messaging, and optimise for better results.
Why this matters: Internal comms just levelled up. You can now optimise intranet content with the same precision as marketing, boosting engagement, clarity, and business outcomes.
🧠Word Copilot now summarises 3,000 pages (yes, really).
Microsoft has smashed the old 300-page limit, letting you summarise monster documents in Word. Even better, you can pick your depth:
- Brief: Single-paragraph overview
- Standard: Key points
- Detailed: Deep-dive summary
How to use it:
Open your document in Word for the web or desktop (if available). If a summary has been auto-generated, expand it using the dropdown chevron. If not, select Home > Copilot and type “Summarise this doc.” Then choose the summary length that best suits your needs.
Why this matters: This isn’t just for legal or project teams, it’s a time-saver for anyone drowning in documentation. Pro tip: remember, AI summaries reflect the quality of the input. Garbage in, garbage out.
🤖 Meet Azure SRE Agent: your cloud team’s new AI sidekick.
The Azure Site Reliability Engineering Agent is an AI-powered assistant that monitors resources, analyses logs, automates diagnostics, and answers natural language questions like, “What changed yesterday?” It integrates with Azure Monitor and GitHub Copilot, creating a joined-up ecosystem.
What it does:
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Monitors Azure resources 24/7
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Analyses logs and metrics to identify root causes
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Automates incident detection and diagnostics
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Answers natural language queries like “What changed in my app yesterday?”
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Integrates with tools like Azure Monitor and GitHub Copilot
Why this matters: Faster issue resolution, less manual firefighting, and smarter cloud ops. Ask your ops lead: are we testing this, or watching from the sidelines?
🔧 Hotpatching hits general release, updates, no reboots.
From 16 July, Windows Server 2025 on Azure Arc–connected machines gets hotpatching, applying updates without rebooting.
Key benefits:
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No reboots required, so systems stay online
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Faster patching means better security coverage
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Consistent experience across cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments
It’s priced at $1.50 USD per CPU core per month, but the bigger story is operational impact.
Why this matters: For high-availability workloads and 24/7 systems, downtime is the enemy. Hotpatching gives you speed, stability, and a consistent hybrid cloud experience. Mark your calendar for rollout and if you want to understand how the pricing works for UK businesses, reach out to us.
⚠️ AI insider threats are no longer sci-fi.
Anthropic has published research on a rising concern known as agentic misalignment. The report highlights how large language models (LLMs), if misused or poorly governed, could act as insider threats by bypassing security protocols or manipulating systems in unintended ways.
Anthropic’s research on “agentic misalignment” is a wake-up call: LLMs can act as insider threats if misused, bypassing controls or manipulating systems.
Why this matters: If your business is scaling AI, governance isn’t optional. Define clear usage policies, set boundaries, and put human oversight front and centre, before the tech writes its own rules.
🚀 Final takeaway
AI, analytics, resilience, Microsoft’s updates show a clear direction of travel, and it’s all about working smarter, not harder.
Your move: Review where your teams stand. Are you making the most of what’s here, or are there gaps, in tooling, training, or governance, that need closing? And if you’re not sure where to start, you know who to call.
