Exchange Online Roadmap 2025-2029

• Exchange Online should be the default choice for upgrades to current Exchange Server systems
• Shutdowns of Exchange Online features will help security but disrupt service for customers who are not ready.
• Large Exchange Online tenants will get better backup and other management improvements, but also new capacity charges.

Exchange Online provides e-mail, calendar, and task management to Microsoft 365 users through Outlook desktop, mobile, and Web applications.  It also provides several supporting services for Teams, including calendar management, task storage, and legal hold and retention.  It is a mature service that will not change radically, but it will see security and management improvements, and new usage and capacity charges. End user features will continue to arrive, especially in functions required by Teams.

Near Term

Exchange Online is a mature service that receives relatively few changes. Changes in 2025-2026 improve security, management, and control over capacity usage. Some of the changes could be disruptive, and some could raise costs even as they unblock migrations to Exchange Online (fig. 1).