domains Microsoft 365 apps & services are moving to Dot Microsoft

[Lox]

The full range of Microsoft 365 products and services designed to cater to the communication and collaboration needs of enterprises, educational establishments, and personal users, are being unified with the launch of a new .cloud.microsoft domain.

The company says the change was motivated by its ever-growing suite of cloud-based offerings, leading to a disparity that means many are hosted across multiple domains, a move accentuated by the web app boom caused by the pandemic.

The new .cloud.microsoft domain will replace domains like .sharpoint.com, .microsoft.com, .office.com, and so many more.

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[Jothan Frakes]

Although Apple, Google and Amazon have run many laps around them with respect to already having multiple usage of their companies' dot brands, this cutover is really a noteworthy move.

 

[Jay]

It honestly just makes sense. They’ll have much more control and flexibility on how they standardize solution setups.

Both Apple and Amazon have the power to make a similar move and force mass adoption based on their influence too… more to come.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

They’ll have much more control and flexibility on how they standardize solution setups.

Interested to know the thinking... What is it that they get more control over?

 

[Jothan Frakes]

Interested to know the thinking... What is it that they get more control over?

I think the primary motivation is that it is much harder to fake subdomains under .microsoft than it is to make fake websites with microsoft in them under other TLDs like .com - ie support.microsoft is way more trusty than microsoft-support.com, scammer-pretending-to-be-microsoft-support.com etc; 100% of the domains under .microsoft will be microsoft official.

 

[Jay]

Interested to know the thinking... What is it that they get more control over?

In short, they gain more control over their entire operating environment, which simplifies engineering training and general employee training across the board. When the entirety of your environment is structured in a certain way, and the same nomenclature is used, everything from whitelisting to auditing data segregation among apps is simplified. When a new product is released, this also makes it predictable for stakeholders to plan for.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

In short, they gain more control over their entire operating environment, which simplifies engineering training and general employee training across the board. When the entirety of your environment is structured in a certain way, and the same nomenclature is used, everything from whitelisting to auditing data segregation among apps is simplified. When a new product is released, this also makes it predictable for stakeholders to plan for.

What do they gain that isn't possible with a new domain every time or a sub domain of their existing domains?

If they choose a domain on their tld then they still have to register it etc

 

[Jay]

What do they gain that isn't possible with a new domain every time or a sub domain of their existing domains?

If they choose a domain on their tld then they still have to register it etc

Microsoft's entire ecosystem is built on APIs now, like literally from top to bottom. They would absolutely have some layer of automation for all of this but from a whitelisting standpoint, for example, they could even whitelist an entire .tld.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Microsoft's entire ecosystem is built on APIs now, like literally from top to bottom. They would absolutely have some layer of automation for all of this but from a whitelisting standpoint, for example, they could even whitelist an entire .tld.

That's true. They could conceivably do this on a sub domain though right? It's not as good looking though I suppose.

 

[Jay]

That's true. They could conceivably do this on a sub domain though right? It's not as good looking though I suppose.

You would certainly think, but when it comes to Security Compliance, for example with SOC II or for an ATO (authority to operate on Fed Networks), you must be able to demonstrate control as part of your security posture. If you operate an ENTIRE tld namespace, it makes it pretty easy to control. Based on what I've observed from the compliance side of the house with Microsoft, these are my thoughts on the topic