C Spire

Native tenant-to-tenant migration in Microsoft 365 was already painful. In 2026, it is still painful, and Microsoft has quietly made the gap between what the portal promises and what actually works even harder to ignore. A thread surfacing in the r/msp community right now captures what practitioners are hitting in real splits: mail coexistence that requires third-party routing, Teams channels that do not migrate, SharePoint permissions that break on arrival, and OneDrive cutover windows that force end-user disruption no matter how clean your planning is. The native tooling has improved in narrow ways, but the fundamental reality has not changed. Microsoft's cross-tenant migration tools still do not handle the full stack. The gap most IT teams miss is scoping. They plan for mailboxes and forget Teams, Planner, Power Automate flows, and licensing reassignment. A company split is not just a mail migration. It is an identity migration, a governance migration, and a licensing audit happening simultaneously under deadline pressure. The right approach in 2026 still involves a third-party tool for anything beyond basic mailbox moves, a detailed dependency map before any cutover window is set, and a decision about whether conditional access and Entra ID policies need to be rebuilt from scratch in the destination tenant. This is exactly the kind of conversation the team at C Spire Business navigates with customers facing acquisition splits or divestitures in the Southeast. According to Gartner's 2024 report on M&A IT integration, identity and collaboration workload migrations account for over 60 percent of post-merger integration delays, with Teams and SharePoint permissions cited as the most frequently underestimated dependencies in tenant separation projects. (Gartner, "M&A IT Integration Playbook," 2024) https://lnkd.in/ezMmNBue

C Spire is putting AI to work in our network operations center, powered in part by Amazon Web Services (AWS) . By leveraging AI to streamline troubleshooting and accelerate root-cause analysis, we’re resolving issues faster and improving the customer experience. We want to apply AI with purpose, at scale, and with the right partners. Diana Goovaerts https://lnkd.in/gemY8R-Z

Great conversation today at Vulcan Park for our ExaGrid & C Spire Business Lunch & Learn. We continue to see real value in our partnership with ExaGrid—especially in how they help our customers solve modern backup and recovery challenges. Their unique approach delivers faster restores, ransomware protection with a true immutable tier, and predictable performance without added complexity. Thanks to David McKenzie and Landon Carter for presenting and to everyone who joined us and engaged in the discussion. Partnerships like this allow us to bring proven, resilient data protection solutions to customers who care about uptime, security, and simplicity. #fortification #cybersecurity

Microsoft licensing is quietly draining SMB budgets and leaving security gaps at the same time. Most organizations land on Microsoft 365 Business Premium or E3 without a real audit of what they're actually using. The result is overpaying for features that sit idle while missing critical security controls that a different SKU would have covered. Defender for Business, Entra ID P2, and Purview capabilities are not interchangeable across tiers, and those differences matter when an incident happens. The gap MSPs see most often: clients who bought up for compliance requirements but never configured the tools they're paying for. A license is not a control. An unconfigured Conditional Access policy protects no one. Right-sizing licensing means mapping SKUs to actual security posture requirements, not just user count or price point. Start with what identity and endpoint protection capabilities you need, then match the SKU to those controls. This is exactly the kind of conversation the team at C Spire Business navigates with customers in the Southeast, especially as Microsoft continues to shift features between tiers with little fanfare. If you're advising SMBs right now, are you auditing license utilization before renewal, or just auto-renewing and hoping nothing changed? #Microsoft365 #MSP #Cybersecurity #ITStrategy #SMBSecurity https://lnkd.in/e-ipj3Wm

Microsoft has quietly changed the rules on Azure cost management and governance since late 2025. Several updates have landed across Azure Policy, Cost Management, and the Defender for Cloud recommendations engine. Tag inheritance improvements, tighter budget alert scoping, and updated policy initiatives around regulatory compliance have all shifted how organizations should be structuring their governance frameworks right now. The gap most teams fall into: they built their governance model two or three years ago and haven't revisited it. Budgets alert at the subscription level but miss resource group sprawl. Policies are assigned but not evaluated for drift. Compliance dashboards look green until they don't. The right move is a governance audit before year-end planning locks in next year's Azure spend. Review your policy assignments against current Microsoft Cloud Security Benchmark updates, validate budget alert scopes, and confirm your tagging strategy actually maps to how you're doing chargebacks. This is exactly the kind of conversation the team at C Spire Business navigates with customers across the Southeast, especially those running hybrid environments where Azure sprawl compounds fast. Have you reviewed your Azure governance posture since Q4 2025, or are you still running on a framework built before Microsoft's latest policy updates landed? #Azure #CloudGovernance #CostManagement #EnterpriseIT #MicrosoftAzure https://lnkd.in/eemQPi2C

On Monday, I had the opportunity to join Katrina Boyette Myricks and Abbey to promote the 13th Annual Dragon Boat Regatta. As part of our ongoing commitment to the communities we serve, C Spire will field two teams, Fire and Ice bringing an ’80s themed energy to the water. This event supports the Young Leaders in Volunteerism Scholarships, helping invest in the future of local students in Madison County. Learn more by watching the interview below: https://lnkd.in/gkrPkVJh

🚀 Ready for Liftoff? High School Students—This One’s for YOU. 🚀 At C Spire, we believe the future of technology starts early—and we’re giving students a chance to explore it before college. We’re excited to officially open applications for our C Spire Liftoff Externship Program! 💡 Who should apply? High school students in the Greater Jackson area who are curious, motivated, and ready to get a real-world look at careers in technology, business, and beyond. 🎯 Who should share this? Teachers. Administrators. Parents. Mentors. 🔥 What makes Liftoff special? Real exposure to Mississippi's leading technology company Hands-on learning experiences Early career exploration (before making big college decisions) A chance to connect with professionals and build confidence This is more than a program—it’s a launchpad. 📣 Help us spread the word Tag a student, share with your school, or drop this in your parent groups. Opportunities like this can truly change a student’s trajectory! 🔗 Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gNMQfzwA 📝 Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gKJs9zTf #LiftoffExternship #CSpireCareers

This is a big win for Mississippi. The C Spire team got this done and helped expand fiber infrastructure across our state. This is the kind of work that creates real impact for families, communities, businesses, and the future growth of Mississippi. Fiber is core infrastructure now. It drives opportunity, access, economic development, and a better future for the areas we serve. Glad to be part of a company doing meaningful work like this and helping move Mississippi forward. https://lnkd.in/gAaHywME