“Identify your top 20 client environments by risk/criticality and manually verify which September patches they've applied by EOD today — don't wait for WSUS reports or automation.”
Azure West US Outage Caused by Automated Maintenance Bug Removing IP Routes
On July 23, 2026, a bug in Microsoft's automated network maintenance system mistakenly removed IP routes from more devices than intended in the West US Azure region, causing a ~5-hour outage affecting Azure and M365 services including SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, and Copilot. The outage generated over 2,400 Downdetector reports at its peak, with SharePoint accounting for 78% of complaints. Microsoft's PIR confirmed the faulty automation as root cause; no customer-side workaround was available during the event.
Read more →September 2026 Patch Tuesday: Record ~974 CVEs Patched, Two Zero-Days Actively Exploited in the Wild
Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday — the largest in history — addresses approximately 974 CVEs across Windows, M365 Apps, Exchange, Azure, SQL Server, and more. Two zero-days are confirmed exploited in the wild: CVE-2026-81963 (Windows Update Stack EoP, CVSS 7.8) and CVE-2026-85880 (Windows ALPC EoP, CVSS 7.8) — both elevation-of-privilege flaws requiring no user interaction that can elevate a low-privileged attacker to SYSTEM. Prioritise deploying this month's cumulative update immediately across all Windows endpoints and servers.
Read more →Agentic AI Tools for MSP Service Desks: Neo Agent, Rewst, and SuperOps Lead 2026 Landscape
The 2026 MSP automation market has split into three tiers: rule-based RPA platforms (Rewst, Power Automate), AI-bundled RMM/PSA platforms (Atera, NinjaOne, ConnectWise, HaloPSA), and agentic AI platforms that handle judgment-based L1 work autonomously (Neo Agent, SuperOps). Neo Agent can read tickets, consult playbooks, execute fixes, and close tickets without human input — or route for approval on sensitive actions. MSPs evaluating agentic tools should confirm data residency and compliance terms before deploying into client tenants.
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Written from 12 years on the helpdesk floor. Always free.