Getting Started: The Foundation

Q: "We're a SaaS platform with multiple customers—how do we keep their data separate?"

A: The most successful multi-tenant software companies use the owning and consuming tenant approach.  Once you have developed your application and it’s ready to be deployed to a customer, customers want to maintain control of their data, use the security configuration they have configured and compliance controls across their entire data estate.  What they don’t want to do is store data outside of their tenant.  When using SharePoint Embedded, you control the application, your customer controls their data.

Software companies create their application in the owning tenant. When you’re ready to bring on a new customer, you simply register SharePoint Embedded on the consuming tenant (your customer).  As documents are added through your application, they reside in the consuming tenant and all the security boundaries they have configured.

Scale reality check: You can create millions of containers per tenant, with each container holding up to 30 million documents. That's serious enterprise scale.

Q: Our customers demand specific geographic data storage and compliance. Can SharePoint Embedded handle this?

A: SharePoint Embedded inherits Office 365's data residency capabilities, which often exceeds what most software companies can provide on their own:

• Geographic controls: Data stays within customer-specified regions
• Government clouds: FedRAMP support for government tenants or contractors
• Compliance inheritance: Customers leverage their existing Microsoft compliance investments

Game-changer example: Customers need FIPS compliance and ITAR support for government contractors. Rather than building this infrastructure themselves, they leverage Microsoft's existing certifications.

Q: What's the real story on costs? How do software companies handle SharePoint Embedded billing?

A: When a software company is ready to deploy their app there are two primary billing models:

Pass-through model: Customer pays Microsoft directly through an Azure subscription they choose.

• The software company handles integration, customer handles billing
• Customers maintain control over their data and costs
• Works well for enterprise customers with existing Microsoft relationships

Software company-standard model: Software companies include SPE costs in their pricing and then invoices the customer

• Easier for customers, but software companies must manage costs closely.
• Storage: ~$0.0067/GB/day + API transaction costs + egress costs
• Works well for SMB customers or all-inclusive service models

Success Pattern: Legal sector software companies typically use pass-through, while financial management apps include costs in their SaaS pricing.

Document collaboration: it’s all about the user experience

Q: Our customers hate our current document editing experience. What changes with SharePoint Embedded?

A: The collaboration transformation is usually immediate and dramatic:

Before SharePoint Embedded:

• Web-only editing with limited functionality
• Version conflicts and manual merging
• External users need full software licenses
• Downloading a document to edit it and then re-uploading it increases risk

After SharePoint Embedded:

• Native desktop Office applications with full feature sets
• Real-time co-authoring with automatic conflict resolution
• External users collaborate without Office licenses
• Zero custom integration maintenance

Customer impact story: A Construction Cloud customer was frustrated with web-only Office editing. With SPE, their construction teams can collaborate on specifications in desktop Word, cost sheets in Excel, and project presentations in PowerPoint—all simultaneously. Customer satisfaction scores improved immediately.

Q: How do we handle external users—clients, contractors, reviewers—who aren't employees?

A: This is where SharePoint Embedded really shines for software companies:

• Guest user support: External users can collaborate using their existing email addresses 
• No license requirements: Guests don't need Office licenses to edit documents 
• Time-bound access: You can grant temporary access for specific projects 
• Granular permissions: External users see only what they need to see, and you control this through existing Entra ID security practices.

Real-world scenario: A pharmaceutical customer needs external regulatory reviewers to collaborate on drug approval documents. These reviewers (often using Gmail accounts) can access specific documents, make comments, and track changes—all while maintaining strict security controls and audit trails.

Q: What about industries with specialized document formats? Will SharePoint Embedded work?

A: SharePoint Embedded handles standard Office formats natively, and provides extensibility for specialized formats:

• Native support: Word, Excel, PowerPoint can be viewed or edited using the browser or full desktop experience. 
• Custom formats: Through Power Platform connectors and custom viewers depending on how you built the user interface. 
• Industry-specific: Many software companies build viewers for CAD files, proprietary image documents or medical records.  This is the real value add for your app.

Specialized example: Engineering companies use CAD files and Office documents, relying on custom viewers for technical drawings as well as built-in Office collaboration tools for handling specifications and project documentation.

AI and intelligence: The future-forward 

Q: Everyone talks about AI, but what are software development company customers really using?

A: Based on real implementations, customers are getting value from three AI capabilities:

1. In app experience

• • Customers can find information across documents using natural language
  • "Show me all contracts with renewal clauses" instead of keyword searches
  • Provides a robust alternative to the custom search solutions that many find challenging to develop effectively.

2.  Document summarization

• • Automatic summaries of meeting notes, reports, contracts
  • Executives get briefings without reading full documents
  • Particularly valuable for legal and consulting software companies

3.  Content extraction

• • Automatic metadata extraction from uploaded documents
  • Classification and tagging without manual effort
  • Useful for compliance and organization

AI success story: A market research platform uses AI to mine insights from massive survey result repositories. They can identify patterns across client studies and provide competitive intelligence that drives premium service offerings—capabilities that would have required a dedicated AI team to build.

Q: How does SharePoint Embedded content fit into the Microsoft AI story?

A: Content is king and when it’s stored in SharePoint Embedded you can use the Microsoft AI stack to reason over it.

• Copilot Studio – Build custom agents that can access and reason over your SharePoint Embedded content, enabling tailored workflows and conversational experiences for your business scenarios.
• Azure AI Foundry – Use advanced AI models and orchestration tools to analyze documents, extract insights, and apply generative reasoning directly on your embedded content (coming soon).
• M365 agents – Empower Microsoft 365 Copilot and domain-specific agents to leverage your SharePoint Embedded data securely, delivering contextual answers and automation across apps like Teams, Outlook, and Word.

Control flexibility: You can disable Copilot at the container level, so customers only pay for what they use. This lets you offer different service tiers based on AI capabilities.

Q: How much prep work do our documents need for AI to be effective?

A: The software companies seeing best AI results focus on structured metadata and information architecture fundamentals.  

Document organization:

• Clear document types (contracts, reports, specifications)
• Consistent metadata fields across document types
• Permissions, sensitivity labels and container architecture reduce the accidental data leakage risk.

Users simply add the document to a container through your application and SharePoint Embedded does the rest by automatically indexing the content, which adds it to the semantic index, so you get all the reasoning power in the LLM's.

Preparation benefit: Software companies find that organizing their document metadata and permissions before enabling Copilot improved AI accuracy.  Customers get better results and more relevant document summaries.

Security and compliance: Enterprise requirements

Q: Our customers are in highly regulated industries. How do we handle their compliance requirements without becoming compliance experts ourselves?

A: This is SharePoint Embedded's biggest advantage for software companies—compliance inheritance: 

Your customer's compliance = Your application's compliance

Following the owning/consuming deployment model provides:

• Customer's DLP policies automatically apply to containers
• Their retention policies govern document lifecycles
• Their audit requirements are automatically met
• Their security controls protect your application's data

Compliance success: Financial services software companies don't need to become SOX compliance experts—they inherit their customers' existing Microsoft Purview policies. Legal software companies get automatic GDPR compliance without building privacy infrastructure.

Q: What about audit trails and eDiscovery? Do we need to build this ourselves?

A: SharePoint Embedded provides enterprise-grade audit capabilities automatically:

• Complete audit trails: Every document access, modification, and sharing event is logged 
• eDiscovery Integration: Native integration with Microsoft eDiscovery tools 
• Retention policies: Automatic retention based on customer's existing policies 
• Legal hold: Built-in legal hold capabilities for litigation scenarios

Audit reality: Legal sector software companies can provide their clients with comprehensive audit trails for regulatory compliance without building any custom audit infrastructure. Everything is handled through Microsoft's existing compliance tools.

Q: How do we handle customers who want to keep control of their data?

A: SharePoint Embedded gives customers more control than most software company solutions:

• Customer tenant: Data stays in the customer's Microsoft tenant, not yours 
• Customer policies: Their security and compliance policies govern the data 
• Software company access: You only access data through APIs with customer-granted permissions

Control example: SaaS platform software companies explain to customers that their documents live in the customer's tenant with customer-controlled governance. This made enterprise sales easier because customers maintain complete control over their data.

Have more questions or want to talk to the team, contact us: SharePointEmbedded@microsoft.com

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Resources

SharePoint Embedded overview: SharePoint Embedded Overview | Microsoft Learn

Mazen talks with Alex Lanclos from Skylight about how they power their wildly popular smart displays with React Native! Mazen and Alex dig into architecture upgrades, performance wins, and why Skylight is so excited about the framework’s future.

Show Notes

• Skylight
• RNR 328 - Flashlight with Alexandre Moureaux
• RNR 325 - Legend List with Jay Meistrich

Connect With Us!

• Mazen Chami: @mazenchami
• React Native Radio: @reactnativerdio

This episode is brought to you by Infinite Red!

Infinite Red is an expert React Native consultancy located in the USA. With nearly a decade of React Native experience and deep roots in the React Native community (hosts of Chain React and the React Native Newsletter, core React Native contributors, creators of Ignite and Reactotron, and much, much more), Infinite Red is the best choice for helping you build and deploy your next React Native app.

Microsoft this week made Visual Studio 2026 — the latest version of its flagship dev platform — generally available, calling it the most community-driven release in the IDE’s history and positioning it as the first development environment built around AI from the ground up.

Amanda Silver, corporate vice president in Microsoft’s CoreAI division, indicated that the company worked more closely with developers on this release than on any previous version.

“This is a moment we’ve built side by side with you,” wrote Mads Kristensen, principal product manager, in a blog post. “Your feedback has helped shape this release more than any before.”

The preview period drew more testers than any other Visual Studio release. Since Microsoft launched the Insiders Channel in September, Kristensen said, “more developers have downloaded and tested this preview than any other in Visual Studio’s history.”

Mads Kristensen, PPM Visual Studio

AI Woven Throughout

Microsoft also made a bold claim about Visual Studio 2026’s AI capabilities. Kristensen wrote that it’s “AI-native, making it the world’s first Intelligent Developer Environment (IDE).”

He noted that the AI capabilities serve as productivity enhancers rather than a replacement for developer judgment.

“That doesn’t mean changing how you work,” Kristensen wrote. “It means giving you intelligence when it matters most. If you’re debugging a tricky issue, profiling performance, or modernizing an application, AI steps in to remove friction and surface insights that help you move faster without disrupting your flow.”

Brad Shimmin, an analyst at The Futurum Group, said Microsoft “really makes some nifty moves in bringing AI to the forefront in a way that Visual Studio developers will find more useful than annoying. Anyway, from what I can see so far, Microsoft is using this release to flip the script with AI, where AI is no longer a separate tool but is woven into the core functions of the IDE itself,” he told The New Stack. “Instead of just a chat window (à la Cursor), AI is part of the debugger, the profiler and even basic actions like copy-paste.”

Shimmin added that he “loves” the copy-paste tool, as developers can use it to automatically convert pasted code according to project, corporate and personal preferences.

“That’s pretty powerful, since developers frequently bring in AI-generated code from numerous sources — for example, yesterday’s Stack Overflow is today’s ChatGPT,” he told The New Stack. Developers can even transcode from one language to another, he added.

Brad Shimmin of The Futurum Group

There are also new C# and C++ agents in the release, though the C++ capabilities are still in private preview. Kristensen said these tools are “designed for professional developers who need precision and speed every day.”

Meanwhile, GitHub Copilot integration has become central to how many developers use Visual Studio. Kristensen said Copilot “has quickly become one of the most used features in Visual Studio, earning praise from developers who rely on it every day.”

Indeed, Rockford “Rocky” Lhotka, vice president of strategy at Xebia and a Microsoft MVP, said he has been using VS 2026 in preview for a few weeks, and he uses AI to assist in nearly all of his development work now.

“I think it is faster than VS 2022, more responsive overall. The AI integration through GitHub Copilot is a big improvement, bringing Visual Studio close to the capability of VS Code in terms of Agent mode,” he told The New Stack.

Moreover, “Combine the improved AI integration with the pre-existing powerful feature set of Visual Studio, and I find myself using it more than VS Code. Which is saying something, because the Agent mode in VS Code was substantially better than VS 2022,” he added. “Now the AI agent capabilities are closer, and the overall feature set of VS 2026 is superior to VS Code, especially when working with Blazor apps.”

Roberto Perez, a senior global solutions architect at Redis, said the AI-powered profiling feels like having an expert looking over your shoulder. “The Profiler Agent in Visual Studio immediately highlighted the bottlenecks and guided me to faster, cleaner performance — like having a built-in performance coach,” he said in a statement.

Richard Campbell, chairman at CloudArmy and a Microsoft MVP, told The New Stack, “I’ve noticed that VS 2026 is generally snappier — they have done extensive work in splitting out threads of execution internally, so even when the IDE is performing intensive tasks, it’s done in the background and doesn’t impact the user experience.”

Meanwhile, Copilot also helps with upgrading codebases. According to the announcement, “upgrades to .NET 10 and the latest C++ build tools are accelerated and guided with expertise” through GitHub Copilot’s app modernization features.

Fixing Thousands of Bugs

Microsoft claims it addressed more user complaints than ever before in this release. In the year leading up to release, the team “fixed over 5,000 of your reported bugs and implemented 300 feature requests,” Kristensen wrote. “That’s the most we’ve ever done, and we’re just getting started!”

The company credits AI tools with helping it respond faster to community feedback. The team is now “delivering improvements faster than ever before” thanks to AI-driven tools that accelerate how they identify and resolve issues, according to the blog post.

Performance Gets a Major Overhaul

In addition, Microsoft spent considerable effort eliminating the performance hiccups that interrupt developer work. Kristensen acknowledged a common frustration: “You know that sinking feeling when lag interrupts your flow? We’ve worked hard to make that a thing of the past.”

Visual Studio 2026 loads massive solutions significantly faster than its predecessor, and UI freezes have been cut by more than half, the company said. Kristensen said the new version delivers “blazing-fast performance,” with startup that’s “significantly snappier” and a UI so smooth “you’ll barely notice it’s there, cutting hangs by over 50% and giving the IDE a lightweight, effortless vibe, even on massive projects.”

Steve Smith, a principal software architect at NimblePros, praised the speed improvements. “Wow! I just opened a solution with over 100 projects, and I can’t believe how fast it came up and was ready,” he said in a statement. “Well done, Visual Studio team.”

But Kristensen said raw metrics only tell part of the story. “Stats are cool, but what really matters is how it actually feels to use. The IDE just runs way faster, smoother, and more responsive. That’s something you can’t always see in the numbers.”

No Migration Headaches

Microsoft emphasized that developers won’t face the usual upgrade pain with the new release.

“Here’s the best part: Visual Studio 2026 is fully compatible with your projects and extensions from Visual Studio 2022,” Kristensen wrote. “Open your existing solutions and start coding immediately. No migration steps, no surprises.”

All 4,000-plus extensions from Visual Studio 2022 work immediately in the new version. Kristensen said developers “can upgrade with peace of mind, and your setup will feel just as stable and familiar as ever.”

Didier Donner, principal software engineer at Aspen Technology, confirmed the smooth transition. “Getting the extensions from Visual Studio 2022 was a definitive plus: I was ready to use VS 2026 immediately.”

IDE Updates Decoupled From Compilers

Microsoft made a significant architectural change to address a longstanding complaint. Kristensen explained the old problem: “For a long time, updating Visual Studio meant you also had to upgrade your .NET and C++ build tools, since those were tightly linked to the IDE. That often made things tricky, because you’d want the latest features and bug fixes, but the update could mess with your existing projects or force you into toolchain changes you weren’t ready for.”

Visual Studio 2026 breaks that dependency. The IDE now updates independently of build tools, so developers “can update Visual Studio itself any time you want without affecting your .NET or C++ compilers,” Kristensen said. Monthly automatic updates will bring “fresh features, design tweaks, and productivity boosts delivered right to your IDE, while keeping your toolchains stable for as long as you need.”

Polish and Quality of Life

Microsoft also focused on smaller improvements that add up over time.

“When you’re using Visual Studio all day long, every interaction matters,” Kristensen wrote. “We’ve doubled down on perfecting the essentials — removing friction, fixing those subtle ‘paper cuts,’ and refining the flow of your work.”

The release includes a redesigned UI, a more flexible settings system and what Kristensen called “hundreds of under-the-hood improvements that make the IDE feel better in every way.”

Erik Ejlskov Jensen, a master at Context&, said in a statement that he appreciated the attention to detail.

“What I love most about Visual Studio 2026 is the performance and the fresh and crisp UI — and support for Mermaid diagrams is the icing on the cake.”

Download Now, Buy Later

Visual Studio 2026 is available for download now. Subscribers can simply sign in and their licenses activate automatically. Developers using product keys can retrieve them at my.visualstudio.com.

Stand-alone Professional licenses won’t be available through the Microsoft Store until Dec. 1.

For developers who want bleeding-edge features, Microsoft offers the Insiders Channel with frequent updates. The Insiders version can run alongside the stable release without affecting production work.

Kristensen wrapped up his post by asking developers to stay engaged with the team.

“Download Visual Studio 2026 now and swing by the Visual Studio Developer Community to share what’s working, what you’re creating, or where we can step it up. We’re listening.”

AI Marketing Hype?

AI hype is rampant, but can VS 2026 live up to the hype?

“I would say that painting it [VS 2026] as ‘the first IDE built from the ground up with AI in mind’ seems like much more marketing hype,” Lenni Lobel, a Microsoft consultant at EY and a Microsoft MVP, told The New Stack. “Of course, this IDE builds on previous releases and can’t really be thought of as green field in any way.”

Meanwhile, “The rethink toward AI is interesting, but it’s still early days — I understand they have committed to monthly updates now, so I expect it will evolve quickly,” Campbell said.

“The rethink of software development using these sophisticated code generators is just emerging now … it does seem to me that the VS team has positioned the tool to respond to the evolution of these tools,” he added.

Holger Mueller, an analyst at Constellation Research, said he believes Microsoft was taken by surprise by vibe coding.

Yet, “when it comes to its IDE, Visual Studio, as IDE requirements switch from writing code from line 1 productively, to reviewed code … Effectively developers go from writers to editors,” he told The New Stack. “By now Microsoft has been adapting to the new reality (e.g., offering monthly AI capability progress), but VS 2026 is the culmination of the efforts, for the first time reflecting the future of coding with UX — settings, look and feel, code actions — changes in the IDE.”

Holger Mueller of Constellation Research

And, as a market observer, The Futurum Group’s Shimmin said he sees these and several other new changes, such as better performance and stability, as absolutely critical for Visual Studio.

“Even though Microsoft is the 400-pound gorilla in the IDE world, it faces a lot of pressure from established rivals like JetBrains and newcomers like Zed Industries, which has built an IDE — in Rust, I might add — that focuses on speed, collaboration and AI in equal measure.

“With AI slapped on the side as a plug-in and with basic performance/stability limitations inherent in its architecture — built in JavaScript, basically — the previous version of Visual Studio looked a bit long in the tooth compared with more modern ideas like Zed. This set of updates with the 2026 release, however, mitigates a lot of these concerns and sets this important IDE up as a future-leaning offering that’s not content to rest on its laurels.”

The post Developers Test Visual Studio 2026’s AI-Native Claims appeared first on The New Stack.