Microsoft Ignite 2026 (17 to 20 November): the Azure, AI agent and Copilot watchlist

Summary. Microsoft Ignite 2026 runs from Tuesday 17 to Friday 20 November at Moscone Center in San Francisco, with a free Digital pass for online viewers. The opening keynote (KEY01) with Satya Nadella and Judson Althoff runs from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm PT on 17 November at Chase Center, which is 11:30 pm IST and 18:00 GMT. A Conference pass costs $2,325 and a Hub-only pass $1,625, and Pre-Day labs run on 16 November. Microsoft has not yet published its Ignite announcements, so every launch discussed below is an expectation. Three dated facts should shape your watchlist. On 28 October GitHub said GitHub Copilot SDK is becoming Microsoft Copilot SDK, with no immediate changes required of existing users. The same day it began including Copilot with GitHub Enterprise for account-team customers, metered from the first request, with Copilot Standalone at $10 per user per month for users without a GitHub Enterprise licence. And an Azure Service Health notice, quoted by a customer on Microsoft Q&A, sets Virtual Machine and Storage price rises of 8% to 17% in seven regions from 1 February 2027. Our verdict: finish the licensing, model-retirement and agent-inventory checklist below before 17 November, then judge each announcement against it.

About this article. For IT, cloud, FinOps and engineering leads who buy Azure, Microsoft 365 Copilot or GitHub Copilot, especially in India, the UK and the EU. Dates, passes, session times and speakers were checked on 11 November 2026 against Microsoft's Ignite site and its public session catalogue data; product and pricing facts against the Official Microsoft Blog, GitHub's changelog and Microsoft Learn. The catalogue changes daily and Microsoft says times are subject to change. General information only, not financial or procurement advice; no vendor paid for inclusion. Researched with AI assistance and reviewed by our editorial team.

Ignite 2026 at a glance: dates, keynote time and passes

Microsoft's Ignite site lists the event for 17 to 20 November 2026 at Moscone Center, with keynotes and many sessions free online. The opening keynote is at Chase Center; sessions, labs and the Hub are on the Moscone campus and nearby venues. The catalogue groups content under topics including Agent Platform, Agentic Business Applications, Cloud & AI, Copilot, Data, Frontier Transformation, Microsoft IQ, Security and Windows.

Pre-Day, pass and certification details are from the Ignite site, keynote times from the session pages, and the session count and recording window from Microsoft Germany.

The Ignite agenda shows times in the viewer's own time zone. Since 1 November San Francisco has been on Pacific Standard Time (UTC minus 8) and the UK on GMT, so IST is 13.5 hours ahead of PT and GMT is 8 hours ahead. We converted the sessions that matter most to buyers.

The times above are converted from the UTC times on each session page.

For Indian teams, the keynote lands just before midnight on Tuesday. If you cannot watch live, Microsoft Germany says most sessions are recorded and posted within 24 to 48 hours, and each catalogue entry is marked as recorded or not. On 11 November the catalogue marked both keynotes, all four innovation sessions, every breakout and nearly all theatre sessions for recording; labs, lightning talks and table talks were marked not recorded.

What Microsoft has already confirmed before Ignite

These dated items from Microsoft and GitHub are the baseline for reading Ignite announcements.

GitHub Copilot SDK is becoming Microsoft Copilot SDK (28 October)

GitHub's changelog says the SDK built for the GitHub Copilot harness is becoming the programmable interface for the Microsoft Copilot harness, the agent foundation shared across Microsoft and GitHub products. GitHub has begun preparing the repository for a move to the Microsoft organisation and updating branding and documentation. The move runs in phases, so package names, namespaces and some documents will keep the GitHub name for a while. Existing users need make no immediate changes, and support is unchanged.

The same agent foundation now sits under products on both sides of Microsoft. That helps skills reuse and hurts anyone who pins package names in build pipelines. BRK277 on Wednesday 18 November, a breakout on extending and securing SDK agents with Entra, Purview and Defender controls, is the likeliest place for migration detail. Our Copilot SDK guide covers what the SDK does and how to build on it.

Copilot is now included with GitHub Enterprise (28 October)

Enterprises that work with a GitHub or Microsoft account team can now get Copilot included with GitHub Enterprise Cloud for every licensed user. Users in the enterprise account without a GitHub Enterprise licence get the same access through Copilot Standalone at $10 per user per month. Both routes carry the Copilot Enterprise features and models but no monthly AI credits per seat, and usage is metered against the enterprise budget from the first request. Code completion and next edit suggestions keep working when the budget runs out; Copilot Chat, Copilot code review and Copilot in the cloud need available budget. Copilot Business and Copilot Enterprise remain on sale, and self-serve customers cannot buy this model yet. GitHub promised self-serve dates in the coming weeks; none had appeared on its changelog by 10 November. Our GitHub Enterprise Copilot pricing guide works through the numbers.

Microsoft 365 Copilot splits fixed and usage-based spend (25 September)

On the Official Microsoft Blog, Jared Spataro set out a two-part Copilot model. A user subscription licence covers everyday Copilot in Chat and in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, with an Auto mode that weighs accuracy, speed and cost to route each request. Agentic work runs on usage-based billing: Cowork, Code, Autopilot (previously called Scout) and frontier models such as Astra and Fable. The same post said Agent 365 cost management would extend to Code and Copilot Managed Runtime, with Copilot Studio agents planned for October, and that admins can set which model families each user group may use, which also limits what Auto can pick. At Ignite, LTG1165 is a lightning talk on preparing for usage-based billing and LAB660 a hands-on lab on setting policies and spending limits in Agent 365.

Sovereign cloud items due at Ignite (20 October)

On the Official Microsoft Blog on 20 October, Douglas Phillips said three things happen at Ignite: Foundry Local becomes generally available on Azure Local for connected and disconnected operation, GitHub Enterprise Local becomes generally available as a validated GitHub Enterprise Server appliance on Azure Local, and the Sovereign Control Panel enters public preview. DocumentDB and Blob Storage on Azure Local are entering public preview, with no Ignite date given. Treat all of these as expected until Microsoft confirms them at the event.

Azure price rises from 1 February 2027

An Azure Service Health notice, quoted by a customer in a Microsoft Q&A thread on 5 October, raises Virtual Machine and Storage prices from 1 February 2027 by 17% in North Europe (Dublin), 11% in France Central and France South, 9% in West Europe (Amsterdam), Norway East and Norway West, and 8% in Southeast Asia (Singapore). It excludes named v1 and v2 series, six v7 series (Dsv7, Ddsv7, Dlsv7, Dldsv7, Esv7 and Edsv7) and storage services such as General Block Blob, Queues and Tables. A volunteer moderator in the thread reads every unlisted series, including v4 and v5, as affected. Another volunteer moderator says existing reservations keep their price for their term, while renewals and new purchases cost more. Neither is a Microsoft statement, so confirm reservation and savings plan treatment with your account team. Our Azure price increase guide has the region and series detail.

Model retirements already on the calendar

Microsoft Foundry's lifecycle policy sets a retirement date 18 months after launch for standard generally available models, closes them to new customers at 12 months and returns 410 Gone after retirement. Generally available models from Anthropic, DeepSeek, Fireworks and Mistral AI follow a 12-month lifecycle. Retirement dates are not extendable, and Provisioned deployments are never auto-upgraded. Dated examples on that page: gpt-4o version 2024-05-13 retires on 14 January 2027 with gpt-5.1 version 2025-11-13 as the replacement, and gpt-4o versions 2024-08-06 and 2024-11-20, gpt-4o-mini 2024-07-18 and gpt-4.1-mini 2025-04-14 retire on 14 April 2027. Our gpt-4.1 and gpt-4o retirement guide covers the April dates.

What to watch at Ignite 2026: expectations, labelled

Nothing in this section is announced. Each row is an expectation drawn from the session catalogue or the speaker list as they stood on 11 November. The third column says what would change a plan.

The governance, IQ and sandbox rows rest on the catalogue pages for BRK253, BRK345, BRK308 and BRK448. Microsoft Germany listed BRK253 on 30 October as a session on governing agents across Agent 365 and Foundry; by 11 November it carried a broader title on operating AI at scale with Foundry.

For Azure infrastructure and FinOps buyers

Infrastructure content sits in INV643 on Tuesday afternoon, where Mark Russinovich, Pavan Davuluri and Jeremy Winter cover Azure and Windows as the platform for mission-critical AI from cloud to edge. AMD and NVIDIA are among the event's headline sponsors. For most estates the question is narrower than chips: with the February notice excluding six v7 series, new VM families, migration offers or reservation terms announced at Ignite could change a rightsizing plan.

For teams building agents on Microsoft Foundry

Microsoft Foundry, the platform previously branded Azure AI Foundry, runs through the Agent Platform sessions. BRK249 covers connecting traces, evaluations and optimisation, and LTG1201 the model router in Foundry Models. Expect agent service, evaluation and routing updates. Do not expect retirement dates to move: the lifecycle page says they cannot be extended, so anything announced at Ignite adds options rather than time.

For Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot buyers

The move from seats alone to seats plus metered usage is already announced on both sides of Microsoft. At Ignite, look for three details: whether Agent 365 budgets can be enforced per team, whether model-family policies can keep Auto on cheaper models, and when self-serve GitHub customers get Copilot included with GitHub Enterprise. BRK263 covers AI spend guardrails in Agent 365 and the Microsoft 365 admin tools, BRK271 GitHub Copilot budgets, alerts and billing reports, and BRK266 managing Copilot spend against budget. INV640 also promises new FinOps capabilities for Copilot.

For security and identity leads

The Pre-Day includes a security programme and a workshop on readying, securing and governing Microsoft 365 Copilot and Cowork. INV642 promises observability into where AI is used, how agents behave and what risks are emerging. Expect agent identity, audit and sandboxing to feature. Our analysis of enterprise AI agent governance layers sets out the controls to compare Microsoft's announcements against.

Pre-event checklist: licensing, Microsoft Foundry, agent governance and security

Work through this before 17 November. It turns Ignite from a stream of launches into a list of yes or no decisions.

Licensing and spend

1. List every Copilot SKU you pay for: Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, GitHub Copilot Business or Enterprise, and any Copilot credits. Note renewal dates.

1. Count GitHub users with and without a GitHub Enterprise licence. Users without one would pay $10 per month each for Copilot Standalone under the new model.

1. Pull three months of Copilot usage and agent activity from the admin portals. You need a baseline before usage-based billing applies to Cowork, Code and Autopilot.

1. Export Azure costs by region and VM series. Tag anything in the seven named regions that is not on the notice's exclusion list.

1. Write down questions for your account team: reservation and savings plan treatment of the February rise, and self-serve dates for Copilot in GitHub Enterprise.

Microsoft Foundry and models

1. Inventory every Foundry and Azure OpenAI deployment with model, version, deployment type and region.

1. Check each against Microsoft's retirement schedule. Flag anything retiring before 30 June 2027 and every Provisioned deployment, which will not auto-upgrade.

1. Set versionUpgradeOption deliberately on Standard deployments instead of relying on defaults.

1. Note which subscriptions first deployed each model. Microsoft decides existing-customer status per subscription, so a new subscription under the same tenant does not inherit access to a deprecated model.

Agent governance

1. Build one register of agents across Copilot Studio, Foundry, GitHub Copilot and custom SDK code, with owner, data access and tools.

1. Record which agents run on the Copilot SDK and which package names your pipelines pin.

1. Decide who approves new plugins and MCP servers, and whether model families should be restricted by user group.

Security

1. Confirm every agent uses its own identity, not a shared service account.

1. Check that agent logs reach your SIEM and that retention meets your audit needs.

1. List where agents execute untrusted or generated code today, and how that code is isolated.

Worked example: two dated changes on one estate

Take a hypothetical Indian software company with Azure workloads in Singapore and Dublin, and a 300-person engineering team on GitHub. The spend figures are illustrative; the percentages and the $10 price are the published ones.

• Singapore VMs on affected series cost $12,000 a month at pay-as-you-go rates. An 8% rise adds $960 a month, or $11,520 a year.

• Dublin (North Europe) VMs on affected series cost $8,000 a month. A 17% rise adds $1,360 a month, or $16,320 a year.

• Combined, the February 2027 change adds $11,520 + $16,320 = $27,840 a year before any reservation or migration response.

On the GitHub side, suppose 250 engineers hold GitHub Enterprise licences and 50 contractors do not. Under the included model, the 50 contractors would need Copilot Standalone: 50 × $10 = $500 a month, or $6,000 a year. The 250 licensed users get Copilot through GitHub Enterprise, but every Chat, code review and cloud agent request is metered against the enterprise budget from the first request, with no included credits. The real cost depends on usage, which is why step 3 of the licensing checklist matters more than seat count.

At ₹93.93 per US dollar (ECB reference rates, 10 November 2026), the $27,840 is about ₹26.15 lakh a year and the $6,000 about ₹5.64 lakh. Set the Azure figure against the one-off cost of moving affected workloads to an excluded v7 series or to a region outside the notice. Ignite may change that arithmetic, so hold the decision until the recap.

India, EU and US notes

India. The keynote starts at 11:30 pm IST on Tuesday 17 November, and the four innovation sessions fall between 1:00 am and 6:30 am IST on Wednesday and Thursday. Register for the free Digital pass and watch recordings the next morning. Indian companies that host in Singapore face the 8% rise. Check whether any Ignite launch is available in Indian Azure regions on day one, because new services often start in a few regions.

EU and UK. North Europe (17%), France Central and France South (11%) and West Europe and Norway (9%) carry the rises in Europe. The sovereign items due at Ignite, especially the Sovereign Control Panel, matter most here, and BRK439 tests common assumptions about cloud sovereignty.

US. No US region is among the seven in the February notice. US buyers should focus on the Copilot billing model and agent governance announcements.

After Ignite: our recap

We will publish a recap after 20 November covering what Microsoft announced against each watchlist row, with status (preview, GA or roadmap), pricing where published and launch regions, and update the checklist if Copilot SDK migration dates, Agent 365 budget controls or the February 2027 price terms change. For the AWS side of the season, read our AWS re:Invent 2026 keynote guide; re:Invent runs from 30 November to 4 December in Las Vegas.

How eCorpIT can help

eCorpIT is a Gurugram-based technology organisation, founded in 2021, assessed at CMMI Level 5 and MSME certified, with senior-led engineering teams working across AWS, Microsoft and Google platforms. Our cloud computing team inventories Azure and Foundry deployments, plans model migrations, models the cost of the February 2027 price change and sets up agent governance across Copilot Studio, Foundry and GitHub. Talk to us at /contact-us/.

Last updated: 11 November 2026.

References

1. Microsoft Ignite 2026 home: dates, passes, agenda and FAQs — Microsoft

1. Microsoft Ignite opening keynote (KEY01) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. GitHub Copilot SDK is becoming Microsoft Copilot SDK, 28 October 2026 — GitHub Changelog

1. GitHub Enterprise now includes access to GitHub Copilot, 28 October 2026 — GitHub Changelog

1. Clarification required: Azure VM and Storage pricing update from 1 February 2027, 5 October 2026 — Microsoft Q&A

1. Microsoft Ignite 2026 session catalogue data, retrieved 11 November 2026 — Microsoft

1. Microsoft Ignite Partner keynote (KEY02) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. Microsoft Ignite 2026: über 260 Online-Sessions zu KI, Cloud und Developer-Tools, 30 October 2026 — Microsoft TechWiese (Germany)

1. AI infrastructure from cloud to edge (INV643) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. Expanding what's possible: how AI is redesigning work (INV640) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. Harnessing your IQ with a continuously improving agent platform (INV641) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. Observability at every layer for every role (INV642) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. Hack the harness: Customize and secure GitHub Copilot SDK agents (BRK277) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. GitHub Changelog, entries to 10 November 2026 — GitHub

1. Introducing the new Copilot with Home, Code and Autopilot, 25 September 2026 — Official Microsoft Blog

1. Preparing for usage-based billing (LTG1165) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. Configuring, monitoring and managing AI spend with Agent 365 (LAB660) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. Advancing digital sovereignty with greater control and choice, 20 October 2026 — Official Microsoft Blog

1. Azure VM price change, 5 October 2026 — Microsoft Q&A

1. Foundry Models lifecycle and support policy — Microsoft Learn

1. Operate AI at enterprise scale with Microsoft Foundry (BRK253) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. Master agent governance with Agent 365 (BRK345) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. How Microsoft IQ shapes the cost of enterprise AI (BRK308) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. Run secure agent loops in production with isolated sandboxes at scale (BRK448) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. What is Microsoft Foundry? — Microsoft Learn

1. From traces to better agents: the Foundry improvement loop (BRK249) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. Optimizing AI decisions with the model router in Foundry Models (LTG1201) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. Master AI spend management with Agent 365 (BRK263) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. Manage GitHub Copilot spending and understand team adoption (BRK271) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. Maximize your Copilot investment: scale with flexibility and control (BRK266) — Microsoft Ignite session catalogue

1. AWS re:Invent 2026, 30 November to 4 December, Las Vegas — Amazon Web Services