The Register reports that Microsoft has begun withdrawing access to Exchange Web Services, the older API many applications use to connect to Exchange Online, with removal already starting and, according to the report, "no exceptions" once the process completes in April. The summary notes this applies to existing tenants, with nothing to suggest a grace period for applications still built on the older method.
Rob Lowein, EAC Network Solutions: For accountancy, law and financial advice firms, the practical risk here is rarely Outlook itself. It is the other software sitting alongside it: practice management systems, document management platforms, time recording tools or client onboarding software that may use Exchange Web Services behind the scenes to read calendars, emails or contacts. Firms of this size often cannot say with confidence which of their applications rely on this method, because the connection was often set up by a supplier years ago and has simply worked ever since without anyone thinking about it. The sensible step now is not to wait and see what stops functioning, but to ask each software supplier directly whether their product still depends on Exchange Web Services and, if it does, what their plan is for moving to Microsoft’s newer method before April. That is a question for the software vendor rather than something that can be answered by checking settings alone, and it is worth asking sooner rather than later given how little time the described withdrawal leaves.
Source: The Register
