M365 Changelog: Classic Exchange Admin Center (EAC) Retirement Announcement

MC283874 – In MC252053 (April 2021), Microsoft announced the general availability of the new Exchange admin center (EAC). The new EAC offers a faster, more secure, and more intelligent modern admin experience than the classic EAC and is helping admins work more efficiently. With the new EAC capable of assuming this responsibility and more, today Microsoft is at the next stage of their journey, and they are announcing the retirement of the classic EAC that will be fully retired on September 1, 2022.

This will be carried out in phases as Microsoft moves forward. The initial phase will be moving the features under Protection to the Microsoft 365 Defender portal.

Key Points:

• Major: Retirement
• Timing:
  • October 15, 2021 – Move Protection and Advanced Threat features to the Microsoft 365 Defender portal
  • September 1, 2022 – Classic EAC will be retired

How this affects your organization:

In the initial phase, the following features will be moved to the Microsoft 365 Defender portal. Beginning October 15, 2021 users or Administrators will no longer be able to access these pages. If the user clicks on these features in Classic EAC, these feature pages will have a banner with a link to the new home for these features.

These features include:

1. Safe Attachments
2. Safe Links
3. Malware Filter
4. Connection Filter
5. Spam Filter
6. Outbound Spam
7. Quarantine
8. Action Center
9. DKIM

What you need to do to prepare:

You can access the new EAC directly from https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com. Within the classic EAC, you will also find an opt-in toggle button, along with banners and links in the left navigation panel for the new EAC. Once you’ve opted in to moving to the new EAC, you’ll automatically be directed to the new EAC from the Microsoft 365 admin center. The new EAC can also be accessed from the Partner Center Portal.

For the features being moved, outlined above, Microsoft recommends that you start using the Microsoft 365 Defender portal to access these features.