Microsoft Exchange Online Delays Deprecation of Client Access Rules Until 2024

Cloud Computing

Last year, Microsoft unveiled that it would phase out Client Access Rules (CARs) in Exchange Online in September this year. Now, the company has announced that it has delayed the deprecation of CARs, and it’s expected to be complete until September 2024.

Client Access Rules (CARs) is a feature that enables IT admins to allow or block client connections to Exchange Online based on various parameters, including user agents, IP addresses, and authentication methods. The feature lets administrators configure policies to protect Exchange Online resources against security risks, security risks, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.

Last October, Microsoft disabled CARs for Exchange Online customers who were not using the cmdlets. This change was aimed at encouraging organizations to switch to more secure methods like continuous access evaluation (CAE) and Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) conditional access.

Microsoft has acknowledged that some enterprise customers are facing challenges while migrating certain CARs to conditional access and CAE. This means that these organizations won’t be able to complete the migration process until September this year.

“We have been working with customers to learn how they use CARs and how they can migrate to these newer features, but we have encountered a few scenarios where it’s not possible to migrate current rules. For these scenarios, we will allow the use of CARs beyond the previously announced September 2023 deadline until we can support them,” the Exchange team explained.

Microsoft Exchange Online Delays Deprecation of Client Access Rules Until 2024

Microsoft Exchange team to help IT admins with Client Access Rules migration plans

Microsoft explained that the migration process would require some planning and testing within the organization. The company recommends IT admins to open a support ticket to address any technical issues that might be preventing them from switching CARs to Conditional Access and CAE.

Last month, Microsoft also announced its plans to postpone the deprecation of Remote PowerShell (RPS) in Exchange Online until October 2023. The Exchange team advised all customers to move from the legacy Remote PowerShell Protocol to the PowerShell v3 module.