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DIY vs Microsoft Agent 365: an in-house build or a Microsoft 365 control plane for AI agents

Build it yourself (DIY)

Building agent connections and controls in-house from open protocols, existing infrastructure, and open-source tools

Microsoft Agent 365

Microsoft 365 control plane to discover, manage, govern, and secure AI agents

Short answer

DIY is not a product: you build the registry and access controls yourself, on openly licensed protocols such as A2A and MCP that leave authorization to the implementer.⁠Source 1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4 Microsoft Agent 365 is a Microsoft 365 service: a control plane for agents built and run elsewhere, with Entra agent identities and per-user licensing.⁠Source 5, Source 6, Source 7, Source 8, Source 9

By Blocks.ai teamLast checked

Where each one sits

Six layers of running AI agents at a company, and what each product’s own public sources say it covers.

These aren’t the same kind of product

Where they overlap
Both are ways to govern agents and their tools: Uber’s MCP gateway uses a registry as its control plane; Agent 365 is a control plane with an agent registry.⁠Source 5, Source 10, Source 11
Where they differ
DIY also covers building and deploying agents, with frameworks such as LangGraph and Google’s Agent Development Kit.⁠Source 12, Source 13 Microsoft says the Agent 365 SDK doesn’t build, host, deploy, or execute agents.⁠Source 7
Running both
Microsoft says to build an agent with your chosen framework, then bring it into Agent 365 with its SDK.⁠Source 6
Public sources · checked 2 October 2026
  • Offered
  • Preview
  • You build it
  • Not included
  • Not publicly documented

DIY

  • Build agents: You build itOpen-source frameworks like ADK⁠Source 13
  • Host and run agents: You build itSelf-hosted, like LangGraph⁠Source 12
  • Identity and access: You build itYour own identity provider⁠Source 14
  • Registry and governance: You build itYour own agent registry⁠Source 1
  • Traffic between agents, tools, and models: You build itYour gateway and service mesh⁠Source 10
  • Agents across organizations: You build itA2A with API management⁠Source 15

Microsoft Agent 365

  • Build agents: Not includedUse your chosen framework⁠Source 6
  • Host and run agents: Not includedYou host your agent⁠Source 7
  • Identity and access: OfferedEntra Agent ID⁠Source 8
  • Registry and governance: OfferedAgent registry in admin center⁠Source 11
  • Traffic between agents, tools, and models: PreviewTooling Gateway for MCP servers⁠Source 16
  • Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented

At a glance

TopicDIYMicrosoft Agent 365
What it isAn in-house build on open protocols such as A2A, an open standard for communication between agent systems, and MCP.⁠Source 2A Microsoft 365 service that provides a centralized control plane for AI agents.⁠Source 5
Builds and runs agentsYou build and deploy them, for example with LangGraph or Google’s open-source Agent Development Kit.⁠Source 12, Source 13Microsoft says the Agent 365 SDK doesn’t build, host, deploy, or execute agents; they keep running where they are, such as Azure, AWS, or on premises.⁠Source 7
Agent identityYours to set up.⁠Source 17 A2A leaves identity to the HTTP layer.⁠Source 15 Keycloak’s MCP authorization support is Experimental (in preview) from MCP 2025-06-18.⁠Source 14Agent identities live in Microsoft Entra Agent ID; each is a Microsoft Entra service principal.⁠Source 8
Pricing modelThe A2A and MCP specifications are openly licensed, A2A’s under Apache 2.0.⁠Source 2, Source 3 Build and running costs are not publicly documented.Lists at $15 per user per month, or in Microsoft 365 E7.⁠Source 9 Basic identity and inventory come with Microsoft Cloud subscriptions; enterprise customers need Microsoft 365 E5, or E3 with the Defender and Purview suites.⁠Source 9
MaturityVaries by part: MCP’s latest specification revision is 2026-07-28, and the official MCP Registry is in preview.⁠Source 4, Source 18Generally available since 1 May 2026 for the Commercial segment.⁠Source 19 Registry sync and multi-tenant management are in preview.⁠Source 20, Source 21

What each one is

Build it yourself (DIY)

DIY means governing agents without a dedicated product: MCP and A2A wired together in-house, existing gateways and identity providers stretched to agents, an in-house platform, self-hosted open source, or no central approach; Uber says that before its gateway, teams built integrations independently and duplicated infrastructure.⁠Source 10

Microsoft Agent 365

Microsoft Agent 365 is a Microsoft 365 service that provides a centralized control plane to discover, manage, govern, and secure AI agents.⁠Source 5 Admins can manage agents through its registry in the Microsoft 365 admin center, Microsoft Entra, and Microsoft Purview.⁠Source 19

The differences that matter

  1. Agent identity

    DIY

    You pick the identity system: A2A leaves identity to the HTTP layer, and MCP makes authorization optional.⁠Source 15, Source 17

    Microsoft Agent 365

    Agent identities live in Microsoft Entra Agent ID, managed with Conditional Access, permission grants and consent, and lifecycle operations.⁠Source 8

    At Pinterest, almost every MCP call is governed by end-user JWTs and service-mesh identities; Uber’s gateway applies Access Control System policies to humans, services, and agents.⁠Source 10, Source 22

  2. Agent registry

    DIY

    Uber and Pinterest each built their own MCP registry; A2A prescribes no standard API for curated registries.⁠Source 1, Source 10, Source 22

    Microsoft Agent 365

    One registry in the Microsoft 365 admin center lists Microsoft and non-Microsoft agents, including agents without an Entra agent identity.⁠Source 11, Source 23

    The official MCP Registry is in preview and does not support private servers; its docs recommend hosting your own private registry for those.⁠Source 18

  3. Agents at other companies

    DIY

    A2A is designed for agents built by different companies on separate servers; each server authorizes requests under its own policies.⁠Source 2, Source 24

    Microsoft Agent 365

    A published agent can be added to a customer tenant with tenant-local Entra identities; managing agents across tenants you administer is in preview.⁠Source 8, Source 21

    Agent-to-agent calls across organizations through Agent 365 are not publicly documented. Microsoft’s separate Foundry and standard-harness Copilot Studio agents can call A2A agents hosted elsewhere.⁠Source 25, Source 26

For security teams

What a security review asks, answered from each vendor’s public documentation.

TopicDIYMicrosoft Agent 365
Network exposureMCP servers on Streamable HTTP expose an HTTP endpoint; A2A agents over HTTP declare an HTTPS URL in production.⁠Source 2, Source 27Notifications, in preview, go to a messaging endpoint you register; bring-your-own MCP servers, in preview, need a publicly accessible endpoint.⁠Source 16, Source 28
IdentityA2A credentials come through an out-of-band process; MCP authorization is optional, with the authorization server left to implementers.⁠Source 2, Source 17Agent identities live in Entra Agent ID, managed with Conditional Access and consent; the inventory also lists agents without one.⁠Source 8, Source 23
Access changes and revocationA2A servers apply their own policies.⁠Source 2 In a standard MCP deployment, offboarding means revoking access service by service.⁠Source 29Block agents organization-wide (only in Copilot Chat for SharePoint and Foundry agents), or disable all agents sharing an Entra blueprint.⁠Source 8, Source 30
Audit trailA2A docs advise auditing significant events; Pinterest’s MCP servers log inputs, outputs, invocation counts, and exception traces.⁠Source 15, Source 22Activity from supported agents appears in Defender, Purview, and the admin center; Agent 365 keeps it 30 days.⁠Source 6, Source 31
ComplianceA2A docs say to comply with relevant regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA; MCP leaves data protections to implementers.⁠Source 4, Source 15Not yet a Core Online Service.⁠Source 31 Microsoft says it meets its assessor’s FedRAMP High review; authorization is pending (announced).⁠Source 5

Full comparison

18 criteria in five groups. Every cell links to its source, or says no public source answers it.

DIY and Microsoft Agent 365 compared on 18 criteria
DIYMicrosoft Agent 365
What it is
What it is and who it’s forAn in-house build on open protocols such as A2A, an open standard for interoperability between agent systems, and MCP, which A2A calls complementary.⁠Source 2A Microsoft 365 service that provides a centralized control plane to discover, manage, govern, and secure AI agents.⁠Source 5
MaturityVaries by component: MCP’s latest specification revision is 2026-07-28.⁠Source 4 The official MCP Registry is in preview; breaking changes or data resets may occur.⁠Source 18Generally available since 1 May 2026 for the Commercial segment.⁠Source 19 Registry sync and multi-tenant management are in preview.⁠Source 20, Source 21
Control
Agent registry and discoveryBuilt in-house: Uber and Pinterest each built an MCP registry.⁠Source 10, Source 22 A2A prescribes no standard API for curated registries.⁠Source 1An agent registry in the Microsoft 365 admin center lists Microsoft and non-Microsoft agents.⁠Source 11, Source 23 Sync from platforms such as Amazon Bedrock is in preview.⁠Source 20
Identity and access controlA2A leaves identity to the HTTP layer and calls authorization implementation-specific.⁠Source 2, Source 15 MCP authorization is optional.⁠Source 17Entra Agent ID identities, managed with Conditional Access, permission grants, and consent.⁠Source 8 Declared permissions need an administrator’s consent.⁠Source 8
Ownership, policy, and revocationMCP tells implementers to build consent and authorization flows.⁠Source 4 Pinterest requires an owning team, registry entry, and review for non-experimental MCP servers.⁠Source 22Entra agent identities need a sponsor.⁠Source 8 Admins can block agents (SharePoint and Foundry ones only in Copilot Chat), approve activations, and apply templates.⁠Source 30, Source 32
Audit log and observabilityA2A docs advise auditing significant events and tracing, for example with OpenTelemetry.⁠Source 15 Pinterest’s MCP servers log inputs, outputs, and invocation counts.⁠Source 22Supported agents’ spans show in Defender, Purview, and the admin center; Agent 365 keeps them 30 days.⁠Source 6, Source 31 Purview’s agent audit logs need E7 or Agent 365.⁠Source 5
Connection
How agents connectStreamable HTTP MCP servers expose an endpoint; A2A agents over HTTP declare an HTTPS URL in production.⁠Source 2, Source 27 AWS PrivateLink privately connects a VPC to services.⁠Source 33The SDK works with agents on Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, or on premises.⁠Source 6 Notifications, in preview, go to a messaging endpoint URL you register.⁠Source 28
Agents across organizationsA2A is built for agents from different companies on separate servers; its docs highly recommend API management across organizational boundaries.⁠Source 15, Source 24A published agent can be added to a customer tenant with tenant-local Entra identities.⁠Source 8 Managing agents across tenants you administer is in preview.⁠Source 21
Protocol supportMCP defines stdio and Streamable HTTP transports and allows custom ones.⁠Source 34 A2A maps its operations to JSON-RPC, gRPC, and HTTP/REST bindings.⁠Source 2Tenant-wide tool control covers Microsoft MCP servers.⁠Source 5 Bring-your-own MCP servers are in preview.⁠Source 16 A2A in Agent 365 itself is not publicly documented.
Frameworks, models, and clouds supportedA2A gives agents built on different frameworks, languages, or vendors a common language.⁠Source 2 Google’s ADK says it is model-agnostic and deployment-agnostic.⁠Source 13Microsoft and third-party agents; SDK integration names LangChain, CrewAI, and the OpenAI Agents SDK.⁠Source 5, Source 20 Premium capabilities may vary by agent type and platform.⁠Source 9
Operations
Deployment options and data residencyWherever you run it: Pinterest optimized for MCP servers in its internal cloud.⁠Source 22 A2A docs leave protecting stored data to your own policies.⁠Source 15Honors the EU Data Boundary; its observability service stores customer content in the tenant’s default geography.⁠Source 31 Self-hosting it: not publicly documented.
Compliance attestationsA2A docs tell implementers to comply with relevant regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA.⁠Source 15 MCP leaves access controls and data protections to implementers.⁠Source 4Not yet a Core Online Service.⁠Source 31 Microsoft says Agent 365 meets all FedRAMP High controls its assessor reviewed; final authorization is pending (announced).⁠Source 5
Support and SLADepends on the component: MCP SDKs are tiered partly by maintenance commitments; the official MCP Registry, in preview, gives no uptime guarantees.⁠Source 35, Source 36No specific SLA for the Frontier preview program.⁠Source 37 An SLA or support plan specific to the generally available service is not publicly documented.
Time and effort to get runningA curated A2A registry is a service you deploy and maintain.⁠Source 1 Pinterest built a unified deployment pipeline after new MCP servers took too much setup.⁠Source 22Enterprise customers need Microsoft 365 E5, or E3 with Defender Suite and Purview Suite.⁠Source 9 SDK-connected agents need an Entra blueprint.⁠Source 8
Pricing model and public pricesThe A2A and MCP specifications are openly licensed, A2A’s under Apache 2.0.⁠Source 2, Source 3 Build and running costs are not publicly documented.Per user, not per agent: lists at $15 a month standalone, or in Microsoft 365 E7.⁠Source 9 Microsoft Cloud subscribers get foundational capabilities at no extra cost.⁠Source 9
Building
Agent building toolsYou build them: LangGraph and Google’s open-source ADK are frameworks for building and deploying agents, and A2A has SDKs in six languages.⁠Source 12, Source 13, Source 38Microsoft says the Agent 365 SDK isn’t an agent-building framework.⁠Source 6 For low-code building, its docs point to Microsoft’s separate Copilot Studio.⁠Source 39
Model accessYour choice: Google’s ADK, for example, says it is optimized for Gemini and model-agnostic.⁠Source 13Microsoft says the SDK doesn’t call or select models; the agent keeps making its own model calls.⁠Source 6, Source 7
Integrations and ecosystemThe official MCP Registry, in preview, has a REST API for clients and aggregators to discover MCP servers.⁠Source 18Launched with preintegrated partner agents and agents built on partner agent factories.⁠Source 40, Source 41 Work IQ MCP tools, in preview, cover Mail, Calendar, Teams, and more.⁠Source 42

Which to choose

Choose DIY if

  • You don’t run Microsoft 365: Agent 365 is a Microsoft 365 service, and enterprise customers first need E5, or E3 with add-ons.⁠Source 5, Source 9
  • You need agents at other companies to work with yours: A2A is designed for agents from different companies on separate servers.⁠Source 24
  • You want access checked by systems you already run, as Pinterest does with mesh identities and Uber with its Access Control System.⁠Source 10, Source 22
  • You want no vendor contract for the core protocols: the A2A and MCP specifications are openly licensed.⁠Source 2, Source 3

Choose Microsoft Agent 365 if

  • You build agents in Microsoft’s separate Copilot Studio or Microsoft Foundry, which Microsoft says offer built-in integration for some scenarios.⁠Source 20, Source 43
  • You want agent identities in Microsoft Entra, managed with the same Conditional Access, consent, and lifecycle controls used elsewhere in Entra.⁠Source 8
  • You want one registry for Microsoft and non-Microsoft agents that also counts agents created or managed outside Agent 365.⁠Source 11, Source 23
  • You have a Microsoft Cloud subscription: agent identity, inventory visibility, and core admin governance actions come at no additional cost.⁠Source 9

Questions buyers ask

Can Microsoft Agent 365 govern agents built outside Microsoft?

Yes: Microsoft says Agent 365 works with agents built or acquired from third-party sources.⁠Source 5 Agents built outside Microsoft 365 channels and Entra Agent ID need additional steps to appear in the inventory, and premium capabilities may vary by platform.⁠Source 9, Source 45

Does Microsoft Agent 365 support MCP and A2A?

For MCP, it controls which tools agents can access tenant-wide, including Microsoft MCP servers, and registering your own MCP servers is in preview.⁠Source 5, Source 16 A2A in Agent 365 itself is not publicly documented; Microsoft’s separate Foundry and standard-harness Copilot Studio agents can call A2A agents.⁠Source 25, Source 26

Do I need Microsoft 365 to use Microsoft Agent 365?

Agent 365 is a Microsoft 365 service.⁠Source 5 Enterprise customers need Microsoft 365 E5, or Microsoft 365 E3 (or Office 365 E3 plus EMS E3) with Defender Suite and Purview Suite, and at least one user with an Agent 365 license to enable it.⁠Source 9, Source 19

How do the costs compare?

Agent 365 lists at $15 per user per month standalone, paid yearly, or comes in Microsoft 365 E7; agents aren’t licensed, and there are no consumption-based costs yet.⁠Source 9, Source 45 For DIY, the specifications are openly licensed; build and running costs are not publicly documented.⁠Source 2, Source 3

How we compare

Read the full method

Every claim on this page links to a public source. Where none answers a question, the page says so.

We re-check every fact at least every 90 days. This page was last checked .

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Sources

50 public sources, each with the date we checked it. Every one opens in a new tab.

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