1 00:00:03,520 --> 00:00:05,599 Welcome to episode 407 2 00:00:05,599 --> 00:00:08,720 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro podcast recorded 3 00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:11,699 live on 07/25/2025. 4 00:00:11,919 --> 00:00:14,174 This is a show about Microsoft three sixty 5 00:00:14,174 --> 00:00:16,414 five and Azure from the perspective of IT 6 00:00:16,414 --> 00:00:18,494 pros and end users, where we discuss the 7 00:00:18,494 --> 00:00:20,894 topic for recent news and how it relates 8 00:00:20,894 --> 00:00:23,695 to you. In this episode, we dive deep 9 00:00:23,695 --> 00:00:26,274 into the USB port of AI communications 10 00:00:26,574 --> 00:00:30,280 as we discuss model context protocol or MCP. 11 00:00:30,900 --> 00:00:34,200 This is a game changing specification that's extending 12 00:00:34,260 --> 00:00:37,399 the capabilities of large language models or LLMs 13 00:00:37,859 --> 00:00:40,500 to help you bring your data together into 14 00:00:40,500 --> 00:00:43,274 a central LLM of your choice. We'll talk 15 00:00:43,274 --> 00:00:45,115 about what they are, where you can use 16 00:00:45,115 --> 00:00:46,795 them, and things you may want to think 17 00:00:46,795 --> 00:00:49,135 about when it comes to using these MCPs. 18 00:00:49,675 --> 00:00:51,535 So let's dive into the show. 19 00:00:54,075 --> 00:00:56,895 Scott, we're between vacations. I'll pretend I'm surprised. 20 00:00:57,329 --> 00:00:59,409 Yeah. I know. You just got back from 21 00:00:59,409 --> 00:01:01,909 vacation. I'm about ready to leave for vacation. 22 00:01:02,369 --> 00:01:04,689 Summer recording is always interesting. I had a 23 00:01:04,689 --> 00:01:05,510 good vacation. 24 00:01:06,370 --> 00:01:07,269 We went to 25 00:01:08,129 --> 00:01:09,189 we we did Oregon, 26 00:01:09,745 --> 00:01:10,724 Northern California 27 00:01:11,105 --> 00:01:13,265 and just did a a ton of driving. 28 00:01:13,265 --> 00:01:15,584 So we did about 2,000 miles in ten 29 00:01:15,584 --> 00:01:16,885 days. How many kilometers 30 00:01:17,265 --> 00:01:19,364 for our non American friends? 31 00:01:19,984 --> 00:01:22,084 What is it? It's multi multiply 32 00:01:22,465 --> 00:01:24,939 by, what, three? Something like that. I don't 33 00:01:24,939 --> 00:01:26,219 know. I don't know. It's a bunch of 34 00:01:26,219 --> 00:01:28,799 kilometers. But yeah, good trip, lots of hiking. 35 00:01:28,859 --> 00:01:31,020 We went and saw like the redwoods and 36 00:01:31,020 --> 00:01:31,520 did, 37 00:01:31,980 --> 00:01:36,159 Crater Lake and all sorts of stuff. 3,218 38 00:01:36,299 --> 00:01:38,719 kilometers is what you drove. Not too shabby. 39 00:01:39,185 --> 00:01:41,344 Thank goodness for rental cars and somebody else's 40 00:01:41,344 --> 00:01:43,665 mileage. That sounds good. I'm kinda I'm jealous. 41 00:01:43,665 --> 00:01:45,984 Yeah. I have never been out, like, Northern 42 00:01:45,984 --> 00:01:46,484 California, 43 00:01:46,784 --> 00:01:49,445 Oregon area. Have you ever seen The Goonies? 44 00:01:50,465 --> 00:01:51,905 I don't you're gonna make fun of me 45 00:01:51,905 --> 00:01:53,519 again. I don't know that I have. Then. 46 00:01:53,599 --> 00:01:54,799 Another one of those. If it's been a 47 00:01:54,799 --> 00:01:56,560 while if I have, it's been a while. 48 00:01:56,560 --> 00:01:58,000 I'll make you set up the projector outside. 49 00:01:58,000 --> 00:01:59,439 I'll come over. You can cook me dinner, 50 00:01:59,439 --> 00:02:00,979 and we'll watch you at least. The Goonies? 51 00:02:01,039 --> 00:02:02,239 So that was kind of our one of 52 00:02:02,239 --> 00:02:04,079 our last stops on that trip was staying 53 00:02:04,079 --> 00:02:07,119 up in Cannon Beach where Haystack Rock is, 54 00:02:07,119 --> 00:02:08,604 and it's like the big rock that the 55 00:02:08,604 --> 00:02:10,044 pirate ship floats out of at the end 56 00:02:10,044 --> 00:02:11,805 of The Goonies and things like that, so 57 00:02:11,805 --> 00:02:13,805 that was kind of fun too. The other 58 00:02:13,805 --> 00:02:14,944 really nice thing 59 00:02:15,245 --> 00:02:15,745 about 60 00:02:16,364 --> 00:02:19,084 that part of California, like the very tip 61 00:02:19,084 --> 00:02:21,405 Northern California up through Oregon, you're in the 62 00:02:21,405 --> 00:02:23,185 Pacific Northwest in the summer, 63 00:02:23,550 --> 00:02:26,349 it is not like Florida in the summer. 64 00:02:26,349 --> 00:02:28,509 So Florida in the summer, like I'm looking 65 00:02:28,509 --> 00:02:29,569 right now, it's 66 00:02:30,110 --> 00:02:32,349 88% outside with 82% 67 00:02:32,349 --> 00:02:34,909 humidity and feels like 106%. 68 00:02:34,909 --> 00:02:36,989 It is miserable and you do not want 69 00:02:36,989 --> 00:02:37,729 to be outside. 70 00:02:38,474 --> 00:02:41,435 In that part of The United States, it 71 00:02:41,435 --> 00:02:41,935 is 72 00:02:42,395 --> 00:02:43,754 because you're right on the coast, so you 73 00:02:43,754 --> 00:02:45,995 get that coastal fog in the morning. Some 74 00:02:45,995 --> 00:02:47,754 days you can't even see the sunrise or 75 00:02:47,754 --> 00:02:50,335 the sunset because the fog is so thick. 76 00:02:50,849 --> 00:02:51,349 70 77 00:02:51,810 --> 00:02:53,030 degrees, 60 degrees, 78 00:02:53,569 --> 00:02:56,289 it all just hits different. It was absolutely 79 00:02:56,289 --> 00:02:58,289 beautiful. I got super sad when I got 80 00:02:58,289 --> 00:02:59,810 there because I forgot to pack a pair 81 00:02:59,810 --> 00:03:00,849 of shorts and I was like, Oh my 82 00:03:00,849 --> 00:03:02,129 gosh, it's going to be like seventy, eighty 83 00:03:02,129 --> 00:03:04,335 degrees, it's going to be hot. It was 84 00:03:04,495 --> 00:03:07,235 perfectly comfortable every day in a sweatshirt 85 00:03:07,534 --> 00:03:10,034 and long pants and all that stuff. 86 00:03:10,335 --> 00:03:12,175 So it was really great, good little change 87 00:03:12,175 --> 00:03:13,855 of pace. I'm ready to go back, I 88 00:03:13,855 --> 00:03:16,495 think, on vacation. Doctor. On vacation? See, I'm 89 00:03:16,495 --> 00:03:18,254 looking forward to it too. We're going up 90 00:03:18,254 --> 00:03:20,330 north to Michigan, and then we're going out 91 00:03:20,330 --> 00:03:22,409 to Denver. And same thing, I'm like, it's 92 00:03:22,409 --> 00:03:24,110 not Florida in the summer. 93 00:03:24,569 --> 00:03:27,050 It'll be beautiful. With that, can you use 94 00:03:27,050 --> 00:03:28,189 an MCP 95 00:03:28,810 --> 00:03:30,729 something or other to help you plan your 96 00:03:30,729 --> 00:03:33,044 vacation? To plan my vacation? Was that was 97 00:03:33,044 --> 00:03:35,125 quite a stretch there, Scott, for it. For 98 00:03:35,125 --> 00:03:37,284 a segue, you were looking for one? Yeah. 99 00:03:37,284 --> 00:03:39,305 It all went sideways. You mean a Microsoft 100 00:03:39,444 --> 00:03:42,724 certified professional? Do Microsoft certified professionals? We like 101 00:03:42,724 --> 00:03:44,965 acronyms. Right? It's what an MCP used to 102 00:03:44,965 --> 00:03:47,020 be. I guess it still is. I was 103 00:03:47,020 --> 00:03:49,280 thinking more like model context protocol 104 00:03:49,819 --> 00:03:50,319 and 105 00:03:50,780 --> 00:03:52,939 some of the new specs and things have 106 00:03:52,939 --> 00:03:55,340 been coming out of anthropic and then the 107 00:03:55,340 --> 00:03:57,199 really cool nifty functionality 108 00:03:57,739 --> 00:03:59,819 that's been coming out along the way. Yeah. 109 00:03:59,819 --> 00:04:01,635 I mean, I suppose you could. Right? Like, 110 00:04:01,635 --> 00:04:02,294 with MCPs 111 00:04:03,074 --> 00:04:04,594 and kind of the goal, like you said, 112 00:04:04,594 --> 00:04:07,155 model context protocol, is that this kind of 113 00:04:07,155 --> 00:04:09,635 extends LLMs to other data sources. So I 114 00:04:09,635 --> 00:04:10,135 suppose 115 00:04:10,594 --> 00:04:11,814 maybe if there's MCPs 116 00:04:12,115 --> 00:04:13,655 out there to connect to 117 00:04:14,050 --> 00:04:15,490 some type of data that you might want 118 00:04:15,490 --> 00:04:17,649 to use to plan your vacation or something 119 00:04:17,649 --> 00:04:19,889 that you're planning your vacation from, you probably 120 00:04:19,889 --> 00:04:21,970 could use an MCP to plan your vacation, 121 00:04:21,970 --> 00:04:24,449 Scott. Probably. What is an MCP? If it 122 00:04:24,449 --> 00:04:25,810 hooked up to the right set of data 123 00:04:25,810 --> 00:04:28,954 sources. Absolutely. Yeah. With vacations, this is gonna 124 00:04:28,954 --> 00:04:31,354 be maybe the should we give people context? 125 00:04:31,354 --> 00:04:33,194 We are doing a longer episode that we're 126 00:04:33,194 --> 00:04:35,435 gonna break into two parts today because of 127 00:04:35,435 --> 00:04:37,594 vacations. So we're gonna kinda start off with 128 00:04:37,594 --> 00:04:38,574 what is an MCP 129 00:04:38,954 --> 00:04:41,709 followed by how do you use MCPs? We're 130 00:04:41,709 --> 00:04:42,849 jumping ahead of ourselves. 131 00:04:43,310 --> 00:04:46,209 So what is an MCP, Scott? What is 132 00:04:46,349 --> 00:04:48,050 the model context protocol 133 00:04:48,430 --> 00:04:49,569 from Anthropic, 134 00:04:50,189 --> 00:04:54,644 creators of also Claude? Model context protocol is 135 00:04:55,665 --> 00:04:56,485 a specification, 136 00:04:57,024 --> 00:04:58,339 like first of all, right? It's a Doctor. 137 00:04:58,339 --> 00:04:58,567 Joshua Klooz (zero 50 three:fifty three): Yep. Doctor. 138 00:04:58,567 --> 00:04:59,685 Joshua Klooz (zero fifty three:fifty three): Framework 139 00:05:00,225 --> 00:05:00,964 and architecture 140 00:05:01,425 --> 00:05:01,925 for 141 00:05:02,785 --> 00:05:03,285 developing 142 00:05:03,985 --> 00:05:04,485 servers 143 00:05:04,865 --> 00:05:05,845 and clients 144 00:05:06,439 --> 00:05:09,899 that can interact with large language models 145 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:12,779 and LLMs and become part of 146 00:05:13,479 --> 00:05:14,620 agentic workflows 147 00:05:15,399 --> 00:05:18,120 for LLMs. So they can surface very specific 148 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:19,100 pieces of functionality. 149 00:05:20,064 --> 00:05:21,125 So for example, 150 00:05:21,504 --> 00:05:23,985 you might have OpenAI out there and you're 151 00:05:23,985 --> 00:05:25,045 using ChatGPT 152 00:05:25,904 --> 00:05:28,944 four o, and you're chatting with that, and 153 00:05:28,944 --> 00:05:31,824 that thing was trained on a specific set 154 00:05:31,824 --> 00:05:32,485 of data. 155 00:05:32,970 --> 00:05:35,850 It could be that you're maybe grounding it 156 00:05:35,850 --> 00:05:37,770 in some additional data. Maybe you're doing rack 157 00:05:37,770 --> 00:05:40,330 or things like that. But maybe you need, 158 00:05:40,330 --> 00:05:41,790 like, additional functionality 159 00:05:42,250 --> 00:05:43,069 or more 160 00:05:43,770 --> 00:05:45,069 system or service 161 00:05:45,524 --> 00:05:46,345 specific functionality 162 00:05:46,805 --> 00:05:49,205 to do things. For example, let's do like 163 00:05:49,205 --> 00:05:50,824 a pie in the sky thing. So 164 00:05:51,205 --> 00:05:53,925 I have a Notion database, and one of 165 00:05:53,925 --> 00:05:57,045 my Notion databases is recipes, where I capture 166 00:05:57,045 --> 00:05:59,279 recipes that I find on YouTube. There's a 167 00:05:59,279 --> 00:06:02,240 sub database that actually has, like, the recipe 168 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:04,740 itself. Here's the steps. Here's the ingredients, 169 00:06:05,279 --> 00:06:06,720 all those kinds of things along the way. 170 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:08,000 So one of the things you might be 171 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:10,399 able to do is go out and ask 172 00:06:10,399 --> 00:06:11,139 an LLM, 173 00:06:11,605 --> 00:06:14,185 hey. Can you give me a new recipe 174 00:06:14,564 --> 00:06:15,064 for 175 00:06:15,845 --> 00:06:18,024 roasted chicken, roast potatoes, asparagus, 176 00:06:18,485 --> 00:06:20,645 and make it a little spicy? And what 177 00:06:20,645 --> 00:06:22,004 would be good if it had, like, these 178 00:06:22,004 --> 00:06:22,904 flavor properties? 179 00:06:23,285 --> 00:06:25,045 Well, if you had it tied into a 180 00:06:25,045 --> 00:06:27,889 tool with an MCP agent, you could also 181 00:06:27,889 --> 00:06:30,290 extend that prompt and you could say, once 182 00:06:30,290 --> 00:06:32,449 you've have that recipe and I've iterated on 183 00:06:32,449 --> 00:06:34,610 it, great. Hey, that recipe looks good. Can 184 00:06:34,610 --> 00:06:36,370 you take it and save it in my 185 00:06:36,370 --> 00:06:39,649 Notion database over here? And then because now 186 00:06:39,649 --> 00:06:41,110 you have the ability to 187 00:06:41,485 --> 00:06:43,185 have that Notion specific 188 00:06:43,485 --> 00:06:43,985 functionality 189 00:06:44,764 --> 00:06:45,504 tied into 190 00:06:45,884 --> 00:06:48,465 your client that you're chatting with that LLM, 191 00:06:48,764 --> 00:06:50,125 now you can start to chain that together 192 00:06:50,125 --> 00:06:51,884 and you can, like, push that information down 193 00:06:51,884 --> 00:06:52,705 from the LLM 194 00:06:53,085 --> 00:06:55,165 out to an external tool. Or you can 195 00:06:55,165 --> 00:06:57,000 do this in other ways. Like, let's say, 196 00:06:57,000 --> 00:06:57,660 for example, 197 00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:02,300 in Azure land, there's an Azure MCP server, 198 00:07:02,519 --> 00:07:05,339 and that server lets you do things like 199 00:07:05,479 --> 00:07:06,620 list the resources 200 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:07,899 in my subscription. 201 00:07:08,519 --> 00:07:10,139 Great. Like, list all the resources. 202 00:07:10,544 --> 00:07:12,785 Now, once you've listed the resources, go find 203 00:07:12,785 --> 00:07:14,944 the properties for those resources. Now, once you've 204 00:07:14,944 --> 00:07:17,664 found those resources with those properties, maybe take 205 00:07:17,664 --> 00:07:19,425 them and write them out to this other 206 00:07:19,425 --> 00:07:21,345 thing. Like, send them to Slack, send them 207 00:07:21,345 --> 00:07:23,345 to Notion, send them to OneNote, something like 208 00:07:23,345 --> 00:07:24,944 that, so that you can continue to have 209 00:07:24,944 --> 00:07:26,639 it go further. So you end up in 210 00:07:26,639 --> 00:07:29,220 this world where you can extend LLMs 211 00:07:29,759 --> 00:07:30,259 with 212 00:07:30,639 --> 00:07:34,080 domain specific knowledge and domain specific functionality that's 213 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:36,800 built by developers and by these services, and 214 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:39,060 then you can chain it all together because 215 00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:41,535 now the clients that are interacting with these 216 00:07:41,535 --> 00:07:43,775 LLMs and have the ability to integrate with 217 00:07:43,775 --> 00:07:44,835 MCP servers, 218 00:07:45,214 --> 00:07:47,295 they can also know, like, oh, hey. I'm 219 00:07:47,295 --> 00:07:50,175 looking at an agent or a tool that 220 00:07:50,175 --> 00:07:51,714 surfaces this piece of functionality. 221 00:07:52,159 --> 00:07:53,759 Therefore, go talk to this, chain it into 222 00:07:53,759 --> 00:07:55,519 this, things like that. So that's all really 223 00:07:55,519 --> 00:07:57,699 cool because you can do that just through 224 00:07:57,759 --> 00:07:59,539 a singular client 225 00:07:59,919 --> 00:08:02,240 and kind of like a real time, like, 226 00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:03,939 back and forth kind of interaction. 227 00:08:04,634 --> 00:08:06,074 The other way that these things can be 228 00:08:06,074 --> 00:08:08,414 used is as part of agentic workflows. 229 00:08:08,794 --> 00:08:11,194 So rather than me being like, hey. I'm 230 00:08:11,194 --> 00:08:12,634 gonna sit here and prompt you in real 231 00:08:12,634 --> 00:08:14,394 time, maybe I just have a prompt that 232 00:08:14,394 --> 00:08:16,235 kicks off overnight and does something in the 233 00:08:16,235 --> 00:08:18,220 background for me. And it's like one agent 234 00:08:18,220 --> 00:08:20,220 talks to another agent, talks to another agent, 235 00:08:20,220 --> 00:08:21,360 talks to another agent, talks to another agent. 236 00:08:21,660 --> 00:08:24,639 So if anybody's maybe been playing around with 237 00:08:24,860 --> 00:08:26,939 some of the agents or tools, like, they're 238 00:08:26,939 --> 00:08:28,540 called different things all over the place. Like, 239 00:08:28,540 --> 00:08:31,020 in in Microsoft three sixty five Copilot, they're 240 00:08:31,020 --> 00:08:33,355 called agents. If you go into like Copilot 241 00:08:33,414 --> 00:08:35,335 Studio, you've got these things called tools and 242 00:08:35,335 --> 00:08:37,495 other bits and pieces. Like this is a 243 00:08:37,495 --> 00:08:38,875 more rich interaction 244 00:08:39,254 --> 00:08:39,754 surface 245 00:08:40,134 --> 00:08:42,215 on top of those things that have been 246 00:08:42,215 --> 00:08:44,054 there before. I think one of the weird 247 00:08:44,054 --> 00:08:46,930 things about MCP in general is when I 248 00:08:46,930 --> 00:08:48,129 think about it, I think about more from 249 00:08:48,129 --> 00:08:49,570 like the end user side, like how do 250 00:08:49,570 --> 00:08:51,350 I as a user get started with it? 251 00:08:51,410 --> 00:08:54,610 Well, there's a whole bunch of LLM clients 252 00:08:54,610 --> 00:08:58,149 out there, like Copilot or heck, ChatGPT itself, 253 00:08:58,450 --> 00:09:00,769 that don't allow you to actually interact with 254 00:09:00,769 --> 00:09:01,269 MCPs, 255 00:09:01,855 --> 00:09:04,035 but others do. So if you have maybe 256 00:09:04,095 --> 00:09:06,674 like Claude or Perplexity on the desktop, 257 00:09:07,134 --> 00:09:10,414 then those let you run and integrate with 258 00:09:10,414 --> 00:09:14,014 MCP servers, both local servers and remote servers, 259 00:09:14,014 --> 00:09:15,934 which that's a distinction that we should talk 260 00:09:15,934 --> 00:09:17,490 through, tools like 261 00:09:17,889 --> 00:09:20,950 AI driven IDs like Cursor, WindServ, 262 00:09:21,730 --> 00:09:23,490 Versus Code as well, right, if you're just 263 00:09:23,490 --> 00:09:25,089 looking to, like, pick this up and and 264 00:09:25,089 --> 00:09:27,250 get going and get free free stuff along 265 00:09:27,250 --> 00:09:28,070 the way. So 266 00:09:28,529 --> 00:09:29,750 I think they are 267 00:09:30,209 --> 00:09:30,709 a 268 00:09:31,089 --> 00:09:33,705 weird new enabler, Like, they're definitely, like, cutting 269 00:09:33,705 --> 00:09:35,465 edge and we're on some, like, precipice or 270 00:09:35,465 --> 00:09:37,625 cliff, and it's not clear, like, does the 271 00:09:37,625 --> 00:09:39,625 ground continue to extend in front of us? 272 00:09:39,625 --> 00:09:40,904 Do we fall off the edge, and what 273 00:09:40,904 --> 00:09:42,904 does that look like? But it's definitely, like, 274 00:09:42,904 --> 00:09:44,504 exciting just to, like, be able to get 275 00:09:44,504 --> 00:09:46,110 hands on with some of this stuff and 276 00:09:46,110 --> 00:09:48,129 leverage it and find ways to 277 00:09:48,509 --> 00:09:49,809 use it in 278 00:09:50,190 --> 00:09:52,190 your day to day workflows, be it like, 279 00:09:52,190 --> 00:09:53,870 hey, you're a consumer. Like I said, maybe 280 00:09:53,870 --> 00:09:55,710 you're sitting here and you're doing, like maybe 281 00:09:55,710 --> 00:09:57,470 you're like a content creator and you're doing 282 00:09:57,470 --> 00:09:59,970 video creation and you say, okay, hey, ChatGPT, 283 00:10:00,350 --> 00:10:03,095 create my script. Well, great. Go into Versus 284 00:10:03,095 --> 00:10:05,335 Code, have a chat with ChatGPT four zero, 285 00:10:05,335 --> 00:10:06,855 create my script, now take my script and 286 00:10:06,855 --> 00:10:09,095 push it out to here, and let me 287 00:10:09,095 --> 00:10:11,014 leverage it that way or have it and 288 00:10:11,014 --> 00:10:12,875 iterate it on it, things like that. 289 00:10:13,175 --> 00:10:15,434 Or just in my day to day professional 290 00:10:15,495 --> 00:10:17,580 job, I'm always looking at 291 00:10:18,120 --> 00:10:18,620 documentation, 292 00:10:19,240 --> 00:10:21,480 code, samples, all those kinds of things. So 293 00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:22,700 there are very specific 294 00:10:23,399 --> 00:10:23,899 MCP 295 00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:27,639 server implementations that I can integrate with a 296 00:10:27,639 --> 00:10:28,139 client 297 00:10:28,855 --> 00:10:30,695 and be able to really kind of just, 298 00:10:30,695 --> 00:10:31,595 like, accelerate 299 00:10:32,134 --> 00:10:34,535 and augment those workflows within my day to 300 00:10:34,535 --> 00:10:37,654 day, which is very exciting. Right? Like, I 301 00:10:37,654 --> 00:10:39,735 think it's, like, I like cutting edge and 302 00:10:39,735 --> 00:10:41,495 raw, and it's always fun to get hands 303 00:10:41,495 --> 00:10:43,575 on with a new tool or a new 304 00:10:43,575 --> 00:10:45,860 toolset. A lot of these and where I've 305 00:10:45,860 --> 00:10:48,659 started playing with MCPs too is you mentioned 306 00:10:48,659 --> 00:10:50,600 like Claude or OpenAI or Copilot. 307 00:10:50,980 --> 00:10:53,139 It's you're limited in what data you can 308 00:10:53,139 --> 00:10:54,819 access. You can go build an agent in 309 00:10:54,819 --> 00:10:55,319 Copilot, 310 00:10:55,620 --> 00:10:58,184 but in that case, Microsoft has very 311 00:10:58,504 --> 00:11:00,504 defined connectors. They're starting to get more with 312 00:11:00,504 --> 00:11:03,144 some of the custom connectors and different things 313 00:11:03,144 --> 00:11:05,404 there, but like OpenAI. OpenAI, 314 00:11:06,184 --> 00:11:07,245 the data sources, 315 00:11:07,625 --> 00:11:09,465 kind of before MCPs, were a lot more 316 00:11:09,465 --> 00:11:11,860 limited. OpenAI is set to go look at 317 00:11:11,860 --> 00:11:13,379 the web or look at this data or 318 00:11:13,379 --> 00:11:16,100 use this model. Claude, same thing. This is 319 00:11:16,100 --> 00:11:19,940 really opening up that ability to say, now 320 00:11:19,940 --> 00:11:22,899 I want Claude to go look at all 321 00:11:22,899 --> 00:11:25,465 this other data that's more specific to me. 322 00:11:25,465 --> 00:11:27,065 Like you mentioned, I want Claude to go 323 00:11:27,065 --> 00:11:29,644 be able to look at my data in 324 00:11:29,705 --> 00:11:31,384 Notion, or I want Claude to be able 325 00:11:31,384 --> 00:11:33,705 to go look at the data in a 326 00:11:33,705 --> 00:11:35,705 SQL database. I want Claude to be able 327 00:11:35,705 --> 00:11:36,684 to go look at 328 00:11:37,009 --> 00:11:38,389 data over in 329 00:11:38,769 --> 00:11:41,409 Microsoft three sixty five in SharePoint land. It's 330 00:11:41,409 --> 00:11:44,210 allowing you to bring your own it's almost 331 00:11:44,210 --> 00:11:45,649 like bring your own data. Do we have 332 00:11:45,649 --> 00:11:48,769 a BYO instead of BYOD for devices? It's 333 00:11:48,769 --> 00:11:51,095 BYOD for data. Bring your own data into 334 00:11:51,095 --> 00:11:53,434 these different LLMs so that as you're querying, 335 00:11:53,654 --> 00:11:54,394 you can 336 00:11:54,774 --> 00:11:58,075 get different responses, better responses, more accurate responses, 337 00:11:58,214 --> 00:12:00,714 or responses very specific to 338 00:12:01,014 --> 00:12:03,095 the data that you want these LLMs to 339 00:12:03,095 --> 00:12:05,274 be able to parse over and 340 00:12:05,779 --> 00:12:08,340 pull these results from or these responses from? 341 00:12:08,340 --> 00:12:10,120 It's that domain specificity 342 00:12:10,740 --> 00:12:13,620 and the ability to plug and play domain 343 00:12:13,620 --> 00:12:17,559 specificity. So Anthropic, the folks who make Claw 344 00:12:17,985 --> 00:12:20,304 and SONNET and all that stuff, they are 345 00:12:20,304 --> 00:12:22,404 the ones who came up with this specification 346 00:12:22,544 --> 00:12:24,085 and pushed it out there into the world, 347 00:12:24,144 --> 00:12:26,065 and one of the ways that they frame 348 00:12:26,065 --> 00:12:27,125 it is 349 00:12:27,745 --> 00:12:28,245 MCP 350 00:12:28,865 --> 00:12:29,615 is the 351 00:12:30,799 --> 00:12:32,659 USB port of 352 00:12:33,839 --> 00:12:34,659 AI communications 353 00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:36,659 and kinda AI interaction. 354 00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:38,959 So if you think about that, like, if 355 00:12:38,959 --> 00:12:41,600 you think about, hey, I have this LLM 356 00:12:41,600 --> 00:12:43,625 that's sitting here, and now it's got an 357 00:12:43,625 --> 00:12:46,024 infinite number of USB ports on it. Just 358 00:12:46,024 --> 00:12:47,705 think about, like, all the things that you 359 00:12:47,705 --> 00:12:49,465 plug into your computer to help you do 360 00:12:49,465 --> 00:12:51,065 your job better. You plug in the dongle 361 00:12:51,065 --> 00:12:52,745 for the mouse. You plug in your monitor. 362 00:12:52,745 --> 00:12:55,000 You might plug in a dock. I've got 363 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:57,319 an audio interface. I've got a camera. All 364 00:12:57,319 --> 00:12:59,159 these different things sitting in front of me. 365 00:12:59,159 --> 00:13:00,139 Well, those abstractions 366 00:13:00,519 --> 00:13:03,559 also apply in this world of MCP, where 367 00:13:03,559 --> 00:13:05,720 you've got an LM that's now kinda sitting 368 00:13:05,720 --> 00:13:07,879 there, and you've it's got, like I said, 369 00:13:07,879 --> 00:13:10,304 infinite USB ports, and you just start plugging 370 00:13:10,304 --> 00:13:13,044 in that domain specific knowledge 371 00:13:13,345 --> 00:13:15,665 and now the cool thing about the spec 372 00:13:15,665 --> 00:13:17,665 and the way it's laid out is it's 373 00:13:17,665 --> 00:13:20,325 kind of built around this core set 374 00:13:20,865 --> 00:13:24,884 of building blocks that they see and that 375 00:13:25,429 --> 00:13:27,350 sit out there. So clients can have a 376 00:13:27,350 --> 00:13:29,209 whole specific set of functionality 377 00:13:29,750 --> 00:13:32,709 where they can plug into a couple underlying 378 00:13:32,709 --> 00:13:35,909 building blocks within the MCP protocol itself. So 379 00:13:35,909 --> 00:13:38,394 you've got resources, prompts, tools, 380 00:13:39,014 --> 00:13:41,894 there's some other more esoteric things that I 381 00:13:41,894 --> 00:13:44,634 don't think I've seen involved in too many 382 00:13:44,934 --> 00:13:48,075 MCP implementations like sampling and roots and elicitation 383 00:13:48,455 --> 00:13:50,134 and things like that. But there's kind of 384 00:13:50,134 --> 00:13:52,634 like these core building blocks in 385 00:13:53,079 --> 00:13:53,579 tools, 386 00:13:53,879 --> 00:13:57,639 resources, and prompts. So tools are these things 387 00:13:57,639 --> 00:13:58,139 that 388 00:13:58,600 --> 00:14:01,019 are specifically for AI actions 389 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:02,459 and AI interactions. 390 00:14:03,079 --> 00:14:06,120 They are controlled by the model itself, so 391 00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:08,945 the LLM is doing things. So that might 392 00:14:08,945 --> 00:14:11,845 be like I have an MCP server maybe 393 00:14:11,904 --> 00:14:14,705 that searches for flight information. Right? Maybe it 394 00:14:14,705 --> 00:14:16,945 integrates with, like, kayak.com 395 00:14:16,945 --> 00:14:18,865 or something like that. Well, that could be 396 00:14:18,865 --> 00:14:20,965 controlled by the model where I could have 397 00:14:21,024 --> 00:14:23,809 a tool in an MCP server that's directly 398 00:14:23,809 --> 00:14:25,970 integrated with the Kayak API where I could 399 00:14:25,970 --> 00:14:28,529 say, hey. Go search I just tell my 400 00:14:28,529 --> 00:14:31,490 LLM. Go search for flights on this date 401 00:14:31,490 --> 00:14:33,410 with this carrier from a to b. And 402 00:14:33,410 --> 00:14:35,504 based on the context of, oh, I see 403 00:14:35,504 --> 00:14:37,425 the user is searching for flights, and I 404 00:14:37,425 --> 00:14:39,825 see I have this MCP server over here 405 00:14:39,825 --> 00:14:41,825 that I can attach to, and it's offered 406 00:14:41,825 --> 00:14:43,985 me an agent with this capability. Let me 407 00:14:43,985 --> 00:14:45,425 go use that. Let me go get that 408 00:14:45,425 --> 00:14:47,399 domain specific knowledge. So that could be like, 409 00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:49,559 like I said, something corny. You're searching for 410 00:14:49,559 --> 00:14:52,379 flights. You're working on your scheduling, calendaring, 411 00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:54,680 simple things like that. Maybe you're using it 412 00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:57,080 as a way to send messages back and 413 00:14:57,080 --> 00:14:58,840 forth in Slack or things like that. So 414 00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:00,680 that's one of your building block is tools, 415 00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:01,215 which are model 416 00:15:05,055 --> 00:15:07,375 controlled. Do you feel overwhelmed by trying to 417 00:15:07,375 --> 00:15:09,855 manage your Office three sixty five environment? Are 418 00:15:09,855 --> 00:15:12,815 you facing unexpected issues that disrupt your company's 419 00:15:12,815 --> 00:15:13,315 productivity? 420 00:15:13,615 --> 00:15:15,535 Intelligink is here to help. 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Remember, 437 00:16:05,845 --> 00:16:08,345 And then you have these things called resources, 438 00:16:08,485 --> 00:16:11,524 which are application controlled or controlled a little 439 00:16:11,524 --> 00:16:12,745 bit more by the 440 00:16:13,169 --> 00:16:15,509 server implementation, the MCP server, 441 00:16:15,970 --> 00:16:18,710 server implementation itself. So those are all for 442 00:16:18,769 --> 00:16:21,830 contextual data. So those would be things like 443 00:16:21,889 --> 00:16:22,389 documents, 444 00:16:22,850 --> 00:16:25,110 calendar events, could be emails, 445 00:16:25,715 --> 00:16:27,955 could be other domain specific data things like 446 00:16:27,955 --> 00:16:29,235 that like anthropic I think in one of 447 00:16:29,235 --> 00:16:31,174 their examples uses like weather data 448 00:16:31,475 --> 00:16:33,394 as a thing that's there in that first 449 00:16:33,394 --> 00:16:35,075 one where I had a tool I said 450 00:16:35,075 --> 00:16:37,554 go search for the flight and go do 451 00:16:37,554 --> 00:16:39,720 these things for me The other thing that 452 00:16:39,720 --> 00:16:41,240 I could do is then I could have 453 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:41,820 a resource 454 00:16:42,200 --> 00:16:43,720 that goes and actually reads out of my 455 00:16:43,720 --> 00:16:46,039 calendar. So don't just go search for flights. 456 00:16:46,039 --> 00:16:47,639 Maybe I don't say search for flights between 457 00:16:47,639 --> 00:16:49,159 these dates where I say search for flights 458 00:16:49,159 --> 00:16:50,139 between these dates 459 00:16:50,519 --> 00:16:54,834 that don't conflict with my existing calendar. And 460 00:16:54,834 --> 00:16:57,014 if there's an integration with, like, Google Calendar 461 00:16:57,154 --> 00:16:58,834 or Outlook or things like that, then you've 462 00:16:58,834 --> 00:17:00,274 got all that. And then finally, a third 463 00:17:00,274 --> 00:17:02,274 building block that kinda comes into play with 464 00:17:02,274 --> 00:17:03,875 these that you'll see in a bunch of 465 00:17:03,875 --> 00:17:04,775 client implementations 466 00:17:05,474 --> 00:17:06,295 is prompts. 467 00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:09,380 So these are for, like, interactive 468 00:17:09,839 --> 00:17:10,980 templates basically. 469 00:17:11,359 --> 00:17:13,140 So it's all user controlled. 470 00:17:13,599 --> 00:17:17,119 So when you're kinda you can basically ground 471 00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:18,720 these things and give them a set of, 472 00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:19,859 like, base instructions 473 00:17:20,424 --> 00:17:21,724 that help them understand 474 00:17:22,265 --> 00:17:24,345 where you want them to go with it. 475 00:17:24,345 --> 00:17:26,105 So if I'm back to, like, that thing 476 00:17:26,105 --> 00:17:28,105 of kayak and search for flights, well, maybe 477 00:17:28,105 --> 00:17:29,545 I'm planning to go on a vacation or 478 00:17:29,545 --> 00:17:31,865 a business trip. So I could provide some 479 00:17:31,865 --> 00:17:35,200 very specific grounding that says, I'm planning a 480 00:17:35,200 --> 00:17:36,099 family vacation 481 00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:38,559 for a family of four. My wife likes 482 00:17:38,559 --> 00:17:40,079 to do this. My kids like to do 483 00:17:40,079 --> 00:17:41,759 this. And now I don't have to put 484 00:17:41,759 --> 00:17:44,480 all that into as I'm prompting the LMS 485 00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:45,839 as I go along. It's just like a 486 00:17:45,839 --> 00:17:48,345 base set of instructions that it knows. Maybe 487 00:17:48,345 --> 00:17:49,644 you've got, like, multiple 488 00:17:50,025 --> 00:17:52,505 MCP servers that you're talking to. Maybe you've 489 00:17:52,505 --> 00:17:53,944 got one for, like, Kayak. Maybe you got 490 00:17:53,944 --> 00:17:55,704 one for Google flights. Maybe you've got one 491 00:17:55,704 --> 00:17:57,704 for, like, a carrier like Delta. Maybe you've 492 00:17:57,704 --> 00:17:59,704 got one for, like, hotels like Marriott, things 493 00:17:59,704 --> 00:18:01,309 like that. And you can actually tell it 494 00:18:01,309 --> 00:18:03,710 in the instructions like, hey, I I really 495 00:18:03,710 --> 00:18:05,950 prefer you to book and look for hotels 496 00:18:05,950 --> 00:18:07,950 with Marriott or like me, like, I tend 497 00:18:07,950 --> 00:18:09,549 to fly with Delta a lot. Like, please 498 00:18:09,549 --> 00:18:11,490 only pick Delta flights with 499 00:18:11,789 --> 00:18:13,710 no more than two stops and that go 500 00:18:13,710 --> 00:18:15,684 through these hubs kind of thing. So they 501 00:18:15,684 --> 00:18:19,365 just enable and open up this really kinda 502 00:18:19,365 --> 00:18:19,865 interesting 503 00:18:20,325 --> 00:18:21,924 world. So you've got a little bit of 504 00:18:21,924 --> 00:18:23,285 a graphic up on the screen now that 505 00:18:23,285 --> 00:18:26,884 kinda talks about and speaks to clients and 506 00:18:26,884 --> 00:18:27,384 servers 507 00:18:27,924 --> 00:18:29,144 and how they come together. 508 00:18:29,640 --> 00:18:30,940 So with MCP, 509 00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:33,160 obviously, you need an endpoint or a thing 510 00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:34,680 that you can talk to, that you can 511 00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:37,240 have the LLM and the ID or the 512 00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:39,720 client that's able to recognize MCP servers that 513 00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:41,240 it, like, knows how to talk to it 514 00:18:41,240 --> 00:18:43,424 and get out there. So a server 515 00:18:43,805 --> 00:18:46,605 and the implementation of a server can be 516 00:18:46,605 --> 00:18:49,244 local or it can be remote. So for 517 00:18:49,244 --> 00:18:49,744 example, 518 00:18:50,365 --> 00:18:51,345 there is 519 00:18:51,965 --> 00:18:53,265 an Azure, 520 00:18:53,884 --> 00:18:57,059 there there's a Microsoft Learn MCP server. And 521 00:18:57,059 --> 00:18:59,220 what the folks at Microsoft Learn did was 522 00:18:59,220 --> 00:19:02,659 they actually stood up an MCP endpoint, and 523 00:19:02,659 --> 00:19:04,980 it's an endpoint that's compliant with the MCP 524 00:19:04,980 --> 00:19:05,480 protocol. 525 00:19:06,579 --> 00:19:09,220 And you can install you can install an 526 00:19:09,220 --> 00:19:12,119 MCP server for Microsoft Learn into 527 00:19:12,484 --> 00:19:14,565 your local client. But when you're installing that 528 00:19:14,565 --> 00:19:16,484 server, all it's really doing is talking to 529 00:19:16,484 --> 00:19:19,285 a remote HTTP endpoint. It's doing, like, SSE 530 00:19:19,285 --> 00:19:21,205 and stream mobile HTTP and things like that. 531 00:19:21,205 --> 00:19:23,224 The alternative way you could do it is 532 00:19:23,525 --> 00:19:25,525 and how some of these have manifested is 533 00:19:25,525 --> 00:19:27,865 they've manifested as local server implementations. 534 00:19:28,470 --> 00:19:30,150 So literally you go in and you say, 535 00:19:30,150 --> 00:19:32,970 okay. Here's the configuration for an MCP server. 536 00:19:33,190 --> 00:19:34,789 And quite often these things will be spun 537 00:19:34,789 --> 00:19:37,349 up inside of, like, containers or just little 538 00:19:37,349 --> 00:19:40,230 m MPM servers that are running locally, where 539 00:19:40,230 --> 00:19:41,529 it's running a web endpoint 540 00:19:41,855 --> 00:19:45,394 locally on the same client where you're executing 541 00:19:45,695 --> 00:19:47,775 the client with the prompt and things like 542 00:19:47,775 --> 00:19:49,695 that, and you've got a little bit of 543 00:19:49,695 --> 00:19:51,615 a different flow there. But you can always 544 00:19:51,615 --> 00:19:53,134 mix and match all these things. Right? Like, 545 00:19:53,134 --> 00:19:54,654 this is all just, like, how many of 546 00:19:54,654 --> 00:19:56,734 these things do I chain together? What what 547 00:19:56,734 --> 00:19:58,909 what are they, and how do they all 548 00:19:59,049 --> 00:20:01,130 manifest? So the biggest thing you gotta figure 549 00:20:01,130 --> 00:20:03,210 out is, like, hey. Like, is there, 550 00:20:04,169 --> 00:20:05,929 is is there a use case for me 551 00:20:05,929 --> 00:20:08,269 with MCP, you know, given your persona, 552 00:20:08,809 --> 00:20:10,269 you you know, your work identity, 553 00:20:10,569 --> 00:20:11,849 whatever it is you happen to do and 554 00:20:11,849 --> 00:20:13,375 and how you wanna use it? And if 555 00:20:13,375 --> 00:20:15,934 yes, then what's the client I wanna use 556 00:20:15,934 --> 00:20:18,095 to get there? Because there are a there's 557 00:20:18,095 --> 00:20:20,095 a pretty broad set of clients that can 558 00:20:20,095 --> 00:20:21,794 leverage MCP integrations. 559 00:20:22,174 --> 00:20:23,615 But that said, you gotta kinda, like, pick 560 00:20:23,615 --> 00:20:24,974 the right tool for the right job, and 561 00:20:24,974 --> 00:20:26,974 and that's a little confusing right now because, 562 00:20:26,974 --> 00:20:29,980 like I said, things like Copilot desktop, Microsoft 563 00:20:30,039 --> 00:20:31,960 three sixty five Copilot, they don't have the 564 00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:34,119 ability to integrate with an MCP server, nor 565 00:20:34,119 --> 00:20:37,419 does the, I believe, the OpenAI desktop client. 566 00:20:37,559 --> 00:20:39,480 But that said, the Claw desktop client does, 567 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:42,599 the perplexity client does, Versus Code does, Cursor 568 00:20:42,599 --> 00:20:44,894 does, WinSurf does, like, like, all these different 569 00:20:44,894 --> 00:20:46,095 things that are out there. And then and 570 00:20:46,095 --> 00:20:47,615 then, like, I'm I'm missing a whole list. 571 00:20:47,615 --> 00:20:48,914 Like, if you go on, like, the anthropic 572 00:20:48,975 --> 00:20:51,855 documentation, like, they've got, like, gobs and gobs 573 00:20:51,855 --> 00:20:54,174 and gobs of clients and which ones work 574 00:20:54,174 --> 00:20:56,414 with resources, which ones work with prompts, which 575 00:20:56,414 --> 00:20:58,809 ones work with tools, all those kinds of 576 00:20:58,809 --> 00:21:01,690 things along the way. I would imagine for 577 00:21:01,690 --> 00:21:03,049 most of the folks that probably listen to 578 00:21:03,049 --> 00:21:05,230 our podcast who are living in the 579 00:21:05,609 --> 00:21:06,750 Microsoft ecosystem, 580 00:21:07,369 --> 00:21:10,190 you probably work with an MCP 581 00:21:10,649 --> 00:21:13,365 capable client already. I know, like, I live 582 00:21:13,365 --> 00:21:16,105 in Versus Code, like, 90% of my day. 583 00:21:16,164 --> 00:21:18,644 That's all just there and ready to go 584 00:21:18,644 --> 00:21:19,144 and 585 00:21:19,445 --> 00:21:22,244 available to me. This stuff is, like it 586 00:21:22,244 --> 00:21:23,924 looks a little geeky, like, when you start 587 00:21:23,924 --> 00:21:25,569 to get into it, but, you know, you 588 00:21:25,569 --> 00:21:26,769 need to know, like, hey. How do I 589 00:21:26,769 --> 00:21:29,329 define an MCP server that already exists out 590 00:21:29,329 --> 00:21:30,609 there? And some of the clients, you just 591 00:21:30,609 --> 00:21:33,250 have to pull like, just post, like, and 592 00:21:33,250 --> 00:21:35,409 copy and paste, like, raw JSON into these 593 00:21:35,409 --> 00:21:37,109 things to get them going for the configs. 594 00:21:37,315 --> 00:21:39,075 So that can be, like, a little intimidating. 595 00:21:39,075 --> 00:21:40,755 But once you've done all that, like, really, 596 00:21:40,755 --> 00:21:42,515 it just becomes chatting with an LLM, and 597 00:21:42,515 --> 00:21:46,295 now you've extended the you've extended the capabilities 598 00:21:46,595 --> 00:21:48,934 of that LLM. And by extending the capabilities 599 00:21:48,994 --> 00:21:51,315 of that LLM, I think really what we're 600 00:21:51,315 --> 00:21:54,490 saying is we're extending the capabilities of ourselves, 601 00:21:54,490 --> 00:21:56,650 right, because we were using those LLMs to 602 00:21:56,650 --> 00:21:59,210 enable our jobs and enable our workflows and 603 00:21:59,210 --> 00:22:00,809 and move those things forward. So that that's 604 00:22:00,809 --> 00:22:02,730 kind of an exciting thing. For sure. And 605 00:22:02,730 --> 00:22:04,650 like you said, there's a whole list of 606 00:22:04,650 --> 00:22:05,150 clients. 607 00:22:05,724 --> 00:22:08,684 I think OpenAI is getting closer to having 608 00:22:08,684 --> 00:22:10,944 more. Like, with some of the connectors they've 609 00:22:11,484 --> 00:22:14,524 put in there, their desktop client is getting 610 00:22:14,524 --> 00:22:16,284 close, and I've started playing with a few 611 00:22:16,284 --> 00:22:17,105 of these clients. 612 00:22:17,750 --> 00:22:20,390 Because of that, with Claude, with OpenAI, with 613 00:22:20,390 --> 00:22:21,289 Versus Code, 614 00:22:21,670 --> 00:22:23,990 all of those. But one thing that's interesting, 615 00:22:23,990 --> 00:22:26,650 and this is something again, we're talking about 616 00:22:26,789 --> 00:22:28,630 using these clients, hooking them up to other 617 00:22:28,630 --> 00:22:31,345 data sources, pulling them into an LLM, kinda 618 00:22:31,345 --> 00:22:32,964 like this architecture diagram 619 00:22:33,505 --> 00:22:34,944 you were talking about where you have your 620 00:22:34,944 --> 00:22:37,764 MCP host or your AI application, OpenAI Cloud. 621 00:22:37,825 --> 00:22:39,264 You're using the clients, and you're going out 622 00:22:39,264 --> 00:22:40,944 and connecting it to all this data. Tying 623 00:22:40,944 --> 00:22:43,605 that into another concept you mentioned where 624 00:22:44,279 --> 00:22:47,480 Anthropic described this as the like a USB 625 00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:49,880 c port where you can have unlimited USB 626 00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:51,559 c ports plugged it in. What is the 627 00:22:51,559 --> 00:22:53,960 first thing you you're taught with data security, 628 00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:55,880 Scott, with USB ports? You plug in any 629 00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:57,640 random stuff you can. Plug them in. Right. 630 00:22:57,640 --> 00:22:59,160 When you see a USB port, just plug 631 00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:01,375 it in. I think that's one interesting aspect 632 00:23:01,375 --> 00:23:03,555 too when you start thinking about these MCPs 633 00:23:03,775 --> 00:23:05,934 is to that extent, what are you plugging 634 00:23:05,934 --> 00:23:07,615 your data into? If I go in and 635 00:23:07,615 --> 00:23:08,275 you mentioned 636 00:23:08,575 --> 00:23:10,174 you give it access to your calendar, you 637 00:23:10,174 --> 00:23:13,134 give it access to your Notion database, maybe 638 00:23:13,134 --> 00:23:14,940 you're giving it access to a SQL server. 639 00:23:14,940 --> 00:23:16,779 You're giving it access to your file server. 640 00:23:16,779 --> 00:23:19,019 It's actually now pulling data from all these 641 00:23:19,019 --> 00:23:20,079 different data sources 642 00:23:20,779 --> 00:23:23,419 into an LLM. I know SharePoint is one 643 00:23:23,419 --> 00:23:25,740 that has started coming up more and more 644 00:23:25,740 --> 00:23:26,960 as well is 645 00:23:27,274 --> 00:23:29,835 from that security side, like Microsoft three sixty 646 00:23:29,835 --> 00:23:31,755 five, you can do sensitivity labels, you can 647 00:23:31,755 --> 00:23:32,414 do security. 648 00:23:32,875 --> 00:23:35,434 They've built a bunch of different controls into 649 00:23:35,434 --> 00:23:35,934 SharePoint 650 00:23:36,794 --> 00:23:39,214 so that you can control how 651 00:23:39,869 --> 00:23:41,089 Copilot and 652 00:23:41,390 --> 00:23:42,769 the LLMs behind 653 00:23:43,230 --> 00:23:44,930 Microsoft three sixty five Copilot 654 00:23:45,309 --> 00:23:47,390 interact with your data. What data they're allowed 655 00:23:47,390 --> 00:23:49,329 to interact with? How does that handle 656 00:23:49,710 --> 00:23:52,589 sensitive information? How does it handle Social Security 657 00:23:52,589 --> 00:23:54,930 numbers that it may come across? How can 658 00:23:55,195 --> 00:23:57,994 you define different controls? But now what happens 659 00:23:57,994 --> 00:23:59,055 if you have 660 00:23:59,835 --> 00:24:02,474 a connector, an MCP, that maybe goes and 661 00:24:02,474 --> 00:24:05,775 looks at your Microsoft three sixty five data 662 00:24:06,154 --> 00:24:09,035 and starts pulling all these files and documents 663 00:24:09,035 --> 00:24:11,299 in because there's an API for them. You 664 00:24:11,299 --> 00:24:13,859 can get them. But that MCP or that 665 00:24:13,859 --> 00:24:14,359 connector 666 00:24:14,900 --> 00:24:17,640 may not have all those same controls that 667 00:24:18,019 --> 00:24:20,580 Copilot has in place for, especially, I think, 668 00:24:20,580 --> 00:24:22,580 of things like sensitivity labels and how you 669 00:24:22,580 --> 00:24:25,424 can filter things out there. Permissions, the ACLs 670 00:24:25,424 --> 00:24:26,785 that are maybe on some of these files 671 00:24:26,785 --> 00:24:28,384 are a little bit easier. But I think 672 00:24:28,384 --> 00:24:30,704 you really also need to start thinking about 673 00:24:30,704 --> 00:24:32,884 now from a security perspective, 674 00:24:33,585 --> 00:24:35,585 whether it's at a corporate data level or 675 00:24:35,585 --> 00:24:38,224 even your personal data, what's happening to your 676 00:24:38,224 --> 00:24:38,724 data 677 00:24:39,139 --> 00:24:39,639 as 678 00:24:39,940 --> 00:24:42,099 you're bringing it into these different LLMs? For 679 00:24:42,099 --> 00:24:43,539 sure. And I'll I'll I'll throw you one 680 00:24:43,539 --> 00:24:45,159 more on top of there. So, 681 00:24:45,779 --> 00:24:47,240 if you think about a 682 00:24:48,019 --> 00:24:50,339 local MCP server, so like I said, like, 683 00:24:50,339 --> 00:24:51,819 often you can spin these things up Yep. 684 00:24:51,940 --> 00:24:54,805 Just like a simple m MPM Docker on 685 00:24:54,805 --> 00:24:57,125 your machine. Yep. Do you do it in 686 00:24:57,125 --> 00:24:59,605 Docker where it's isolated and you have maybe 687 00:24:59,605 --> 00:25:01,365 some more of those operational controls, but then 688 00:25:01,365 --> 00:25:03,465 you might have to contend with things like 689 00:25:03,924 --> 00:25:04,904 container networking 690 00:25:05,205 --> 00:25:07,144 and and routing and other constructs? 691 00:25:07,579 --> 00:25:09,119 Do you end up in a place where 692 00:25:09,420 --> 00:25:11,500 you have just a bunch of random web 693 00:25:11,500 --> 00:25:13,579 servers running, like, locally on on your on 694 00:25:13,579 --> 00:25:15,420 your machine? Right? Like, how many tie how 695 00:25:15,420 --> 00:25:17,339 many MPM servers do you wanna spin up 696 00:25:17,339 --> 00:25:18,160 in the background 697 00:25:18,700 --> 00:25:21,660 for API endpoints for these specific pieces of 698 00:25:21,660 --> 00:25:22,160 functionality? 699 00:25:22,565 --> 00:25:24,565 Because really, like, in some cases, what we're 700 00:25:24,565 --> 00:25:27,944 talking about sometimes is even, like, little helpers 701 00:25:28,085 --> 00:25:29,924 to to do things. Right? Because you could 702 00:25:29,924 --> 00:25:32,244 have, like, you could have an MCP interaction 703 00:25:32,244 --> 00:25:34,484 where the MCP is interacting with, like, a 704 00:25:34,484 --> 00:25:36,184 local file on your desktop, 705 00:25:36,500 --> 00:25:38,500 and then it's taking information from that file, 706 00:25:38,500 --> 00:25:40,820 pushing it to a cloudy service, a sassy 707 00:25:40,820 --> 00:25:43,059 service, whatever that is, vice versa. So I 708 00:25:43,059 --> 00:25:44,820 I there there are a whole bunch of 709 00:25:44,820 --> 00:25:47,799 considerations there. You know, these things are not 710 00:25:48,100 --> 00:25:50,115 super mature in the sense that, you know, 711 00:25:50,115 --> 00:25:51,714 they've been out for years and years and 712 00:25:51,714 --> 00:25:53,634 years, and we understand all the edge cases 713 00:25:53,634 --> 00:25:55,714 and the flows and, you know, do they 714 00:25:55,714 --> 00:25:57,795 have the right operational controls, things like that. 715 00:25:57,795 --> 00:25:59,234 So it's like, yeah, I think you need 716 00:25:59,234 --> 00:26:01,075 to be a little bit, like, careful with 717 00:26:01,075 --> 00:26:04,599 them, but I don't know that, like, where 718 00:26:04,599 --> 00:26:05,659 things are today 719 00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:08,440 that it's as big of a concern as 720 00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:09,640 it might be. Like, I see a lot 721 00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:11,099 of these things as 722 00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:13,419 accelerators for developer, 723 00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:15,179 workflows, accelerators 724 00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:18,105 for, like, no code, low code kind of 725 00:26:18,105 --> 00:26:19,964 workflows, those kinds of things. 726 00:26:20,345 --> 00:26:22,424 And, you know, if you're scared of the 727 00:26:22,424 --> 00:26:24,505 destructive nature of something, like, just don't use 728 00:26:24,505 --> 00:26:26,024 it. Keep doing it the way you've you've 729 00:26:26,024 --> 00:26:28,105 been doing it. Right? Like, nobody's saying, like, 730 00:26:28,105 --> 00:26:30,049 hey. You have to do these things. But 731 00:26:30,049 --> 00:26:32,289 certainly, yeah, like, treat them safely, right, if 732 00:26:32,289 --> 00:26:34,369 you can. Run-in a sandbox the first time. 733 00:26:34,369 --> 00:26:35,970 Figure out, like, hey, is is is this 734 00:26:35,970 --> 00:26:38,769 the right thing for me, my workflow, and 735 00:26:38,769 --> 00:26:40,470 what I'm trying to 736 00:26:40,769 --> 00:26:43,134 accomplish right now? Yeah. And I think there 737 00:26:43,134 --> 00:26:45,134 are some scenarios I think about when we 738 00:26:45,134 --> 00:26:47,054 get into some of the examples and start 739 00:26:47,054 --> 00:26:48,115 talking about maybe 740 00:26:48,494 --> 00:26:50,174 how we've used them that I think about 741 00:26:50,174 --> 00:26:52,015 a little bit. There's an aspect to some 742 00:26:52,015 --> 00:26:54,414 of these too, depending on the MCP you're 743 00:26:54,414 --> 00:26:56,815 using. Like, I would love to see these, 744 00:26:56,815 --> 00:26:59,179 and I'm hoping they will get there eventually 745 00:26:59,399 --> 00:27:00,059 come to 746 00:27:00,519 --> 00:27:02,919 something like Copilot so I can tie some 747 00:27:02,919 --> 00:27:05,179 of these MCPs that I wanna use into 748 00:27:06,119 --> 00:27:08,599 my Microsoft three sixty five environment so that 749 00:27:08,599 --> 00:27:11,720 I can start maybe supplementing Microsoft three sixty 750 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:13,134 five Copilot with some of the data that 751 00:27:13,134 --> 00:27:15,055 would come from an MCP. Right now, I 752 00:27:15,055 --> 00:27:17,634 feel like I'm in the opposite boat where 753 00:27:17,855 --> 00:27:20,335 things like Cloud and OpenAI are building all 754 00:27:20,335 --> 00:27:22,174 these connectors and allowing me to pull data 755 00:27:22,174 --> 00:27:24,835 in from all of those, including from SharePoint, 756 00:27:25,375 --> 00:27:28,309 where I'm starting to sometimes even find myself, 757 00:27:28,309 --> 00:27:30,309 it's like, well, it's almost easier to use 758 00:27:30,309 --> 00:27:30,809 OpenAI 759 00:27:31,269 --> 00:27:31,769 or 760 00:27:32,389 --> 00:27:32,889 Claude 761 00:27:33,269 --> 00:27:34,970 or some of these other LLMs 762 00:27:35,589 --> 00:27:36,409 just because 763 00:27:37,429 --> 00:27:39,369 the openness is there to get 764 00:27:39,805 --> 00:27:41,644 some of this other data in from other 765 00:27:41,644 --> 00:27:42,705 tools that I use 766 00:27:43,085 --> 00:27:45,164 where I mean, personally, I would love to 767 00:27:45,164 --> 00:27:47,164 just have it in Copilot. Some of it, 768 00:27:47,164 --> 00:27:48,684 again, due to the nature of the data, 769 00:27:48,684 --> 00:27:50,285 some of it is, like, a lot of 770 00:27:50,285 --> 00:27:53,359 these MCPs yet, they're still paywalled. I'm paying 771 00:27:53,359 --> 00:27:55,460 for Claude right now. I'm playing for OpenAI 772 00:27:55,519 --> 00:27:57,599 right now, and I'm paying for Copilot right 773 00:27:57,599 --> 00:27:58,960 now. Just so I can test all this 774 00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:00,399 out where if there started to be some 775 00:28:00,399 --> 00:28:03,200 of that feature parity, I could not pay 776 00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:04,419 for all three of them. 777 00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:05,700 Yeah. 778 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:08,015 I think it is tough to get there, 779 00:28:08,015 --> 00:28:09,954 right? Like, there's certainly, like, an ecosystem 780 00:28:10,815 --> 00:28:12,095 kind of thing. I I will say, like, 781 00:28:12,095 --> 00:28:13,134 you can get by a lot with a 782 00:28:13,134 --> 00:28:14,335 lot of the stuff just, like, on the 783 00:28:14,335 --> 00:28:15,714 on the on the free side. 784 00:28:16,015 --> 00:28:17,775 So, you know, like, if you're using, like, 785 00:28:17,775 --> 00:28:21,109 Claude, Claude desktop, Perplexity, things like that, you 786 00:28:21,109 --> 00:28:22,309 don't need to be on, like, the paid 787 00:28:22,309 --> 00:28:25,269 plan to integrate an MCP server with with 788 00:28:25,269 --> 00:28:27,350 Claude. I think most of these even like, 789 00:28:27,350 --> 00:28:28,630 all all the ones that I can think 790 00:28:28,630 --> 00:28:30,970 of, like, they do have some free version. 791 00:28:31,269 --> 00:28:33,269 Even, like, GitHub, like, hey. I'm gonna turn 792 00:28:33,269 --> 00:28:35,670 on GitHub Copilot because I need GitHub Copilot 793 00:28:35,670 --> 00:28:36,585 to be able to do the chat with 794 00:28:36,585 --> 00:28:37,204 the LLMs, 795 00:28:37,585 --> 00:28:39,904 and then I'm, like, adding these agentic flows 796 00:28:39,904 --> 00:28:41,984 to it. That stuff's available and ready to 797 00:28:41,984 --> 00:28:44,224 go, and and you can do that pretty 798 00:28:44,224 --> 00:28:46,224 turnkey. So you might be limited in some 799 00:28:46,224 --> 00:28:47,825 functionality and some other things that are out 800 00:28:47,825 --> 00:28:50,659 there. I don't think that stops folks from 801 00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:52,640 trying to get, you know, hands on with 802 00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:54,079 it and and see where some of that 803 00:28:54,079 --> 00:28:56,659 value is. And as we get into 804 00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:59,359 our later conversation about, like, maybe some specific 805 00:28:59,359 --> 00:29:01,679 MCP servers, at least everything I plan to 806 00:29:01,679 --> 00:29:04,035 talk about, like, it's all free or it's 807 00:29:04,035 --> 00:29:06,515 already integrated into the ecosystems that you're probably 808 00:29:06,515 --> 00:29:08,755 in anyway. You're paying for, like, the underlying 809 00:29:08,755 --> 00:29:09,875 thing. Right? Like, if you use, like, the 810 00:29:09,875 --> 00:29:12,674 Azure MCP server, then you're probably already an 811 00:29:12,674 --> 00:29:14,929 Azure customer. Yeah. It'll be interesting to see 812 00:29:14,929 --> 00:29:16,769 where this goes, see where the architecture goes, 813 00:29:16,769 --> 00:29:19,329 see how these different clients start bringing them 814 00:29:19,329 --> 00:29:22,849 in, incorporating all of it together. Yeah. So 815 00:29:22,849 --> 00:29:23,410 why don't we, 816 00:29:23,890 --> 00:29:26,049 wrap this one, and then we'll come back 817 00:29:26,049 --> 00:29:28,289 for a part two, and and we'll talk 818 00:29:28,289 --> 00:29:29,109 about some 819 00:29:29,809 --> 00:29:30,309 specific 820 00:29:30,984 --> 00:29:33,304 MCP servers and kinda like how we're using 821 00:29:33,304 --> 00:29:34,825 them in in our day to day and 822 00:29:34,825 --> 00:29:36,744 and kinda how our journey has been here 823 00:29:36,744 --> 00:29:38,664 a little bit, and maybe that informs some 824 00:29:38,664 --> 00:29:40,984 others. You know, if anybody's out there and 825 00:29:40,984 --> 00:29:43,944 you're using an MCP server, like, we we'd 826 00:29:43,944 --> 00:29:45,990 love to hear from you, like, hey, What 827 00:29:45,990 --> 00:29:47,589 are you using it for? What's going on? 828 00:29:47,589 --> 00:29:49,210 Like, what's your specific 829 00:29:49,509 --> 00:29:50,890 use case use cases? 830 00:29:51,349 --> 00:29:52,549 You know, I I think Ben and I 831 00:29:52,549 --> 00:29:55,430 are, like, pretty big on just, experimentation. Ben 832 00:29:55,430 --> 00:29:57,109 always talks about his list that is ever 833 00:29:57,109 --> 00:29:59,109 growing. I've got a similar one. Like, we'd 834 00:29:59,109 --> 00:30:01,575 love to hear how others are enabling, like, 835 00:30:01,654 --> 00:30:04,214 their workflows. For sure. So reach out. Let 836 00:30:04,214 --> 00:30:04,875 us know. 837 00:30:05,255 --> 00:30:07,335 Again, LinkedIn is probably the best. I am 838 00:30:07,335 --> 00:30:09,755 finding that as becoming my social network 839 00:30:10,375 --> 00:30:10,875 of 840 00:30:11,335 --> 00:30:14,454 choice lately Mhmm. Or contact page on the 841 00:30:14,454 --> 00:30:16,534 website, mscloudi2pro.com. 842 00:30:16,534 --> 00:30:18,509 We'd love to hear from you. Alright. Sounds 843 00:30:18,509 --> 00:30:21,150 good. Hopefully, this was enthralling and folks come 844 00:30:21,150 --> 00:30:22,210 back for part two. 845 00:30:22,830 --> 00:30:25,410 Absolutely. Alright. Thanks, Ben. Yep. Thanks, Scott. 846 00:30:27,390 --> 00:30:29,630 If you enjoyed the podcast, go leave us 847 00:30:29,630 --> 00:30:31,869 a five star rating in iTunes. It helps 848 00:30:31,869 --> 00:30:33,625 to get the word out so more IT 849 00:30:33,625 --> 00:30:35,704 pros can learn about Office three sixty five 850 00:30:35,704 --> 00:30:36,365 and Azure. 851 00:30:36,984 --> 00:30:38,585 If you have any questions you want us 852 00:30:38,585 --> 00:30:40,744 to address on the show, or feedback about 853 00:30:40,744 --> 00:30:43,065 the show, feel free to reach out via 854 00:30:43,065 --> 00:30:45,244 our website, Twitter, or Facebook. 855 00:30:45,625 --> 00:30:47,464 Thanks again for listening, and have a great 856 00:30:47,464 --> 00:30:47,964 day.