Today at Microsoft Build 2026, we're taking the next step for Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP) – and for the enterprise devices that will define the next era of work. To enable this new era, Microsoft just announced a new chip-to-cloud platform, codenamed Project Solara, designed from the ground up for agent-first experiences and the new device form factors they enable. The mission of Project Solara is to pioneer new agent-first experiences that are shaped around you: your agents, your tasks, your environment, under your control.
MDEP is proud to be the podium for Project Solara, ready to power agent-first device development.
MDEP is the enterprise-grade OS that turns today’s fragmented device ecosystem into a consistent, customer-ready, trusted foundation
Powering Agent-First Devices with MDEP
Why agent-first experiences need a standard OS
The world is moving from applications you open to intelligence you invoke. Agent-driven experiences are reshaping how users interact with technology – and redefining what devices must deliver.
Performance is table stakes; What agent-first experiences actually need is a verifiable device integrity: Trust, identity, and predictable execution across every endpoint, every category, and every day of the device's life.
The Fragmentation Challenge
In a world where each device maker builds their own OS, hardens it, patches it, integrates it, and commits to a lifecycle on their own – the result is a device landscape with little to no shared baseline: Different security postures, different update cadences, different management surfaces, different lifecycle commitments, different definitions of "enterprise-ready”.
For enterprises, fragmentation is the failure mode. An agent-first experience that depends on attestation, identity, and consistent behavior should not be designed against dozens of independent interpretations of the same underlying OS. What works on one device should not fail on the next. What an IT admin can prove about one endpoint, they should be able to prove about the fleet.
MDEP: The Standard, not another variant
MDEP closes that gap - allowing a range of specialized devices without the cost of fragmented manageability.
Same security baseline. Same Microsoft-driven update model. Same lifecycle commitments. Same native integration with Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Intune, and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. Device makers build differentiation on top of MDEP – instead of rebuilding the foundation underneath it. IT organizations manage MDEP devices the way they manage the rest of their fleet – with the same tools, the same policies, and the same trust model.
Why Agent-First relies on the OS
With MDEP, an agent-first device can establish what it is, who it's being used by, and that it hasn't been tampered with – every time, on every endpoint, across every form factor.
We deliver it through hardware attestation with Microsoft PKI, secure boot, verified OS integrity, secure provisioning, and Microsoft-mandated lifecycle controls – security as a foundation, embedded into the OS. Identity is native through Entra. Management is native through Intune. Threat protection is native through Defender for Endpoint, and the agents inherit those guarantees from the platform – they don't reconstruct them in each application.
One Platform, Across the Enterprise Fleet
The same MDEP foundation extends across the breadth of enterprise devices: Collaboration bars and meeting room systems, enterprise phones, digital signage, industrial and IoT endpoints, and the emerging class of AI-enabled edge devices. From classic display scenarios to regulated verticals where compliance and lifecycle predictability are non-negotiable, partners and developers build once and scale across categories. One platform layer. One management plane. One trust model – regardless of form factor, silicon, or industry.
"Agents will run on the devices people already use to do their work – in meeting rooms, on shop floors, in clinics, and at the front desk. MDEP standardizes the foundation for this delivery with a secure, managed, and consistent device platform across every category – so agent-first experiences can be built once and deployed with confidence, everywhere work happens"
Juha Kuosmanen, General Manager, MDEP
Where We Go From Here
The shift from apps to agents is not a UX change. It is a platform change. It demands an operating system the enterprise can rely on – one standard, one trust model, one lifecycle, one management plane – across every device category where work happens.
That is MDEP. One platform across the enterprise fleet, ready for the agent-first era.
And we're just getting started.
Microsoft