Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement On-Premises Life Cycle

The most recent major release, Dynamics CRM Server 2016, became generally available in Dec. 2015. CRM Server 2016 received its first service pack, SP1, in May 2016 and a subsequent service pack in Dec. 2016 called the Dynamics 365 December 2016 Service Pack (CRM 2016). Customers have until July 10, 2018, to apply SP1 and Jan. 8, 2019, to apply the Dec. 2016 service pack to continue receiving support. The team typically updates the product once or twice a year, but the actual schedule varies.

The next major release, referred to as version 9.0, is already available for Microsoft-hosted customers and is expected for on-premises customers in the middle of 2018. The release will include a significant architectural change and a new user interface framework, and it will retire numerous older development features, components, and APIs. For most customers, a migration to version 9.0 on-premises will require rewriting integrations and customizations and replacing add-on products, and it will be equivalent to a new installation.