Blue Signals Faster Release Cycle

A faster product release cadence for both on-premises and hosted products, such as Exchange, Office, and Office 365, and for the Windows OS signals a change that significantly affects Microsoft’s customers. At a time when many customers still use older versions, such as Windows XP, unless organizations adapt to faster releases, they may fall further behind, making eventual upgrades to currently supported versions more difficult. Rather than focusing on a single product, such as Windows 8 Blue (a code name), and its new features and updates, organizations should begin thinking about how to manage more frequent product releases across their entire IT infrastructure.

More Frequent Releases on the Way

Traditionally, there has not been a single release pattern across Microsoft product groups. For example, the Windows product team tends to release major versions of its products, such as Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, on a three-year cycle. Although these Windows OSs share significant common code, the actual release cycle varies considerably. For example, the Windows client team tends to release one or two service packs between major version releases, while the Windows Server team releases the same service packs but also ships interim releases (such as Windows Server 2008 R2) between major versions. The Exchange team has shipped major versions roughly every three years with service packs at most once a year in between; its schedule is not generally coordinated with those of Windows or Windows Server.