Office 365 ProPlus Servicing and Deployment Changed

[Feb. 22, 2016 note: A more recent version of this report can be found at www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/research/secured/2016/02/deploying-and-updating-office-365-proplus.]

[Jan. 21, 2016 note: The report was edited to include the Feb. 2017 end of support for the 2013 version of Office 365 ProPlus. ]

New updating processes and timing details have emerged that will affect Office 365 ProPlus customers. For the Office 2016 version, Office 365 ProPlus will be updated in a process similar to that for Windows 10—customers will have options to receive updates monthly or to defer updates until later. Microsoft has announced that customers must migrate from the Office 2013 version of Office 365 ProPlus to the Office 2016 version of Office 365 ProPlus within 12 months of the release of Office 2016 or they will risk not receiving security updates. Finally, customers cannot have Office 2013 and Office 2016 versions of Office 365 ProPlus installed on the same computer.