Rapid Microsoft Release Cycles Affect Enterprises

An accelerated product release cadence for both on-premises and hosted products, such as the Windows OS, Exchange, Office, and Office 365, is a major change from traditional release cycles that significantly affects Microsoft’s customers. Unless organizations adapt to faster releases, they may fall behind currently supported versions, making eventual upgrades difficult. Rather than focusing on a single product, such as Windows 8.1 or the anticipated “Windows 9” (not officially announced or named) expected in mid-2015, organizations should begin thinking about how to test and manage more frequent product releases across their entire IT infrastructure.

Frequent Releases Expected to Continue or Accelerate

Traditionally, there has not been a single release pattern across Microsoft product groups, and release patterns within groups have even tended to shift over time. Recently, most Microsoft product teams are moving toward a rapid release cadence, with customers required to stay up-to-date in order to receive support, especially if integrating on-premises Microsoft products with hosted Microsoft services, as in the case of Exchange 2013 on-premises and the hosted Exchange Online service.