Forum Discussion
First Release or Standard release, that is the question
We are currently on Standard Release for our tenant.
I would like to change it to First Release.
What are the risks of making this change?
Do most companies have this set to Standard release?
Looking for some info to push for First Release if it is low risk.
Thanks,
eZe
6 Replies
- Salvatore BiscariSilver Contributor
I don't think that putting a production tenant in full FR is a good idea, for all reasons that have already been said: in practice all your users became beta-testers.
On the other hand, as already said too, selective FR does not allow FR users to see really all the new features, because some new features can be implemented only for the whole tenant.
Also, be aware that if you configured CC for Office C2R installs, when you enable FR (full or selective), users will get by default FRCC (i.e. insider builds), which can be quite instable...
- John WynneSilver ContributorUnless you have a very compelling reason, Selective FR is the sensible option for a production tenant if you need some scale. For scope, I'd consider running a non-production tenant for testing purposes. It is worth mentioning that Full Org FR and Selective FR functionality does vary so you may have three views of Office 365 functionality. Finally, I would recommend testing new Office 365 products such as Microsoft Teams in a limited way until you have a handle on how to manage them. Hope this helps! Good luck.
- John WynneSilver ContributorAlso make sure your licensing model aligns across your tenants and environments for consistency
- Cian AllnerSilver Contributor
The risks have already been pointed out really well. Operationally, I'd be reluctant to enable FR in a live tenant, I don't think it would usually be a best practice, though it depends of course on the environment.
What would put me off is the added unpredictability and potential supports issues by being more of a guinea pig. Making use of selective FR is a good middle ground, though you may not always get some new features as early. Selective FR does allow you to prepare users for new features, rather everyone getting them all at the same time.
Having a second tenant (including a free one), not the same I know, with tenant FR enabled for early access to new features and testing is an option.
- You can also choose the option first release for specific people. Then you have a beta group in your organization so you can test new features.
- Yeap, +1 for this option. The risks you can have are related normally to the fact your organization can start a feature that Microsoft decides to roll back due to the feedback received by customers, because is not working well in some scenarios, etc...so imagine you heavily use this feature and suddenly Microsoft retires it...other risks are also related to the fact that what is in FR can have some bugs and problems you and your users will experience that could affect your normal activity...also the lack of functionality because Microsoft is incrementally adding new functionality, etc. A good example of this can be the modern document libraries...when they were released to FR last year, there were many errors, bug and lack of functionality in place