Forum Discussion
Ability to get "out of band" updates in ProPlus
I am grappling with this myself. Features set aside, I see that non-security fixes come out monthly for the Targeted Channel. But you wait up to 6 months for them if you are on the Deferred Channel. With all the mess involved with bouncing between Channels, I wonder if it doesn't make sense to only deploy the Targeted Channel, 'which is a supported Channel', as the only Channel for end users?
If the Targeted Channel is supposed to be used for testing, and many if not all the fixes make it into the next monthly release, then how do you balance risk?
Is it risk to release fixes each month to your entire workforce, and is that risk greater than the risk of waiting for those non-security fixes for up to 6 months along with the added complexity of managing 2 Channels? Let alone the complexity if users wish to migrate between them in order to obtain a certain fix they do not wish to wait for?
Just raising this question to see if others are seeing this the same way I am?
Hi Robert, this is quite an old discussion and a lot has changed since that you might be aware of already:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/DeployOffice/overview-of-the-upcoming-changes-to-office-365-proplus-update-management
This is what's recommended for all the deployment scenarios (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/DeployOffice/best-practices/best-practices-planning-for-enterprise-managed, https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/DeployOffice/best-practices/best-practices-planning-for-cloud-managed and https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/DeployOffice/best-practices/best-practices-planning-for-locally-managed managed)
- 1% get Monthly Channel
- 10% get Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted)
- 89% get Semi-Annual Channel
I'd broadly stick with something similar to above unless there are good reasons to do something different. I'd also possible add Insider Fast or Monthly Channel (Targeted) into the mix if required, to get the earliest access to new features for a few staff, like in IT.
Thanks Cian,
What I understand with all of this is I wait 4 months for fixes that are not security or urgent fixes. I can go and see what the issue is, relate that to something our support folks are wrestling with, and then I would wait 4 months for the fix, or call MS and ask to get that now if possible. Now Monthly gets fixes as does Targeted, both being different Office versions much like Targeted and Semi-Annually are till we hit the Feature release time. I do understand the wait time for features, which really makes sense. I just can't wrap my head around waiting for fixes unless they are deemed urgent? I don't see bouncing people around Channel to Channel as I think that can add quite a bit of risk on its own. Does that make sense?
- manoth_msft
Microsoft
Based on my experience working with large customers , I would say it is not a "either or" question. (Leaving the Monthly Channel out for a minute), both Semi-Annual and Semi-Annual (Targeted) are going hand-in-hand. If you're deploying Semi-Annual only and your discovering an issue which would require a non-security fix, you're basically too late to the party to get a fix in the easy way.
It is when a new feature release of Semi-Annual (Targeted) comes along, that you're time window for testing, raising issues to Microsoft and requesting non-security fixes opens till the this feature level hits Semi-Annual. With the arrival of Semi-Annual, this time window closes (and only the most urgent non-security fixes are brought in).
So I would recommend to adopt both channels, deploy Semi-Annual (Targeted) to a good sample set of your users (not only IT) and make sure that when one of the users raises an issue, that this is triaged, analyzed and if needed brought to Microsoft's attention as soon as possible. It needs close collaboration between IT, help desk and your Microsoft representative to make this a smooth process, but then your chances are far better, that you will get the fixes in, that YOU need before the ship sails away and you have to go through all the escalation tiers, trying to get a backport approval for a non-security fix to a Semi-Annual Channel.
On your idea on only adopting Semi-Annual (Targeted): I haven't seen other customer deploying Targeted only, as most value code stability higher then having all the latest fixes in. Semi-Annual (Targeted) was made for testing, so there is a slight chance of a lower stability compared to Semi-Annual. At the end it is your decision, there will no "Channel police" ring at your door and check if you stick to Microsoft best practices :D But I would first try to optimize and automate my internal deployment, testing and issue triage process before moving everybody onto Targeted.
