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Eric_Wayne's avatar
Eric_Wayne
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
May 12, 2020

New Microsoft 365 apps update channel names, new IT Pro guidance and a new channel!

Here are the latest news from Microsoft on the Microsoft 365 Apps (formerly known as Office 365 ProPlus):

 

A new channel is born

  • Monthly Enterprise Channel has arrived.
  • It combines the power of getting new features once per month (instead of every 6 months on SAC), being predictable (it is released once per month on patch Tuesday) and stability (it is a few weeks behind Monthly Channel to take in latest bugfixes).
  • In case you have devices on Monthly Channel, this is a good group to move to MEC first.
  • Changes for IT admins:
    • New attribute Channel="MonthlyEnterprise" available in ODT (any current ODT supports it already).
    • New channel available through latest ADMX templates
    • It will be published to Configuration Manager and can be catched by ADRs

 

Update Channels are getting rebranded

  • With the arrival of Monthly Enterprise Channel, we rebrand our update channels as follows:

New name

Previous name

Beta Channel

Insider
(sometimes referred to as Insider Fast)

Current Channel (Preview)

Monthly Channel (Targeted)
(sometimes referred to as Insider Slow)

Current Channel

Monthly Channel

Monthly Enterprise Channel

 

Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Preview)

Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted)

Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel

Semi-Annual Channel

 

  • Any actions for IT admins?
    • If you are using no Configuration Manager Automatic Deployment Rules (ADR) and no custom scripts which parse the Office Update Names from the WU/WSUS catalog: No action.
    • If you are using Configuration Manager Automatic Deployment Rules (ADR) OR custom scripts which parse the Office Update Names from the WU/WSUS catalog: Update the ADRs/scripts on or after June, 6th to catch the new names of the updates (e.g. Microsoft 365 Apps Update - Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel Version 1908)
  • What else is relevant for IT admins?
    • GPOs and ODT will continue to accept the existing keywords for the various channels (“Broad”, “Targeted”, …), no immediate change is required.
    • The next release of ODT will support the new channel names. You can then start using the new ones, but it is not required.

 

Monthly/Current Channel is the new default

  • We are setting the Current Channel (formerly known as Monthly) as default for new tenants.
  • If you don’t specify the channel in ODT for 1st install scenarios, it will install Current Channel as default.

 

I’ve got questions!

  • Perfect, join us on May 27 at 9 AM PT for a live Ask Microsoft Anything session. We’d love to answer any questions you have about deploying Microsoft 365 Apps

 

Resources

  • Firoz1723's avatar
    Firoz1723
    Copper Contributor

    Eric_Wayne 

    May I know what percentage of Enterprises(>50K users) adopted which channels?

    We are struggling with semi-Annual Channel and planning to move to Monthly because of many product bugs.

    • Eric_Wayne's avatar
      Eric_Wayne
      Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft

      Firoz1723 that's a great question. many enterprise customers are finding that the Semi-Annual channel is a too slow with product features, code improvements and bug fixes. They also found the current channel to be to fast with its potential for multiple updates in a calendar month. Therefor, we created and HIGHLY recommend that customers in your situation use the Monthly Enterprise Channel. This channel is specifically designed to give our customers those bug fixes and new features faster, while staying predictable in its update cadence - one update a month, on patch Tuesday. 

       

      Hopefully that answers your question. Let me know if you have any follow ups or would like to discuss channel changing further. Happy to help! 

      Eric 

      • ChristianBergstrom's avatar
        ChristianBergstrom
        Silver Contributor
        Hi Eric, I tend to disagree here. Non-security updates (every month for all channels) provide fixes for known issues to provide stability/performance. You change the channel for users if you want the newest features as soon as they are ready.
  • Michael Russo's avatar
    Michael Russo
    Brass Contributor

    Eric_WayneThe Monthly Channel has been extremely buggy this month what with the AutoComplete scrolling up issue and the invisible text problems.  In my experience stability is much much more important to all of my clients than "new features", like moving the Search box around. So Semi-Annual Channel for everyone, and Monthly Chanell for suckers.

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