Forum Discussion
Eric_Wayne
Microsoft
May 12, 2020New 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 pow...
Eric_Wayne
Microsoft
Dec 03, 2020Hey bec064! One thing to keep in mind though, and one of the main reasons we created the Monthly Enterprise channel is while you are correct - some Non-security updates can go into every channel each month, we really don't make changes out of band if we can help it. For example, when we are made aware of a bug we will fix it, then release it into our faster channels first. It will then take the normal cycle to get to the Semi-Annual channel, which, depending on when the fix is released, could take that full 6 months. The same is true of things like performance boosts in Outlook for example. I always caution customers to think about those scenarios as well when planning their channel strategy as most customers tend to think of new feature cadence as the only decision when choosing their channels.
Firoz1723
Dec 03, 2020Copper Contributor
Eric_Wayne How we consider the bugs found in the semi-annual channel but no problem in the preview? Even the consecutive month's release(SM 2002) did not fix any of the issues.
how this works in above scenario?
- Eric_WayneDec 03, 2020
Microsoft
Firoz1723 Unfortunately, that can happen. If we are made aware of a bug after a certain cut off period, we don't have time to fix it and release it before we publish the next version of the Semi-Annual channel. So entire builds of Semi-Annual channel can have a bug in it. However, one thing to consider is that some of the issues aren't from Office itself. We have seen both Windows and Configuration Manager updates create issues for the Office client. It really comes down to when we are made aware of an issue and sometimes a bug is not discovered by us or our customers before the cut off for the next release of Semi-Annual and therefor we can't fix it in time. This is one of the biggest reasons I tell customers for the majority of your devices that are not running macros or doing key line of work processes, that they should use the Monthly Enterprise Channel. That way, when things are discovered, they get fixed and published to this channel much sooner then the Semi-Annual channel.
- ChristianBergstromDec 03, 2020Silver Contributor”So entire builds of Semi-Annual channel can have a bug in it.” 😱