Microsoft will extend its support period for Office 365 ProPlus releases from 12 to 18 months to better accommodate the semi-annual channel cycles and allow IT pros to align deployment phases. Support timeline extends to 18 months after initial release.
Microsoft is reducing the number of updates per year to two - targeted for March and September each year - to align with its new semi-annual channel model for Windows 10 and Office 365 ProPlus.
In September 2017, Microsoft implemented the following changes to the Office 365 ProPlus (from now on referred to as Office 365 only) update model: Please see this article and this one from Microsoft for more information on the change. Update 2020: In April 2020, certain versions of Office 365 ProPlus are being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. Therefore, you should start preparing now for what is sure to come in the next few years. Since this elongated lifecycle won't be a sustainable support strategy going forward, especially for those using a combination of local installs and browser-based use, we believe these updates will eventually be carried through to other O365 versions. However, Microsoft is making continuous updates to its Office suite - putting enterprises more and more behind the eight ball. E3 and E5 include the on-premise version of the Microsoft Office Suite with the regular 10-year support agreement.
The second clarification, effective January 14, 2020, is that ProPlus will not be supported on the following versions of Windows: Windows 8.1 and older, Windows Server 2016 and older, and any Windows 10 LTSC release.Įven though your organization most likely has a subscription to Office 365 Enterprise E3 or E5, you should be familiar with the recently announced ProPlus update model. The first is for users running ProPlus in a Windows 10 environment: ProPlus will not be supported on Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel versions that are no longer being serviced. In February of 2018, Microsoft also announced clarifications to the Office and Windows servicing position.
However, the second part of the announcement created a much bigger stir among IT professionals: Microsoft has aligned the Windows 10 release schedules and support lifecycles with those of Office 365 ProPlus because customers have " asked us to simplify the update process and to improve the coordination between Office and Windows." The first part of the announcement detailed new system requirements, such as the need for all Office 365 ProPlus and Office perpetual in mainstream support to be connected to Office 365 services by 2020. On April 20th, 2017, Microsoft announced that it will make big changes regarding Office 365 ProPlus. However, this post will remain to keep a record of the historical information on Office 365. NOTE: Since Office 365 has undergone significant changes by Microsoft in it's naming convention and update channels, we will no longer be updating this post, as we have created a new post detailing those changes, and that post will receive the updates for new releases and EOL dates.