What To Do With Old Service Rings

When Windows x first launched in July 2015, information technology came with a promise of manageable updates vs. major upgrades. While traditional Windows servicing included several release types—major versions (e.yard., Windows viii.1, Windows eight, and Windows 7), service packs, and monthly updates—Windows x offered but two release types: feature updates that add new functionality twice per yr, and quality updates that provide security and reliability fixes at least once a month. At that place are numerous advantages to this more than manageable update framework, amid them being, continuous quality and stability improvements, improved compatibility across devices and applications, smaller payloads, and the power to introduce new features and services faster.

Today, every build of Windows x represents improvements and lessons learned, both from a servicing and deployment perspective and in the technology itself, as shown below:

We are also less than eight months away from the end of support for Windows 7—making now the perfect time to think about effective strategies for staying current, and the reasons for doing so, namely:

• Improved stability: With Windows ten, we work to deliver monthly quality updates to over 800 million active Windows 10 devices, 35 million application titles (with more than 175 million application versions), and 16 1000000 unique hardware/driver combinations. Staying current means your devices benefit from the latest features and enhancements as well as fixes for known issues.
• More secure: Staying current in the age of the digital transformation is the best manner to protect against threats. A regular rhythm of monthly updates shifts command away from potential attackers and in your favor.
• More productive: Don't take productivity for granted as a "squeamish to accept." In add-on to the hundreds of Windows x user-focused features introduced over time, there have been countless additions designed specifically to make the life of the IT professional easier and more than manageable.
• Lower total cost of ownership (TCO): Staying upwards to date with the latest Windows feature and monthly updates volition non but meliorate productivity, it will ultimately lower the total cost of ownership past helping you focus application compatibility testing, reduce security risk and remediation costs, reduce support costs, and enable more effective employee-client interactions.

As your business concern processes have evolved to become more than agile and need greater responsiveness, a servicing strategy that operates as a continual procedure (vs. the former project-based approach) is a real nugget. In the by, it was common to hear things like, "Our corporate standard is Windows 7 SP1." In a procedure-focused approach, It organizations focus more on points in fourth dimension and not typically a single version of annihilation. Instead of formalizing a standard of Windows 10, version X and Role 365 Pro Plus, version Y, successful adopters I piece of work with tell me something similar this:

• "Our early IT and exploratory users are on the Insider Preview for the upcoming release, looking at new features and testing some of the new management and security capabilities."
• "Our pilot group is running on current builds for everything and virtually of the pilot business users are in our early on Function ring, running the Monthly Targeted Aqueduct."
• "The largest portion of our production use is on the current branch (Semi-Annual Channel), with updates rolling betwixt 30 and 90 days of release, usually consummate past 90 days. Most of these users are besides semi-annual channel for Office 365 Pro Plus."
• "Our sensitive devices and more than complex systems may still be on a previous, but still supported release and will update earlier support ends, but non on the same ambitious schedule."

Wow, the environment isn't standardized on one version? Wait, how do you manage that? In speaking with customers who have successfully changed their internal It culture by moving from project to process, nosotros've learned that one of the keys to a successful, more than self-service, peer-support-driven model is to create deployment rings for Windows 10 feature updates, and the adoption and use of data driven insights and assay, in conjunction with the deployment rings.

With deployment rings, you first want to assign a pool, or band. of early adopters to receive new builds kickoff (and often early on) to validate services, experiences, and applications. These early adopters serve as "champions," and are valuable assets to any Information technology organization every bit they generate data and feedback for a characteristic update before the update is deployed broadly across the system.

As each ring grows successfully larger, these early adopters and feedback loops are pivotal to deployment success. Imagine this scenario: someone in your workgroup receives an update before you. They're excited to have the latest engineering science, they accept the inside scoop! When information technology'southward your plow to receive the same update, suddenly you lot have a question. To whom do you turn? Will you call them or the help desk? Most likely, y'all will become to your peer first. You now take an employee who feels empowered to help, technology flowing faster across your system, and, likely, a aid desk-bound phone call (and expense) avoided. This civilisation builds over time, just like Windows characteristic updates. As your deployment ring methodology matures, there's less hand belongings, devices are more than secure, and users are more productive—the trifecta and the biggest reason to leverage deployment rings to build internal champions.

Before I conclude this post, I'd like to briefly touch on a few key tools and technologies that will back up your ability to keep your devices up to date past streamlining the deployment and management of updates.

Anyone who has looked at modernistic provisioning and cloud commitment of resources has undoubtedly questioned the physics of network strain. In many Windows Autopilot conversations, this is a common business: "We tin can't requite out 200 laptops and have everyone go download all of our apps at the aforementioned time. It will kill the network." Remember the champion we created in the previous strategy? Unbeknownst to them, they just provided network relief for the person request this question—and anybody else effectually them. Enter Windows 10 Delivery Optimization. Staging content through network devices in branch offices, factory locations, and other locations should be a part of every update management strategy. The bandwidth savings from Commitment Optimization are even visible in Update Compliance, where you can run across bandwidth reductions past category, such as Feature Updates, Quality Updates, Role, and Drivers. As y'all can encounter from the paradigm below, the update from our early ring has tangible benefits.

For areas where complication even so outweighs the power to go all in on deject-based deployment and device management, we still have Configuration Managing director with peer caching, in the ConfigMgr client, designated peer sources, Branch Cache, and even tools similar LEDBAT. Your ring strategies still fully apply, and you can cover all scenarios without compromising user or It experiences, or agility. Furthermore, you lot tin can attach your existing Configuration Manager deployment to the cloud (and Microsoft Intune) with co-management, a viable strategy for bringing existing devices into the modernistic direction fold. If yous don't have a Configuration Manager-based infrastructure withal, get all deject, but if you do, leverage co-management so you lot tin can showtime taking advantage of all the cloud has to offer!

Curious how you lot should pattern your ring structure? Stay tuned for my next web log post, in which I'll shed more calorie-free on tactical considerations related to the creation and evolution of rings.  From there, I'll touch base on language packs and other top of mind mod deployment topics. In the meantime, to learn more about Windows every bit a service, bank check out the Windows every bit a service gateway on Docs.

Sean McLaren is a Modern Desktop Engineering Specialist roofing customers in the South Central United states. With over twenty years of IT feel, he works straight with Microsoft'south Enterprise Commercial customers across many industries helping them with strategy and technical guidance effectually modernizing client endpoint deployment, management and security. In his own words, "I have the privilege to help our customers enable their Digital Transformation goals past delivering modern devices and the latest engineering to their users while lowering costs and streamlining their operations. I besides get to take feedback and learnings to our engineering teams and help brand our products better."

What To Do With Old Service Rings,

Source: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-it-pro-blog/deployment-rings-the-hidden-strategic-gem-of-windows-as-a/ba-p/659622

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