The number of service updates is changing from 7 per year to 4. What that means for us is that there are less updates to keep track of every year. While the current service update availability allows organizations to skip, or pause, up to 3 service updates before they are required to take the update, these changes will only allow skipping one service update.

Both the current and the new service update will require organizations to take 2 updates per year. 

The changes don't sound to daunting when you look at the base requirement of taking 2 updates per year. If anything, this simplifies how we look at updates and are able to keep track of when we will skip updates, and when we will take updates. 

The simplicity of 4 service updates per year, allows for greater planning in how your organization will schedule an update cadence. With Releases  set to auto update in February, April, July, and October, organizations can determine the best timing to take their updates to align with their particular business cycles, avoiding the busiest times. The General Availability (GA) of these releases looks more like December, March, June, and September, allowing flexibility in taking the update before it is automatically updated in the environment. The 2nd and 4th updates (April and October) will be considered the major releases.

The change of the number of allowed skips from 3 to 1 will go into effect February 19, 2024, but the full impact will not be seen for some organizations until April 2024. 

The timeline of the impacts as it pertains to the current version your environment is on.  The table below provided by Microsoft is a roadmap that your organization can look at to determine what the next steps are. Select the image to review their documentation. 

The need to take action depends on two factors. 

1.  What version is your environment currently on?

2. What is the ideal time to take an update for your organization?

Since we are in October 2023, lets look at the current available updates:

• If your organization is currently on 10.0.33, you must take an update prior to November 3, 2023 (tentatively) otherwise you must take the auto-update to 10.0.37.

• If your organization is currently on 10.0.34, you must take an update prior to February 2, 2024 (tentatively) otherwise you must take the auto-update to 10.0.38.

• If your organization is currently on 10.0.35 you must take an update prior to April 5, 2024 (tentatively) otherwise you must take the auto-update to 10.0.39.

The tricky part becomes when your environment is on 10.0.36, 10.0.37, or 10.0.38 come July 5th, 2024 (tentatively) when 10.0.40 is set to auto-update. If your environment is already on 10.0.39, you can use your update pause to skip the 10.0.40 update, but any other version will need to update to 10.0.39 before July 5th to be able to pause the 10.0.40 auto update.

After the July 2024 Release of 10.0.40 (also now known as CY24Q3), your organization will only be able to pause every other update. 

Working with your Microsoft Partner, IT Team, and key business leaders, you can determine the best course of action to navigate these updates and ensure you have a plan established as we move toward these service update changes. A little planning now will set your organization up for success.

For the full official documentation from Microsoft, be sure to check out this link!