If we take the example of Exchange Online, you must have an Office 365 license for ExO and your client software must meet the current supported version. Please stay current with service and system requirements for the product or service.” Essentially, this support policy is: “Your subscription includes the current version of the software. Microsoft’s new business model is selling cloud licenses, and this model brings the Modern Lifecycle Policy. But if you are unwilling or unable to put your software into that supported state, they may close the ticket without resolving your issue. Microsoft will always tell you what configurations you need to make to get your software into a supported state, and they will even help you get it there.
#Microsoft office end of life support Patch
That might mean specific virtualization configurations or certain patch levels. You may be required to configure your software in a “support” manner before Microsoft will resolve your issue. You’ll get a Microsoft employee who can help you resolve your problem or who can get in touch with the people who designed the software to find a fix for your problem. After that five years of mainstream support, the software is only going to get security patches.ĭuring that whole 10-year support cycle, you can call Microsoft and open a support case. Mainstream support is when the software might get new features. The support cycle for that software is 10 years, with the first 5 years being “mainstream” support. The Fixed Lifecycle policy is the policy that applies to your on-premises servers like Exchange. The important thing to notice is there are three main sections: Fixed Lifecycle, Modern Lifecycle, and Security Updates. You can read all about the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy at the linked website in Microsoft’s own words. We just need to understand what “supported” means in this case.
When a new version of Exchange comes out, that software is “supported” by Microsoft for 10 years. For most Microsoft software, this support period is 10 years after that software is generally available. Because this software is always rather complex, organizations needed Microsoft to assure them someone would be available to assist them deploying and maintaining this software some time. Under that business model, the software Microsoft sold only had value if the organizations that purchased it could deploy and support that software for a period after it's purchase. Microsoft’s old business model was selling software.
It’s important to understand what you’re getting into with your move to the cloud, and how software support is changing for businesses. In this blog post, I’m going to focus on the differences between Microsoft’s “old” software support model and the “new” model that comes with the cloud. Can you call Microsoft to get help with an “unsupported” configuration? Will you get patches for software that is no longer supported? Is Microsoft still developing new features for your software? Is it safe to run software after it is out of support? Too long, too short, too many updates, not enough updates - I've heard every sort of complaint you can imagine, and I might even agree with many of them. The support cycle for Microsoft products has long been a point of contention for enterprise customers. “Supported” is another word Microsoft uses to mean different things in different situations, and what I’d like to talk about in this blog post. Federated can mean several different things in the Microsoft world, and it can sometimes be hard to tell what sort of “federation” you’re talking about. There are a few words Microsoft likes to use in several different situations.