Microsoft last month abandoned a four-year trial in which it shipped multiple updates to Windows Server each year and would instead reuse a practice of updating every few years that had been codified for decades.
The change represents the Redmond, Wash. company’s biggest setback from the accelerated release and upgrade regime of Windows, which was adopted first for its nameplate client software and then for Server.
“Beginning with Windows Server 2022, there is one major release channel available, the Long Term Service Channel,” Microsoft explains in its documentation about Windows Server release tempo. “With the Long Term Service Line, a new major version of Windows Server is released every 2-3 years. Users are entitled to 5 years of primary support and 5 years of extended support.”
In the same document that cites the Long Term Service Channel (LTSC) as the only version of Windows Server 2022, Microsoft also implies — without specifying it — that the Semi-Annual Channel (SAC), the name for the release path that ships two updates each year. , is dead and not working for Server.
Previously published releases of SAC for Windows Server that still have support, including 1909, 2004 and 20H2, will receive that support, Microsoft said. However, there will be no future release of SAC.
SAC no longer exists
In June 2017, Microsoft announced it would begin shipping SAC updates to Windows Server starting in the fall with the update specified as: 1709 in company standards at that time yymm format. The idea, Microsoft says, is to synchronize the rhythm of Windows Server releases with Windows 10 and Office 365, both of which are updated twice a year as part of the accelerated tempo that began in 2015 with the debut of Windows 10.
“We have two customer lines. One wants slow consistency and the other wants continuous innovation,” Microsoft said in a blog post four years ago explaining why it offers LTSC and SAC release calendars and lifecycle support for Windows Server 2016.
These reasons apparently no longer apply.
Instead, only the LTSC version of Windows Server 2022 — next in line — will be offered to customers. Like other LTSC releases, Windows Server 2022 will be supported for a total of 10 years, the first five years as Mainstream support, the second five years as Extended support.
While Microsoft hasn’t revealed an exact release date for Windows Server 2022, Microsoft has said that they will roll out the upgrade in the second half of this year. Debut in October or November most likely; the last two LTSC releases for Server were launched during those months. (On August 17, Microsoft said it plans to host a digital “Windows Server Summit” on September 16; one of the agenda items is “Get the latest news and announcements about Windows Server 2022”. The release date is one of the day’s announcements.)
With Server relocation, Microsoft goes full circle
By dropping the release of SAC, Microsoft has come full circle; it has returned Windows Server to its pre-2015 cadence upgrading every three or four years. (Windows Server 2016 to Windows Server 2019 to Windows Server 2022, three-year interval; Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2012 to Windows Server 2016; four-year interval.) Support has been formalized again at 10 years and 10 years only; no more 18 month SAC support cycle. And the previous practice of releasing new features and functionality in just three to four years has been restored, with only LTSC releases — in other words, every two or three years — not, at least theoretically, every SAC release producing something new and shiny. (That never came true from the SAC release.)
Microsoft has turned away from the Windows-as-a-Service (WaaS) it boasts in other ways of course, especially with the Windows client itself. With the announcement earlier this summer of Windows 11, and information about new service strategies and maintenance mechanisms, it’s clear that WaaS is a meaningless term for something Microsoft is no longer providing.
Even so, Windows 11 and its predecessors which are still current and supported by Windows 10, haven’t gone as far as Windows Server in turning around the last few years. Windows clients, for example, will keep SAC releases (as well as LTSC releases) and support lifecycles of less than 10 years. (The longest SAC support cycle was 36 months, up from 30 months, for Windows Enterprise and Windows Education.)
But if Microsoft practices a last-in-first-out policy with Windows, then Server, which follows the Windows client into the WaaS and now, will be the first, may be a sign of how clients are changing down the line.
Copyright © 2021 IDG Communications, Inc.
