!!!Hot News!!! Frequent, Continuous Releases Coming For System Center!!!

Wow! For some time Microsoft told their clients that one day the SCCM release cycle, also known as Current Branch (CB), would come (in one form or another) to the rest of the System Center stack.

And FINALLY Microsoft has released more information about how the System Center stack is going to adapt to a faster release cadence.

In a nutshell, this is going to happen:

1. Microsoft will be delivering features and enhancements on a faster cadence in the next year;
2. Main focus here will be on the highest priority needs of Microsoft’s customers across System Center components;
3. There will be releases TWICE per year, in allignment with the Windows Server semi-annual channel;
4. A technical preview release is planned in the fall with the first production version available early next calendar year;
5. There will be subsequent releases approximately every six months;
6. These releases will be available to System Center customers with active Software Assurance;
7. SCCM/ConfigMgr will continue to offer three releases per year.

In the first release wave the main focus will be on three SC components:

1. SCOM(!);
2. SCDPM;
3. SCVMM.

Key areas of investment will be:

1. Support for Windows Server & Linux;
2. Enhanced performance, usability & reliability;
3. Extensibility with Azure-based security & management services.

What’s in the pipeline for SCOM specifically?

1. Expanded HTML5 dashboards (FINALLY!!!);
2. Enhancements in performance & usability;
3. More integrations with Azure services (eg. integration with Azure Insight & Analytics Service Map);
4. Improved monitoring for Linux using a FluentD agent.

On top of it all, YOU can influence the upcoming releases! Therefore Microsoft encourages you to join the System Center Tech Community and UserVoice forums to provide your feedback and suggestions.

Go here to read the posting I got all this information from. A BIG thanks to Peter Daalmans who pointed this posting out to me.

Recap
For me this is THE sign that Microsoft has FINALLY decided about the future of the System Center stack, by delivering insight in how they’re going to execute on their previously made promisses to port the SC release cycle more to the Current Branch (CB) model.

As such I expect the end of the notation like SC 2016. It makes sense to introduce a new naming scheme, like YYMM. Example: System Center 1806, refers to the SC release of June 2018. As a result I expect that there will be a new support model as well, just like the one in place for SCCM/ConfigMgr CB.

For now Microsoft is silent about it but to me it looks like the next logical step in it all. It makes no sense to support the new release cadence like the current SC 2016 with a Mainstream Support End Date. Even for a company like Microsoft, it would cost far too much money and resources, better used elsewhere (read: Azure ).

None the less, this development is a huge step forward and makes the future of the SC stack much more brighter. For sure, it doesn’t have an eternal live expectation. It never had. But at least there is something of a roadmap. And yes, one day the SC stack will be fully incorporated into Azure, which makes sense as well. But at least for now, Microsoft has recognized the significance of the SC stack.