{"id":10844,"date":"2018-08-27T10:42:56","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T17:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=10844"},"modified":"2023-06-15T15:00:25","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T22:00:25","slug":"adopting-windows-as-a-service-at-microsoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/adopting-windows-as-a-service-at-microsoft\/","title":{"rendered":"Adopting Windows as a service at Microsoft"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This content has been archived, and while it was correct at time of publication, it may no longer be accurate or reflect the current situation at Microsoft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Windows 10 introduced a new way to streamline operating system updates\u2014Windows as a service. Microsoft Digital uses in-place upgrades and agile methodology to promote Windows adoption. We\u2019ve streamlined application-compatibility testing, established pilot deployments with early adopters, tracked progress through visual workflows, and made data-driven decisions using Upgrade Analytics. As a result, we were able to quickly deploy Windows 10 and feature updates across the company.<\/p>\n

A transformation is occurring at Microsoft as products are shifting into services, and product teams across the company are moving to more agile development and delivery models. Before the release of Windows 10, Microsoft Digital had already begun transitioning from traditional deployment methods to more agile processes. We\u2019ve streamlined application compatibility testing and used in-place upgrade deployment methods that have cut our enterprise deployment timeframes from months to weeks. We can keep pace with more frequent updates and keep our Windows devices current. This helps us to provide a flexible and up-to-date environment that enables our employees to benefit from the latest technology while reducing risks.<\/p>\n

With Windows 10, Microsoft introduced\u00a0Windows as a service<\/a>. It\u2019s a new way of building, deploying, and servicing Windows. New features are now being built continuously, and feature updates that add new functionality are released two times a year. We\u2019re working to make sure our applications that are compatible with previous versions of Windows remain compatible with Windows 10 and Windows 10 updates. The update process has been simplified to automatically preserve all applications, data, settings, and configurations\u2014making it easier than ever to deploy new releases. From a servicing perspective, Microsoft is simplifying the processes for patching Windows. At least once each month, quality updates are released to provide security and reliability fixes, with the goal of maintaining the best possible stability and reliability for all customers. Customers have more choices in tools and deployment timelines. To help customers get ready, the\u00a0Ready for Windows<\/a>\u00a0website lists software solutions that are supported and in use for Windows 10.<\/p>\n

Evolving the enterprise adoption approach<\/h2>\n

At Microsoft, we used to test, pilot, and broadly deploy new versions of Windows, because they were being released every few years. It would sometimes take us a year or more to deploy the new version on all the devices that we wanted to upgrade.<\/p>\n

Our first experience with the shift toward Windows as a service came during the Windows 8 timeframe. We hadn\u2019t yet completed our broad deployment of Windows 8, when the Windows 8.1 Update was ready to begin early adoption. We knew that faster release cadences with regular feature and quality updates were going to be the new normal, and that we needed to streamline our deployment processes to be more agile and keep pace. In collaboration with the product group, we created a proof-of-concept and piloted the deployment of Windows 8.1 as an in-place upgrade.<\/p>\n

The pilot was successful, and led to adopting in-place upgrades to quickly deploy Windows 10 feature updates to more than 250,000 devices in the enterprise. Windows 10 and its feature upgrades introduced many security and productivity enhancements. These included\u00a0Windows Hello for Business<\/a>\u00a0for corporate and remote access, and\u00a0Windows Information Protection<\/a>\u00a0to secure corporate data.<\/p>\n

Using the in-place upgrade method preserves user data, applications, and settings\u2014and it has greatly reduced the number of installation-related help-desk calls. To learn more about our Windows 10 deployment, read\u00a0Deploying Windows 10 at Microsoft as an in-place upgrade<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Setting up the environment for upgrade success<\/h3>\n

To help make our environment ready for successful upgrades, we changed our standard device configurations to only x64 architecture and Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) rather than BIOS. Incoming, or newly provisioned, devices are being standardized toward x64 architectures, but we\u2019re still supporting existing x86 devices. Users running x86 can still perform an in-place upgrade of Windows, because we still make both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions available.<\/p>\n

Upgrades don\u2019t support BIOS conversions; devices with BIOS firmware can upgrade but they remain on BIOS. Converting from BIOS to UEFI would require a clean install with data migration. This is less desirable because it requires larger installation images, has more room for error, and more often results in the need for a help-desk call. For devices that require a BIOS update or change, users are rarely able to perform the necessary steps without support of the help-desk. Another approach to making this change is to shift all new devices coming in to be configured with UEFI and x64 because Windows 10 supports both.<\/p>\n

Updates don\u2019t support cross-language conversion. We support five base operating-system (OS) languages: English, French, German, Japanese, and Chinese. If users need additional languages, they can install language packs. Because we\u2019re responsible for supporting the environment and deploying pre-release versions of Microsoft products for feature validation, we haven\u2019t yet moved to a single-base OS language. We do recommend, as a best practice, that other IT organizations standardize on a single-base OS language, like English, and then use language packs for additional language support.<\/p>\n

Leveraging our early-adoption community<\/h3>\n

One critical component in our creation of agile-enterprise-adoption methodologies is the work we\u2019ve done to create an early-adoption community at Microsoft. The Microsoft Elite program includes about 25,000 global users that participate in the early adoption of Windows and other products at Microsoft. They help us evaluate and validate user scenarios. They provide early feedback that we often take back to the product groups to drive fixes and feature enhancements.<\/p>\n

We recently created a\u00a0new universal application\u00a0for participants of the Microsoft Elite program. The application promotes early adoption opportunities, captures feedback and scenario validation, and provides game-like incentives, including points and badges that promote participation. We use social mechanisms\u2014such as Yammer and a moderated support forum\u2014to capture additional feedback from, communicate with, and provide support to early adopters.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a new feature in Windows 10 called Feedback Hub that we use to see the latest information about new Windows builds. It\u2019s the central hub for insider announcements, feedback, and statistics, and it has another section that participants can use to give direct feedback to the product group and to provide diganostics.<\/p>\n

Creating agile adoption processes<\/h3>\n

One of the key areas we had to change as we looked at the enterprise adoption of more frequent Windows releases was how to be more agile. We adopted an agile process that allows us to fail fast and embrace our failures. We began with creating small proof of concepts in IT that generally included 10 to 50 users. We made changes based on the proof-of-concept successes and failures, and then we moved on to larger pilots that were targeted to 1,000 to 5,000 users. We iterated on those pilots until we got to the quality we wanted before broadly deploying to all the users in the enterprise.<\/p>\n

\"Agile
Figure 1: Agile adoption processes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Creating visual project work boards<\/h3>\n

To keep us organized and agile, we use a Visual Studio Team Foundation Services\u00a0Kanban<\/a>\u00a0board to provide visualization of deployment work items and dependent systems. We use work items to share information, assign work to team members, update status, track dependencies, and more. The Kanban board helps optimize the flow of work among our teams across Microsoft.<\/p>\n

Application readiness and compatibility testing<\/h3>\n