With Windows 10, Microsoft's Evergreen strategy for Windows updates no longer delivers just conventional patches and bug fixes, but also comprehensive system updates including new features. This should make traditional migration projects superfluous. The following also applies:
- Win7 was last updated in 2016, according to Microsoft support will end on January 14, 2020.
- One cumulative update every month (quality updates):
- Security fixes, reliability fixes, bugfixes, etc.
- Replaces the previous month's update
- Updates are provided iteratively as follows:
- Quality updates, at least once a month that provide security and reliability fixes
- Feature updates, that add new functionalities biannually
This means that Win10 after the release update is no longer the same Win10 that existed before the update
The functionality of business applications must be permanently tested against the current Win10 Workplace Core Image with regard to the workplace kernel
In addition to Windows 10 Workplace, innovations need to be implemented faster, i.e. high-frequency configuration changes of the workstation become the rule.
Evergreen Requirements for the IT Workplace Manager
Today`s workplaces: complex IT infrastructure and Windows 10
Whereas previous large Windows and IT workplace migration projects were performed every few years, IT workplace QA has become a continuous process with Windows10 and the Evergreen paradigm.
Half-yearly updates and 18 months of support for Windows10 versions mean that different versions have to be maintained in test and production environments. The figure shows the central test areas that interact with each other and are relevant for validation. For this purpose, "permanent testing" needs to be established that must be defined in terms of technology and process.
However, keeping pace with the Evergreen paradigm requires a clearly defined process and deployment strategy. The process should be designed to enable the continuous availability of Windows 10 versions across the organization.
Modern client workstations map business processes with Office, collaboration and business applications in a complex infrastructure.
For the IT workplace manager, in addition to virtualization, backend services and corporate policies, agile IT processes are the cause of ever faster update cycles. Heterogeneous workplace variants (e.g. fat clients, VDI, App-V, XenDesktop, mobile devices) extend the challenge in the "Evergreen" age.
