Microsoft slates September release for Windows Server's first fast upgrade

Microsoft will release the first upgrade to Windows Server 2016 the last week of September.

"We'll be launching Windows Server, version 1709, at Ignite," Jeff Woolsey, a manager in Microsoft's Windows Server group, wrote on a company blog on Thursday.

Ignite, the conference successor to the long-running TechEd, will run Sept. 25-29 in Orlando, Fla.

Windows Server 1709, labeled in Microsoft's yymm release format, will be the first of an every-six-months upgrade cycle. The Redmond, Wash. company introduced the new cadence in June, saying at the time that it was synchronizing Windows Server upgrades with ones for both Windows 10 and Office 365.

The twice-yearly releases will be delivered by the "Semi-annual Channel" release track; that name will also be used for Windows 10 and Office 365.

While Microsoft implied that the upgrades for Windows 10 and Office 365 would appear Sept. 12, it had not hinted at a Windows Server release date during the month. By linking Windows Server 1709's debut with Ignite, Microsoft demonstrated that it sees Server, or at the least its first rapid release upgrade, as more promotional and less routine.

The follow-up to Windows Server 1709 will be version 1803, the latter to appear in March 2018. Cumulatively, Server's twice-annual upgrades will comprise the feature set of the next Windows Server X. In two or three years, Microsoft will put a stake in the ground by christening Windows Server 2018 or Windows Server 2019, built by the iterative process of shipping Server upgrades.

:story: Computerworld