Support for M365 Apps (O365) on Windows 2022

MI5-Agent I hear you, especially on not being able to upgrade to the latest OS until 1-2 years after release, so 5 years is reduced to 3-4 in the real world. In fairness to Microsoft, 5 years mainstream support has been their standard for quite some time, though software support has usually continued into the extended support period rather than dropping once mainstream support ends. However, 5 years support is better than none at all and being forced to W365 or AVD.

I think as customers we're caught between the waterfall/traditional licensed OS and ~agile/subscription licensed application worlds. I could be wrong, but I get the impression that, while Microsoft dogfoods their own software, they don't dogfood their own licensing and experience the same licensing conundrums their customers face. Perhaps a more continuous upgrade model OS like Azure Stack HCI could resolve the issue in the long run, though that doesn't help much today. 

This is all far too complicated and it is not a typical use case to plan upgrades of RDS hosts each five years excactly. Many software companies don't have their applications ready for the newest OS in the beginning. Thus a migration would be happen 1 or 2 years after release and so the remaining run time would only be 3-4 years for the hosts. Usually you don't use Office on RDS hosts only, so upgrades/migrations are a lot of work as well and such a short support period of M365 Apps or even Office 2021 LTSC is more than questionable.

10 years of support were great, even 7 would be still fine but 5 or even shorter with M365 is really a mess. It is just a campaign to give RDS up, capitulate and book Azure virtual desktops for even more money.

The only thing who could stop this develpoment are antitrust authorities.

greatquux Elden_Christensen Bernd Dausch Note only 2302 or later is supported on Server 2022. The latest Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel release is 2208 and is NOT supported (at this time). The latest Monthly Enterprise Channel (2303) and Current Channel (2304) are supported.

Elden_Christensen Thank you very, very much for your help drawing attention to and getting a sensible resolution to this issue!

Elden_Christensen 

To be sure:
If we understand this statement correctly, does this mean that the next version of Windows Server will also get MS365 support?

Thank you!

Elden_Christensen The strategy is comprehensible for us. M365 has short functional update cycles and the server is in LTSC. Support for M365 on Windows Server in mainstream support is a good compromise. The important thing for us is to get saftey for planning. Is M365 supported on the Vnext server in mainstream support?

Elden_Christensen 

I believe aug 2021 to oct 2025 is 4 years.

I have read something about the new support policy.

But the main point is that a product that had support for 11 years , is now reduced to a product that has 4 years of support.

Inherently means that we the lifetime support and investment in a product has been reduced to 1/3 of what it previously was, and therefor investments are now also 3x as often as before. at the very best investments are 2x more often (and I have to assume at the same price since our CS reseller did sell the new server 2022 at the same high end price as the previous server OS that we had purchased in the past. (not to mention that we did not mention (while he knew) that the support of the microsoft365 apps are now on a lower support cycle.

So same price,  and less support on the microsoft365 apps for essentially the same product.

regards

Leopold

The new support policy is that M365 is supported on Windows Server during its Mainstream support period. The Mainstream support period is the first 5-years and there are new LTSC releases of Windows Server every 2- 3 years.

Stay Current | Stay Secure | Stay Supported

Thanks!
Elden

Windows Server end of support and Microsoft 365 Apps - Deploy Office | Microsoft Learn

Elden_Christensen 

Thanks for the initial extension.

However I have a summary of the support on of the microsoft apps on previous server versions.

Windows server 2008R2

Support Dates

Listing                                                   Start Date            Mainstream End Date    Extended End Date

Windows Server 2008 R2              Oct 22, 2009       Jan 13, 2015                        Jan 14, 2020

Microsoft 365 Apps isn’t supported on Windows Server 2008 R2, as of January 14, 2020.

11 years after start date

Windows Server 2012

Listing                                   Start Date            Mainstream End Date    Extended End Date

Windows Server 2012     Oct 30, 2012       Oct 9, 2018                          Oct 10, 2023

Microsoft 365 Apps isn’t supported on Windows Server 2008 R2, as of January 14, 2020.

8 years after start date

Windows Server 2012R2

Listing                                                   Start Date            Mainstream End Date    Extended End Date

Windows Server 2012 R2              Nov 25, 2013      Oct 9, 2018                          Oct 10, 2023

Microsoft 365 Apps isn’t supported on Windows Server 2012 R2, as of January 14, 2020.

7 years after start date

Windows Server 2016

Listing                                   Start Date            Mainstream End Date    Extended End Date

Windows Server 2016     Oct 15, 2016       Jan 11, 2022                        Jan 12, 2027

Microsoft 365 Apps is supported on Windows Server 2016 until October 2025.

9 years after start date

Windows Server 2019

Listing                                   Start Date            Mainstream End Date    Extended End Date

Windows Server 2019     Nov 13, 2018      Jan 9, 2024                          Jan 9, 2029

Microsoft 365 Apps is supported on Windows Server 2019 until October 2025.

7 years after start date

Windows Server 2022

Listing                                   Start Date            Mainstream End Date    Extended End Date

Windows Server 2022     Aug 18, 2021       Oct 13, 2026                       Oct 14, 2031

Microsoft 365 Apps is supported on Windows Server 2019 until October 2025.

4 Years after start date

So although providing support till 2025 is a good initial step , it's not sufficient.

Previously Microsoft365 apps were supported for 7 to 11 years on the previous windows server operating systems.

Now with server 2022 there is support for only 4 years.

That is unheard of and not acceptable.

regards

Elden_Christensen, thanks for your summary of current options. We are facing a decision for our hosting service (CSP, SPLA) this year on which technical basis our software and M365 can be provided to customers in the future. Currently, we are running Windows Server (RDS) in conjunction with M365 because this combination offers the best cost-benefit relation for our high standardized workloads.

We would welcome a decision for a general M365 support in the mainstream support phase of the Windows Server (know-how, HyperV support, …). For security and support reasons we can also understand and accept a limitation to 5 years.

From a customer perspective, Windows 11 EMS & M365 offers the best experience and would be the favored solution. Since we support many, very small customers, the required operation of an Azure Stack HCI cluster per customer is not economically feasible and operable. Here, a release of Azure Stack HCI multi-tenant setup and licensing would be necessary or a Windows 11 EMS release with general HyperV support. Also, the support period of 2.5 years on Win11 EMS is challenging.

The last option of migrating the service to the cloud is currently not technically feasible as there is no centralized management of 20,000+ Azure tenants and all required services.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Deleted That misses the point: Microsoft could simply choose to provide CSP support in anything they want: they make all the Windows versions, including the LTSC versions. I don't think it's that simple anyway, as I'm pretty sure the non-LTSC versions of Server they've released don't have CSP support either.

Deleted That view seems to see it almost exclusively from the provider (software and hardware) side. From the customer side, the binding isn't technical, it's practical: e.g., small businesses running a single cluster for the majority of their workload simply can't upgrade that production system in place. It's far too risky.

-_RH_- "It is unclear to me why multi-user client is significantly different from terminal server, other than licensing. [...]no Intune, CSP (Policies) support.

That's quite easy to answer. It is not only Windows Server that is in question but also all Windows Client LTSC versions. Mind Windows Server is also an LTSC version, while less dominantly named in the product.

This causes constraints, technically, to support products and techniques coming from Azure PGs.

Actively seeing this on the matter how much of work it is to bring winget to Windows Server, while possible, but not yet supported. It is on the roadmap for winget but it is clear that LTSC as a definition and missing dependencies makes it harder to implement.

I personally do not like the clear split of management of WS and Clients aswell. Especially for SMB there are no "server" and seperate "client" teams, opposed to enterprises.

Hi -_RH_- I understand your points. Yet there is no direct binding of hardware support and the 5Y software support cycle. In fact, I am seeing regular updates to older HW products to be certified for newer Windows Server releases by the OEM, so it is quite likely you can use your hardware ideally for at least 2 iterations of Windows Server with full support by Microsoft. Yet, the HW support is often limited to 5 years by our OEM partners and buying in longer terms after the initial 5 years is quite costly. Same as the possible extension by ESU for up to 3 years per Windows Server Product oder other Server Products such as SQL - ESU cost exceptions Azure (Cloud) + Azure Stack HCI (on-premises). 

So if you keep this in mind a 5-year cycle, it could make sense. Agree 5-year cycles can be a burden for large enterprises if you do not favor software designed changes in concepts as infrastructure as a code. And it also causes a lot of old hardware that might not be resold for a second life.

-_RH_- 

the Windows Client OS has always Support for Office 365.

so no need to wait if the pressure from the customers to microsoft is high enough

to get support for the next server Version.

and it is cheeper for the customers then VDI. And esier for us to maintain for us

It is unclear to me why multi-user client is significantly different from terminal server, other than licensing. However, one thing that is sorely lacking in Server is Intune support, and this isn't really answered by Azure Stack HCI, either (Azure Security Center/Defender for Cloud =/= Intune, and it makes little sense to spin up/maintain/skill up on a non-cloud Config Manager for cloud-first orgs). Want to apply Conditional Access Compliance policies for Server? Can't do it. The technical answer I've heard is "CSP support doesn't exist in Server," but that kind of skirts the question, as it's coming from the company that could easily choose to add it.