Microsoft: Now Twice Yearly Cumulative Update for Exchange Server

Microsoft is making a change to its Exchange Server update policy. The company now releases a cumulative update twice a year instead of every quarter. Microsoft says it does this because customers found the previous update policy too frequent.

The new cumulative updates will according to Microsoft be rolled out in the first and second half of each calendar year. Microsoft is aiming for the months of March and September, but mentions that the updates can be postponed to the months of April and October in case of quality problems. Because there will be approximately six months between each cumulative update, Microsoft will also release smaller updates in the meantime to address any issues in Exchange Server.

Until last year, Microsoft released a quarterly cumulative update for Exchange Server. This happened in the months of March, June, September and December. In December of last year, no cumulative update was released for Exchange Server. According to Microsoft, this was because that month was difficult for companies.

The next cumulative update will be released in the second half of 2022 and will only be available for Exchange Server 2019. The company reports that standard support for Exchange Server 2013 and Exchange Server 2016 has ended. Through the extended support, cumulative updates will also be made available for those versions, although it is not yet clear when that will be.