Microsoft gives administrators more options for updating Microsoft 365 Apps

Microsoft has added new options to Servicing Profiles that give administrators more control over updating Microsoft 365 Apps through Azure Active Directory. For example, it is possible to withdraw per group and devices can be excluded.

Microsoft has a total of five new management options for Servicing Profiles added. Wave Customization allows administrators to spread the release of monthly updates in up to three waves to groups of devices. Rollback by Groups enables the rollback of updates and thus serves as a safety net.

An option to exclude devices from automated updates has also been added, and administrators can now control all devices simultaneously with updates with a single simple configuration. Finally, the profiles have been extended with a management tool to adjust the disk space for updates. A minimum of 5GB of free disk space is required, but this option allows administrators to set lower limits.

According to Microsoft, these are features that have been frequently requested by administrators. Microsoft has added Servicing Profiles to the Microsoft 365 Apps Admin Center to give administrators control over the update process. For example, if they update Microsoft 365 Apps within organizations and problems arise on employee devices, they can pause the updates.

Admins could already set updates to only go to devices running Microsoft 365 in certain update channels. Apps on devices that are in the Monthly Enterprise Channel are the first to receive the updates. Alternatively, they could already target specific devices within Azure AD groups with updates.