Microsoft 365 is an evergreen product, meaning it's continuously under development and being updated. New features are constantly being developed, tested, and released. As such, Microsoft 365 a different life cycle than traditional software.

In a standard on-premises software life cycle, products typically go through pre-release stages where they're made available internally or to select customers for testing and then are eventually Released To Manufacturing (RTM). After a product's release, it goes through a succession of product updates (typically, for 3 years) that can address features or security improvements. Each stage of a product's life cycle has defined support phases (standard support, extended support, and end-of-life), and each of these development and release milestones comes with different support terms.

With cloud products such as Microsoft 365, there are also several phases to the development process.  Microsoft often seeks feedback from partners and customers on how well the features work during the stages prior to deployment.

In this chapter, we'll look at the release and support cycles, including the following:

• Release stages
• Support policies

Let's look at how the release stages of products and their support policies work together.