Lifecycle Policy Update- Business Central

Dynamics 365 Business Central (on-premises) October’18 and April ’19 Update software is covered by the Fixed Lifecycle Policy.

This policy requires that the customer maintain an Enhancement Plan, and that it deploy updates as noted later in this topic.

The policy involved 10 years of support, a minimum of 5 years ‘Mainstream Support’ followed by an additional 5 years of ‘Extended Support’. This support policy worked well for previous deployments of NAV and Business Central, as solutions were often purchased perpetually and organisations remained using the same version for multiple years.

** In order to obtain mainstream support after April 14, 2020, customers must update to the April 2019 release or a later update for the April 2019 version

Now with Microsoft’s big push on digital transformation and the extensive rise of cloud deployments, updates are available and can be applied with ease, meaning this new Modern Lifecycle Policy aligns more with the solution.

Dynamics 365 Business Central (on-premises) 2019 release wave 2 and newer updates are covered by the Modern Lifecycle Policy.

The customer is in full control of its on-premises deployments and must follow this policy. The customer is in control of installing updates in its on-premises environments. Microsoft will support the Dynamics 365 Business Central (on-premises) software as indicated on the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy for Business Central on-premises page, but only if the customer keeps the deployed software current according to this policy. In keeping current you are getting all the latest feature and bug fixes.

The following image illustrates the update schedule for Dynamics 365 Business Central.

For those who have Dynamics 365 Business Central deployed on-premises, if you’ve updated to version 15x, released in October 2019 then you will be covered by the Modern Lifecycle Policy. Any versions before still follow the Fixed Lifecycle Policy, similarly with Cloud & SaaS deployments of Business Central. The only difference with On-premises deployments is that you (or your Dynamics partner) is in control of installing updates to the environment, as it cannot be automatically applied like in other deployments.

If you have updated your Business Central tenant to release wave 2 in October 2019, version 15x for either cloud or on-premises deployments, you will be using the new Modern Lifecycle Policy.