How Microsoft deployed Windows 10 within its own company

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Published onDecember 21, 2015

published onDecember 21, 2015

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When it comes to Windows 10 and Microsoft, it appears the company has had success indogfoodingits most recent crown jewel.Dogfooding:

Eating your own dog food, also called dogfooding, is a slang term used to reference a scenario in which a company uses its own product to test and promote the product. Dogfooding can be a way for a company to demonstrate confidence in its own products and a way to test it in real-world usage. Hence, dogfooding can act as both quality control and a kind of testimonial advertising.

According to areport from ZDNet’s resident Microsoft expert Mary Jo Foley, the company has deployed Windows 10 to more than 95% of its employees. Microsoft’s IT department methods for the upgrade dealt less with armed gunmen in Steve Ballmer masks, as some might have wagered, but rather the use of a less invasive in-place upgrade.Microsoft IT’s successful use of in-place upgrades was built on years of case studies within the company that led to the distribution of Windows 10 to more than 96,000 users within the company. Similar to the Windows 10 Insider previews, Microsoft has a “First and Best” (F&B) program that it runs within the confines of its own business. The company’s F&B program helped Microsoft’s IT deploy Windows 10 to most of its remote and corporate network connected users in roughly nine weeks. The result of its F&B program netted Microsoft 38,000 users before the widespread release of Windows 10 in July, meaning the company already had 40 percent of its employees using its new operating system with limited- to no-hassle upgrading.Using in-place upgrades for Windows 10 cut Microsoft’s deployment overhead by using the company’s own System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager SP1, and that resulted in fewer desk calls to field. For Microsoft employees, the in-place upgrades represented a reduction in time reacquiring licenses, logins, application data, files and settings, which for the most part kept employee productivity relatively unscathed.Learning from previous upgrade cycles such as Windows 7 to Windows 8 and Windows 8 to 8.1, Microsoft’s IT department enlisted ring-like upgrading processes for upgrades. Rather than an avalanche of untested change, Microsoft selected employees to be a part of the company’s Canary, Operating Systems Group (OSG) and Microsoft rings. In the order of Canary to Microsoft, employees would test anywhere from daily builds to slower monthly released and validated builds.According to thereport filed by Microsoft’s IT department, the company came away from the widespread release of Windows 10 with these notes:

As Windows 10 marks the transition of software deployment for Microsoft, it seems safe to assume the company will continue to internally tweak its methods for both consumers and business adoption of its products. Withthe relative success of Windows 10 releasing to the public, it looks as though Microsoft and its Canary testers, Fast & Best program, Windows 10 Insider previews and in-place upgrades are helping to guide the company in an excellent direction.

Kareem Anderson

Networking & Security Specialist

Kareem is a journalist from the bay area, now living in Florida. His passion for technology and content creation drives are unmatched, driving him to create well-researched articles and incredible YouTube videos.

He is always on the lookout for everything new about Microsoft, focusing on making easy-to-understand content and breaking down complex topics related to networking, Azure, cloud computing, and security.

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Kareem Anderson

Networking & Security Specialist

He is a journalist from the bay area, now living in Florida. He breaks down complex topics related to networking, Azure, cloud computing, and security

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How Microsoft deployed Windows 10 within its own company