Configuration Manager to Get Microsoft Intune Updating Capability this Fall

Microsoft has been promising better updating capability for System Center Configuration Manager for a while. With a new Service Pack coming to ConfigMgr 2012 R2 and ConfigMgr 2012 next week, some have thought that this new feature might show up in the service release.

In a conversation with Mike Schutz, General Manager, Product Marketing, Server and Tools Division, at Ignite on Tuesday, I confirmed that this new, Microsoft Intune-like updating capability will not release until the general availability of the first Configuration Manager 2016 release in the fall.

Intune is on a frequent, monthly update cadence, delivering new features regularly and quickly outpacing the functionality of its on-premises, older sibling. The new updating feature coming in ConfigMgr 2016 will help Microsoft deliver comparable functionality on a similar cadence.

Microsoft is not ready to talk about the architecture for the updating capability, but pieces of it can already be seen in the Technical Preview released to the web on Tuesday.

You can grab the download here: System Center Configuration Manager and Endpoint Protection Technical Preview

I also noted yesterday that ConfigMgr 2016 will be released twice, once shortly after Windows 10 releases and then again with updated bits when Windows Server 2016 is ready. You might think that with this new Intune-style updating capability that Microsoft could just deliver the updated code that way. But, after confirming and reconfirming, the new updating capability can’t be used in this way. The second ConfigMgr 2016 delivery will be more than just a servicing release to provide Windows Server 2016 technology compatibility once the server features are complete.