Colleagues:
Back in February we first announced that it is increasingly important to make sure all Office clients are upgraded to the most recent version, Microsoft Office 365, by August 2022. We iterated how important it is to ensure all endpoints receive Microsoft features available exclusively to M365 installations. Legacy office versions will no longer get feature updates even though some are still supported with ongoing security updates. The security updates are important, but they will not be enough to keep working uninterrupted. To continue operating smoothly and ensure the security landscape at IU, it is important that every machine is upgraded to M365.
I want to thank you for your efforts on this front. Since our last mailing, 19k+ devices have been upgraded. However, just over 11k devices still need to be upgraded. We are ready to help you review your environment to ensure upgrades are successful.
Please review our updated report of office versions to help identify your department’s number of endpoints that are not getting regular Windows servicing feature upgrades with M365. The best practice, as recommended by UISO, is to remove all legacy unsupported components no longer in use as they could still pose a security risk to the device.
UITS strongly recommends that you update installations to use Microsoft Office 365 as soon as practical, and ideally no later than August 2022. While this is not a firm “end of support” date, it does reflect a point where decision making will change – as mentioned in previous mailings, UITS will no longer prioritize older client support when making service decisions.
Please contact EMS by emailing kzimm@iu.edu if you would like to communicate challenges you are facing deploying M365. We are collecting your feedback on how we can better support you in this mission. It is also important for us to better understand any operational blockers you might be experiencing.
–IT Community Partnerships on behalf of Jacob Farmer, Director, Client Services