Microsoft is continuing to move away from infrequent major releases and towards a steadier stream of regular updates, with System Center Configuration Manager next to receive the "as a service" makeover, as described in a blog post by Brad Anderson.

The successor to System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2 is simply System Center Configuration Manager—no calendar year, no "R2"-style suffix—to denote that instead of receiving periodic major updates, service packs, and cumulative updates, it will instead receive a steady stream of incremental updates. These updates will be named "vYYMM" (with v1510 being the current October 2015 build), and each update will be supported for 12 months. The first release of this new SCCM will be made by the end of the year.

This change will make it easier for SCCM to keep pace not only with Windows 10—set to receive its first major update in November—but also, for those using SCCM with Intune, iOS and Android developments. This will become increasingly important as the full range of Windows 10 streams—Current Branch, Current Branch for Business, and Long Term Servicing Branch—make their way into corporate deployments. Under the new release process, SCCM will be able to track Intune updates, and so can be used as the single management interface for the full range of PCs, phones, and tablets.

Conversely, SCCM 2012 and SCCM 2012 R2 won't be updated to support new Windows 10 features indefinitely. A separate blog post outlines Microsoft's plans for these products: with the current service packs and cumulative updates, both will be able to support Windows 10 LTSB 2015, and all current branch/current branch for business builds until February of next year. After February 2016, only Windows 10 LTSB 2015 will be supported.

The upshot of all this is that organizations using SCCM 2012 or 2012 R2 that plan to use Windows 10 will have to plan to upgrade to SCCM over the next few months.