FAQ: Microsoft preps Windows Update for Business as go-to enterprise servicing tool

The changes, which would replace WSUS and are part of an effort by Microsoft to pull IT to the cloud, are due out by the end of June.

At its Ignite developers conference in March, Microsoft issued a host of announcements — some new, some more akin to status updates — about new features and functionality for IT to manage Windows, enough that it required a recorded list all its own just to keep everyone clear.

One of those announcements was of what Microsoft dubbed Windows Update for Business Deployment Service, which seemingly came and went with nary a ripple.

That's a shame, really.

Windows Update for Business (WUfB) Deployment Service is part of an overarching bid by Microsoft to drag IT, whether or not kicking and screaming, to the cloud and the cloud only. While many enterprises still rely on 2005's Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) to manage Windows' updates and upgrades — the nearly constant servicing that Microsoft harps on as a big boon from Windows 10 — the Redmond, Wash. company would rather, for reasons both customer-friendly and self-serving, have everyone manage from the high ground of the cloud.

[ Related: Microsoft makes 'major-minor' Windows 10 release cadence the new normal ]

WUfB Deployment Service is more important to IT, long term, than the short shrift it received would signal. We're here to change that.