Azure DevOps: From 2-Year Releases to 880K Deploys
Explores how Azure DevOps shifted from slow, two-year releases to rapid, continuous delivery, highlighting the benefits of fast feedback, agility, and …
TL;DR; Slow release cycles mean customer needs go unmet and competitors gain an edge. Microsoft’s shift from a two-year delivery cycle to three-week sprints allowed them to deliver features in days, improving customer satisfaction and competitiveness. Accelerate your delivery process to stay relevant and meet customer demands faster.
Let’s do the maths.
If your product team delivers every two years, that means feature requests take four years to hit production.
How many customer needs stay relevant over four years? How many competitors ship improvements while you’re still planning your release?
This was Microsoft’s reality with TFS. They had a 2-year cycle, a growing feature backlog, and increasing customer dissatisfaction. The cost of slow delivery wasn’t just an engineering problem—it was a competitive disadvantage.
When they switched to 3-week Sprints and decoupled release from deployment, everything changed. Features went live in days, not years.
Speed matters. Your competitors aren’t waiting—why are you?
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