14 DAY TRIAL // Office 2010 was intensely dogfooded (tested internally) at Microsoft during the development stage, as is the case with additional pre-release products from the company. Microsoft IT allows third-parties to get insight into the process of planning, testing and deploying the latest Office suite via a showcase which can be downloaded free of charge.
Essentially, MSIT is sharing details of the testing and deployment strategy that it put together in order to deliver Office 2010 to as much as 140,000 of the company’s desktop computers.
“Starting with the pre-beta releases, Microsoft IT (MSIT) deployed Microsoft Office 2010 to its population of 89,000 full-time employees and 70,000 contingent staff.
“MSIT tested pre-release versions of Office 2010 on more than 100,000 client computers worldwide, resulting in a robust product that has been rigorously tested in a production environment,” reads an excerpt from the IT showcase.
While Microsoft did deploy the Beta development milestone of Office 2010, it did not do the same for the Release Candidate (RC) Build.
Some early adopters might remember the fact that Office 2010 RC was a limited testing program opened only to select testers by invitation only.
After it skipped the RC, the Redmond company went straight to the deployment of Office 2010 RTM which was released in the first half of 2010.
“Microsoft IT tested pre-release versions of Office 2010 on more than 100,000 clients at Microsoft. Office 2010 has been deployed to approximately 140,000 clients at Microsoft,” the company revealed.
The software giant has since moved forward, started planning for Office 15 and is now already testing the first upgrade to Office 2010, namely Service Pack 1.
“MSIT used Windows Deployment Services (WDS) as the primary image distribution method worldwide,” Microsoft explained.
“For the Redmond campus, MSIT used System Center Configuration Manager Operating System Deployment (OSD). OSD technology enables more flexibility for managing the image components in the sequence and doesn’t require a full build-test-release cycle.”
Office Home and Business 2010 RTM Build 14.0.4760.1000 is available for download here.
Office Home and Student 2010 RTM Build 14.0.4760.1000 is available for download here.
Office Professional 2010 RTM Build 14.0.4760.1000 is available for download here.