DEV-149 - Stage Rollouts with Deployment Plans
Implementation Effort: Medium – Requires defining deployment ring structures, rollout cadence timings, and integrating with Multi-Admin Approval.
User Impact: Low – Reduces end-user disruption by catching app or policy regressions in early validation rings before broad production rollout.
Overview
Deployment Plans (introduced in September 2026 under the Deployments experience in the Microsoft Intune admin center) enable administrators to roll out applications and configuration policies in controlled stages across multiple rings instead of deploying changes to all targeted devices at once.
Supported workloads include:
- Windows Applications: Win32 apps and Enterprise App Catalog (EAM) applications.
- Windows Policies: Settings Catalog policies and Endpoint Security policies.
Deployment Plans integrate natively with Multi-Admin Approval (MAA), ensuring that high-impact staged rollouts require secondary administrator authorization before advancing across production device fleets.
This supports Assume breach and operational resilience by preventing a misconfigured policy or faulty application update from simultaneously impacting the entire enterprise endpoint estate.
Key Configuration Steps
- Navigate to the Deployments node in the Microsoft Intune admin center.
- Define ring groups (e.g., Ring 0 – Canary/IT, Ring 1 – Pilot, Ring 2 – Broad Production) and rollout timing intervals between stages.
- Enable Multi-Admin Approval integration on deployment plans for critical security policies and enterprise-wide applications.
- Monitor rollout health at each stage and pause or halt progression if anomalies or failures are detected.