The only reason why the company continues to make available the standalone version of Office is for organizations and customers who are not ready to transition to a cloud-based offering because of specific scenarios.įor example, when you need to run the apps offline for months at a time. And it won’t include many visual changes either since the company is only focusing on delivering innovations, advanced security, and intelligent capabilities through its Microsoft 365 subscription. However, it won’t be a significant upgrade from the previous version. Microsoft is not revealing all the changes coming in this release. Microsoft explains Office LTSC and its changes in more detail in a Tech Community post (opens in new tab).Office 2021 and LTSC won’t be a big upgrade Office LTSC will be supported for five years going forward, which is two fewer than what Microsoft provided previously. At the same time, we definitely have customers who have specific scenarios where they don't feel like they can move to the cloud.' Microsoft's Jared Spataro, head of Microsoft 365, told The Verge, 'We certainly have a lot of customers that have moved to the cloud over the last 10 months, that's happened en masse really.

Microsoft expects businesses to use Office LTSC in specific scenarios rather than rolling it out across an entire organization.

Microsoft explains that Office LTSC is for 'regulated devices that cannot accept feature updates for years at a time, process control devices on the manufacturing floor that are not connected to the internet, and specialty systems that must stay locked in time and require a long-term servicing channel.' Office LTSC is for a different use case than Office 2021.

Office ltsc vs 365