This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2025 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2025 Wave 1.
The 3rd of the new functionality in the Governance and administration section is update sandbox environments to preview versions.
This feature allows customers to update their sandbox environments to a preview version during the public preview, enabling them to test updates on their own data and installed extensions. This reduces risks, enhances testing accuracy, and ensures seamless integration of customizations, ultimately leading to better-informed decisions and smoother transitions.
Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: –
General Availability: Sep 2025
Feature Details
For each major Dynamics 365 Business Central update, Microsoft organizes a public preview starting a month before the release of the update to enable customers and partners to test and prepare for the new functionality and other product changes using a sandbox environment. Until now, it wasn’t possible to update a sandbox environment to a preview version, which has made it difficult to test the next major version using your own data and extensions.
Starting with the public preview for 2025 release wave 2, it will be possible to update a sandbox environment to the preview version. This way, customers and partners can:
- Identify and address potential issues caused by environment data or installed extensions before the update is made available to their production environments.
- Test new functionality and the update operation itself using their own data, providing a more accurate representation of how the update will perform in their environments.
- Validate that installed apps and integrations will continue to work seamlessly with the new version earlier, allowing for more time to make any required changes before updating production environments.
- Prepare more effectively. Having a preview environment that closely resembles a production environment allows for earlier user readiness activities such as product training and change communication.
My Opinion
This one is going to be invaluable, giving partners and end-users the ability to do real testing as early as possible.
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