Changes to the hotfix releases for the support fixes
Recently SQL Server support team had changed the process of releasing support hotfixes for the issues that are specific to a customer base.
This KBA revises the incremental servicing model that is deployed for all the support fixes.
We have moved away from current “priority driven” hotfix release model to a scheduled delivery model in which a customer can get a hotfix to service their most critical situations with a short turn-around time or a fix that has undergone higher levels of testing is released on a scheduled basis.
So the delivery mechanism will be like On-demand hotfix & cumulative update. You might have come across the MSDN blogs that the mechanism of releasing patches and SPs will be linked to milestones instead of releasing them they as soon as they are ready. In other words, in the new Incremental Servicing Model new patches will be released by a certain date, i.e. the process of development and testing will be more predictable.
But don't forget to test them thoroughly on your test environment before taking it to pre-production atleast.