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I'm not sure that I see the issue with a December EoL; can you elaborate? There's always at least 3 months for upgrades -- it's not like we're doing a release

I'm not sure that I see the issue with a December EoL; can you elaborate? There's always at least 3 months for upgrades -- it's not like we're doing a release on December 15 and saying "you need to upgrade by the end of the month".

jmclnx 2y ago
Every company were I worked over the decades, at the end of each fiscal quarter a 'freeze' would applied. No patches or upgrades for the last month of each quarter. This "end" usually always happens in March, June, Sept and Dec where I have worked. This is because 90% of sales occur/booked right before the end of each quarter. This means the company wants 99.(100x)9 uptime. People have lost their jobs if the system is down at this time. Also, for the end of the fiscal year, the freeze has been extended for something like 6 weeks before the end of the fiscal year. For example, at IBM, to get a major high impact security patch applied, you need high level VP approval at Quarter End. Minor patches will never be applied. As you can guess, middle level managers never want to sign their life away. For system upgrades without security impacts, it is impossible. Most software that needs to be update, it is almost always held off to the first or 2nd month of the fiscal period. If a company sees EOLs occurring on the last month of each quarter, they will never use that software. They will go looking for alternatives. HTH
- cperciva 2y ago
  Huh, interesting. For many of the users I heard from, the end of December is the ideal time for doing upgrades, since they don't need to worry about system availability while people are away on their Christmas/New Years vacations. I think this is probably fine though; it just means that the companies you mention will need to upgrade in October or November. That's why we have a 3 month overlap between when one minor version is released and when the previous minor version is EoLed.

jmclnx 2y ago

Every company were I worked over the decades, at the end of each fiscal quarter a 'freeze' would applied. No patches or upgrades for the last month of each quarter. This "end" usually always happens in March, June, Sept and Dec where I have worked. This is because 90% of sales occur/booked right before the end of each quarter. This means the company wants 99.(100x)9 uptime. People have lost their jobs if the system is down at this time. Also, for the end of the fiscal year, the freeze has been extended for something like 6 weeks before the end of the fiscal year. For example, at IBM, to get a major high impact security patch applied, you need high level VP approval at Quarter End. Minor patches will never be applied. As you can guess, middle level managers never want to sign their life away. For system upgrades without security impacts, it is impossible. Most software that needs to be update, it is almost always held off to the first or 2nd month of the fiscal period. If a company sees EOLs occurring on the last month of each quarter, they will never use that software. They will go looking for alternatives. HTH

cperciva 2y ago
Huh, interesting. For many of the users I heard from, the end of December is the ideal time for doing upgrades, since they don't need to worry about system availability while people are away on their Christmas/New Years vacations. I think this is probably fine though; it just means that the companies you mention will need to upgrade in October or November. That's why we have a 3 month overlap between when one minor version is released and when the previous minor version is EoLed.