Sybase Product Life-Cycle Policies

Revised August 2010

Sybase Product Life-Cycle Policies have been defined to provide customers advance notice of product end-of-life (EOL) information. Based on product categories, different policies have been adopted to address customer support requirement.

Adaptive Server Enterprise, Software Developer Kit, Open Server

Products in this category will meet both of the following product life-cycle guidelines:

1. Total in-market time for a release family will be no less than 5 years
2. A minimum of 3 years overlap between a Generally Available (GA) of a release family and the EOL of the previous release family, i.e. when Version N of these products is released, Version N-1 is EOL after 3 years.

For instance, the next release family of ASE version 15 may be version 16. Since ASE 15 was released in September, 2005, under guideline 1, it would be supported for at least 5 years after that date, i.e. until September, 2010. Now, assuming that ASE 16 is released in September, 2012, since a minimum of 3 years overlap is guaranteed under guideline 2, the ASE 15 EOL date would be September, 2015 or later. Note that to ensure customers receive the best levels of support Sybase will try to ensure both guidelines are met when deciding on the final EOL date. Hence, in general, it will be the greater of the two dates.

Replication Server

Products in this category will meet both of the following guidelines:

1. Total in-market time for a release family will be no less than 3 years
2. A minimum of 18 months overlap between a Generally Available (GA) of a release family and the EOL of the previous release family, i.e. when Version N of these products is released, Version N-1 is EOL after 18 months.

For instance, the next release family of Replication Server version 15 may be version 16. Hence under guideline 2 Replication Server 15 will EOL 18 months after 16?s GA date, or later.

Product Life-Cycle Information

The above policy is a general guideline for product life cycles. For specific end-of-life dates on different products, please refer to the table below. Meanwhile, the guideline is applicable to the listed products only. More products will be added to the list in the near future. Products such as PowerBuilder, PowerDesigner, etc., however, will still follow their existing EOL policy. If you need any further information, please contact your local support office.

* End-of-Life date for Replication Server 12.6 localized Edition is October 2010.

• Note: Please note that the End of Sale and End of Life dates for a certain versions of products will be adjusted based on later version?s release dates. The policy is subject to change at any time. However, you can consider that the dates listed above will not be retracted.
• While ASE 15.x will be in market for at least 3 years after the next release family is available, Sybase will only release bug fixes on the latest version of 15.x today. Customers who intend to purchase ASE 15.x will obtain the latest version available. Please note that bug fixes will get rolled up to later versions of 15.x. Customers will need to upgrade to the latest intermediate release within a release family to continue to obtain the benefits of bug fixes. In general, Sybase will not patch previous intermediate releases after the next intermediate release is available.