Product Life Cycle and End-of-Life Policy

This page explains the life cycle and End-of-Life (EOL) policy for GigaSpaces products and related third-party products, along with information about extended support, upgrading, and available assistance. The page also provides a product support roadmap to assist customers with future planning. All customers should refer to the specific service list they purchased to determine the specific level of support to which they are entitled.

GigaSpaces Product Life Cycle Policy

The GigaSpaces product life cycle policy is based on the following guidelines (unless stated otherwise in your service contract):

• New policy change: For all versions, GigaSpaces provides technical product support for 2 years, starting from the next upcoming public GA of the release of the relevant product version.
• Effective as of the official Support Discontinuance Date (2 years starting from next upcoming public GA) these versions will no longer be supported under a standard support agreement. Extended Support may be available for an additional limited period, for an extra fee. Please contact GigaSpaces' Customer Service for more information.
• Maintenance releases (service packs) are scheduled to be publicly available every 6-8 weeks and are driven by customer feedback. The above, is the planned schedule however does not constitute a firm commitment to produce a release at every such interval.

Backwards Compatibility

GigaSpaces guarantees backwards compatibility under the following conditions:

• APIs - For two major versions going forward, and/or two years after a change in functionality.
• Client-server compatibility - For two major versions (clients are guaranteed to work with servers running the next major version).
• Server-server compatibility - For service packs on the same version only.

For example, if a new feature is introduced in version 10.0 that is meant to replace an existing feature, the existing feature will be deprecated as of version 10.0, and supported through 11.x. Starting from 12.x, backwards compatibility will no longer be guaranteed for the deprecated feature.

Feature Levels

A feature can be at one of these feature levels: Alpha, Beta, Preview or GA. Each feature level is described below.

Alpha Feature Level

A feature at Alpha level is a new feature that is introduced on an experimental or trial basis. This kind of feature may or may not be provided on a GA level in the future.

Alpha-level features are disabled by default, and the feature description will explain how to enable the feature. Although tested before release, Alpha-level features may contain undocumented bugs and are used at the customer's risk.

Beta Feature Level

A feature at Beta level is a new feature that is introduced with the intention of eventually becoming a GA-level feature. This kind of feature will probably be provided on a GA level in the future.

Beta-level features are disabled by default, and the feature description will explain how to enable the feature. Although well tested, this kind of feature may still contain undocumented bugs and should not be used for business-critical applications.

Preview Feature Level

A feature at Preview level is provided as an early access functionality for customer feedback. Preview features are subject to separate Supplemental Terms of Use.

GA Feature Level

A feature at GA (General Availability) level is a feature that is thoroughly documented and tested and is considered a stable part of the GigaSpaces system. Unless otherwise stated, a feature is at GA level. The vast majority of features are at GA level.

End-of-Life Policy

GigaSpaces products may reach End of Life for a number of reasons, including product evolution due to market requirements, or replacement by more advanced versions with richer functionality.

GigaSpaces recognizes that end-of-life milestones can have a signification impact on the IT environment of our customers. With this in mind, we have put out a long-term end-of-life policy that is published in advance, to assist customers in managing the transition to a newer version, and to help customers understand how GigaSpaces' Customer Service can help with migrating affected applications.

Extended Support

• Extended Support (beyond the Support Discontinuance Date) enables you to upgrade your systems to the most recent version after the Support Discontinuance Date. Extended Support may be available for a limited period for an extra fee. It includes telephone support and access to a web support portal.
• During the Extended Support period, temporary patches are available but there are no planned service packs.
• Extended Support and maintenance services for GigaSpaces products are provided on the condition that the customer has already paid all the standard support and maintenance service fees owed up to the time Extended Support is required.
• To extend your support beyond a release’s Support Discontinuance Date, contact GigaSpaces' Customer Support.

Upgrade Path and Assistance

• The recommended upgrade path is to the latest GigaSpaces 16.3.0 series of editions.
• Customers on annual subscriptions can also upgrade to the latest release.
• Upgrading to the latest stable version provides access to all of the current bug fixes and improvements, and ensures our ability to properly support you should you encounter any issues. Furthermore, GigaSpaces has made tremendous improvements in scalability, stability, performance, user experience, and functionality in version 16.3.0. Upgrading your application to the latest 16.3.0 version and migrating to our latest best practices will ensure that you leverage the product's technology to its fullest potential, minimizing deployment risks while shortening project cycle times. GigaPro are modular consultancy and professional services designed to ensure smooth and effective deployment of GigaSpaces solutions.

Upon request, GigaSpaces' Consulting Services experts can offer you the GigaPro™ Upgrade Support Package, which includes the following services tailored to your needs:

• Supporting the new version rollout process, tuning, and stability
• Upgrade assessment
• System architecture design
• GigaSpaces delta core training (educational program as part of GigaSpaces University)
• Assisted development services during upgrade – on demand
• Code and system review
• Upgraded production environment setup
• Extended rollout support

Product Release Plan and End-of-Life Retirement Calendar

Product Release1	GA Date	Last Maintenance Service Pack Release	Next Planned Service Pack2	Support Discontinued (End of Life)3	Java Support
17.0	June 2024		No Plans	TBD	17
16.4	October 2023		No Plans	June 2026	8, 11
16.3	May 2023		No Plans	October 2025	8, 11
16.2.1	September 2022		No Plans	May 2025	8, 11
16.2	September 2022		No Plans	May 2025	8, 11
16.1.1	May 2022		No Plans	September 2024	8, 11
16.1	November 2021		No Plans	May 2024	8, 11
16.0	August 2021		No Plans	November 2023	8, 11
15.8	January 2021	15.8.1 in May 2021	No Plans	August 2023	8, 11
15.5	September 2020	15.5.1 in October 2020	No Plans	January 2023	8, 11
15.2	March 2020		No Plans	September 2022	8, 11
15.0	November 2019		No Plans	March 2022	8, 11
14.5	July 2019		No Plans	November 2021	8, 11
14.2 b20400	April 2019		No Plans	July 2021	8, 11
14.0 b20000	November 2018	14.0.1 in December 2018	No Plans	April 2021	8
12.3 b19000	March 2018	12.3.1 b19300 in July 2018	No Plans	November 2020	8
12.2 b18000	September 2017	12.2.1 b18100 in Nov. 2017	No Plans	March 2020	7, 8
12.1 b17100	March 2017	12.1.1 b17100 in June 2017	No Plans	September 2019	7, 8
12.0 b16000	January 2017	12.0.1 b16600 in Sep. 2016	No Plans	March 2019	6, 7, 8
11.0 b14800	April 2016		No Plans	January 2019	6, 7, 8
10.2 b13800	July 2015	10.2.1 b14000 in Nov. 2015	No Plans	April 2018	6, 7, 8
10.1 b12600	March 2015	10.1.1 b12800 in April 2015	No Plans	July 2017	6, 7, 8
10.0	July 2014	10.0.1 b11800 in Aug. 2014	10.0.2	March 2017	6, 7, 8
9.7 b10496	January 2014	9.7.2 b11000 in Feb. 2015	No Plans	July 2016	6, 7, 8
9.6 b9500	July 2013	9.6.2 b9900 in Oct. 2013	No Plans	January 2016	6, 7, 8
9.5 b8500	April 2013	9.5.2 b8900 in Aug. 2013	No Plans	July 2015	6, 7, 8
9.1 b7500	October 2012	9.1.2 b7920 in Feb. 2013	No Plans	April 2015	6, 7, 8
9.0 b6500	May 2012	9.0.2 b6900 in Aug. 2012	No Plans	October 2014	6, 7, 8
8.0 b5000	January 2011	8.0.8 b6380 in March 2013	No Plans	January 2013	6, 7, 8
7.1 b4300	April 2010	7.1.4 b4750 in Feb. 2011	No Plans	April 2012 4	5, 6, 7
7.0 b3500	July 2009	7.0.4 b4100 in July 2010	No Plans	July 2011 4	5, 6, 7
6.6 b2601 (or R6.5)	September 2008	6.6.5 b3320 in June 2009	No Plans	September 2010 4	4, 5, 6, 7
6.0 b1855	August 2007	6.0.5 b2150 in May 2007	No Plans	August 2009	4, 5, 6, 7
5.2 b1708	December 2006	5.2.3 b1780 in June 2007	No Plans	June 2009	4, 5, 6, 7
5.1	September 2006	5.1 b1603	No Plans	September 2008	4, 5, 6, 7
4.x	April 2005	4.1 b1185	No Plans	April 2008	4, 5, 6, 7

1. Product Releases – GigaSpaces R4.x and R5.x refer to all editions including the Enterprise (EE), Caching (EDG) and Community editions. R6.x refers to all editions including the GigaSpaces, Caching (EDG) and Community editions.
2. Planned Maintenance Service Pack Release – Planned dates for release of additional service packs for the specific product version. These dates are provided for planning purposes only, are subject to change at any time and are not to be considered commitments.
3. Release End-of-Life Retirement Date – effective date of the standard support and service discontinuance. Extended Support might be available beyond this date.
4. Extended Support currently available.

Third-Party End-Of-Life Policy

This section describes GigaSpaces' general support policies for Java and Spring Framework. For more information about which versions are supported with the current release of the GigaSpaces Platform, refer to the Release Notes page that discusses the third-party products shipped with GigaSpaces and GigaSpaces.

Java Support

Customers should upgrade to a fully-supported environment, such as the latest version of GigaSpaces or GigaSpaces 16.3.0 and the latest Java 1.8 SDK.

GigaSpaces supports the first Long-Term Support (LTS) Java 11 release from release 14.2, and will support all future LTS Java versions as they are released.

Spring Framework Support

GigaSpaces supports Spring Framework version 5.1.x. Backwards compatibility is based on the Spring policy described on the Spring Framework Versions page for the Spring project.