Thursday, January 26, 2017

Long live Solaris 11! - Until at least 2034 to be exact

By: Gerry Haskins | Director Security and Release Management

In case you haven't heard, the Solaris 11 support dates have been extended by 10 years to 2031 for Premier Support and 2034 for Extended Support. This provides long term protection for customers' investment in Solaris.  See page 34 (page 37 in the PDF) of the Oracle Lifetime Support Policy: Oracle and Sun Systems Software.

This is because Oracle Solaris is moving to a continuous delivery model using more frequent updates to deliver the latest features faster, while fully preserving customer and ISV qualification investment in the vast array of ISV applications available on Oracle Solaris 11 today.

New features and functionality will be delivered in Oracle Solaris 11 through “dot” update releases (11.x), instead of major releases. See https://blogs.oracle.com/solaris/entry/oracle_solaris_moving....

This is consistent with industry trends and addresses customer requirements for a smooth transition path between versions, providing ongoing innovation with assured investment protection.

By moving to a continuous delivery model based on Oracle Solaris 11, customers will have a seamless update experience to better fit their move to agile deployment models.  

I've updated my Overview of Solaris Release Cadence to reflect the changes and I'm in the process of updating the corresponding Doc 2114039.1.

And in case you're wondering, SPARC development also continues apace.  See The Oracle SPARC and Oracle Solaris roadmap.

Personally, I'm taking on an expanded role as the Release Management Director, so my job will be to get the products on the roadmap released on time, with the quality you've come to expect. No pressure so! :)

Best Wishes,

Gerry.

https://blogs.oracle.com/solaris11life/long-live-solaris-11-...