• Sonic ESB
• Sonic Workbench
• Sonic BPEL Server
• Sonic Database Service
• Sonic Deployment Manager (SDM)
• Sonic XML Server
• SonicMQ
• SonicMQ Clients
• Sonic Event Monitor
• Sonic JCA Adapters
• SonicMQ Bridges
• Sonic Orchestration Server
• Sonic Collaboration Server
• SonicXQ
• Sonic eXtensible Information Server

Introduction

The following product information is designed to communicate the Product Life Cycle plans, product development, and technical support resources that will be available during a Sonic product's life span. This document outlines the different product stages from first commercial shipment (FCS) through the eventual retirement of the product.

Life Cycle Phases and Definitions for Sonic Products

The table below describes the product development efforts, technical support services, and sales ordering policies during the four phases of a Sonic product's life cycle.

* No physical inventory will be kept for Mature products, though updates to existing licenses would be allowed under certain circumstances.

  ** Retired products are supported for the first three years of the retirement phase under a Retired Product Support offering.

Active Phase

Sonic products in the Active Phase will receive new features and enhancements to current features. Maintenance releases will be created against products in the Active Phase to address known issues. There will be an ongoing patch process that will make sure that critical or customer-impacting bugs are addressed. Full technical support services are available for Active products. The current Active product will be the default shipping version and should be the version that is sold to new and existing customers.

Functionally Stable Phase

No new features or significant enhancements will be made to products in the Functionally Stable Phase. Critical bugs that significantly impact continued customer deployment would be considered for patching during this phase. Full technical support is available for Functionally Stable products. Sonic versions that are Functionally Stable will not be sold to new customers. Existing customers can continue to purchase additional licenses.

Mature Phase

During the Mature Phase there will be no new features or enhancements added to Sonic products. Mature products will not be patched. Although Technical Support will continue to provide a minimal level of support for Mature products, they will encourage customers to upgrade to the current Active release. Mature products will not be orderable by any customer and no inventory will be kept on the shelf. However, updates to existing licenses would be allowed in some circumstances.

Retired Phase

Once a Sonic product enters the Retired Phase it will not be enhanced or orderable. It will be supported for a period of three years under a Retired Product Support offering. After this three year period, the product will no longer be supported.

Versioning Scheme for Sonic Products

A Major Release of software occurs when there is significant change in the overall features and functionality of the product.

A Minor Release contains various minor enhancements to the features and functionality of the product.

A Maintenance release could include both the commercialization of customer patches, certification of new platforms, as well as additional internal fixes. These releases will not include new features.

The graphic below shows the versioning scheme used for Sonic products:

The last component will signify the build and/or patch level of the product. All builds (with the exception of patches) will be cumulative, meaning that all fixes from previous versions will be included in the current version.

Only the major version number will be visible on the product packaging; major and minor version numbers will be visible on the broker screen. For SonicMQ Bridges the major, minor and build version numbers are visible on the bridge server console.

Lifecycle Phase Policy for Sonic Products

The current life cycle phase of Sonic products will change whenever a Major or Minor version is released. The new release will become the Active release. Sonic customers are encouraged to move to the current Active release as quickly as possible in order to obtain the maximum level of support available.

When a new Major or Minor version is released the previous Active release will move into the Functionally Stable phase. The previous Functionally Stable release will become Mature. Finally, the previous Mature release will be Retired. This is typical, but there may be product versions which, due to a rapid release cycle, will remain in a particular phase for a longer period of time.

The tables below outline the current phases of all versions of Sonic products.