Mainstream Support for Microsoft Commerce Server – Key Date Approaching
With Commerce Server now under active development at Sitecore, we still keep an active eye on historic versions to make sure that all Commerce Server customers worldwide are kept informed on key milestones – and there’s one approaching fast!
As part of Microsoft’s Lifecycle Support Policy, they provide support on legacy versions of products for a finite period of time. It’s generally 5 years from original date of release that a product moves out of Mainstream Support and into Extended Support. Once that happens, customers can no longer contact Microsoft for support. A customer can elect to purchase Extended Support, but there’s only a limited window of opportunity to do so.
On July 8th 2014, both Commerce Server 2009 and 2009 R2 move from Mainstream to Extended Support phase. As these were the last versions released by Microsoft, that means effectively that all Mainstream support for Commerce Server from Microsoft has ended. You can see these dates on Microsoft’s online database of support dates. From that point, only security fixes would be made generally available. Furthermore, no more proactive testing of underlying technology platforms such as Windows, SQL, or .NET Framework will occur – raising the risk that breaking changes can break Commerce Server.
So what are a customer’s options for keeping support? At Sitecore, we have a range of products that can ensure that legacy versions remain supported.
Upgrade to Commerce Server from Sitecore
Sitecore sells a range of Commerce Server versions that can bring a customer under Sitecore support, these range from a functionally identical version of Commerce Server 2009 R2 with no breaking changes from Commerce Server 2007 that has an additional year of support available, through to later versions including the forthcoming release of Commerce Server 11.
Talk to us about Sitecore Commerce
With the forthcoming release of Commerce Server 11, we will be opening up a whole new range of product capabilities with its integration with the Sitecore Experience Platform – maybe now is the time for customers to start thinking about how they can plan to take advantage of some amazing new commerce functionality!
Whichever option a customer takes, it all starts with an initial contact, so please contact us to discuss any or all of these options but as you consider them, remember the clock is ticking to July 8th.