Release qualifiers
Before general availability, the private preview and public preview features are shipped early to collect user feedback.
These qualifiers represent different stages of maturity of a feature function across the following axes:
- Software stability: likelihood for the software to break other software as well as itself
- User-experience stability: how you interact with it, whether the data that you collect and process with it remains available and process-able in the future.
- Scope completeness: whether the scope is complete or not
- Support offering: whether support is offered
Find the criteria of the qualifiers in the following table:
| Criteria | Private preview | Public preview | General availability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Is it scope-complete? | No | Often not with the first release | Yes |
| What can break for the user? | Literally everything. It will likely break things in terms of functions, installation and configuration, and data retention (data that is collected with earlier versions might be lost). It might even be dropped later. | Ideally nothing. It might change, but does not break. | Ideally nothing. But it might be iterated and some GA functions might be retired |
| Eligibility | You can request to be added to use the private preview feature | You can try public preview functions without invitation | Available for everyone |
| Scalability | No | No | Yes |
| Does IBM offer support for it? | No | Yes | Yes |
Private preview
Private preview is a demonstration of a feature that is early in development but is not complete and therefore is not yet supported. As licensee of Instana, you can use these components and features only as part of your internal development and test environment for internal nonproduction use. Components and features that are available for nonproduction use are not to be relied on in a production environment.
The implementation for a private preview feature might never be completed, or it might be in private preview for a long time. A list of gaps might exist and need to be closed before the functions can move to public preview.
Public preview
IBM makes a public preview feature available for evaluation and testing purposes. Public preview software is further than private preview in the development process, but either it does not yet meet general availability criteria, or it is still under iteration and improvement of noncritical features. If it is replacing existing functions, the old functions might no longer be accessible. It might still have problems with quality and stability, but importantly, it is safe for production.
General availability
General availability means that a feature is widely available for sale and delivery to customers or channels, usually across multiple geographies. It's stable, well-documented, and live for everyone.