Adopting Continuous Delivery support policy

IBM® Sterling Order Management System Software adopted the Continuous Delivery support lifecycle policy from the Standard support to support our customers for the ongoing product updates, effective from June 2022.

The Continuous Delivery (CD) model matches with how IBM is providing updates to the Sterling Order Management System Software, version 10.0 since its release in the year 2018. Aligning the lifecycle support policy to the Continuous Delivery model provides a more accurate representation of Sterling Order Management System Software product updates and improved clarity for product support.

A new Continuous Delivery version numbering scheme is introduced. The first update to include the numbering is in Q2 2022 which is 10.0.2206.0.

Here,
  • The first two digits remain 10.0.
  • The third digit indicates the major quarterly update including the two-digit year followed by the two-digit month of the end of the quarter.
  • The fourth digit indicates minor updates and increments sequentially from 0 for each major update.
As described in the IBM Continuous Delivery Support Lifecycle Policy, the following applies to Sterling Order Management System Software:
  • Any changes to the third digit (for a major quarterly update) or the fourth digit (for a minor monthly update) represents the next CD update.
  • The CD support or 2+1 policy applies to any major quarterly update, effective from June 2022. The 2+1 policy include a minimum of two years of standard product technical support (defect and non-defect). Upon End of Support (EOS), IBM may offer a one-year support extension, for an additional fee
For traditional on-premise customers only

A new version-less license is included with the Continuous Delivery download in Passport Advantage that removes version numbers from all entitled supporting software. This provides seamless access to the latest supporting software supported by Sterling Order Management System Software.

Note:
  • The Continuous Delivery updates are made available through Fix Central in the same way as fix packs are currently published.
  • IBM remains committed to the world-class product and customer support. The adoption of the Continuous Delivery support lifecycle policy aligns with the support policy to update the process followed by Sterling Order Management System Software since 2018.

Actions to take

  • The traditional on premise customers must download the M0722ML part number for Sterling Order Management System Software V10.0 2022 License Update from Passport Advantage and apply the update to their environments. The license update download package contains 10.0-Sterling-SSFF-2022-License-Update.jar and Sterling_SSFF_License_Installation.txt files. For more information about license installation instructions, see the Sterling_SSFF_License_Installation.txt file.
  • Customers will have a one-year transition period to apply this change. After the transition period, only Continuous Delivery updates will be published to Fix Central and customers must have applied the Continuous Delivery change in order to install the update in their environment after the transition period has ended.
  • Container customers do not need to take any action. These changes will automatically be included in the latest image update.
Note: IBM introduced the Continuous Delivery software support lifecycle in 2016 (read the announcement) and revised in 2021 (read the announcement).