WebCenter release scheme

Question

What is the difference between an Agile release and a Long Term Support (LTS) release?

Why have a difference?

By increasing the number of releases per year, we can bring newly developed functionality quicker to agile environments! Many companies are asking for more frequent upgrades, and are keen to benefit from newly developed capabilities as soon as possible. In this scenario, agile releases are ideal.

Other companies, especially when using validated environments, prefer a much slower upgrade cadence. Increasing the number of releases per year should not impact the long term supportability. For this scenario, we designate at least one release per year where long term support is guaranteed.

Both Agile releases and LTS releases are major releases. They contain both fixes and new functionality. There are no releases that are considered minor or maintenance releases. Check out the release notes and what's new presentations for each release to discover the novelties.

Long term support release (LTS)

Full support is guaranteed for a longer time.

We provide Full Support for the first three years.
- We provide support via the regular channels (telephone, support portal, email and chat).
- In case the software shows anomalies compared to the specifications (issues), we provide a solution.
  - In case of a critical issue, we create a hot fix or provide a workaround.
  - In case of minor issue, a fix may be included in a next release or a workaround may be provided.
The next 2 years we provide Limited Support
- We provide support via our regular channels (telephone, Support Portal, e-mail and chat).
- Existing fixes remain available, no new fixes are created.
After that: no guaranteed support.

Agile release

Limited Support as of the next release.

Until the next release is available we provide Full Support.
- We provide support via the regular channels (telephone, Support Portal, e-mail and chat).
- In case the software shows anomalies compared to the specifications (issues), we provide a solution.
  - In case of a critical issue, we create a hot fix or provide a workaround.
  - In case of minor issue, a fix may be included in a next release or a workaround may be provided.
The next 2 years after the succeeding release we provide Limited Support.
- We provide support via our regular channels (telephone, Support Portal, e-mail and chat).
- Existing fixes remain available, no new fixes are created.
After that: no guaranteed support.

Agile commitment

If you are not prepared to regularly update your environments, installing an agile release might not be the best approach for you. Consider this before planning the upgrade, especially in a regulated environment where an update must be bundled with validation.

Example timeline

Example long term support relaese timeline

Because 21.03 is an agile release, we will only provide a 21.03 hotfix for Bug1. In order to get rid of Bug2, you must upgrade to the latest WebCenter version 21.07. If this release doesn’t contain a fix for this bug, a hotfix will be released for 21.07 as this is the latest version.

Because 21.07 is a LTS release, we will still provide hotfixes even if there are later versions available. We guarantee this kind of support for up to three years.

How do I know which release is Long Term Support?

This is mentioned in the release notes, and will be included in the "What's new" documentation.

Only WebCenter is making this differentiation in 2021. The agile releases are WebCenter 21.03. The LTS release is WebCenter 21.07 & 21.11.

For other products, all releases are considered long term support releases without specifically adding this label.