Effective Date: December 9, 2024
1. Introduction
This Software End of Life Policy (the “Policy”) outlines the guidelines and timelines for discontinuing sales, support, and maintenance for general availability (“GA”) products and services offered for sale by Perforce Software, Inc., or by one of its subsidiaries or affiliates (collectively referred to herein as “Perforce”). It is essential for Perforce’s customers to understand this Policy in order to effectively plan their migration and support strategies.
2. Purpose
Perforce GA products and services reach the end of their life cycle for several reasons, including market demands, technology innovation, and development-driven changes, or product maturity and replacement with functionally richer technology. Perforce recognizes that when it intends to end of life one of its GA products or services, its customers will need advance notice in order to properly assess and plan for the impact to their use of the Perforce products or services in their environments. With that in mind, this document defines Perforce’s End of Life (“EOL”) procedures, milestones, timelines, and Perforce migration services that are available to help manage the product or service’s transition from GA to EOL.
3. Definitions
- General Availability (“GA”) means the release of a Perforce product or service to the general public. When a product version reaches GA, it becomes available through Perforce’s general sales channels.
- End of Maintenance (“EOM”) means the date when Perforce will no longer offer maintenance bug fixes or security updates for a specific product version or service.
- End of Maintenance and Support (“EOMS”) means the date when Perforce will no longer offer maintenance bug fixes or security updates and technical support will be limited for a specific product version or service.
- End of Sale (“EOS”) means the date when Perforce and Perforce Partners will no longer sell new licenses, new subscriptions, new support and maintenance services, renewals of support and maintenance services, or renewals of subscriptions for a specific product version or service.
- End of Life (“EOL”) means the period in a software product or service’s life cycle where the product or service is being discontinued by Perforce. The EOL period is inclusive of the EOS, EOM, and the EOMS milestones and includes specific timelines for the activities involved with ending the life of the product version or service.
4. EOM, EOMS, EOS, and EOL Timelines
The EOM, EOMS, EOS and EOL dates for Perforce’s products and services will be maintained and updated on Perforce’s Customer Support Portal. Perforce is committed to keeping this data up to date. Perforce suggests a best practice for its customers to periodically check the timelines for the version of the products and services they are running to ensure that they have time to plan for their product or service’s upgrade, update, or migration process.
5. Support Phases
Perforce’s EOL and EOMS support and maintenance services consists of the following phases:
5.1. Active Support Phase
During the Active Support Phase, the GA product or service is fully supported, and customers with active entitlements will continue to receive regular updates, security updates, bug fixes, and technical assistance.
5.2 Extended Maintenance Phase
After the Active Support Phase ends, for an additional fee, Perforce may offer extended maintenance services for an additional fixed duration. The Extended Maintenance Phase extends the EOM date for the product or service. During the Extended Maintenance Phase, customers with active entitlements will receive critical bug fixes, security updates, and technical support, but new features and non-essential updates will no longer be available. The Extended Maintenance Phase may also incorporate migration assistance to help customers migrate to supported alternatives or versions of the GA product or service.
5.3. Extended Support Phase
After the Active Support Phase ends, for an additional fee, Perforce may offer extended support services for an additional fixed duration. During the Extended Support phase, customers with active entitlements will receive standard technical support. The Extended Support Phase may also incorporate migration assistance to help customers migrate to supported alternatives or versions of the GA product or service.
5.4. Post EOMS and EOL Phase
After the EOMS and EOL dates, the product or service will no longer receive any updates or enhancements, and technical support assistance for such product or service will be limited.
6. Migration Assistance
Perforce’s customers are encouraged to migrate to a supported alternative or version of the GA product or service. Perforce is committed to assisting customers with a smooth transition during the EOM, EOMS, and EOL process, and, depending upon the offering, Perforce may provide migration guides, resources, and technical support to facilitate the transition to newer products or services.
7. Distribution/Royalty Licenses
During any of the Perforce Support Phases, including post EOM, EOMS, and EOL phases, customers who utilize or distribute a Perforce product within their product or service are required to continue to adhere to the distribution / royalty license restrictions and obligations as are outlined and prescribed within the relevant software license agreement, any distribution or deployment addendum, or such other customized agreement entered between Perforce and the customer.
8. Perforce Partners
Partners selling and supporting Perforce’s products and services are required to adhere to this Policy and defined EOL dates. Perforce’s partners cannot provide any support services that extend longer than what is defined by Perforce.
9. Exceptions
In certain cases, exceptions to this Policy or Distribution/Royalty Licenses may be made based on individual agreements with specific customers. Such exceptions will be outlined in separate written contractual agreements.
10. Contact Information
For any inquiries or concerns regarding this Policy, please contact our customer support team through the Customer Support Portal.
11. Revision and Updates
This Policy is subject to periodic review and updates. Customers will be notified of any changes to this Policy through Perforce’s official communication channels.