Announcing Longer Support Timelines for Key Microsoft Dynamics Service Packs
As you may have seen, Microsoft recently announced an update to the service pack policy for Dynamics products. In today's post, I want to provide a brief overview of this announcement and recap the Service Pack Support Policy within the Microsoft Support Lifecycle.
You may recall from a previous posting that when a new service pack is released, Microsoft will provide either 12 or 24 months of support for the previous service pack, varying by product family. This means that when we release a new service pack we will start the end of support clock for the previous service pack. For example, when we release Service Pack 2, support for Service Pack 1 would end either 12 or 24 months later. Until recently, Dynamics products have been providing 12 months of support for the previous service pack when they released a new service pack version.
The recent announcement extends the service pack support policy for Microsoft Dynamics SL, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics AX, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM to 24 months of support for a previous service pack, when a new service pack is released. This update applies to all the service packs that are currently supported (as of June 8, 2009), for the above-listed Microsoft Dynamics products. Additionally, per the new policy, support will also be reactivated for select service packs for which support has expired under the previous 12-month policy, but for which support would have continued under the new 24-month policy. For example, Dynamics AX 4.0 Service Pack 1 was previously schedued to end support on October 14, 2008. Under the revised policy, we have provided an additional 12 months of support (for a total of 24 months). This means that Dynamics AX 4.0 Service Pack 1 now ends on October 13, 2009.
A complete list of the impacted products and their associated dates can be found within the announcement. In addition, the Support Lifecycle dates for each product have also been updated on the Support Lifecycle website. You can see all of the Dynamics products by going to the specific Product Family page for Business Solutions.
This update has no impact on the Mainstream Support and Extended Support dates for these products. Mainstream Support for these products will continue, as per the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy, for five years from the date of general availability of the products, and Extended Support for another five years after the end of Mainstream Support. Both Mainstream Support and Extended Support are available ONLY at the product’s supported service pack level.
I hope this helps clarify the announcement. Please keep the questions and comments coming! We appreciate your feedback and are always looking for ideas for future blog postings.
*This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.*
