"Traditionally, Halloween, or All Hallows' Eve, was a time to remember the dead. And as the nights grow longer and the end of October approaches, there are plenty of reminders of the festival, from shop window displays to pumpkin-flavoured coffees. Should we, though, also spare a moment to reflect on software that has reached the end of its life? Both enterprise software and personal applications have a lifecycle, set by the vendor's support and maintenance."
"Once an application or operating system goes out of support, it will continue to run. But there will be no further feature updates and vitally, often no security patches. And organisations running end of life packages might no longer have access to the vendor's support. Some software's end of life, or end of support, dates are trailed a long way in advance."
"Operating system support, whether it is Windows, Mac OS, Android or iOS are also known in advance, with a guaranteed minimum support period for both updates and security patches. Other applications, though, are more likely to fade away. Not all vendors actively publicise their products' end of life dates or arrangements. Some smaller applications or even components might simply no longer receive developer attention."
Software has a defined lifecycle determined by vendor support and maintenance schedules. End of support means continued operation without feature updates and often without security patches, increasing exposure to vulnerabilities. Vendors usually publish end-of-life plans in advance, but timings vary and some products are quietly abandoned. Operating system support typically includes a guaranteed minimum period for updates and security fixes, while smaller commercial applications and open source components can be inconsistently maintained. Microsoft offered paid Extended Security Updates for Windows, but Windows 10 reached its formal end of life in mid October. Organisations running unsupported packages may lose vendor assistance and face higher security risk.
Read at IT Pro
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]