From June 2013 we are changing our product lifecycle policy for Endpoint products; existing customers will see an additional “Preview” product tag appear in their Windows 2000 and above subscriptions. This new product tag will be called “Preview” and will contain early releases of software that will be rolled out in the 10.2 product shortly. When Sophos Enterprise Console version 5.2.1 becomes available in June 2013 new customers will see a different set of subscription packages. For more information about the product versions and tags see the following KBA: http://www.sophos.com/en-us/support/knowledgebase/119216.aspx
The product lifecycle policy detailed below will end with version 10.0.x at its retirement (see http://www.sophos.com/en-us/support/knowledgebase/119147.aspx for details of product retirement dates). At this time all customers will be moved over to new updating sources that will contain products as described in this KBA: http://www.sophos.com/en-us/support/knowledgebase/119216.aspx.
When Sophos releases a new major endpoint version for Windows (for example Endpoint Security and Control 10.0.x), that version will be available for 36 months from the date of launch. This period is made up of 3 separate elements:
1 – Active maintenance: this means that Sophos will actively investigate and address issues found in the field where it is appropriate to address them in a maintenance release. Maintenance releases are minor releases and do not normally contain additional features, but may require a reboot.
This period will normally be up to 9 months after release but may be less.
2 – Extended Maintenance: after the active maintenance period has ended Sophos will continue to test and release new versions of the Virus Engine and Virus Data Library on a monthly basis. Only critical product issues will be addressed during this stage, these can include vulnerabilities or improvements to protection.
This period will be from the end of active maintenance until stage 3, which will normally be from month 9 to month 33.
3 – Security updates only: during the last 3 months of the product version’s lifetime we will issue no further engine or data updates, IDEs will continue to be released providing a “ramp down” period until the product is no longer updated. This period will be the final 3 months of availability of the product, from month 33 to month 36.
IMPORTANT: When a version reaches the 'Security Updates' phase there will not be a forced migration, we will simply stop updating the product; you must select a later version in order to for your protection to stay up to date.
New versions of the management software released at the same time as the endpoint software will retire at the same time as the endpoint software, management software does not routinely receive maintenance releases, however, Sophos will issue maintenance releases of the management software should it become necessary.
NOTE: The endpoint upgrades are automated and do NOT require you to upgrade your console immediately. New functionality is normally disabled by default, so the endpoint product will behave after upgrade as it did before.
To take advantage of new functionality you will need to upgrade to the latest console. As soon as you do this you will be able to start using the new features.
| Endpoint security and control v 9.5 |
| Date: | July 2010 ............... March 2011 | April 2011 ............... June 2013 | July 2013 ................ September 2013 |
| Stage: | Active Maintenance | Extended Maintenance | Security updates (IDE) only |
| Enterprise console v 4.5 |
| Date: | June 2010 ............................................................................................................... September 2013 |
| Stage | Extended maintenance |
| Endpoint security and control v 9.7 |
| Date: | April 2011 ............... September 2011 | October 2011 ............... January 2014 | February 2014 ................ April 2014 |
| Stage: | Active Maintenance | Extended Maintenance (9.7.6) | Security updates (IDE) only |
| Enterprise console v 4.7 |
| Date: | April 2011 .......................................................................................................April 2014 |
| Stage: | Extended maintenance |
| Endpoint security and control v 10.0.x |
| Date: | December 2011 ............... TBC | TBC ............... TBC | TBC ................ Q4 2014 |
| Stage: | Active Maintenance | Extended Maintenance | Security updates (IDE) only |
| Enterprise console v 5 |
| Date: | December 2011......................................................................................................... Q4 2014 |
| Stage: | Extended maintenance |
Notes on product versions
Sophos uses a convention of major. minor. maintenance for versioning, for example, 10.0.0 was the first release of the version 10 product and would be considered a major upgrade if you were running version 9.x.x at the time of the upgrade.
Examples of major, minor, maintenance updates using the example of some previous versions as follows:
Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows:
Version 9.7 to version 10.x – major upgrade delivering new v10 features including patch assessment, web control and full disk encryption.
V10.0.x to v10.2.x – minor update that included support for Windows 8 but did not need a console upgrade and was not deployed to endpoints automatically.
Version 10.2.4 to v10.2.5 – monthly maintenance update containing new engine and data. Maintenance releases do not contain new features. In the event of there being no maintenance changes in the product we will not increment the version number but it will be made available with new protection data. In this case, the version in use is identified by quoting the Sophos Anti-Virus version along with the Detection Data version, which can be found in the product information on the endpoint computer or in the console, for example, 10.2.7 4.85G.