The Sun system life cycle

by Sandra Henry-Stocker

May 8, 2008 —

If you have ever tried to contract for hardware support for an older Sun system, you are undoubtedly aware of the fact that Sun systems eventually reach an "end of life" stage. This is the equivalent of a retirement age for computers, the date at which Sun informs customers that support for those systems is coming to an end. While the systems may still be performing extremely well, Sun maintenance will have been assigned a predictable end date.

Of course, it isn't just Sun systems that follow a process that starts with a product's announcement and moves through to its end of life announcement. Every manufacturer eventually declares an end of support for its older products. The cost of doing otherwise would be prohibitive and the impact on the production of newer systems would hardly be justified.

You might not be aware that several other life cycle "events" add to the overall life cycle of Sun systems and help to determine when they can be ordered and shipped as well as when they eventually become ineligible for Sun support.

The first event that most of us see when it comes to Sun systems is the product announcement or "introduction". This is something like a birth announcement. As with the Enterprise T5140 and T5240 servers announced just last month, each product that is introduced is accompanied by a flurry of press releases, touting the features and speed improvements of the various systems.

Other life events for Sun systems include the End of Life (EOL), the Last Order Date (LOD), the Last Ship Date (LSD) and the End of Service Life (EOSL). Last month's announcement of the Enterprise T5140 and T5240 servers wasn't the only "life event" announcement. We also saw Sun's announcement of the End of Life of the Sun Fire V125, V215, V245 and V445 servers with a Last Ship Date of July 11th.

Some organizations, especially those that purchase a lot of Sun equipment, may be privvy to one additional product life cycle event -- non-disclosure (i.e., you can't tell anyone) announcements that occur sometime before products are introduced to the public. These allow these customers to hold off on a purchase when newer systems are just around the corner. In some of my previous professional incarnations, non-disclosures were fairly routine.

Once products are announced, they can be sold and shipped. For most Sun systems, a few years will go by in which the product is generally available. The useful product life for Sun systems includes the time period in which it can be purchased plus the time in which it will be serviced. After that point, the systems may still meet your needs for many years, but you will be at a greater risk for failure if you don't maintain adequate spares. The usability extends, therefore, well beyond the End of Service announcement.

End of Life (EOL) means that the particular system model will no longer be licensed or sold. However, there is still a limited time in which systems can be ordered -- likely at a discounted price. This period may only last 30 or 60 days. There is also a period in which hardware support is still available.

The Last Order Date (LOD) is the last day the particular model can be ordered. There will, however, be another 30 or 60 days in which ordered products can still be shipped.

The Last Ship Date (LSD) is the last day that Sun will ship out orders placed before the LOD.

The End of Service Life (EOSL) occurs five years after the last ship date for the particular model. Before this date, you can still get service on it. This means that, even if you purchase a system as late as its Last Order Date, you can expect to get at least five years of service from it. That's a long time in computer years!

Sun software is also subject to End of Life and End of Service Life events. In fact, for software, there are separate "full support" and "limited support" phases, the latter of which omits bug fixes and patches.

Sun's End of Life policy is available here.

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