Lifecycle Policy

I. General

This Stratus software product lifecycle policy (“Software Lifecycle Policy” or “Policy”) is designed to help our partners and end users (“customers”) effectively plan, deploy, and support Stratus software products and to better manage the ongoing use, the levels of support and the end-of-life transitions of critical systems running Stratus software products. In addition, our customers can use this Policy to help understand how Stratus can best assist them throughout the support lifecycle of our software products, including the planning and preparation required when migrating between old and new platforms, software and services.

Stratus provides support and maintenance over stated time periods for releases of our software products. The lifecycle associated with a Stratus software product identifies the various levels (“Phases”) of support for each release of that product over a period of time from the date of initial release—or general availability (GA)—to the end of the Limited Support phase.

Lifecycle periods
In general, as stated in this Policy, Stratus provides Full Support for a period of 4 years from the GA date of each Release of a Stratus software product. For certain Stratus products (as described below), an optional add-on Extended Limited Support service level may be purchased to extend the lifecycle.

Compatibility
Stratus’s goal is to maintain compatibility across the full lifecycle of a software product family. Maintenance and Minor Releases are tested and qualified against prior releases for a given product family. Stratus will use commercially reasonable efforts to provide compatibility with the initial Major Release (e.g., 5.0). Where incompatibilities arise, these will be documented in the release notes or may be reported as bugs.

Change Management
Stratus works to reduce the level of change within each Major Release over time, thus increasing predictability and decreasing maintenance costs. Released patches and Minor Releases will remain accessible to those customers with active software support agreements for the entire support lifecycle of a product family. Stratus publishes and updates product lifecycle matrices in an effort to provide as much transparency as possible but may make exceptions from these Policies if unforeseeable conflicts arise (such as the end-of-life (EOL) of a dependent component or platform) that are outside of Stratus’s control. A copy of this Policy and the then current software product lifecycle matrices (Software Support Matrices) can be found on the Stratus website at:

Software Product Lifecycle Matrices (Americas, EMEA, APAC)
Software Product Lifecycle Matrices (Japan)

Releases
Generally, each Major Release of a Stratus software product is maintained and supported through its Full Support period. Minor Releases will aggregate the contents of prior patches and may add additional new functionality.

Patch Management
Patch Updates to Stratus software products, if and when available, are delivered via software download. Patches can be released individually on an as-needed basis, or included in a Maintenance Release (e.g., release 5.0.1, 5.0.2).

Feature Enhancements
Feature enhancements are generally introduced in Major and Minor Releases. Subsequent patches will be based on and require the installation of Minor updates that precede them. During the entire lifecycle, Stratus makes commercially reasonable efforts to maintain compatibility across all Minor Releases and asynchronous patches.

II. Stratus Software Product Lifecycle Phases

The support lifecycle for a Major and Minor Release of Stratus software products is divided into three phases: Full Support, Limited Support and Extended Limited Support.

Phase 1: Full Support
Start Date: The Full Support phase begins on the GA date of a Major or Minor release and continues for a period of 4 years thereafter.

Customers who subscribe to and maintain an active Service Agreement are entitled to the following during the Full Support period: performing root cause analysis and the recommendation of a workaround, upgrade or hot fix to address an issue. You also benefit from:

• Full technical support with up to 24 x 7 x 365 day service levels
• Access to Customer Portal and self-help resources
• Access to all patches and consolidated service packs
• Security alerts and critical patch updates.

Phase 2: Limited Support
Start Date: At the end of the Full Support period of a release, the Limited Support begins and is continued for the period set forth in the then current Software Support Matrices.

Customers who subscribe to and maintain an active Service Agreement are entitled to the following during the Limited Support period:  root cause analysis, on a reasonable basis,  for critical and serious issues only. During the Limited Support phase, there will be no hot fixes. If available, Users may be required to upgrade to obtain hot fixes.

Limited Support is provided for customers with Full Support who continue to use a Software product past its Full Support phase. Products will enter the Limited Support phase at the end of the Full Support period and will remain in the Limited Support phase for a period of up to three (3) additional years as set forth in the then current Stratus Software Product Lifecycle Policy Matrices. During the Limited Support phase, you benefit from:

• Technical support with up to 24×7, 365 day service levels
• Access to Customer Portal and self-help resources
• Access to all existing patches, workarounds, and consolidated service packs
• Access to all existing security alerts and updates.

Phase 3: Extended Limited Support (optional)
Start Date: Stratus offers Extended Limited Support as an optional offering. Extended Limited provides your organization the valuable extra time you may need to plan your migration to Stratus’ latest software. Contact Stratus for more information.

Extended Limited Support includes reasonable  effort root cause analysis  for critical and serious issues only. During the Extended Limited period, there will be no hot fixes. If available, Users will be required to upgrade to obtain hot fixes. Extended Limited period will be offered at a premium, in yearly increments and reviewed annually. Stratus may cease to offer extensions to  Extended Limited Support at any time.

Product Lifecycle Phases

* in some cases, an upgrade to a newer version may be required.

III. Definition of Terms

• General Availability (GA) date: The date on which Stratus announces a software product or service is made generally available for purchase.
• End-of-Support-Life (EOSL) date: The date on which Stratus announces a software product or service is no longer generally supported by Stratus.
• Reinstatement Fee: A Support Reinstatement Fee is a charge that applies to any customer who chooses to re-activate a lapsed Stratus support contract The fee is added to the cost of the Stratus Support Contract. The reinstatement fee ensures that all customers share equally in the cost of continual improvements to all Stratus software products.
• Major release (aka Upgrade Release): “Major Release” also known as an “Upgrade” means a generally available release of the Software that contains functional enhancements or extensions, designated by Stratus by means of a change in the digit to the left of the first decimal point (e.g. Software 5.0).
• Minor Release: “, designated by Stratus by means of a change in the digit to the right of the first decimal point.  For example Software 5.0 (i.e. Major Release) changes to Software 5.1 (i.e. Minor Release).
• Maintenance Release (aka Update Release): “Maintenance Release” or “Update” means a generally available release of the Software that typically provides maintenance corrections or fixes only, designated by Stratus by means of a change in the digit to the right of the second decimal point. For example Software 5.0 (i.e. Major Release) becomes Software 5.0.1 (Maintenance Release).

IV. Release Numbering Convention Summary

• Major Release = Software 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0
• Minor Release = Software 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3
• Maintenance Release = Software 5.0.1, 5.0.2 and 5.0.3

The information contained herein is believed to be accurate as of the date of publication, but updates and revisions may be posted periodically and without notice. STRATUS DOES NOT PROVIDE ANY WARRANTIES COVERING THIS INFORMATION AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, AND SPECIAL DAMAGES, IN CONNECTION WITH THE INFORMATION PRESENTED HERE.