End of Life Plan

End-of-life (EOL) refers to the point when a product will no longer be available for purchase or supported by its manufacturer. This date signifies the end of the product’s lifecycle, impacting both its availability and support.

At SKUDONET, we differentiate between hardware and software EOL:

• EOL for Hardware: this is related to the period that we can ensure 100% that if some part of the hardware fails we will restore it. In case the piece of hardware fails once it reaches the EOL if we can’t fix or change the failed piece of hardware we will offer the substitution of the entire appliance by one with similar conditions. Each hardware model has at least a period of Life of 5 years. In case the project requires to extension EOL SKUDONET will quote the extension under the customer’s project requirements.
• EOL for Software: this is related to the period that we can ensure 100% that if SKUDONET development team will maintain the SKUDONET Operating System software developing new features, solving bugs and fixing CVEs.

SKUDONET extend an additional year (Long support) for this period Hardware/Software EOL, during this year, the customer should migrate to the new versions as the SKUDONET. Dev team will not ensure hardware piece substitution without any additional extension warranty contract. Related to EOL software, once Long support arrives, CVEs resolution or major issues in the Kernel are not done, only bug fixes in the SKUDONET Load Balancing and cyber security software.

The following rules below help customers better understand the cycle and help them move on with new SKUDONET products:

1. SKUDONET offers support services for each SKUDONET product which has a life cycle of 5 years.
2. SKUDONET appliance models are Linux-based and are released with a frozen Kernel (LTS), this kernel will not be modified throughout the life cycle, at least some major issues like bugs are found.
3. SKUDONET will provide improvements, bug fixes, patches, and system updates, along with the product’s life cycle.
4. SKUDONET offers an additional year (Long support) for Enterprise Products, starting from the expiry date, for the appliances where End-of-life has been reached to help customers migrate to the new SKUDONET products.
5. After that additional year given to expired appliances, the SKUDONET Team will stop offering system updates and we can’t guarantee that all bugfixes are going to be solved.
6. Despite SKUDONET license appliances being perpetual, the related support has a deadline set on the table underneath, SKUDONET no longer must support an expired appliance once the End-of-life support has been reached. That said, the SKUDONET support team recommends updating SKUDONET Appliances once the End-of-Life has been reached and will notify via email to the contacts provided.

Refer to the table below for specific details about product versions, EOL dates, long support periods, and recommended migrations.

Hardware reaching EOL means that we can’t ensure 100% the substitution of some hardware piece, for that reason SKUDONET offers the possibility of migrating to a new Appliance model in case the previous Hardware fails.

Take into account that our hardware models are built under high-quality processes and are industrial-grade devices designed for long life. This means the durability of the hardware can reach up to 10 years. However, the hardware market evolves rapidly, and in some SKUDONET experiences, we have encountered difficulties replacing certain components that are no longer manufactured, such as memory or Intel CPUs. If the customer requires more than 6 years of support, we offer the option to extend the warranty period. With this extended warranty, we keep spare hardware in our storage, allowing us to manage any necessary replacements without additional charges if the customer’s hardware fails.