Shannon's JD Edwards CNC Blog: More information about continuous delivery

It comes in a number of permutations and combinations, continuous innovation, continuous change, constant innovation… it all means one thing to JD Edwards, Continuous Delivery.

I’ve been trying to track down the official content relating to this announcement from oracle, and I’ve come up trumps with the following MOS (https://support.oracle.com) article. Important Change to Oracle's Lifetime Support - Extending Premier Support for JD Edwards Latest Releases (Doc ID 2251064.1)

This contains 3 things that you need to read:

1. An FAQ on the announcement. You need to read this. I’m not taking any credit for this, just list out what is in the announcement PDF. I would urge you to go to the source documents too, as they might change.

Q: What are we announcing?
A: We are extending the Premier Support period for the latest releases of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and World. We will review annually the support time line and extend Premier Support based on market conditions, customer activity, and release activity against that code line.
Q: What are the new support dates?
A: For JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.2: Premier Support is effective through October 2025 and Extended Support through October 2028. For JD Edwards World A94: Premier Support is effective through April 2022 and Extended Support through April 2025. Oracle Lifetime Support Policy for Oracle Applications
Q: Why are you making this change now?
A: In conversation with customers, we became aware of situations where they were delaying the decision to upgrade to the EnterpriseOne 9.2 release because it would result in a relatively short Premier Support window (The previous Premier Support end date for EnterpriseOne 9.2 was October 2020). In addition, customers are interested in a solution that provides a solid upgrade ROI; a release with a significantly longer Premier Support horizon than 2020 delivers that ROI. Oracle wants to reassure our JD Edwards customers that they can continue to run the current release of JD Edwards applications with ongoing support and enhancements through at least April 2025 for World Release A9.4 and through at least October 2028 for Release 9.2.
Q: What if I’m a customer who has already upgraded to 9.2?
A: Our discussions with existing EnterpriseOne 9.2 customers show that they have increased confidence because they now have an expanded support window for 9.2 and will be able to adopt new capabilities via easier-to-adopt updates.
Q: Does this mean you will no longer deliver enhancements for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne?
A: Absolutely not. We have a very active product roadmap and will continue delivering enhancements regularly, along with maintenance, legislative, and technology improvements. Given the changing market needs and consistent feedback from our customers that they need enhancements sooner and in easier-to-consume models, we will be delivering these as feature packs and updates on the EnterpriseOne 9.2 code line. We are referring to this approach as Continuous Delivery. This should be nothing new to our existing customers who are on the EnterpriseOne 9.2 release. We have delivered five releases (in the form of feature packs and/or updates) for the 9.2 code line since the general availability of EnterpriseOne 9.2 in October 2015. See JD Edwards Product Roadmap
Q: How about JD Edwards World?
A: JD Edwards World Release A9.4 will follow a similar model. Any new enhancements, legislative/regulatory updates, and technology improvements will be delivered on the A9.4 code line.
Q: Will you deliver another major release?
A: Yes, that is in our plan and roadmap. We are not communicating a specific year for that next major release at this time and will be focusing on delivering new release enhancements along with maintenance on the 9.2 code line. The move to a Continuous Delivery model is driven by the needs of our customers and the existing market conditions. We will continue to monitor a number of factors to make the best decision for our customers. For example, a very large functional or technology change that cannot be delivered effectively as an update or feature would lead us to consider a new code line split and a major release.
Q: How have customers responded to this change?
A: Very positively! This change has given them even more choice and control. They like the added flexibility this gives them in terms of when to adopt new (update) releases, the expanded support window, and a simpler approach to maintaining their JD Edwards environments. Customers also like not having to budget or plan for a major upgrade. They can choose and control when to add new functionality, and it is easier, less disruptive, and faster to implement and adopt.
Q: What are the key advantages for customers?
A: Continuous Delivery gives our customers a tool to better align IT and the line of business organizations they support by scheduling the adoption of updates based on how they best serves the business rather than on an end-of-support date.
Q: Will Oracle end support for EnterpriseOne in 2028 and for World in 2025?
A: No. We will evaluate the support dates annually and determine when it makes sense to extend the Premier and Extended Support time horizons. Other Oracle Application lines follow a similar model. To be clear, this is the longest support timeline published by any ERP vendor.
Q: How often do you plan to deliver new feature and function packs?
A: We plan to deliver new updates or feature packs two to three times per year for EnterpriseOne 9.2, and as needed for World A9.4.
Q: Do you still plan to deliver the next major release of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne (e.g., 9.3) in 2018 (approximately 3 years after the GA of 9.2)?
A: No. Because we have significantly enhanced our software delivery tooling and processes, we are no longer bound to delivering enhancements in major releases. We have already been delivering enhancements as updates to the existing EnterpriseOne 9.2 release: This approach allows our customers to take up enhancements when they meet specific business needs without the cost and disruption of a major upgrade. We plan to continue following the model of delivering updates on the 9.2 code line; our customers are also moving towards this model as a standard method for adopting new technology and feature/functions. However, as stated above, we will continue to monitor the need to deliver a major release.
Q: Why is the support timeline for World A9.4 shorter than EnterpriseOne 9.2?
A: This decision was driven by the needs of our customers and the current market conditions. Based on discussions with our World customers, most of them are considering migration to the EnterpriseOne product suite with a possible mix of additional Oracle products. Given the large footprints of several of our World customers, they need a longer time window to plan and execute this transformation. We will continue to monitor this migration and will make revisions based upon the needs of our customers.
Q: Can customers simply upgrade to EnterpriseOne 9.2 and forget about it for the next 5 - 8 years because it will be covered by Premier Support until at least 2025?
A: As a best practice, we recommend that customers maintain their environment and stay current on the 9.2 code line by taking regular updates. Using this methodology will make software updates routine and predictable, if or when customers need a new enhancement to support their line of business or need a technology uplift, for example to support a new browser or database version. However, customers still have the choice and control over how frequently and when they get code-current based on their business needs and cycles. The Continuous Delivery model will require a shift in how customers maintain their JD Edwards environments, and we have a variety of purpose-fit tools that allow customers to evaluate and adopt these updates. See the Analyze Your Installation Before Upgrading section on the EnterpriseOne Upgrade Resouces page on LearnJDE.
Q: What is Continuous Delivery?
A: Continuous Delivery (CD) is a software engineering approach in which teams produce software in short cycles, ensuring that the software can be reliably released at any time. It aims at building, testing, and releasing software faster and more frequently. The approach helps reduce the cost, time, and risk of delivering changes by allowing for more incremental updates to applications in production.
Q: Why is Continuous Delivery the right approach for JD Edwards customers?
A: Customer expectations have changed in terms of how they consume new versions of software. These expectations are based upon their experience with cloud-based applications and consumer devices such as smartphones. With Continuous Delivery, customers get timely JD Edwards product innovations to respond to their business needs, without the cost and potential disruption of a major upgrade. Customers no longer want to wait several years to get a new set of features. Our customers’ business world is changing so rapidly that they cannot afford to wait multiple years to receive updates to their enterprise software. These incremental updates are easier to consume, enabling customers to shorten time-to-value cycles.