IBM International Program License Agreement Software Support Lifecycle Policy is enhanced to support
your middleware software solutions
IBM United States
Software Announcement 208-035
February 19, 2008
 ENUS208035.PDF (13KB)
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IBM delivers an enhanced, extended technical support life-cycle policy across the Information
Management, IBM Lotus®, IBM Rational®, IBM Tivoli®, and WebSphere® portfolios. Through
major enhancements to the IBM Support Lifecycle Policy, IBM maximizes your investments in middleware
software solutions to run your businesses.
You can realize the full value of your IBM middleware software products, maximize your software
support investment, and control your upgrade strategy. Flexible, predictable, and simple, this
enhanced policy helps sustain your On Demand Business success.
The IBM International Program License Agreement (IPLA) Product Support Lifecycle Policy delivers
consistent and predictable support availability. At our regular software maintenance charge for the
product, IBM will deliver standard product technical support available for at least five years,
starting at the planned availability of a product.
IBM will also offer an optional fee-based support extension for up to three additional years.
Broadly referred to as a "5 plus 3" policy, this is a significant improvement from our current
policy of three years plus a two-year optional fee-based support extension. By maintaining software
maintenance on your IBM software, you receive the maximum value of your software products and can
take full advantage of technology upgrades and enhancements based on your business schedule and
requirements.
This enhanced life-cycle support model is effective immediately for more than 400 currently
available IPLA middleware products within the Information Management, IBM Lotus, IBM Rational, IBM
Tivoli, and WebSphere portfolios. IBM will continue to transition products to this enhanced policy
as new versions and releases are announced.
For a detailed list of all products that will be on the new "5 plus 3" policy, visit
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February 19, 2008
For ordering, contact:
Your IBM representative, an IBM Business Partner, or IBM Americas
Call Centers at
800-IBM-CALL
(Reference: YE001).
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Effective for IPLA middleware software within the Information Management, IBM Lotus, IBM Rational,
IBM Tivoli, and WebSphere portfolios, IBM will:
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Provide at least five years of product technical support, starting at the planned availability date
of a product (at the specific version and release level). This technical support applies only to
the IBM licensed product. If this product runs on an operating system, or with a corequisite
product, or a prerequisite product that are no longer supported, IBM technical support may be
limited to defects that can be replicated on supported environments (that is, supported versions of
the operating systems).
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Provide this product technical support to all customers who have active software maintenance,
Subscription and Support, or SupportLine agreements including program licenses acquired under the
Passport Advantage® Agreement where software maintenance is renewed and current.
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Ensure support is available for all IBM components of a product or bundle until the product or
bundle is withdrawn from support.
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Publish a notice of support discontinuance (end of service) for a product at least 12 months before
the effective date. The support periods for products affected by this announcement can be found on
the Web at
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Align the effective date of support discontinuance to occur on common
dates either in the months of April or September.
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Make support extensions available, for an additional fee, for a minimum
period of three years following the product's effective support
discontinuance date. Support extensions are designed to allow migration
to the current release to be successfully completed. For additional
information on product technical support extensions beyond the five-year
minimum period, contact your IBM representative.
Those products which have a previously stated support discontinuance date
are not affected by this announcement.
Some products remaining on the current support life-cycle policy ("3 plus
2") may include products recently acquired by IBM, desktop-only software,
those currently reaching end-of-life, and products with third-party
content where the content provider will not support the new life-cycle
("5 plus 3") policy.
For a full detailed list of all products and to verify the life-cycle
dates for a specific product, visit
IBM may modify this policy at any time and will communicate the
modification and any exceptions via a product announcement letter or in a
general policy announcement.
For additional information, in question and answer format, regarding this
new support life-cycle policy, refer to Web site
Additional reference links
Additional information regarding software maintenance
Additional information regarding product technical support
Software support handbook
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To order, contact the Americas Call Centers, your local IBM
representative, or your IBM Business Partner.
To identify your local IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, call
800-IBM-4YOU (426-4968).
Phone: 800-IBM-CALL (426-2255)
Fax: 800-2IBM-FAX (242-6329)
Internet: callserv@ca.ibm.com
Mail: IBM Teleweb Customer Support
ibm.com Sales Execution Center, Americas North
3500 Steeles Ave. East, Tower 3/4
Markham, Ontario
Canada
L3R 2Z1
Reference: YE001
The Americas Call Centers, our national direct marketing organization,
can add your name to the mailing list for catalogs of IBM products.
Note:
Shipments will begin after the planned availability date.
Business Partner information
If you are a Direct Reseller - System Reseller acquiring products from IBM, you may link directly to
Business Partner information for this announcement. A PartnerWorld ID and password are required
(use IBM ID).
BP Attachment for Announcement Letter 208-035
Trademarks
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Rational, WebSphere, Tivoli, Lotus, and Passport Advantage are registered trademarks of
International Business Machines Corporation in the United States or other countries or both.
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Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
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