As the biggest networking giant, Cisco never stops innovating. Cisco has a good End-of-Life and End-of-Sale policy to help Cisco users find the right alternatives. Also the Cisco users can find the new features or updates from the EoL and EoS Announcements. If you are a Cisco user, are you familiar with its EoL and EoS policy? Well, in this article, we will talk about the Real Meaning of “Cisco End-of-Life (EoL) Announcement”, which may help you know Cisco’s services for products and technical support. To understand the Cisco EoL process and your options for acquiring and supporting EoL products can be a big help as you plan your network and select your Cisco equipment.
In the following part we can read a simple guide helping you understand the key stages of Cisco product retirement.
Cisco’s end of product life policy includes hardware, hardware operating system software (IOS and Catalyst OS), and application software. Cisco’s terms and timeframes define when the manufacture, sale, and support of a product will end. When those timeframes are announced the customer is faced with determining their best course of action based on several available options.
The table/chart below lists and defines some of the terms that Cisco uses. Keep in mind, the last day of “Last Date of Support HW” is usually about 6 years after the “End-of-Life Announcement Date”.
Cisco Terms Related to End-of-Life & End-of-Sale Announcement
HW=Hardware
Cisco states that products reach their End of Product Life Cycle for a number of reasons. These reasons may be due to market demands, technology innovation and development driving changes in the product or the products simply mature over time and are replaced by functionally richer technology. We all understand that Cisco can and will dictate when a product and support for it is no longer available. Cisco is the market leader and has been very successful because they understand when to terminate an offering and replace it with another. Whether you look at this as churning the market to generate new hardware sales, or the OEMs attempt to eliminate competitive support offerings, or a planned effort to drive down the street value of used models of those products, Cisco has the ability and right to pull products and services at their discretion. Understanding how Cisco’s process works will help you plan your future and know when to look for alternatives.
GENERAL POLICY GUIDELINES
End of Sale Notice
Cisco states it will provide 6 months’ notice of the affected product’s end of sale date. This is date is the last day a customer may order an affected product and the beginning of the products end of product life cycle. A notice will appear on the Cisco.com site at some time after the announcement.
It’s easy to locate the end of sale date for Cisco devices is to “Google” the product model number. For example, when you search for “Cisco 3750 EOL” by Google, it shows the entire schedule including a description of each phase. Very handy information when it comes to planning your hardware and application life cycles. If you want to check the Notice of End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Products, you can visit the page https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/eos-eol-listing.html (Lists of EoS and EoL Products). Or search “Cisco XXX EoL and EoS” directly through Google to get the latest EoL and EoS news that you want.
TAC Support Expiration
TAC support may be obtained from Cisco until reaching the “Last Day of Support: HW”.
Spares or Replacement Parts
Cisco will provide spares and replacement parts in accordance with their Return Materials Authorization (RMA) process until reaching the “Last Day of Support: HW”.
EOS Software Support SLAs
Cisco will provide bug fixes, major and minor maintenance releases, work arounds, or patches for critical bugs reported via the TAC or Cisco.com until the “End of SW Maintenance Releases Date: HW”.
Note:“The End of SW Maintenance Releases Date: HW” and the “End of Routine Failure Analysis Date: HW” are usually the same date for any particular Cisco Hardware Part Number.
You can read some EoL and EoS Announcements for Cisco Products, such as EoS & EoL Announcement for the Select Cisco 892 Integrated Services Routers, Cisco 3750-X Series Has Been Chosen as the Best Substitute for Catalyst 3750G Switches, and EoS and EoL Announcement for the Cisco Catalyst 2960-S and 2960-SF Series, etc.
If you wanna read more information and know some details about the Cisco’s End-of-Life Policy, you can visit here https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/eos-eol-policy.html
More Cisco EoL and EoS News
EoS & EoL for the High-Density Voice/Fax Network Modules for Cisco ISR-G1 and ISR-G2 Series
EoS and EoL Announcement for the Cisco Aironet 1140 Series & Cisco Aironet 1040 Series
EOL/EOS for the Cisco 7200 Series Routers
Cisco Integrated Services Routers G1, EOL Announcement
Simple Steps to Understand the Cisco’s End-of-Life Policy
