Navigating the future: Software Versions EOL Announcement Effective April 1st, 2024

In the rapidly changing environment of unified commerce, our focus is always on adapting and continuing to offer the best solutions for retailers. With the future in mind, we’ve decided to declare the End of Life (EOL) of the Openbravo Commerce Cloud 20Q3 version and those preceding it on April 1st, 2024. This means that these versions won’t be no longer eligible for patch or maintenance upgrades and they won’t be no longer supported. 

Why we’re announcing the EOL of the 20Q3 version and the preceding versions

As we embark on this process, and even though this has been a normal practice in enterprise software for many years, we found it important to share the underlying reasons that led us to this announcement.

Transition to cloud-based SaaS. The software landscape, particularly in the retail sector, has been rapidly evolving in recent years. A cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) model provides unrivaled scalability, security, and continuous feature updates. Openbravo has been a SaaS-ready solution for many years already but it has not been till now we have decided to accelerate our move toward this model. This is vital for our clients since it helps us ensure that our clients always have access to the latest features, updates, and security patches, while achieving greater agility and capacity to innovate, moving at the pace of consumer demand.

Standardized and industrialized Retail Software Platform. A more standardized and modular approach is required in the rapidly changing retail ecosystem. By further industrializing our modular software platform, we aim to guarantee more consistency, reliability, and enhanced performance to retailers of different sizes, verticals, and geographies.

Technology harmonization and upgradability. The need to harmonize our technology stack for the best possible upgradability is a key motivator for this decision. By doing so, we can provide an optimized experience for our clients while also significantly increasing the upgradability of our software, ensuring that you are always running the most efficient, secure, and feature-rich version available.

Complementing this vision, we are excited to announce the release of a new appliance version. However, aligned with our product strategy and our firm move to SaaS,  it’s essential to note that this will be our last standalone appliance. Starting with all our new clients, as of now, our unified commerce platform for retailers and brands, Openbravo Commerce Cloud, will only be offered in the cloud in a SaaS mode. And our existing clients will rapidly appreciate the benefits of adopting our SaaS model as well. 

What’s next for existing customers running these versions

We recommend that our clients on the aforementioned versions plan an upgrade to our most recent Openbravo Commerce Cloud Confirmed Stable version in the foreseeable future. The transition provides a strategic advantage, particularly for our customers who use our POS solution. Google’s impending decision to stop the support of WebSQL for Chrome (due to be fully removed by March 26, 2024, in Chromium version 123) can be easily avoided, thanks to the introduction by Openbravo 3 years ago of the IndexedDB technology which is fully embedded from version 20Q4 onwards.

Customers will immediately benefit from a suite of new features and enhancements designed to boost productivity, security, and user experience as they upgrade to the new version.

For those of you requiring it, our Official Partners and team will provide assistance and technical guidance to help you execute a smooth upgrade transition. Recognizing the time and effort required for such a transition, planning for the software upgrade in advance is crucial to ensure we are able to allocate the proper resources and deliver prompt and comprehensive support.

We are unwavering in our belief that today’s decision strengthens our mission to build the most adaptable and flexible cloud-based SaaS platform for unified commerce.

Following today’s announcement, expect transparent and consistent quarterly announcements declaring later versions of Openbravo Commerce Cloud End-of-Life, fostering an improved and transparent lifecycle policy for our offerings.

We advise our customers and partners to contact their regular Openbravo contacts for any clarifications, questions, or in-depth discussions.