Avaya CM8 End of Support 2022 and CM10

[Stinney]

Who's been told that CM8 is end of sale and not available anymore and that it's going to be end of support Dec 2022?

Been told that CM 10 is the next release but they don't know what systems it will/won't be compatible with and other things. Anyone have any inside information they can share? We just upgraded to CM8 and now in the next year we're going to have to replace it. Really think Avaya is shooting themselves in the foot here. I can see my company pushing to dump Avaya at this point.

- Stinney

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.” - Confucius

 

[phoneguy55]

Looks like that's the case.

https://downloads.avaya.com/css/P8/documents/100172510

Dec 2022.

 

[AvayaRed]

Here is a good post on Reddit talking about Aura R8 and the EoS, you will still be able to buy add on licenses for awhile:

https://www.reddit.com/r/avaya/comments/q5pwqz/end_of_sale_avaya_aura_8x_no_more_onprem/

Avaya R8 became GA i think in 2018 so it has been out for quite some time. That is one thing that I see a lot on this site, customers upgrade to a major release of Aura after it is out for a few years and once they are fully upgraded, the next major release is out. Major Aura upgrades are complex so I understand the delay.

Aura 10 will be subscription only and Avaya OneCloud will receive updates before Aura 10 on prem. It is said Avaya is going to a more agile model in software development where updates will be more frequent and have both feature and security updates regularly. Customers can still have on prem version of Aura 10 but Avaya wants more customers to migrate to the cloud so Avaya handles hosting/upgrading Aura and customers handle administrate/use the solution (taking the Microsoft/Cisco/RingCentral routes).

I am curious if a lot of customers are going to migrate to OneCloud or stay on prem with Aura 10... or just not upgrade at all and stay on their current version.

 

[lopes1211]

End of Support is usually 1 year to the date after the latest release. So yes, assuming CM10 is GA in Dec 2021, that would make CM8 end-of-sale on that same date and end-of-support in Dec 2022.

-CL

 

[Stinney]

Found out another interesting tidbit. Avaya was originally not going to support the G650s in the CM10 release. I've been told that they are working on a 10.1.1 release already to accommodate the G650s but after 10.x they will not support them in whatever the next release is.

- Stinney

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.” - Confucius

 

[phoneguy55]

Interesting about G650's. Not sure why anyone would still want to support all that hardware. I dumped all my G650's years ago and are much better off because of it.

 

[lopes1211]

Avaya wanted to end 650's but a gov obligation to support 650's has gotten in the way of that for the last few releases. Suppose Avaya tried to finally kill them in CM10 but someone in high places must have complained. Usually the x.1 version has been the JITC release for the last few releases so it makes sense they need to put it back by 10.1 versus 10.0.

-CL

 

[phoneguy55]

Thanks lopes1211. That makes sense. Government is always slow to get things done.

 

[Sean655]

Proven hardware and less cost of buying g450s and boards. Some agencies probably still running digital phones too, less risk of intrusion.

 

[jimbojimbo]

There are basically 2 scenarios I provided Avaya years ago on why you can't get rid of the G650.

1. TDM firewall - allow 2 disconnected networks to talk to each other by placing a CLAN and Medpro on each network and anchoring the call to the TDM bus.
2. CLAN signal connection required at a remote site. Routing to the core is not an option.

I've had some additional discussions with Avaya on the G650 issue. Basically there are some scenarios where there is a complaint the conversion is cost prohibitive (when you have a large number of Analog Stations). While I can sympathize I really hate the idea of the G650 staying around for a several more years. Especially when there are huge issues with analog data and the TN2602/TN2302.

Personally I think Avaya should have just said no. The TN Circuit Packs are not supposed to have any new patches issued. Presents a myriad of issues with security.

May be part of the reason the Communication Manager clustering was pulled out of 10.1

 

[AvayaRed]

The main problem with the G650s is the chips on those boards and cards are no longer made anymore and it is component obsoletion So you have to find on the gray market refurbished. Military bases do run a lot of digital and analog like @lopes1211 but those federal customer I assume run into problems with those cards die out.

I assume those Federal and Military accounts can't buy used parts off ebay for security reasons.