Industry Giants Unite to Establish Standard for End-of-Life Product Information

By Netvora Tech News

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Leading technology companies, including Cisco, Dell, IBM, and Microsoft, are pushing for a standardized approach to communicating end-of-life information for their products. This move aims to ensure that customers and organizations can plan ahead for updates and replacements, reducing the risk of using unsupported systems. The initiative, known as OpenEoX, has created a framework for a future technical specification that will allow vendors to provide information on when software and hardware reaches End-of-Sales (EoS), End-of-Security-Support (EoSSec), and End-of-Life (EoL) status. This standardized approach will enable users and organizations to plan ahead for replacements, thereby minimizing the risk of using unsupported systems. The OpenEoX framework uses a machine-readable approach to manage and share EoS and EoL information for both commercial and open-source hardware and software. This will make it easier for customers to identify when support for a product will cease and plan accordingly. "Wandering when the support for software and hardware will end should be a thing of the past," says Omar Santos of Cisco. "Standardizing how end-of-life, end-of-security-support, and end-of-sales are handled for hardware and software makes the software supply chain safer and more efficient," adds Brendan Burns of Microsoft. The proposed standard will also benefit the software supply chain, making it easier for companies to manage their dependencies and reduce the risk of using unsupported components. With OpenEoX, the industry is taking a crucial step towards greater transparency and accountability, ultimately benefiting customers and organizations alike.