Introduction

The Intershop offering provides several types of releases. These are presented in this concept.

Our continuous releases enable a fast deployment (DevOps) of improvements, new features, and latest security enhancements/fixes. 
This way our customers always have the latest version and can, thus, avoid costly upgrades.

References

• Overview - CaaS DevOps
• Intershop Product Resources
• Overview - ICM Release Communication
• Overview - IOM Release Communication
• Public Release Note - Intershop Commerce Management B2C/B2X 7.10 LTS

Intershop Commerce Management

Update Principles

The publishing of updates is always done according to the following principles:

1. Releases are backward compatible.
2. Releases are cumulative. 
3. Intershop provides regular announcements about upcoming releases.
4. UAT is updated first, followed by production.

The customer always retains control of the update process. This means there is a deployment window defined by the customer and a default monthly schedule for continuous releases. 

It is also possible to fall back to an LTS (long term support) release schedule, meaning that releases are applied every six months.

Release Cycles

Intershop essentially offers two types of release cycles, namely, monthly releases and long term support (LTS) releases.

Furthermore, there are hotfix releases which apply for both types.

Continuous Releases for ICM – Monthly Releases

There are monthly releases that are planned in advance. As soon as a monthly release is introduced, the previous monthly release is considered outdated.

Hotfixes are only available for the current continuous release.

Long Term Support (LTS) Releases for ICM

Long term support releases are released every six months. In contrast to monthly releases, these Long Term Support Releases are supplied with hotfixes for a year.

No new features will be made available within this release line.

Continuous Releases for ICM – Hotfix Releases

Hotfix releases may be necessary between regular releases for urgent security or bug fixes. 

Typically, hotfixes:

• Are API-stable,
• Do not require migration of customizations,
• Require no database changes,
• Can be applied with zero-downtime deployment.

Impact of Continuous Releases of ICM

With regard to releases, please note the following:

• The customer is accountable for using a supported ICM version for the customization project.
• A downtime during deployment might be necessary, if database changes are part of the update.
• Sometimes changes to customization might be necessary, for example for deprecated APIs.
• Acceptance testing is required for every update (business capacity), this includes:
  • Core processes
  • Customizations
  • Interfaces to 3rd-party applications
  Furthermore, automated tests of the customizations are highly recommended.

Intershop Order Management

Update Principles

IOM release management focuses on the "keep current" approach, i.e. the latest release is preferred whenever possible.

This allows our customers to: 

• Use the latest IOM features
• Be prepared for upcoming unplanned security patches, if necessary
• Use the latest versions of 3rd party libraries

In return, Intershop ensures that:

• APIs are kept stable whenever possible
• Migration efforts are reduced to a minimum

Release Types

Starting from IOM 4, IOM releases will follow the semantic versioning approach. The following release types are available:

There is no fixed time frame for these release types.

Transition Period

The transition period describes a timespan after the introduction of a new release during which patches for the previous release are still provided. If the new release is a major version, the transition period lasts 12 weeks. If it is a minor release, it lasts for 4 weeks. After the transition period, no further patches will be provided for the respective previous minor or major version. Latest at this point, Intershop recommends updating to a new version.

The following graphics show two examples, both for the transition period for a major release as well as for a minor release:

Example A

After the introduction of the 5.0 major release, there is a 12-week transition period during which 4.x patches are still provided:

Example B

After each minor release, there is a 4-week transition period during which patches for the previous minor version are still provided:

Supported Versions

Intershop considers all major/minor IOM versions as supported, as long as no new major or minor version has been announced. There is a transition period of 4 weeks for minor and 12 weeks for major versions, see Release Types.

Customers or partners running unsupported versions will be supported with issue analyzing. However, this applies only to the current current and x-1 major release.

Patches are available only for supported versions.