IBM and HCL have reached a definitive agreement to close the HCL divestiture on June 30, 2019.
IBM distributors sent a note to all Business Partners to notify that all transactions with IBM have to be completed by Friday, June 28, 2019 or risk of failure to process.
The official IBM website for the HCL Divestiture is here.
The full list of products and part numbers included in this transaction can be found here.
Extended Support Contract
A quick update for customers on WC V7 considering buying the extended support contract from IBM/HCL. IBM has offered Extended Support for WC V7 from May 1, 2020 to Dec 30, 2021 but this is not without a challenge. The challenge with the Extended Support is not with Commerce Server but rather the Application Server and DB2. The reason lies in the fact that V7 runs on WAS 7 which was out of support since April 2018. See WAS V7 EOS here.
So fundamentally, in order to qualify for this extended support, WC V7 customer must satisfy 2 criteria:
- Upgrade WC V7 to Feature Pack levels 6, 7 or 8 with FixPack 9.
- Upgrade WAS 7 to WAS 8.5.5 and Java level to Java 8. Both of these upgrades will require application regression testing because of the fundamental changes in the programming language and in Commerce server. You can view the full announcement here.
So more than ever, the choices are clear. Customers on WC 7 have three choices:
- Upgrade to WAS 8.5.5 and buy Extended Support for V7 until May 2021
- Migrate to V8
- Migrate to V9
With summer in full swing and behind us soon, comes Fall, and this means that the Holiday seasons are upon us. You must focus on getting the business ready for the Holidays while developing a migration plan with options 1, 2 or 3. Each option comes with a minor cost of doing business and you can reach out to HCL, your business partner or contactus@zobristinc.com for advice.
My recommendation is for you to consider V9 as this version presents the most opportunities for you to grow your business while leveraging your investment.
