Product Stages
In this topic, we define the lifecycle stages for three categories of products and features that Aerospike develops and supports. These stages help you understand the maturity, support, and stability of our products and features.
- Enterprise Products: This includes Aerospike Database Enterprise Edition (EE) and other Aerospike enterprise products. These products can be closed or open source. References to “products” and “features” are assumed to be in reference to enterprise products unless otherwise noted.
- Community Products: This includes Aerospike Database Community Edition (CE) and other Aerospike community products or projects.
- Tools: This includes Aerospike tools and libraries that are closed or open source. These tools are designed to work with Aerospike Database EE or CE.
Aerospike’s products and features are released in two stages:
A product or feature’s stage signals important information about its production-readiness, supportability, and level of polish.
Features that no longer meet the defintion of Generally Available (see definitions below) are assumed to be End of Life, with no support provided.
Full details around our support terms and policies can be found on our Support Terms page.
We also describe product support levels for Community Products and Tools, which are not always released in the same stages as Enterprise products. You can find more information about the support levels for Community Products and Tools in the Open Source Products, Tools, and Libraries section.
Preview
The Preview stage is used to validate core functionality and gather initial feedback from a small group of users.
At Preview, a product or feature is ready for testing, typically in non-production environments. Previews are often publicly announced, but are not necessarily feature-complete, and Aerospike provides no SLAs or technical support commitments for these. Unless specifically agreed upon between Aerospike and the consumer of the Preview software.
Preview expectations
- Early Access: An early look at new or upcoming Aerospike products or features.
- Design Feedback: Participate in how a product of feature is finalized (e.g. design, functionality).
- Fast Iteration: Preview products are iterated more quickly than GA products—short feedback loops ensure a better final product. In the case of self-managed software, it’s therefore expected that Preview users are regularly able to upgrade to the latest Preview build.
- Best-Effort Upgrade Path to GA: For self-managed software, Aerospike will strive to make it possible for Preview users to directly upgrade to a GA build when it becomes available, but this isn’t always guaranteed.
Participating in a Preview
Preview programs typically require invitation or qualifification. If you’re interested in participating in a Preview, contact your Aerospike account representative or begin engaging with one of our Preview-stage Open Source projects.
Not all products or features that Aerospike develops will have a Preview, and not all Previews are guaranteed to become GA products.
General Availability
When a product or feature has met certain quality criteria, it becomes Generally Available (GA). GA products and features are fully supported by Aerospike:
- Production-Ready Stability: GA products are thoroughly tested under real-world conditions.
- Customer Support: You can expect accessible customer support services and clear escalation paths.
- Product Updates: While still covered by our support terms, GA products will continue to receive software patches as defined by the policy.
For cloud products that are fully managed by Aerospike, you can expect more rapid releases and iterations to the product. In addition to the standard expectations for any GA product, you can expect notification of any breaking changes prior to large-scale roll-outs.
End-of-Life (EOL)
Once a product or feature is in EOL, there is no official support available and you are highly encouraged to upgrade to the latest supported product or version. In short: the product, feature, or version should no longer be used.
Self-managed software is considered to be EOL when it no longer meets the criteria defined by our standard support terms and includes:
- No Official Support: All bug fixes, updates, SLAs, and escalations cease. The product or feature is considered obsolete and is used at the risk of the user.
- Archived Documentation: No updated guides or documentation will be provided; older docs may be available in an archive.
In the case of fully-managed cloud products, EOL simply means a feature is no longer accessible. In all such cases, Aerospike will make all commercially reasonable efforts to notify users of the feature of product about its future deprecation as early as possible, or in accordance with any specific commercial agreement.
Open Source Products, Tools, and Libraries
Aerospike develops and delivers many official products, tools and libraries as Open Source projects via GitHub.
Open Source repository classification
Our Open Source projects fit into two categories, each of which have different support policies and quality expectations:
- Enterprise: Designed to work for Aerospike Database Enterprise Edition (EE) customers
- Community: Designed to work with Aerospike Database Community Edition (CE) users
Enterprise Open Source Repositories
1. Enterprise OSS Products
Enterprise products in this category use standard product release stages (e.g. Preview and GA). Enterprise products in open source repositories are:
- typically used in production
- marked for release using tags (e.g. v3.0.1)
- supported using major/minor versions according to standard product support policy
2. Enterprise OSS Tools
Enterprise tools are products designed to be used with Aerospike Database EE and therefore are compatible with any supported version of Aerospike Database. Aerospike will provide customer support and patches to these tools. Enterprise tools do not always use standard product release stages as only the latest version is officially supported.
Additionally, enterprise tools are:
- typically used in development workflows, not in production automation
- marked for release using tags
- supported for the latest version only
Community Open Source Repositories
3. Community Aerospike Server Community Edition
Our core database product is provided as a Community Edition. For more information about the capabilities of CE, visit our Features and editions page.
You can find our open source CE repository here: aerospike-server
4. Community OSS Projects
- source code is provided as a reference and for archival purposes
- no support provided whatsoever, though employees may engage on GH community forums
- moved to ‘archived’ when known to no longer work with supported products
5. Community OSS Research Projects
Open source research projects are provided to the community as a form of open experimentation and contribution to the broader community. Aerospike does not provide support for these projects; however, we actively participate in their development. These projects may not relate directly to Aerospike products.
FAQs
What happens after Preview?
After conducting a preview, assuming that all critical feedback has been addressed (accepted or rejected) and all GA criteria have been met, the product or feature can move to the GA stage.
If the decision is made to stop development on the product or feature, then the decision will be recorded and documented accordingly. Any preview participants will be informed.
What are the common goals of a preview?
- Continue to learn about and improve our solution in preparation for GA
- Obtain wider customer adoption to test product-market fit (PMF)
- Provide early value to you
Will everything that goes through preview be released to GA?
No. Not everything will meet our exit criteria for preview or the entry criteria for GA. In these cases, Aerospike will communicate that the preview product will be decommissioned and placed through end-of-life (EOL) processes.
What sort of notice will I receive when a product will enter the EOL stage?
Before any product is placed through EOL processes, Aerospike will notify customers or users through our release notes or other appropriate means (e.g. email, newsletters, GitHub tagging and updates).
Is there any assistance available for moving off of an EOL product or feature?
Aerospike customers can contact the Support team or their account contact for assistance. Depending on the situation, Aerospike may be able to provide upgrade assistance or paid services to help you.
Appendix
Product Maturity
Each stage detailed on this page can be described through a matrix of exposure (i.e. how widely available the product or feature is) and maturity (i.e. how well developed, integrated, and tested the product or feature is).
Earlier stages, such as wireframes, mock-ups, and prototypes are non-functional and therefore are not described on this page.
Applying Stages to Features vs. Products
While this document refers to “products” as the primary unit of progression through stages, the same framework also applies to individual features within a product. This flexibility is essential for modern product development, where features can mature at different rates than the products they belong to.
Key Considerations
A feature can be in Preview even if its parent product is GA. This allows Aerospike to gather targeted feedback on new capabilities, as well as deliver early value to users, without risking the stability of the core offering.
Similarly, we may EOL a feature within a GA product if it’s no longer strategically aligned or being used effectively, without sunsetting the entire product.
Feature-level staging allows for faster iteration, targeted feedback, and more graceful deprecation pathways.
Example Scenarios
- A product like Aerospike Database is in GA, but a new observability dashboard is released under Preview to gather early feedback.
- A legacy feature like XDR Multi-Cluster Conflict Resolution may be deprecated and enter EOL, even though the rest of the product remains in GA and continues to receive updates.
This nuanced approach ensures we maintain customer trust and product quality while enabling fast, flexible iteration where it’s most needed.
Open Source Software (OSS) Considerations
Aerospike applies product stages to open source software (OSS) projects with a few key differences:
- Labeling is lighter: OSS components often use informal stage indicators (e.g., “release”, “stable”, or just tags like v1.0, preview, etc.) rather than formal Preview or GA language.
- Internal support may still apply: Even when OSS products are labeled as “community supported,” Aerospike may still provide direct support.
Some tools we use (e.g. NPM, NuGet, Maven Central, PyPI) are sometimes released under industry-standard stability levels, such as “alpha” and “beta” channels. The labels are not changeable in many cases; therefore, we map “Preview” to “Alpha” and refrain from using “Beta”.
To ensure clarity for both customers and internal teams, OSS tools will still be mapped to product stages even if they don’t follow our standards directly.