It’s time to upgrade Oracle EBS from 11i & 12.1 to 12.2
Organizations currently operating Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) 11i or 12.1 versions must have heard about Oracle ceasing support for these versions by next December 2021. It is time to focus on upgrading to EBS12.2 or migrate to Oracle Fusion Cloud.
In this blog, we showcase the reasons to upgrade and challenges/setbacks in sustaining support.
Support Stages Offered by Oracle
Premier Support
The initial support stage spans five years from the Oracle EBS product’s general availability. This includes general support, such as critical patch updates, security alerts, and technical support, to name a few.
Extended Support
An optional, secondary support stage wherein customers can pay a fee to experience ‘Premier-like’ support for three additional years beyond the end of Premier Support.
Sustaining Support
The last stage of support, after Premier has ended and Extended has either expired or is no longer offered; offers technical support, access to content (e.g. critical patch updates) produced during the Premier stage, and other limited support features intended to help maintain or “sustain” a platform.
- It means there is no support for the current system and providing updates for an outdated product.
- Flaws will continue to remain and exposes the business to unnecessary risk.
Productivity & Efficiency
- Using the out-of-date application will restrict you to discover the new features & functionalities.
- It adversely affects productivity and efficiency in business operations.
Challenges in Sustaining Support
Sustaining support does not include,
- Critical Patch Updates.
- New updates, fixes & security alerts.
- New tax & regulatory updates.
- Certifications with new third-party products, which affect integration.
Productivity & Efficiency
- Lifetime support policy
- Latest technology enhancements
- Online Patching
- Built on Fusion Middleware – Web logic Platform
- In-Memory enhancements to Applications
The continuous Innovation release model
Oracle planned and separated the technology stack updates from application code updates. It allows customers to retain their application code level, while they are upgrading the tech stack. Customers reap the benefits of new application functionalities without disturbing their existing tech stack to the latest level. There will not be EBS release 12.3, instead, 12.2.x will have the release in a continuous innovation model.
- Technology Stack Updates - Migration to new architecture like from application server to fusion middleware
- Applications Updates - It is nothing but an up-gradation of the application version
12.2 Patching Cycle – Online Patching
- Online Patching cycle includes 5 phases
- Application is only offline during the "Cutover" phase
- Online Patching is used to apply all patches in 12.2
Benefits of upgrading to 12.2
Intuitive Look, Feel, and Experience
- Users can click on an icon to receive a summary of recent notifications
- Use new widgets designed to improve productivity
Business Value Increased Through Enhancements
- E-Business Suite 12.2 offers hundreds of cross-industry capabilities, with numerous areas enhanced from previous versions
Downtime Greatly Reduced Through Online Patching
- This means that you can apply patches to your system while it is still running and fully operational, and while users are still online
- This technology takes E-Business Suite data through the metadata dictionary. It then makes the constructed HTML page available to end-users through Apache (Listener) technology