In the past several years, AppDynamics components have evolved mostly in sync, with new SaaS(cloud) and on-premises versions being released on a regular cadence a few weeks apart. New features and significant bug fixes were regularly published for customers using either cloud and on-premises platforms.
Last year, however, we have observed that the AppDynamics on-premises platform components, specifically, appear to have stopped evolving, with the feature gap between cloud and on-premises version expanding in the second half of the year.
For instance, the last significant release of the on-prem Enterprise Console and Controller was v21.4.0 on April 5, which then received a few targeted bug fixes leading up to v21.4.10 on December 17. Similarly, the latest EUM available is v21.4.2, while the venerable Events Service is still stuck at v4.5.2, also from April. The feature gap can be seen clearly by comparing the latest on-premises release notes with the SaaS release notes.
Concerned by this issue, and also by the fact that we have not seen any announcement about on-premises platforms deprecations (e.g. end of support notices), we opened support cases to request more details about their expected support timelines.
The first case confirmed that v21.4.x is the last planned release with on-premises support, with the following information provided:
As far EC and Controller on premises versions are concerned, 21.4 will be the last version. No new active features or upgrades will be available beyond 21.4. If you want to use the controller version beyond 21.4 then you'll have to move to saas controller.
Reviewing the publicly-available documentation, the only mention of v21.4 support timelines we managed to find is the Maintenance Support for Software Versions page, which currently states:
This table lists generally available AppDynamics versions, release dates, and end of maintenance and support dates:
| Controller Version | Release Date | End of Maintenance and Support |
| 21.4 | April 5, 2021 | May 17, 2022 * |
* For on-premises customers, AppDynamics will extend support for this release beyond May 2022
As the documentation is currently quite lacking in details relevant for on-prem instances, we have opened a follow-up case requesting clarification on the note marked (*) above, and specifically the following information:
- What is the support period for AppDynamics on-premises controllers (v21.4.x) exactly?
- When will public-facing documentation be updated to state the support timeline for on-premise customers?
- What is the AppDynamics policy for maintaining compatibility between on-premise controllers, stuck at v21.4.x, and agents that keep evolving? Will there be a timeline for this compatibility to be upheld? In other words, what is the timeframe where customers will be able to upgrade their agents (e.g. to v21.12 or v22.6) and have these work well with existing on-premise controllers?
The follow-up support case and these questions are still pending an official response, about a month after it was opened.
I assume that there are other AppDynamics customers which, due to e.g. legal / regulatory requirements, cannot switch from on-premises APM to cloud/SaaS solutions. Therefore, I'd like to consult the broader community about any information received about on-prem platform deprecations and its expected support timeline.
I would appreciate any information regarding these matters that can be shared here.
Thank you very much in advance!
