At CloverDX we invest heavily in our products to provide our customers with new features, enhancements, and bug and security fixes. In this article, we provide a quick overview of our product versioning and release process.

Version numbering

Our releases use a simple versioning scheme: X.Y.Z (e.g., 6.5.1). 

• Major release (X) identifies a big step in product development. Major version numbers change infrequently and bring significant updates with new core features or functionality. For example, in version 6 we introduced CloverDX Wrangler and Data Catalog, two user-friendly interfaces designed to empower business users. 
• Minor release (Y) brings feature improvements or new functionality. Minor release numbering starts at 0 for each major release and there is no limit to how many there can be.
• Maintenance release (Z) contains various fixes, code corrections, and other updates that do not add new functionality. In general, we have one maintenance release for each minor release, although this is not a hard rule. Note that maintenance releases are provided only for versions that are not retired. For more information see How can I find if my CloverDX version is still supported or if it is nearing its end of life? 

If we take version 6.5.1 as an example, its major version is 6, the minor version is 5 and it is the first maintenance release of version 6.5.

Version numbers are often shortened so for example instead of writing CloverDX 6.5.0, we use just CloverDX 6.5. This makes it very easy to spot maintenance releases since they are the only ones that have three numbers in their version. 

Release frequency

We strive to maintain a predictable release schedule for our customers to facilitate upgrade planning:

• We release four feature releases every year (a feature release is a major or minor release). The releases are scheduled at the end of each calendar quarter (i. e. in March, June, September, and December every year). 
• Maintenance releases are released on an as-needed basis, depending on the severity and impact of the included fixes.
• Platform releases are always simultaneous, ensuring that Windows, Linux, and macOS versions are available at the same time. AWS Marketplace and Azure Marketplace offers typically follow within a few days, subject to approval from the respective platforms.

Release support

As part of our commitment to providing timely and efficient support, we have established a policy regarding the lifecycle of our product releases.

To ensure optimal performance and security, we regularly review our release portfolio. We support the last 8 releases of our product. This means that these releases continue to receive technical assistance.

However, to focus our resources on the most current versions, only the last 4 releases receive security updates and bug fixes. This allows us to allocate more time and effort to developing enhancements in the latest iterations.

For more information on how to tell if your release is fully supported, see How can I find if my CloverDX version is still supported or if it is nearing its end of life?