Enterprise IT Product and Features

End-of-Engineering (EOE) for Enterprise IT Modules

Published Date: August 1, 2022 

In order to continue to deliver the best experience to our customers, we are discontinuing the Enterprise IT modules such as Procurement Management, Operations Management, and Patch Management. In practice, we have stopped actively selling, development & implementation of these modules since the last one year. However, beginning of October 1, 2022, Summit is officially announcing the End of Engineering (EOE) for these modules & features. This is to bring the alignment to our future Enterprise IT Product Strategy that helps us to stay focused and deliver the best customer experience on the core product offerings.

For more details, please read our FAQs section.

Enterprise IT Releases

End-of-Life Notification (EOLN) for Denali Release Family

Published Date: Nov 21, 2022

This is an End-Of-Life Notification for Denali release family. This announcement marks the notification to the upcoming End-of-Engineering schedule of the lifecycle management phase of the Denali release family effective from January 12, 2024.

The tables below explain the SummitAI Product life cycle management milestones as well as important information regarding dates and support options during this period. The dates and milestones provided are in accordance with the policies of the SummitAI Product at the time of the software release and are in accordance with stated End-of-Life/End-of-Support policies for Summit Software, Inc.

Milestone	Definition	Date
End of Life Notification (EOLN)	This is a notification for EOLN of Denali Release family.	July 12, 2023
End-of-Engineering (EOE)	Beyond this date, Summit no longer commits to providing any engineering support (such as Service packs, Hot Fixes etc). Critical must-fix security patches are provided for an approximate period of 3 months, after this date.	January 12, 2024
End-of-Support (EOS)	The EOS milestone signals the point at which support is no longer available for a particular software release family. At this time, software kits, fixes will be removed from the corresponding download site(s) and will no longer be actively supported.	April 12, 2024

Table: Release Milestones and Dates for Denali version of the Summit Product

Products Affected

The product numbers affected by this announcement and their replacements are listed in the following Table. The software versions listed in the Product Replacement / Alternatives column represent the migration path for this discontinued software release family.

Table: Products Affected and Alternate Options 

Customer Actions

SummitAI recommends that existing customers take steps to upgrade to the latest version of the SummitAI Software so that they can take advantage of the advanced features and fixes available in this software. This will ensure the best service coverage over the life of the product.

For More Information

Click here, for more information, about the SummitAI Products End-Of-Life Policy document.

About the SummitAI Software, visit https://www.symphonysummit.com/ or contact your local SummitAI sales or account representative.

End-of-Life Notification (EOLN) for SummitAI Sierra Release Family

Published Date: May 12, 2022

This is an End-Of-Life Notification for SummitAI Sierra release family. This announcement marks the notification to the upcoming End-of-Engineering schedule of the lifecycle management phase of the Sierra release family effective from Nov 12, 2022.

The tables below explain the SummitAI Product life cycle management milestones as well as important information regarding dates and support options during this period. The dates and milestones provided are in accordance with the policies of the SummitAI Product at the time of the software release and are in accordance with stated End-of-Life/End-of-Support policies for Summit Software, Inc.

Table: Release Milestones and Dates for Sierra version of the SummitAI Product

Products Affected

The product numbers affected by this announcement and their replacements are listed in the 54427962. The software versions listed in the Product Replacement / Alternatives column represent the migration path for this discontinued software release family.

Table: Products Affected and Alternate Options 

Customer Actions

SummitAI recommends that existing customers take steps to upgrade to the latest version of the SummitAI Software so that they can take advantage of the advanced features and fixes available in this software. This will ensure the best service coverage over the life of the product.

For More Information

Click here, for more information, about the SummitAI Products End-Of-Life Policy document.

About the SummitAI Software, visit https://www.symphonysummit.com/ or contact your local SummitAI sales or account representative.
 

End-of-Life Notification (EOLN) for SummitAI Alps Release Family

Published Date: December 1, 2021

This is an End-Of-Life Notification for SummitAI Alps release family. This announcement marks the notification to upcoming End-of-Engineering schedule of the lifecycle management phase of the Alps release family effective from June 1, 2022.

The tables below explain the SummitAI Product life cycle management milestones as well as important information regarding dates and support options during this period. The dates and milestones provided are in accordance with the policies of the SummitAI Product at the time of the software release and are in accordance with stated End-of-Life/End-of-Support policies for Summit Software, Inc.

Table: Release Milestones and Dates for Alps version of the SummitAI Product

Products Affected

The product numbers affected by this announcement and their replacements are listed in the 54427962. The software versions listed in the Product Replacement / Alternatives column represent the migration path for this discontinued software release family.

Table: Products Affected and Alternate Options 

Customer Actions

SummitAI recommends that existing customers take steps to upgrade to the latest version of the SummitAI Software so that they can take advantage of the advanced features and fixes available in this software. This will ensure the best service coverage over the life of the product.

For More Information

Click here, for more information, about the SummitAI Products End-Of-Life Policy document.

About the SummitAI Software, visit https://www.symphonysummit.com/ or contact your local SummitAI sales or account representative.
 

End-of-Life for Version 5.7.x and Lower Versions  

Published Date: October14, 2021

Summit Software, Inc. announces End-of-Life for version 5.7.x or Lower version of the SummitAI software. This announcement marks the final milestone of the lifecycle management phase of the 5.7.x or Lower versions release family effective from 1^st Nov 2021.

The tables below explain the SummitAI Product life cycle management milestones as well as important information regarding dates and support options during this period. The dates and milestones provided are in accordance with the policies of the SummitAI Product at the time of the software release and are in accordance with stated End-of-Life/End-of-Support policies for Summit Software, Inc.

Table: Release Milestones and Dates for version 5.7.x or Lower of the SummitAI Product

Products Affected

The product numbers affected by this announcement and their replacements are listed in Table 2 (below). The software versions listed in the Product Replacement / Alternatives column represent the migration path for this discontinued software release family.

Customer Actions

SummitAI recommends that existing customers take steps to upgrade to the latest version of the SummitAI Software so that they can take advantage of the advanced features and fixes available in this software. This will ensure the best service coverage over the life of the product.

For More Information

About the SummitAI Software, visit https://www.symphonysummit.com/ or contact your local SummitAI sales or account representative.

Third-Party Applications 

The EOL for Third-Party Applications are covered in the following sections:

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Basic Authentication Sunset in Exchange Online 

Published Date: October 12, 2022

This is to inform you about the recent Microsoft article to sunset their Basic Authentication services on Exchange Online products. 

Microsoft Article

Microsoft has published a bulletin to deprecate the basic authentication on SMTP Exchange. Starting October 1, 2022, Microsoft will begin to randomly select tenants and disable basic authentication access for:  

• Messaging Application Program Interface (MAPI)  
• Remote Procedure Call (RPC)  
• Offline Address Book (OAB,  
• Exchange Web Services (EWS)  
• Post Office Protocol (POP)  
• Internet Messaging Access Protocol (IMAP)  
• Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) and  
• Remote PowerShell 

Notification Audience  

SummitAI Application Administrator(s) and Support Staff.

List of SummitAI feature(s) in which these services may be used:

1. Email-to-ticket (Basic Microsoft Authentication services such as EWS/IMAP/POP)
2. Email Notification (SMTP)   
3. Service Automation / Orchestration (Exchange related automation packs) 

FAQs

Refer to the following FAQ’s which will assist you to take appropriate actions if, Customer’s Microsoft instance is included in random selection.

For More Information

• https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/basic-authentication-deprecation-in-exchange-online-september/ba-p/3609437
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/clients-and-mobile-in-exchange-online/deprecation-of-basic-authentication-exchange-online

Adobe Flash Player 

SummitAI Product Suite leverages Adobe Flash Player to provide interactive user interfaces. Adobe announced that it intends to move it's Flash technology to End-of-Life (EOL) status and it will cease to update and distribute the Flash Player at the end of 2020. 

Specific areas of SummitAI product where Flash Player is being used: 

• IT Operations Management

• Push reports (Fusion Charts)

For more information about Adobe EOL, see https://www.adobe.com/in/products/flashplayer/end-of-life.html

IT Operations Management

SummitAI uses Adobe Flash in the following pages of IT Operations Management:

• For Analyst
  • Operations>User>Views>Network View
  • Operations>User>Configuration>Networks>View>Create View
  • Operations>User>Configuration>Networks>View>Edit View

Fusion Charts

SummitAI uses Adobe Flash in Fusion Charts and refer the below details of supported and unsupported SummitAI versions:

Supported Versions

• v5.4 and higher versions

Unsupported Versions

• v4.X

Migration Plan from Adobe Flash

SummitAI is migrating the above ITOM pages from Adobe Flash Player to vis.js (https://visjs.org/)  by providing hot fixes in:

• Denali HF06
• Denali SP1 HF04
• Sierra SP1 HF11
• Alps SP1 HF17
• v5.7 SP5 HF18
• v5.7 SP6 HF05

SummitAI Support team will connect with you to plan the Hot Fixes (HF) upgrade from your current version. We intend to test the HF in your staging environment and then schedule a production movement. For more information, please contact SummitAI Support.

Alternate Options (if an upgrade is not feasible immediately)

In the event that an HF upgrade is not feasible immediately, there are alternative methods to continue working with the existing Flash Player with some suggestions i.e., Adobe will not be supporting Flash and no security patches will be provided.

Though browsers have added some restrictions, they are still supporting Flash Player. These major browser vendors will release new versions to remove Flash support. Individuals and Organizations can set up the browsers to prevent auto-updates and preserve the Flash Player plugin.

Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 11 End-of-Support 

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• 54427962
• 54427962
• 54427962 

Overview 

Enterprise Security is of pivotal importance for businesses and organizations. To ensure that data is secured and is not compromised, Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) have to deal with a plethora of security types that may have vulnerabilities and have to be rectified. The different security types are: Network Security, Internet Security, Endpoint Security, Cloud Security, and Application Security. In addition to these, Browser Security is another type that is often ignored. It is equally necessary to ensure that the browser you are using does not have any security vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers.

An Analogy: Why Browser Security is Important? 

To understand the importance of Browser Security, let's take an example. If you are living in a house with multiple doors and windows, it will be imprudent if you just lock the front door and leave the back door and windows open. With robbers lurking around the house, if anyone leaves backdoors and windows open, it is inviting trouble and hoping that robbers would not bring a ladder to sneak in. A similar principle applies to the cybersecurity world where the house refers to your valuable crown jewels that is your data and the doors and windows are the security types that have to be carefully secured without leaving a single window open.

A study was conducted by a study group to protect internet users from the malware filled web. As per the survey, enterprises are well aware of the heavy usage of web browsers and the growing risks but are still not locking the doors. Based on the survey results, 29 percent of organizations experienced a security breach within the past 24 months related to an attack exploited through a vulnerability in an endpoint's web browser.  

Internet Explorer 11 Vulnerabilities 

There have been several security vulnerabilities identified in Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11) by researchers. One of these bugs reported in IE 11 is it allows hackers to perform remote code execution on endpoint systems and gain administrative privileges. This vulnerability is also a zero-day meaning hackers can exploit it before Microsoft could provide a fix for it. The bug was found in the IE 11 scripting engine and is linked to the way objects are handled in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited the code could gain the same user rights as the current user. If it was an admin user, the attacker can gain administrative rights and use that to install software, edit, delete data and create new accounts with full access privileges.

Another example of IE 11 vulnerability is in a web-based attack scenario, an attacker can host a website specifically designed to exploit the vulnerability through IE 11 and convince the user to view the website. In addition, an attacker can take advantage of compromised websites and websites that accept or host user-provided content or advertisements. These websites could contain specially crafted content that could exploit the vulnerability.

Microsoft's Roadmap to Phase out IE 11 and Legacy Edge Browsers 

Due to the issues related to security, speed, privacy, manageability, and productivity in IE 11, Microsoft stopped adding new features to IE 11. The timeline provided by Microsoft to phase out IE 11 and Microsoft Edge Legacy Browser is illustrated below.

Figure: Microsoft IE 11 Browser Phase-out Timeline

• Beginning November 30, 2020, the Microsoft Teams web app will no longer support IE 11.
• Update: The Microsoft Teams web app no longer supports IE 11 as of November 30, 2020. To access Microsoft Teams, use the desktop app or a supported modern browser like the new Microsoft Edge. 
  
  
• Beginning August 17, 2021, the remaining Microsoft 365 apps and services will no longer support IE 11.

For more information, see the Microsoft Technical Community Blog.

As an alternative to IE 11, Microsoft's newer browser Microsoft Edge is promoted to provide:

• Enhanced Security
• Easy to switch
• Improved Online Experience
• Faster Web Access
• Better organization using Collections
• Enables Protecting your identity and data
• Saves time by using Smart Copy
• Notifies you if your password is compromised on the dark web using Password Monitor

 For more information about Microsoft Edge features, see the Microsoft blog – Top 10 reasons to switch to Microsoft Edge.

SummitAI's Recommended Browsers 

Symphony Summit has always been concerned about customer's security and providing a better user experience. In line with Microsoft's decision to phase out IE 11, Summit would highly recommend using other browsers such as: Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox.

If you continue to use IE 11 for accessing the SummitAI web application, we certify the product functionality on all the releases till March 31, 2021 only. For support related to IE 11, you would need to reach out to the Microsoft support team.

From April 1, 2021 onwards, no releases [major, Service Pack (SP), and Hot Fixes (HF)] will be tested and certified on IE 8,9,10, and 11 browser. In addition, any bugs and enhancement requests raised for SummitAI product/feature to work specifically on IE 8, 9, 10, and 11 versions will not be accepted.