Is there any sort of support lifecycle for the openedge database product? and if so, how does release 10.2B look in terms of remaining support lifecycle?
Mature - Dec 2011
Retired - tbd.
10.2B was released in 2009 and is near the end of its life. I have heard that it is slated to be retired when 12.0 ships sometime in 2018.
Thanks Tom for posting the link to Progress Communities. On that page, scroll down towards the bottom and you will find the "Life Cycle by Product Release" table.
As was pointed out, OE10.2B entered the Mature life cycle phase in December 2011. As OE10.2B was the last release in the OE10.x series, it is enjoying an extended period in the Mature phase. There are currently no formal plans to move it to the Retired phase, but once OE12.0 ships (likely in the first half of 2018), then OE10.2B will be 2 major releases behind and a candidate to Retire.
Note that moving to the Retired life cycle phase will have little impact on customers. Progress will continue to support OE10.2B for as long as customers have Maintenance contracts. Support becomes more and more limited over time however, as we stop certifying on new platforms and/or new versions of operating systems, we do not add new features, and would only consider hot fix requests based on our life cycle policy (pointer to this policy on the same web page).
As always, we encourage everyone to move off of OE10.x (or earlier versions), with the target now being OE11.7 (it will be generally available within a month or so). By doing so you have a more stable platform as we've been fixing bugs in every release, and you also have access to the latest and greatest features to help you remain competitive and relevant.