Answer

Long Term Support (LTS) refers to our quarterly releases (i.e., 18.1.1) and our service releases (i.e., 18.1.5). The initial Quarterly Release contains new features and defect fixes introduced throughout the entire previous quarter. They are typically released in January, April, July, and October, and are highlighted on our product releases page. After the initial quarterly release, Service Releases are released weekly or more, and contain incremental defect fixes.

Continuous Delivery (CD) releases come out roughly every two weeks, as new features are available, or as bug fixes are released. Their release numbers include the date they were released, and have a format such as 18.3.0.20180405-b291. Continuous Delivery releases allow users to take new features as they are implemented, rather than having to wait for the next quarterly release.

The general rule of thumb is that users can upgrade to any version that is numerically higher than the version they were previously on. This means that users can move between LTS releases and CD releases (if they are approved to take CD releases), so long as the release they are moving to is a higher number than the one they are currently on. For example, a user on 18.2.3 could move to 18.2.4 or to 18.3.0.20180405-b291, but not to 18.2.0.20180321-b269.

If you are interested in switching to the Continuous Delivery release stream, please reach out to customer care. Our customer care team will work with you to determine if Continuous Delivery will be a good fit for you. In general, Continuous Delivery Releases are not available for OEM (non-direct) customers, and will not be a good fit for customers who are not able to consume more than 4 upgrades per year, or customers requiring proactive Open Source Reports.