16.09.08 IOS XE release end of sofware support milestones

[juanfaure]

Hi, 

I have seen milestones for 16.9.x XE IOS at End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Announcement for the Cisco IOS XE 16.9.x - Cisco

but I cannot understand why the 16.9.8 MD version was released in 2021 September the 1st if date of end of software support for 16.9.x train updates was thef 2021 August the 4th,  as you can see at Software Download - Cisco Systems

Can anybody explain this conflict?

Kind Regards

[Ramblin Tech]

My assessment:

The EoS/EoL Announcement states that the final maintenance rebuild would be released by 31 January 2021. The 16.9.7 rebuild, released on 14 Feb 21, aligns with this milestone and indicates a 14-day slip in posting to cisco.com.

Likewise, the Announcement states that the final rebuild to address security vulnerabilities would be released by 4 Aug 21. The 16.9.8 rebuild which addresses five security vulnerabilities, was released on 1 Sep 21, representing a 27-day slip in posting.

Software releases chronically come in three flavors: (1) late; (2) on-time, but with originally targeted bug fixes and/or new features de-committed from the final image; (3) both late and with de-commits.