Is Veeam v9.5 U4 still coming out in Fall 2018?

[wa15]

I remember reading in one of the community digests posts that Fall 2018 is when we can expect U4 to be released. Given that Fall is almost over, is that the year (and fall) is almost over, is that still a realistic time frame? We have a large project planned around the S3 object storage capability and have been anxiously waiting for this feature.

[nielsengelen]

No specific date is available yet but we are close. We’ll update this thread among others once we get there.

[Gostev]

Yes, the time frame is realistic and it remains the target for R&D to ship the RTM build this year. In fact, we've already shipped the first release candidate (RC) build for internal and private beta use by our systems engineers a few days ago, which basically guarantees the RTM build will be out in the next few weeks.

However, at this point it's a lottery of when QC folks will stop finding stop-ship bugs in RC builds. Besides, the upcoming holidays season complicates things up - if we don't manage ship the RTM build before it starts, then for staffing reasons we will only be able to ship it in January. And most importantly, we just don't ship any product until QC feels it's ready - which is why we never set or announce any specific dates.

[wa15]

Good to know. Thank you

[aich365]

Any chance of calling this Veeam 10.x so we have a better chance of charging customers for the upgrade?

[nielsengelen]

Update 4 won't be renamed to V10. Customers with an ongoing contract can upgrade anyway without paying extra.

[aich365]

The software upgrade may be free but the labour to complete it should be chargeable as there is new functionality.
We have several customers who would need to upgrade at roughly half a day's labour each.
It is always harder to sell this to customers if there is only a suffix change in the release e.g from 9.3 to 9.4

thanks

[RubinCompServ]

Aich,

There is almost always new functionality in the updates. Working for an MSP, I don't understand why it would be difficult to say something like, "Update 4 contains new functionality and a number of important fixes. If you would like us to install it for you, it will be ~4 hours of work."

[sg_sc]

I suspect the GA will not arrive before the end of the year if the RTM is still to be released. Historically Veeam waits 2 weeks between RTM and GA.

[Gostev]

That is correct, however we start pilot deployments immediately after the RTM build has been shipped. First by providing it to customers who have support cases open on issues the update fixes, and then to anyone else. We call it "early availability" phase, and all Veeam enthusiasts are more than welcome to participate.

@Clive, good feedback anyway, thanks - definitely will be considered in the future. You should not have issues explaining Update 4 is a major release though, just by using many pages long What's New document

[nmdange]

So how do us Veeam enthusiasts participate

[happy_harry]

I'm also interested in how to become a "Veeam enthusiast." We have several customers who are looking for a better off-site backup solution and I would like to test Veeam backup to Azure blob storage. I think it would be a good option for some of our customers. However, we need to choose a product soon.

[Gostev]

There's no particular requirement by "Veeam enthusiast" I meant anyone who's interested to participate in pilot deployments of the RTM build before it is generally available. We will share here on the forums how to get the bits once we're at the corresponding stage of the early availability stage. By the way, I did not mention this explicitly, but of course the RTM code is fully supported by our technical support.

[nielsengelen]

Best way to get the bits is contact your local team and see what can be done as well.

However as we’re close to the release at this point, it may be better to wait

[Gostev]

Just to follow up on this, in the end we did ship the RTM build of Update 4 last year (on December 28th) and have already started pilot deployments through our technical support.

[SKratzTS]

Confirmed! Just got my service provider "go" email this morning. Time to update our customer cloud server!

[nmdange]

I'll be a pilot deployment!

[cmaier]

Thanks for the information. Is there already a full change log?

[nielsengelen]

Not yet, this will be available at GA.

[evilaedmin]

Just to follow up on this, in the end we did ship the RTM build of Update 4 last year (on December 28th) and have already started pilot deployments through our technical support.

Did the StoreOnce restore performance improvements make it into GA?

[Dima P.]

Hello,

Yes, it's included in Update 4. Please wait for the official What's New to review the entire list of new features and improvements (it should be published at GA).

Cheers!