With the new SN policy to support only N and N-1 release, How can i upgrade just once a year and still be compliant?

[Ripu Daman1]

We are on New Yorkand begin to plan for upgrade to Paris, in long term only want to upgrade once a year but with ServiceNow's new policy to only support N and N-1 release how can a customer upgrade only once a year(i.e. skip a release) and still be on supported version of SN??

Just wanted to know how are you guys planning your upgrades now? Does this mean we have to sign up for early release of Paris and perform our upgrade testing in that version? Or are customers planning to upgrade multiple times an year? 

Below article has some more information about ServiceNow's policy that i am referring to:

https://hi.service-now.com/kb_view.do?sysparm_article=KB0783520

[Jaspal Singh]

Hi Ripu,

Yes, few days ago even we got to know about it. So, better always to wait & go for the Q3 ServiceNow version that would be released so as to upgrade only once a year. In that case, if you are on New York then yes, its better to go for Paris rather than Orlando. There may be some execeptional cases where we can have N-2 support but that again would vary per contract & agreements between ServiceNow & your organization which ServiceNow Account Manager may have better knowledge.

[Jeff Currier]

With N-1, that means you can be on either of two versions.  So you can upgrade once a year, either in the spring or the fall.  If you go that route, then it is better if you get in the early adopter program so you can test earlier and be ready when your target release is available.  There are many customers who are upgrading twice a year, so they can take advantage of new functionality more quickly.  Also, less changes with each upgrade if you are only doing one version at a time.  

As a final now, utilizing the Automated Testing Framework helps to lessen the testing effort and gives you more confidence in the upgrade while reducing manual work.

Be sure too check out the upgrade section of the Customer Success Center for more upgrade tips and more advantages of keeping current with the latest release.

[Ripu Daman1]

@Jaspal Singh / @Jeff Currier , So i totally get that its better to be early adopter and we should plan for upgrade in Fall but wouldnt we be non-compliant in that case(unless we decide to enroll in early release testing of Paris and perform our skip analysis in that version of Paris).

For example, we are on NY right now, if we wait for Paris release(general availability) and then start the upgrade process then we will be N-2 at that point and therefore out of compliance for the duration of upgrade.

[Jeff Currier · Accepted solution]

ServiceNow knows you will not upgrade the day a release becomes GA, so some time is given.  This way you can do early testing with the Early Adopter release, then get the GA release, do your final testing and upgrade production.  But don't take my word for it, read the "Plan for upgrades at least once per year" presentation on the Success site.  Where it says:

"ServiceNow releases a new version of the Now Platform® twice per year. To make sure you can take advantage of new functionality, you should stay on the latest release. We recommend upgrading your ServiceNow® instances at least once a year to stay no more than one version behind the latest release. "

This post specifically talks about the grace period after a release goes GA.