Our ongoing mission is to help insurers engage, innovate, and grow efficiently. Today we are pleased to announce changes to our software release strategy and delivery cadence in order to enable Guidewire customers to achieve these business outcomes at an even faster pace.
Starting this year, we are moving from two to three cloud releases (a.k.a., Ski Releases) annually. This change was made possible by the release update automation capabilities delivered over the last several months, making it much faster and easier for our customers to update to the latest release.
This same kind of update automation capability will be enabled for both InsuranceSuite and InsuranceNow customers, which is an exciting investment in our InsuranceNow capabilities and customer roadmap.
Guidewire Cloud Ski Releases in 2023:
- Garmisch will be delivered in April
- Our “H” release will be delivered approximately 120 days later
- Our “I” release will be delivered approximately 120 days after our “H” release.
Security patches will be provided every 60 days throughout the year, including as part of each Ski Release and 60 days after each release (or six patches total)
What does this mean for Guidewire Cloud customers?
While there is no change to the frequency required for customers to update between releases, we believe staying current is critical to ensuring continuous customer success. This includes the ability to take advantage of the latest innovations and new capabilities, as well as gaining the highest level of security, performance, and availability.
As part of this change in release cadence we’ve also updated our Guidewire Cloud Standards to give InsuranceSuite customers approximately 7 months to go-live on a release after its GA date. (For example, if Garmisch is released on April 1, 2023 – go-lives will be permitted on Garmisch until approximately November 1, 2023.)
View our Guidewire Cloud Standards for Go-Live on Latest Version (login required).
What does this mean for Guidewire self-managed customers?
While not currently running in the cloud, this change in release cadence has driven us to standardize our delivery strategy for self-managed customers as well. Going forward, Guidewire will be providing a single InsuranceSuite release annually in the same timeframe as the third Ski Release in a given year. For example, in 2023 it is targeted for delivery around the same time as the “I” release in November.
In addition, security patches for Self-Managed customers will now be aligned with Ski releases, so these will also be delivered three times per year. Please note that except in the case of the November release (that will also include security patches), these will be non-functional releases only.
We believe this adjustment in our release delivery strategy puts Guidewire in the best position to support the ongoing needs of our Self-Managed customers.
Start planning your next update
If you are a Guidewire customer or partner and have any additional questions about our new release delivery strategy or need help planning your next update, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.
Guidewire customers can contact your Customer Success Manager, and partners can contact your Alliance Manager.
About the Author
Jonathan Michael
Developer Evangelist
Jonathan has spent the last 12 years developing and implementing customer-centric digital marketing strategies. As the Developer Evangelist at Guidewire, Jonathan will be focused on partnering with, and advocating for the success of, developers who use Guidewire's ecosystem to build a better tomorrow.