CipherTrust Connectors Product Lifecycle
Overview
CipherTrust Connectors are a family of products that integrate Applications and Databases with our core encryption, tokenization, and key operations. Part of the CipherTrust Data Security Platform, CipherTrust Connectors connect with the CipherTrust Manager to retrieve centrally protected keys to be used with our best of breed encryption and tokenization.
Products in the CipherTrust Connectors family are:
CipherTrust Application Key Manager (CAKM) for
Oracle TDE
Microsoft SQL Server EKM
CipherTrust Application Data Protection (CADP) for
C
.NET Core
Java
CipherTrust Database Protection (CDP) for
Oracle
Microsoft SQL Server
IBM DB2
Teradata
CipherTrust Vaulted Tokenization (CT-V)
CipherTrust Vaultless Tokenization (CT-VL)
CipherTrust RESTful Data Protection (CRDP)
CipherTrust Data Protection Gateway (DPG) for
REST
xDBC
CipherTurst Batch Data Transformation (BDT)
On average, every CipherTrust Connector has approximately two feature releases per year. These releases contain major and/or minor new features or enhancements, support for new third-party databases or applications, and support for new major or minor versions of operating systems. During the rest of the year, Thales may release an update to a CipherTrust Connector, on an almost weekly basis, to roll out security updates and hot fixes.
Following are the details of the CipherTrust Connectors Product Lifecycle.
Versioning
CipherTrust Connectors follow Semantic Versioning. Given a version number MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, we increment the:
MAJORversion when we make incompatible API changesMINORversion when we add functionality in a backward compatible mannerPATCHversion when we make backward compatible bug fixes
A fourth digit is added for security hotfixes.
Release Types
The following table lists the release types of CipherTrust Connectors.
| Release | Major | Minor | Patch | Hot Fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Numbering | 1.0.0 | 1.1.0 | 1.1.1 | 1.1.0.x |
| Cadence | 3+ Years | ~6 Months | As needed | As needed |
Support Phase Definitions
The following table defines the CipherTrust Connector support phases.
| Support Phase | Definition | Timeframe |
|---|---|---|
| Active | Period during which Thales Customer Support assists customers with issues. A maintenance agreement makes the customer eligible for patches and service packs. | From GA to the start of the Continued Support phase (decribed below). |
| Continued Support | Thales Customer Support can be engaged mainly for troubleshooting and workarounds. Thales engineering will fix bugs and provide validation for new OS kernels and new minor OS releases on an as-need basis. However, no additional investment will be made by development and engineering departments. | Begins with the release of the next service pack; ends after 6 months. |
| Extended Support | Support is provided on an as-needed basis. An extended maintenance agreement must be in place. Thales will provide bug fixes only. | Only applies to the last service pack before a Major release. Support timeframe begins after the Continued Support phase ends. |
Life Cycle
Following is a diagram of the CipherTrust Connector Life Cycle. The displayed version numbers are used for example only. They are not valid version numbers. The actual release timelines for these versions of CipherTrust Connectors may be different.
In general, there will be two live CipherTrust Connector versions at a time: one CipherTrust Connector version that is in the Active phase, and one that is in the Continued Support phase. In some cases, a third CipherTrust Connector version will also be in the Extended Support phase. This is to allow customers more time to move to the newer versions.
When a cumulative patch is released for a CipherTrust Connector version that will be considered as the Active CipherTrust Connector version, the current active service pack version and the previous service pack release continue to be supported for the Continued Support period. For instance, for the two Active CipherTrust Connector versions 7.0.0 and 7.1.0, if a cumulative patch for 7.1.1 is released, CipherTrust Connector 7.1.1 and CipherTrust Connector 7.1.0 would be the supported versions for hot fixes.
