RabbitMQ 3.x support is ending – what are your options?

TL;DR; Your options are:
1. Upgrade now and stay on the supported path.
2. Keep your legacy supported and make the upgrade manageable. How? Keep on reading!
3. Risk losing support.

What are your options for ongoing RabbitMQ support? Take a look at the options below that team like yours are considering right now…

We support all versions of RabbitMQ, legacy and new.*

*We can’t promise security upgrades and core feature fixes, but we can provide deep expertise spanning a multitude of RabbitMQ related issues, and help to prepare your environment for a smooth and successful transition, when the time is right for you. 

Community support for RabbitMQ 3.x and other legacy versions will cease next month.  Only RabbitMQ 4.0 will continue to be officially supported by VMware/Broadcom. As Broadcom phases out legacy RabbitMQ, businesses face an urgent need for ongoing, reliable support. Upgrading is a future goal, but your operations can’t wait. So where does that leave the legacy community right now?

We’re acutely aware that there are situations that require time and planning before simply upgrading to the latest version.  For many, RabbitMQ forms a backbone of technical architecture with embedded infrastructure dependencies.  Stability of the entire system is paramount, especially in regulated industries, and the risk of breaking changes with a hasty upgrade can be costly.  Add to that DevOps bandwidth and a forced upgrade becomes a much larger headache. 

Upgrading from legacy RabbitMQ is a logistical and financial undertaking that takes time. Staying put, therefore, becomes a logical decision – at least for the short term.

So where does that leave you in the interim?

Fortunately, we’re champions of RabbitMQ, and the legacy community, and we’re here to tell you that all versions of RabbitMQ deserve first class support until you’re ready to migrate. Legacy RabbitMQ users deserve responsive, expert help – not second tier status, and continued support is crucial to enable teams to plan future upgrades responsibly.

Here are your options👇

If you’re already on RabbitMQ 4.x

You’re in a good spot and you clearly value the benefits of keeping your environment up to date. Ensure it continues and have your system regularly checked for optimum performance. Our health checks page provides a useful breakdown of the areas you may wish to focus on.

If you’re ready to upgrade to RabbitMQ 4.0 or beyond…

You’ve made the decision and you have the capacity and a clear window to migrate.  Before you start, you can use our free self-assessment tool to determine your readiness and set you up for a smooth move. Good luck!

If you’re not ready to upgrade to 4.x yet…

We’re talking to teams all the time who are managing legacy RabbitMQ in different ways. Some with third party help, others relying on in-house expertise to keep things ticking over and a few are currently going unsupported. Each of these approaches comes with trade-offs…

“We already have support”

If it’s working well and will continue to support legacy versions, that’s great.  Some teams are just keeping an eye on how their needs evolve and comparing models in the background as part of standard diligence. 

“We’re doing this in house”

In-house teams often know their systems best, but a few are starting to think about resilience, particularly around legacy system setups. What happens if key team members move or new problems arise?  We’ve been helping in-house teams to de-risk and skill-up in a range of RabbitMQ related topics through our ongoing support, consultancies and training labs. 

“We’re not in a regulated industry so compliance isn’t a factor for us”

Even though compliance isn’t a driving force, many teams in non-regulated sectors that we work with still want support as a safety net against operational disruptions – especially when workloads are critical but upgrades aren’t immediately feasible. 

“We are in a regulated industry and need to remain compliant”

Unsupported infrastructure can put regulated industries in a tricky spot.  Whilst some teams are ready to upgrade to ensure full compliance, others need more of a compliance bridge – giving you time to plan, document and migrate the right way:

• A clear transition plan that meets regulatory change control standards
• Support documentation for auditing
• Ongoing security guidance
• Service level agreements tailored for regulated environments

We’re working with organisations to navigate the pressures that end of support is putting on tech teams across financial services, government and health care.