Communication - Sage 200 licence expiry & TLS update

Sage 200 licence expiry & TLS update

Notice 21-CW | 06 October 2021

Dear Partner / Developer,

We are writing to you to let you know that the deadline to upgrade customers using older versions (Sage 2013 up to and include Sage 200 Spring 2019) of the Sage Licence Service is changing. Below you can find all the details you need to know to support customers affected.

Overview of the current situation

TLS is a security protocol required for a variety of services, including the Sage Licence Service, which enables products to communicate securely. It’s important to note that TLS is not a protocol provided by Sage.

Sage 200 2013 up to and including Sage 200 Spring 2019 use a version of the Sage Licence Service which operates using the TLS 1.0 protocol. As this security protocol is now retired, with no future security updates scheduled, it presents a risk to customers if they continue to use it. To remove this risk, we made the decision to retire the use of this variant.

What is changing?

The deadline date by which all customers need to upgrade to versions of Sage 200 that operate using the new licence service, operating the TLS 1.0 protocol, is now 30 September 2022.

Previously the deadline date communicated was 30 September 2023, with staggered dates to support partner implementation capacity.

Why is the date changing?

We constantly monitor the service for several key elements including availability and risk. Recent monitoring has identified that the potential risk has increased and therefore, it is not appropriate to retain the original deadline date of September 2023.

What does this mean for my business & customers?

We understand that the change in deadline date will present a challenge to our customers and partners, therefore, to further support you, we will be providing a licence patch for the following versions:

• 2018.00 (Summer 2018)
• 2018.01 (Winter 2018)
• 2018.02 (Spring 2019)

This patch will need to be applied to the Sage 200 Server and will require a minimal amount of disruption to the customer.

These patches will be available shortly after we have released Sage 200 2022 R1, scheduled for early 2022. Though if it is appropriate, upgrades to the latest version are still an option.

We will not be providing patches for earlier versions, in line with the Sage lifecycle policy.

Sage 200 Historical Licences

Customers who operate a Sage 200 historical licence, where they are also using Sage 200 2013 up to and including Sage 200 Spring 2019 will also need to take action. They can either:

• Discontinue use of the historical licence by the deadline date of 30 September 2022, if it’s no longer required.
• Apply the patch we’ll provide if they are using 2018.00, 2018.01, 2018.02.
• Follow the historical licence upgrade process. You can access the disclaimers using the links:
• UK
• Ireland

Important Note:

To ensure the best experience possible for customers, and to minimise the required upgrades, we’d ask that you also review our announcement regarding Internet Explorer 11, which you can access here.

Questions?

If your enquiry is of a technical or support nature in the first instance, please contact the relevant support team as usual. Alternatively, with any other queries, please speak to your Partner Account Manager.

Kind regards,

Jo Kirkup

Product Manager, Sage 200

Anita Holley

Product Marketing Manager, Sage 200