Adobe announces the End of Life for Business Catalyst

[MagdaN]

Adobe is committed to delivering exceptional software and services to our customers. It’s in our nature to innovate and try new things, and it was in this spirit that we acquired Business Catalyst in 2009. As we re-focus on products that broadly provide our customers with the most value, Adobe is announcing the end of development for Business Catalyst as of March 26th, 2018. New sites will no longer be available for purchase starting with June 18th, 2018. 

Adobe will stop hosting existing sites on Business Catalyst on March 26th 2020. Adobe encourages customers to download their data and migrate to other systems well before March 26th 2020. Detailed how-to information and assistance is available. Customers' data will be retained by Adobe until March 26th 2020, after which date the data will be deleted. Data retention is for the sole purpose of allowing customers to export their data and transfer to another platform.   

We thank our Business Catalyst users and want to help them make a smooth transition to a third-party service. Please see the following for more information on transitioning:  https://secure.worldsecuresystems.com/product-announcement

Please see below a detailed FAQ.

Why is Adobe discontinuing Business Catalyst?

Adobe is committed to delivering exceptional software and services to our customers. It’s in our nature to innovate and try new things, and it was in this spirit that we acquired Business Catalyst in 2009. As we re-focus on products that broadly provide our customers with the most value, we are now announcing the end of life for Business Catalyst. We thank our Business Catalyst users and want to help them make a smooth transition to a third party service.

When will the End of Life take effect?

On March 26th, 2020.

Will this end-of-service affect paid sites as well?

Yes, all sites, including trial and paid sites, partner sites, etc. will be affected by the end of life.

Will data be available for download beyond the service end date?

1. No. Data will be deleted. We encourage users to download their data before the service end date.

I need help downloading my data. Whom can I contact for help?

BC users may find export instructions in the Business Catalyst Help and Support pages. If you still have questions, please contact our Customer Support team.

How long do I have to export my data?

All Business Catalyst servers will be taken down on March 26th, 2020, after which all customer data will be deleted. Please export your data before March 26th, 2020.

How long will you keep my data? What will you do with it?

We will retain your data until March 26th, 2020 or until you delete your site, whichever is sooner, so that you can transition to another product.

Do you recommend another product for me to use?

While there are other hosting solutions available in the market, Adobe does not recommend a specific product. For basic websites and Creative Cloud users, we provide documentation to help with transition to GoDaddy, should the customer choose this replacement. Moreover, since we’ve seen the emergence of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) website creators that leverage customizable templates to quickly create responsive websites, Adobe is making our own investment in the DIY space and welcomes all interested customers to join our upcoming pre-release program for a new format that will be introduced later this year as part of Adobe Spark.

Will new features be developed?

No, new features will no longer be developed on Business Catalyst. We are maintaining a small team to correct critical issues, but no new work is being done. The Business Catalyst team will maintain the PCI and GDPR compliance throughout the lifetime of the product and develop any new features needed in this respect.

Will Adobe still fix the bugs in Business Catalyst?

We will continue to repair critical issues (related to security, payments or customer data for example) when they appear, however, the work will be limited to bugs that have a high security or high stability risk. We will not be fixing minor items with small impact or that have a workaround which can be used.

Will my site be closed down?

At this time, all sites will continue to be live and the public will see no difference in your site. However, starting with March 26th, 2020 all sites will no longer be live and they will not be accessible either to the general public, or to the site administrators. Please find an alternative platform for your site and data before this date.

Can I continue creating trial sites?

You can continue creating trial sites until June 18^th, 2018. They need to be upgraded to a paid plan before June 18^th, 2018. The data from these sites, as well as from any other site in your portfolio, needs to be removed from the platform before March 26th, 2020.

Can I upgrade my trial site to paid?

You can continue upgrading trial sites to paid until June 18^th, 2018, but the data from these sites, as well as from any other site in your portfolio needs to be removed from the platform before March 26th, 2020.

Can I downgrade my site or make any other plan changes?

Yes, you can continue making any changes to your site plan and extras until March 26th, 2020.

Can I still purchase extras?

You can continue purchasing extras until March 26th, 2020. Please note that all extras expire on March 26th, 2020 and can no longer be used after that date.

Can I continue sending newsletters?

The e-mail marketing features will continue to work for the duration of your site. You can continue sending emails until March 26th, 2020 at which point all newsletter credits remaining in your account will expire.

Can I still redeem my commissions?

You can continue to redeem the commissions available in your account until March 26^th 2020.  Following this date this feature will not be available anymore.

What happens to the commissions below $500?

At this time, we are researching technical options to allow redemption of lower commissions. Please stay tuned for further announcements from the Business Catalyst team.

Can I extend the validity of my extras beyond March 26th, 2020?

No, the validity date for your extras can no longer be extended. All extras not used until March 26^th 2020 will be forfeited.

Will I be able to use Adobe Muse or Dreamweaver to update my site?

Yes, until March 26th, 2020, if your desktop app still functions properly.

Will I still have technical support for Adobe Business Catalyst?

Yes, until March 26th, 2020. However, after June 18^th, 2018, our support team will give a higher priority to cases about the off the platform migration questions, in addition to critical security, compliance, and availability issues.

[Jinesh Vora]

And by the way, I found this link - https://www.change.org/p/mick-jackson-adobe-business-catalyst-class-action-sale-of-product

[Abambo]

You over-estimate your chances! No company is liable for secondary costs. You do not pay hosting fees for sites that are shut off.

[C9-MB]

I'm not estimating my chances at all, simply stating that such unplanned additional costs will be examined by those considering a class-action, of which a few have already been mentioned. Perhaps advice on the likelihood of any success is best left to that legal councel

[Abambo]

C9-MB  wrote

Perhaps advice on the likelihood of any success is best left to that legal councel

So do not discuss this in the public. Go to your councel, burn your cash and when you are decided to go to a judge, announce that. For all the rest: the annoncements of any class action that are done here are vaporware. Keep your power for the transition.

[C9-MB]

I don't know what your problem is, but I simply stated that there are at least 2 contacts provided here for class actions, and that those are the people to be talking to about examining any potential of recovering unplanned costs.

[HTDL]

Please can you please update  the 2nd para in the EOL announcement as it still says March 2020...

Product Announcement

[cristinel@adobe]

Hi Andrew,

The new date is specified in the update below, but I see this might be confusing so I've also updated the second paragraph dates as well.

Thank you,

Cristinel

[jenniw13095944]

Previously BC offered no refund on pre-paid hosting.  Now that you are closing, surely this policy is changed. Or are we expected to be out of pocket as clients are insisting on moving sooner rather than later?  On top of the time and effort required to transfer hosting which we now must do across all sites.  Please make this a priority to address as is unfair to have to sit on our hands so Adobe can bring in more revenue when they have treated their community so badly already.

[cristinel@adobe]

Hi Jenni,

Please see my answer above... If the sites are on yearly plans, please reach out to out support team and we will refund the remaining prorated value. We do not offer refunds on monthly sites or upgrade fees.

Cristinel

[jenniw13095944]

Thanks Cristinel, will do.  Appreciate the response.

[KarimArdalan]

For anyone looking for an easy way to get your data out of BC, we just released our BC Exporter app. Just one click to export all your BC data. https://www.bcappstore.com/apps/bc-exporter

[Pretty_Brett]

Hi Cristinel

Today we had a problem with all of our SOAP API applications and we sent the day trying to work out that Adobe had decided to make a fundamental change to how the API works in regard to TLS1.2.

See attached from support : https://www.screencast.com/t/ZOpwizJ3

I understand you want to shut BC down as quickly as possible however you obviously knew it was going to break all the API connections. It's a little disrespectful not even to both a quick email about it and leave it up to all our clients to work out their apps weren't working .

I'm a little upset about this. Is that what it's going to be like from now on?

[Peter-AM]

Wow, and you guys were inner circle partners.

Scary to think that the old "annoy them" and they'll leave sooner tactic maybe occuring, but I doubt it. Surely they are not that cruel minded after the disruptions already created.

[cristinel@adobe]

Hi Bret,

This has been announced one and a half years ago and we already postponed the enforcement for quite some time to give partners more time to migrate. See the announcement here: Disabling use of TLS 1 in Business Catalyst You were already aware of the change a year ago: https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2292313

Cristinel

[Liam Dilley]

While we had setup and support on our servers Cristinel the critical API change required was not clear and you did not give developers a heads up that the change was happening on Thursday.

While we had: System.Net.ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol = SecurityProtocolType.Tls12;
We had this in place for changes to other API's such as Salesforce. The specific change required for the BC SOAP API differed and the above did not naturally resolve and required -Dsoapui.https.protocols=TSLv1.2 which only came from support after the issue occurred and there is no indication anywhere of that change to be required documented anywhere within one and a half years.

As we were not the only ones with the issue and I have been thanked by several BC partners who used the info I shared to get their API sorted this was n another communication error on your end.

I would ask that any other changes with regard to the GDPR that will further break BC (As it has with no indication by support on the fixes to the admin as a result of the changes for example) or it's API.

Thanks

[Liam Dilley]

Further to the SOAP Cristinel, we have settings that support 1.2 on the server and have other REST OAUTH based solutions running fine but we also have encountered issues, ONLY with BC connections with the BC REST API. The Tokens are not renewing correctly.

We also found even with the right settings for SOAP the only true fix was to upgrade the .net version.

If there were, as it appears, very specific configurations and server states for the updates to work with the BC API this should have been stated rather then just a line in a post.

And since it was a year and a half ago a release update to let developers know the API was going to have a change should have really happened.

[Peter-AM]

Hi Cristinel

Surely you can now see that the Dashboard announcements section needs to be utilized and get those ancient announcements out.

Makes the system look like a negelicted joke when appearance is so many years out of date

[TechNashville]

Very unhappy about this. We've spent so much time developing our site through Adobe Muse and we host on Adobe Business Catalyst. Learning now that they are both going to be shut down has made us as a company lose faith in Adobe. Muse and BC were two of the main reasons we continue to purchase Adobe Creative Cloud. Now we probably won't be renewing. Very frustrating that you are dropping products that have so much life left in them.

[C9-MB]

I see that Adobe announced the purchase of Magento a few days ago - all smiles splashing out US$1.7B for that.

Likewise, I only had CC for PhotoShop, Acrobat and Dreamweaver.

I've since discontinued CC - replaced PhotoShop with Affinity Photo, Acrobat with Foxit PhantomPDF, and have no need for that god-awful Dreamweaver with our migration targets.

[DriverGroup]

Will I be able to still add the SSL overage at any time while BC is still Alive?

[graphicgene.co.uk]

Any news on the ability to transfer the comission I have acumulated over the years  - that is under $500 - before it disapears just like BC and muse?

[DriverGroup]

Will SSL overage upgrade be available throughout the rest of BCs life?
Or will there be a cut off date where you will no longer be able to perform this upgrade?

[cristinel@adobe]

Hi Reagan,

SSL overage will be available through the rest of BC life.

Cristinel

[Peter-AM]

At what cost? eg. keeping in mind an account could go almost to the EOL but need a ssl renewal 3 months before EOL the SSL price is off the scale at best of times, but to have to pay short term at full cost is exploitation at kindest level of expression.

Adobe should also be providing a 1 month no charge bc apps store migration tool to assist the inconvenience of moving off when forced to by EOL.

[cristinel@adobe]

At the same cost as today. We have no plans yet to change the cost structure of the sites. Any changes planed for the price structure will be announced 60 days before the change.