hosted customers face long wait for version 8

[elnombre1]

A widget on this web page:

http://www.adobe.com/special/adobeconnect/migration/index.html

...indicates that our paid hosted account will be upgraded to version 8 --sometime in March 2011!

<rant>

We already have people asking about accessing the new features, some are sitting in on Adobe's V8 demo sessions, and we have clients getting confused as they wander into the heavily-promoted V8 interface training on Adobe's web site.  We had been waiting to receive info from Adobe since the official release in November and have just now stumbled upon the migration link above.  It's hard to believe that Adobe isn't proactively informing their paying customers about anything.  We expected good business practice would amount to something sooner than a 4 month turn-around.  Had it been clear that the trade-off between locally-hosted and Adobe-hosted meant that Adobe-hosted customers would be ignored on Adobe's back burner, we would have chosen differently.

</rant>

And, yes, I've tried contacting the Adobe rep who advised us originally on our  purchase of the hosted version of Connect, but he does not respond.

How are other hosted customers faring with the upgrade?  Any suggestions for obtaining improved service from Adobe?

[dtauer]

We're in the same boat (March 2011 upgrade) and we're an Adobe Partner (and sell Adobe Connect on top of that).  This is sort of a good thing, though.  Adobe rolled out Connect 8 on the "na3" server in November.  They are monitoring the migration and helping customers work through any unusual compatibility issues with existing assets (courses, presentations, meetings, etc).  They'll then upgrade the other hosted servers.  This is really the only way to be able to support their clients during the upgrade.  On the plus side we should have less issues with the migration....on the negative side, we have to wait.

As a consolation prize, if you aren't aware of it, you can sign up for a free Connect 8 account on the Adobe Labs website:  http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/adobeconnect8/.  This will give you the opportunity to play around with the new interface before your server is updated.

[Guest]

There is a bit of mis-understanding here so let me explain.

Here is a copy of the press release from Nov. 1, 2010 when Adobe Connect was announced:

http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20101031005020/en/Adobe/Adobe-Connect/Web-conferencing

Notice on-premise customers could obtian their upgrade immediately. Hosted customers are being rolled out in a phased approach to insure smooth operation and make sure customers will have a good experience with no issues. One cluster was completed in December, others began in January and this month. A large portion of clusters is being upgraded end of March/April/May.  The migration center can advise you when your server is ready.  Your Adobe Connect contact will receive a 30 day notice prior to upgrade. Actually, the press release does say it was a planned phased approach.

If you send me an email with your contact information and the sales rep you tried to contact, I'll check into why there was no response. It's possible that person never received your email or may not be employed by Adobe any longer. Normal business process would be to respond and so I will check into that for you.

Hosted customers were not ignored in favor of on-premise. There are a tremendous number of hosted customers versus the small number of on-premise. It's a matter of customer service. If there were any technical support issues with the conversion, Adobe wanted to make sure we had the resources ready to handle customers properly and quickly.  Converting all servers at once may have risked customer support not being what it should be.  It really was an effort to make sure customers could get help when they needed it.  So far all conversions have been very smooth and uneventful!

Let me know if I can help you.  hdrummon@adobe.com