If you run Maximo 7.6, you have already heard the IBM end-of-support story. You may have heard several versions of it from several partners, all with different urgency dials. This guide cuts through that.
What end of support actually means
When IBM ends mainstream support for a product version, you lose:
- Routine bug fixes
- Security patches
- New IBM-driven enhancements
- Standard support entitlement on incidents
You can still run the software. It still works. It just becomes a slowly increasing operational and security risk. Crucially, the regulatory or insurance posture of running unsupported software in your industry may already make ‘do nothing’ an unacceptable answer regardless of IBM’s calendar.
Your three real options
There are not five options. There are three.
Option 1: Upgrade to MAS
The strategic answer. Move to IBM Maximo Application Suite, ideally as part of a cloud or managed-hosting move at the same time. Cost band typically £150k–£600k for a focused upgrade, longer for heavily customised estates. Returns include a supported platform, a path to MAS Mobile / Monitor / Predict / Health, and significantly lower long-term cost of ownership.
Option 2: Extended support
IBM offers extended support for legacy versions for a defined window. This buys time, not capability. It is the right answer when an upgrade is genuinely impossible in the next twelve to eighteen months because of a competing programme, but it is not a destination.
Option 3: Do nothing, knowingly
The honest version of ‘we will deal with it later’. This is acceptable only if:
- You have explicitly accepted the security risk at board level
- Your insurer and regulator have accepted the position
- You have a credible plan for option 1 within an agreed window
If any of those three is missing, this is not ‘do nothing knowingly’. It is ‘do nothing and discover the consequences later’.
How to decide between options
Ask three questions.
How much customisation do you have?
Heavily-customised estates take longer to upgrade and benefit most from doing so. Lightly-customised estates can move quickly. Either way, the existence of customisation argues for upgrade, not for delay, because every additional year of legacy makes the customisations harder to migrate later.
What else is happening in your IT and operations roadmap?
If you are mid-flight on a separate ERP migration, a major operational programme or a corporate restructure, sequence the Maximo upgrade carefully. Do not collide it with other big-bang change. But do not use ‘we are busy’ as an indefinite reason to skip it.
What is your regulatory and insurance position?
In utilities, transport, oil and gas and public sector, running unsupported software on safety-critical assets is increasingly a hard ‘no’ from regulators and insurers, regardless of IBM’s support calendar. Get this position in writing now, not in eighteen months when it is too late to plan.
A pragmatic plan
For most Maximo 7.6 estates, the answer is:
- Now: assess customisations, integrations and data quality. Fixed-price upgrade quote within a few weeks.
- Within two to three months: trial upgrade in a non-production environment to validate technical path and surface unknowns.
- Within nine to twelve months: production cutover, often combined with cloud move and database conversion to DB2.
- Within eighteen months: layered MAS modules (Mobile, Health, Monitor) where the business case supports them.
This is not aggressive. It is the rate at which most well-run estates are moving. Partners (including us) who tell you it has to happen by next quarter or you lose access are overselling. Partners who tell you it can wait three years are underselling.
Where MaxIron fits
We have upgraded every Maximo version from 5.x onwards. We commit to fixed-price upgrade quotes within 24 hours of analysis and trial upgrades in non-production within a week. Most importantly, we will tell you honestly where in the spectrum your estate sits — not where our pitch deck would prefer it to sit.
If you would like an honest read on where you are, get in touch.
Talk to the people who would actually deliver it
No pitch deck, no pressure. A direct conversation with one of our senior consultants.
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