On March 22, 2011, Oracle announced it has decided to discontinue all software development on the Intel Itanium microprocessor. The announcement is based on changing market conditions and follows both RedHat and Microsoft dropping Itanium support over the past year. Oracle continually evaluates customer demand for its software on server platforms.

To help customers protect their investments, Oracle will continue to provide support options for current versions of Oracle software on Itanium-based servers in accordance with Oracle's Lifetime Support Policy. Additionally, Oracle will continue to deliver and support its complete software stack on popular server platforms such as the Intel x86-64 and Oracle SPARC architectures, among others. Oracle's Lifetime Support Policy offers three stages of support for Itanium-based servers:

• Oracle Premier Support provides customers with maintenance and support of Oracle software on Itanium servers for five years from the general availability date of the software release.
• Oracle Extended Support provides customers with an extra three years of support for specific Oracle releases for an additional fee. Customers benefit from the same quality of service received with Oracle Premier Support, with the security of knowing they can migrate their software to a new platform when the time is right.
• Oracle Sustaining Support customers will receive technical support for as long as they operate their Itanium-based systems—including access to online support tools, knowledgebases, pre-existing fixes and assistance from technical support experts.

The below support table for Itanium is a sample representation of Oracle products. Oracle customers should use My Oracle Support to confirm the support timelines for their specific configurations.