End of sale, end of service life, last date of support, EOL — vendors use these terms loosely and they get mixed up constantly. Here is what each one actually means, in plain language, so a date on this site is never ambiguous.
The last date a product can be bought new from the vendor. After it, the product is still fully supported — support does not end at end of sale. It is the first milestone on the lifecycle clock and usually falls several years before support ends.
The date the vendor stops publishing routine software maintenance and bug-fix releases for a product. Security fixes may continue for a while after this, but general software updates stop. It falls between end of sale and last date of support.
The final date the vendor provides any support for a product — no more software fixes, security patches, technical assistance, or hardware replacement. This is the milestone that matters most operationally. Many vendors, including Cisco, call it the Last Date of Support; it is the same thing as End of Service Life.
The date after which a product is no longer supported by the vendor in any way. Interchangeable with Last Date of Support. After EOSL the hardware still runs, but it is unsupported: no patches, no vendor RMA, no assistance. This is the date this site is built around.
An umbrella term for a product being retired. In everyday use "EOL" often means the same as end of service life, but vendors use it loosely — sometimes for end of sale, sometimes for last date of support. Because it is ambiguous, always check which specific milestone (end of sale vs. last date of support) a date refers to.
The date a product first became generally available to buy. It marks the start of the lifecycle; the span from GA to end of service life is the product’s full supported life.
Hardware support from an independent provider rather than the original manufacturer. TPM can keep a product covered (break/fix, replacement parts, on-site SLAs) after the vendor’s last date of support, usually below the OEM’s renewal price. It does not replace vendor firmware or security patches.
A label this site uses when a vendor does not publish a per-model end-of-service-life date. In that case the date is computed from the vendor’s own published support-life policy (for example, end of sale plus five years) and clearly flagged as computed, with the policy linked — never presented as a vendor-published date.
End of sale is the last date you can buy the product new; end of service life (EOSL) is the later date when all vendor support ends. The product stays fully supported through the gap between them, which is usually several years.
Not always. "End of life" (EOL) is an umbrella term used loosely — sometimes it means end of sale, sometimes end of service life. "End of service life" (EOSL), also called Last Date of Support, is specific: the date after which the vendor provides no support at all. When a date matters, confirm which milestone it refers to.
It is the final date the vendor supports a product — no software fixes, security patches, technical assistance, or hardware replacement after it. It is the same milestone as End of Service Life (EOSL).
Yes — the hardware keeps working. What stops is vendor support: no firmware or security patches, no vendor replacement parts. Unsupported hardware can often be kept in production with third-party maintenance, but the security exposure of unpatched firmware remains.