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Encoway builds CPQ software for companies that design and sell complex industrial products. In mechanical and plant engineering, software isn’t something you swap out every year. Once a system is implemented, it becomes part of daily operations – stable, trusted, and deeply embedded.
That longevity is one of Encoway’s strengths. Customers make significant investments in these systems and expect them to keep working reliably for many years. New features are welcome, but never at the expense of stability or business continuity.
And yet, beneath that stability, the technology stack keeps moving.
Spring® frameworks evolve quickly. Support timelines change. Security vulnerabilities don’t stop appearing just because a system is mature. For Encoway, this creates a familiar but difficult question:
How do you keep long-running customer environments secure when the underlying components move faster than your customers can – or should – upgrade?
The Customer Reality: Stability First, Security Always
Encoway supports many different customer installations at the same time: some newer, some intentionally kept on older, proven versions. For customers, frequent upgrades are rarely a priority. Each upgrade requires testing, planning, and often additional cost. Many would rather stay on a version that works.
At the same time, security expectations have changed. Customers now ask early and directly:
How do you handle security updates? How long is this version supported? What happens when a vulnerability is discovered?
For Encoway, these questions are not theoretical. Some customers run Encoway software themselves. Others rely on Encoway to operate it as a service. In both cases, an unsupported Spring®-based dependency can quickly become a business problem, triggering audits, internal IT escalations, or even service interruptions.
Encoway needed a way to keep customer systems secure without forcing Spring®-related upgrades simply because upstream support had ended.
The Challenge: When Support Timelines Don’t Match Customer Needs
Encoway makes clear commitments to customers about how long each product version will be supported. Over time, however, support windows for the Spring® components embedded in those products became shorter than Encoway’s own promises.
The alternatives were all painful:
- Forcing customers onto new versions earlier than planned
- Absorbing repeated engineering effort to rework stable releases
- Accepting security risk that could damage trust and reputation
None of those options aligned with how Encoway wants to work, or how their customers expect them to behave. As regulatory pressure and customer security awareness increased, this mismatch became impossible to ignore.
Closing the Gap with Endless Lifecycle Support
To resolve this mismatch, Encoway adopted Endless Lifecycle Support (ELS) from TuxCare.
ELS allows Encoway to continue delivering security updates for Spring® projects even after upstream support has ended. Customers can stay on stable, familiar systems while still being protected against newly discovered vulnerabilities.
From a customer perspective, the benefit is simple:
- No rushed upgrades
- No unexpected re-engineering costs
- No sudden loss of security coverage
From Encoway’s perspective, ELS helps them honor long-term support commitments while strengthening their security posture.
As Jan Harder, Head of Product Development, described it, ELS functions as a safeguard for the company and for its customers. It reduces risk, protects reputation, and supports Encoway’s broader goal of being seen as a secure and reliable partner.
With Endless Lifecycle Support in place, Encoway can:
- Reassure customers that their CPQ systems remain secure
- Answer compliance questions with confidence
- Plan upgrades based on business value, not external deadlines
- Reduce exposure to incidents that could disrupt customer operations
Security becomes part of the service Encoway delivers – not a trigger for disruption.
A Better Experience for Long-Term Customers
Encoway’s customers want systems that last. Endless Lifecycle Support makes that possible without compromise.
Instead of pushing customers into system upgrades they are not ready for, Encoway can now provide what their market values most: stability, continuity, and confidence that security is handled responsibly behind the scenes.
If your customers depend on long-running Spring®-based software and expect both stability and security, Endless Lifecycle Support can help you deliver both without forcing change where it isn’t needed.
Get started with Endless Lifecycle Support.
