Product and feature end-of-life procedures

InfluxData adheres to the following process for any End-of-Life (EOL) of products and features, including the shutdown of InfluxDB Cloud regions.

1. Email Notices: Customers are given at least six months notice of the change in service via the following communication methods:

   • Email notifications are sent to all users and billing contacts associated with the account.
   • Emails are sent as “Service Notification” emails that customers and users cannot opt out of. Service Notifications are limited to critical service changes or updates and come from a support or formal alert alias.
   • Initial email notifications are followed by at least two additional reminders. For longer notice periods (one year or more), reminders are sent at least quarterly. As the date approaches, additional reminders are sent. Any new accounts established after the date of the first email notification that are impacted by the service shutdown are included in the subsequent reminders.

2. Non-Email Notification: Notifications and reminders are added to the following areas:

   • In-app notification for InfluxDB products that include a user interface (UI) that users must read or acknowledge in order to proceed in the app.
   • For annual accounts or accounts billing more than $500 USD per month, an additional personal outreach is attempted by a Sales Team Member or Technical Support Team member. -docs.influxdata.com notification informing visitors of the upcoming end-of-life. The notification remains from the date of the first email through the end-of-life date.
   • Reminders published in the InfluxDB Community Slack channel starting on the day of the initial email and the day before the event.
   • For any planned InfluxDB Cloud cluster removal, a banner notification is added to the InfluxData status page located at status.influxdata.com at the same time the first notification is sent (at least six months in advance of the shutdown).

3. Fail-Safe Controls: Because the above communication methods may not be 100% effective, InfluxData implements the following fail-safe controls to allow for a “scream test” with the ability to notify customers via an outage and wait to see who responds before shutting down the service or feature and before deleting any data. At least 30 days before the scheduled service removal, InfluxData temporarily disables the service (in a fully reversible manner) for up to 24 hours so that all users relying on the service should be able to detect the service loss and can get assistance. After 24 hours, the service is returned to normal operation. Depending on the results of the first “scream test,” InfluxData may perform additional scream tests.

   • As soon as the first “scream test” is started, a banner is added to the top of the status.influxdata.com page advising users about the service removal. This banner stays in place until the service is fully removed.
   • Feature Flagging: For reversible actions and other changes that can be feature flagged, InfluxData adds a feature flag, which enables flexibility to turn off the service for everyone, but still allow it for individual accounts in case of emergency.
   • System Backup: Back up the system at the point in time of execution of the end-of-life, including data and configuration when appropriate.
   • Export Capability: For any end-of-life event that would cause customer data to be deleted, an export capability exists to give the customer a reasonable method of exporting their data.
   • Waiting Period: There is at least a 30-day waiting period from disablement of service before the service is actually removed. This allows 30 days for customers and users to report a service outage and notify them if they were not aware of the end-of-life.

4. Data Recovery: If a customer contacts us within the 30-day waiting period, InfluxData restores the service when possible, or provides backups of data if a restore of the service is not possible.

5. Data Retention: Data retention in InfluxDB Cloud is described in InfluxData’s Data retention documentation and SOC-2 Statement.