CIQ is now extending the life of CentOS Linux 7, which reaches end of life (EOL) on June 30, 2024. CIQ Bridge will extend the life for up to three years beyond EOL to organizations requiring additional time in migrating to Rocky Linux.

CIQ Bridge, essentially a long-term support service tailored for CentOS 7 users on the migration path to Rocky Linux, is offered under an annual, fixed-rate subscription. CIQ Bridge includes access to CentOS 7 extended life package updates for an additional three years and security updates for CVSS 7 issues and above. Security updates for CVSS 5 and 6 are available at an elevated subscription tier. CIQ Bridge is designed to support CentOS 7 users until they are ready for CIQ guidance and support in migration to Rocky Linux.

When Red Hat announced in December 2020 that it was ending support for CentOS Linux, the operating system was one of the most widely used among professional IT teams in both government and enterprise deployments, with hundreds of thousands of organizations using the platform. Still today, Enlyft documents over 385,000 companies using CentOS. Although many organizations have already successfully migrated to Rocky Linux (developed in 2021 as an alternative to CentOS) or other Linux OS alternatives, some organizations are finding it difficult to do so before June 30 for a variety of reasons, including compliance issues, talent shortages and lags in budgetary cycles, among others.

“As a result of the changes to CentOS, many organizations decided to remain on the last stable version of CentOS Linux for as long as possible,” said Gregory Kurtzer, founder and CEO of CIQ. “Now that it is clear that Rocky Linux has emerged as the natural successor, CIQ has been called in to help with migrations. We’ve found that many organizations need just a bit more time to complete the migration, and as a result, CIQ Bridge has been created to relieve the pressure of the CentOS 7 end of life while providing the ‘bridge’ to Rocky Linux.”

Organizations who are ready to migrate from CentOS Linux to Rocky Linux can get enterprise-grade performance without the enterprise-grade price tag with CIQ.