MeetingMatrix Sunsetting Technical Reference

This documentation serves as an in-depth reference guide about the sunsetting of Amadeus’ MeetingMatrix product.

Important Date(s)

Product Name

Sunset Date

MeetingMatrix Site Visit November 18, 2019
MeetingMatrix iPlan Flash December 8, 2019
MeetingMatrix Online January 1, 2021
MeetingMatrix November 1, 2023

Sunset Process

Amadeus previously sunset MeetingMatrix SiteVisit on November 18, 2019, MeetingMatrix iPlan Flash on December 8, 2019, and MeetingMatrix Online on January 1, 2021.
Amadeus will sunset MeetingMatrix on November 1, 2023. Amadeus strongly recom-mends customers discontinue use of this product prior to the end-of-life date. Please refer to the Amadeus Fixed Life Cycle Policy for additional information.
Planned Path Forward 

Between November 1, 2022 – November 1, 2023, Amadeus is offering MeetingMatrix customers a complimentary migration to our more modern diagramming solution, Delphi Diagramming – Property Edition. Rather than having to maintain costly server hardware, Delphi Diagrams requires only an internet browser. You can log in and whip up a diagram anywhere you like. Pricing incentives are being offered for customers who migrate earlier during the sunset year, so don’t wait. Contact Amadeus to claim this complimentary offer today.

Customer Impact

MeetingMatrix is built upon a Microsoft technology platform and has architectural dependencies on Microsoft operating systems and Internet Explorer, the latter of which has been sunset by Microsoft. With the end-of-engineering for MeetingMatrix, Amadeus ceases to certify MeetingMatrix against newer versions of Microsoft operating systems. Also, due to its dependency on Microsoft Internet Explorer, Amadeus is unable to continue development of the product.

Microsoft Support
When the underlying platform/browser is no longer supported by the manufacturer (Microsoft), Amadeus is left with: 
  • No security fixes, which means that Microsoft will no longer be developing security updates for Internet Explorer. This situation results in higher risk of malware infections, advanced persistent threats, and security breaches. For example, if personally identifiable information (PII) data were to be compromised because of a security vulnerability, companies subject to PII regulations, such as the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), could be severely penalized. GDPR calls for up to 4% of a company’s yearly revenues as a penalty.
  • Few 3rd party malware protection, as Microsoft no longer supports IE, many 3rd party companies that provide malware protection solutions stop updating their products, which greatly increases the risk of infection. This situation can quickly become an issue because most malware protection solutions rely on hourly or daily updates to detect malware. Without these updates, the platform almost instantly becomes vulnerable to new malware. AV Test estimates that there are about 250,000 new malicious programs released every day. Without updated protection, public-facing servers will quickly be overrun with malware.
  • No platform support escalation point, which may result in longer outages, the risk of ongoing degraded performance, and the possibility an issue cannot be resolved. Amadeus relies on its partners to adequately support the underlying server platforms. These third parties have a deep understanding of the operating and database systems code and the tools needed to troubleshoot at the root level. Further, these manufacturers are the only ones that can correct defects once identified. Without an escalation path, Amadeus can only troubleshoot on its own. While Amadeus may identify the root cause after trial and error, it can take far longer than if manufacturer support were available. Further, solutions and workarounds are not always available, which would mean that the solution is left in a non-working state, leaving the customer to make a critical product decision quickly, without much forethought and migration planning.
Amadeus Support

Given the lack of underlying platform support, Amadeus will discontinue MeetingMatrix. End of Engineering has already taken effect for MeetingMatrix. Please refer to the Amadeus Fixed Life Cycle Policy for additional information. End of Engineering means:

  • No further solution updates will be made to the MeetingMatrix code base. Amadeus will no longer update the platform. As our partners make changes to their platforms and solutions, the risk of incompatibility grows. A situation could arise where Customer Support cannot resolve the incompatibility, resulting in poor performance or failure. For example, a third-party operating system on which these solutions run could experience a security change that makes a communication protocol adjustment, requiring a change to these applications for continued operation. Amadeus no longer has development sustaining teams dedicated to resolving code issues. If a critical product issue were to surface, the customer may be forced to make a product decision quickly without much planning and migration analysis.
  • Limited internal escalation options for the product, which may result in longer outages and the possibility an issue cannot be resolved. As a product exits engineering, talent is redirected to focus on newer technologies and when critical product issues arise, there is no ability for the organization to quickly address them. Research is required, which lengthens the time to resolution. Further, even if a solution is found, it must be fully tested. In most cases, testers and environments will not be available and would have to be secured. This situation further lengthens the time to resolution. Instead of minutes or hours, it may be days or weeks before a system can be fully recovered.
  • Increased operational challenges with legacy products due to an aging plat-form. The concept here is “out-of-sight, out-of-mind.” As Customer Support talent focuses on learning and supporting newer technologies, older technologies become more difficult to maintain. As stated earlier, issues require more research which lengthens the time to resolution. In some extreme cases, Customer Support may not be able to bring a solution fully back online, resulting in the need for an urgent plan to help a customer move to a new solution in an unplanned action.

 

 

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