On September 19th, 2023, IBM announced that Control Desk would reach End of Support on September 30th, 2025. Since this announcement was made, there has been confusion about what the Control Desk end of support date means, and the options existing Control Desk customers have.
The Control Desk product and all corresponding components will no longer receive IBM Base Support. This means IBM will no longer provide updates, new patches, enhancements, or general technical support past September 30th, 2025. IBM has completely replaced Control Desk with Maximo IT, which is an add-on to the Manage application within the Maximo Application Suite (MAS). The recommended path for existing Control Desk customers is to upgrade to MAS and Maximo IT; however, some customers may not be ready. For these customers, there are a few options for extending the life of their Control Desk system.
When Maximo Application Suite version 8.11 was released, IBM announced that a new Manage add-on, Maximo IT, was available and that this new product would be the replacement for Control Desk. Maximo IT combines IT Asset Management (ITAM) and IT Service Management (ITSM) into one platform that allows a streamlined solution to manage Information Technology & Operational Technology assets and processes.
Maximo IT is an add-on to Manage within MAS, making both MAS and the Manage application prerequisites for the Maximo IT add-on. Maximo IT is slightly different than other MAS Manage add-ons because the purchase of Maximo IT AppPoints is required to deploy and entitle the use of Maximo IT. The Maximo IT AppPoint has a different part number and is a separate part from the MAS AppPoint.
There isn’t much difference between a MAS AppPoint and a Maximo IT AppPoint besides the actual part number. Both MAS and Maximo IT AppPoints are available for purchase from IBM on a subscription term or as a perpetual license. MAS AppPoints entitle the use of Maximo Application Suite, but to deploy and utilize the Maximo IT add-on, Maximo IT AppPoints must also be purchased. If a customer only requires Maximo IT and doesn’t plan to utilize Manage and MAS, there still must be enough MAS AppPoints to cover at least one MAS admin user.
IBM based Maximo IT on the product Control Desk and used Maximo IT as an opportunity to replace and update some of the older technical components used in Control Desk. Maximo IT contains the majority of the same functionality as Control Desk.
A notable change to the functionality comes from the Control Desk “Service Portal” component being replaced with the “Self Serve” application within Maximo IT. The Maximo IT Self Serve application contains functionality similar to that of the Service Portal application, but there are differences. The Service Portal application supports agent, administrator, and user personas unlike the Self Serve application which only supports the user persona.
Another notable difference in Maximo IT is that it contains drastic changes to the user interface as compared to Control Desk. Although the new user interface of Maximo IT may initially be a challenge, the functionality available in Maximo IT is almost entirely unchanged from the Control Desk functionality.
See the complete list of IBM changes between Control Desk and Maximo IT: What's changed in Maximo IT.
One option for customers not ready to upgrade to MAS and Maximo IT is to start the transition by trading up existing Control Desk license entitlements to Maximo IT AppPoints. Maximo IT AppPoints and MAS AppPoints grant rights to use the legacy Control Desk under “Dual Entitlement”. The goal of Dual Entitlement is to ease the migration to MAS and Maximo IT. It is crucial to note that Dual Entitlements are no longer valid entitlements to Control Desk after December 2026. It is a requirement that Dual Entitlement Control Desk customers upgrade to MAS and Maximo IT before this date.
Yes, the Maximo v7.6.1.x Dual Entitlement end date is April 30th, 2027, and the Control Desk Dual Entitlement end date is December 31st, 2026. Maximo and Control Desk are often used together; Dual Entitlement customers using both Control Desk and Maximo v7.6.1.x must upgrade to MAS and Maximo IT by December 31st, 2026 (Control Desk Dual Entitlement end date).
There are a few options for customers on user-based licensing who cannot upgrade to MAS and Maximo IT before the September 30th, 2025, Control Desk End of Support date. These options are offered with the understanding that the ultimate path forward for Control Desk customers is to eventually upgrade to MAS, Manage and Maximo IT to receive full product support.
The first option for Control Desk customers with user-based license entitlements is Projetech’s Maximo as a Service (MaaS) cloud solution with Projetech Extended Support. Extended Support is added for all Projetech MaaS v7 and Control Desk customers remaining on user-based Maximo and Control Desk entitlements after September 30th, 2025.
Projetech MaaS Extended Support provides flexibility to a Maximo v7.6.1.x and Control Desk customer not ready to upgrade to MAS by the End of Support date. The Projetech MaaS Extended Support offering provides standard Projetech MaaS support service level agreements, mitigation and workarounds for critical defects or vulnerabilities identified through client usage of the system, and assistance with the technical upgrade to MAS. The Projetech MaaS Extended Support offering is available through 2030.
For Projetech MaaS Extended Support BYOL (Bring Your Own License) customers who want to retain the rights to trade up their user-based licensing to Maximo IT AppPoints past the End of Support date, the BYOL customer can purchase Sustained Support directly from IBM in tandem with MaaS Extended Support from Projetech to retain trade-up rights. IBM Sustained Support ends on December 31st,2026; therefore, that is the date that license trade-up rights will also end.
Another option for Maximo v7.6.1.x customers with user-based license entitlements not ready to upgrade is to purchase IBM Extended Support. This extends the support of a Control Desk system for one additional year (until September 30th, 2026). IBM Sustained Support is a pre-requisite to IBM Extended Support. To be eligible for IBM Extended/Sustained Support, the customer must keep their S&S active, the software must be on the most recently released version of the Control Desk product (v7.6.1.5), and the customer must prepare a plan with IBM to move to MAS. This is not available for existing IBM SaaS Control Desk customers. Control Desk IBM Extended Support includes support for usage & how-to questions, existing fixes that were available before the end of support date, and new critical Sev 1 defect fixes; no security fixes will be provided. IBM Control Desk Sustained Support will be available a short amount of time longer than IBM Control Desk Extended Support; the end of IBM Control Desk Sustained Support will be December 31st, 2026.
Maximo v7.6.1.x and Control Desk have the same End of Support dates, but Maximo v7.6.1.x and Control Desk have different IBM Extended/Sustained Support timelines. After the IBM Control Desk End of Extended Support date (September 30th, 2026), Sustained Support will be available until December 31st, 2026. Following this date, there will be no IBM Extended or Sustained Support available. This is a different IBM Extended/Sustained Support lifecycle than Maximo v7.6.1.x, which is eligible to receive IBM Sustained Support until September 30th, 2030. This is especially important to note for customers who utilize both Control Desk and Maximo IT.
Projetech assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this document. The information on this site is provided on an ‘as-is’ basis with no guarantee of completeness, accuracy, usefulness, and timeliness. All statements made were provided for informational purposes only and are subject to change.
Resources:
IBM Announcement Letter #922-024
End of Support for IBM Control Desk 7.6.1
Maximo IT in Maximo Application Suite Overview
