LiveRebel, developed by ZeroTurnaround, is a “release automation tool” which allows teams to shift to automated release process from scripted or manual releases and makes it easier for non-technical teams to start the release with just one click on a button. LiveRebel’s “one-click app releases” can deploy apps quickly and safely, has real-time tracking and monitoring of apps, and has full support for various platforms such as Java, PHP, Python, and Ruby. This product has started in 2008, however, LiveRebel’s story ended so soon.
In a statement posted last August 11 in ZeroTurnaround’s website, Jevgeni Kabanov, founder and CEO of ZeroTurnaround, declared that LiveRebel will now be discontinued. All of their active customers will be refunded and will be provided with support and help in migrating off LiveRebel until August 11, 2015 only. The company came up with the decision because their current market is not enough to sustain the product. He also thanked everyone who became a part of LiveRebel for over six years.
Here is a summary of LiveRebel’s life cycle as told by Kabanov:
- (2008): LiveRebel – Start of development
- (May 2011): LiveRebel 1.0 – First release
- (February 2012): LiveRebel 2.0 – Ability to manage any Java EE application update and choose the default strategy depending on whether the hotpatch update would be successful or not.
- (October 2012): LiveRebel 2.5 – Added support for executing custom release script
- (March 2013): LiveRebel 2.6 – Supported database and configuration changes and multi-platform releases
- (June 2013): LiveRebel 2.7 – Extended rolling update support to any web platform
- (January 2014): LiveRebel 3.0 – Ability to release multiple applications in one transaction
- (2014): LiveRebel 3.1 – Improved performance and scalability, no longer support hotpatching
- (August 11, 2014): Announced discontinuation of LiveRebel
- (August 11, 2015): End of support and deadline in helping migrate off LiveRebel
Even with the increase in their customers in 2013 and first half of 2014, ZeroTurnaround still chose to end LiveRebel. Mid-market deployments are not enough to catch up with their competitors because of the following reasons: Release management is still under developed with no agreement on what it should look like and it is still not yet in-demand in the market.
Although the LiveRebel stops here, XRebel, an “interactive profiler” and ZeroTurnaround’s newest developer tool has just started its journey. For 2015, the company’s aim is to continue to improve JRebel and XRebel and will concentrate in developing new tools that will benefit the developers’ productiveness, happiness and awareness.