Microsoft Adds Paid Extended Support for Azure MySQL Legacy Versions
Microsoft has launched Extended Support for Azure Database for MySQL, giving organizations extra time to operate legacy database versions while maintaining security and service-level commitments. The program covers MySQL 5.7 and soon MySQL 8.0, both approaching end-of-life in the open-source community. For MySQL 5.7, community support ends Oct. 31, 2023, with Azure’s standard support continuing until March 31, 2026. Extended Support will then run from April 1, 2026, through March 31, 2029. MySQL 8.0 follows a similar pattern, with standard support ending May 31, 2026, and Extended Support covering June 1, 2026, through March 31, 2029.
The service is billed per vCore-hour on a pay-as-you-go basis, starting one month after community EOL, and stops automatically when customers upgrade. Microsoft says automatic enrollment and flexible upgrade paths -- such as in-place upgrades or replica-based migration -- are designed to minimize downtime and complexity.
Extended lifecycle support is a common strategy for mission-critical workloads. Oracle offers a similar program for on-premises MySQL deployments, and AWS provides "Amazon RDS Extended Support" for older versions. Analysts note that many enterprises, particularly those running custom PHP-MySQL applications, face multi-year modernization timelines. By adding Extended Support, Azure aligns with a market trend that prioritizes stability during large-scale application migrations.
Posted by Redmondmag.com Editors on 08/13/2025