Early Release Program - Release testing preview and early availability

What is the Early Release Program? 

The Early Release Program provides existing customers the opportunity to upgrade to a version of the latest ServiceNow family release prior to Market Launch, also referred to as "General Availability" or "GA". The program is broken into two phases that work together to provide additional time to test release capabilities and the opportunity to try new features in the customer's own environment. 

• Phase 1: Release Testing Preview (RTP) is available at least 60 days prior to General Availability and offers a pre-release version for testing on sub-production instances. 
• Phase 2: Early Availability (EA) is available at least 45 days prior to General Availability and offers a production-ready version for upgrade on both sub-production and production environments.

Who should participate? 

• All existing customers* and partners are encouraged to participate in the Early Release Program. 

*Exclusions:

• Government Community Cloud (GCC) customers and other Regulated Markets are not eligible to participate in the Early Release Program.  These customers rely upon additional certification which will only be attributed to general availability releases.
• Self-hosted customers are not eligible for RTP but can participate in EA - interested participants should reach out to earlyavailability@servicenow.com

How do customers participate? 

• Customers and partners can self-register via Now Support Service Catalog or Account Executives can register on their behalf. By registering for the early release program registered participants will be eligible to participate in both phases and will receive an e-mail notification to schedule their upgrade using Now Support Instance Dashboard upon each phases' launch. 
• Note: To unregister/unsubscribe your account from the early release program please contact earlyavailability@servicenow.com.

Now Platform Zurich Early Release Program Key Dates:

• May 2025: Early Release Program Registration Opens
• Early July 2025: Release Testing Preview Begins
• Late July 2025: Early Availability Begins

How is Early Release Program rolled out?

Once the Early Availability program begins, all registered customer accounts will be entitled to the release and invited to schedule their upgrade via the Now Support Instance Dashboard.

1.  Customers/Partners register for the program
2. The Release Test Preview build becomes available, registered accounts will receive an e-mail announcement, and  be entitled to upgrade their non-production instances via the Now Support Instance Dashboard.
3. The Early Availability build becomes available, registered accounts will receive an e-mail announcements, accounts will no longer be able to schedule RTP build upgrades, and accounts will be entitled to upgrade their non-production and production instances via the Now Support Instance Dashboard.
   
   1. Note: during this time technology partners can utilize the Early Availability build to build and submit for ServiceNow store certification prior to market launch.
4. The General Availability build becomes available, all accounts will receive an e-mail announcement, accounts will no longer be able to schedule EA build upgrades, and all customer and partner accounts will be able to upgrade to the GA version via the Now Support Instance Dashboard.
   
   1. If your instance is on the RTP or EA build after GA release the account can upgrade to the latest version or allow the patching program to automatically target non-production and production instances to the latest version 30 days post General Availability. 

Questions?

For additional questions,  please visit program FAQs, contact your Account Executive, or  email earlyavailability@servicenow.com.

Zurich

Zurich