Oracle CPU Dates Shifted by a Week in 2011

Oracle has announced a slight change to the release schedule for Critical Patch Update (CPU) releases starting in 2011.  Rather than release on the Tuesday closest to the 15th of the month, now it will be the Tuesday closest to the 17th.  The intention of this shift is to provide more of a buffer for the January release to accommodate year-end close and vacations around the Christmas and New Years holidays.  Therefore, some of the CPU release dates have shifted by a week.

We anticipate no customer impact from this change.  Except for holidays and conferences, the timing of the CPU releases seldom impact organizations or implementations.  For 2011, the April 2011 CPU release on April 19th will be the week after the COLLABORATE 2011 conference (April 10-14) and the October 2011 CPU release will several weeks before Oracle OpenWorld (October 2-6).

For planning purposes, the upcoming CPU releases do come close to a number of holidays as follows -

October 2010 - Tuesday October 12
Monday October 11 - Columbus Day (US)
Monday October 11 - Thanksgiving Day (Canada)

January 2011 - Tuesday January 18
Monday January 17 - Martin Luther King Day (US)

April 2010 - Tuesday April 19
Friday April 22 - Good Friday (US/Canada/UK/Australia)
Sunday April 24 - Easter (US/Canada/UK/Australia)