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ClearCase LT is end of life... what next?
As you may already know IBM Rational have officially announced that ClearCase LT will be end of life soon.

Many Clearvision customers are calling to ask the same question...

'What are our options when ClearCase LT is no longer supported?'
'How can we migrate the data held in ClearCase LT to another CM tool?'

In answer to the question of which solution to choose, there are a variety of options:
  1. Upgrade to full IBM Rational ClearCase. The main disadvantage here is the increased cost, not just in terms of license upgrade but also ongoing support and maintenance. Rational are trying hard to help customers however some have voiced strong concerns and are looking at this as an opportunity to move to a lower cost, faster alternative such as the Open Source solution Subversion (SVN).
  2. Migrate to Rational Team Concert (RTC). Rational are keen to promote Rational Team Concert and would prefer prospects to go to RTC rather than full ClearCase (because RTC is the future for IBM Rational). There is no doubting the potential of RTC, however once again there is an increase in cost and infrastructure (hardware and support) plus the migration effort.
  3. A Non-Rational solution. While there are a wide variety of options, customers often choose either open source subversion (most cost effective), Microsoft Team Platform (pure dot Net development shops) or Accurev.

The most common alternative for Clearvision ClearCase LT customers (in order of popularity) is;
  • Subversion with UCM4SVN (maintains the similarities of ClearCase UCM) plus CQ2SVN if also using ClearQuest which saves having to migrate their change management solution too. For those users who have not invested in a change management tool, Jira has become a widely accepted, cost effective solution which integrates with Subversion.
  • CodeBeamer or Rational Team Concert for companies who appreciate the value of Collaboration tools i.e a single interface for users regardless of the underlying version control tools
  • ClearCase FULL, although incentives are being offered to go this route, users are concerned about the long term viability of ClearCase

How to migrate data from ClearCase LT?


Often the challenge is not how to migrate data from within ClearCase LT but how to migrate integrations and in-house developed tools connected to ClearCase LT, one of the most common of which is Change Management. ClearCase LT users who also use IBM Rational ClearQuest often have the tools integrated, losing this interaction will damage business processes and mean re-education for users. The Ready for Rational tool CQ2SVN offers ClearCase LT users the opportunity to migrate to Subversion whilst maintaining the integration with their existing ClearQuest installation.

How can Clearvision help?


Migration from ClearCase LT can appear trivial however have you considered the timescales involved, whether testing is required, how to prepare the users, what to do if the migration fails? The impact and cost of a failed migration can be high, especially if release deadlines are affected. Clearvision can plan and run your migration, also helping with the installation, training and support for new tools such as Subversion (SVN).

If you would like to know more about migrating from ClearCase LT and the cost savings associated with tool choices such as ClearCase Full, RTC or Subversion, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it