What’s Next for Spring Cloud? 2020 Roadmap and Upcoming Releases

Spring Cloud Ilford

The Spring Cloud team announced Ilford as the next major release, the first since Finchley, supporting Spring Boot 2.x and Spring Framework 5.x. By making Ilford a major version, deprecated modules can enter maintenance mode and API refactoring may introduce breaking changes. Ilford is slated for Q4 2020 alongside Spring Framework 5.3 and Spring Boot 2.4.

Spring Cloud Hoxton

According to Pivotal’s OSS support policy, major versions receive three years of support. Finchley was released in June 2018, so Hoxton, as its minor version, will receive regular support until June 2021, then enter a special maintenance period (critical bug fixes and security patches) until December 2021. Spring Boot 2.3.x, planned for Q2 2020, will receive Hoxton Service Release support shortly after its release.

Spring Cloud Greenwich

Greenwich, a minor version of Finchley, was first released in January 2019 and is supported until January 2020, after which it enters a special maintenance period with only critical fixes until December 2020. It will be the last version supporting Spring Boot 2.1.x.

Spring Framework Maintenance Roadmap 2020

Spring Framework 4.3.x and the entire 4.x line reach end‑of‑life on 31 December 2020, after which no further support will be provided. Versions 5.0.x and 5.1.x will be phased out, with 5.2.x becoming the primary active branch, receiving monthly releases and supporting Spring Boot 2.2 and the upcoming 2.3 (April 2020). The next feature release, Spring Framework 5.3, is scheduled for GA in October 2020 and will become the long‑term support line, replacing 5.2.x by year‑end. The team recommends upgrading to 5.2+ as the only actively maintained Spring Framework branch after 2020.