CIQ Bridge

Extend the life of
CentOS 7.

CIQ Bridge gives you a lifeline for the CentOS 7 end of life (EOL). It helps you remain secure and fully operational with zero disruption.

Rocky Linux from CIQ - AI

Love the stability of CentOS,
but unsure what to do post EOL?

CentOS 7 is a stable Linux distribution; however, with its EOL in 2024, vulnerabilities are no longer being patched, leaving your deployments exposed to bad actors, threats, and inefficiencies.

CIQ Bridge helps you mitigate CentOS 7 concerns.

Remain secure

Automate the application of the latest security patches to thwart attackers.

Remain stable

Gain long term stability, while you consider migration options.

Remain operational

Get support for both the kernel and userspace so you can fix issues.

“CentOS 7 is still one of the most utilized operating systems used among enterprise IT organizations worldwide and we are happy to keep it alive for a bit longer to ensure that everyone has ample time to reliably migrate.”

Gregory Kurtzer

Gregory Kurtzer

Co-founder of CentOS and Rocky Linux
Founder and CEO of CIQ

Key features

What’s included with CIQ Bridge
for CentOS 7?

CIQ Bridge supports the default 3.10 kernel version and mission-critical API/ABI compatible userspace packages included with CentOS 7. It extends CentOS’s life through remediation of Critical and Important/High vulnerabilities (CVEs) via private package repository.

CentOS 7 CVE remediation

CIQ provides fixes for Critical and Important vulnerabilities in key CentOS packages with notifications in an industry standard format (CSAF).

Secure and mirrored repo access

Access to a CentOS 7.9 vault mirror ensuring secure, reliable package access and CIQ Bridge repository with security-patched packages, all accessible via CIQ Portal.

CentOS 7 kernel and userspace support

CIQ Bridge gives you ongoing maintenance for the default 3.10 kernel version. and mission-critical userspace packages.

CentOS support and services from the experts.

Technical Support is available for customers running CIQ Bridge for CentOS 7 who need additional Linux expertise and troubleshooting. Standard Support includes assistance with installation, configuration, and troubleshooting within the scope of the original CentOS distribution. Premium Support adds 24/7 Follow-the-Sun coverage for mission critical workloads with 30-minute and 2 hour SLAs for Sev1 and Sev2 issues.

Services

Get optional help for functionality fixes, proprietary driver support, and custom needs depending on agreed “level of effort”.

Onboarding

The CIQ team gets you up and running and assists you with onboarding to a private repository for your CentOS artifacts using Depot and YUM.

Support

CIQ Support staff provide answers to technical questions around the default CentOS 7.9 kernel (3.10) and userspace packages (x86_64 architecture support)*.

Extended lifespan support

Get Critical and Important CVEs remediation for up to four years from EOL of CentOS 7 (through 2028).
*More details about standard and premium support here.

CVEs, CentOS 7 and CIQ Bridge:
How it works.

There have been hundreds of CVEs identified for CentOS 7 since its EOL in 2024. CIQ has resolved many of these and CIQ Bridge provides automation to apply the appropriate patches to CentOS 7 so you can remain secure and stable. With CIQ Bridge, our team prioritizes patches, pushes them and applies them in intervals.

CVE prioritization

CIQ prioritizes CVE resolution for a curated list of critical packages. We evaluate each CVE and rank order and qualify them by mostly impact, but we also take into consideration stability and maturity of each fix.

Availability via private repositories

With CIQ Bridge you are provided access to private repositories via CIQ Portal for access to these artifacts. For large-scale deployments, CIQ provides a guide on repository mirroring and automation.

Applied in intervals and complete reporting

CVE fixes are constantly remediated and deployed. Regular YUM updates will ensure the latest patches are applied and all patches are reported in CSAF format to a public GitHub repository for ingestion by scanning providers like Qualys or Tenable.
Download the Bridge Guide

Download the Bridge solution brief.

Download the Bridge solution brief and learn more about securing your CentOS 7 environment!

Ready to migrate?

Rocky Linux: A purpose built migration target for CentOS 7.

Rocky Linux was created in 2021 as a direct result of the EOL of CentOS 7. It is built with the same stability and reliability focus of CentOS and delivers enterprise-grade performance. The Rocky Linux team designed it to be a natural migration target for those looking to move from CentOS 7.

Ready to migrate to Rocky Linux?

When you're ready, CIQ offers expert guidance to easily transition your infrastructure to CIQ supported Rocky Linux, ensuring minimal disruption to your operations.

Get CIQ Bridge.

Get a demo