Beyond the 10-year mark: Extending Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS security coverage
Ubuntu blog ·
A decade ago, Canonical launched Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (codenamed “Xenial Xerus”). As a Long-Term Support (LTS) release, it comes with 5 years of standard security coverage, which is doubled to a total of 10 years through Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM) for users with an Ubuntu Pro subscription.
A decade ago, Canonical launched Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (codenamed “Xenial Xerus”). As a Long-Term Support (LTS) release, it comes with 5 years of standard security coverage, which is doubled to a total of 10 years through Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM) for users with an Ubuntu Pro subscription.
As of April 30, 2026 , the 10-year ESM coverage for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, under Ubuntu Pro, has officially reached its end of support.
While Ubuntu 16.04 LTS images can still be launched on the public clouds, they are now marked as deprecated and will no longer receive any security patches, bug fixes, or maintenance updates. There are two paths you can follow to keep your Ubuntu estate security maintained.
Canonical strongly recommends migrating workloads to a newer, supported LTS version (such as 22.04 LTS, 24.04 LTS or 26.04 LTS) to benefit from modern security frameworks, updated software stacks, and performance improvements. There are two options when upgrading:
We understand that complex enterprise architectures, legacy applications, and regulatory dependencies can make immediate migration impossible. If you cannot redeploy your workloads right away, Canonical offers a further five years of security maintenance and support with the Legacy add-on on top of an active Ubuntu Pro subscription.
The Ubuntu Pro Legacy add-on brings the total lifecycle of the release to 15 years. This add-on ensures your Ubuntu 16.04 LTS environments continue to receive critical security patches until 2031 – giving you time to safely plan and execute your migration strategy.
Leaving your infrastructure on an unsupported operating system can expose you to security threats. Take control of your migration timeline today: