This post is intended for the UKIN partner audience only. Continuing our licensing theme for this month, let’s now turn our attention to Sophos Firewall. Since we created the FullGuard bundles many years ago, the configuration of modern business networks has changed. For example, it is now far less common to host web-facing servers internally (thanks to the explosion of public cloud consumption) and hosted mail servers are the preferred option over on-premises deployments (O365 being the prime example of this phenomenon). Following the launch of XGS (in case you need more information, please see the previous newsletter), the time is right to review how we package and license our firewall.
Our new Xstream Protection bundle reflects this shift and allows the customer to unlock more value from their subscription by incorporating features such as zero-day protection, that are more relevant to today’s threat landscape, and removing the features that are used only by a subset of customers.
We will be transitioning to a new licensing scheme during July for new sales and renewals, and we are also planning to migrate existing customers running SFOS on XG and SG Series hardware, virtual appliances and software only deployments with bundle subscriptions during the same period. The license migration is currently planned to begin from approximately mid-July on a per region basis. Further information will be provided in a dedicated Partner News post. The migration process takes place in Sophos backend systems and will not require any action from you or your customers. All customers will retain all functionality that they currently have and, in many cases, will also receive additional subscriptions or features for the duration of their remaining term. The migration process does not change the renewal date or the firmware version and does not affect customers who own individual subscriptions only.
The migration path is detailed below:
*Central Orchestration is expected soon and will require an upgrade to SFOS v18.5 MR1
**Zero-Day Protection is the new name for Sandstorm Protection (SFOS only)
***Upon renewal, Email Protection and Web Server Protection will need to be renewed separately, if still required
The migration for MSPs is at a later date. Further details will be provided via the MSP team.
For more information on the licensing for Sophos Firewall, please check the Licensing Guide which will be updated to reflect the upcoming changes.