Depending on the terms of your purchase, every year you’ll need to pay a maintenance fee to renew the license on your SonicWall. When that time comes around, we often see confusion from customers on why they need to pay to continue using an appliance they already own. After all, you don’t have to pay a license for a refrigerator, stove or toaster, right?
Well, the simple fact of the matter is a SonicWall isn’t a static appliance like a refrigerator or stove, and that’s a very good thing; threats are constantly evolving.
Your SonicWall is a computer that scans every little bit of data to look for threats. And like all computers, it needs to be programmed. But what it was programmed for yesterday, is not the threat today.
By maintaining your license, you are ensuring that your SonicWall has access all the latest security patches, Intrusion Prevention Services (IPS) and Content Filter Services (CFS).
When our Director of Information Security Services, was asked what would happen if a SonicWall license was not maintained he explained, “Imagine that the license would expire on Oct 31st 2017, and you were to decide not to update. Time will stand still for that firewall. From a standpoint of dynamic anti-malware and block-list updates, IPS attack signatures and CFS it will also be Oct 31st, 2017. Forever, until you update your license.”
And consider this, the two biggest cybersecurity stories of 2017, the WannaCry ransomware and Equifax data breach, both trace directly back to software not being patched.
So for that maintenance fee, your SonicWall will adjust and adapt to all the latest threats and needs. And that’s just something your refrigerator can’t to… at least not yet.
