Sophos UTM Endpoint Protection – sale discontinued
Before we pop the corks for what we hope will be a great new year in 2019, here’s an important and somewhat last-minute announcement from Sophos.
Sophos is discontinuing sales of Sophos UTM Endpoint Protection effective December 31, 2018. Support will be provided until the end of 2019.
For us, UTM Endpoint Protection has been non-existent for years. Sophos has neglected this product from that point on and has not developed it functionally since Sophos Central (formerly Sophos Cloud) appeared in the portfolio. In our opinion, the discontinuation of this obsolete product is long overdue! Since the future belongs to the XG Firewall with SFOS anyway, Sophos Central with Synchronized Security has long been the better solution.
Free upgrade to Sophos Central
End users with an active Sophos UTM Endpoint Protection license need not panic now. Sophos offers a free migration to Sophos Central Endpoint (CEP) for the remaining time of your existing licenses.
Of course, we recommend this upgrade to all affected customers, because not only the management of endpoints will be much easier, but also the protection will be up to date again.
More information on the migration process: How to migrate from UTM Endpoint Protection to Sophos Central Endpoint Protection
Attractive renewal offer for migration from UTM to Central
If, in addition to the free migration to Sophos Central Endpoint (CEP), you also plan to use this solution in the longer term, you will also benefit from a very attractive renewal offer until June 28, 2019:
When you purchase a 3-year license for Central Endpoint Protection (CEP) or Central Intercept X with Endpoint Advanced (CIXA), you get it for the price of a 1-year license. We encourage all end users to upgrade to CIXA for the best possible next-gen endpoint protection.
Reason for the sudden sales stop
The reason that Sophos is now disabling this product on such short notice is because of a Windows 10 release that Microsoft will be rolling out in the first half of 2019. This update forces the Sophos UTM Endpoint to log out of the Windows Security Center (WSC). This logoff results in Windows Defender running in parallel with Sophos Endpoint. It is not possible to predict what impact this may have.
Sophos therefore strongly recommends that you do not implement this new Windows release until all clients have been migrated to Central Endpoint Protection (CEP) or to Central Intercept X Advanced (CIXA).
Existing UTM Endpoint Protection end-users can renew their existing license up to a maximum of Dec. 31, 2019. However, end customers have to consider possible restrictions due to the upcoming Microsoft Windows 10 Update 19H1 (RS6), with which the compatibility is no longer guaranteed.
