Less then two year support for R81.20

[Daniel_]

Less then two years support for a new Check Point Release?
https://www.checkpoint.com/support-services/support-life-cycle-policy/#gateway-management

We need more then one year to update all our systems. So we need R81.30 (or whatever is next) in a half year as recommended version...

[Martin_Valenta]

how many devices you have that it takes you one year to update all of them?

[Daniel_]

@Martin_Valenta The problem is not the number of firewalls. Our problem is to get a maintenance window. We need a time lead of more then a month and then every customer can deny our upgrade. E.g. this year I tried to get a maintenance window for VSX system three times. On of the several customers didn't approved it and now we have a frozen zone. So we still running R80.30 on our VSX next year....

[Bob_Zimmerman]

I feel your pain. It took me at least 25 change calendar items over a span of nearly two years to upgrade one of my firewalls. And that was without VSX.

[G_W_Albrecht]

No - for the R81.x Release from 2020 (R81, R81.20, R81.20) ends four years after the release introduction. All CP releases had 4 - 5 years of support.

[the_rock]

I have to agree with your logic, for sure. I did comparison with other major vendors and their span of supporting releases is definitely longer. Now, I guess arguments can go both way...yes, lots of customers need time to get all approvals/maintenance windows to get this done, but then on the other hand, since attackers get more sophisticated all the time, it also makes sense to keep updated with latest/more robust releases.

Just my 2 cents...

[PhoneBoy]

Initial End of Support dates are set based on the initial release date of the major version, which in this case is R81.

Based on the recent past, the ultimate End of Support date for R81.20 will probably be extended.

[MeravAlon]

Hi @Daniel_ 

Please note we have just announced today that the support of R81.20 release was extended to 4 years, to Nov 2026. 

https://community.checkpoint.com/t5/General-Topics/Support-extension-policy-updates-for-R81-20-softw...

Regards, Merav

[the_rock]

EXCELLENT!