OK. Im not a particularly happy camper and here's why. If I'm totally misunderstanding the new licensing schematic (Ive reviewed the spreadsheets and PDFs several times and still cant quite wrap my brain around it), then someone please point it out to me.
One of my ASG120 license was expiring so I converted it to the new license because every piece of literature said it was a cost-saver and streamlined the process. Who's not in favor of that. Plus I got a 1yr free renewal of the license. Terrific.
Problem is, the license is for whats inside the Network Security tab only and all my proxy server configurations under Web Security and Mail Security are no longer active. Needless to say if those aren't active, my entire network is SOL because our servers run on those proxies. No mail service, no web, no anything. Now keep in mind on any of our ASG120s, we've never purchased the extra antivirus, antispam, web filtering subscriptions within those tabs. We've just used whats there right out of V7.
So I got with my reseller and got a temp license to turn web and email security back on so my servers would come back online.
I was under the impression that with the streamlining and "cost savings" announced in all of the literature that we were talking pennies and not stacks of cash in terms of difference.
Ive had Gold maintenance for years and paid a couple hundred bucks or whatever it is to get the Up2Dates and any occasional tech help I need. Its perfect for a small business like ours running several ASG120s.
Turns out that each of the network/web/email security subscriptions are several hundred bucks a piece. All told its close to an $1800 day to now get what I had with each scribby running close to $600 a year. Wheres the streamlining and cost-savings in that?
Astaro Support indicated the features still exist but if I no longer wish to use the web/email proxies that used to be "free", I can still accomplish the same thing with NAT/packet filter. Well I dont want that either. I didn't even need to do that in V6 for these services. I have several ASG120s and it took me 6 months to first upgrade all my ASG 120 boxes to the new boxes that would run V7, then manually update each V7 box with the settings because most pertinent settings would not migrate automatically using Astaro's auto migration. In short, it was a herculean effort to get this all done. Now that I'm finally settled in, the last thing I want to do is inconvenience all my users, take boxes offline to configure, test, and re-test, schedule downtime, and do this each time for each box because proxy service is no longer available.
Like I said, were we talking a couple bucks extra, I wouldn't even make an issue out of it. Prices go up. Its a tough economy. I'm in business like everyone else. But the features I use are now costing me $1800 a year per box compared to $200 a year under the "classic" license. That's 9-fold. Can you imagine the questions Im getting from the superiors on why costs jumped 9-fold? I cant provide a good answer.
Perhaps the new subscriptions come with the antivirus, antispam, webfiltering stuff we never used to subscribe to. That has value. But we don't need those features which is why we ran with what came on V7 out of the box. And if I chose to run all of those, Im not sure an ASG120 would be the box to do it on to begin with.
I'm trying to compare apples to apples here and understand why I'm getting less but being charged more. Even if I just subscribed to network security, that cost has nearly doubled compared to Gold maintenance which provided me everything I needed (I already had the features, I was just buying Up2Dates and support).
Astaro is looking into converting my license back to a classic somehow. They said Im the first to suggest doing so which blows me away. I would have thought most would have been in my shoes.
I love these boxes and I love the support, but this is such a step backwards for us we may be forced to find a new security option. Even if the pricing had doubled I could walk into my superior's office and do enough convincing. Maybe even triple. But there is nothing that can be said over going from $200 a year to $1800.
Again, if Im hosing up the facts, please set me straight and calm my fears. But, I can't see where this is a positive step forward for my company or any others. Im trying to compare apples to apples.
What was so wrong with the classic license? Its perfect as-is. My understanding is its SOL for V8 so its only an indefinite fix to our problem.
Comments, suggestions, mixed drink recipes, etc?
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