Security-driven changes come to the ESET End of Life Policy

The “End of Life” for several ESET security products is coming July 1, 2020, as part of our road to  better protection.

End of Life (EOL), also commonly called a “product sunset,” is generally regarded as the communicated conclusion to the service life of a product (or service) and is usually preceded by a period of limited support. It is a journey that will trigger change. The new ESET EOL Policy focuses on a reduction in the number of older product versions maintained. This will allow for increased protection and make for a better, smoother and more predictable experience for our business customers.

For many, changes in user interface (UI) and user experience (UX), as well as functionality, mean that points of interface with the customer’s own IT ecosystem can be complex. These challenges and concerns are real and are even shared by ESET engineers. However, times and threats change; as such, changes to our EOL Policy are security driven and will allow us to provide customers with the best protection.

What’s changing and when?

The new ESET End of Life Policy takes effect July 1, 2020. The policy introduces changes to how we will support, and how long we will support, products through their communicated product lifetimes. This includes product and version lifespans, product update intervals and, finally, the technical support relationship we will offer users. These changes will provide a more predictable system that reflects current cybersecurity challenges.

In the new policy there will be three levels of product support, down from four: Full Support, Limited Support, and EOL. We felt this was important as the vast majority of ESET users, and other web users, have upgraded and expanded their usage of hardware and software over the last several years, a process that has further accelerated due to the changes in our increased global reliance on digital tools with the rise of COVID-19. To reflect this, the new EOL policy also details the support policy for major operating systems, including MS Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. ESET maintains the commitment to support all new major OS upgrades as they’re released.

Because enterprises and managed service providers, in particular, have to upgrade regularly to maintain best protection, the policy will also improve clarity around how long they have (internally) to prepare prior to upgrading, and has implications for the improved management of system and software updates. We should note that customers should always have their devices running the latest ESET products on the latest product version, as well as the latest version of their preferred OS. The adoption of the latest ESET product versions has always been “no cost”; the fact that access to new product versions is included in the price of your valid license remains unchanged.

The main advantage in moving to the latest ESET product version is that your protection will always be compatible with the latest versions of the major operating systems as our EOL Policy is valid for all platforms. In this way, updates allow users to employ the most advanced security technologies for detection, performance, and ease of use, all of which help make our product more effective for you.

Moving forward with the new

A first step is to check your current status and to evaluate (any) options via your Management Console. Enterprises, do you manage ESET Endpoint Security products on-premises or in the cloud, or are they unmanaged? For MSPs, verify what version of ESET MSP Administrator you are currently using.

In both cases, understanding your current product and capabilities will best allow you to see what added value you will be getting and perhaps where you will need questions answered ahead of the EOL.

The EOLs that we are communicating here also serve another benefit. By reducing the number of variants of older products we support, our engineers and developers can better focus on current and future platforms that protect and allow for an even more intuitive user interface, something that ESET has come to be known for.