This document outlines GFI Software’s End-of Life (EOL) and support policy for its products and services and the timing guidelines for the three (3) components of the EOL Policy: End-of-Sale, End-of-Technical Life and the rare occasion where there is End-of-Product Life. Eligibility for product support under the EOL Policy requires that the product be on a current Maintenance Agreement with GFI in the case of On-Premise software or that there are no overdue invoices for a SaaS that are billed in arrears.
Products reach EOL for a number of reasons including changing market demands, technology innovation and development driving changes in the product, the products simply mature over time, etc. While this is an established part of a product life cycle, GFI recognizes that EOL product life milestones must be clearly stated to allow you, our customers, to plan accordingly with your business operations.
The general policy guidelines for GFI releases and products are as follows. Please see Table 1 for a policy summary.
1. End-of-Sale Date:
» On-Premise software: the End-of-Sale Date for a major release is reached when GFI makes commercially available the next major release of the product on the GFI website.
» A SaaS product: hosted components of SaaS services are released by GFI to all customers within a region at the same time and there is no access to or ability to use earlier versions thereafter. On-premise components of SaaS products (e.g., an agent) will be released from time to time (which may or may not coincide with new releases of hosted components), at which point the superseded version will no longer be made available to customers for sale.
» End-of-Product Life: GFI does not sell or provide copies of an End-of-Product Life products once GFI has announced that the product is in End-of-Life status.
2. End-of-Technical Life:
» On-Premise software: 12 months following the End-of-Sale Date of a product.
» Hosted elements of SaaS products: are updated by GFI and there is no access to or support of older versions after the End-of-Sale Date. On-premise components of SaaS products (e.g,. an agent) will continue to be supported for 12 months following the End-of-Sale Point 1 as defined above.
» In certain circumstances, GFI can announce the End-of-Technical Life of a product stream, which indicates that no fixes, improvements or major versions will be released for the respective product.
3. End-of Product-Life:
GFI will exercise commercially reasonable efforts to provide at least 12 months’ notification that the product will enter “End-of-Product-Life”. From the date of notification, until the product is no longer available, GFI will provide best efforts phone support and possible critical bug fixes, possible work-arounds or patches.
Notice will appear on the GFI.com website (http://support.gfi.com/) under the respective Product’s Product Support Page. We encourage you to visit this site regularly as it contains useful information regarding GFI’s end-of-life program.
NOTES
a. Software Maintenance or Subscription Agreements are all-inclusive with GFI. This means that you are provided support for the product line; support is not tied to a specific product version. If necessary to resolve a reported problem, customers may be required to upgrade to the latest version if they are running an unsupported version while still under Maintenance.
In cases of significant changes to a product’s technical architecture, GFI reserves the right to end-of-life that product within 90 days.
DEFINITIONS
End-of-Product Life Cycle A process that guides the final business operations associated with the product life cycle. The End-of- Product Life process consists of a series of technical and business milestones and activities that, once completed, make a product obsolete. Once obsolete, the product is not sold, manufactured, improved, repaired, maintained, or supported. In the case of a SaaS product the online service will no longer be available or accessible.
End-of-Product Life The date following which the GFI product is not manufactured, improved, repaired, maintained, or supported. In the case of a SaaS product the online service will no longer be available or accessible.
End-of-Technical Life The date following which the an On-Premise product release or on-premise components of SaaS services, are not manufactured, improved, repaired, maintained, or supported.
End-of-Sale date The last date to order the product through GFI point-of-sale mechanisms. The product is no longer available for general commercial sale or availability.
Major release A major release is defined as a change in the product release name as in GFI WebMonitor™ 2009 to GFI WebMonitor 2010 or if the product’s major number (to the left of the dot) changes, e.g., GFI LanGuard™ 9.0 to GFI LanGuard 10.0.
Content updates GFI Products may require regular updates to keep track of the latest threats or information. Content updates include antivirus signatures, WebGrade database updates, etc.
TABLE 1: End-of-Life Policy Summary
|
Event On |
On-Premise Software |
SaaS |
|
End-of Sales Date |
Upon commercial availability on GFI website of Major Release the prior Major Release no longer sold or upon notification of End-ofProduct Life date. |
Upon notification of End-ofProduct Life date. |
|
End-of-Technical Life |
12 months following major release of new version of product or 12 months following notification of End-of-Product Life date unless announced otherwise. |
12 months following notification of End-of-Product Life date. |
|
End-of-Product Life |
12 months following notification of End-of-Product Life date. |
12 months following notification of End-of-Product Life date. |