Re: Fw License

[frankw @ in . net (Frank Willoughby)]

>From the desk of Rick Smith:

>James Soh <jamessoh @
 tdb .
 gov .
 sg> asks:
>
>>Is the Fw-license based on the number of internal IP addresses it protects?
>
>It probably depends on the vendor. Sidewinder is sold as a device, so
>the costs are related to the number of Sidewinders bought, not the
>traffic each one handles.
>
>Does anyone perceive a benefit to sites in charging according to the
>number of hosts protected? Is there some situation in which such
>charges might make sense?
>
>Rick.
>smith @
 sctc .
 com        secure computing corporation

Some vendors do this as a means to undercut their competitors.
They are using the firewall product as a type of software license 
and use it to scale the price of the firewall (making it dependent 
on the number of hosts/users it is to support).  It is particularly 
useful in small companies which only have a handful of systems to 
protect and don't expect any growth anytime soon and/or have very
limited budgets.

In spite of this, I personally am not in favor of this type of approach.
Sudden growth (mergers, acquisitions, etc) could impact the licensing
of the firewall & either get the customer in hot water with SPA or the 
vendor or face a denial-of-service for those extra connections until 
the customer remembers to get an upgraded license.  This could be 
rather interesting if the person who ordered the firewall or was 
familiar with the licensing scheme wasn't around when the number of
connections exceeded the license & no one else had a clue what was
going on.  8^(

Best Regards,


Frank
Fortified Networks Inc. - Management & Information Security Consulting
Phone: (317) 573-0800   - http://www.fortified.com/fortified/

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