Licecing model

[gerritg]

Good day,

This is more of an question as I can't found any documentation properly outlining the licensing of Fortinet UTM. How is it licensed? Do you pay per user or is this an once off fee per year?

Thank you in advanced!

Looking forward to your reply.

Kind Regards

Gerrit

[ede_pfau]

Hi,

and welcome to the forums.

FTNT UTM subscriptions are per-machine, independent of number of users, addresses or volume through the firewall. They can be bought in full years (more precisely: 365 days), for 1 to 5 years (if available, i.e. non-end-of-life).

This is called FortiGuard service, available in several levels of service (NGFW, UTM, ...).

FGT will still function even with an expired FortiGuard licence except for Web Filter (which will block).

For subscriptions Fortinet requires a valid FortiCare contract which encompasses hardware warranty, hardware exchange, firmware updates, web ticket support etc. There are several levels of FortiCare like 8x5, 24x7, onsite engineer etc. Again, the FGT will continue to function, you only have no resort in case of failure.

edit:

sorry, forgot to mention that even though you can purchase FortiCare on it's own it will always be included in a FortiGuard subscription bundle, so no need to get both.

[gerritg]

Hi Ede,

Thank you for your reply. As our service provider wants to charge us an monthly/per user for the folloiwng, Hardware (including 1st year Forticare and FortiGuard UTM Bundle Licence and Licence Key (for an additional 2 years) for an dedicated solution with them. The unit is the 200D. So that is why I am ask these questions.

looking forward to your reply.

[ede_pfau]

Reply to what...?

Sure, anyone can buy a FGT with services and lease that to his customers. Don't forget they have to write off the hardware, pay for the service subscriptions and probably they are your first contact for questions (level 1 support).

So whether that is attractive for you depends on how much they charge - you could sum that up to find out how many years you could lease before you hit the purchasing price point.

Another point is whether you can quit at any time. That would be an advantage if you're unsure about how long you'd use the FGT.

It all depends on what you want. There are customers who don't want to invest in hardware, and tackle the details of warranty and UTM subscriptions. Others see it as an investment (money is cheap at the moment) and for support they have their FTNT partner onsite, like me.