Fortinet - 8x5 FortiCare Support discontinued

It was cautiously announced in the middle of last year, but now it is official: Fortinet has discontinued 8x5 FortiCare Support at the beginning of the year. From now on, new purchases and existing FortiCare licences can only be ordered or extended with 24x7 FortiCare Support.

What are the advantages of 24x7 FortiCare Support?

For customers who until now have only had 8x5 FortiCare Support, the changeover now offers access to telephone support, which can be reached at any time of the day or night, in addition to the statutory hardware warranty of 12 months and the tried and tested "correspondence" support via e-mail and online chat.

Another advantage of 24x7 FortiCare support is that in the unlikely event of a hardware defect, the customer no longer has to first return the defective device to the manufacturer for verification of the defect, but the replacement device is sent directly to the customer by Fortinet with the confirmation of the support ticket. Customers with an 8x5 FortiCare support licence that has not yet expired are not affected by this change.

Are there any other FortiCare support licences?

For customers who want even more support, Fortinet offers the so-called "FortiCare 360" support. This support package, which is aimed in particular at customers in the enterprise sector, offers prioritised access to an Advanced Technical Engineer from Fortinet at any time, whose response time is guaranteed by an SLA with the manufacturer. In addition, the device is proactively monitored to prevent any security and performance bottlenecks at an early stage. If, for example, the device should fail during acute delivery bottlenecks on the part of the manufacturer, a replacement device is still sent to the customer in a timely manner. Furthermore, Fortinet offers "best practice" configuration suggestions as well as monthly performance and status reports.