GMS EOL Announcement

Overview

SonicWall officially announces End-of-Life for GMS. This decision was made as part of our ongoing commitment to improving our product offerings and focusing on innovation that better serves customer needs. Customers are encouraged to migrate to the replacement products, Network Security Manager 3.0 SaaS or Network Security Manager 3.0 On-prem. NSM is the way forward for our Partners and Customers to continue to augment their network security posture and leverage the benefits of owning and managing new Gen 8 firewalls. 

Evolution of NSM

Network Security Manager (NSM) delivers centralized firewall management for customers and partners, available as both a SaaS and on-premises solution. While the early versions of NSM presented some challenges, we’ve taken feedback seriously and made significant strides in evolving the platform. Over the past six quarters, NSM has seen strong growth in adoption and customer satisfaction, driven by our focus on usability, resiliency, and stability. 
Thanks to direct input from customers, partners, and the field, NSM has transformed into a mature, robust platform purpose-built for Managed Services Providers (MSPs) and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs). It now offers the scalability and efficiency they require.

Key improvements include:

• Real-time status updates
• Streamlined and more reliable firmware upgrade processes
• Expanded reporting and productivity insights
• A simplified onboarding experience with Zero Touch 2.0

These enhancements reflect how far NSM has come—delivering a stable, modern platform that meets the demands of today’s security operations.

NSM 3.0 SaaS:

We have recently released NSM 3.0, which provides feature parity with GMS with enhanced reporting and analytics capabilities. A few highlights of this release include:

• Ability to deploy configuration updates to firewalls in multiple tenants
• Reporting enhancements to include the Reporting Template and new reports for RA-VPN, and Attack Report
• Usability enhancements to view offline firewall configuration and change admin password in “bulk”
• Ability to see details of local changes
• A new licensing model which provides flexibility and simplified licensing terms.  
  … and much more

NSM 3.0 On-premises:  

• NSM On-premises with management, reporting, and analytics
• Standalone and Distributed deployment of NSM On-premises
• Includes all NSM 3.0 SaaS enhancements 

Moving towards NSM:

SonicWall is committed to ensuring a smooth transition for customers moving to NSM. We offer comprehensive migration resources, including documentation, training, and expert support, to help customers move from GMS to NSM efficiently and confidently. Explore the additional resources linked at the bottom of this announcement for more information.

Key GMS EOL Milestones and Timeline:

For more information about Product Lifecycle phases, please visit Product Lifecycle. 

Active Retirement Mode (ARM) 
Active Retirement Mode is an announcement by SonicWall to indicate that it is no longer actively manufacturing or selling the product. Products in ARM are removed from all price lists and marketing collateral at this time. Support contracts for products in this phase will remain on price lists and will remain available for purchase until the phase ends. During this time, SonicWall may release a limited number of new features and will issue bug fixes only to the latest version of firmware available for the device. Software/firmware support and hardware warranty are available throughout ARM for products with an active support contract. The duration of this phase is two years, beginning one day after the end of the Last Day Order. 
Last Day Order (LDO)
Last Day Order is the last day to order the product from SonicWall and signifies SonicWall's intent to start the end-of-life process. The duration of this phase is variable and depends on numerous factors including material availability, SonicWall and channel inventory and end-user demand. Last Day Order is informational only; products in this phase are active. SonicWall continues to sell support contracts. 
Limited Retirement Mode (LRM)
Limited Retirement Mode (LRM) is an announcement by SonicWall to indicate that it will no longer develop or release firmware updates or new features for these products. Software and firmware support for products in LRM is limited to critical bugs and security vulnerabilities. Support contracts are not available for purchase on products. Software/firmware support and hardware warranty are available throughout LRM for products with an active support contract. The duration of this phase is three years, beginning one day after the end of Active Retirement Mode. 
End of Support (EOS)
End of Support (EOS) is an announcement by SonicWall to indicate that it will no longer provide technical support, firmware updates/upgrades, or hardware replacement for the product, and that all remaining unique inventory or materials will become unavailable. SonicWall may continue to offer security service subscriptions during the End of Support phase (if applicable), but SonicWall will no longer provide technical support for the product or any security service running on it. Should a technical issue arise on one of the subscription services offered during the End of Support phase, customers may be required to transition to an upgrade product at their own cost. Certain remaining entitlements on the End of Support appliance may be transitioned to the upgrade appliance upon request.

Resources:

• NSM vs GMS Feature Matrix
• GMS to NSM Transition FAQ
• GMS Product Lifecycle Table 

SonicWall is committed to making the transition as smooth as possible. Thank you for your continued trust and partnership.