This article details some of the frequently asked questions that we have received regarding the sunsetting of VIPRE Antivirus Business and VIPRE Business Premium.

Q: I own VIPRE Antivirus Business/Business Premium/Hyper-V, will my product(s) stop working, and when?

A: Although the official End-of-Life date for these products is November 30, 2021 these products will continue to function for some time after that date. Because they will be unsupported, however, you will not be able to contact Support for assistance with any issues aside from upgrades, and at some point, the active definition updates will stop working. As a result, we strongly recommend that you arrange to upgrade your systems prior to the EOL date.

Q: Do I need to take action immediately?

A: Most customers of these products have license renewal dates coming up between now and Nov. 30, 2021. Our recommendation is that you wait until your renewal date, and then upgrade as this will be a simple transaction. If, however, your organization is at a particular risk for targeted attacks, you might consider upgrading sooner to take advantage of the advanced protective capabilities of VIPRE Endpoint Security.

Q: I realize that these products may stop working, but can I renew them anyway?

A: We will allow customers to renew for 1 year periods up to Nov. 30, 2020, but as any renewal thereafter would have you purchasing a product that will be unsupported for part of its lifetime, after Nov. 30 2020 we cannot in good conscience allow you to renew without upgrading to a supported product. Unfortunately, we cannot offer partial-year renewals either.

Q: What product should I upgrade to?

A: For VIPRE Antivirus Business and Business Premium, you have essentially two choices: VIPRE Endpoint Security Cloud and VIPRE Endpoint Security Server. VIPRE Endpoint Security Server will be the easier upgrade, as once you have your new license key you can most likely just install the new Server on top of your old installation, and then update your agents. In general, all of your policies and settings will migrate over as is. Upgrading to VIPRE Endpoint Security Cloud is slightly more difficult; we provide a Migration Tool to copy your policies into your new cloud-hosted site and to assist with agent migration, but you do have to run through that migration process (Upgrade Assistance is offered by our Support team). On the other hand, by upgrading to Cloud, you can also retire your former server hardware and free up any maintenance resources allocated to that system, as we will take care of it for you. With Cloud, you also get much more advanced threat investigation and security visibility through our Cloud console. Note also that if you are pressed for time now, you can upgrade to Server now and migrate to Cloud later for a nominal setup fee.

Also see: https://www.vipre.com/products/business-protection/endpoint-solutions/

For VIPRE for Hyper-V, there is no direct replacement but our recommendation is to simply install VIPRE agents on your individual client VMs. The purported benefits of the Hyper V-hosted agent were intended to save resources by sharing them at the hypervisor level; in practice, no such performance savings are seen until you are hosting hundreds of VMs on the same hypervisor. Also, the more advanced threat detection techniques must run locally within the VM, for example, the process behavior analysis based on machine-learning techniques.

Q: We have existing licenses that extend beyond Nov. 30, 2021, what do we need to do?

A: There are a small number of VIPRE customers who purchased longer-term multi-year licenses and who unfortunately have licenses that extend beyond the declared EOL date for these products. We will be proactively reaching out to you to assist with the upgrade process, as we do not want to wait until your current renewal date to make the change.

Q: What will it cost me to upgrade?

A: VIPRE wants to make this process as smooth as possible with as little impact on our customers as possible. We have a variety of options and incentives at our disposal to help with the upgrade process, and we encourage you to reach out to our Sales team or one of our amazing partners to discuss your options.

Q: I have auto-renew. Will my subscription still automatically renew?

A: We will not be automatically renewing subscriptions for these products. However, when you upgrade to VIPRE Endpoint Cloud or VIPRE Endpoint Server, we will be happy to re-enroll you in our auto-renew program for continuous protection. 

Q: What are the benefits of VIPRE Endpoint Security?

A: Endpoint Security is very similar to the product you already know and love, but with several additional advanced features. The most important feature from a security perspective is the fully automated process behavior analysis that can stop even zero-day advanced threats by leveraging machine learning techniques, but you also get add-ons such as DNS Protection, Web Access Control, and Patch Management. You will also get the benefits of a modern, well-supported product undergoing continuous innovation.  https://www.vipre.com/products/business-protection/endpoint-solutions/

Note that VIPRE Endpoint Security routinely gets high ratings and wins awards across several independent testing agencies such as AV Comparatives, AV Test, and Virus Bulletin. This product is one you can depend on.

Q: Are we still supported after Nov. 30, 2020?

A: As of Nov. 30, 2020, these products fall out of General Support and enters the Assisted Support phase. Essentially what this means is that we cannot guarantee that any patches will be produced to fix any product bugs discovered, but that you will still receive full configuration support. For a full definition and explanation, see https://success.vipre.com/home-resources-legal/resources-product-lifecycle-policy

Q: Do you have a published EOL schedule?

A: Yes, our full product lifecycle for all VIPRE products is published here: https://success.vipre.com/home-resources-legal/resources-product-lifecycle-matrix