Many of us have come to know and love the Cisco PIX 500 Series as a robust firewall for the SMB (Small and medium business) customer. Virtually 95% of the clients that my consulting firm services have either a PIX 501 or 506 firewall in place. But as of July 28, 2008, you will no longer be able to buy a PIX from Cisco:

On January 28, 2008, Cisco announced the end-of-sale and end-of life dates for Cisco PIX Security Appliances, software, accessories, and licenses. The last day for purchasing Cisco PIX Security Appliance platforms/bundles will be July 28, 2008 and the last day to purchase accessories and licenses will be January 27, 2009. It is important to note that Cisco will continue to support Cisco PIX Security Appliance customers through July 27, 2013.

Cisco PIX Security Appliance customers are encouraged to migrate to Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances. In addition to providing the same robust firewall and IPsec VPN capabilities as Cisco PIX Security Appliances, the Cisco ASA 5500 Series offers significantly better performance and scalability, SSL VPN support, advanced Unified Communications (voice/video) security, and a modular design that allows you to add features such as intrusion prevention (IPS), antivirus, antispam, antiphishing, and URL filtering. Migration to the Cisco ASA 5500 Series is straightforward, because consistent management and monitoring interfaces allow you to take advantage of your knowledge and investment in Cisco PIX Security Appliances.

So long, old friend. Let’s hope your replacement provides the same high level of transparent protection that you are famous for.

Cheers!
The Geek

Have a question? It can be about anything from cooking to science, whatever you’re interested in: Click here to Ask the Geek! Kenny “The Geek” Harthun has been playing with geeky stuff since 1965. He’s a former research scientist, currently works as a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer at Connective Computing, Inc. and loves to learn about anything and everything.