New Free Trial Subscriptions, WSO2 Update 2.0, and More

Today we introduce an enhanced WSO2 Subscription offering. As always, our products are open source, including all enterprise features, under the Apache 2.0 license. Our WSO2 Subscription services represent an additional package of enterprise-grade services and support to help you get the most value out of the product. The subscription represents a relationship to assist you throughout your project, from design and architecture guidance, support and teaming during your development and deployment milestones, ongoing update services to reduce the risks of downtime or security breach, and managing your deployment in the cloud. Hundreds of customers have become loyal subscribers. With today’s improvements, new and existing subscribers have even more benefits, including a new WSO2 Free Trial Subscription, new versions of WSO2 Update and WSO2 Update Manager, new distribution mechanisms for updates, and a dramatic increase in our support lifetime. We are confident WSO2 Subscription services will help those evaluating WSO2 products as well, so we are providing a no-obligation preview of the full breadth of WSO2 Subscription benefits with the WSO2 Free Trial Subscription. This includes all the benefits of a WSO2 Subscription, including:

• WSO2 Update services – access to all updates for all versions of products (this is improved from offering only updates on the latest version) and a license to use the updates in any environment (this is improved from precluding use in production environments).
• Early access to security updates and bulletins – Subscribers get advance notice of possible vulnerabilities to provide ample time to install security updates prior to public announcement of the vulnerability.
• WSO2 Support services – each free trial is eligible for a support account, which includes 5 hours of query support as well as incident support on pre-production or production environments according to our SLA.
• Access to new distributions (such as Docker images) for WSO2 products with pre-installed updates.
  
• Access to an assigned WSO2 account management team with business, technical, and support owners to help you evaluate the products and build a proof of concept.

A free trial lasts initially for 15 days and applies to all WSO2 products. We would be happy to work with you to get the most out of the trial period and to upgrade the trial into a commercial subscription. WSO2 Free Trial Subscriptions are available instantly online.

WSO2 Update 2.0

Associated with supporting the free trial we have made some significant changes to WSO2 Update. As always, bug fixes are published into the latest open source branch and are available for open source users who upgrade to the next product release. WSO2 Update 2.0 is an integral part of our WSO2 Subscription commercial service, making bug fixes immediately available for easy drop-in deployment into any supported previous version. To get updates you must be a subscriber – which includes all of our free trial subscribers. Here’s how WSO2 Update 2.0 compares with 1.0:

• A “subscription” to WSO2 Update services was previously separate from a WSO2 Subscription. Now your WSO2 Update subscription is simply part of your WSO2 Subscription and can be managed as such. Pre-commercial users maintain access to updates through the new WSO2 Free Trial Subscription program.
• All subscribers including free trial users now have access to ALL available updates for their subscribed products, including updates applicable to previous releases and security updates not yet released publicly.
• Updates obtained under a free trial can be used in development, pre-production, and now, production environments, during the trial period.
• The WSO2 Update End User License Agreement (EULA) 2.0 encodes the above terms and applies for free trials and new subscriptions. There will be no change to license terms for existing subscribers with agreements specifically referencing the WSO2 Update EULA 1.0.

With this release, there will be a broader set of ways to take advantage of WSO2 Updates.

• Many of our products now have downloaders, which include an option to log into your WSO2 Subscription and install all available updates with one click.
• WSO2 Update Manager (WUM) 2.0 downloads products and manages updates, and now supports free trial users.
• Subscribers can quickly get images with all updates pre-installed, for Docker, Docker Compose, and Vagrant. We expect to regularly expand both the breadth of these distribution options and the products they are available for over time.
• We can manage the deployment of updates for you, with our WSO2 Cloud and WSO2 Managed Cloud services.

How does this affect you?

If you are a WSO2 Subscriber, there will be little change – take advantage of the new options for downloading products and updates. Upgrade to WUM 2.0 to so that access to updates will continue uninterrupted. If you are interested in evaluating a broader set of WSO2 products, let us know and we’ll extend your team a WSO2 Free Trial Subscription for those additional products. If you are not yet a WSO2 Subscriber, your current access to WSO2 Updates will end. To continue it, please apply for a WSO2 Free Trial Subscription and let us help you towards the adoption of WSO2 products and a WSO2 Subscription. Have questions or more ideas for benefits that you’d like to see incorporated into your subscription? Let me know at [email protected].