Cisco ASA 5550 Adaptive Security Appliance End-of-Sale and End-of-Life

Updated:Mar 18, 2013

Cisco announces the end-of-sale and end-of life dates for the Cisco ASA 5550 Adaptive Security Appliances. The last day to order the affected product(s) is September 16, 2013. Customers with active service contracts will continue to receive support from the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) as shown in Table 1 of the EoL bulletin. Table 1 describes the end-of-life milestones, definitions, and dates for the affected product(s). Table 2 lists the product part numbers affected by this announcement. For customers with active and paid service and support contracts, support will be available under the terms and conditions of customers' service contract.

This end-of-sale notice is part of a broader end-of-sale announcement for the Cisco ASA 5500 Series appliances that covers ASA 5510, ASA 5520, ASA 5540, and ASA 5550, including hardware accessories. Please refer to the respective end-of-sale notices for more detail. Software licenses on the Cisco ASA 5550 have not reached their end-of-sale date. The Cisco ASA 9.1 is the last software release that will be supported on ASA 5550 and other ASA 5500 appliances that have reached their end-of-sale date. Customers are encouraged to migrate to the newer ASA 5500-X Series of next-generation firewalls (NGFW), which includes the ASA 5512-X, ASA 5515-X, ASA 5525-X, ASA 5545-X, and ASA 5555-X.

End-of-Life Milestones and Dates for the Cisco ASA 5550 Adaptive Security Appliances

 

Milestone

Definition

Date

End-of-Life Announcement Date

The date the document that announces the end of sale and end of life of a product is distributed to the general public.

March 18, 2013

End-of-Sale Date

The last date to order the product through Cisco point-of-sale mechanisms. The product is no longer for sale after this date.

September 16, 2013

Last Ship Date:
HW

The last-possible ship date that can be requested of Cisco and/or its contract manufacturers. Actual ship date is dependent on lead time.

December 15, 2013

End of Routine Failure Analysis Date:
HW

The last-possible date a routine failure analysis may be performed to determine the cause of hardware product failure or defect.

September 16, 2014

End of New Service Attachment Date:
HW

For equipment and software that is not covered by a service-and-support contract, this is the last date to order a new service-and-support contract or add the equipment and/or software to an existing service-and-support contract.

September 16, 2014

End of Service Contract Renewal Date:
HW

The last date to extend or renew a service contract for the product.

December 12, 2017

Last Date of Support:
HW

The last date to receive applicable service and support for the product as entitled by active service contracts or by warranty terms and conditions. After this date, all support services for the product are unavailable, and the product becomes obsolete.

September 30, 2018

HW = Hardware OS SW = Operating System Software App. SW = Application Software

Note that the ASA 5500 appliances (including the ASA 5550) do NOT support NGFW services (Application Visibility and Control and Web Security Essentials), whereas all ASA 5500-X appliances (including the ASA 5555-X) have been designed ground-up to run multiple services, including NGFW services, without sacrificing performance. Moreover, unlike the ASA 5500, the ASA 5555-X now offers IPS capability.

Product Part Numbers Affected by This Announcement

 

End-of-Sale Product
Part Number

Product Description

Replacement Product Part Number

Replacement Product Description

Additional Information

ASA5550-BUN-K9

ASA 5550 Appliance with SW, HA, 8GE+1FE, 3DES/AES

ASA5555-2SSD120-K9

ASA 5555-X with SW, 8GE Data,1GE Mgmt,AC,3DES/AES, 2 SSD 120G

-

ASA5550-DC-K8

ASA 5550 Appliance with DC power, SW, HA, 8GE+1FE, DES

ASA5555-DC-K8

ASA 5555-X with SW, 8GE Data, 1GE Mgmt, DC, DES

-

ASA5550-K8

ASA 5550 Appliance with SW, HA, 8GE+1FE, DES

ASA5555-2SSD120-K8

ASA 5555-X with SW, 8GE Data, 1GE Mgmt, AC, DES, 2 SSD 120G

-

ASA5550-SSL2500-K9

ASA 5550 VPN Edition w/ 2500 SSL User License, HA, 3DES/AES

ASA5555VPN-PM25HK9

ASA 5555-X w/2500 AnyConnect Premium and Mobile

-

ASA5550-SSL5000-K9

ASA 5550 VPN Edition w/ 5000 SSL User License, HA, 3DES/AES

ASA5555VPN-PM5KK9

ASA 5555-X w/5000 AnyConnect Premium and Mobile

-

ASA5550-UC-BUN-K8

ASA 5550 UC Bundle With 3000 UC Proxy Sessions, DES

See Product Migration Options section for details.

ASA5555-2SSD120-K8 with ASA-UC-3000 License

ASA5550-UC-BUN-K9

ASA 5550 UC Bundle With 3000 UC Proxy Sessions, 3DES/AES

See Product Migration Options section for details.

ASA5555-2SSD120-K8 with ASA-UC-3000 License

Product Comparisons

 

Feature

Cisco ASA 5550 Adaptive Security Appliance

Cisco ASA 5555-X Adaptive Security Appliance

Next-Generation Firewall

No

Yes

Application Visibility and Control Service

No

Yes

Web Security Service

No

Yes

IPS Service

No

Yes (Does not require separate hardware module)

Content Security Service

No

Similar functionality available through Cloud Web Security (formerly known as ScanSafe)

Firewall Throughput (Max)

1.2 Gbps

4 Gbps

IPS Throughput (Max)

Not Applicable

1.3 Gbps

VPN Throughput (Max)

425 Mbps

700 Mbps

Connections (Max)

600,000

1,000,000

Connections Per Second

33,000

50,000

Integrated I/O

8 GE Copper and 1 FE

8 GE Copper + Dedicated GE Copper Management Port

Expansion I/O

Not Available

6-port GE Copper, or 6-port GE SFP

CPU

Single Core

Multiple Cores

Memory

4 GB

16 GB

Dual Power Supplies

No

Yes

IPS Accelerator hardware

No

In-built hardware accelerator for both default and custom signatures

Hardware support for 2048-bit certificates

No

Yes