Cisco announced the end-of-sale and end-of life dates for the Cisco ASA 5540 Adaptive Security Appliances in 2013. And now Cisco also updates some new tips for this EoS and EoL Announcement. What are the new tips added into this end-of-sale notice? Let’s check it together.
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 5540 have not reached their end-of-sale date. The Cisco ASA 9.1 is the last software release that will be supported on ASA 5540 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 5540 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 5540) do NOT support NGFW services (AVC and WSE), whereas all ASA 5500-X appliances (including the ASA 5545-X) have been designed ground-up to run multiple services, including the NGFW services, without sacrificing performance.
Product Part Numbers Affected by This Announcement
Product Migration Options
Customers are encouraged to migrate to the newer Cisco ASA 5500-X Series, specifically the Cisco ASA 5545-X Adaptive Security Appliance, which offers increased throughput, better interface density, dual power supplies, and the ability to run services like IPS, AVC (Application Visibility and Control),WSE (Web Security Essentials), etc., without requiring a separate hardware module. Refer to the table below for a detailed comparison between the ASA 5540 and ASA 5545-X. Customers can also upgrade to the Cisco ASA 5555-X, which offers top-of-the-line performance and better scaling numbers than the ASA 5545-X.
Product Comparisons
| Feature | Cisco ASA 5540 Adaptive Security Appliances | Cisco ASA 5545-X Adaptive Security Appliance |
| Next-Generation Firewall | No | Yes |
| Application Visibility and Control Service | No | Yes |
| Web Security Service | No | Yes |
| IPS Service | Yes (Requires separate Hardware module) | Yes (Does not require separate hardware module) |
| Content Security Card Module | Available | Similar functionality available through Cloud Web Security (formerly known as ScanSafe) |
| Firewall Throughput (Max) | 650 Mbps | 3 Gbps |
| IPS Throughput (Max) | 650 Mbps | 900 Mbps |
| VPN Throughput (Max) | 325 Mbps | 400 Mbps |
| Connections (Max) | 400,000 | 750,000 |
| Connections Per Second | 25,000 | 30,000 |
| Dual Power Supplies | No | Yes |
| Integrated I/O | 4GE Cu + 1FE | 6GE Cu |
| Expansion I/O | 4-port GE Cu or 4-port GE SFP | 6-port GE Cu or 6-port GE SFP |
| CPU | Single-core | Multiple cores |
| Memory | 2GB | 12GB |
| Hardware support for 2048-bit certificates | No | Yes |
For more information about the Cisco ASA 5545-X Adaptive Security Appliance, visit https://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/vpndevc/ps6032/ps6094/ps6120/at_a_glance_c45-701635.pdf
The Updated News from https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/security/asa-5500-series-next-generation-firewalls/eol_C51-727354.html
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