Although initially the end-of-life date for Sybari Antigen 8.0 was set to the end of the past year, the security solutions tailored to Microsoft's Exchange and SMTP Gateways have got a reprieve. The Redmond company announced that it provided both Sybari Antigen for Exchange 8.0 and Sybari Antigen for SMTP Gateways 8.0 with a one-year life extension. In this context, customers running the products will be able to postpone upgrades until the end of 2009. In fact, the software giant's decision to breathe additional life into Sybari Antigen was motivated by the necessity to provide customers with additional upgrade “elbow room.”

“Microsoft has decided to extend the end-of-life for Sybari Antigen for Exchange 8.0 and Sybari Antigen for SMTP Gateways 8.0 from December 31, 2008 to December 31, 2009,” Brita Jenquin, Sr. product manager Forefront Security Products, revealed.

“This decision was made to accommodate the antivirus needs of customers who are still running versions of Exchange prior to Exchange 2000, and who have requested additional time to upgrade in 2009.”

However, the life extension is only valid for interested parties that have already deployed Sybari Antigen for Exchange 8.0 and Sybari Antigen for SMTP Gateways 8.0. Microsoft indicated that the two security solutions would not be made available for either purchase or deployment in 2009. Moreover, in this regard, the company is prepared to offer support exclusively to existing customers.

“The terms of the Sybari Antigen for Exchange 8.0 and Sybari Antigen for SMTP Gateways 8.0 end-of-life extension are as follows: no product support will be provided after December 31, 2009; customers will not be able to receive antivirus engine definition updates after December 31, 2009; if an existing Sybari Antigen for Exchange 8.0 or Sybari Antigen for SMTP Gateway 8.0 customer has a contract that expires between now and December 31, 2009, Microsoft will only extend the licensing agreement for the 8.0 version until December 31, 2009,” Jenquin added.