Businesses can now subscribe to a firewall

Check Point Software Technologies is putting advanced firewall protection on the operating budget through Firewall-as-a-Subscription. The monthly or annual model lets organisations choose the protection and throughput needed now, then scale during a three-year term.

The model targets organisations whose capital budgets cannot accommodate a large hardware purchase. The 2026 IANS and Artico Search Security Budget Benchmark found that median security budget growth remained at 0% for a second consecutive year, while 55% of security leaders reported flat or shrinking budgets. Although 64% of CISOs requested an increase, only 45% received one.

Firewall-as-a-Subscription builds on Check Point R82.20, a software version that added AI Network Firewall capabilities for inspecting AI traffic, protecting AI applications and governing AI agents at the network layer.

“Organisations of all sizes face the same AI-driven threats, but for many, capital budget cycles often force them to delay firewall refreshes or buy more capacity than they need,” says Pete Finalle, IDC research manager for security and trust. “Consumption models that turn on-premises security hardware into a predictable operating expense, and let organisations scale protection as their needs grow, can help close that gap. We expect demand for this kind of flexibility to rise as AI adoption increases the traffic and risk networks must handle.”

Check Point says the subscription includes:

• AI Network Firewall: the R82.20 capabilities that inspect AI traffic, protect AI applications and help govern AI agents at the network layer.
• Check Point Force Firewalls: sized and priced on the threat prevention throughput the organisation needs.
• AI-powered threat prevention: including SandBlast, with a claimed 99.9% block rate against zero-day attacks.
• Live Updates: security updates applied on the fly, with no reboots or downtime.
• Smart-1 Agentic Management package: cloud-based security management with no additional on-premises infrastructure.
• Premium support: 24×7, with direct or collaborative options.
• Professional services: Check Point Global Services Flex Credits covering policy migration from another firewall vendor or other Check Point services.

Organisations select threat-prevention throughput according to current requirements and can upgrade capacity during the three-year term. Customers can move to new hardware after 36 months. The arrangement allows firewall capacity to grow without requiring organisations to buy excess hardware at the outset.

Avi Rembaum, Check Point president of global technical sales, says: “Every organisation is adopting AI, and every organisation deserves the same level of protection, whatever its size or budget. With Firewall-as-a-Subscription, we are making our most advanced AI security, threat prevention and agentic management available through one simple subscription, so organisations can secure their AI transformation today.”

* Visit the Check Point website here.