What is an Enterprise License Agreement (ELA)?

An Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) is an agreement between a vendor and a customer, which provides that customer with access to the vendor’s services for a fixed, pre-defined period of time, often with the option to extend for another period.  

An ELA is designed to replace individual license agreements that must be individually purchased, activated, and maintained. With an ELA, an organization can rapidly deploy solutions and have immediate access to all products and services for a pre-agreed price.

Accessing a vendor’s services under an ELA can also reduce license management overhead and spend.

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What is an Enterprise License Agreement (ELA)?

Main Benefits of an ELA

An ELA enables an organization to have a single enterprise-wide license agreement with a vendor rather than a slew of individual user licenses. This can provide significant benefits to an organization, including:

  • Reduced Overhead: Managing individual licenses across the organization can consume significant resources as each license needs to be purchased, tracked, and renewed individually. An ELA allows a company to use a single license for all of a vendor’s services that it consumes across the entire organization.
  • Lower Costs: An ELA is a bulk purchase of a vendor’s service for a fixed period. Often, this comes at a discount compared to individual, per-seat licenses.
  • Decreased Business Impact: With individual licenses, an organization needs to manage each license and may face business disruptions if one slips through the cracks and expires. With an ELA, an organization only needs to manage a single license, decreasing the probability that an oversight will cause a disruption to operations.
  • Reduced Waste: With individual license agreements, an organization may inadvertently purchase additional licenses for a product while others go to waste or are only used occasionally. An ELA enables an organization to bundle services and stop spending money on unused services.
  • Predictable Spend: With an ELA, an organization and a vendor agree on a predetermined rate for a vendor’s services for the period of the ELA. This provides a greater degree of predictability than individual user licenses.
  • Service Flexibility: ELAs often include the option to claim credits for underused resources that can be applied to other services. This allows an organization to better tailor its service consumption to its actual needs.

ELA Best Practices

An ELA can dramatically simplify and streamline an organization’s licensing agreement with critical vendors by moving from many, individual licenses to a single, enterprise-wide one. However, deriving maximum value from an ELA requires a clear, shared understanding between the customer and vendor.  

Some best practices when planning, deploying, and operating under an ELA include:

  • Clearly Define ELA Start Date: Some products have an extended deployment as services and equipment are set up within an organization. Clarify whether the term of the ELA begins when deployment starts or when the system is deployed and functional.
  • Verify Consumption Accuracy: Tracking consumption of services can be difficult if hardware is purchased but not deployed, software is uninstalled, etc. Request consumption reports and validate them with asset management, IT, and procurement teams.
  • Ensure Right to Audit: Vendors commonly have the right to audit an organization for compliance with the number of licenses deployed. Customers should ensure that they also have the right to audit to verify the accuracy of consumption and usage data.
  • Clarify Substitution Methodologies: An ELA may allow an organization to claim credits for underconsumption of certain services. Ensure that both parties are clear on how credits can be claimed and applied for other services.
  • Track Service Consumption: Track service consumption throughout the period of the ELA. This can help to optimize the use of the ELA and inform future budgeting.

Infinity ELA

Check Point’s Infinity Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) , is the first cybersecurity ELA that focuses on threat prevention, provides full access to the complete Check Point Infinity security architecture under a single ELA. By deploying all Check Point Infinity products, solutions, and services, an organization is protected from all threat vectors and takes advantage of the following benefits:

  • Consolidated Security Architecture: Infinity ELA provides access security solutions for networks, mobile, cloud, IoT, and remote workforce under a single license.
  • Predictable Spend: Infinity ELAs are available for a predetermined range of 1 to 5 years and offer preferred rates for Check Point products and services and a 24/7 support.
  • Improved Security: Check Point solutions enable organizations to implement a zero trust security model and minimize security risk throughout the enterprise with improved threat prevention.

Infinity Enterprise License Agreement gives you peace of mind by offering an overall security solution including Software, Hardware, Security Services, and Support. To identify your organization’s security needs and where Infinity ELA can help, take Check Point’s free Security Checkup.  You’re also welcome to contact us to learn how to enhance and streamline your enterprise security with Check Point’s Infinity ELA.

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