Strange naming

mMontana

Device is USG20W-VPN.

It's only me that see this as weird or...

jonatan

There is nothing strange. The whole line of Zywall / USG EOL, except USG 20/20W. They are the only ones who received the v5 firmware. Perhaps Zyxel decided to close the niche of available devices with them. Well, for clarity with the current Flex line, I renamed these gateways. Marketing)))

Zyxel_Emily

Hi @mMontana,

The modification is listed on the release note of 5.20.

mMontana

So tomorrow, if buying USG Flex 50 (W or don't W) it will mean that i will buy... a... 3 years old device? (technologically speaking)

With all due respect for marketing choice, but badge engineering (as called for USA cars the habit of changing badges on the car but having the same product) seems not the best way for promoting your product.

Moreover... Preceding generation of USG20 lasted just a bit longer than "pair grade" generation (with 3.x firmware). How could the current USG20-VPN last more?

Zyxel_Jeff

It's like half glass full or half glass empty.

Another angle to look into this is that beginning ZLD5.1 USG20-VPN inherits features from USG FLEX range including GUI style, latest McAfee Content Filter, and also Nebula management. That is the reason we rename the USG20 to USG FLEX 50, to streamline marketing synergy.

From existing USG20-VPN customer perspective, they are guaranteed to receive new firmware updates alone side the USG FLEX range. From Zyxel portfolio perspective, the USG FLEX 50 is an addition of entry level firewall for SB customer or retain chains with Nebula-managed devices .    

mMontana

Zyxel_Jeff said:

It's like half glass full or half glass empty.

I'm sorry, but this is quite not believable. Painting on USG20-VPN a new name don't make any newer or any better the hardware capabilities. There's no angle on that. It's the same old hardware that could receive newer features without pretending it's newer than reality.

Zyxel_Jeff said:

From Zyxel portfolio perspective, the USG FLEX 50 is an addition of entry level firewall for SB customer or retain chains with Nebula-managed devices .    

From my perspective, Zyxel is cheaping out a device wasting money on badge engineering. And by my opinion, doing something useless with bad image result. USG Flex 100 was already my choice for another project, I'm asking myself if now it's only a USG40 Release 1.5 (with SFP socket).

Mario

hi @mMontana

the "next gen USG" (60/110/310) was released in 2013, the usg20-vpn was released in 2016 with a newer SOC. this SOC is still capable of meeting the requirements of firmware 5.X.
so i think it's good that zyxel continues to support this hardware because it still has enough power.

mMontana

I'm not arguing with that.

But providing in 2022 the same 2016 hardware but with a new name only for comply the "marketing continuity" seems quite not being honest and respectful with customers...

Moreover, boxes, device prints, manuals for 2022 will have the "new name", and that don't come for free.

IMVHO this is one of worst way for spending money: fooling customers.

Zyxel_Jeff

Hi @mMontana

Thanks for your honest feedback and understood your argument. Having this new name is to re-emphasize the FLEX spirit which can be either on-premise or managed by Nebula, not intended to confuse our loyal customers. We will take this comment back to related teams, avoiding this happening again in the future, thanks again.

mMontana

Thanks for your answer, @Zyxel_Jeff, but at this side of the net, it seems a lot a "thanks, but no thanks". And I don't think I'm capable to understand.
Zyxel is my choice for quite a long time (2001) for reliability of the hardware, ease of use, feature list, feature-performance-realiability/price ratio. Tech-side can be tough to swallow, but is a considerable part of what make the customer confident to believe in brand.
Unfortunately, the extensions of lineup, products and... sometimes hard to understand marketing choices are constantly make me ask: still worth?
This debatable choice is another nail, hoping that trust coffin wont' be close soon. But I'm not sure how much i feel confident about that

Zyxel_Jeff

Hi @mMontana

Deeply appreciate your valuable comments and loyally supporting Zyxel products for a long time. Your comment is our motivation to keep improving our products for the future, we will bring your opinion to our team in the planning strategy discussion.