Budgets Are Stalling Firewall Deals. Here’s How Partners Can Get Them Moving Again

Every partner knows this conversation. A customer agrees their firewalls need replacing. Their teams are using AI tools, they are connecting more systems, and the threats are moving faster than their hardware was built for. They want to upgrade. Then the quote goes into the capital approval process, and the deal goes quiet.

This year, that conversation is happening more often. Today we launched Firewall-as-a-Subscription to help partners get those deals moving again.

Why deals are stalling

Inflation and rising interest rates are increasing borrowing costs and shrinking capital budgets, and security is feeling the pressure. According to the IANS Research and Artico 2026 Security Budget Benchmark , the median security budget did not grow this year and 55% of CISOs saw their budgets stay flat or fall. While 64% asked for an increase, only 45% received one. When capital is this tight, firewall refreshes are often among the first projects to slip.

Partners are feeling it too. Many resellers have joined larger integrators through private equity deals, and tighter fundraising conditions are limiting available cash. Funding or financing customer hardware ties up capital that partners would rather use to grow.

What Firewall-as-a-Subscription changes

Firewall-as-a-Subscription gives your customers Check Point’s most advanced AI security and network threat prevention through one predictable monthly or annual subscription, with no upfront hardware purchase. Each subscription includes:

Check Point Force Firewalls sized and priced on the threat prevention throughput the customer needs

AI Network Firewall capabilities introduced in R82.20, which inspect AI traffic, protect AI applications and help govern AI agents

AI-powered threat prevention, including SandBlast, with a 99.9% block rate against zero-day attacks

Live Updates that apply security updates on the fly, with no reboots or downtime

Smart-1 Agentic Management for cloud-based security management with no extra on-premises infrastructure

24×7 premium support and Global Services Flex Credits that cover policy migration from another vendor’s firewall

The subscription runs for three years. Customers can upgrade throughput at any time and move to new hardware after 36 months, so their protection keeps pace with their business and their use of AI.

What it means for your business

No customer financing: you don’t need to fund or finance the hardware, so you keep your cash

Deals that skip the stall: customers pay from their operating budget instead of waiting for capital approval

An easy fit for OpEx buyers: many customers simply prefer to pay as they go

Simple to quote: pre-set bundled SKUs and familiar programs make it easy to quote from the first deal, even for partners new to Check Point

Competitive wins: Flex Credits cover policy migration, removing one of the biggest barriers to switching vendors

Bigger deals: add 24×7 Incident Response, Fully Managed Firewall, MDR/XDR and Managed SOC services on top

The programs you know: deal registration and NSP – spell out apply as usual

Lead with AI security

Every one of your customers is adopting AI, and every one of them needs protection that can keep up. Firewall-as-a-Subscription builds on R82.20, which brought AI security directly into the firewall. That gives you a strong reason to start the conversation now, and a way to solve the customer’s budget problem in the same proposal.

The quickest wins are usually customers who have already decided they need to act but are waiting on budget:

Pending refreshes: customers running ageing firewalls who have pushed the project into year

Competitive replacements: customers who want to change vendors but can’t justify a second capital purchase

Growing organizations: customers adding sites, users or AI initiatives faster than their budget cycle

Take a customer with ageing firewalls from another vendor across several sites. With Firewall-as-a-Subscription, you can move them to Check Point in one project, with policy migration covered, protect their growing use of AI, and keep the whole thing within their operating budget.

“Rising borrowing costs are hitting our partners twice: their customers have less capital budget, and they have less cash to fund the deal,” said Chris Moore. “Firewall-as-a-Subscription solves both. Customers pay one predictable fee, and partners can close the deal this quarter.”

“Rising borrowing costs are hitting our partners twice: their customers have less capital budget, and they have less cash to fund the deal,” said Chris Moore. “Firewall-as-a-Subscription solves both. Customers pay one predictable fee, and partners can close the deal this quarter.”

Firewall-as-a-Subscription is available now to Check Point partners of all tiers worldwide, through Check Point distributors. A signed annex to a distributor of agreement with Check Point is required before partner activation. You can find sales resources, pricing and training on Partner Dashboard or your Check Point channel manager to start building your pipeline.