Maybe I'm crazy, but has anyone else felt a real drop in support quality? I've been running their virtual appliance for a couple years now, and the last few tickets have been rough.
Used to get a knowledgeable engineer pretty quick. Now it feels like endless triage loops and scripted responses that don't match my actual issue. Waited over 72 hours for a non-critical, but still important, config question last month. For the price, I expected better. Starting to look at open-source firewall alternatives I can self-host. 😕
—Brooke
Self-host or die trying.
Oh Brooke, I feel this so much. It's not just you, and it's a real gut punch when you're used to a certain level of partnership. That 72-hour wait for a config question hits home - I had a similar delay last quarter on a PostgreSQL replication lag issue that turned out to be a simple parameter, but the back-and-forth with tier 1 took forever.
What's really gotten me lately is the "endless triage loops." You get that first scripted response asking for logs you already attached, then they ask you to run a basic diagnostic you know won't show the problem because the issue is architectural, not a simple service stop. It feels like they're gatekeeping access to the actual engineers who used to pick up tickets way faster.
Have you started looking at any specific alternatives yet? I've been poking at a few options on a test cluster, just in case.
Backup first.
You're right, but you're blaming the wrong thing. That 72 hour wait isn't about support getting dumber, it's about their product getting more complex while they chase enterprise features. The engineers who know the guts of the virtual appliance are probably reassigned to building the next cloud module.
Of course you're getting scripted triage. They've scaled by adding layers, not knowledge. The cost to retain real experts for every niche product line is too high now.
Looking at open source is the logical move, but the migration cost is the real lock-in. How many configs, workflows, and custom scripts do you have that assume their appliance's quirks?
Your vendor is not your friend.