Businesses that never planned on losing access to their office are desperately in need of remote work and security tools. Channel pros shut out of offices as well are struggling to support businesses remotely. Students home from closed schools need online education solutions. Healthcare providers and government agencies need tools for communicating with people sheltering at home.
Recognizing the urgency of those and other needs, vendors have been introducing a stream of free, limited-time software offers and other assistance. Too busy to see them all? ChannelPro has collected many of them for you here. Bookmark this page and check in regularly for the latest additions to this evolving list.
REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS
Avaya is providing 60 days of free access its Avaya Spaces video and collaboration solution and 90 days of free access to several of its unified communications products.
Avaya is also letting businesses convert office-based licenses to its contact center solutions into remote seats for 90 days at no charge. At the end of that period, customers can optionally turn those licenses into monthly subscriptions if they choose.
BlackBerry is offering businesses free 60-day licenses to BlackBerry Desktop, which lets users work from a home PC securely, and BlackBerry AtHoc for Employee Safety, a “crisis communications” platform.
Cisco is allowing existing users of the free edition of its Webex videoconferencing solution include up to 100 people in a meeting, versus the previous 50, and conduct meetings for unlimited periods rather than just 40 minutes. The system now supports toll dial-in connections in addition to its native VoIP functionality as well.
Cisco has also begun letting companies with existing deployments of three products exceed their current user limit to accommodate remote workers. The offer applies to the Cisco Umbrella endpoint and network security product, Duo Security multifactor authentication system, and Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobile Client VPN solution. In addition, free 14-day licenses to new users of those products are available now as well.
CloudOak is providing a free customizable COVID-19 business continuity plan template, based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization guidelines, for use with its Plan4Continuity business continuity planning and orchestration solution. To Plan4Continuity subscribers, the offer includes a full-featured Plan4Continuity license that businesses can use to put the COVID-19 plan (and only that plan) into effect.
CoreView is letting businesses and government agencies use two solutions for newcomers to Microsoft Teams at no charge. Good through this September, the offer applies to CoreLearning, the company’s end user training system, and CoreAdoption, which lets businesses execute and measure Teams implementation campaigns. Use the vendor’s also free CoreDiscovery system to sign up for those systems.
DH2i is making DxOdyssey, which lets employees access a work computer from home, available free through the end of the year. Free support is available until then as well.
Instant Housecall, a maker of remote control software for MSPs and IT providers, has added free sub-accounts to all of its licensing plans. Sub-accounts allow channel pros to give end users remote access to a PC at the office from a PC at home. Already included in some subscriptions, they’re now available free to all Instant Housecall partners until the World Health Organization declares that the global Coronavirus pandemic has ended.
Ingram Micro and 8×8 have rolled out a free web-based video meetings solution offering HD video and audio, unlimited meetings, free dial-in with toll-free numbers, and the ability to store meeting recordings in the cloud.
Intermedia is providing its AnyMeeting Pro videoconferencing solution to new users for free and without meeting time limits through the end of 2020. Through the same offer, organizations can get one free license to Webinar Pro, which lets organizations host larger, live broadcasted events for up to 200 people.
Laplink is offering free and discounted software for Microsoft Windows users who need to migrate files, settings, and user profiles from an outdated or office-bound computer to a remote work laptop. Through September 30th, personal users can get the vendor’s PCmover Express product for free and businesses can buy PCmover Professional at a discounted price.
Microsoft is offering a free six-month trial edition of its Office 365 E1 plan, which normally sells for $8 per user a month. Though the subscription includes Outlook Online, web-based versions of other Microsoft Office applications, and a OneDrive for Business file sync and share account, among other components, the main idea behind the promotion is to give organizations with remote employees access to the online meetings, content sharing, and other collaboration features in Microsoft Teams.
Rackspace is letting existing customers add Microsoft Teams to their Office 365 account free for six months.
Vonage is making a new video meetings tool called Vonage Free Conferencing available to anyone at no cost for up to 90 days. In addition, up to 250 mobile-only licenses to the vendor’s more full-featured Vonage Business Communications product are now available through the Vonage Business Continuity offer for up to 90 days.
Wildix is letting businesses use a unified communications suite called the smart working package free for six months.
Zoho has launched a Small Business Emergency Subscription Assistance Program that will let up to 20,000 qualified paying customers worldwide with 25 employees or less use all of the cloud-based productivity software they run today free of charge for up to three months.
REMOTE SECURITY AND BACKUP SOLUTIONS
Arcserve is providing free use of its Arcserve Cloud Direct backup solution, plus 5TB of storage, free for 120 days.
BlackBerry is offering free licenses for 60 days to BlackBerry Protect, an endpoint security solution, as well as SecuSUITE and SecuSUITE for Government, its secure messaging and phone call systems.
Carbonite is extending trial deployments of Carbonite Endpoint Protection and Carbonite Backup for Microsoft Office 365 initiated after April 1st for 60 extra days.
ESET is extending the free trial period from 30 days to 90 days for its ESET Secure Authentication solution, and from 30 days to 90 days for its ESET Dynamic Threat Detection solution as well for users with more than 100 seats.
GFI is supplying three months of free access for an unlimited number of remote workers to its Kerio Control VPN solution, plus 30 days of free access to Kerio Control’s AntiVirus and WebFilter capabilities.
Kaspersky is giving 180 days of free access to a trial version of its Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Office 365 product, which now includes protection for Microsoft Teams and SharePoint.
PC Matic is providing its PC Matic PRO Endpoint Suite, which combines white list endpoint protection with remote control and patch management functionality, to businesses with 10 or more remote workstations at no charge. The offer is open both to MSPs and their customers, and includes free onboarding and support services.
ReversingLabs is supplying free threat analysis, hunting, and intelligence services to organizations in the healthcare, air & travel, insurance, oil & gas, and automotive verticals through September.
Trustifi is making free 90-day licenses to its email encryption solutions available to companies with 50 or more employees. The offer is designed to help telecommuters exchange sensitive information securely over home networks through Outlook Online and Google Gmail. There is no obligation to purchase, the company says, at the end of the trial period.
Unitrends is offering 50% off its Cloud Backup product, plus 50% off sister company Spanning’s Office 365 Backup solution and 50% off parent company Kaseya’s Virtual Systems Administrator RMM tool.
WatchGuard is supplying free multifactor authentication and DNS filtering for up to 250 users for 120 days, and providing free licenses for FireboxV, a cloud-hosted firewall that can help load balance surging VPN traffic, for 120 days.
Webroot is offering free access to Webroot Business Endpoint Protection, Webroot DNS Protection, and Webroot Security Awareness Training for 60 days.
Zix and AppRiver are providing free access to Zix’s Healthyemail Encrypted Messaging Service.
MANAGED SERVICES TOOLS AND BUSINESS OPERATIONS AID
Addigy is offering free 60-day licenses to its cloud-based Apple device management platform.
Corporate Armor is giving service providers free use of ISL Light, its remote desktop and unattended access solution.
Ingram Micro has temporarily waived fees on most of its financing programs.
EDUCATION SOLUTIONS
Avaya is offering the business edition of its Avaya Spaces video and collaboration solution at no charge to educational and nonprofit organizations worldwide through August 31st. [Update: Avaya is now giving commercial users 60 days of free access to Spaces as well. See “Remote Work Solutions” above.]
LogMeIn is giving K-12 schools free access to GoToConnect, its cloud phone and unified communcations platform, through the end of the school year.
TeamViewer is giving its blizz online collaboration tool for free to K-12 schools, colleges, and universities through July 31st.
ViewSonic is supplying its myViewBoard distance learning software free to K-12 schools, colleges, and universities.
Vonage is offering three free months of Vonage Business Communications service to educational, healthcare, and non-profit organizations in the U.S., U.K., and Australia.
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS
BitDefender is making all of its products available to doctors, hospitals, dentists, and other healthcare providers of any size for free. Large healthcare organizations can also get professional services and advanced technologies like network traffic security and analytics from BitDefender at no cost. The offer is good for up to 12 months based on customer need.
Digital Defense has established a $1 million fund to pay for free security assessments to healthcare providers.
Hornetsecurity is offering its email security services free of charge to healthcare providers through the end of the year.
Kaspersky is providing Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud Plus, Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Office 365, Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business Advanced, and Kaspersky Hybrid Cloud Security free to healthcare providers for six months.
Netsparker is letting anyone directly involved in the fight against COVID-19 use its Netsparker Team web security platform for free. Eligible beneficiaries include government agencies, medical equipment providers, news providers, vaccine researchers, medical researchers, patient care providers, hospitals, emergency first responders, food delivery services, and more.
Rackspace has set aside $10 million to give COVID-19 responders free OpenStack public cloud hosting resources.
ReversingLabs is supplying free threat analysis, hunting, and intelligence services through September.
Vonage has created an SMS alert solution that delivers real-time updates from the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and other government agencies to end users anywhere. Specifically developed in response to the COVID-19 crisis, the service is available free to healthcare providers, communities, and government agencies worldwide. (See the Vonage offers under “Educational Solutions” as well.)
Zerto is giving healthcare providers, essential service providers, and state and local governments free data protection for up to 50 virtual machines through its IT Resilience solution, plus premium support, until September 30th.
