Subscriptions
Types of subscriptions
There are two types of Security for AWS subscriptions, available for end-customers and partner entities in GravityZone:
Via Partner Advantage Network for Bitdefender partners.
Via AWS Marketplace product page for direct end-customers.
Partner subscriptions
If you are a direct Bitdefender distributor or partner, follow the steps below to subscribe to the AWS service via the Bitdefender PAN portal:
Connect to your Bitdefender Partner Advantage Network account, go to the AWS view and use the two available options to:
Create a new GravityZone company.
Log in to an existing GravityZone account. If you use this option, make sure to employ your main partner account where you manage your linked customers and resellers.
This integration between PAN and Control Center is needed for billing purposes, allowing us to properly collect and report the AWS usage associated with your GravityZone companies. In Control Center, this action is going to display the Amazon EC2 Integration option for your Partner account and for all of your managed companies.
Optionally, you can configure your Amazon EC2 integration from the Integrations page in Control Center. As a direct partner, it is not mandatory to actually configure the integration and use the AWS service for your own network, if you do not own an AWS account. This step is only needed by for customers and partners who must protect their EC2 instances. Once you setup the integration and deploy the first security agent, you are going to benefit from a 30-day free trial of the service.
You can create Amazon EC2 monthly usage reports for each of your managed companies.
For more information regarding your PAN account, please contact your Bitdefender account manager.
As a partner affiliated to a direct Bitdefender distributor, you can view the Amazon EC2 Integration in GravityZone Control Center, if your distributor has the right to resell this service activated in PAN.
If needed, you can change your Bitdefender distributor by providing the Partner ID in My Company page.
If you do not see the Amazon EC2 integration options, please contact your Bitdefender distributor.
Direct customer subscriptions
Subscription on AWS Marketplace is today available for new GravityZone customers and for existing users who have not had an AWS subscription in the past.
To subscribe to Security for AWS as a direct customer, you must first have an active AWS account. As a best practice, it is strongly recommended that you create and use IAM user accounts associated to your AWS root account. Learn more about IAM here. In addition, make sure to use a production account where you are going to be charged by AWS on a monthly basis for using the Bitdefender service.
To subscribe to Security for AWS from Amazon Marketplace:
Login to your AWS user account.
Access the Security for AWS page on Amazon Marketplace.
Click the Continue button on the right side of the page. You will be redirected to the subscription details page.
After reading the subscription details, click the Subscribe button. A confirmation message is displayed:
At this point, you are subscribed to Security for AWS. You are going to be prompted next to set up your Bitdefender GravityZone account.
Click Set Up Your Account to proceed.
You are redirected to a subscription form hosted on the Bitdefender website. From this point forward, follow the steps according to your Bitdefender customer status:
As new customer:
Fill in the required information.
Click Complete Registration to finish.
If the provided details are valid, a customer company and a user account are going to be created for you in GravityZone Control Center. You are going to receive an email confirmation for your subscription to the service on Amazon Marketplace. You are also going to receive a GravityZone new account confirmation email, with your login details. At this moment, you can access GravityZone Control Center using the link provided in the email.
As existing customer, you only need to provide your GravityZone Control Center credentials:
Click the link provided under the form's title.
Enter your GravityZone credentials.
Note
You must provide the credentials of a company administrator account.
Click Confirm Subscription.
If the login credentials are valid, a confirmation message is going to appear. Access GravityZone Control Center and log in to your account.
At this point, you can start configuring the Amazon EC2 integration.
You can find more information about subscribing to Security for AWS from Amazon Marketplace in Subscribing to Bitdefender Security for Amazon Web Services in AWS Marketplace.
Checking subscription status
To check your subscription status, access the GravityZone Control Center, go to the user menu at the upper-right side of the page and choose My Company. The subscription information is available on this page according to your subscription type.
AWS Marketplace subscription status
Important
Valid for newer customers who subscribed after December 5th 2017.
As a customer subscribed via AWS Marketplace, you can check the subscription status in My Company page, under AWS Marketplace Subscription section.
The subscription status can be:
Licensed: the service has been licensed via subscription from AWS Marketplace. Having a licensed subscription, you can use Security for AWS on any number of instances, and you are going to be charged monthly by Amazon for your usage.
Cancelled: the customer has unsubscribed from the service in AWS Marketplace. To find out more information, refer to Unsubscribing from Bitdefender Securityfor AWS.
Amazon Pay subscription status
Important
Valid for existing customers with active subscriptions prior to December 5th 2017.
Customers with an Amazon Pay subscription can check their subscription status in My Company page, under AWS Subscription section.
The subscription status can be:
Licensed. This status is displayed after you have authorized payments to Bitdefender from your Amazon Payments account. In this case, the credit card added to your Amazon Payments account is going to be charged monthly, based on your Security for AWS usage. Note that this licensing method is no longer supported and has been replaced with the Amazon Marketplace subscription.
Cancelled. This status is displayed after you have cancelled your service subscription by clicking the Cancel Subscription button. In this case:
All the Bitdefender security agents installed on your instances will expire.
The payment authorization for your subscription on Amazon Payments is automatically canceled. However, you are going to be charged for your current month usage, up to the time when you unsubscribed.
Suspended. This status is displayed after several failed payment attempts on your credit card, within 2 months. In this case, you must contact Bitdefender Support to wire transfer the debt and re-activate your account.
Free trial subscription status
You can register for a free trial on the product page from the Bitdefender website. Once registered, you must first configure the Amazon EC2 integration. Afterwards, you can check your subscription information on the My Company page, under the AWS Subscription section.
The subscription status can be:
Trial. Once you have configured the Amazon EC2 integration and deployed the agent, you can start using this service in trial mode for 30 days. Along with the trial status, you can also view the remaining days of your trial period. During the trial period, you can fully protect and manage any number of instances using the security services available with GravityZone Control Center.
Expired. This status applies after the 30-days trial period has expired, on accounts where the Amazon Payment subscription has not yet been configured. To continue using the service, you must subscribe from AWS Marketplace. Click the widget to easily access our product page on AWS Marketplace and continue with the subscription procedure.
Licensing
Security for AWS is a pay-per-use service available with a monthly subscription. When calculating the usage, only running instances on which the security agent is installed are taken into account.
If you have registered to the service via Amazon Marketplace, you immediately obtain a licensed subscription. Every month, Amazon are going to issue an invoice for your usage in the previous month and you are going to make it available as part of the consolidated billing option from your AWS account.
If you subscribe for a Bitdefender Security for AWS free trial on our website, you are going to obtain a 30-days trial that starts once the first security agent is installed on an EC2 instance. During the trial period, all features are fully functional and you can use the service on any number of instances. To continue using the service after the trial expires, you must to subscribe to the service on Amazon Marketplace.
If you subscribe to the service as a Bitdefender partner via the PAN portal, you are going to benefit from a 30-days trial, which starts once the first security agent is installed on an EC2 instance. The same trial period is valid for all your child companies linked to your partner account. After the trial expires, the service is automatically licensed for your managed companies, without having to enter a license key.
For information regarding checking the subscription status, please refer to Checking subscription status.
Note
Security for AWS is compatible with all GravityZone cloud solutions.
Usage and payments
Bitdefender provides usage-based licensing for its AWS security solution allowing you to pay based on the number of hours of uptime on your protected instances.
When calculating usage, only running instances are taken into account. The usage for each instance is counted by the hour, from the time it is launched until it is stopped or terminated. Usage lower than an hour is reported as a full hour, inline with the EC2 usage reporting.
For end-customers registered via the AWS Marketplace, GravityZone counts and reports hourly to Amazon the usage for each instance type in your company. Based on this information, Amazon is going to issue a monthly fee for all types of running instances. You are charged and billed at the beginning of each month based on your usage in the previous calendar month.
Similarly, for partners and their customers, GravityZone reports the hourly usage to the Bitdefender PAN platform at the beginning of each month. Direct partners are then invoiced by Bitdefender based on the hourly usage of their client network.
Pricing is per instance-hour consumed for each instance.
For the complete list of EC2 instance dimension types available with Security for AWS on Amazon Marketplace, refer to Supported EC2 instances.
You can check your usage information by generating an Amazon EC2 Monthly Usage report, which provides detailed information about the hourly usage for all managed instances belonging to the companies under your management. To learn more, refer to Creating Amazon EC2 specific reports section of the Managing your Amazon EC2 instances page.