The article talks about selling on hardware even once it's declared end of life and the article also gave the 9000 series as an example of hardware that requires a license. I assumed there was something similar going on already with the 9000's predecessor (the 8000?). I didn't mean to imply that the 9000 is already eol.

It must be hell for these guys when they hit a show-stopper in old sw and they have no access to the fixed sw for their old hw.