MSP Niche: Presidio Tracks Cisco SMARTnet Devices

Stepping up to the jobs no one else wants is one way to get business. In the IT circles, tracking assets and keeping tabs on maintenance contracts don’t rank among the most popular chores. And even if the will is there, the personnel may not be. Companies may simply lack the resources to ride herd over highly distributed devices. And therein lies a niche for MSPs. Presidio Networked Solutions Inc. seems to think so anyway. Here’s why.

The Greenbelt, Md. company this week took the wraps off a tool that tracks devices and applications supported under Cisco SMARTnet maintenance contracts.

Presidio said the tool, dubbed SMARTnet Optimization, gives customers better visibility into devices so they can avoid paying for products no longer in service. The company cited one case in which its tracking tool helped a customer cut its annual SMARTnet fees by $400,000.

SMARTnet Optimization uses Simple Network Management Protocol scanning, categorization, and deduplication to discover devices, according to Presidio. The company attaches a monitoring appliance to the customer’s network to let Presidio personnel “monitor service contract provisions for each Cisco device in use and under contract.”

It’s not especially glamorous, but it’s a useful — and money-saving — endeavor.

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