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Cisco Upgrades Software Licensing Model for Partners, Customers
A little over a year ago, Cisco kicked off its Software Simplification initiative, headed by Brian Jeffries, Cisco operations vice president, to simplify and standardize its software licensing and improve its management tools to aid partners and end customers.
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A little over a year ago, Cisco (CSCO) kicked off its Software Simplification initiative, headed by Brian Jeffries, Cisco operations vice president, to simplify and standardize its software licensing and improve its management tools to aid partners and end customers.
That effort produced the March 18 launch of Cisco Software Central, a one-stop portal for channel partners and customers on everything software. Now, with the first Cisco software products under the new licensing model set to launch this fall—CSR1000v and ASR9k, followed by the ISRG2 and ISR 4400 next—Cisco provided an update on the program’s progress, detailed by Jeffries in a blog post.
“The launch of these first products helps us shape the future of software licensing models and tools,” he wrote. “The new approach addresses your pain points around manual processes and lack of visibility into your software install base.”
Here’s what’s up and working now:
Cisco Software Central: Manages Cisco software in in one location with eDelivery, self-service and software management capabilities, making it easier to get quotes, order software, get licenses and download and upgrade Cisco software.
Improvements to Cisco.com search, making it easier to find software lifecycle tools without opening a case.
License Wizard, a new interface on the license registration portal that guides users through the registration process in a step-by-step fashion.
Update to the product license registration portal to provide users with context-sensitive help information and comprehensive answers to frequently asked questions.
What’s coming:
All products will self-register themselves upon installation and configuration, removing the need for any Product Activation Keys (PAKs) or license key intervention.
Licenses are no longer node locked to the device.
A central portal provides visibility into what’s been purchased and consumed.
The ability to divide a customer’s organization into logical license pools to manage the distribution of licenses and measure software use.
“The new approach addresses your pain points around manual processes and lack of visibility into your software install base,” wrote Jeffries.
Cisco will showcase its new licensing model at its Cisco Live! event in Orlando, with a breakout session June 27 featuring a hands-on experience in walk-in labs, Jeffries said.
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