Cisco Enterprise Agreement Revolutionises Software Licensing

Cisco is adding a 20% growth allowance and won’t bill retroactively for any overuse.

Cisco has introduced a new enterprise-wide software product and services agreement that will change the way that customers purchase, deploy, and adopt the company’s technology.

The networking giant, which is making the change as part of its move to a software-centric business model, said that it is doing this so that it is easier for customers to buy when they want to and deploy when and how they need.

The Cisco Enterprise Agreement will be available in three and five-year contract terms and will span infrastructure, security, and collaboration. Other Cisco software capabilities will be added over time.

As a Cisco Gold Partner, SCC holds all the Cisco accreditations necessary to manage and handle these agreements. SCC also has a specialist SAM consultancy to help manage and control cross-vendor software spend. If you’d like help managing your Cisco licensing, contact our Networking & Security specialists at [email protected].

Mark Hill, Vice President, Digitization at Cisco said: “As companies seek to develop new business models and create new revenue streams, they need a simple, flexible way to manage their software investments. They want to deploy on premise, in the cloud and in hybrid environments, on their schedule and budget. The Cisco Enterprise Agreement gives them a simple, flexible way to access Cisco technology, all from a single enterprise-wide agreement.”

The Cisco EA includes suites of products and support services for collaboration, Cisco ONE Software for infrastructure and security. Customers will be able to choose either a single suite or a combination and get a single agreement for all the products and services.

The suites will include Cisco Spark Flex Plan, Cisco Unified Communications Suite, Cisco Meeting Server add-on Suite, Cisco WebEx On-Premises Suite in the collaboration pack.

The infrastructure pack will see the company’s infrastructure and data centre tech from Cisco ONE software suites such as switching, wireless, WAN, data centre networking, and data centre cloud and compute.

The security pack offers an email security suite, cloud and web security suite, policy and visibility suite, and security essentials suite.

For those worried about the EA with regards to growth, Cisco has it covered. The company will provide a 20% growth allowance and a “True Forward” provision. The 20% extra software and support services can be used towards unforeseen growth without having to purchase more.

Customers that grow beyond the 20% allowance won’t be billed retroactively for any overuse of their entitlements, instead the contract is revised at the beginning of the next billing period.

Contact our Networking & Security specialists at [email protected] to start taking advantage of the new licensing agreement.

This story was first published on Computer Business Review.