Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Cisco ONE, Panacea or Another Headache?

Cisco formally announced Cisco ONE today/yesterday at Cisco Live! Milan.  At face value Cisco ONE will allow customers to buy Cisco's software and related licenses separate from hardware.  It seems to me that this could be very beneficial to customers.

One major benefit that I see is that it would appear that licenses will be easily portable between old and new hardware.  This means no more purchasing a new set of ASA licenses just because you're upgrading from a 5512-X to a 5525-X for capacity.  All of the licenses will just move to the new box.  Same would apply to a wireless controller or even switches.  

The other major benefit that I see is that purchasing software might be easier.  One of the goals of this program is to simplify by not needing 100 part numbers just to get the right software for a device.

My only concern is that this could become a similar nightmare to maintaining Cisco SmartNet or Microsoft Enterprise Agreements.  Hopefully Cisco quickly provides tools to help with inventory and transitioning to both partners and customers.

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