Mature networking vendor seeks flexible commitment from software suitors
(2021/11/24)
- Reference: 1637733433
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/11/24/mature_networking_vendor_seeks_flexible/
- Source link:
Cisco has updated its main software licence, the Enterprise Agreement, to version 3.0 and claims it’s now more flexible as while you need to commit to a certain level of spend up-front, your payments can be shifted among products, or even spent on services.
The new agreement carves Cisco’s software products into five “portfolios”: Networking Infrastructure, Applications Infrastructure, Collaboration, Security, and Services. Hardware is not included – you get to acquire that separately, and then buy an Enterprise Agreement for the code that brings the boxes to life.
A single enterprise agreement (EA) can cover all five of the portfolios, with a floor price of $100,000 applying across the board. Any EA must also include what Cisco’s calling a “Full Commit” to one product in the portfolio.
[1]
To understand this, imagine a user of Nexus switches that signs an EA for $100k a year with Cisco, and makes a Full Commit to DNA for Switching. According to [2]Cisco’s Enterprise Agreement 3.0 Program Guide [PDF] that costs $50,000. The remaining $50,00 in the EA can then be spent on other products in the portfolios – or on Cisco services.
[3]
[4]
It’s also possible to move a Full Commit. If our hypothetical Nexus shop moved to cloudy Meraki switches, they could move their Full Commit too and not pay extra. That’s the only such swap, for now, but Cisco told The Register more swaps are coming.
[5]Cisco thinks you're happy to wait ages for new kit, then pay premium prices
[6]Cisco warns 'unintentional debugging credential' left in some network switches can be abused to hijack equipment
[7]Cisco requires COVID-19 shots for all US staff – even remote workers
[8]Arista and Juniper hike prices as component lead times blow out to 80 weeks – that's May 2023
Customers can use one EA to buy into multiple Portfolios. Doing so doesn’t mean having to work with a single Cisco partner: the company told us it knows that buyers like working with specialist service providers. The new EA can therefore cover all the products you want, but you can choose a networking specialist for networking and a collaboration specialist for your collaborationware.
The new EA keeps a feature from its predecessor called “True Forward” that sees Cisco notify you if your consumption exceeds the value of your EA and allows you to change the value of the agreement in the next quarter or year. Switchzilla thinks this is a better arrangement than being slugged with a bill for excess use.
Cisco plans to evolve the new EA with monthly changes and updates, which will be welcome because at the time of writing only the Networking Infrastructure portfolio allows internal Commit swaps.
[9]
Gary Wolfson, director of Cisco's Global Partner Software Sales team, told The Register more swaps will be added based on customer requests and after Cisco has observed how the first offer is received.
Any new swaps could be more complex than changing DNA for Meraki, as the Program Guide details many different consumption levels and details that some each Portfolio has its own pricing scheme based on different metrics.
Wolfson defended that by saying “Customers have asked for more flexibility and to do that you need more variables.”
[10]
Another variable in play is to ignore the new EA, and instead pay up front for Cisco’s wares or buy them through a managed services provider. Wolfson said Cisco doesn’t mind if you do so, but that Cisco thinks the EA best meets customers’ needs. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YZ4bbJ@tN7wc6reMPcRoAgAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/software/enterprise-agreement-3-0-program-guide.pdf?ccid=cc002777
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YZ4bbJ@tN7wc6reMPcRoAgAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YZ4bbJ@tN7wc6reMPcRoAgAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/18/cisco_q1_22/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/05/cisco_unintentional_debugging_credential_security_alert/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/03/cisco_updates_covid_19_vaccination_policy/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/04/arista_juniper_q3_price_rises/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YZ4bbJ@tN7wc6reMPcRoAgAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YZ4bbJ@tN7wc6reMPcRoAgAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The new agreement carves Cisco’s software products into five “portfolios”: Networking Infrastructure, Applications Infrastructure, Collaboration, Security, and Services. Hardware is not included – you get to acquire that separately, and then buy an Enterprise Agreement for the code that brings the boxes to life.
A single enterprise agreement (EA) can cover all five of the portfolios, with a floor price of $100,000 applying across the board. Any EA must also include what Cisco’s calling a “Full Commit” to one product in the portfolio.
[1]
To understand this, imagine a user of Nexus switches that signs an EA for $100k a year with Cisco, and makes a Full Commit to DNA for Switching. According to [2]Cisco’s Enterprise Agreement 3.0 Program Guide [PDF] that costs $50,000. The remaining $50,00 in the EA can then be spent on other products in the portfolios – or on Cisco services.
[3]
[4]
It’s also possible to move a Full Commit. If our hypothetical Nexus shop moved to cloudy Meraki switches, they could move their Full Commit too and not pay extra. That’s the only such swap, for now, but Cisco told The Register more swaps are coming.
[5]Cisco thinks you're happy to wait ages for new kit, then pay premium prices
[6]Cisco warns 'unintentional debugging credential' left in some network switches can be abused to hijack equipment
[7]Cisco requires COVID-19 shots for all US staff – even remote workers
[8]Arista and Juniper hike prices as component lead times blow out to 80 weeks – that's May 2023
Customers can use one EA to buy into multiple Portfolios. Doing so doesn’t mean having to work with a single Cisco partner: the company told us it knows that buyers like working with specialist service providers. The new EA can therefore cover all the products you want, but you can choose a networking specialist for networking and a collaboration specialist for your collaborationware.
The new EA keeps a feature from its predecessor called “True Forward” that sees Cisco notify you if your consumption exceeds the value of your EA and allows you to change the value of the agreement in the next quarter or year. Switchzilla thinks this is a better arrangement than being slugged with a bill for excess use.
Cisco plans to evolve the new EA with monthly changes and updates, which will be welcome because at the time of writing only the Networking Infrastructure portfolio allows internal Commit swaps.
[9]
Gary Wolfson, director of Cisco's Global Partner Software Sales team, told The Register more swaps will be added based on customer requests and after Cisco has observed how the first offer is received.
Any new swaps could be more complex than changing DNA for Meraki, as the Program Guide details many different consumption levels and details that some each Portfolio has its own pricing scheme based on different metrics.
Wolfson defended that by saying “Customers have asked for more flexibility and to do that you need more variables.”
[10]
Another variable in play is to ignore the new EA, and instead pay up front for Cisco’s wares or buy them through a managed services provider. Wolfson said Cisco doesn’t mind if you do so, but that Cisco thinks the EA best meets customers’ needs. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YZ4bbJ@tN7wc6reMPcRoAgAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/software/enterprise-agreement-3-0-program-guide.pdf?ccid=cc002777
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YZ4bbJ@tN7wc6reMPcRoAgAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YZ4bbJ@tN7wc6reMPcRoAgAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/18/cisco_q1_22/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/05/cisco_unintentional_debugging_credential_security_alert/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/03/cisco_updates_covid_19_vaccination_policy/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/04/arista_juniper_q3_price_rises/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YZ4bbJ@tN7wc6reMPcRoAgAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YZ4bbJ@tN7wc6reMPcRoAgAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Swapping nightmare...
quartzie
As flogging Cisco wares is part of my daily bread and butter, I'm only worried what switching contract commits would entail in our SAP.
At the same time, customers with over $100k in licensing fees alone are not going to be switching very often... if at all. There tends to be a good amount of "if it works, don't touch it" reticence, unless the CFO is "woke" and has a bone to pick with the CIO.
Re: Swapping nightmare...
Jellied Eel
I'm guessing a CFO would wonder why they should pay $100k up front per silo. Then maybe ask the CIO for a full inventory per silo to see how many $100k payments they'd need to be fully locked in to Cisco. I mean flexible licensing.
Bold move by Cisco as it'll give large enterprise customers a good reason to look at service costs, and perhaps alternative vendors. It could make life easier for SP customers who are managing multiple enterprise client networks though.
Is there now also flexibility in which backdoors it installs? I couldn't help but notice that unlike Huawei, it is impossible to have insight in what lives inside Cisco code, nor get it audited.