How to Simplify Licensing and Save Money With a Cisco Data Center EA
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Data centers are critical to every company's business strategy. Whether it exists on-premise, at the customer's location, at a co-location facility or in the public cloud, a modern data center must be secure, optimized and automated.
Fortunately, Cisco has suites of software built to enable their customers to accomplish these goals.
Cisco and your data centers
Many organizations utilize multiple Cisco technologies in their data centers, but few are aware there are buying programs that unlock additional benefits for the technology commitments they are making. It is important to consider what purchasing vehicle will be the right fit for each organization.
Cisco recently reduced the thresholds required to get into their premier software buying program, the Enterprise Agreement (EA) , lowering the barrier to entry. For the customer, this means lower cost of ownership, ability to scale with ease, price protection and an easier way to manage and consume software.
A Cisco Data Center EA Enrollment is a 3 or 5 year agreement. It is available to customers who meet the minimum total contract value of $100k and are using, or committed to purchasing, two or more qualified Cisco data center software suites. Additionally, for customers already consuming another Cisco EA Enrollment, the minimum 2-suite requirement is waived. The more suites included in the DC EA Enrollment, the deeper the discount. Customers with existing agreements can co-term new enrollments to the same end date, allowing them to manage a single Cisco software contract.
Cisco's True Forward concept is one of the most compelling benefits of their EA program. Upon each anniversary date, Cisco evaluates the customer's consumption during the previous year to determine if a True Forward event has occurred. If the number of licenses consumed exceeds the initial purchase quantity, the customer will only be charged for the adjusted license count on a go-forward basis; there are no retroactive overage charges.
Consumption of licenses outside of the initial purchase, or overages, will have NTE (Not To Exceed) price protection. Customers do not have to be concerned about price increases during the term of their agreement.
The following software suites available as part of the DC EA:
DC Networking
The DC Networking suite runs on Nexus 9000 switches in NX-OS mode or ACI mode. ACI is Cisco's SDN solution; it provides automation of network provisioning, makes troubleshooting easier and increases security.
Hyperflex
Hyperflex is Cisco's hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) solution. Hyperflex provides a path to a secure, modern infrastructure. It simplifies management, consolidates resources and reduces costs by unifying compute, storage and networking with cloud management.
Intersight
Cisco Intersight provides IT Operations Management for all UCS and Hyperflex systems. With Intersight, global organizations can manage and troubleshoot servers and systems from a interface.
CloudCenter suite
Cisco CloudCenter (CCC) provides a self-service environment for your developers so that the applications they develop can run on any cloud. CCC delivers ease of use and eliminates the temptation to use a public cloud provider for application development.
Container Platform (CCP)
CPP is a turnkey solution that automates repetitive tasks and simplifies the complex task to get Kubernetes up and running quickly.
Tetration or Tetration SaaS
Tetration provides unprecedented visibility into the traffic that is traversing the network. Tetration can determine application dependency mapping (ADM) and identify breaches and threats based on deviations from normal traffic patterns.
Cisco Workload Optimization Manager (CWOM)
CWOM provides elasticity for your workloads. It instantly scales resources up and down, responding to changing demands. The immediate benefit will be a reduction in resources by reclaiming underutilized server resources. Improved performance comes from redistribution of workloads on overutilized servers.
Cisco AppD
AppD provides information on application experience and business performance. Cisco AppD monitors response time, errors and paths.
Combining Intersight, CWOM and AppD provides visibility, insight and action.
WWT Software and Lifecycle Practice
At WWT we recognize the challenges our customers face when it comes to unraveling what owning an enterprise agreement means to them. Whether that's the financial impact, feature disruption, complex terms and conditions, fear of a multi-year commitment, ROI or end-user adoption concerns, there's a lot to consider.
Which is why we decided years ago to invest in building what has now become a mature, accredited Software and Lifecycle Practice. Recognized for the past two years as Cisco's Customer Experience Partner of the Year, we have resources dedicated to every phase of the software lifecycle.
Our EA+ methodology begins with our Cisco Enterprise License Consultants, who ensure our customers are making informed decisions. They will analyze the install base, understand the technology goals and strategy, evaluate the financial implications through TCO and ROI modeling and produce a customized proposal for each customer's unique situation.
Following contract execution, our post-sales team will walk the customer through an onboarding process, ultimately resulting in a success roadmap based upon customer-defined success criteria and desired business outcomes. Throughout the process, they will be introduced to various WWT adoption services offerings, as well as their dedicated Cisco Certified Customer Success Manager, who will play an integral role in ensuring the roadmap objectives are achieved.
Contact your WWT account manager for additional details on the benefits and cost savings of a Cisco Enterprise Agreement.