Cisco continues to rapidly expand its security portfolio through organic development and acquisitions. For customers, this creates an expansive set of products that tackle the numerous security challenges we encounter today. However, with every product, comes the challenge of understanding its licensing scheme, managing the deployment scale, procurement and lifecycle management. This can create a major barrier to adoption and sometimes can make it hard to decide to move forward.  The Cisco Security Enterprise Agreements were designed specially to address these challenges while reducing the cost of obtaining these platforms.

We’ll dive deeper and break it down in a conversational manner that makes it easier to understand. Tesrex are currently offering a free Cisco Licensing Review. Click here to learn more.

The Cisco Security Enterprise Agreements are a simple way to group up three or more security platforms into a single contract while giving you headroom for growth along the way. In this part of our Cisco Enterprise Agreement series, we’ll step through the offerings and see if the shoe fits! 

For those wanting to catch up on previous articles in this series: 

– An Introduction to Cisco Enterprise Agreements 

– Cisco Collaboration Enterprise Agreements 

If you have already invested in multiple Cisco Security platforms or are looking into building Cisco Security into your roadmap, this is a no brainer option for those who meet the minimum criteria.

While there are exceptions to every rule, in general, you need to hit these checkboxes to get eligibility:

Those invested in the Cisco Security Enterprise Agreement will see a measurable difference immediately in the following areas:

The most common question asked is an easy one.  There is no duplication of licensing. Your existing license and remainder of your support contract are traded in and you receive a rebate from the cost of the Cisco Security Enterprise Agreement. We have not encountered a situation where this rebate calculation is not satisfactory to the client. The rebate program is fair and transparent. We’ll provide you with a full breakdown of the figure for maximum transparency.

If you anticipate a notable downturn in your business or industry, you do not have the option to reduce the size of the contract during its term. This would bind you with fiduciary responsibility through the term of the contract.

Now that you have a good grasp on the construct and immediate benefits of the Cisco Security Enterprise Agreements, here are the two options available. We’ll reference a simple, yet wonderful restaurant analogy as described to us by a client:

This offering consists of three minimum qualifying products (see the earlier picture). Like a three-course meal, you pick your three options from a set menu and you can add supplements at your discretion. The option to pick up additional products ensures the flexibility to address future requirements as part of the agreement.

This offering is for those who want unrestricted access to the entire portfolio. This is the full “prix fixe.” You get the entire menu of products from day one. How you choose to rollout or use those products is fully at your discretion. Like a three-course meal with too many supplements, there is a cross over point, in terms of costs, where the “prix fixe” menu just makes more sense.

While the migration process is easy and laden with numerous benefits, there is tremendous value in working with our team who specialise in composing Cisco Security Enterprise Agreements for a wide range of clients. We bring the following added value to all our EA engagements:

Simply reach out to us by clicking here and we’ll schedule an initial call to determine eligibility. If successful, we will start working on building the offering and come back to you with eligible scenarios for review. Then it’s a matter of confirming our figures, reviewing the commercials and helping you make the right decision.

To read an introduction to the general concept of Cisco Enterprise Agreements, click here.

To read about Cisco Collaboration Enterprise Agreements, click here.