ACI Licensing - Perpetual vs Subscription

[Stefan Tiefel]

Hello everyone,

does anybody of you have a quick overview what the advantages of the subscription based licensing of an ACI Fabric are?

According to the FAQ the only real thing could be the following, but is there a list of features taht are available in the subscription but not in the perpetual ACI license?

"Faster access to innovation: Company competitiveness is tied to strategic use of innovative technology, and Cisco is increasingly delivering the latest features through subscriptions"

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/software/one-data-center-networking-subscription/nb-06-aci-dc-nw-sub-offer-faq-ctp-en.pdf

What are your recomendations fpr the licencing?

Kind regards

Stefan

[Stefan Tiefel]

Hello again,

I know, here are mostly excellent technical guys but if anybody has a hint I would be very lucky :-)

Kind regards

Stefan

[ludovico.panu]

hello the nb-06-aci-dc-nw-sub-offer-faq-ctp-en.pdf link is broken

[Amant Sodhi]

i also have similar question. 

[Ing suzzy]

Would be very helpfull if anyone can solve this question, i'm working on a quote an N9K-C9332D-GX2B, that according the datasheet could operate as a leaf or spine, but there is a difference when you are working on the quote. if you select the ACI-Leaf mode you could select the subscription but if you select SPINE mode, CCW make you eliminate the subscription and go for a perpetual license... my only concern is if even i choose subscription or perpetual, do i have the option, when the deployment occur, to select any of the mode, do i?

[Robert Burns]

Perpetual is a full up-front investment of a license which is tied to the device for its life (barring a couple exceptions).  Subscription offer recurring value and are transferrable.  So if/when you swap out devices, your subscription can be carried onto the next device.  Typically a 5-year subscription starts to have financial benefits over perpetual.  We are slowly phasing out perpetual licenses.  As of today we only offer DCN Advantage & Premier as perpetual, while Subscriptions offer Essentials, Advantage & Premier.  Most companies in the IT industry are transitioning to subscription based models. 

As for the 9332D, it can function as a Leaf or Spine, but when deployed as a Leaf requires a license.  Spines deployed in ACI are not licensed.

Robert