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azoupas
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

                                                                                       latest update: Oct2023 - updated some items & added relevant links

Dear all,

find below some quick notes on FLEX3 On premises CUCM model. 

Commercial model for CUCM customers --> FLEX 3
FLEX 3 is the commercial model (subscription-based) to purchase CUCM onpremises licenses and support.

Benefits for CUCM customers:

  • Better cash flow through monthly and annual billing options (in addition to pre-pay option)
  • Additional functionality included – SRST (for all) and Webex advanced messaging (for Pro and Enh user lics)
  • Allows access to new valueable options/services (like Webex Cloud Connected UC, Webex app to replace Jabber, etc.) 
  • Special pricing
  • Offer Flexibility - you can select NU(Named user) or EA(Enterprise Agreement) offers. EA provides several benefits.
  • Combine with other workloads  - you can select ''onprem calling only'' or combine it with ''Meetings/Webinars'' or ''Webex Suite (+Events/Polling/Vidcast)''
  • Flexible migration to the cloud (if desired)

Important notes:
Webex offers today free messaging (basic messaging) and free meetings(basic meetings) capabilities for all users.

For messaging: apart from ''advanced messaging'' entitlements that come with every flex 3 onprem Pro or Enh user, webex offers ''basic messaging'' entitlements for all users. So all your users can leverage the unique enterprise messaging features of Webex - all of them managed via your Webex Control Hub
For meetings: you could combine flex 3 onprem calling offer with meetings if desired - this will give you paid Webex Meetings entitlements. But note that even if you get only flex 3 onprem calling licenses, you could still leverage the free Basic Webex Meetings offering for all your users. More details here.

CUCM customers could use it for below cases:

  • add new users
  • upgrade existing users (for example add softclient to existing user,etc)
  • support renewals

What about old traditional ordering path ?
Traditional perpetual part numbers (CUCM Essential,Basic, Enh, Enh Plus, CUWL) is not available for ordering since Jan2021.
Customers with existing SWSS could maintain them till 31 Jan 2024.
Related End of Sales can be found below :
End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Announcement for the Cisco Unified Workspace Licensing Standard Edition / Perpetual
End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Announcement for the Cisco Unified Communication Manager / User Connect Licensing- Perpetual 

Is there a change on CUCM product itself if I order flex 3 onprem?
There is no change on the product itself and, of course, there are no plans for end-of-sale of CUCM solution.
CUCM development continues - CUCM 15 is expected soon - stay tuned

FLEX 3 license types and mapping with CUCM licenses :

Capture.PNG

Screenshot 2023-10-02 at 4.55.22 PM.png

So:
if you need multiple devices (users with softphones,etc) and voicemail --> Flex 3 Professional
if you need 1 device (phone or Jabber softphone) only --> Flex 3 Enhanced
If you need 1 devices (phone of type 7821,7811, 3905 analog) -- > Flex 3 Access
All license types offer SRST and MRA. Enh and Prof provide also advanced Webex messaging.
And, of course, there are options to combine onprem calling&meetings services (Calling and Meetings EA) or onprem calling+meetings+additional services( Events/Polling/Vidcast) (Webex Suite EA).

Important note on subscription and expirations:
Note that FLEX3 is subscription model and provides services while subscription is active. This means that, if Flex3 subscription is not renewed and expires, then CUCM system will move to ''out of compliance mode'' state and would provide 90 days grace period to allow customer to renew subscription. All services run without problem during this 90-day grace period. If 90 days pass and subscription has not renewed, then CUCM will move to ''enforcement mode'' and will not allow admin to do (MACD) Move/Adds/Changes/Deletion tasks.
So it is important to maintain your subscriptions and plan properly.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evolution path for CUCM customers
If interested, please have a look in below posts that describe evolution paths for CUCM customers and the great benefits that you could get with ''CCUC'' + ''Jabber to Webex app'' + ''Webex app calling integration with MSFT Teams''
Evolution paths for CUCM customers - a brief high level view  (new)
Webex Cloud Connected UC - connect your CUCM to Webex cloud 
Why migrate Jabber to Webex app? (ppt)  (new)
Webex app calling integration with Microsoft Teams - this integration applies both to WxC and CUCM
Leverage the power of Webex app - callerid screenpop use case   (new)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hope this helps
please rate if you find helpful
Index of all my collab community posts --> Looking for info on Cisco Collab solutions ? 

rgds
Alkiviadis

Comments
azoupas
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

hi Simon,

 

sorry for late reply. 

12.0 and 12.5 are both under same major release 12.x so my view is that 12.5 licenses would be ok/work for 12.0 CUCM. 

Could do a crosscheck with your cisco account team/collab team but in my view I think this path is fine.

 

rgds

Alkiviadis 

What is the difference between A-FLEX and A-FLEX-3 cause y have 2 escenarios one with A-Flex and one with A-Flex-3 and until I understand includes the same... we only need CUCM and CUC... A-Flex just select the on prem model, qty of users and done... A-Flex-3 Select on prez model, Type of License (Access) then select Unity Connect Connection and both escenarios with the same Qty of users have different cost the first one around 20k less than the second one... could anyone explain to me difference?

azoupas
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

hi @FERNANDO FERNANDEZ DURAN 

 

sorry for late reply. I think you should discuss this case with your Cisco account team.

If we are talking about Named Users quotations, A-flex-3 Pro is more cost effective than A-flex Pro user and both include voicemail.  A-flex has then a common area device type where A-flex-3 have Enh and Access licenses option that are related with Phone type. 

You need to discuss with Cisco account team to make sure your quotations are really equivalent plus compare final pricing after discounting (not just GPL). 

 

hope this helps

 

rgds

Alkiviadis

vijayparthi1
Level 1
Level 1

Can we manage flex and perpetual licenses in the same PLM or should be managed separately in different PLM

YadelBayou8474
Level 1
Level 1

would you guys please recommend me the flex alternative for the A-FLEX-NUPL-E license?

azoupas
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

hi @YadelBayou8474 

could you please elaborate?
A-FLEX-NUPL-E is still avaialable in CCW under A-flex-3 offer - provides onprem Enh lic for CUCM.

rgds

Alkiviadis

stuart.pannell
Level 1
Level 1

I have a question around "Unsupported Phones" these are for example 7940's that have not been depreciated though are no longer supported. If these phones are on a 12.0 system and they consume a perpetual license(Via SMART) example12.0 Enhanced license, if I want to upgrade the system to v14.0 then I would need SWSS(Not available anymore) So do I need to buy Flex 3.0 licenses for unsupported devices so that I am still able to do AMCD? Or will the upgraded version of CUCM 14.0x recognise that the phones are unsupported models and discount them from the required license count(it does not do this on CUCM 12.0)?

azoupas
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

hi @stuart.pannell 

phones you configure on CUCM consume a license (whether these are end of support or not).
So from CUCM perspective, you need to account all the devices you will configure, in order to dictate the Flex 3 licenses you need.

hope this helps
Alkiviadis

 

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