A lot of Cisco customers have device fleets numbering in the thousands.
Each Cisco device will be subject to a product lifecycle and will eventually need to be replaced to avoid the risk of operating unsupported network platforms.
The struggle for some resource constrained organisations is finding authoritative sources of truth as to how many Cisco network devices are on-net and in-service.
Reconciling Cisco support contracts where devices are purchased through different partners against ServiceNow, Solarwinds, Infoblox, ISE, APIC, DNAC and FMC is tough work.
Cisco have over the years had multiple offerings to provide the single pane of glass view including:
1. MyDevices
2. Cisco Smart Accounts
3. My Cisco Entitlements
4. CSPC + TAC Diagnostics Bridge
5. SmartCall Home
6. Once-off Cisco Services Engagement (using Netformyx run by Network Consulting Engineer)
7. Cisco partner portals (depends on partner)
What is the best way to get a constantly updated (source of truth) view of the entire Cisco device fleet?
Should Cisco customers look to individual software vendors like ServiceNow or Solarwinds to solve this problem?
Does Cisco have a multi-domain solution for this that covers all Cisco manufactured devices?
The dream would be to have a free Cisco collector tool which is deployed in private cloud or IaaS that scans the network in a controlled manner and updates Cisco Smart Account and reconciles third party systems like Service Now, Solarwinds, Infoblox, etc.
This would make life easy in terms of knowing:
1. Which devices are not covered by an existing maintenance contract?
2. Which devices are already EoL/EoS and are a risk to keep running?
3. Which devices will reach EoL/EoS in next 2 years and need to be replaced?
4. Which devices are running code with critical defects or security vulnerabilities that need a code upgrade and to which code version?
5. Which devices have configuration that could be optimised to align with Cisco best practice recommendations?
6. What is the variance from the Cisco view versus non-Cisco view (third-party tool reconciliation)?
There is a clear opportunity for Cisco to play a lead role in helping customers with this problem instead of customers having to resort to non-Cisco approaches. This is also very likely to result in increased software and maintenance renewal income for Cisco due to the improved visibility which helps customers budget OPEX more accurately and better plan lifecycle refresh.
While there are existing Cisco tools geared to answering above questions, the problem is confidence in having the full picture and the most up-to-date picture. Or perhaps there are already Cisco solutions that provide this full up-to-date picture that I am not aware of.
Any guidance much appreciated. Thanks.
