Going with a complete user count is in line with the common trend towards enterprise license / seat count models that companies are able to track and manage in a much better manner than endpoints. Second, concentrating on user vs endpoint eliminates the inconsistency that occurs in scenarios in which the remote end-user has numerous devices connected concurrently, a daily issue with knowledge workers. Third, concentrating on total users eliminates the need to guess how many people will need service and then being forced to buy endemic licenses, which just sit idle for most of the time. This is more in line with the common enterprise tendency of attempting to make employees more efficient and always connected. Fourth, transferring to a term-based model enables budget forecasting to move from a bursty CAPEX and continuing support budget exercise to a smoother OPEX planning procedure. In the end, creating a separately packaged endpoint license removed from the headend provides an option when we are choosing differentiated headend platforms and services. This model enables us to evade extra license expenses when the head end box has been swapped out or extra capability has been added or when any other services are added (e.g. a Cisco AnyConnect Apex investment for VPN services can become added leverage alongside ISE).
Cisco AnyConnect services continue to be competitively priced and are in line with Cisco’s other software pricing steps like Cisco ONE.
In terms of the actual offers, AnyConnect 4.x has reduced the complicated previous AnyConnect licensing model down into 2 simple levels. The first is AnyConnect Plus, which has basic VPN services like device and per-application VPN (including third party IKEv2 Remote Access VPN head-end support), always on, basic device circumstance collection, and FIPS regulation. AnyConnect Plus also has other non-VPN attributes like the AnyConnect Network Access Manager 802.1X supplicant and the Cloud Web Security module. In the first half of CY 2015 with AnyConnect 4.1, AnyConnect Plus also added AMP for Endpoint distribution abilities via the AMP Enabler. Current Cisco AnyConnect users can think of AnyConnect Plus as comparable to the superseded AnyConnect Essentials. The second offer is AnyConnect Apex, which has more innovative VPN services like endpoint posture inspections, next generation encryption (including Suite B), SAML authentication, and clientless Remote Access VPN along with all the abilities of Cisco AnyConnect Plus. In the second half of CY 2015 with AnyConnect 4.2MR1, AnyConnect Apex has added the Network Visibility Module, a new and novel endpoint flow based ability that gathers user and endpoint activities on and off site. Current Cisco AnyConnect users can think of AnyConnect Apex as comparable to the superseded AnyConnect Premium and Shared. With both AnyConnect Plus and Apex continuing to add more and more extra benefits and services, the worth of AnyConnect term-based offers has and will keep on increasing over time.
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