Cisco as-a-service coming to the UK by mid-2021
Vendor launches Cisco Plus to be available in the UK by mid-2021
Cisco will begin offering its datacentre portfolio through a consumption-based model later this year as the vendor begins to flesh out its as-a-service strategy.
The US vendor has launched Cisco Plus, which will make its networking, security, compute, storage, applications and observability products available through an as-a-service model.
The move will enable simpler consumption and use of Cisco's portfolio through easy-to-consume unified subscriptions, Cisco claims.
Some aspects of Cisco Plus will be available to partners in the UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and the US in mid-2021, Cisco claims.
The initial launch will be Cisco Plus Hybrid Cloud which encompasses its entire datacentre compute, networking and storage portfolio as well as third-party storage and software.
It will feature a flexible consumption model and a full suite of lifecycle services through Cisco Customer Experience and through partners.
Cisco Hybrid Cloud will offer a zero per cent to 100 per cent up-front usage commitment for customers with order delivery within 14 days.
The Cisco Plus offering will be expanded later in 2021 to include a self-service portal built on Cisco CX Cloud which will allow customers and partners to consume and track usage of Cisco as-a-service products. The portal will also include a marketplace offering a catalogue of Cisco and partner services.
The networking vendor claims that it will lean on its partners to deliver its as-a-service offering. Cisco Gold Provider programme partners will play a "key role" in delivering Cisco Plus, with other Cisco partners also set to benefit from selling a wider Cisco service.
Cisco has also launched a network as-a-service (NaaS) offering which it claims will allow customers to access Cisco networking products and services without owning, building or maintaining their own infrastructure.
A limited release of NaaS solutions is planned for later this year, Cisco claims, which will focus on networking, security and visibility services across WAN and cloud domains.
The rollout will first focus on cloud-based solutions as-a-service for secure access service edge (SASE).
"Network-as-a-service is a great option for businesses wanting to shift to a cloud operating model without the heavy lift. Cisco is leading the industry in its approach with Cisco Plus. Together with our partners, we intend to offer the majority of our technology portfolio to be cloud-delivered, cloud-managed and offered as-a-service," said Cisco's SVP and GM of enterprise networking and cloud Todd Nightingale.
In a blog post, Jeffrey den Oudsten, CTO Office Solutions director at Conscia, one of Cisco's top European partners, said that the arrival of Cisco Plus will "fundamentally change" its own IT as-a-service offering.
"At Conscia we already offer IT as-a-service, including managed services, customer experience and our own Conscia Cloud. But it was a challenge to create a complete IT-as-a-service offering. In all fairness, the technology and supporting business models from Cisco and other vendors were not quite in place yet," the blog post reads.
"The arrival of Cisco Plus fundamentally changes this. With Cisco Plus , for example, we can complete the IaaS solution that we offer our customers."
Chief cloud and datacentre transformation architect at US reseller Insight, Juan Orlandini, added: "There's always been a ying and a yang in how to operationalize and finance IT infrastructure. Cisco Plus is the matching pair to a cloud operating model.
"Delivering Cisco Plus across the majority of Cisco's portfolio helps us at Insight to further deliver the transformation to a cloud operating model our clients want. With Cisco Plus, organizations can not only operate their infrastructure as a cloud, but also consume it in a similar fashion, enabling a true hybrid, multi-cloud."
CRN View
The announcements come after several years of talk from Cisco about shifting more of its business to subscription models.
Cisco began warning partners as early as 2018 during its partner summit in Las Vegas, that they needed to begin to invest in new Cisco lifecycle services and subscription offers as the vendor begins to shift its strategy.
Global channel boss Oliver Tuszik even told partners that if they're are unwilling to invest in lifecycle services and drive customer renewals, then Cisco will find a new partner that can.
And now, two and a half years later, we're beginning to see the first major step from Cisco to push forward with selling the majority of its portfolio through an as-a-service model.
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins has reassured partners that they will play a key role in this shift. He told partners in 2019 that they now represent almost 90 per cent of Cisco's total business, or upwards of $46bn in Cisco sales each year.
Cisco isn't the only vendor that is going full steam ahead with pushing to subscription selling. HPE in 2019 said it would offer its entire portfolio as-a-service by 2022. In its last quarterly results, HPE CEO Antonio Neri said that HPE's revenue run rate for as-a-service grew by 27 per cent year on year to $649m.