Anyone aware of this? It appears that Aruba are changing the licensing model for Aruba Central, but I can't find any official announcement as such, just the datasheet and licensing guide have been changed.
As part of the shift to an Edge-to-Cloud Platform-as-a-Service organization, Aruba has introduced the Aruba Central Foundation and Advanced Licenses (Aruba Central Licenses). This is a uniform software subscription licensing model that will be extended to all products under the Aruba Central-managed portfolio. The new 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10-year fixed-term licenses offer you the flexibility to choose services and device operations that are most meaningful to the type of business that you own.
This licensing model provides different licenses for APs, switches, and gateways.
The datasheet still lists the old Device Management Tokens, but it looks like these will be phased out:
Changes to the Legacy Licensing Model
For existing Aruba Central customers, please note that the new licensing model provides a uniform licensing structure for all types of devices such as APs, switches, and gateways, and changes the previous Device Management and Service Token model.
The following list provides information about important aspects of the legacy licensing model:
- Device Management Token-This is a mandatory token which allows you to manage and monitor your APs.
- Service Token-This token allows you to enable value-added services for APs managed from Aruba Central. These services include , , Connectivity Dashboard (formerly, Clarity), Cloud Guest, WebCC, and Presence Analytics.
- Subscription Key-A valid subscription key allows you to manage, profile, and analyze your devices using Aruba Central. A subscription key is a 14-character alphanumeric string provided for either a device management or service token.
The new Aruba Central licenses simplify the existing subscription-based licensing model. With the introduction of this licensing model, the existing Device Management Tokens for APs are no longer available. Similarly, the Service Tokens for value-added services for the APs are unavailable. Instead, APs and switches have adopted the current Gateway Foundation and Advanced licensing model.
The FAQ's in the Licensing Guide clarifies a few points:
What happens to my assigned Device Management tokens in the new licensing model?Device Management tokens are instantly migrated to Foundation License in the new licensing model. Itincludes all features of the existing Device Management tokens, with no disruption to current feature set,network connectivity, or existing configurations.What happens to my Service tokens during migration to the new licensing model?Value-added services provided by Service Tokens are available as part of the Foundation License aftermigration.The Foundation License includes Service Token features like Wi-Fi Connectivity Health, Guest Access,Presence Analytics, and basic AirGroup features.You will also receive the WebCC (content filtering) filtering service for no additional charge.All customers who have applied a Service token for UCC in smaller deployments of less than 50 APs and forlarger deployments of 60% or more of APs will continue to receive access to the service through theremainder of their subscription term. Contact Aruba Sales team if you have additional questions.What happens to my unassigned Device Management tokens?You will have the option to convert any unassigned Device Management tokens to any AP or SwitchFoundation license through end of 2021. After this date, all existing tokens will be automatically upgraded tothe AP Foundation license.Can I still purchase Device Management tokens and Service tokens?Yes, Aruba will continue to sell the previous tokens
The biggest change however, appears to be the prices:
A 3 Year DM token lists at £168
A 5 Year DM token lists at £252
A 3 Year AP Foundation Sub lists at £290 (72.6% increase)
A 5 Year AP Foundation Sub lists at £412 (63.5% increase)
A 3 Year 6300 48 Port Switch Sub lists at £1212 (621.4% increase)
A 5 Year 6300 48 Port Switch Sub lists at £1909 (657.5%)
Now I know nobody ever pays list price, but the same discount percentage off list are currently being applied so the percentage increases remain the same as those above!
Time to stock on DM tokens?
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Chris Quinn
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