Cloud Managed Networks

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 UCC, AirGroup, Wi-Fi 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. It
includes 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 after
migration.
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 for
larger deployments of 60% or more of APs will continue to receive access to the service through the
remainder 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 Switch
Foundation license through end of 2021. After this date, all existing tokens will be automatically upgraded to
the 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?

------------------------------
Chris Quinn
------------------------------

Chris,

Please work with your local account team. The changes lead to price increases in certain scenarios, which are most obvious, but on the other hand, decreases in other cases where you don't hear people. Total cost is not expected to increase, with few exceptions. As mentioned, your local Aruba team can take your concerns and come up with a solution where needed.

Herman

------------------------------
Herman Robers
------------------------
If you have urgent issues, always contact your Aruba partner, distributor, or Aruba TAC Support. Check https://www.arubanetworks.com/support-services/contact-support/ for how to contact Aruba TAC. Any opinions expressed here are solely my own and not necessarily that of Hewlett Packard Enterprise or Aruba Networks.
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Mar 23, 2021 06:17 PM
From: Chris Quinn
Subject: Aruba Central Licensing Changes

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 UCC, AirGroup, Wi-Fi 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. It
includes 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 after
migration.
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 for
larger deployments of 60% or more of APs will continue to receive access to the service through the
remainder 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 Switch
Foundation license through end of 2021. After this date, all existing tokens will be automatically upgraded to
the 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?

------------------------------
Chris Quinn
------------------------------

https://help.central.arubanetworks.com/2.5.3/documentation/online_help/content/nms/subscriptions/overview-licensing.htm

Some information here not sure how helpful though... but you can go to Aruba Central documentation and the the 2.5.2 in the URL to 2.5.3 to see the documentation for the new version

I'm not really seeing any benefit of adding switches to Central. Even at the older DM price it's just "hey here's your switch and yes it's online" type of stuff. And with CX switches not really even supported in Central...  seem with 2.5.3 you can't configure EVPN/VXLAN stuff or dynamic segmentation for CX? Maybe Aruba tries to somehow implement NetEdit to the mix and it'll be few version before that will happen. And then we'll have other licenses too :) But paying huge amount of money to just configure VLANs? Buy the time you've clicked through everything you would've learnt and configured Ansible and automated everything you have in your environment without adding any switch to Central.




Original Message:
Sent: Mar 23, 2021 06:17 PM
From: Chris Quinn
Subject: Aruba Central Licensing Changes

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 UCC, AirGroup, Wi-Fi 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. It
includes 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 after
migration.
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 for
larger deployments of 60% or more of APs will continue to receive access to the service through the
remainder 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 Switch
Foundation license through end of 2021. After this date, all existing tokens will be automatically upgraded to
the 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?

------------------------------
Chris Quinn
------------------------------