Converting Meraki Co-Term Licensing to Subscription Licensing

Overview

Cisco Networking Subscription is our latest licensing model designed to provide customers with enhanced flexibility, simplicity, control, and scalable options tailored to their business needs. Migrating from the legacy Co-Term licensing model to Subscription licensing offers numerous advantages that align with evolving network requirements and business growth strategies. This document provides a clear path and rationale for customers to migrate from Meraki Co-Term licensing to a Cisco Networking Subscription, helping them optimize their network licensing management and costs. 

Why Move from Co-Term to a Cisco Subscription Licensing?

By moving from Meraki Co-term to Subscription licensing, customers gain a more flexible, scalable, and manageable licensing experience that supports their evolving network and business requirements. This transition allows customers to future-proof their network, reduce administrative overhead, gain financial flexibility, avoid service disruptions, and tailor licensing precisely to their needs. 

Key Benefits of Subscription Licensing 

1. Simplified License Management Subscription Licensing is network-bound rather than organization-wide, enabling more granular control and reducing the risk of organization-wide service interruptions if a subscription expires. Customers only need to claim a subscription license key once for the entire lifetime of the subscription, eliminating the need to claim keys for renewals or additions. A single subscription SKU can cover multiple hardware devices within a product family, simplifying ordering and enabling seamless hardware upgrades without licensing changes. 

2. Flexible and Predictable Licensing Terms Subscriptions have static end dates, allowing customers to align licensing terms with business and network objectives. Customers can add or upgrade licenses mid-term without changing the subscription end date, providing scalable and adaptable licensing through changes. 

3. Network-Level Control and Customization Licenses are associated with specific networks rather than the entire organization, enabling tailored licensing for different networks within the same organization. Customers can assign different feature tiers (Essentials or Advantage) to each product family at the network level, supporting diverse operational needs and allowing customization of licenses per network or location. 

4. Fair and Intuitive Compliance Enforcement Only out-of-compliance devices or networks are affected by enforcement actions, minimizing operational impact and avoiding entire organization shutdowns.  If a subscription expires or device count exceeds licensing, only management capabilities are restricted, not network functionality.

5. Enhanced Scalability and Flexibility The ‘"Change Subscription’" feature allows customers to modify subscriptions by adding licenses, and upgrading tiers without disruption. Organizations can manage multiple independent subscriptions within the same organization.  This is, ideal for franchises, Managed Service Providers (MSPs), or multi-owner environments.

6. Improved Customer Experience Fixed end dates terms help with budgeting and financial planning.  Options for manual or automatic renewals streamline license continuity.

7. Future-Proof Licensing Cisco Networking Subscription is the future of Cisco/Meraki licensing, designed to support next generation hardware and features, including Meraki hardware, Wi-Fi 7 access points, Cisco C9530 and C9610 series smart switches, and Cisco 8000 secure routers.

How to Convert from Co-Term to Cisco Subscription Licensing

1. Eligibility Check: Ensure your existing Co-Term licenses are near expiration 9 months to 6 months before reaching expiration is the best practice. Migration to Subscription Licensing requires that Co-Term licenses be fully expired.

1. Ensure all your devices are included: Make sure that all your exiting devices are accounted for when migrating to Cisco Subscription licensing. Migrating from Co-term to subscription licensing is an organization-wide change and cannot be reversed.
2. Plan Your Subscription Start Date: Use the requested start date feature to set the subscription start date after your Co-Term licenses expire to avoid overlap.
3. Contact Your Cisco Sales Representative or Partner: Discuss your eligibility and migration plan. 
4. Claim Subscription License Key: Once purchased, claim your subscription license key in the Meraki dashboard. This action converts your organization to Subscription Licensing.  For additional information - How to Claim a Subscription
5. Bind your Subscription to your Network:  Binding a Subscription is the process of associating a subscription with specific network(s) so that the license consumption can start.  This process associated with specific networks rather than the entire organization.  For Additional information -How to Bind a Network to a Subscription
6. Subscription Management: Manage your subscriptions via the Meraki dashboard with options to add or upgrade licenses, change terms, and renew.

Customer Action

Contact your Cisco seller or preferred Cisco partner to understand how subscription licensing can simplify your license management, provide network-level customization, and support your organization’s growth.

Additional Information

1. Subscription Licensing Overview