Business Tech For All

Cisco Smartnets are one of the more interesting items for an IT department.  Depending on who you ask, they are a variety of things from the ever so popular “Cisco hardware warranty” to “A Cisco management nightmare” to “Comprehensive Cisco support”.  I think my vote is closest to comprehensive Cisco support.  Because a Smartnet is classified by the level of support (8×5xNBD, 24×7x4, Onsite, etc) it’s often mistaken as just a warranty.  However, in addition to being a hardware warranty, Smartnet will also provide you with services such as:

 - IOS upgrades

- a much higher level of support than anyone else in the business with their TAC (tech assistance center)

- OS support

-and proactive diagnostics and their real-time alerts on select devices with Smart Call Home. 

And depending on the who you buy your Smartnet from, you can also benefit from a list of value adds such as:

-coterm: bringing all of your individual Smartnets (per service level) onto a single contract so instead of tens, hundreds or even thousands of contracts you can have anywhere from 1-3 different contracts.

-making sure you are only paying for your own Smartnets: larger entities with a large number of contracts occasionally (due to RMAs or incorrect serial # entry) have a number of Smartnets under their name, which they pay for, but are not associated with company hardware.  It can be a bit of work, but a reseller can acquire the proper information to make sure that you are only paying for the correct Smartnets.

-Pull data and manage contracts for you:  Once given permission by the customer, a Value Added Reseller can pull your Cisco data, evaluate the usage of your current Smartnets and manage those contracts for you or along side of you.  Depending on how they were purchased, Smartnet management can become messy after only a dozen devices and that can lead to missed renewals or TAC calls that are unable to be picked up.

-Help you determine End Of Life and End of Service Life for your current product.  This is very helpful to the coterm process in assuring that the hardware will be supported for the entire life of the contract.  Additionally, this is crucial in any network strategy planning as EOL/EOSL product has a drag through effect and can often cause disruptions to larger portions of the network.  Having a predetermined strategy for products which are going End Of Life helps to assure an easy and painless transition.

Smartnets can either be hours of frustration or a useful friend depending on how they are set up and managed.  If your Smartnets are not easily managed and you are not aware of the EOL roadmaps for your current products, it is highly suggested that you contact a Cisco partner for assistance.

Here are a few other Dave-picked blogs that have great Cisco Smartnet info:

Cisco SMARTnet Hardware and Software Maintenance by J Burgess

Is your Cisco Router End of Life… by David Davis