Smart Software Licensing
Cisco employs two types of license models - Legacy Licensing and Smart Software Licensing. Legacy Licensing consists of software activation by installing Product Activation Keys (PAK) on to the Cisco product. A Product Activation Key is a purchasable item, ordered in the same manner as other Cisco equipment and used to obtain license files for feature set on Cisco Products. This traditional licensing does not need any online communication with the Cisco licensing server.
Smart Software Licensing is a cloud-based licensing of the end-to-end platform through the use of a few tools that authorize and deliver license reporting. Smart Software Licensing functionality incorporated into the NFs complete the product registration and authorization. cnSGW-C supports the Smart Software Licensing model.
Smart Licensing simplifies the purchase, deployment, and management of Cisco software assets. Entitlements are purchased through your Cisco account through Cisco Commerce Workspace (CCW) and immediately available in your Virtual Account for usage. This approach eliminates the need to install license files on every device. Smart-enabled products communicate directly to Cisco to report consumption. A single location—Cisco Software Central—is available for customers to manage Cisco software licenses. License ownership and consumption are readily available to help make a better purchase decision that is based on consumption or business need.
For more information on Cisco Smart Licensing, see https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/buy/smart-accounts/software-licensing.html.