Licensing

Traditional Licensing

Before the introduction of split licensing, a Cisco Spaces account had a single license that applied uniformly across all location hierarchy nodes within the organization. Nodes could include campuses, buildings, floors, or other organizational units. Every location adhered to the same licensing terms and features, regardless of the specific needs or usage patterns of different locations.

Split Licensing

Using the split licensing feature provides you greater flexibility and granularity in license assignment within an organization. Here is a breakdown of how it works and its advantages:

  1. Customizable licensing at different levels:

    • Location hierarchy nodes: Administrators assign different licenses to specific nodes within the location hierarchy. This feature ensures that each campus, building, or floor have a tailored license based on its unique requirements.

    • Use cases: For example, a high-traffic campus building may need advanced features such as access to History and Webhooks, while a smaller branch office might only need basic functionalities.

  2. Access to advanced features:

    • Devices located in these nodes with qualified licenses have access to advanced features such as:

      • History: Logging and tracking device interactions, usage patterns, or other historical data.

      • Webhooks: Real-time data integration and automation by sending HTTP POST requests to specified URLs when certain events occur.

  3. Uses Cisco Smart Licensing:

    • Smart Licensing: A flexible and automated licensing model from Cisco that simplifies the activation and management of licenses. Split Licensing uses Cisco Smart Licensing to manage and apply these specialized licenses efficiently.

    • Administrative Efficiency: Administrators can easily manage, track, and adjust licenses from a centralized platform. Th correct licenses are applied where needed. You can avoid overuse or underuse of licenses.

  4. Benefits:

    • Cost-Effective: Organizations can optimize costs by only purchasing advanced licenses for locations that truly need them.

    • Scalable: As the organization grows or its needs change, administrators can quickly adjust the licensing without major overhauls.

    • Tailored Solutions: Different parts of the organization has the exact features and capabilities they need, enhancing productivity and efficiency.

License Types and Features

Table 1. License Types and Features

Licenses

Detect and Locate Advanced (History, Fast Locate)

Detect and Locate Advanced (API and Webhooks)

Unlimited

Y

Y

Act

Y

Y

Smart Operations

Y

Y

Smart Operations Base

Y

Y

Smart Venues

N

N

Extend

N

Y

SEE

N

N

For more information on Cisco Smart Licensing, see the Cisco Smart Licensing section in the Cisco Spaces Configuration Guide.

Practical Example

Consider a university with various campuses and buildings:

  • Main Campus: needs advanced analytics and automation. This location is assigned a license that has History and Webhooks.

  • Satellite Campus: is smaller, with basic needs. This location is assigned a standard license.

  • Research Building: requires specialized tools for real-time monitoring. This location is assigned a customized license.

Using split licensing ensures that each location has the appropriate tools and capabilities. You optimize operational efficiency and resource allocation.

Device History

Device history is supported for specific license types (see the License Type and Features section).

Click a device, a detailed information window is displayed.

If the license qualifies, the History tab displays historical data for that device.


Note


Observe the Timeline legend. The block color of the timeline is green for associated clients. For all other devices, the block color is pink, and this includes probing clients.


Figure 1. License Qualifies

If you do not have a license that qualifies, the History tab displays a sample history window that demonstrates potential capabilities.

Figure 2. License Does Not Qualify

Webhook Creation

You can configure webhooks to send notifications to chosen endpoints. While webhook configuration is independent of the account-level license, data delivery through webhooks is restricted to location hierarchies with a license type that qualifies (See License Types and Features).

Figure 3. License Does Not Qualify

License Propagation

Licenses propagate from parent nodes to child nodes within the location hierarchy.