By Sreeram Krishnamachari, Global Product Line Manager, HP Networking
Firmware licensing is a topic that is very dear to my heart as well as to several of our customers. That’s why I would like to spend time on the subject in this blog.
Why switch firmware licenses were used?
Licensing of firmware is usually done to provide tiered SW features to customers based on their needs. For example, a network manager wants to run only Layer 2 at the edge of a campus networks now—but might in the future need to run some Layer 3 protocols—would buy a switch that comes with base Layer 2 firmware and upgrade to a Layer 3 license when required. In the past, HP also offered these licenses on some of our products to provide flexibility. We usually had one license SKU per product family.
Disadvantages of using firmware licenses
You told us that firmware licenses come with a host of costs and challenges. This creates more headaches instead of making life easier for network managers:
- Procurement cost – You need to pay a premium not only for a switch hardware that is capable of supporting feature expansion but also pay for the license when the procurement happens. The cost penalty is particularly acute when trying to stack a set of switches, as you have to procure a license for every switch in the stack in order for the stack to work as a single entity.
- Additional support costs – You need support contracts that are required to get support on the features that are included as part of these firmware licenses.
- The hassle and cost of auditing these licenses every year to meet regulatory requirements – You can easily see the direct and indirect costs can grow exponentially for auditing these licenses on a yearly basis for a large enterprise with thousands of branches and switches.
HP’s approach for wired switch products
Based on your feedback, all the HP switches introduced to market after Nov 2010 ship with premium license built in. In other words, today, when you buy any of these new switches from us, all the firmware features are already enabled (including the advanced L3 to L7 features) at no premium. Don’t believe me? Check out super high performance modular switch in the HP 10500 Switch Series or industry-leading mesh-stacking solution in the HP 3800 Switch Series.
Competitor’s approach
It is noteworthy that the other leading vendor in the market has taken the opposite route by adding more layers of licenses to their already super complex firmware licensing and OS. There are not only more license layers for features but even licenses for enabling connectivity options like 10G.
If you just look at a single family of 3750X from Cisco, it has 18 different firmware license SKUs that I could count on the datasheet and it gets lot more complicated when you examine modular switches! (On a lighter note, check out the “Dilbert moment” cartoon.)
So, as a customer, what should you do?
- Understand the obvious and hidden costs with firmware licenses.
- When making procurement decisions, ask clearly what you get and what you don’t get with the base product and license.
- Say NO to solutions that could potentially require future expensive firmware license upgrades.
Let me know your thoughts on this topic!
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