Cisco Observability Platform Licensing and Entitlements

The following entitlements apply to Cisco Observability Platform, Application, and Module licenses purchased on or after February 16, 2024. If you purchased licensing units for the Cisco Observability Platform before February 16, 2024, see Cisco Observability Platform Licensing and Entitlements - Access Based Model for your licensing and entitlement information.

The licensing for the Cisco Observability Platform has entitlements that require license costs for the following:

Platform	Applications	Modules
Cisco Observability Platform	Cisco Cloud Observability	Cisco Cloud Observability Modules
Cisco Observability Platform	Cisco Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)	DEM Modules

License Requirements

At the minimum, you need a Cisco Observability Platform license to obtain an Application license. You would then need a license for the Application and your Cisco Observability Platform license to subscribe to Cisco-developed and third-party Modules. Third-party Modules you use may be governed by the applicable terms for such Modules.

Entitlements

Data Entitlements

The Cisco Observability Platform license provides the entitlements for data ingestion needed by the Applications and the Modules you subscribe to. Using both Applications and any subscribed Modules will incur against your data ingestion entitlement.

Subscribing to third-party Modules on a free trial basis will also impact the data ingestion entitlements for the Cisco Observability Platform and Cisco Cloud Observability.

Entity Entitlements

Entities represent systems such as databases, applications, hosts, or other infrastructure components you can monitor. Active entities collect and encapsulate data, including metrics, metadata, health status, events, logs, and relationships with other entities. This data is visualized in entity-centric pages (ECPs) within Applications and Modules. Some Application and Module licenses grant entitlements for active entities.

Monthly Entitlements

Effective Period

The effective period for monthly entitlements begins on the first day of the calendar month and remains in effect until the end of the calendar month. The proration of monthly entitlements for licenses not starting on the first of the calendar month is outlined below.

Proration of Monthly Allotment

If you purchase a license after the first day of the month, your initial month's entitlement will be prorated based on the number of days remaining in that month. Therefore, if a license begins on July 15th at 12:00 AM (GMT), the prorated monthly allotment for this first month would cover the period from July 15th at 12:00 AM (GMT) to August 1st at 12:00 AM (GMT). See Overview of Licenses and Monthly Entitlements to view the full allotment of a monthly entitlement.

Overview of Licenses and Monthly Entitlements

The following tables outline the monthly entitlements for the Cisco Observability Platform, Applications, and Modules.

Platform License

License

Entitlement

Prerequisites

Cisco Observability Platform

Monthly allotment with fixed monthly capacity per license, where one license allows for the maximum capacity of one of the following data types:

50 million metrics (1 license)
40 million events (1 license)
40 GB of log (1 license)
40 million spans (1 license)
Fraction of the combined data types above (1 license)

None.

Application Licenses

License	Entitlement	Prerequisites	Example Usage
Cisco Cloud Observability	Application Monitoring Enables customer to monitor one active application entity or service per month: 1 service (1 license) 1 database instance (1 license)	Cisco Observability Platform license	If you buy 1000 licenses and in the first month: 1 service or database instance detected, 1 license unit consumed, 999 remaining
Cisco Cloud Observability	Infrastructure Monitoring Enables customer to monitor one infrastructure entity per month, where an entity may be one of the following: 1 host (1 license) 5 million serverless function invocations (1 license)	Cisco Observability Platform license	If you buy 1000 licenses and in the first month: 1 active host detected, 1 license unit consumed, 999 remaining
Cisco Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)	The subscribed DEM module licenses determine the entitlements.	Cisco Observability Platform license Minimum of 1 DEM license per organization	See Example Usage for DEM Modules.
Cisco Secure Application	The subscribed Cisco Secure App module licenses determine the entitlements.	Cisco Observability Platformlicense Minimum of 1 Cisco Secure Application license per organization	See Example Usage for Cisco Secure App Modules.

Modules

Module License(s)

Entitlement

Prerequisites

Example Usage

Application Resource Optimizer
Cost Insights
Cisco Secure Application
Kubernetes Cost and Workload Profiler

Licensed users and Service Principals who can access the additional functionality within the monthly billing period.

See Cisco Observability Platform Licensing and Entitlements - Access Based Model.

Cisco Observability Platform license
Cisco Cloud Observability license

If you purchase 1000 licenses and in the first month:

One active user and one Service Principal are detected, then two licenses are consumed, and 998 licenses remain.

Kubernetes Cost and Workload Profiler

This Module is included by default with the Cisco Cloud Observability license.

Cisco Observability Platform license
Cisco Cloud Observability license

Cisco AIOps

The Module license is based on the number of active entities, where one license is for one active entity. The following table lists the entities:

Host - Number of physical servers, virtual machines, K8s nodes.
Application Service - Number of services.
Network Device - Any network router, hub, switch, leaf, controllers, access points, and so on.
HTTP Server - Number of HTTP Servers.

Cisco Observability Platform license
Cisco Cloud Observability license

If you purchase 1000 licenses and in the first month:

One active HTTP Server is detected, then one license is consumed, and 999 licenses remain.

Module License(s)

Entitlement

Prerequisites

Example Usage

Real User Monitoring (RUM)

Monthly allotment with fixed monthly capacity per license, where one license allows for the maximum capacity of one of the following data types:

1000 sessions per Cisco Observability Platform tenant

Cisco Observability Platform license
Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) license

If you purchase 1000 licenses and in the first month:

One session is recorded, one license is consumed, and 999 licenses remain.

Session Replay

Monthly allotment with fixed monthly capacity per license, where one license allows for the maximum capacity of one of the following data types:

RUM: 1000 sessions per Cisco Observability Platform tenant
Session Replay: 1000 sessions per Cisco Observability Platform tenant

Cisco Observability Platform license
Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) license
Real User Monitoring (RUM) license

Module License(s)

Entitlement

Prerequisites

Example Usage

Cloud Security

The Module license is based on the number of active entities, where one license is for one active entity.

Host - Number of physical servers, virtual machines, K8s nodes.

Cisco Observability Platform license
Cisco Secure App license

If you purchase 1000 licenses and in the first month:

One active Host is detected, then one license is consumed, and 999 licenses remain.

Data Security (Database)

The Module license is based on the number of active entities, where one license is for one active entity.

The following table lists the supported entities:

Database - Data stores akin to databases designed to store, retrieve, and manage data such as Snowflake. See Supported Data Stores.

If you purchase 1000 licenses and in the first month:

One active Database is detected, then one license is consumed, and 999 licenses remain.

Data Security (Object Store)

The Module license is based on the number of active entities, where one license is for one active entity.

The following table lists the supported entities:

Bucket - Object stores such as AWS S3. See Supported Data Stores.

If you purchase 1000 licenses and in the first month:

One active Bucket is detected, then one license is consumed, and 999 licenses remain.

How to Use the Licenses Together

Your licensing will depend on how much data you plan on ingesting and the active entities or sessions used by your Application or Modules. The following example use case will help to illustrate how the licensing works together and is calculated for the Cisco Observability Platform and Cisco Cloud Observability.

Example Usage for Applications

The following example illustrates the licensing requirements for the Cisco Observability Platform and Cisco Cloud ObservabilityCisco Cloud Observability Infrastructure Monitoring.

Data Requirements	License Requirements
Cisco Observability Platform 305 million metrics 110 million events 220 GB of logs 120 million spans Cisco Cloud Observability 10 hosts	19Cisco Observability Platform licenses 10 Cisco Cloud Observability Infrastructure Monitoring licenses Total licenses needed: 29

The following breaks down the calculation of the customer's required licensing:

## Calculation for Cisco Observability Platform licensing for metrics 
## Note: We use the Integer() function in some places to ensure an integer value. 

metrics_one_license = 50 million
customer_required_metrics = 305 million

# Convert the required licenses to an integer
required_licenses_for_metrics = Integer(customer_required_metrics / metrics_one_license)

# Additional metrics not covered by licensing require an additional license 
if ((customer_required_metrics % metrics_one_license) > 0)
  required_licenses_for_metrics += 1

# Licenses required for metrics: 7

#----------------------------------------#

## Calculation for Cisco Observability Platform licensing for events   
events_one_license = 40 million
customer_required_events = 110 million

# Convert the required licenses to an integer
required_licenses_for_events = Integer(customer_required_events / events_one_license)

# Additional events not covered by licensing require an additional license 
if ((customer_required_events % events_one_license) > 0)
  required_licenses_for_events += 1

# Licenses required for events: 3 

#----------------------------------------#

## Calculation for Cisco Observability Platform licensing for logs   
logs_one_license = 40 GB
customer_required_logs = 220 GB

# Convert the required licenses to an integer
required_licenses_for_logs = Integer(customer_required_logs / logs_one_license)

# Additional logs not covered by licensing require an additional license 
if ((customer_required_logs % logs_one_license) > 0)
  required_licenses_for_logs += 1

# Licenses required for logs: 6  

#----------------------------------------#

## Calculation for Cisco Observability Platform licensing for spans  
spans_one_license = 40 million
customer_required_spans = 120 million

# Convert the required licenses to an integer
required_licenses_for_spans = (customer_required_spans / spans_one_license)

# Additional logs not covered by licensing require an additional license 
if ((customer_required_spans % spans_one_license) > 0)
  required_licenses_for_spans += 1

# Licenses required for spans: 3 

#----------------------------------------#


# Licenses required for Cisco Observability Platform = metrics(7) + events(3) + logs(6) + spans(3)
required_customer_cisco_observability_platform_licenses = 19

#----------------------------------------#

## Calculation for Cisco Cloud Observability Infrastructure Monitoring licensing

### Hosts 

hosts_one_license = 1 million
customer_required_hosts = 10 million

 # Convert the required licenses to an integer
required_licenses_for_hosts = (customer_required_hosts / hosts_one_license)

# Additional logs not covered by licensing require an additional license 
if ((customer_required_hosts % hosts_one_license) > 0)
  required_licenses_for_hosts += 1

# Licenses required for hosts: 10 

#----------------------------------------#

## Calculate the total number of licenses needed

# Add the Cisco Observability Platform licenses
required_customer_cisco_observability_platform_licenses = 19
required_customer_cisco_cloud_observability_licenses = 10

# Total number of licenses needed: 19 + 10 = 29
total_customers_licenses_required =  required_customer_cisco_observability_platform_licenses + required_customer_cisco_cloud_observability_licenses

CODE

Overages

Users should determine their Cisco Observability Platform, Application(s), and Module(s) (as applicable) usage and purchase licenses commensurate with such usage. Cisco AppDynamics, at its sole discretion and at any time, may enforce overages for data ingestion that exceed the entitlements outlined herein.

License Entitlement Definitions

Active Entities send data to Applications or Modules within the monthly billing period outlined in the Effective Period.
Applications are standalone software applications on the Cisco Observability Platform that can have different levels of complexity, one or more modules, and a set of core functionalities (e.g., search). Cisco Cloud Observability is an example of an Application.
Cisco Observability Platform is an open, extensible, API-driven platform that empowers a new observability ecosystem and delivers impactful business insights. The platform is built on OpenTelemetry (an open-source project by CNCF) and anchored on metrics, events, logs, and traces (MELT). It enables extensibility from queries to data models with a composable UI framework.
Cisco Cloud Observability is Cisco's application performance management (APM) solution for observing, securing, and optimizing cloud-native architectures within a business context. Powered by the Cisco Observability Platform, it delivers extensible capabilities and business insights to help technology teams align application performance with end-user expectations, optimize digital experiences, and deliver business outcomes while securing modern workloads.
Configuration Items are unique entities within the configuration management database (CMDB). Configuration Items can include hardware, software, network devices, documentation, and other components that are crucial to the delivery of IT services.
Host is a physical server, virtual machine, or a Kubnernetes® node.
Modules are code, user experiences, or modular solution packages that function as add-ons to or otherwise enhance an existing Cisco Observability Platform Application.
Service is a process running on a virtual machine, physical server, Kubernetes cluster, or serverless function.
Service Principals are identities, represented as code, used by created applications, services, and automation tools to access specific resources. They allow developers to write code that securely connects to AppDynamics public APIs for your Cisco Observability Platform Tenant. These API calls use Open Authentication 2.0 (OAuth2) token-based authentication.
Sessions are users' interaction with your application between the session start and end events, timed per configuration, as they navigate during an entire session with your application.
Users have usernames, unique email addresses, and access to Observability Platform tenants licensed for applications. When the license count resets every month, users continue to have access to applications on Observability Platform tenants unless an administrator changes the user access on the Cisco Observability Platform tenant.

This document contains references to Kubernetes® documentation. Cisco AppDynamics does not own any rights and assumes no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such third-party documentation.