Cisco Observability Platform Licensing and Entitlements - Access Based Model

The following entitlements apply to Cisco Observability Platform and Cisco Cloud Observability licenses purchased between June 28, 2023 and February 16, 2024.

If you purchased licensing units for Cisco Cloud Observability before June 28, 2023, see Licensing for Cloud Native Application Observability for your licensing and entitlement information.
If you purchased licensing units for Cisco Cloud Observability on or after February 16, 2024, see Cisco Observability Platform Licensing and Entitlements for your licensing and entitlement information.

The licensing for the Cisco Observability Platform has entitlements that require license and user 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 in addition to 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

Subscribing to third-party Modules on a free trial basis will still incur against Cisco Observability Platform and Cisco Cloud Observability entitlements.

Data and Access Entitlements

The Cisco Observability Platform license provides the entitlements for data ingestion needed by the Applications and the Modules you subscribe to. Applications and Modules may also require licenses to entitle access for users and Service Principals. Licensed users and Service Principals can access the platform within the effective period. The access to and use of both Applications and any subscribed Modules will incur against your Cisco Observability Platform data ingestion entitlement.

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. Proration of monthly entitlements for licenses that do not begin at the beginning of a calendar month is outlined below.

Proration of Monthly Allotment

Licenses that do not begin at the beginning of a calendar month will have a prorated allotment for the first month of the license term, which is based on the starting date of the license through the end of the calendar 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 platform, applications, and module licenses.

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:

25 million metrics (1 license)
25 million events (1 license)
40 GB of logs (1 license)
32 million spans (1 license)
Fraction of the combined data types above

Minimum of 15 licenses per organization (no maximum)

Application Licenses

License	Entitlement	Prerequisites
Cisco Cloud Observability	Licensed users and Service Principals who can access the platform within the monthly billing period.	Cisco Observability Platform license Minimum of 5 user licenses per organization (no maximum)
Cisco Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)	Entitlements are determined by the subscribed DEM module licenses.	Cisco Observability Platform license

Module Licenses

Application	Module License(s)	Entitlement	Prerequisites
Cisco Cloud Observability	Application Resource Optimizer Cisco Secure Application Cost Insights Kubernetes Cost and Workload Profiler	Licensed users and Service Principals who can access the additional functionality within the monthly billing period.	Cisco Observability Platform license Minimum of 5 Cisco Cloud Observability user licenses (no maximum) The same number of Module licenses as that of the Cisco Cloud Observability user licenses
Cisco Cloud Observability	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. For example: If you buy 1000 licenses and in the first month: One active HTTP Server is detected, then one license is consumed and 999 licenses are remaining. One HTTP Server is removed, one license is restored, and 1000 licenses are remaining.	Cisco Observability Platform license Minimum of 5 Cisco Cloud Observability user licenses (no maximum)
Cisco Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)	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
Cisco Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)	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 Real User Monitoring (RUM) license
The Cisco Observability Platform license provides the entitlements for data ingestion needed by the Cisco Cloud Observability and the Modules you subscribe to. The Cisco Cloud Observability and Modules licenses entitle users and Service Principals to access the Cisco Observability Platform, Cisco Cloud Observability, and Modules. The access to and use of both Cisco Cloud Observability and any subscribed Modules will incur against your Cisco Observability Platform data ingestion entitlement *as further described in the applicable Module documentation*.

How to Use the Licenses Together

Your licensing will depend on how much data you plan on ingesting and how many users or Service Principals will need access to Cisco Cloud Observability and any subscribed Modules. The following two example uses cases will help to illustrate how the licensing works together and how you can calculate your licensing needs.

Example: High Data Requirements with No Modules

In this use case, the customer has higher data needs and lower access (users or Service Principals) needs to Cisco Cloud Observability and no Modules.

Data Requirements	Cisco Cloud Observability Users / Service Principals	License Requirements
305 million metrics 110 million events 220 GB of logs 1200 million spans	10	62 Cisco Observability Platform licenses 10 Cisco Cloud Observability licenses Total licenses needed: 72

Based on the ingestion entitlements for each data type, the customer requires 62 Cisco Observability Platform licenses for data usage and 10 for Cisco Cloud Observability users.

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 = 25 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: 13

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

## Calculation for Cisco Observability Platform licensing for events   
events_one_license = 25 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: 5 

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

## 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 = 32 million
customer_required_spans = 1200 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: 38  

#----------------------------------------#
## Calculate the total number of licenses needed

# Add the Cisco Observability Platform licenses: metrics(13) + events(5) + logs(6) + spans(38) = 62
required_customer_cisco_observability_platform_licenses = required_licenses_for_metrics + required_licenses_for_events + required_licenses_for_logs + required_licenses_for_spans 
required_customer_cloud_native_app_obs_licenses = 10

# Total number of licenses needed: 62 + 10 = 72
total_customers_licenses_required = required_customer_cisco_observability_platform_licenses + required_customer_cloud_native_app_obs_licenses

CODE

Example: High User and Service Principal Access Requirements with Modules

This customer has lower data requirements but needs more access (users or Service Principals) to Cisco Cloud Observability and has subscribed to two Modules.

The number of Module licenses has to be the same as the number of Cisco Cloud Observability licenses. If you have 15+ Cisco Cloud Observability licenses, you will need 15+ licenses for each subscribed Module.

Data Requirements	Cisco Cloud Observability and Module Users / Service Principals	License Requirements
100 million metrics 100 million events 160 GB of logs 96 million spans	35	15 Cisco Observability Platform licenses 35 Cisco Cloud Observability licenses 35 Module licenses for each subscribed Module (2 in this case) Total licenses needed: 155

In this use case, the calculation for data usage is much simpler, but the customer requires licensing for Cisco Cloud Observability and two modules. The customer will need 35 Cisco Cloud Observability licenses for the access requirements. The same number of Module licenses (35) will be required for each of the two subscribed Modules.

The following breaks down the calculation of the licensing for data ingestion and access:

## Calculation for Cisco Observability Platform licensing for data ingestion

# Cisco Observability Platform required licenses for data ingestion
required_licenses_for_metrics = 100 million / 25 million (1 license unit); 
required_licenses_for_events =  100 million / 25 million (1 license unit);  
required_licenses_for_logs = 160 GB / 40 GB (1 license unit);  
required_licenses_for_spans = 96 million / 32 million (1 license unit);  

# Total number of Cisco Observability Platform license units for data ingestion: 4 + 4 + 4 + 3 = 15 (minimum license requirement)
required_cisco_observability_platform_licenses = required_licenses_for_metrics + required_licenses_for_events + required_licenses_for_logs + required_licenses_for_spans;

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

# Number of access licenses required
no_required_cloud_native_observability_users = 35
no_required_service_principal_access = 35 

# The number of subscribed Modules
no_subscribed_modules = 2

# Module licenses needed: 35 * 2 = 70
no_required_module_licenses = no_user_cloud_native_observability_users * no_subscribed_modules

# Total number of access licenses: 35 + 70 + 35 = 140
total_no_required_access_licenses = no_required_cloud_native_observability_users + no_required_module_licenses + no_required_service_principal_access
 
#----------------------------------------#

# Total licenses needed: 15 + 140 = 155
total_no_licenses_needed = required_cisco_observability_platform_licenses + total_no_required_access_licenses

CODE

Data Storage and Retention

The following table describes how long Cisco AppDynamics retains each type of Cloud Data.

Data Type	Retention Period
Metric	Each Metric is retained for 400 days from the date on which the Metric is ingested into the Cisco Observability Platform.
Event	Each Event is retained for 30 days from the date on which the Event is ingested into the Cisco Observability Platform.
Log	Each Log is retained for 30 days from the date on which the Log is ingested into the Cisco Observability Platform.
Span	Each Span is retained for 14 days from the date on which the Span is ingested into the Cisco Observability Platform.

License Entitlement Definitions

Active Entities are entities that send data to Cisco AIOps within the monthly billing period as outlined under 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. It is a unified platform built on OpenTelemetry (an open-source project by CNCF) and anchored on metrics, events, logs, and traces (MELT), enabling 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.
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 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.