Per Device Licensing (PDL) going end of life?

[cmr]

Have a look at all of the licensing documentation, it all now says that PDL is no longer an available option...

Meraki MR License Guide - Cisco Meraki Documentation

How to convert an org from Co-term to Per Device licensing - Cisco Meraki Documentation

[DarrenOC]

Just re-read the initial post. Never migrated any customers to PDL as I preferred the simplicity of co-term. One date for everything - simples.

[BlakeRichardson]

I tried to convert my home network to PDL last year, I was told by support that my account manager had to approve it before they could make the change......

That answer TBH left a sour taste in my mouth. 

Why they are moving to a single licensing model makes no sense. I find renewing licensing complicated enough without being co-term.

I dread every time I have to renew Meraki licensing compared to say Fortinet. 

[Mark_S]

Hi,

Correct, Per-Device Licensing is no longer an option for new customers or conversions. Moving forward, the available licensing models are co-termination and subscription.

For further details please refer to our documentation or reach out to your Meraki sales representative.

[Mloraditch]

So I didn't really like PDL after experimenting with it a couple of times, but did need to do some conversions during customer buy/sell/merger scenarios since licenses can't be moved to coterm orgs so we had to make the consolidated networks PDL. I actually have a customer in my sales pipeline right now where that may be necessary.

How are those scenarios to be handled? In general, are things going to be setup to be able to switch PDL to Subscription or back to coterm?

[Mark_S]

Hi Mloraditch,

Your sales rep would be best placed to answer this question, especially if there is a specific scenario you have faced in the past where it has been necessary to move to PDL.

[Mloraditch]

As a partner who works across the entire continental US, I don't have just one sales rep. I deal with many. I can certainly understand that if there is going to be some sort of financial element needing to talk to the rep, but some of these general questions should not be gatekept behind sales reps. There should at least be something on SalesConnect or the Meraki Partner site for partners.

[Mark_S]

The sales reps are the most knowledgeable on this subject and as such would be best placed to answer any queries you have on the licensing changes. As a member of technical support, they are who I would lean on with such questions too.

[BlakeRichardson]

@Mark_S is there a specific reason PDL was dropped, because from a sales perspective the license codes used are the same the only reason I can think of is either the devs or sales didn't like it.

[Mark_S]

Hi Blake,

I am not aware of the reason why PDL is being retired but believe that the new subscription licensing model is intended to replace it while simplifying the process.

[OVERKILL]

Ran into this last week and was a bit frustrated by the change. I have one org that's PDL and the subscription management process, with each device being on its own term, is preferable. 

Have another customer that's basically "15 businesses in a trenchcoat" who would have benefited greatly from being PDL and had their renewal coming up, so I went to convert them, only to discover that the option no longer existed. 

Some of their licenses are less than 6 months old (MR) and they balked at the price of renewing the entire org and the idea that they had to, given that some of the licenses were purchased quite recently. The argument was that they should only have to renew the devices with expiring licenses, which were for specific sub companies, and these could be billed as such (to each sub company), which I really couldn't argue with. I'd have converted them to PDR earlier if I had known it was going away, but apparently I missed this memo, which is my fault.