Bye Bye ISE 2.7

As first reported in March 2022, Cisco ISE 2.7 is hitting it's end of support milestone in 30 days - 22nd September 2024! You may have even had emails directly from Cisco about it and filed these under that "GET TO LATER" folder in Outlook.

Firstly, what does this actually mean for ISE 2.7 Admins? Your devices will continue to function and your perpetual Base licenses will remain unaffected; there is no risk of an overnight Y2K style end to your ISE appliance. Furthermore, if you're using Plus or Apex licensing, these too will continue to work, however you will struggle to re-license once these expire. The big impact is the loss of TAC support - You'll no longer be able to raise a support case with Cisco and help is no longer just a phone call or email away.

So 30 days out, what are your options? Well, here's the bad news - You are going to need to purchase licensing for 3.x under the new model. HOWEVER, if you purchase these licenses before the 22nd Sept milestone then you can unlock a significant discount from Cisco.

New model? Yes - that's changed too... sorry. The old "Lego" model, where Base licenses were a minimum requirement, with Plus or Apex licenses purchased "on-top" to unlock features, has been discontinued in favour of the new "Nested" model. In this new model all licenses are subscription based (I did say sorry already) and you only purchase licenses for the level of features you require. The image below details the comparison.

So what are the discounts!? When migrating, there are two discounts available before the 22nd September:

1) Purchase Essentials tier licenses for a minimum of 3 years, and get first 1-year free.

OR

2) Upgrade to Advantage or Premier tier licenses for a minimum of 3 years, and get your first 1.5-years free.

*This offer is also open for anyone who migrated from 2.x to 3.x before 01-Nov 2023 through Cisco TAC*

For more details, please reach out to XMA, or me directly, and we can look to support you through this migration. Cisco 3.0 added a lot of impressive new features, and the latest 3.4 release adds even more. ISE is also a key apart of the overall SDA ecosystem so, if you're thinking of switching to software defined networking in the future, now is the time to get this piece of the puzzle right for your environment.