--- title: Introduction to Cisco Smart Licensing description: Read our introduction to Cisco Smart Licensing and discover how it eases the burden of network device licensing for your IT team. image: https://blog.iptel.com.au/hubfs/Blogs/Intro%20to%20Cisco%20Smart%20Licensing/Introduction%20to%20Cisco%20Smart%20Licensing%20(Feature%20Image).gif --- [![IPTellogo-byline-2020-dark-v2-pnd-optimised-500 (1)](https://blog.iptel.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/IPTellogo-byline-2020-dark-v2-pnd-optimised-500%20(1).png?width=200&height=59&name=IPTellogo-byline-2020-dark-v2-pnd-optimised-500%20(1).png "IPTellogo-byline-2020-dark-v2-pnd-optimised-500 (1)")](https://iptel.com.au) - [Home](https://iptel.com.au/) - [Solutions](https://iptel.com.au/solutions) Technologies - [Cisco Access Manager](https://iptel.com.au/technologies/cisco-access-manager) - [Cisco Catalyst Centre](https://iptel.com.au/technologies/cisco-catalyst-center) - [Cisco Meraki](https://iptel.com.au/technologies/cisco-meraki) - [Cisco SDA Fabric](https://iptel.com.au/technologies/cisco-sda-fabric) - 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[Wi-Fi Doesn't have to be Unreliable](https://www.techpartner.news/feature/iptel-wi-fi-doesnt-have-to-be-unreliable-494069) Buying from IPTel - [Buying Panels](https://iptel.com.au/professional-supply-panels) - [IPTel Store](https://store.iptel.com.au) - [Request a Quote](https://iptel.com.au/request-a-quote) - [Managed Services](https://iptel.com.au/managed-services-enquiry) Case Studies - [DP World Video](https://blog.iptel.com.au/hubfs/Case%20Studies/DP%20World_Case_Study.mp4) - [DP World](https://blog.iptel.com.au/dp-world-case-study) - [Backup Assure](https://blog.iptel.com.au/backup-assure-a-disaster-recovery-case-study) [Contact Us](https://iptel.com.au/contact-us) This is a search field with an auto-suggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. ## Introduction to Cisco Smart Licensing May 15, 2026 It’s probably fair to say that most of us don’t enjoy dealing with any kind of licensing fulfilment because the experience can be somewhat daunting. Cisco offers the use of Cisco Smart Licensing as a way to ease the burden of network device licensing. ![Introduction to Cisco Smart Licensing](https://blog.iptel.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/Blogs/Intro%20to%20Cisco%20Smart%20Licensing/Introduction%20to%20Cisco%20Smart%20Licensing.gif?width=1440&name=Introduction%20to%20Cisco%20Smart%20Licensing.gif) Smart licensing offers a couple of key advantages for licensing Cisco software - you won't ever lose a licence again, and you can spread licences across sites. This means that you no longer need to buy excess licences for your sites, because they come in certain sized PAKs, but pool the licences in the cloud and call them off as you go. Related reading - [Cisco Spaces Introduction](https://blog.iptel.com.au/cisco-spaces-introduction) - [Zero Trust Architecture](https://blog.iptel.com.au/zero-trust-architecture) --- ## A Short Cisco Licensing History Lesson Network devices that require a licence to operate would either be configured in RTU (Right To Use) which is an honour based system, or have a static licence file uploaded to them. [![Cisco Smart Licensing (Instagram)](https://blog.iptel.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/Blogs/Cisco%20Smart%20Licensing/Cisco%20Smart%20Licensing%20(Instagram).png?width=228&name=Cisco%20Smart%20Licensing%20(Instagram).png)](https://blog.iptel.com.au/introduction-to-cisco-smart-licensing)Each device had its own arcane method of licensing and this operation was usually performed at the commissioning stage and then forgotten about. If a device required additional licences, the procurement process would typically deliver a PAK file (paper or electronic) and the Licensing Operator would convert that PAK into a licence file that had to be uploaded to the device. Multiply that across tens of different Cisco product families and hundreds or thousands of devices.   Smart Licensing addresses the following issues that we used to face with traditional licences: - **Audit Trail:** Unable to see which device the licence belongs to, or any audit trail - **Flexibility**: Offering a flexible software licensing model, once a PAK is converted to a licence for your software entitlements, it is tied to a serial number which complicates hardware swaps or VM (Virtual Machine) rebuilds - **Utilisation**: Unable to check licence over or under utilisation - **MACs**: Moves, adds and changes were labour intensive - **Visibility**: Lack of visibility across the organisation into licence procurement Related reading - [Cisco Catalyst Center Overview](https://blog.iptel.com.au/cisco-dna-center-overview) --- ## Smart Accounts vs Smart Licensing Smart Accounts and Smart Licensing are not the same thing – but they are related. Licensing Cisco products prior to the Smart era consisted of a single portal that held an inventory of all the licences purchased, and whether or not they had been claimed. That method of licence management is akin to basic record keeping. After a product is purchased, the associated PAK files had to be converted into licences, which were then transferred to the individual devices. A very manual process. This method did not address the requirements of large organisations with ever growing devices, let alone having a consolidated view of licence usage/compliance. Enter Smart Accounts. Related reading - [Cisco Smart Licensing](https://blog.iptel.com.au/introduction-to-cisco-smart-licensing) - [Cisco Catalyst Center Enablement](https://blog.iptel.com.au/cisco-dna-center-enablement) --- ## Smart Accounts Smart Accounts can be further subdivided into one or more Virtual Accounts which contain the actual licence entitlements. Every Smart Account has a default Virtual Account but there is a lot to be gained by creating Virtual Accounts that align with your organisation’s structure and compliance requirements – e.g. one account per site or business unit. Gone are the days of dumping all the licences into a single folder – it’s easy to lose track of where the licences ended up. Cleverly named Virtual Accounts are self-documenting and they are the stepping stone towards the next evolution – Smart Licensing. ## [![Cisco Smart Licencing](https://blog.iptel.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/Stock%20Images/Blog%20Images/Smart%20Licensing/Cisco%20Smart%20Licencing.png?width=820&name=Cisco%20Smart%20Licencing.png)](https://blog.iptel.com.au/introduction-to-cisco-smart-licensing) Related reading - [Cisco Smart Licensing](https://blog.iptel.com.au/introduction-to-cisco-smart-licensing) - [Wi-Fi Design: Business Requirements](https://blog.iptel.com.au/wi-fi-design-business-requirements) - [Wi-Fi Design: Technical Requirements](https://blog.iptel.com.au/wi-fi-design-technical-requirements) --- ## Cisco Smart Licensing Cisco devices that are enabled for Cisco Smart Licensing will communicate their needs to a centralised Cisco hosted licensing system which manages the licensing requirements. The licensing system can either be reached directly over the internet or via an on-premise server, which in turn talks to Cisco. The on-premise server is a great solution for large organisations with lots of devices. Each smart-configured device periodically checks in with Cisco to report licence requirements as well as utilisation. This feedback mechanism is the key to solving all the issues mentioned earlier in this article: - Easily locate devices and see what licences are assigned to them, with a full audit trail - Device replacement (or VM rebuilds) no longer requires licence re-homing - Near real-time licence utilisation across the entire organisation in a single web portal, with the ability to run reports - Additional licences flow directly from the procurement process into the required Virtual Account – no manual intervention required. Licences can also be moved around as needed (e.g. apportioned to a lab or staging environment) - Individual user access can be granted to all or parts of the Smart Account hierarchy to allow operators and business decision makers access to licensing information ![Network](https://blog.iptel.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/Stock%20Images/Network/Network.jpg?width=737&name=Network.jpg) Related reading - [Cisco Catalyst Center Assurance](https://blog.iptel.com.au/blog/cisco-catalyst-center-assurance) - [5 Ways Catalyst Center Solves your Challenges](https://info.iptel.com.au/cisco-dna) - [Fault Finding with Catalyst Center](https://blog.iptel.com.au/troubleshooting-with-cisco-dna-center) --- ## Introduction to Cisco Smart Licensing: Summary Once you get started with Smart Licensing you’ll never look back. Visit [software.cisco.com](https://software.cisco.com/) today and explore the benefits further. You may however still have a fleet of Cisco devices that are incapable of performing Smart Licensing because of their software vintage. But don’t let that stop you from enabling the newer generation of hardware and applications that are capable. We've got a wealth of other blogs on new technology. Have a read on the latest in [Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E](https://blog.iptel.com.au/wi-fi-6e-and-6ghz-explained), or have a browse of our other blogs. \*Figure 1: Cisco Smart Accounts, sourced from Cisco Smart Accounts and Smart Software Licensing Overview, Cisco, Aug 14 2015   #### Related Articles ###### [The Importance of Networking in Aged Care](https://blog.iptel.com.au/the-importance-of-networking-in-aged-care) May 23, 2025 ###### [How to Decrypt PSK Packets Captured with Wireshark](https://blog.iptel.com.au/how-to-decrypt-psk-packets-captured-with-wireshark) July 24, 2026 ###### [Cisco Private 5G](https://blog.iptel.com.au/cisco-private-5g) May 13, 2026 Free tool ### How Many Wi-Fi Access Points Do You Need? Work out APs, PoE and switch ports floor by floor, using the same survey grades our Cisco wireless engineers design to. Takes under a minute. 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