Cisco OnPlus Service: Remote Monitoring for $5 Per Network Per Month
After months of quiet development, Cisco Systems has officially launched the Cisco OnPlus Service — a cloud-based service that allows MSPs to monitor SMB customers’ network infrastructure. At $5 per network location per month, the Cisco OnPlus Service hopes to carve a niche between PSA (professional services automation) and RMM (remote monitoring and management) platforms. Here’s why.
During the recent HTG Peer Group conference in November, Cisco offered up free OnPlus Service trials to selected MSPs.
The Cisco OnPlus Service is home-grown (developed by Cisc0) and has a $250 list price for a three-year cloud subscription per managed network location. Cisco believes the actual price will work out to about $5 per month per managed location — with MSPs able to adjust the mark-up price (if any) to meet their own profit needs.
So far, several hundred Cisco OnPlus Service deployments are in place with the 1,000 deployment milestone approaching fast, according to Cisco. The OnPlus Service can discover any wired or wireless connection. The service requires an on-premise network appliance plugged into a switch or router on the customer’s network. The customer information flows securely to a Cisco-managed data center for the corresponding MSP’s use.
The big question: Can the Cisco OnPlus Service carve a niche for itself in a market where most MSPs already have multiple tools in place — particularly RMM (remote monitoring and management) and PSA (professional services automation). In a briefing last week, Cisco insiders said the OnPlus Service is already gaining traction.
Plus, Cisco is working to integrate the OnPlus service with traditional RMM tools. Dan Wensley, VP of partner development at Level Platforms, was quoted in Cisco’s official announcement today endorsing the platform.
Having worked on developing similar services in the past, this service seems to be a great value for Cisco shops. I think it will be less interesting to MSPs with mostly mixed environments. Naturally the proof will be how it works in the real world.
Mitchell Cipriano
http://www.demandbydesign.com
Mitchell,
I don’t know if Cisco OnPlus Service works as advertised, but I’m impressed with their strategy so far. Cisco’s decision to quietly test OnPlus with HTG Peer Groups and other MSPs prior to launch was smart. Quite a few companies start evangelizing their offerings before they gain real-world feedback from those in the trenches. Here, Cisco gathered the feedback before telling the world about OnPlus. Good move. We’ll be watching to see how it plays out.
-jp
Being the person responsible for developing existing MSPs to become Cisco partners and leading Cisco’s relationship with HTG Peer Groups, I would say that there is HUGE interest from solution providers that manage mixed networks, as we are integrating with their existing RMM and PSA tools. OnPlus does provide greater visibility into even mixed networks with incentive to deploy more Cisco “purpose built for small business” products for even a deeper dive in managing and monitoring their customers’ netorks. There is great value with OnPlus whether you are an existing Cisco partner wanting to create a managed services practice or an existing MSP wanting to up your game with greater profitability and monetization.
Lisa: Thanks for the continued updates and Cisco-related perspectives. I’m also intrigued by how Cisco positioned the OnPlus Service for VARs and resellers pushing into managed services…
Best
-jp
is this not just a rebranding of Cisco SmartCare? While is looks a great offering – my only concern is that for Cisco to retrieve the Service Contact and Warranty Info – Customer Passwords and Login will always be stored at Cisco?
Dan,
I will check in with Cisco to see if/how Cisco plans to manage end-customer information.
-jp
Joe,
Anything back from Cisco on How the Login/Passwords are Managed?
Dan.
Here is a security white paper explaining OnPlus security
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/products/ps11792/prod_white_papers_list.html
Specifically for device password security:
Device credentials entered on the OnPlus Portal by a partner for enhancing device discovery, enabling portal features, and support are encrypted using the specific OnPlus Network Agent’s unique public encryption key, then stored in the portal database. The private key for the OnPlus Network Agent never leaves the OnPlus Network Agent at the customer site and is used only to decrypt secure content provided by the portal.
The OnPlus Network Agent’s X.509 encryption/decryption key pair is generated when the OnPlus Network Agent is first powered on and any time it is restored to factory defaults. This ensures that the X.509 key pair is never reused when an OnPlus Network Agent is transferred from one customer site to another.