Since launching Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX) -Cisco's innovative solution that turns the network into a platform for delivering location-aware, in-venue services -customers have been intrigued. However, CMX could not exist without the Cisco Mobility Services Engine (MSE), a location-aware network appliance to provide location-aware capabilities as well as deep wireless security.

Before I get into the new pricing details, here's a quick recap of what the MSE can do:

The MSE is a network appliance that takes your wireless network and turns into a platform for delivering cool and innovative location-based services that provide unique business value through online, onsite and social analytics. For example, you can now leverage your wireless network to see how many customers are visiting your store? Are they new or repeat customers? Are long wait times at checkout hurting my business? With the MSE, organizations can even communicate directly with visitors in their venue through their mobile devices. You can now provide wayfinding (indoor GPS) and push relevant content such as offers or coupons directly to your visitors, which in turn can drive revenue gains for the venue.

The MSE does more than location based services -it also has a rich set of network security tools (known collectively as wIPS -wireless intrusion prevention system) that help protect the network from all kinds of attacks.  The MSE can not only tell you that there is an attack taking place, but it will tell you which type of attack ("honeypot"), where the attack is coming from, and will also enable the network fight back against the attack ("flood the attacking device with traffic making it impossible for him to do anything").

We wanted to make this great functionality more accessible and affordable for our customers, so I am happy to announce that we are offering a new pricing promotion for MSE licenses starting now until April 2014.

Here are the basics of the promotion:

-          TheBase Location Licensefor the MSE will be completely free.  That means when you buy a MSE appliance (hardware or virtual), you can easily access basic location capabilities. The basic location data can also be used by 3^rdparty applications using Mobility Services APIs.

-          We're also dropping the price for theCMX License, which provides access to the Cisco CMX Analytics, CMX Browser Engage and CMX Connect capabilities. For example: For 100 AP's, the price drops from$170 per AP to just$110 per AP!

FAQ

Q: Where will I be able to order the promotional pricing PIDS?

A:The new license PIDS are accessible as options  under the L-MSE-PAK  high level PID  -exactly the same as the regular MSE license PIDS

Q: How can I tell the difference between the promotion pricing PIDS and the regular PIDS?

A:The new PIDS will have "PRO" prefix -for example the promotional pricing PID for the L-LS-1AP will be PRO-L-LS-1AP

Q:What happens to the Upgrade PID which upgrades from Base Location license to CMX license?

A:The upgrade SKU (L-UPG-LS-1AP) will become un-orderable. The reason being that once the Base Location license is free, there is no monetary difference between purchasing the CMX license or upgrading to the CMX license.

Q:What is the impact of this on TAC support?

A:TAC support is per MSE appliance regardless of number of licenses -therefore there is no impact on TAC support.

Q: Do I still need an activation license for a vMSE?

A:Yes, an activation license (L-MSE-7.0-K9) is required for every vMSE

Keep in mind that this promotion pricing will only last until April 2014, so be sure to take advantage of this special deal. Contact your local Cisco partner to get started.  For more on the Cisco MSE, please visit www.cisco.com/go/mse