Smart Software Licensing
Smart Licensing is a cloud-based approach to licensing that simplifies the purchase, deployment, and management of Cisco software assets. Entitlements are purchased through your Cisco account via Cisco Commerce Workspace (CCW) and immediately deposited into your Virtual Account for usage. This eliminates the need to install license files on every device. Products that are smart enabled communicate directly to Cisco to report consumption. A single location is available to customers to manage Cisco software licenses — the Cisco Software Central (CSC). License ownership and consumption are readily available to help make better purchase decision based on consumption or business need. See https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/buy/smart-accounts/software-licensing.html for more information about Cisco Smart Licensing.
Comparison Between Legacy Licensing and Smart Licensing
Cisco employs two types of license models - Legacy Licensing and Smart Software Licensing. Legacy Licensing consists of software activation by installing Product Activation Keys (PAK) on to the Cisco product. A Product Activation Key is a purchasable item, ordered in the same manner as other Cisco equipment and used to obtain license files for feature set on Cisco Products. Smart Software Licensing is a cloud based licensing of the end-to-end platform through the use of a few tools that authorize and deliver license reporting. Smart Software Licensing functionality incorporated into CEE complete the product registration and authorization.