Cisco SmartNet is a 24/7 support and hardware replacement service. Also known as SmartNet Total Care (SNTC), it provides expert help, software updates, and fast hardware replacement so you can minimize downtime. However, renewal becomes problematic when inventory is stale, resulting in missed coverage and wasted budget on decommissioned gear.
Luckily, you can simplify renewals with live network inventory management from NetBrain, which can auto‑discover devices, reconcile renewals, export audit‑ready reports, and more.
When I was a member of the Advanced Networking team at a regional internet service provider (ISP) — we were known to troubleshoot first and ask questions later. I worked with our reseller on our Cisco SmartNet renewal. It was a decidedly unglamorous job, especially as the team’s director.
We had to compile a complete list of devices each year because our reseller’s quote routinely missed dozens of expiring Cisco items. We’d only discover the gaps when something broke, we called the Technical Assistance Center (TAC), and learned that SmartNet didn’t cover the device.
Plus, we were paying for support for equipment that was no longer on our network. It became particularly problematic when we had to return equipment that was dead on arrival from the manufacturer. Cisco SmartNet provides excellent support, and we’d get a replacement part within hours. But in our reseller’s system, the serial number for the old device is not replaced with the serial number for the new device.
Gartner found that 60% of IT leaders regret technology purchases due to unfavorable terms or overpriced fees. I was one of them! But our workaround wasn’t much better — trading spreadsheets back and forth with our reseller to reconcile what we were paying for. But after finalizing the renewal, we’d still miss too many Cisco devices.
Our problems were clear:
I scoured the internet in frustration, looking for ideas to help me in this miserable endeavor. I never found anything then, one post on the Cisco subreddit stood out: “SmartNet Renewal/Spreadsheet Hell — Is there a better way?” After reading the post, I discovered their experience was the same as mine — inaccurate quotes, spreadsheets, back and forth.
I felt seen. In the comments, I saw a lot of the same exasperated sentiments from fellow engineers. “Pretty much mirrors my experience,” said one commenter. “It’s pure insanity,” and “THIS!!” said others. Every comment reiterated the same frustration. Even resellers chimed in: “As a VAR [value-added reseller] we struggle with this for the same reasons,” and “I spent 3-4 weeks alone… it’s nuts.” The bottom line — there is just no way to do this without a good inventory management tool. Thankfully, NetBrain is an unmatched live inventory tool!
If I had NetBrain at that time, I would replace “spreadsheet hell” with continuous network inventory management and let NetBrain do the work for every Cisco SmartNet Renewal cycle. My approach would have been:
NetBrain transforms our NetOps workflows with a focus on automation. But the approach it takes to get there — 100% visibility into the network, human intelligence captured through Intents, and continuous network assessments — makes it the ideal tool for various other use cases like:
Its Auto-Discovery feature automatically scans your network for every network device in your infrastructure, on-prem or cloud, regardless of vendor. You can’t automate your network if you don’t know what you have. For too many, the cloud is a black box. Since the majority of all computing happens in the cloud, you can’t ignore it or write it off. That’s why NetBrain makes it a point to show you your entire infrastructure.
The result is an entire inventory of your online network. You can access that inventory, categorized and grouped by vendor, machine type, network function, and location in the network.
What I would have done to have NetBrain at my old job! I would have had a complete inventory to compare directly against the list of devices in my Cisco SmartNet portal. It’s the same for any other vendor support as well. But even after a year employed here, NetBrain still has pleasant surprises for me.
One of our customers recently needed to correlate their Cisco SmartNet contract with what is on their network. Painful memories rushed back into my mind. Their problem is worse than my experience as they have their infrastructure spread over various contracts with different resellers because they bid out every project. They strongly suspect they may be overpaying for SmartNet support by millions of dollars.
“Is there any way NetBrain can help on this?”, they wonder. Yes! Of course! Just re-read what I wrote earlier. Not only that! But as a NetBrain engineer pointed out, we worked with Cisco to develop a Cisco SNTC integration [SmartNet Total Care]. Many of our customers use this to reconcile their entitlement and reduce their operating expenses.
NetBrain overlays Cisco SmartNet information directly on NetBrain maps! You can export a report of every device and their contract status. And you can even define time-to-expire thresholds and be alerted by NetBrain when devices are set to lose coverage within that threshold!
This is amazing! Visualizing support coverage on our network diagrams? That’s the sort of high-tech stuff we should have been working with at the “Advanced Networking” department. Plus, the Cisco SmartNet service also provides end-of-sale, end-of-support, and end-of-life information! Cisco even sends NetBrain information on software recommendations and bug vulnerabilities. All that data can also be overlaid on our Dynamic Maps with 3rd-party data views.
Due to the popularity of this custom integration among clients, NetBrain released it as part of our latest Intent-Based Network Assessment (IBNA) Library! The IBNA Library is a collection of over 160 (and growing) built-in Intents and Dashboards that reflect all the most common or typical network assessment tasks and checks. It’s NetBrain’s way of encouraging our customers to transition to a continuous network assessment model for preventing outages and service disruptions.
And as part of that effort, Cisco SmartNet integration now comes with NetBrain right out of the box! This would have been a revelation back in my NetOps days. I should go back and comment on that subreddit and guide lost engineers out of their “spreadsheet hell”. They deserve to know.
SmartNet is only as good as the data behind it. Replace tedious, inaccurate spreadsheets with continuous network inventory management. Schedule a demo to see NetBrain in action.
