Helping employees, customers and partners in a time of need is one of Cisco’s core values. Right now, COVID-19 is forcing many people around the world to work remotely. This is putting a sudden strain on both IT and security teams who are being tasked with providing support for an unprecedented number of offsite workers and their devices.
Recently, Cisco Webex expanded its free offerings to allow employees to stay connected to their teams and continue their business operations. In response to customers asking us for guidance, today, Cisco is broadening this offer to include security for remote employees by providing extended free licenses and expanded usage counts at no extra charge for three of our key security technologies that are designed to protect remote workers anywhere, anytime and on any device.
- Cisco Umbrella protects users from malicious Internet destinations whether they are on or off the network. Because it is delivered from the cloud, Umbrella makes it easy to protect users everywhere in minutes. With this offer, existing customers can exceed their user limit to support an increase in remote workers, and new customers can access a free license.
- Duo Security enables organizations to verify users’ identities and establish device trust before granting access to applications. By employing a zero-trust model, it decreases the attack surface and reduces risk. With this offer, existing customers can exceed their user limit to support an increase in remote workers, and new customers can access a free license.
- Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client empowers employees to work from anywhere on company laptops or personal mobile devices. It also provides the visibility and control security teams need to identify who and which devices are accessing their infrastructure. Existing AnyConnect customers can exceed their user limit to support an increase in remote workers, and new customers can access a free license. To get started, existing and new customers should talk with a Cisco representative or partner to get the requested usage counts.
These offers will be available from now until July 1, 2020. Supporting our customers and partners remains a top priority, and we hope these proactive steps help companies manage the business impact and keep employees safe during this evolving situation.
Well done Cisco for providing this solution offering for customers and partners, especially as the likelihood of many global employees will have to work remotely
Well done Cisco for providing this solution offering for customers and partners, especially as the likelihood of many global employees will have to work remotely
Great initiative – inquiries from our customers have already been coming in, especially regarding AnyConnect licenses. This will definitely help.
That’s amazing. Well done!
It’s nice to see how Cisco is doing what they can to help in this difficult situation.
Very helpful, Thank you
For new customers that don’t have Cisco Duo yet, the free trial will be limited to 10 users only for 30 days? or will it be open usage till 1 July 2020?
The 10-user limit for the free trial has been removed. Customers will be able to use the trial for as many users as they need. The initial period is still 30 days, so please contact Cisco sales for options related to open usage until July 1, 2020.
Cisco always has that Human Touch for better world, Especially in this difficult times.
A very positive step to support customers work securely whilst remote.
None of this is new.
1. Cisco Umbrella (ie OpenDNS) was always free before Cisco bought it. Anyone can utilize the free version still just by changing their DNS addresses.
2. DUO has always allowed for the the first 10 licenses of a new account to be free. I’ve been using this for years at home.
3. Cisco VPN gateways (ASA, FPA) haven’t enforced hard limits when exceeding licensed limits for a long time now. They’ll just flag the licensing as “out of compliance.”
@Anonymous, thanks for pointing this out our free services. We did not include our current offers in this post. We have a consumer version of Umbrella (OpenDNS) that remains free. It offers an excellent level of protection for consumers and we’re very proud of the protection it provides for home use. We continue to encourage consumers to leverage this free offer. As you point out it’s super easy to get started. What we’ve announced today relates to the enterprise version. It offers a much higher level of protection. Duo is fantastic and we do offer a limited set of free licenses to help everyone. However, we are seeing a lot of demand from companies that have more than ten people trying to work remotely. We are removing that restriction. Finally, I would not recommend that people or companies use out of compliance software.
how very generous of Cisco. but there is always a catch…this time: you have to use Firepower with FMC to use anyconnect. good luck, have fun. hopefully the rules to firepower are deployed before the pandemic is over. in case you say but i want to run ASA, you need luck to find a firepower image that lets you convert successfully to ASA. Sad. the only positive thing to say is anyconnect is now a great product.
Thank you for your feedback. AnyConnect does require a headend device. It sounds like you have experienced some challenges in the past, and we are sorry to hear that. We are committed to protecting our customers, and we would be more than happy to engage with you to assist with your deployment. Please reach out to sales and they can help.
Great Help from Cisco
Great idea and concept but need some meat on the bones.
DUO – This version is it time bombed to expire – maximum quantity of users?
Umbrella – Weve been offering this for sometime so this hasnt changed – Hows that extending for 3 months from the original PPoV
Webex – Assume this is webex meetings only not calling, obviously gain access to webex teams for collaboration and IM
Fantastic can play a good growing BCP plan for all companies in the future or allow the customer to put emergency measures in place to keep the business running in light of COVID-19
Darren, the details should be provided in the links. If we’re missing something please reach out. This is a dynamic situation that we’re addressing in real time.
Free means free, not a 14 day trial…
Thanks for the comment. We are providing a 90 day free license not a 14 day free trial. Hope this helps.
Great Job Cisco. These are crucial services used by so many partners (including my team). One less thing organization will have to worry about at such a critical time. Thank you
Just wanna say that Cisco has been a huge help with the Covid-19 crisis. Sometimes it takes a while to get new license orders acquired through the normal channels and having this option for a temporary basis is a huge help for some orgs.
first of all, thank you for the offer.
now, for the existing customers, up to which level can we exceed? is it limitless till July?
Please contact sales, and they can assist you with your specific needs.
Thank you