Cisco Smart Net FAQ

Originally SMARTNet, then Smart Net and now Smart Net Total Care, it’s a support service offered by Cisco to help you resolve network problems quickly, it provides direct 24/7 access to Cisco Experts and can include hardware replacement within 2 hours.

There are four main types of Cisco Smart Net – each aimed at a specific user type.

1 – Smart Foundation – for small companies with limited network expertise.

2 – Cisco Smart Care – partner led monitoring and technical support.

3 – Smart Net Total Care – for complex networks demanding 24/7 access to Cisco TAC.

4 – Smart Net Solution Support – a single point of contact for multi vendor networks.

There are basically three support levels of Cisco Smart Net

1 – Cisco Software Updates and Upgrades.

2 – Advanced Replacement of faulty hardware

3 – Replacement hardware installed by Onsite Engineer or not.

Smart Net Total Care provides support for the covered device, but if you have a multivendor environment (with less than 50% from other support alliance partners)  then Cisco Solution Support becomes a single point of contact for the support issue.

All Cisco devices that run Cisco Software need Smart Net, without an active support contract you will not be able to legally access software downloads that are necessary to keep your devices in compliance.

No.

To access the latest software updates for your device you will need an active SMARTNet contract, but some security patches are also available directly from the Cisco TAC and no SMARTNet contract is required.

Smart Net Services start with software support and online assistance,  hardware replacement can be added, with SLA’s from 8x5xNBD (Business Day fault reporting – 8 hours, 5 days a week and Next Business Day hardware replacement) through to 24x7x2 with an engineer onsite within 2 hours.

SNT simply means Smart Net, and the base service level for Smart Net is 8x5xNBD, so 8 hours a day, 5 days a week fault reporting with hardware replaced by the next business day.

All Cisco SNT products include software updates and access to the Cisco TAC (Technical Assistance Center)

Smart Net SNT provides 8x5xNBD (Next Business Day replacement of failed hardware) service, Smart Net SNTP is the same but with 24x7x4 – failed hardware replaced with 4 hours.