With Cisco’s recent end of life announcement for their traditional IPSEC VPN client, I’ve heard a lot of groaning about the cost of moving to the AnyConnect model. Folks this really isn’t that bad. If you are merely replacing the functionality of the IPSEC client for your current users then you will likely only need the Essentials license which will cost you a few hundred dollars per device. Am I missing something? If things are really that tight, have any of you tried passing an envelope around with the words “Save VPN!” written across it?

I think that most people must be assuming that they need to buy Premium licenses which are much more expensive. (More than $60 list price per user when bought in smaller 10-pack quantities.) I just can’t believe everyone is making a big deal about paying a few hundred dollars per ASA for a much better client. In fact, I felt inclined to write a blog post to demystify the ASA VPN licensing options. Then I discovered a blog post on the topic from more than a year ago. What little has changed since is explained in the comments. 

Perhaps it is confusing to license one level of access by device and another by user. Maybe Cisco should discontinue the Essentials license, opting instead to include the functionality and take a small price increase.