Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Launching $1/Month Cloud Monitoring Service

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) believes that sometimes cloud usage exposes companies to unwarranted expenses and risks. To address the problem, the company has come up with a cloud monitoring service targeting small enterprises. Cisco’s small enterprise-focused cloud usage tracker is known as Cloud Consumption as a Service (CCaaS) and will cost between $1 and $2 per month per employee.

If enterprises can understand their cloud usage, they can eliminate the risks of falling short of regulatory requirements around data protection and adjacencies. Moreover, greater visibility into cloud usage within an enterprise also helps to keep the so-called shadow IT expenses at bay.

Modest price

Through CCaaS, SMBs can effectively track their employee usage of public cloud services. Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) says that $1 to $2 price range for its CCaaS is designed to address the need of companies of different sizes within the SMB category.

Cloud usage monitoring need in SMB

Initially, Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) had a cloud usage monitoring service that was specifically designed for the large enterprises. However, the company has realized a need for cloud consumption tracking solutions among SMBs. That informed the building of the low-cost CCaaS.

Early adopters appreciate

A number of SMBs have tried Cisco’s CCaaS and they are impressed by the discoveries they are making about their usage of cloud services. CityMD, an operator of health clinics in New York, is among the SMBs that have tried Cisco’s CCaaS. For CityMD, interest in CCaaS was driven by the need to ensure that the organization remained compliant on matters of cloud services usage

Cloud pockets covered

According to Cisco’s head of advanced services, Robert Dimicco, the CCaaS tool spans analytics and security scanning of enterprise cloud environment.

Poor cloud usage visibility

A recent Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) surveyed showed that most companies have no idea the exact number of cloud services their employees use at work. While the majority of the CIOs interviewed by Cisco estimate that their organizations use about 91 cloud services, Cisco puts the average number of cloud services used by each enterprise at 1,120.

The lack of accurate estimate of the number of cloud services at use by companies informs the need for better cloud visibility.