A smarter way to manage thousands of Cisco assets

Security incidents often start with what teams can’t see.

According to a Trend Micro survey, nearly three-quarters of breaches (74%) trace back to unmanaged or unknown assets. Even among mature IT organizations, visibility gaps persist. An IBM report found that over one-third of breaches involved shadow data.

Those blind spots carry a cost. Incomplete inventory tracking leads to overlapping support contracts, delayed refreshes, and missed opportunities to optimize licensing.

For Cisco customers managing thousands of assets across hybrid environments, the stakes climb fast. That’s where SHI One with Cisco Install Base Analysis (IBA) makes a difference.

What does your Cisco asset management system look like?

Cisco asset management data rarely lives in one place. Hardware inventory may be tracked in spreadsheets. Contracts live in enterprise agreement (EA) dashboards. Subscription entitlements sit in yet another system. Most organizations use some combination of these, none of which connect automatically.

This fragmentation creates two persistent problems. The first is administrative. Tracking asset coverage, support expiration, Smart Net renewals, and co-terming schedules takes far more time than it should. The second is strategic. Teams can’t plan refresh cycles, manage spend, or decommission hardware effectively if they can’t see the full picture.

Missed last day of support (LDOS) dates can trigger unplanned hardware failures. Support contracts can overlap for equipment that’s no longer in use. Untracked devices may never be patched or replaced. Incomplete records also increase compliance exposure, especially during audits where contract, license, and hardware alignment must be documented.

And in a distributed Cisco environment, even small oversights multiply quickly.

Cisco IBA gives your asset data a single source of truth

SHI One brings Cisco IBA directly into the platform that many teams already use for broader IT asset management. With IBA activated, organizations gain real-time visibility into every Cisco device — whether it’s a switch, router, wireless access point, or security appliance.

The platform connects directly to Cisco’s systems, pulls in current contract and entitlement data, and reconciles it against your actual deployed infrastructure. That data isn’t static. It updates as your environment changes, offering a live, unified view of hardware lifecycle status, support coverage, and usage patterns.

IBA also simplifies renewal planning and entitlement tracking. It surfaces devices approaching LDOS, flags inconsistencies across Smart Accounts, and helps teams understand whether support contracts reflect real-world usage. All of this happens inside SHI One, so there’s no need to manage yet another tool.

One authorization unlocks the full picture

Activating Cisco IBA starts with a Letter of Authorization (LOA). This document allows SHI to securely access Cisco install base data on your behalf. That access is read-only and limited to asset and contract records.

Once the LOA is complete, SHI validates Cisco’s data against your internal records to identify discrepancies — like devices listed under incorrect accounts or hardware that’s no longer in use but still under contract. That reconciliation lays the groundwork for meaningful analysis and planning.

From there, teams can begin identifying gaps in coverage, mismatched support levels, and opportunities to right-size licensing and entitlements.

Small changes to your Cisco asset management system lead to big results

The value of IBA grows over time. Within the first month, organizations typically uncover overlooked assets, redundant contracts, and support misalignments. Over the next two to three months, teams begin shifting from reactive troubleshooting to proactive lifecycle planning.

By the six-month mark, many organizations identify their first major cost-saving opportunities, whether through Smart Net adjustments, contract consolidation, or early-stage hardware refreshes.

Because this data stays live within SHI One, the improvements don’t stop after the first review. Visibility becomes ongoing, and optimization becomes standard practice.

Simplify asset management with SHI One — without starting over

Cisco IBA in SHI One doesn’t require teams to adopt a new system or abandon current workflows. It enhances a platform that already supports our broader IT asset management (ITAM) and service delivery ecosystem.

For organizations already using SHI One, IBA can be turned on quickly with minimal disruption. For those new to the platform, SHI One provides a central view of cloud environments, IT asset inventory, and vendor support relationships all in one interface.

The result is a smarter way to manage Cisco infrastructure. Not a one-time audit. Not a separate system. A continuous, embedded layer of visibility that lets you operate with confidence.

Still tracking Cisco coverage in spreadsheets? Contact our experts to centralize your asset, contract, and lifecycle data through SHI One with Cisco IBA.