Gigamon sells network visibility and traffic-intelligence products under the GigaVUE name: physical GigaVUE HC Series and TA Series appliances running GigaVUE-OS, GigaSMART traffic-processing applications, the GigaVUE-FM fabric manager, and the GigaVUE Cloud Suite of virtual and cloud nodes. Gigamon publishes a set of end-user terms for these products: a Products Terms and Conditions document, a Support and Maintenance Agreement, a Limited Warranty, End of Sale and End of Life terms, a Supplement for products with data use limits, and a federal variant of the product terms.[5] The product-specific licence mechanics (what a key unlocks, how it is bound, how it behaves on expiry) are documented separately in the GigaVUE Licensing Guide.[4]
This article summarises the structure. The wiki’s deeper articles on volume-based licensing, GigaVUE-OS and GigaSMART licences, the Products Terms and support terms and the licence portal expand each part. Gigamon does not publish a public price list; quantities and prices are set by a quote or purchase order.
Licence types
The Licensing Guide identifies five major types of software licence: GigaVUE-FM, GigaVUE-OS, GigaVUE-OS Module, GigaSMART Application and Cloud.[4]
| Licence type | What it enables | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| GigaVUE-FM | Management of the physical and cloud infrastructure from GigaVUE-FM | The fabric manager |
| GigaVUE-OS | Management of HC Series and TA Series devices (nodes) | The chassis |
| GigaVUE-OS Module | Management of modules or cards in HC Series devices | Cards in the chassis |
| GigaSMART Application | GigaSMART operations and traffic processing on HC Series devices | Cards or pooled quantities |
| Cloud | GigaVUE Cloud Suite base bundles (CoreVUE, NetVUE, SecureVUE Plus) and add-on packages | Volume-based, monthly |
The guide also sorts licences along two further dimensions. The binding model says how the licence is tied to the environment: fixed (node-locked), flexible (floating) or volume-based. The duration says how long it lasts: evaluation, term or perpetual.[4] Under the Products Terms, software is made available as Pre-Release Software, Limited Availability software, or commercially released software under either a Term License or a perpetual licence.[1]
The licence grant
The commercial licence is non-exclusive, worldwide, non-sublicensable (except to Authorized Contractors), non-transferable and either perpetual or a Term License. It covers use of the software in object code only, for the customer’s internal network visibility purposes, solely with Gigamon Hardware or a Supported Virtualization Environment.[1] A Supported Virtualization Environment is a virtual computing environment named in the product documentation.[1]
Use is measured by the licence metrics set out in a quote, with examples given as number of units or capacity purchased.[1] Affiliates (direct or indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries) may purchase under the same terms, and the customer remains responsible for their acts unless they have separate terms with Gigamon.[1]
The restrictions include a bar on commercialising the products for third parties on an application-service-provider, outsourcing, subscription, rental, service-bureau or other managed or hosted basis; a bar on using software licensed for a specific device on another device; a bar on using the products or their APIs to build a competing product or to migrate to a competitor; and a requirement that benchmarking studies have a methodology reviewed and approved by Gigamon.[1] Open source components included in the software follow their own licences where those require it.[1]
Metrics
Gigamon products use several unrelated counting bases, which is the main source of confusion in a licence position.
- Data volume per day. For volume-based products, the Data Use Limit is the maximum quantity of data, in terabytes or petabytes, that may be ingested over each day by the customer’s cumulative volume-based products.[2] The SKU name carries the allowance: VBL-250T-BN-CORE is a daily allowance of 250 terabytes for the CoreVUE bundle.[4]
- Capacity in Gbps. For capacity-based products, the Data Use Limit is the maximum quantity of data, in gigabits per second, that may be ingested at any time by the customer’s cumulative capacity-based products.[2]
- Physical nodes. GigaVUE-FM packages are sized by the number of physical nodes: the base or evaluation licence allows 1, a 5-Pack up to 5, a 10-Pack up to 10, and Prime more than 10.[4]
- Serial number. Node-locked licences are tied to a card or device serial number (or, for GigaVUE-FM, a challenge MAC ID) and cannot be moved.[4]
- Pooled quantities. Floating licences are pooled and assigned to cards or devices through GigaVUE-FM, and can move between devices of the same type.[4]
Counting and floors
The GigaVUE-FM base licence allows one physical node, one virtual node and 10 virtual tap points for each applicable cloud platform; if an evaluation licence expires GigaVUE-FM reverts to supporting one physical and one virtual node.[4] To deploy any supported application in a Monitoring Session, a CoreVUE bundle (the minimum), NetVUE or SecureVUE Plus licence is required; the default GigaVUE-FM licences do not provide that entitlement.[4]
For hardware, the SKU suffix matters. Any chassis or card whose hardware type ends in -HW requires a licence; those without the suffix work on installation without restriction, though added features may need other licences.[4]
Virtualization and cloud
Cloud nodes are licensed by volume, not by instance count. GigaVUE-FM monitors overall consumption across all V Series nodes, so distributing the licence to individual nodes is irrelevant for Gigamon accounting purposes.[4] The GigaVUE products for AWS are listed in the AWS Marketplace (V Series Node, V Series Controller, GigaVUE-FM and UCT-V Controller), with a Bring Your Own License pricing model,[10] and a Marketplace purchase through Channel Partner Private Offers comes with a volume-based licence.[7] See Gigamon volume-based licensing.
Programs and expiry
- Evaluation. An evaluation product may be used only for internal demonstration, test or evaluation; where Gigamon specifies no period the right is limited to 30 days.[1] The Licensing Guide describes 60-day evaluation licences.[4]
- Default trial. After installing GigaVUE-FM a one-time, free 1TB SecureVUE Plus trial volume-based licence is provided for 60 days.[6]
- Term expiry. When a Term License expires the software may no longer function and may not be used.[1] The Licensing Guide describes a uniform 45-day window after expiry in which normal operation continues.[4]
- Late renewals. A late renewal of a term-licence subscription carries a reinstatement fee equal to 15 percent of the annual renewal fee, plus retroactive fees from the original expiry.[1]
- Overage. Exceeding a contracted Data Use Limit requires an upgrade to a higher product tier for the rest of the licence term.[2]
- Usage requests. Gigamon may ask for usage data within five business days of a written request, no more than once in 12 months unless the customer has exceeded its licences.[1]
- Support and lifecycle. Support is bought separately[1] and gaps in coverage are not allowed;[3] hardware carries a one-year limited warranty and software 90 days.[8]
- Federal customers. A separate federal version of the product terms exists, governed by the federal laws of the United States.[9]
Out of scope
This article does not cover professional services and education services terms, which Gigamon publishes as separate agreements,[5] nor hardware specifications, nor any negotiated enterprise agreement that replaces the standard terms. The Products Terms apply unless the customer has another valid contract for the purchase and use of Gigamon’s products and services.[1]