A Software entitlement guarantees that the physical media is free from defects. The warranty guarantees that the software generally conforms to the published specifications for the product. This only protects customers if the software is unusable. In most cases, warranties do not include software updates or technical support for software.

A Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) Support entitlement guarantees that some customers (depending on their type of warranty) may have access to the Cisco TAC for a finite period of time in order to diagnose hardware problems during network-down critical issues. While the majority of Cisco warranties do not provide customers with technical assistance through the Cisco TAC, a limited number of warranties do, such as the Five-Year Limited Hardware and One-Year Limited Software warranties.