The pricing is a bit higher than we anticipated.

The price is based on how many installation of software sensors you're going to install it on.

The cost for the hardware is around 300k.

The cost depends on the size and the implementation. The larger the implementation the more cost effective it becomes. There are two different types of licenses. If you want to add enforcement there's an extra cost to turn it on. You can just go with the network visibility it provides without the enforcement. That's the basic difference between the two license types. The price is nominal between the two packages and it is possible to negotiate with Cisco to make the pricing almost equal between the two as Cisco will prefer organizations to have the enhanced utility.

If you have a somewhat limited budget you may find the scalability limited. The product does not seem to be.

The price is outrageous. If you have money to throw at the product, then do it.