The experience of the past year may have convinced skeptics that technology helps us all stay connected, protect and automate our ever-changing, increasingly digital world. We are going through an unprecedented period that will also shape our future, but we need to build on the right technology foundation, ”said Chuck Robbins, Cisco President and CEO at the company’s annual digital conference.

Service for almost everything

At its two-day event, Cisco unveiled new solutions to lay the foundation for the IT environment of the future. The line of debuts was opened by Cisco Plus, which marks the company’s as-a-service strategy and initially offers flexible consumption models for data center resources – networking, processing and storage – but will later cover almost every element of the portfolio.

For example, Network-as-a-Service is a cloud model in which companies can operate their network according to their business expectations without the difficulty of owning, building and maintaining the infrastructure. Organizational IT departments need to consistently provide reliable and secure network access to mobile and home-based business users, so they will appreciate the benefits of NaaS models that reduce the complexity of the task, he said.

First as-a-service solutions will be available for Cisco’s network architecture that combines SASE (secure access service edge) VPN and WAN capabilities with cloud-based security features. The Cisco Plus Hybrid Cloud, expected in mid-this year, covers the company’s entire data center portfolio, but also includes third-party storage and software, so hybrid cloud solutions, as their name suggests, span from the in-house environment to the public cloud to the peripheral network.

Later this year, the Cisco Plus Experience portal will be launched, where companies can subscribe to as-a-service solutions in a self-service way and measure their consumption to track costs. On the Cisco CX Cloud-based portal, customers will also find a marketplace where they can choose from Cisco partner services.

Security with radical simplicity

More and more organizations are using cloud-based solutions, such as SaaS, for greater business agility and resilience, relying on networks and services that are beyond their direct control, while continuing to deliver service delivery business results. they answer. The solution is helped by ThousandEyes, acquired by Cisco last August, which monitors and analyzes the operation of external networks and services to help organizations deliver a seamless digital experience for their customers and employees.

ThousandEyes Internet and Cisco now integrates its cloud intelligence solution with AppDynamics Dash Studio dashboards and the Catalyst 9300 and 9400 switch family. Integration with AppDynamics ‘next-generation dashboards provides a common language for teams responsible for the operation of networks, applications, and cloud services to quickly identify and resolve problems across companies’ entire digital service delivery ecosystem. And companies using Cisco DNA Advantage and Premier policy-based automation switch software can now run ThousandEyes agent software natively on their Catalyst 9300/9400 switches and gain access to the ThousandEyes solution at no extra cost.

Cisco ThousandEyes and AppDynamics companies will see network and Internet metrics in Dash Studio from April without having to purchase additional licenses or install agent software

Not only would it make it easier for companies to deploy SASE network architecture, but also to protect against threats would also make it easier for Cisco. At its conference, the company therefore announced a series of enhancements to its SecureX platform that will shorten response times by automating SecOps security and operator tasks, enhancing protection from endpoints to the cloud by detecting and neutralizing threats even faster. New automated workflows include, for example, supply chain attacks and the detection of phishing campaigns targeting users, supported by Cisco Talos threat intelligence. According to the company, SecureX’s automated processes enable companies to detect threats 95 percent faster and fix problems in 85 percent less time.

The conference also introduced the Cisco Secure Client, which integrates and it takes automation to the endpoints. As an integrated connector for Cisco Secure Endpoint, AnyConnect, and Umbrella solutions, the new client will also make deployment and management simpler and more efficient, they said. As a local checkpoint and alert, Cisco Secure Client assists in the early detection of advanced threats as part of SASE, Zero Trust, and Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solutions.

Say goodbye to passwords – again

Cisco, Webex, serves 600 million participants in 6 billion video conference calls a month, making it one of the few platforms with truly global reach , which help the digital transformation of work and the workforce. Based on more than a year of experience, we now know what long and intensive teleworking can be a source of problems, increase the number of hours spent at work, blur the line between work and private life, and make invisible colleagues in the virtual world invisible and isolated.

It is therefore particularly important that teleworking solutions also help to maintain the well – being of teleworkers. Webex, which has grown with more than 400 developments in the last six months, will also provide analytical capabilities for this purpose from this summer, Cisco has announced.

Data and reports from the first Webex People Insights will be kept confidential , they will be visible to end users themselves by default, and with the insights, they can set goals for online discussions, work – life balance, communication, and time management. Later, Team Insights and Organizational Insights will provide managers with similar analytical skills at the team and organization level.

As the tension of using too many passwords also adversely affects users – and IT staff working in the help desk. – on the Cisco Duo’s two-factor authentication and endpoint protection platform, it also unveiled a future infrastructure-agnostic and password-free authentication solution. With this Duo solution, users are expected to securely log in to in-house and cloud-based applications with security keys instead of passwords and biometric identification widely available on laptops and smartphones.

The Duo is password free authentication is part of Cisco’s zero-trust platform and can give all users secure access to any application or IT environment, regardless of the device used to log on. Companies will be able to extend this protection seamlessly to any combination of in-house and cloud applications, as there will be no need to implement multiple authentication solutions. Duo passwordless authentication is based on the Web Authentication (WebAuthn) standard and asymmetric encryption, so that sensitive biometric data can be stored and validated locally and securely on the user’s device, instead of a remote, central database.

this time we can really say goodbye to passwords, which we have already prepared for several times. In any case, the workforce is ready for a password-free future because, according to a Cisco report (2020 Duo Trusted Access Report), companies have configured biometric authentication in 80 percent of mobile devices used for work – up from just 12 percent five years ago.

Our article is from Computerworld 2021/7.

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