We weren’t able to attend the recent Cisco Live in Las Vegas in-person, but thanks to the nearly 24/7 coverage provided by the networking giant, it’s hard to say we missed anything. Interestingly, the event seemed to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of Apple’s now iconic first iPhone release, and we can’t help but draw parallels between the two. Chuck Robbins opening keynote, which happened to feature a rare appearance by Apple’s Tim Cook, will likely go down as a watershed moment for those of us in technology. In ten years, we will talk about this event as the dividing line between the old way of networking and the new.
5 takeaways from Cisco Live 2017
We Live in a Multi-Cloud World
Chuck Robbins, at the start of his opening Keynote, jokingly asked, “How many of you use only ONE Cloud?” The question garnered a hearty, if not somewhat embarrassed, laugh from the massive audience most of whom already acknowledge that we live in a multi-cloud world. The biggest challenge today is navigating and leveraging the many clouds and vendors that make up a multi-cloud universe. Cisco aims to address this experience by taking a complete approach to multi-cloud with solutions that simplify, secure and transform how customers work, with the ultimate goal of maximizing business outcomes.
The Partnership Between Apple and Cisco Continues
Cisco and Apple have been partners for two years and given the success they have found, it makes sense to widen the scope of their relationship. Tim Cook rarely appears at events outside the occasional Apple product release, and as he took the stage, an enraptured audience waited with bated breath to hear what would be announced. While the conversation contained broad generalities about the companies’ deepening partnership, the unveiling of ‘Security Connector’ marks an exciting turning point in the relationship, combining the Cisco Umbrella and Clarity security products into one robust application. Security Connector gives organizations an increased level of visibility, control and privacy for iOS devices. Businesses will now have in-depth insight into what is happening on enterprise-owned mobile devices and will have the best protection for users, anywhere they travel.
The Network Intuitive will Change the (Digital) World
With the Network Intuitive, Cisco has defined a new era of networking built around the Cisco DNA architecture. The ‘intent-based network’ is designed to work within a multi-cloud world and has the ability to connect at scale, remove complexity and provide a level of security assurance virtually unheard of before. The intuitive network anticipates actions, stops security threats and has been designed to continually evolve and learn. Cisco’s revolutionary new network helps businesses get the most out of their data and provides security throughout the process, to make it more beneficial for businesses to digitally transform.
Catalyst 9000 Machine Learning Enabled Network Switches
Cisco’s latest series of switches are an extension of the companies moves into the compute space, this time fueled by the addition of Cisco DNA Center, an easy-to-use management dashboard for all network functions. The switches have been designed to better analyze and control network traffic, and make it possible to manage access policies and privileges for devices entering the network. The machine learning part of this equation makes it possible for the Catalyst 9000 switches to change policies to recognize varying devices and users. The switches are fully programmable and include new, custom-built ASICS, allowing for the separation of different kinds of traffic from desktop networks.
“What we believe is the network has to provide you with the ability not only to connect but to deal with the data at the edge”– Chuck Robbins
Securing the Internet of Things is Everything!
With more than 50 billion connected devices expected to enter the network by 2020 and with the recent onslaught of global cyber attacks, security, for most of us, is top of mind. Cisco IoT Threat Defense is an architecture approach to security that segments devices on the network to provide adaptable and extensible protection for businesses at IoT scale. The architecture allows for visibility and analysis of traffic to and from IoT connected devices, as well as traffic entering and exiting the network to detect threats. During the event Cisco’s experts were on hand to discuss Cisco IoT Threat Defense and to give insight into how Cisco plans to address the proliferation of connected devices today and into the future.
Cisco’s role in shaping the digital business of the future is, at this point, undeniable and watching the 28th edition of Cisco Live unfold gave us a peak behind the curtain of what’s to come. We can only imagine what has been announced is merely the tip of the iceberg and that, in the coming months, Cisco will release more products and information surrounding the Network Intuitive.
We, at iConvergence, would love to have been able to attend Cisco Live in-person but because of Cisco’s brilliant and comprehensive coverage of the event, we were able to soak up all the energy, information and excitement while still being available for our customers here in Louisiana. If you would like to learn more about some of Cisco’s latest initiatives that will grow out of these Cisco Live announcements, don’t hesitate to contact us and we will be more than happy to work with you to adapt and apply these technologies within your organization’s IT environment.