Latin America. Cisco has introduced network solutions that are self-adaptable to business needs. The announcement, which represents one of the most significant transformations of enterprise networks, consists of the creation of an intuitive system that anticipates actions, stops cyber-threats (even those hidden in encrypted traffic) and continues to evolve and learn.
Designed to help organizations overcome previously insurmountable challenges and generate new business opportunities in a world of unstoppable connectivity and distributed technology, this new network is the result of years of Cisco R&D. An innovation aimed at reinventing networks for a new era where network engineers are expected to have to manage 1 million devices an hour in 2020, compared to the hundreds of devices they manage today.
"The network has never been more critical to business success, and it hasn't been put under as many demands as it is now," said Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco. "By building a more intuitive network, we are creating an intelligent platform with maximum security for today and for the future, designed to foster business innovation and generate new opportunities for organizations and people anywhere."
Today, organizations manage their networks through traditional IT processes that do not correspond to the new times. Cisco's strategy is to create an intuitive system that is always learning, adapting, automating and protecting, in order to optimize network operations and defend businesses against today's ever-changing threat landscape.
"The Cisco Encrypted Traffic Analytics solution solves a network security problem that was thought insurmountable," said David Goeckeler, senior vice president and general manager, Networking and Security, Cisco. "Encrypted Traffic Analytics uses Cisco Talos' cyber threat intelligence to detect known attacks, including those hidden in encrypted traffic, helping to ensure security while maintaining privacy."
Because the vast majority of the world's Internet traffic traverses Cisco networks, the company has leveraged this unique position to capture and analyze this immense amount of valuable data, providing IT departments with the knowledge needed to prevent anomalies and anticipate issues in real time, without compromising privacy.
By automating the network edge and integrating analytics and machine learning as a foundation, Cisco manages what it couldn't before and helps IT departments focus on responding to strategic business needs.
There are already 75 organizations around the world conducting the first field tests with this new generation of network solutions, including DB Systel GmbH, Jade University of Applied Sciences, NASA, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Scentsy, UZ Leuven and Wipro.
Context-informed and intent-driven
With this new approach, Cisco transforms the fundamental vision of networking. Through redesigned hardware and the most advanced software. This shift – from a hardware-centric to a software-based approach – will enable organizations to make an exponential leap in agility, productivity and performance.
The intuitive network is an intelligent and highly secure platform informed by the context and driven by business intent or need:
- Context: Interpreting data in context is what allows the network to provide new knowledge. It's not just the data that matters, but also the context around it — the what, who, how, where and when. The intuitive network interprets all this, improving security, facilitating more personalized experiences and speeding up operations.
- Business intent/need: Self-adaptive networking enables IT departments to move from tedious traditional manual processes to business need-based automation, enabling millions of devices to be managed in minutes — an essential advance in helping organizations adapt to constantly evolving technology.
- Predictive intuition/insight: The new network provides machine learning functionality at scale. Cisco leverages the vast amount of data that runs through its networks on a global scale, and through integrated machine learning, provides predictive and useful insights.
