Better together

At a concert, few years ago, the director spoke to the audience and said something that resonated in my mind for long time. His words went like this: the value of the ensemble is greater than the sum of the value of the individual musicians. The meaning was clear. He wanted to illustrate the significance of playing together, as an orchestra, rather than a group of individual sound musicians.

The same concept comes to my mind when I think of the combination of Cisco UCS, and Cisco MDS 9000 storage networking. You can use them independently, or connected to other products. But the combination of Cisco UCS and Cisco MDS delivers unique benefits that exceed the sum of the individual products. The pseudo-mathematical formula 1+1=3 can well express the concept. Alternatively, another way to describe it is the prosaic expression “better together”.

Cisco UCS + Cisco MDS synergy: 1+1=3

The joint adoption of Cisco UCS compute systems and Cisco MDS 9000 Series of storage networking switches provides a significant benefit to the enterprise. Over the years, I have collected information from the many customer opportunities I have been directly involved in. When reflecting on that, I identified a list of synergies and benefits coming from the joint adoption of Cisco UCS with Cisco MDS 9000. I also discovered those benefits can be grouped into three main categories: advanced design options, easier management and better support.

Key advantages

• Multiprotocol flexibility allows organizations to deploy Fibre Channel and FCIP on a single chassis and more easily benefit from the advantages of both technologies. Support for SCSI, NVMe and FICON protocols is also available. Moreover, you have the advantage to be fully covered under a Cisco verified solution.
• VSANs can logically segregate storage traffic and create multi-tenancy, and they are supported in the Fibre Channel fabric and within Cisco UCS. This capability is only available from Cisco.
• VSAN trunking allows the use of the same link for carrying traffic from multiple VSANs, reducing the need for multiple links while segregating traffic. This is a unique Cisco capability.
• F-port PortChannels provide link aggregation of multiple Cisco UCS to Cisco MDS 9000 physical links into a single logical channel, as well as fault tolerance and uniform traffic load balancing. This capability is only available from Cisco.
• NVMe/FC can boost application performance by reducing latency and minimizing CPU usage for data transfer activities. You also have the advantage to be fully covered under a Cisco verified solution.
• Common Operating System and management tools ease network implementation, maintenance, and troubleshooting by relying on the same skill set across SAN, LAN, and computing environments. This is a unique Cisco capability.
• Cisco UCS visibility from Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller allows a single view for all networking elements in a Cisco data center architecture, including Cisco UCS fabric interconnects and server vNICs and vHBAs. This capability is only available from Cisco.
• Cisco Intersight integration covering both compute and storage networking provides lifecycle management of Cisco UCS servers, as well as Cisco Nexus 9000 and Cisco MDS 9000 products. This is a unique Cisco capability.
• Cisco Intersight Cloud Orchestrator can be used to automate different technology domains with an easy-to-use and low-code workflow designer, enabling IT operations teams to move at the speed of the business. This is a unique Cisco capability.
• Smart Zoning reduces the need to implement and maintain large zone databases and eases management and implementation tasks. You also have the advantage to be fully covered under a Cisco verified solution.
• Assured interoperability and feature compatibility, avoiding tedious compatibility matrix verification and deployment delays. This capability is only available from Cisco.
• Organizations can interact with a single vendor when troubleshooting problems across computing and networking environments. This is a unique Cisco capability.
• A variety of support models are available across data center solutions to efficiently manage and coordinate partners to resolve problems. This capability is only available from Cisco.

Key business benefits

When we consider the business implications of the advantages listed above, we can discover that Cisco UCS plus Cisco MDS 9000 integrated solution delivers:

• Operational savings from hassle-free firmware upgrades, solution automation with Cisco Intersight and operational simplification with smart zoning
• Increased uptime with Cisco support and a single pane of glass for unified visibility, combined with deep traffic analysis and proactive troubleshooting
• Application performance improvements from uniform traffic load balancing on uplinks and NVMe/FC end-to-end support, all combined with congestion prevention with MDS 9000 DIRL software.

In short, the Cisco MDS 9000 Series provides superior performance, high availability, and intelligent storage networking for Cisco UCS environments in small, medium and large organizations.

Get all the details from the new version of the Cisco UCS + Cisco MDS better together whitepaper.

Part 2 of the Series: AI-Enhanced Infrastructure for AI Ops.

In this blog, I’ll continue exploring how an AI-enhanced infrastructure can be used by IT operations teams today.  I’ll discuss the technologies that are involved and how they are powering an AIOps model for ITOps and NetOps teams.

What are AI-enhanced technologies?

I would like to establish a shared definition: When we talk about technologies powered by AI, we are referring to a set of tools and systems that allow IT or network operators to drastically simplify their activities. This is especially relevant where analysis of the available data is highly complex.

Think about the threshold you establish in a traditional, day-to-day IT and network operations workflow to detect abnormal behavior. For example, the onboarding time for a new mobile device on your Wi-Fi network, which your organization has defined as up to say, 5 seconds.

The reality is that the 5 seconds number is a static threshold that does not have a basis in empirical data. A data-driven dynamic threshold might show that onboarding could actually be done in just 2 seconds. Or that the onboarding time will be different if the user is in a location with 5 connected clients, compared to another location with 5,000 clients, by simply factoring the different demands that the infrastructure would have in those two scenarios.

In this example and in any case where ITOps team needs to analyze high-volume data, that is when an AI-enhanced system can help your organization make better, faster decisions. It aids human operators with a better understanding of the events happening within the network in a simple and actionable way. It helps with remediating potential failures and errors even before they occur. I’m really excited about the progress we are making with AI-enhanced technologies that make a real difference for network practitioners.

There are multiple categories of AI-related technologies that can be applied to AIOps models, but we can commonly consider two foundational categories for any AI-enhanced infrastructure model:

• Machine Learning (ML): Machine learning is a data analysis method that automates the construction of analytical models. It is a branch of AI based on the idea that systems can learn from data, identify patterns, recognize abnormal behavior, and make decisions with minimal human intervention.
• Machine Reasoning (MR): A category of technologies derived from expert knowledge that allows a computer to work through complex processes that would normally require a human. Common applications for MR are time-consuming and tedious detail-based workflows that require selecting the best scenario based on the many options available.

As I have mentioned before, the accelerating scale of data coming from your network and the multicloud environments in which your organization operates have the potential to provide insights into the health of your infrastructure. When this is combined with the growing expectations of users for a seamless IT experience, ITOps teams are being forced to extend the human capabilities of their staff by leaning more and more on machine-driven skills and processes.

And one of the areas where the value of these systems is clear is in freeing up network practitioners to focus on the development of new services. The machines will help teams off-load repetitive tasks, and focus on the architecture design for the new services that depend on human IT talent, experience, and creativity.

The true potential of AI-enhanced technologies is in the right combination of IT staff supported by a ‘trusted’ AI system.

An AIOps infrastructure model must build trust by allowing ITOps and NetOps personnel to understand each step in the analysis and decisions delivered by AI. For it to be useful, the system must be able to deliver the analysis in the most accessible terms for human understanding. This is the virtuous cycle that will allow the capabilities to grow from a traditional infrastructure to a truly AI-powered model.

If you are interested in hearing more about how AI technologies are supporting IT teams today, don’t forget to register and join us at the upcoming event below. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Join our experts to discuss tried and tested AI-enabled capabilities
that save time and headaches for many organizations today.
Register for the webinar:

How to Build a Winning Network Strategy with AI-Enabled Analytics

January 25^th | 10AM Pacific Time

Additional resources

• 6 things you should know about AI-enhanced infrastructure for AIOps
• 5 things you should know about predictive analytics in networking
• Learn more about Network Analytics

This blog post is a collaboration between Peter Kisich, Product Marketing Manager, Cisco Cloud & Compute & Co-authored by Puneet Konghot, Product Manager, Cisco Cloud & Compute.

Recently, we launched Intersight Workload Engine (IWE)  as a simple way for customers to operate their infrastructure and easily run cloud native applications using Intersight Kubernetes Service (IKS) without the need to deploy an external virtualization solution like VMware ESXi.

Why We Built It

We heard you!  Customers were constantly asking us for a KVM based lower cost solution for virtualization assistance around on-premises Kubernetes workloads.  Why virtualize?  Well, by running Kubernetes managed containers inside virtual machines, organizations can achieve simpler lifecycle management and optimize resource utilization.  Kubernetes also provides an agile and elastic infrastructure that meets the needs of the application developers on-premises.  This is especially true for ephemeral workloads present in microservices applications.  That’s why we decided to include this capability as an extension of Intersight Kubernetes Service (IKS) at no additional cost to you (yes, we mean zero, zippo, nada).

How Does It Work

Intersight Workload Engine sits in the stack exactly where you would expect it to – in the hypervisor layer as shown in Figure 1.

But including a low/no cost hypervisor wasn’t our only goal here. Cisco realized that IWE needed to be an enterprise class solution to meet the needs of our customer base.  So that’s what we built!  For starters, we simplified deployment of Kubernetes clusters to automate networking, storage, compute, virtualization, and operating systems – all done from a single pane of glass in the Cisco Intersight Cloud Operations Platform.  This consistent deployment methodology has day 2 benefits too. IWE automatically implements best practices for resiliency and security, eliminating the need for complex infrastructure design.  In addition, the seamless integration of Intersight, IWE, IKS, and the Hyperflex Data Platform (HXDP) eliminates the complexity and risk associated with multi-solution integration at different layers of your infrastructure and applications. This makes the cloud native application journey faster, more predictable, and more cost effective.

What Do I Need to Deploy IWE Today?

IWE is deployed with an all-Cisco integrated stack which includes a set of three or more Cisco servers connected to a pair of Fabric Interconnects. Also required is Intersight Kubernetes Service. Multiple IKS managed clusters can be deployed on top of one IWE cluster, and all Kubernetes clusters can share the persistent storage offered by the HyperFlex Data Platform (HXDP) integrated within IWE cluster (Figure 1).  Yes, you do need licensing for HyperFlex and IKS, but IWE can be chosen at no additional cost as your preferred infrastructure target for your Kubernetes deployments with IKS.

We Continue to Listen

As we mentioned earlier, we are listening to our customer’s needs and continue to add more capabilities to help enable the digital transformation and cloud initiatives of our customer base.  This was the driving force behind the development of Intersight Workload Engine.  Now, with IWE, Cisco customers no longer need to cobble together open-source distributions, excessive virtualization licenses, multiple management panes, and disparate hardware to support their Kubernetes infrastructure and cloud native applications.

Learn more about

Intersight Workload Engine (IWE)

Resources

For more information, please refer to the guides in our resources links below.

IWE Install Guide 

IWE Admin Guide

Determining the ROI of XDR

For many years, defining the return on investment (ROI) for a cybersecurity project, including the ROI of Extended Detection and Response (XDR), was challenging. It was not easy to describe the actual value of many of the protections that were implemented in an organization. Too often, the explanation about how a product could improve security was a nebulous description of what might happen in the absence of that protection.

Cybersecurity professionals struggled when the C-Level executives requested quantitative metrics to justify a budgetary expense. Now, newer models of Extended Detection and Response (XDR) provide cybersecurity professionals with quantitative results to show the benefits of this approach. The quantitative findings shared below were gathered from a survey of 100 IT and security executives from within the Pulse community, conducted on behalf of Cisco.

A Critically Necessary Part of Their Infrastructure

The most prominent finding from the survey is that the majority (75%) of respondents agreed that XDR is a critical part of their security architecture. The highest-ranking component of XDR was endpoint detection and response. This has important implications, especially since so many organizations are now considering a hybrid work environment, sharing remote and traditional office-based work arrangements.

Faster Detection Means Faster Response

Given that endpoint protection was at the top of the XDR value equation, there was also a positive correlation in the ability to remediate threats. 75% of the survey respondents indicated that they experienced up to 30% faster response times in finding and remediating threats. That’s a significant increase in the ability to prevent the spread of threats within an organization.

Faster Detection and Response Means Saved Hours

To put the value of faster detection into sharper perspective and therefore show the significant ROI of XDR, most respondents to the survey agreed that the reduction in response time resulted in saved time for their security teams. This equated to up to 30 hours—nearly one full work-week. In monetary terms, that is a significant savings. Not only is time saved with the XDR solution, but productivity was also increased, according to more than 65% of survey respondents.

Much of an analyst’s time can be wasted chasing false alarms. Reducing time spent on that task means their resources can be spent on more productive activities that more significantly and more strategically benefit the organization. Less time wasted also reduces burnout among team members.

A Single Vendor for a Comprehensive Solution

Cost-savings can extend beyond the amount of time it takes to remediate problems. Eighty percent of our survey respondents indicated that vendor reduction results in financial savings. Nearly half (49%) answered that savings ranged from $25,000 to more than $100,000 annually.

Integration Increases XDR Value

Many times, a product can possess all of the features to improve security, increase production, and add value, only to fail because it does not integrate into the existing infrastructure. Our survey showed that XDR integration improved the organization’s security posture, integrating and aggregating information from existing security tools. In fact, integration was the one feature that respondents called out as the most valuable capability within their XDR solution.

Specific ROI of XDR to Present to the C-Level

If your company is like most, the C-Suite requires compelling data about how to spend money. Fortunately, with the results of the Pulse survey, there are now quantitative numbers to support the value of bolstering your security posture with an XDR approach that utilizes the features you’ll find in Cisco’s SecureX. Whether your organization consists of 10,000+ employees, or less than 1,000 employees, an XDR solution can make a difference that adds tangible value to your security organization.

Learn more about Cisco’s XDR approach

See more results from the Pulse survey:

Future of Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

Service providers today face a myriad of complexities and challenges as they’re confronted with an increasing amount of hybrid workers that require remote, stable, and highly secure access to business applications. These partly remote workers are interacting with customers, suppliers, and partners in a highly dynamic and always-on work environment. This, together with the introduction of new technologies like 5G, require service providers to optimize fulfillment and assurance processes and remove as many repetitive, manual tasks as possible.

Service fulfillment activities of new connectivity often involve sending field engineers to the customer premise to perform a site survey and install Customer Premise Equipment (CPE). Depending on the type of CPE, field engineers with different skills might be required to go onsite, which will increase the number of costly truck rolls. Depending on the customer location, a typical truck roll can take a few hours for the onsite work, and then a decent amount of driving time. The same applies when the service is failing. An onsite intervention from a field engineer might be needed to trouble shoot and fix the failing CPE and bring the service back to normal operating conditions.

In the table below we take a closer look at a generalized “back of the envelop” calculations of assumed CO2 emissions per field intervention. Calculations are based on Cisco internal studies of interacting with service providers across the globe. Average CO2/km emissions vary by car type and age, the 120gr/km considered here is an optimistic scenario. They’re meant to be illustrative as each service provider will have different scenarios and numbers.

If you multiply these numbers with several hundreds of field interventions typically run per day you can quickly see that there are tons of CO2 emitted per month.

Now add to that the tens of thousands of 5G radio units service providers will have to the deploy to deliver 5G services, which will dramatically increase truck roll-triggered CO2 emissions. Therefore, it’s very important to automate the deployment of large amounts of network devices and aid in the sustainability efforts by saving energy, money, and time.

Cisco Crosswork Network Automation for a healthier planet

Improved sustainability can easily be accomplished through solutions like the Cisco Crosswork Network Automation portfolio. This close-loop, outcome-driven software suite delivers efficient mass-scale network operations across the services lifecycle. It’s designed to be scalable for operators of networks both large and small to accelerate mean-time-to-value by monetizing agile new services and minimizing mean-time-to-remediation to proactively prevent issues that most impact customers.

There are many benefits of Crosswork that help service providers achieve sustainability goals, such as:
• Reduces time to launch new services by 85 percent
• Greatly lowers truck rolls, manual operations, and field interventions to save on emissions
• Optimizes real-time network capabilities that allow operators to effectively maximize network utility through fewer hops and less hardware/racks/space
• Minimizes resources through cloud-based automation
• Drives higher utilization by using virtualized resources instead of higher quantity of premise compute to run these tasks at each customer

The Crosswork suite of products includes the Network Controller, a turnkey solution that offers the ability to provision, maintain, and optimize intent-based, multivendor network services using a common user interface and API. It also includes the Network Services Orchestrator for multivendor, multi-domain network orchestration with programmable controls and Evolved Programmable Network Manager for simplified, multilayer element management for converged packet and optical networks, among others.

Zero Touch Provisioning keeps trucks off the road and IT hands free

Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) is a key tenant of Crosswork’s functionality that bridges your devices and the network to automate and streamline configuration management. It offers a simple, hands-free device configuration process that ensures your operations staff can focus on more important tasks at hand.

With a ZTP-enabled deployment there’s no need to send skilled field engineers onsite to perform the installation of the network device(s). It’s the end customer that performs the plug-in and power-up of the device in place prepared during the site survey.

When a new device is powered up, ZTP provides the automated ability to download and apply the initial
software load and configuration to complete the provisioning of the device. This automated process delivers faster activation of new services or quicker restoration of failing services. It also minimizes the possibility of configuration errors which are often the root cause of service outages or degradations. Another added benefit is reduced instance of sending highly skilled personnel onsite. In summary, ZTP brings the following benefits:

• Significant reduction in CO2 emissions
• Faster service deployments
• Quicker onboarding of customers
• Reduction in configuration errors
• Faster service restorations
• OpEx avoidance
• Better allocation of field engineering skills

Low complexity CPE devices which are typically deployed in large numbers are the ideal opportunity for service providers to reduce their environmental impact through automation. ZTP can save millions of dollars on OpEx, avoid large submissions of CO2, deliver services faster with higher quality, and position service providers at the top of green companies. That’s a quadruple win!

Zero Touch Provisioning through Cisco Crosswork is one of the most critical automation solutions service providers can embark on. It’s relatively easy to implement in an existing operating environment and will deliver immediate and tangible benefits. Skilled resources can then be allocated to more pressing needs that require human intervention.

Learn more

We encourage you to get better acquainted with Cisco Crosswork Network Automation and Zero Touch Provisioning to see how these solutions drive substantial business benefits while supporting green sustainability efforts that are growing in importance around the world.

I admit it, I’m a podcast fanatic. If it’s about true crime, current affairs, or comedy, chances are, I’ve had a listen. But there is a podcast content gap. Our team saw a need for discussions around IT resources and expertise for the small business audience. And thus, our podcast “Small Business, Big Solutions” was born – streaming now on the Cisco Podcast Network.  

In each episode, we explore top-of-mind topics covering everything related to small business, from technology to company culture, and more! We bring in Cisco partners to discuss common SMB technology needs and how to address them, slay misconceptions about security, collaboration, cloud, and other IT solutions, and lead discussions about the workplace. 

“Small Business, Big Solutions” Streaming Now

You can listen to all of the available episodes of “Small Business, Big Solutions” now on the Cisco Podcast Network, hosted on SoundCloud or your favorite podcast platform. Episodes include: 

• Ensuring Business Continuity During Workplace Interruption – The first episode in a two-part discussion with Cisco partner CDW focuses on the sudden shift to remote work in early 2020. We highlight what small businesses did well and chat through success stories. We also discuss the opportunities small businesses have to keep teams productive and engaged in hybrid work environments. 
• Lessons from the Time of Covid – In part two of our CDW conversation, we take a look at business continuity for small businesses. CDW helps us assess where small businesses are today and answer a few key questions: What did small businesses do right when the world screeched to a halt? How were they already prepared for success? Where are areas for improvement? What are the top takeaways for small business owners and IT managers? And how can small businesses build on their success as we continue in this world of hybrid work? 
• It’s Time to Ditch the Desk Phone – Cutting the cord on a typical desk phone setup has led to an evolution in hardware and software for the small business. In particular, moving to cloud-based calling that follows the user wherever work takes them has delivered a number of benefits for small business owners and users alike, especially in a world of remote work. In this episode, Cisco partner Bullfrog Group talks through the death of the desk phone, including eight reasons why a company should transition from on-prem calling to a cloud-based solution. It’s a call you’ll want to answer. 

Tune in today to hear all of these topical episodes. And be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any of the upcoming discussions.

Is there a particular topic that came up that you’d like more information on? Contact our sales team for a one-on-one conversation. 

Partners make significant investments to sell Cisco products to our customers. Helping protect you and our customers from counterfeit products in the gray market is one important way we do this. Check out a recent video by Cisco’s SVP of Global Partner Sales, Oliver Tuszik, in which we reinforce our commitment to removing counterfeit Cisco products from the marketplace by partnering with law enforcement around the globe.

Want to learn more?

Visit our main Brand Protection site.

 Partners can also contact the Cisco Brand Protection team directly by filling out this form.

We’d love to hear what you think. Ask a Question, Comment Below, and Stay Connected with #CiscoPartners on social!

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As a boomerang employee, who returned to Cisco five years ago after a four-year hiatus, I had an eye-opening experience coming into a new-to-me area of business—Cisco Cloud Security (an OpenDNS Acquisition). From my vantage point, the technology world had completely evolved—including the hardware and software, terminology, product development, the concept of quality, go-to-market strategy, and even the perception of Cisco. It was a far cry from my first stint when everything was on-premises and Cisco’s focus was network, switching and routers.

As I returned to Cisco, security was maturing as a segment, dedicated to what was—and quickly evolved into—developing security solutions for the rampant presence of ransomware and nation-state attacks. As I onboarded, all things security became seemingly omni-present—and fascinating. Perhaps it was the mere exposure effect that ripened my interest, but I thought the security industry seemed as nascent then as it is burgeoning today.

Even then, the security industry was booming. Cybersecurity companies and start-ups emerged, offering various solutions to address the epidemic of highly visible and disruptive attacks. Within the walls of Cisco Cloud Security, powerful intelligence and innovations were transforming this rapidly advancing world. My eyes were wide open. And my philosophy was—as it is to this day—to absorb and support as much as possible.

Working within Cisco Cloud Security—which evolved into what is now Cloud and Network Security (CNS) and part of Cisco’s growth engine, Security Business Group (SBG)—meant being in the belly of the beast. This was where it was all happening!

The team was hyper-focused on helping customers who were at the mercy of hackers’ latest and not-so-greatest exploits. Bad actors increasingly found clever ways to compromise organizations’ data and paralyze their computer systems. And the team of intensely passionate computer enthusiasts and engineers were concertedly fixated on supporting customers’ efforts to stay ahead of and quickly remediate threats.

In my mind, I was at the right place at the right time – and I was ready to make a difference!

Certainly, the ever-advancing savviness of cybercriminals has always been the central concern across the industry. And it was clear that the team’s passion came from a personal place. Everyone had a real-life story about the Internet, an understanding of what could be, and a level of anxiety. For me, it was my elderly aunt getting a robocall to steal her identity and my then teenage daughter who stumbled on inappropriate content and people.

Soon after becoming part of Cisco Cloud Security, I discovered a couple key truths. First, I became keenly aware of the magnitude, scale, and devastating financial ramifications that our customers face and fear, including ransomware and nation-state cyberattacks. Second, there is a sense of pride and purpose knowing that you can make the world a better place—just by going to work.

And that personal cause is hugely gratifying.

I started small in Cisco Cloud Security, with a modest team supporting a limited operational charter for one of its strategic areas. Over the course of five years, the team was trusted with more responsibilities, providing increasing levels of support and execution and, eventually, overseeing operations for the much larger Cloud and Network Security organization. Even as I write this, it seems like a lot. And it is.

Yet, we embraced this ever-expanding list of responsibilities, which evolved in phases and commensurate with the growing needs of the business. As we rally and connect on all the ins and outs of a problem, I know the team has a sense of empathy and identifies the importance of the cause. And as I watch them collaborate with a high level of energy, I appreciate their shared motivation. The personal growth of many current team leaders could not have been possible without having a can-do attitude, a figure-it-out mindset, and the quiet confidence in knowing that the work delivers value to others.

When people ask about my journey and for career advice, I tell them there is no quick win. Maintain a “you bet I can” mindset, with the confidence that you can figure out how to do something new. Identify gaps and needs that you can help fill, start small and demonstrate how it benefits the organization. Sometimes what started as a gut feeling will provide incredible value and could even be leveraged by the much larger organization. When you fail—and it will happen—fail quickly, move-on and learn from it. Keep focusing on success and providing value!

Another key driver to professional growth is the ability to—simply put—have a good relationship with others. As immigrants from Uzbekistan who came to the United States thirty years ago, my parents and I always talked about accepting others and embracing differences as a point of intrigue to explore and celebrate. As a natural “outsider,” I have an innate curiosity about everything and everyone.

So, when I became part of Cisco’s Cloud Security, I was pleased to see that the industry draws a diverse set of people from different fields and industries. Fast forward five years, and Cisco’s Cloud and Network Security continues its efforts to attract and retain the best talent and with diverse backgrounds. And with the addition of Shaila Shankar—who recently joined Cisco to lead CNS and now SBG—she is proving to be a champion of diversity, amplifying through initiatives with an even higher level of rigor.

My hope is that the journey I’m experiencing with Cisco empowers people to understand their own power to make a positive impact in their own life, for others, and in their careers—especially with Cisco’s Cloud and Network Security (CNS).

Ready to join Cisco Security? Check out our careers now!

Our customers are the heart and soul of everything we do at Cisco and each one of them has an interesting story to tell! Our Q&A series allows us to shine a spotlight on some of our most passionate customer advocates in The Global Gateway community as we learn more about their stories and backgrounds.

You may be wondering: What is The Global Gateway? It’s a community for Cisco customers where they can build powerful connections, expand their professional and personal networks, and learn from top experts in their field. One of our goals with our advocacy community is to deepen our relationships with our customers and today, we have one of the friendliest faces in The Global Gateway joining us for a chat. I’m excited to welcome Mark White from CDN Consulting.

Welcome, Mark! First of all, I wanted to note that you told me your photo was taken at Cisco Live Melbourne 2019 when you joined The Gateway, and that you’ve used it as your professional picture ever since. That’s great! Let’s kick things off by talking about what you wanted to be when you were 16 years old?

Thanks, Rashik! Yes, and it was also my birthday when that photo was taken! I remember in high school enjoying accounting and economics, as well as math and science. I think early on I was leaning toward accounting, but then one of my science teachers commented at a parent interview that becoming an accountant would be a waste of a good scientist! In my final year, I was waiting for a friend outside the counselor’s office and noticed in their career pamphlets a flyer from the local university about “electrical engineering.” Electrical engineering sounded very interesting, so that is what I ended up studying and that eventually led me into computer networking.

It’s amazing the impact one chance encounter can have on us! Where did you start your career? And, what professional decision or opportunity helped lead you to your current role with CDN Consulting?

I started working for a power company, looking after their IT networks and phone systems and I haven’t strayed too far from there. I have worked for a few large IT service providers in New Zealand and when some of my colleagues left to start CDN Consulting, I joined them the following year.

How has partnering with Cisco helped your work both in your segment and industry?

Right from the start, I have been working with Cisco routers and switches, and much of my telephony work has been with Cisco Unified Communications Manager for several years. Cisco has always had a reputation for reliable products.  I often find  Cisco solutions at my customers’ sites that provide critical services, for example with power companies, local hospitals, and the police, to name a few.

That’s impressive that you have extensive experience using our products across a variety of industries. What’s been your biggest challenge in your company in 2021, and how did you overcome it?

Being a smaller start-up, I feel our biggest challenge is name recognition and finding new customers. We are the same engineers who used to work for the large IT providers everyone has heard about, so we can often provide the same solutions. We were fortunate this year to attend two conferences which helped get our brand out into the market. It was a new and enjoyable experience for me, being behind the trade stand selling our services instead of being an attendee.

I’m glad to hear that the exhibitions helped with brand recognition and that you enjoyed working the stand! Let’s move on to The Global Gateway! How would you describe this customer advocacy community to those who haven’t heard of it before?

To me, The Global Gateway is a place to learn about all of Cisco’s products and new releases, hear from other customers around the world, and to have a bit of fun with the gamified challenges and prizes.

You’re one of our community Rockstars, and we really appreciate how long you’ve been in the community! What made you want to join The Global Gateway, and how has being part of this community impacted you both professionally and personally?

I was at Cisco Live Melbourne 2019 when The Gateway was launched in the Asia-Pacific region, so I was one of the first regional Gateway members. At that time, it seemed like a treasure hunt game to help explore Cisco’s “World of Solutions,” but after the Cisco Live event I kept coming back to The Gateway community online. Being part of a small company, The Gateway helped me become more familiar with Cisco’s entire product suite.  I know a lot more now about Cisco’s Data Center and Security products now than I did before 2019.

We’re almost at the end of the interview, Mark, and we’d love to finish with three things you can’t live without?

Firstly, I would have to say my wife and son, as I think the last couple of years have shown most people how important family is. Second, my laptop and phone, because with these I can work from anywhere with Wi-Fi coverage.  I’ve taken advantage of this flexibility to work when it suits me. The third thing I can’t live without would probably be chocolate.

I’m also a huge chocolate fan, so I agree with you on that one! It’s been great having you sit down with us, Mark!  Thank you for joining us.

You are very welcome, Rashik!

Read more customer advocate interviews

You might enjoy this interview with our Global Gateway customer advocate, Ryan.

Join us in The Global Gateway

For our customers who have already joined us in The Global Gateway, say hello to Mark if you haven’t met each other yet. And for those Cisco customers who haven’t yet joined The Global Gateway, consider doing so! You’ll be able to:

• Connect with peers in a gamified, online community
• Have an opportunity to meet with Cisco’s executives
• Share your feedback, questions, and best practices
• Get access to “insider” content and resources
• Grow your professional and personal brand
• Amplify your company’s success story with Cisco technology

Ready to get started? Head over to The Global Gateway and say hello!

Because of massive turnover in workforces, a renewed focus on employee safety, and negative impacts on customer loyalty and satisfaction, manufacturers have built new business models to service their customers.

They’ve deployed new hybrid workplace models and renewed their focus on the Circular Economy. Because of this, sustainability’s new meaning in the Manufacturing industry is maintaining its position in the marketplace.

Data from IMD World Competitiveness Center shows a K-shaped recovery, where digitally savvy companies have recovered significantly quicker than other organizations since the economic downturn in March of 2020.

The pandemic has also driven manufacturers to gain greater visibility and insights into their operations, stop manual troubleshooting, reduce time spent on issues and achieve sustainability goals with solutions that are highly secure, scalable, and easy to manage.

Cisco is in a unique position to help manufacturers drive new levels of agility with our digital solutions so they can sustain their competitive position.

Here are a few examples of some recent projects:

Cheetah Technologies
Armstrong International Private Ltd
AKR Textiles

Learn more about why manufacturers are turning to Cisco’s solutions to build an intelligent plant to better manage energy, waste, and materials to achieve emissions and recycling objectives for a sustainable business while balancing social responsibility and regulatory compliance.

Why Cisco for Manufacturing
Cisco Industrial Automation Networking Made Easy
Manufacturing a Hybrid Way to Work

Between industrial transformation and sustainable manufacturing, there’s a bridge

You haven’t had an uninterrupted vacation in years, your presentation at the last board meeting fell short, and it’s hard for you to imagine how the organization would function without you at the helm.  These are all very real situations for today’s CISO.  With the shortage of resources, it has never been harder to resource all the functions of an effective security team.  Now more than ever, you need to work intentionally to identify and develop your successor to supplement you in the short term and provide for your organization over the long-term.

The role of a CISO has continually expanded over the years, and now requires alignment not only to IT, but also business partners, third party partners, boards, customers, and other key stakeholders.   One CISO cannot be everywhere all the time and engage meaningfully with all these groups. Beyond the scope of customer demands, the 24/7/365 schedule is a recipe for disaster.

It begs the question – Who is the one person in your organization empowered to act as a substitute for you?  

Maybe you haven’t had time to consider when or where to start.  Start today…and don’t be afraid to start small. Pick a part of your role that you haven’t been able to give enough attention.  Who on your team can step in for you? Consider incident command, communication reviews, leadership summit planning, organizational design, board/executive briefing preparation, managing content and execution for your governance board, control framework alignment, developing metrics or maturity assessments. Your ideal candidate will be someone who can engage with and understand your team, stakeholders, business, and threat landscape. They should also be aligned and aware enough to offer your guidance when you step out for a much-needed vacation, or eventually for good.  If you don’t have that person on your team, then ask yourself: “How can I define my next position opening with this need in mind?” If you already have someone in place or in mind, are you giving them individual opportunities to test their performance and get the much-needed feedback from you and your executive team, business partners and stakeholders?

The Deputy CISO role isn’t just good for your team and your organization. A Deputy can be invaluable for addressing your own weaknesses.  What is your biggest Blind Spot? What Blind Spots exist within your team or your program? Identify or recruit a Deputy who can understand those issues and offer you solutions and support in addressing them. As a Deputy through the years, I found myself in very difficult and tense situations that required me to vet or even veto decisions the CISO was considering.  There were times I had to be candid about why I didn’t agree with an approach or a direction my leaders wanted to take.  These decisions ranged from organizational structure and decisions, metrics, communications, and at times, even my own role or involvement.   On many occasions, my perspective was received and rejected, but it was still considered valuable.  That’s what having a trusted advisor (AKA Deputy) is all about: having someone who can give you an alternative perspective to consider, especially when you are distracted, unavailable or stretched too thin.

A Deputy is someone who understands your direction, and offers timely, valuable perspective or validation.  

A final benefit of having a Deputy to call upon during these situations, is that it gives our next generation of leaders’ invaluable situational experience.  Great leaders prepare, not only for their own responsibilities, but for the next generation of leaders they are cultivating, and for the legacy organization they will leave behind.  In that vein, it’s important to look at where you are today, and where you will be in the future.  Thinking ahead for the day you need to move on is considered a professional obligation.  Higher than desired turnover rates combined with the high need for qualified security professionals, it’s no wonder security leaders are in an ever-growing demand.  It’s up to us to look ahead and begin cultivating those leaders.  The time as a CISO is a great opportunity and responsibility to teach others the role and prepare the organization for your eventual departure.  Characteristics of a great deputy are simple… what makes you a great CISO?  Consider this…the ability to drive your strategy across the control framework and provide checks and balances across the team. Sharing the strategy with all stakeholders with timeboxed outcomes that can be communicated in business terms.   Tie your strategy to funding, assessment outcomes, metrics, client updates, compliance, and/or operational reporting. Give your Deputy the ability to execute one or any of these efforts without dictating how and you might be surprised at the creativity and solutions they provide back. This would also give you the opportunity to assess alignment between the two of you with your guidance, direction, strategy with identifying strengths and areas of improvement…it’s where you mentor and mold the next generation of CISOs.

I’d like to leave you with this… investing time in your successor now will allow you to cover more of the role and help prepare you and the organization for the future.  If you or your appointed Deputy need help, call me, I’d welcome the opportunity.

We’d love to hear what you think. Ask a Question, Comment Below, and Stay Connected with Cisco Secure on social!

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Identifying and Resolving Issues

IT teams require end-to-end visibility to ensure business critical applications are accessible and running effectively. But they often struggle with siloed processes and juggling multiple tool-sets to manage and monitor the network. They also need to ensure the network configuration is compliant with the established business intent. Cisco just released Nexus Dashboard 2.1.2 and Nexus Dashboard Insights 6.0.2 that addresses these issues and enables IT to identify and quickly resolve issues that ultimately enhance workforce productivity and efficiency.

It is often difficult to understand where issues lie in the network. Is it the physical devices, the endpoints, the applications, or the configurations—or possibly something else? Having this lack of knowledge increases the troubleshooting complexity as well as the time it takes to locate pain points.

Nexus Dashboard Insights 6.0 brings innovative One-Click Remediation, with which IT can identify issues in a single dashboard and resolve them with—literally—the click of a button. For example, as shown in the following screenshot, there is an anomaly with an access-entity profile that’s not associated to any of the domains. This issue will have a major impact into the network and applications for the workforce.

To fix this type of problem, NetOps needs to login to the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) and check the application profiles, domains, and cross-check numerous places to make sure it won’t impact any other connections. However, the new One-Click Remediation feature provides NetOps with a diagnostic report and a “fix button” that will immediately resolve the issue. This dramatically reduces the amount of time and steps to identify and resolve an issue.

IT also needs to support business-critical applications by ensuring they are compliant with business intent and security policies. The new Compliance and Pre-Change Analysis features in Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights provides a proactive approach to ensure configurations are properly setup to ensure applications are meeting the company’s business intent.

For example, a company may have a standard policy to prevent traffic from an internal server to the Internet. IT can create an applicable compliance requirement (shown in screen below) to be notified if the server begins communicating with the internet.

If there is a traffic between the internal server and the internet, then IT will receive a CRITICAL traffic restriction violation based on the compliance policy. IT can then analyze the anomaly to see what configuration is incorrectly allowing the traffic flow. In this example there is a contract allowing the traffic between the internal server and the internet. The new compliance feature enables IT to be proactive and identify issues before they start becoming a threat.

As part of Nexus Dashboard Insights new features, the Pre-Change Analysis enables IT to fix this specific traffic violation issue (by deleting the contract) and to ensure this won’t cause any other issues. Using the Pre-Change Analysis, IT can test the proposed configuration change and evaluate its impact on the network prior to committing any network changes. The following screen shows an example of deleting an existing contract between the internal server and the internet.

IT can also identify if there are any potential issues with a particular configuration change by looking at a snapshot of the current configuration and comparing it with the proposed configuration. IT can also look at all the resources that will be affected by this proposed change.

As shown in the following figure, the compliance requirement is met with the proposed change. IT can confidently make the change and know that there will be no negative impact on the network. With these Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights features, IT can quickly and easily fix an issue to meet a compliance requirement for their business-critical applications, as well as validate the outcomes of the fix through Pre-Change Analysis before implementing the configuration.

Insights for Network Resiliency

At any point of time, IT strives to maintain network resiliency to securely meet the goals of business operations. Cisco Nexus Dashboard and Nexus Dashboard Insights provides the visibility, trust, and tools that IT needs to be successful. Learn more details about Nexus dashboard Insights from our Resource links below.

Resources:

Nexus Dashboard Insights

Nexus Dashboard Insights product overview

Nexus Dashboard Insights for ACI

Nexus Dashboard Insights for DCNM

The Q3 Schedule for Cisco’s Partner Success Training Series is Now Live

Cisco is investing in partner transformation, helping partners build new capabilities to meet customer needs for business outcomes. In our weekly Partner Success Webinar Training series Thursdays at 8am PT/ 11am ET, we show partners and Cisco partner stakeholders how they can transform their business and deliver expanded value throughout the lifecycle. We do this by offering ready-to-sell strategies for selling Cisco solutions, providing partners actionable steps to achieve transformational outcomes.

Each webinar covers key topics, including multipartner co-selling, software development practice, CX, software and EAs, sales plays, Mass Scale Infrastructure, the Black Belt training journey and demos for business outcomes.

Transformation is paying huge dividends. Partners who are early adopters of transformation are seeing a 2.4X deal multiplier as they work with other partners to sell to line of business buyers. Average deal sizes grow 25% when partners sell use case and other solutions developed on Cisco platforms. Also, early adopter partners grow software revenue three times as they adopt their practice for customer success.

Join Us

Please join us at an upcoming webinar to learn quick and easy ways to Ignite your sales and accelerate business outcomes with ready-to-sell Cisco architecture solutions. Register for our Q3 series, which kicks off February 3^rd, at the links below or visit our webinar registration page.

Sign up for a Training!

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Extracting and integrating data into your own dashboard

In Part 1, my colleague Mel Delgado gave an introduction to ThousandEyes, and how you can deploy your own ThousandEyes agent at home via a raspberry pi. This SaaS platform is all about providing observability in the WAN with agents running in the cloud, on prem, or on your end host. Users will get insights into latency, packet loss, network hops, BGP routing, but also HTTP page load time, DNS server response time, DOM load time and so many more stats! I think it is safe to say that ThousandEyes is collecting tons of meta-data about the health of the whole Internet and specifically to your running services.

ThousandEyes already provides a sophisticated and customizable web-dashboard and this might be sufficient for most users. However, what if you would like to integrate data from ThousandEyes into your own application or dashboard? Or, you would like to use different visualization styles, or even display aggregated datasets? If so, read on!

Extract and Integrate ThousandEyes Data

Extracting data from ThousandEyes is easy with the extensive REST API. You can get more information on the developer reference page. With the API you can simply pull the historic or latest data from your ThousandEyes account to any database and visualize it on your dashboard application of choice. As an example, I used a Python script to fetch and insert the data into the time-series database InfluxDB and visualized the data via the analytics & monitoring solution Grafana. To reduce the implementation time for new users, I packaged everything in a multi-container Docker application via Docker-Compose.

The best part is, you can try it out within minutes! Get the code and clone the repository from the DevNet Code Exchange.

Getting historic data and leveraging the Grafana dashboard

The python connector script allows to fetch even historic data (the user can define the time range) from ThousandEyes which will be then inserted in the database. You can then already see some data in the pre-created Grafana dashboard template which you can edit to your needs. You can see some screenshots below. Furthermore, you can also combine various data sources into the same dashboard (e.g. from WAN routers or firewalls) which can give you the ultimate single view on the health of your assets.

Grafana Dashboard Template Page 1

Grafana Dashboard Template Page 2

Behind the Scenes

I chose to create a Python connector script to have full control of what data should be inserted into influxDB and to have the ability to fetch historic data from ThousandEyes. An alternative would be to create a Telegraf plugin in Go to get the latest data.

The data is coming from tests which are configured in the ThousandEyes dashboard. Since every test is collecting different data, and there are various tests, the Python connector scripts only support the most popular test types as of now – (Web) page load, (Web) HTTP server, (Network) end-to-end metrics, (Network) path visualization. The most important information to get the correct data from these tests is the testId which can be queried via the REST API as documented here. Once you have the ID, you can query the data from each of these test types.

I hope you can use this small application to extract data out of ThousandEyes! Of course, feel free to go to DevNet Code Exchange to extend it!

Learn how Cisco’s ThousandEyes provides visibility and helps solve networking problems across the internet. DevNet Snack Minute Episode 35

We’d love to hear what you think. Ask a question or leave a comment below.
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At no other time in humankind’s history has every government, business, and citizen in the world held the collective responsibility to act with determination to ensure the sustainability of our planet.  This large-scale transformation of global societies will require coordinated public/private actions to drive consistent environmental, social, and governance (ESG) business practices and fuel investments in innovation and technology necessary for the greening of global economies.  The global community is relying on the financial sector to enable a massive reallocation of capital toward sustainability – exposing unprecedented investment opportunities while mitigating unprecedented risks – to enable a smooth transition to a net-zero world.

This is the goal of sustainable finance which incentivizes the integration of ESG criteria into financial services decision-making to accelerate long-term investment in sustainable economic activities and projects.  To accomplish this, financial institutions must demonstrate leadership in their own business practices with a holistic approach that relies greatly on technology for operational transformation.

Embedding sustainability across the business provides financial institutions with needed insights on climate impact disclosure while demonstrating a positive contribution to society.  These are vital to the financial sector’s role as change agents.

The pandemic has forced institutions to rethink the delivery of financial services and the nature of work.  Redesigning around digital-first engagement and hybrid work is helping institutions improve the sustainability of their business, especially in the following four areas:

‘Human+Digital’ engagement & efficiency

Robust digital engagement capabilities can reduce the necessity of traveling to branches and the use of paper that is common in the delivery of financial products.  These capabilities also expand community access to a broader set of financial services professionals thru online appointment scheduling and video-based conferencing.  Financial institutions will be able to integrate these capabilities into their workflow automation strategies across business lines leveraging economies of scale for more efficient delivery.

Environmental monitoring, control and optimization

Institutions continue to be look for ways to reduce costs. Implementing network-based environmental monitoring achieves these reductions by optimizing energy usage while simultaneously improving employee satisfaction through automated control of temperature, lighting, CO, smoke, air quality, and other ambient characteristics of physical spaces. Applying artificial intelligence and preference-based automation can further lower costs and improve the experience for all constituents.

Decarbonization and sustainability

As financial institutions optimize and enhance their real estate portfolio for hybrid work, they must include new energy-efficient technologies to meet their sustainability goals. These technologies reduce energy loss, decrease carbon dioxide emissions using low-carbon power sources, and lower output of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere with net-zero or net-positive building designs.

Future of workspaces

The shift to hybrid work is an opportunity for financial institutions to improve employee work / life balance thru greater flexibility and choice of work location.  Flexible work spaces that deliver great user experiences and enable collaboration allow institutions to reduce the amount of physical space and energy usage.  Employees choosing to work remote reduces travel and energy consumption while still preserving their ability to collaboration and work effectively.

Achieve sustainability goals

Sustainable finance will play a key role in the transition to a greener economy.  Forward-looking financial institutions are analyzing their impact on the planet, aligning sustainability metrics with emerging long-term value, and setting ESG goals to achieve this.

By providing institutions with solutions that help them reach the ESG goals, Cisco is helping the financial services industry drive sustainability and power an inclusive future for all.

Additional Resources

Leading the IT Industry in Combating Climate Change – Cisco Achieves 100% Renewable Energy in U.S
Driving an inclusive recovery: How can Europe secure a digital and sustainable future for all?
Cisco Commits $100 Million to Help Address Climate Crisis

When I was growing up in Brazil I loved the “Can you spot the differences?” puzzle in Coquetel, a children’s magazine. The challenge was to spot slight differences in ten seemingly identical drawings. I thought about similarities and differences when I read the Top 10 IoT Use Cases report from IoT Analytics, published October 2021. These use cases include remote asset monitoring, process automation, vehicle fleet management, optimizing plant or asset performance, and more.  All 10 use-cases share certain network requirements, like cybersecurity, tolerance for harsh environmental conditions, and a way to scale management as the deployment grows. But other network requirements vary based on the use case.

Here are some questions to help you identify network requirements for your IoT use cases.

Are your connected assets stationary or moving? How much data will they transmit?

It’s relatively simple to monitor data from stationary assets. For example, Bouchaine Vineyards collects data from temperature sensors to know when and where to irrigate. Municipal transportation departments monitor traffic signal controllers to know when the controllers need servicing. If you’re connecting stationary assets, the main considerations are:

• Bandwidth: You’ll need more if your devices generate lots of data (e.g., point-tilt-zoom HD cameras) or if you’re backhauling data from many devices.
• Type of network: Depending on what’s available, you might connect assets to a wired network, Wi-Fi, 3G, public or private LTE, 5G, wireless backhaul, etc. To avoid the complexity of managing different kinds of routers, look for one that gives you a choice of communications modules.
• Reliability: If your use case is mission-critical, you’ll need ultra-reliable connectivity. A dropped connection that halts operations can cause financial loss.

It gets more complicated when we think about connected assets that are in motion— for example, Wi-Fi hotspots on trains, environmental sensors on trucks transporting perishables, or container-handling equipment at ports. Network requirements in these use cases include low latency and seamless hand-offs between wireless networks. If you’re connecting moving equipment – for example, robots, cranes, autonomous vehicles, etc. in warehouses, ports, and mines – ultra-high reliability is crucial to prevent accidents.

Is sensor data used for real-time decisions?

If so, you’ll need a highly responsive network, with low latency. For example, think about tele-remote operation of vehicles in ports and mines, where an operator in the office remotely controls a vehicle while viewing real-time video feeds from a vehicle-mounted camera. Delays in the video feed can mean the operator misses a turn or obstacle, causing an accident. In contrast, if you’re simply checking that perishables in a truck weren’t exposed to unsafe conditions during the trip, a little latency won’t make a difference.

Common denominators: cybersecurity, remote management, rugged enclosures

No matter how you’re using industrial IoT, some network features are mandatory. Security protections are one. Cyberattacks can cause downtime, revenue loss, worker safety issues, quality problems, and disruption of critical infrastructure services. We design physical security and cybersecurity into all Cisco industrial networking products. For example, hardware devices are tamperproof. Software is authenticated and protected. All traffic is encrypted with the latest standards. And Cisco Cyber Vision provides visibility into all connected assets and monitors their traffic to flag potential breaches.

Another universal requirement is secure remote management of network devices. We have tools that help IT teams efficiently deploy and manage a growing number of connected devices—working from the office or home. These include Cisco DNA Center and Cisco IoT Operations Dashboard.

Finally, equipment deployed outdoors or in warehouse-like environments needs to withstand harsh environmental conditions like extreme temperatures, wind, water and salt.

Our industrial IoT portfolio has you covered

Summing up, like the drawings in the Coquetel magazine puzzle, industrial IoT use cases differ in some ways and overlap in others. No matter how you’re using IoT, we have network devices to meet your needs.

Learn more

• Blog: Why industrial ethernet switches? Putting the ‘purpose’ in purpose built.
• Cisco Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul
• Cisco Industrial Switches
• Cisco Industrial Routers
• Cisco IoT Security
• Top 10 IoT Use Cases, from IoT Analytics

What IoT use cases are you thinking about? Share your thoughts in the comment box.

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest Internet of Things trends and insights to help you succeed with your IoT deployments.

While the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts India’s economy will bounce back strongly from the pandemic — with GDP predicted to grow 12.5 percent in 2021, after an eight percent decline in 2020 — a big challenge is ensuring that the growth is inclusive.

India has achieved a great deal in inclusive growth, lifting as many as 133 million people out of poverty in the last two decades, but it is clear that more needs to be done. Upon the release of India’s Global Human Development Report, The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development, Syeda Hameed, a member of India’s Planning Commission, said “far too many people are being left out of India’s growth story.”

Overcoming the insurmountable

In an emerging market with nearly 1.4 billion people, that may sound like an insurmountable challenge. There are a few factors, especially in the area of education, that indicate a more inclusive future is possible.

As early as 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi proclaimed, “I dream of a digital India where quality education reaches the most inaccessible corners driven by digital learning.” In the same year, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship was established, with the aim of matching the supply of skilled candidates with the requirements of employers.

Unfortunately, around the world inequality widened throughout the pandemic. Disadvantaged communities and individuals with poor infrastructure and employment prospects felt the heaviest impact. In an increasingly digitized world, lack of access equates to lack of opportunity.

While technology drives overall economic expansion, it is more specifically digital connectivity that determines access to economic and social opportunity. At Cisco we believe that connectivity is critical to create a society and economy in which all citizens can participate and thrive. And we’re working to make that happen.

Cisco India innovates on inclusivity

Even before the pandemic, Cisco India started to bridge the education divide, with the creation of the Cisco Ideathon in 2019, which fundamentally changed our hiring practices to be more inclusive. The program was open to students from Cisco Networking Academy partner colleges and universities in rural and peri-urban areas, which are not part of the traditional talent supply chain. And top performers are often offered internships or jobs with Cisco.

Cisco Networking Academy equips educators with leading curriculum (licensed free to educational and non-profit institutions), Webex by Cisco, and resources for students that lead to industry-recognized skills and certifications. This is a true end-to-end skills-to-jobs program connecting learners with peers, mentors, and job opportunities through our job-matching engine, Talent Bridge.

Job offers to date have been equally distributed by gender, with a significant number of students hired from rural and peri-urban states, such as Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan, where practically no top-tier company traditionally sought top talent before. Through Cisco Networking Academy’s training and education partnership with the NIIT Foundation, these underserved communities can participate in growth opportunities.

Making inclusive magic with the NIIT Foundation

NIIT Foundation, an education NGO, has a mandate to reach the unreached, uncared for, and unattended, to ensure inclusive development. The NIIT Foundation’s mission is to positively impact the underprivileged of the country through educational initiatives and skill development programs.

For its extraordinary work on inclusive education, the NIIT Foundation recently received Cisco Networking Academy’s Be the Bridge Award.

Starting as an Academy Support Center in 2019 with 6,000 learners, the NIIT Foundation quickly grew to support as many as 56,300 student participants. Last year it registered 236 percent growth in student numbers, and a massive 885 percent growth in career student participants.

NIIT Foundation works hard to ensure all Indians have access to the education and skills that jobs of the future require, to ensure inclusive development for all Indians. The NIIT Foundation held its first Skill-a-Thon for Tier 2 and 3 colleges in urban and rural areas in Northern India, using a focused campaign to attract students to career and Cisco Certified Technician (CCT) courses. This event attracted more students to CCT courses than the number of students who participated last year.

Educating the underserved

The organization also launched a pilot program to train people with disabilities on IT Essentials, with plans to scale beyond the current two locations, as well as a program to include India’s LGBTQIA+ community. And we have recently started a program to provide skills training to prison staff and inmates in Indian prisons.

Many underserved institutions in rural parts of India that lack resources and trained instructors have been exposed to the untapped power of the NIIT Foundation’s resources. NIIT even developed ATM-like “Hole-in-the-Wall Learning Stations,” making computers and the internet available for children who would otherwise not have access.

In India, Cisco Networking Academy currently boasts 328,000 students, with 864 partner organizations. Organizations like the NIIT Foundation are helping Cisco achieve its purpose of Powering an Inclusive Future for All.

One of the five main findings in our newly published Security Outcomes Study, Volume 2, was the clear benefit in having a proactive strategy of refreshing business-critical technologies. So, what exactly does this mean — and why are we focusing on it here?

In Part 1 of this five-part blog series focusing on each of the top five security practices outlined in the study, a tech refresh strategy is under the microscope. What does it mean? Why does it matter? How often should a technology refresh take place? Who determines this schedule?

All valid questions. Let’s start from the top.

The Clear Need for Tech Refresh

Every day, Security Technology Debt — or the lack of investment in security technologies — reduces the effectiveness of global security teams that support business change. Our report found that, on average, nearly 40% of in-use security technologies were considered outdated.

As you could guess, this level of technology debt is a drag on security teams. Maintaining these older technologies drains resources that could be used elsewhere. And one can safely assume that very few CISOs are so flush with team members that they are hunting for something for them to do!

A Solution in the Cloud

For a more effective refresh strategy, organizations should adopt a modern, consolidated, cloud-based architecture. The survey found that, when this approach was used, nearly 72% of respondents benefitted from a strong refresh program — a full third higher than those with an on-premise architecture.

By using modern cloud-based technologies, organizations have an excellent starting point for their tech refresh program, resulting in an above-average capability.

Integrations with Ease

This should come as a surprise to no one, considering the ease of integration with cloud-based technologies. Modern cloud-based technologies typically come with “out of the box” integrations or can easily integrate through the use of APIs.

These integration capabilities are extremely important to security leaders, as 30% of study respondents saw “ease of integration” as a key factor in solution choice — the biggest driver of technology decisions. Ease of integration was expected to reduce implementation risk by requiring less deployment effort, as opposed to keeping “best of breed” solutions up-to-date.

Given the move toward multiple integrated technologies and the move away from “best of breed” solutions, a cloud-based approach is critical to ensuring each of these separate but integrated technologies is up-to-date with the latest and greatest security capabilities.

When redefining architecture for today’s business, aim for cloud delivery when feasible, use constant refreshes to keep things current, and consolidate whenever possible.

Who Should Determine an Upgrade Schedule?

A significant factor in keeping up with business change is frequency of upgrades. Those pursuing a quarterly upgrade policy showed a 60% greater ability to keep up than those following an annual upgrade policy.

Though an organization may have a structured, frequent refresh program, what is determining that refresh cadence is also important. The most common driver is vendor relationship.

A refresh can be initiated by a vendor-driven schedule or as part of a consolidation initiative. In our study, these were significant factors in more than 65% of organizations with a strong technology refresh performance, rather than those who either drove their own initiatives or simply reacted. By contrast, less than 50% of organizations that adopted a reactive strategy managed a strong technology refresh.

There may be several reasons for this. Vendors may often have a broader view across many organizations in multiple verticals and regions. This could help them understand new requirements and change more quickly.

One may argue that these are observations that would naturally be made by us, since we are, ourselves, a vendor. But the most important factor is the benefit gained from more efficiently managed security — a benefit which is universal.

Top Takeaways for the Tech Refresh

The pace of change in business both drives and is driven by new technologies. This empowers more dynamic organizations to address their particular markets with speed and agility. The consistent challenge for security teams is keeping up with the change their business colleagues demand.

Adaptation through a proactive technology refresh strategy will support rather than inhibit change, and our study reveals the top ways to achieve all the best business outcomes.

So, what can we ultimately conclude from this study? When designing and developing security architectures, adopt a series of principles that:

• Keep technology as modern as possible
• Help implement consolidated, cloud-based architectures
• Incorporate periodic refreshes, preferably every quarter
• Illustrate how vendors can support the refresh program

These will boost your chances of supporting required business outcomes and provide a better-managed set of security functions. On the practical issues of achieving a well-integrated technology architecture, watch for our next blog in the series.

And, of course, to discover how to maximize each of the five key drivers that lead to the greatest security outcomes, read our full report.

We’d love to hear what you think. Ask a Question, Comment Below, and Stay Connected with Cisco Secure on social!

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This blog post is a collaboration between David Keith,Cisco & Javed Asghar, Principle Technical Marketing Engineer

David Keith, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI)

Orchestrate your multi-fabric and multicloud network simply

In any symphony you need a good maestro to help orchestrate all the different instruments to produce a harmonious sound.  Everything must be in time and to the beat.   It is the same with your networks.  When running multiple fabrics both on premise, private clouds or public clouds, you need a maestro or orchestrator as well that can be automated and help manage the network and security policies across vast landscapes.

Since it’s early days, Cisco’s Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator (NDO) has been that maestro, allowing network administrators, engineers and cloud operators work together harmoniously to provide a fast, safe and agile network.  We have new versions of NDO, release 3.5 and release 3.6 which will help you build your network capabilities, provide greater ease of use and enhance your security across multiple network fabrics.

What is Cisco NDO

NDO provides consistent network and policy orchestration, scalability, and disaster recovery across multiple data centers through a single pane of glass while allowing the data center to go wherever the data is.

NDO allows you to interconnect separate Cisco® Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI®) sites, Cisco Cloud ACI sites, and Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC) sites, each managed by its own controller (APIC cluster, NDFC cluster, or Cloud APIC instances in a public cloud). The on-premises sites can be extended to different public clouds for hybrid-cloud deployments while cloud-first installations can be extended to multi-cloud deployments without on-premises sites. In addition, Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator can be deployed through the Cisco Nexus® Dashboard, which provides a single automation platform to access the data center network’s operational services and tools.

The single-pane network interconnect policy management and the consistent network workload and segmentation policy provided by NDO allows monitoring the health of the interconnected fabrics, enforcement of segmentation and security policies, and performance of all tasks required to define tenant intersite policies in multiple sites through an easy to manage user interface.

Javed Asghar, Principle Technical Marketing Engineer

What’s New?

NDO is always evolving to meet the needs of the ever-growing hybrid cloud world.  So, what is new now?   Recently Cisco launched NDO release 3.5 and 3.6 which incorporates several enhancements to help orchestrate consistent networks across multi-fabric and multicoud environments.

Key NDO 3.5 Enhancements: 

• BGP for underlay peering with ISN –
• This provides support peering spines with the ISN devices using BGP adjacencies.  It simplifies ISN connectivity using BGP only.
• External connectivity from Cloud Sites
• This allows you to establish external connectivity between Cloud CSRs and external devices with IPsec & BGP, which provides access to cloud resources from external networks (Branch, Campus, Co-lo, Internet)
• Show DCNM object fault info from all sites
• Scalability improvement of 12 DCNM sites

Key NDO 3.6 Enhancements: 

• Configuration drift reconciliation workflow for APIC and NDFC provides:
• NDO workflow that synchronizes and merges any policy config discrepancies/changes made in APIC or NDFC level.
• Ease of Use Improvements
• Scalable static port binding with leaf/port range provisioning
• Bulk update workflow for template objects
• NDO Cloud Enhancements allows:
• Google Cloud connectivity
• Multi-cloud inter-site connectivity between AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Sites
• Partial mesh EVPN-VXLAN connectivity between on premises and AWS and Azure cloud sites
• Workload connectivity for multicloud without policy
• Proxy support for cloud sites
• SD-Access Campus (DNAC) and ACI Integration – Macro-Segmentation includes automating:
• Connectivity of Campus VN to access DC VRF
• Internet access for Campus VNs through ACI
• Visibility of VN-VRF extension and connectivity status
• NDFC 12.0(2) support

With all these updates customers can continue to enjoy simple orchestration across hybrid cloud environments all through the single interface of the Nexus Dashboard.

Resources:

Watch video overview

See NDO webpage

Read NDO solution overview