Cisco Blog

Application-First Infrastructures

Sat, 16 Jan 2021 00:30:15 GMT

We will see a rise in Apps! Last year, IDC predicted a 50% increase in the number of applications over 2020/2021 (Source: IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Cisco, Transforming Applications and Multicloud Operations). Fast forward to today, it’s even more about apps and digital services to keep the business running and to grow and compete even more aggressively.

It’s not just the rise of the Apps, how they are being built, deployed and operated has changed.

Monolithic applications are being broken down into a mesh of microservices and serverless functions to simplify development and lifecycle management, increase feature velocity, and improve the availability of the software services offered.

More and more workloads are being containerized. Between 35-to-50 percent of an enterprise’s application sprawl is now containerized based on various Gartner and IDC estimates. And it’s not just the app front ends, or the dashboards, but mission-critical workloads such as revenue-generating data analytics pipelines, middleware, and core business logic.

As cloud-native architectures are becoming more pervasive, application components are becoming thinner and thinner (microservices, serverless), and geographically diverse (cloud regions, on-premises, edge locations, across the globe). A look at a service dependency graph of a cloud-native application gives a sense of the networking and security problem to be solved.

Each node of a typical application graph such as the one shown, is an API or service endpoint and in theory, could be anywhere in the world and on any kind of infrastructure – owned or rented, and be instantiated by any kind of technology – a traditional monolithic bare-metal or virtual machine-based component, or a composable cloud native microservice or serverless function.

The networking and security problem for every modern application is becoming complicated.

We have been thinking what Application Networking and Application Security mean for the modern cloud native developer:

The Application Network would connect all API and service endpoints, and only those endpoints, wherever they happen to be and in whatever form – as modern composable cloud-native, or traditional monolithic systems. This App Network is built for the application developer. It has narrow and deep application context and is less worried about all the rest of the traffic flowing through the virtual or physical network below. It follows the principles of simplified connectivity, relevant context, and follows the same activation models that are used in application development. The Banzai Cloud team based out of Budapest, Hungary, has now joined us to help build out this vision.
The Application Security pipeline would push security constructs and postures higher up the application stack and much earlier in the declarative application definition, development, and continuous deployment pipeline, in what is now being known as the Shift Left paradigm. Then, following good Defense in Depth principles, the App Security pipeline will follow-up with verification and feedback during service runtime. The Portshift team joined us from Tel-Aviv this past October, bringing their deep expertise in Kubernetes and container security to assist in building out this vision.
While developing in, and operating on this Application Networking and Security framework, app developers, security engineers, platform engineers, infrastructure engineers and all types of SRE teams can fully observe and reason about API and service characteristics, including their reputation score, security exposure, and their available SLOs.
The application-first nature of all business going forward also implies working closely with developers and cultivating communities. Driving code and projects into open source and fostering forums and bodies that enable sharing of knowledge, data sets, processes, and use cases are just some of the ways that Cisco has been nurturing open communities like the Network Service Mesh project in CNCF. Both the Banzai Cloud and Portshift teams also bring in a wealth of open source and community building experience into Cisco. We will continue to form, encourage and nurture projects within these communities when it comes to Application Networking and Application Security.

The Application-first Infrastructure for modern applications is here. Cisco is uniquely positioned to deliver a simplified, unified application infrastructure that breaks down silos across developers, operations and security teams. We have a deep understanding of an enterprise’s multi-cloud networking and security space, and an appreciation of the challenges our customers face in building, deploying, connecting, securing and operating modern applications in both greenfield and brownfield environments. Through centralized, SaaS-delivered management and optimization solutions, organizations can increase the velocity of development, achieve operational efficiency, and deliver better application experiences, all of which lead to better business outcomes.

Threat Roundup for January 8 to January 15

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 19:46:53 GMT

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we’ve observed between January 8 and January 15. As with previous roundups, this post isn’t meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we’ve observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristics, indicators of compromise, and discussing how our customers are automatically protected from these threats.

As a reminder, the information provided for the following threats in this post is non-exhaustive and current as of the date of publication. Additionally, please keep in mind that IOC searching is only one part of threat hunting. Spotting a single IOC does not necessarily indicate maliciousness. Detection and coverage for the following threats is subject to updates, pending additional threat or vulnerability analysis. For the most current information, please refer to your Firepower Management Center, Snort.org, or ClamAV.net.

Reference

20210115-tru.json – this is a JSON file that includes the IOCs referenced in this post, as well as all hashes associated with the cluster. The list is limited to 25 hashes in this blog post. As always, please remember that all IOCs contained in this document are indicators, and that one single IOC does not indicate maliciousness. See the Read More link above for more details.

Did You Know About The Alternative To 40G BiDi: 40G CSR?

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 17:10:40 GMT

Many of you are familiar with the 40G BiDi pluggable optic, but did you know that the 40G CSR can serve similar use cases and is sometimes an attractive alternative?

Written by Craig Pasek, Product Manager, Cisco Optics

As network operators increase their link bandwidth from 10G to 40G, they need to choose between two categories of 40G pluggable optics: Those that require ribbon fiber or those that use duplex fiber via advanced transceiver technology. The advantage of a duplex MMF (Multi-Mode Fiber) 40G optic is that is uses the same fiber cable infrastructure as 10G SR optics. Therefore, upgrading from 10G to 40G does not require new fiber cabling.

A number of years ago Cisco introduced the “40G BiDi” (Bi-Directional) QSFP+ short-reach optic (QSFP-40G-SR-BD), which uses duplex MMF. More recently Cisco introduced the QSFP+ “40G CSR” optic (QSFP-40G-CSR-S), which also operates on duplex MMF at 40G and has longer reach.

Reach advantage of the QSFP+ 40G CSR

For reaches beyond 150m, the 40G CSR optic is an excellent alternative to 40G BiDi, because it provides connectivity up to 400m over duplex MMF. This type of fiber is very common in applications including:

Enterprise: 40G optical connectivity between distribution switches and wiring closet switches.
Data Center: 40G optical links between leaf and spines switches.
Service Provider: 40G optical links connecting switches, routers, and other platforms

The 40G CSR (QSFP-40G-CSR-S)

The 40G CSR provides extended reach optical connectivity of 400m over OM4/OM5 and 300m over OM3 using SWDM (Shortwave Wavelength Division Multiplexing) technology, while the 40G BiDi provides connectivity of 150M over OM4/OM5 and 100m over OM3 using 2x20Gbps PAM4 (Pulse Amplitude Modulation) bi-directional technology.

Reach comparison between 40G CSR and 40G BiDi

Comparison between 40G CSR and 40G BiDi

While the two optical transceivers use different technology they both provide 40G connectivity in the QSFP+ form factor and are available today, as shown in the following comparison:

Comparison table

On-going benefits of 40G BiDi

The 40G BiDi continues to be a great choice for applications requiring:

Optical monitoring using the receive-only 40G BiDi (QSFP-40G-BD-RX) pluggable optic
Interoperability with the dual-rate 40/100G BiDi (QSFP-40/100G-SRBD) pluggable optic

With Cisco Optics, you have multiple options for 40G MMF cable infrastructure.

Additional Resources:

The Optics-to-Device compatibility matrix

Complete selection of Cisco pluggable transceivers from 1Gbps to 400Gbps

Subscribe to the Cisco Optics blog!

Watch the Cisco Optics YouTube playlist

How to Optimize Meeting Spaces for Hybrid Work

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 17:00:25 GMT

The office will never look the same – and maybe that’s a good thing.

According to a survey conducted by Dimension Research, 53% of larger organizations plan to reduce the size of their office space and more than three quarters will increase work flexibility. This is a direct and lasting consequence of the recent increase in working from home.

Companies see an opportunity to reduce real estate and save on expenses with remote work on the rise, but is the math really that simple? Unless companies make cuts to their workforce, the number of employees they support will remain the same. And with a hybrid workplace model, they will face a situation where office occupancy rates are unpredictable as employees have more flexibility to choose where they want to work on any given day.

Imagine a company in pre-pandemic times where all employees went into the office. During the pandemic, the occupancy rate fell below 50%. So, the company assumes that reducing the building size by two is a sensible thing to do because they know it is achievable. But what would happen if 70% of employees show up to the office after the footprint was cut in half? Where would they go and where would they sit?

The Real Cost of Real Estate

Building usage is historically suboptimal, and it can get even worse as organizations plan to reduce office space. Given that payrolls cost companies 10 times more than the office space, any cost reduction program on office space that would slightly alter employee productivity is headed for a loss. It’s paramount that before cutting real estate cost, companies analyze their employees’ real needs, and get an accurate reflection on how they use the office building(s).

As companies plan how to return to the office, it’s time to look at how we optimize spaces and improve the experience for all workers.

The 5 Goals of Optimizing Spaces

The perfect blueprint doesn’t exist. Each company is unique, and they have to rely on their own data (needs, offices and objectives) and culture. I have listed 5 non-exhaustive goals of optimizing spaces and foundational guidelines for how office spaces can be optimized.

Executing on these guidelines requires thinking simultaneously on three different axes.

Firstly, real estate and how you shape it. It’s about ensuring that needs of the workforce (present or future) can be fulfilled in the workplace.

Secondly, evaluating the company’s meeting culture and setting a strategy for training or incentivizing your workforce to change their habits if needed. Meeting culture is often based on trust. Employees must feel confident that your building can provide them with what they need, when they need it.

And thirdly, developing a technology strategy because it is unlikely that you can be successful at optimizing real estate and meeting culture if you don’t have the right tools.

1) Real estate is optimally configured

How do you know you have the right number of rooms and desks? Or that meeting spaces have the right dimensions with adequate amenities and the best environmental conditions for your employees?

There is only one way: measure it!

First, measure how much space you have, how your employees use it and their level of satisfaction. Then repeat. Spaces can always be improved, and nothing ever stands still, because as you improve, the company is changing. This is an ongoing process, and you need technology to provide you with data, turn data into insights and turn insights into actions. Sensors with accurate people counting technology, access to room calendars and analytics dashboard will help you achieve this goal as explained in these blogs: Can you See Me Now? When AI Wears a Mask and How Intelligent is Your Workplace?.

2) Meetings happen evenly throughout the day

I’m always surprised to see how routines settle into our lives. If given a choice to choose between 20 different tasks, people will always default to the one they are used to – the one they are comfortable with. Combine routine with the path of least resistance, and you’ve just created habits which can be hard to break.

It’s just so convenient for me to invite Sarah for a 10 a.m. meeting, when I assume she’s ready and coffee-fresh. But 10 a.m. is also peak time for room occupancy in my building. If only I had known that Sarah is an early bird like me, we could both have had a meeting at 8 a.m. and freed up that room for someone else.

Habits like these create high demand and usage peaks at core hours. Knowing the true availability of employees and presenting alternative times could free up valuable space during core hours.

3) Resources are consumed in real time

A colleague of mine working for the facilities department at Cisco measured the probabilities of ghost meetings in rooms based on how far back they were reserved. His results were unequivocal. Rooms reserved minutes before use are actually used 100% of the time. Rooms reserved 2 weeks in advance only had 20% chance of being used. We call overscheduling and no-shows the rooms that were booked by users but that end up being partly used or not used at all. In fact, 89% of the workforce says they are frustrated with in-office experiences, ranking meetings rooms that were booked but not used as the 2^nd most frustrating experience, just behind getting meeting room equipment to work.

There is no question that rooms should be consumed closer to when you actually need them. Your assignment then really becomes: why would my employees need to reserve in advance?

You will find multiple reasons, and multiple solutions. But there are other benefits to bringing need and consumption closer together. Conditions rarely change one minute to the next, but they do over 2 weeks’ time. Are there still the same amount of people in that meeting? Are they present in the office or working from home? Reserving, or rather allocating a meeting space closer in time also give you an opportunity to book the right space, and thus optimize capacity and even distance to the room.

4) Rooms are used at full capacity

We also measured the occupation rate of rooms. This was again a revelation. Rooms are quite systematically welcoming fewer people than what they were designed for. This can be due to the amenities in a particular space. For example, employees may reserve large rooms for small gatherings because they are the only ones equipped with a digital whiteboard. It’s also often due to real estate design. The office may be designed for peak usage, but those peaks very rarely happen.

Do you know exactly how much space is wasted by not filling rooms?

We call this excess space capacity, the average empty space that is not used during meetings. Simply put a 10 people room that would be used on average by 2 people represents an 80% waste on meeting room seats. It is then very important not only to measure if a room is occupied, but also its occupation in terms of number of people. Room occupation is something that Webex Rooms devices accurately track on an ongoing basis.

5) Meetings are hybrid

With 98% of meetings having at least one remote participant, video devices become an indispensable component of meeting rooms moving forward. Rooms without video devices will isolate remote attendees – forcing them into the act of listening instead of engaging.

With video in every room, you can create bridges between rooms, with the effect of helping resolve problem 3 and 4 above.

Figure 1: How buildings were used pre-covid

Optimizing spaces isn’t just about saving costs – it’s about truly improving the experiences of the workforce, reducing friction, and allowing people to quickly and easily get work done.

In my previous post, I discuss how Webex approaches and tackles these challenges so you can optimize your workplace, provide safer work environments and ensure employees stay productive and engaged.

Please do not hesitate to share your opinion or tell us how you’re approaching office optimization in the comment section.

Build the Hybrid Workplace

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A New Year Calls for a New DevNet Partner Specialization

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 16:00:49 GMT

As you jump on your brand-new exercise equipment to celebrate a newer version of yourself in this new year, I’m reminded of this idea of building some new muscle –for ourselves personally and perhaps even as a business.

Moving into 2021, we all find ourselves in a head space of deep reflection, on the year that has past, the successes we’ve achieved, the challenges we’ve overcome and more importantly, how we’re determined and destined to evolve.

With evolution comes growth and our inherent desire to find ways to improve and evolve our business. What’s more is the ability to not only transform yourself but paying it forward and transforming others to offer better outcomes that are mutually beneficial and make us all equally successful.

Taking that first step into the evolution of your business – and the business of others – means asking yourself hard questions: How can I help my customers transform their business? How do I automate my own infrastructure? What are the best ways to integrate my systems to better serve my clients?

The right skills are everything today. Getting the business insights about your customers, securely connecting platforms and data and provisioning multiple devices with fewer resources are the keys to success. When enterprises use programmability and APIs to build custom applications on Cisco technology, it results in better integration with workflows and third-party apps and the design of custom dashboards that help inform your decisions and lead to better business outcomes for your customers.

Since we launched DevNet Specialization in May 2020, we’ve provided our partners with a path toward a software development practice to help unlock the value of software automation and meet their business growth goals in an otherwise incredibly challenging year.

It worked for these partners because the specialization is focused on a software development practice, with an emphasis on automation and programmability. Working through this past year together, we’ve helped solve their customer’s business problems, while also recognizing them for their expertise with Cisco’s technology and APIs.

In other words, a makeover for their customers’ business – and their business own as well.

How can you get DevNet Specialized? Click here

But don’t take it from me. Read more about specific ways being DevNet Specialized has helped our partners Natilik and Comtec in 2021. Learn more about how the two enterprises took these skills to a new level, building new “muscle” into their business practices that led to a transformation.

“Our Customers’ businesses are rapidly digitizing, and their IT environment is becoming more complex. Their requirements have diversified. We’ve been working on analyzing and consulting our customers’ requirements. We now recognize that vendor-provided capabilities alone cannot satisfy this. So we’re going to develop new services through a vendor-provided API. We were confident that we could gain an edge in competition only when we could help our customers’ business, and we felt the need for DevNet so desperately that we challenged vendor-certified programs and prepared to acquire qualifications to increase our confidence in our development capabilities in the market.” – Comtec

“We observed the next shift in technology transformation moving towards programmability and IaC, and as the confident guide to our clients, we strive to continually bring innovation to the solutions we deliver. As a long-standing Cisco Gold Partner, we have always stood shoulder to shoulder as new and emerging tech has entered the industry. It has been exciting to see the evolution and impact of DevNet and we see vast opportunity for our clients and our teams by further building on this great relationship through Specialization. The power and value of incorporating automation into our services and solutions for clients helps differentiate us as a partner and broaden our proposition that we can offer clients, continually maximizing their ROI from Cisco investments.” – Natilik

“At Natilik we have a constant commitment to bring the best in technology to our clients and continually innovate with new and existing solutions, resulting in continuous ROI on their Cisco environment.“ – Natilik

Just like I get inspired for a personal and professional makeover at the beginning of a new year, filled with hope and aspirations that will carry me throughout 2021 with achievable goals, let these partner insights help get you to a place where you too can see the benefits of being DevNet Specialized this year. Here’s a snapshot of some of the fantastic benefits you’ll receive when achieving your specialization.

API Technical Support – We are here to work with you on everything needed to create a customer solution. Get technical support for your questions related to Cisco API development tasks.

Pre-Sales Consulting You can also request pre-sales consulting to help with development – anything from use case clarity and dev tools to advice on capabilities and programmability features of Cisco products and services. Specialized levels receive 20 tickets per year and advanced levels receive 30 tickets per year, with 5×22 availability, 2-day response.

Co-Marketing Your Success Story – As a Specialized partner, your business success story will be shouted from the rooftops by our DevNet marketing team. We will co-support key message development, coordination/timing for announcements and promote across our Cisco internal and external channels.

DevNet Specialized partners Miradot and Presidio featured at Cisco Virtual Partner Summit 2020, reaching a diverse global virtual audience.

Success Story Social Amplification – We will amplify your DevNet Specialization story with us via social media posts on @CiscoDevNet and @CiscoPartners social profiles. The content will be shared across respective channels including but not limited to blogs, videos and quotes/testimonials. Materials will also be made available via Cisco Marketing Velocity, to ensure a self-serve model for partners to market as you see fit. By way of example:

DevNet Specialized partners WWT and Netcloud were featured on this Cisco TV broadcast that achieved 2M+ views.

Presidio and Natilik DevNet Specialized partners talking about their journey towards DevNet Specialization via Cisco Champions Podcast in November 2020.

Now more than ever is the right time to think about ways to evolve your business and paying it forward will be in the best interest and benefit of your customers, your business, your team and even yourself. Here are a few things to get you started:

DevNet Certification

DevNet Class of 2020

Growth and prosperity: it’s in us all, whether it’s waiting for us on that brand-new treadmill or spin bike, or at our fingertips by clicking the mouse over to learn how to get DevNet Specialized here.

It’s a new year, it’s a new you. Let’s rock 2021 together!

Election Security: A conversation with Matt Olney from Cisco Talos

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 14:28:27 GMT

Next week we will publish our third annual “Defending Against Critical Threats” report; a roundup of some the most impactful cyber attacks from the past 12 months.

Included in the publication are articles about how cyber criminals sought to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also cover Big Game Hunting attacks, whereby cyber criminals seek to monopolize a ransomware deployment in a ‘post compromise’ phase.

Of course, last year saw one of the most momentous general elections in United States history, and Cisco Talos have spent the last four and a half years conducting hands on research into election security. In the publication coming next week, we have an interview with the leader of that research, Matt Olney, to capture his thoughts post-election.

We didn’t have room for the interview in its entirety however, so whilst we’re dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on the final report, we thought we would bring you some extracts from my conversation with Matt, as a bit of an aperitif of what’s to come next week:

Four and a half years ago you and the team decided to put a large amount of resource into researching and investigating election security. What triggered this decision?

The inciting event was the 2016 breach of the Democratic National Committee servers. The news first emerged in the Washington Post, and was quickly confirmed by the New York Times.

We started gathering information, and it soon became clear that this was a case of a foreign adversary orchestrating an attack on our elections. The decision part was easy: I wanted our team to be able to help fight against this.

At that point, did you know how much research you were going to undertake? How did you start your investigation?

I had a sense, yes. But at that point in 2016, I also didn’t know what I didn’t know.

To start things off, I called David Liebenberg, who is still on my team and now heads my strategic analysis team. I asked him, “Could you call all 50 secretaries of states and ask them how they handle security?”

The secretary’s offices weren’t super enthusiastic about someone who cold called them out of the blue, wanting them to answer questions about the security of their system. But that’s what we did, and thanks to David’s efforts we got several breakthroughs.

For example, the Georgia Secretary of State’s office redirected us to an expert at Kennesaw State University, where they had a research organization into elections.

They were the first people to talk to us about the uniqueness of the economy that surrounds election security, and the relationship between vendors and the Secretary of State’s office and how conscious of mitigations they are.

What was the political context at the time, and what was the overall process for election security in 2016?

After the 2016 DNS breach, the Department of Homeland Security became the critical infrastructure touch point from the federal government for election security. But that wasn’t without pushback.

This was at point when Barack Obama was still President. There were very strong counters, primarily from Republican states, against federal intrusion into state elections.

That was a very difficult time, because the United States is made up of counties, and the states themselves run the elections. The federal government had no real role in the administration of them. So there was a lot of challenges there.

At the time I remember thinking that this was crazy, and that there really should be more federal involvement in election security. But I came to acknowledge that it was going to be a very challenging ask in 2016 to have the federal government provide any real value (in terms of assistance into election security) before the elections that happened in November of that year.

Amongst those challenges, what was your next step?

The Mississippi Secretary of State’s office invited us to come on site for a week to dig into how their systems are built, and learn what mitigations they have in place. We were also able to share our insights into adversary behavior, and how attackers might target election infrastructure.

We learned an incredible amount about how election administrators think about elections because of that experience.

We also had had a really useful ally at the Cyber Threat Alliance, Neil Jenkins, who is the Head of Data Analysis and Intelligence. In 2016, he was the point person at the Department of Homeland Security for election security issues.

We sat down with him and had a conversation, and he was the first person to point out that the people behind running elections are absolutely outstanding. They think in terms of contingencies, because they know that they have one chance to run an election on one day. They therefore anticipate thousands of different scenarios, from everything down to the whole county being flooded.

I think that’s one of the things that’s hard for a lot of people to understand. When you run an election in a country with 328 million people in it, there’s inevitably going to be problems that come up. But those problems aren’t an indication of malicious behavior necessarily. And so how you handle the situation is what determines your success. That’s why election officials are so outstanding – because they have so many standards and procedures in place.

This became very apparent in our conversations in Mississippi. We were constantly asking, “What if this happens?” or “How do you control for this?” And every single time they had an answer, no matter what we threw at them. There was never a point where they said, “Oh, we never thought of that.”

I think about this a lot when I see all the election security conspiracy theories. When someone can think of something that would cause that system problems, they immediately assume that they’ve found some nefarious backdoor. But the system is built to handle things like this.

There’s a great example from Ohio. Ohio was the second state we visited and I remember sitting down with the election officials team, discussing how they handled disinformation campaigns.

They told us a story about how they were monitoring Twitter. They had a system with a whole bunch of keywords set up, and any time a keyword showed up they would get an alert. And they found a gentleman in Ohio who was going from precinct to precinct, voting at each of them. He then went onto Twitter and YouTube and videoed himself saying, “Look, I can vote multiple times and they’re letting me do it. This election is a sham.”

The team in Ohio reached out to this gentleman and said, “A couple things: One, the first time you cast your vote it was counted, but every subsequent time you cast your vote, you actually cast what’s called a provisional ballot, because you were at the wrong precinct. So before that ballot is counted, you’re going to be checked to see if you voted previously. Also, you’re kind of committing a felony here.”

From the outside, the story is that this guy voted 10 times, but that’s not how the system works. It’s built, as per federal law, from the Help America Vote Act, where provisional ballots help to assure Americans that, even if there’s a small hiccup in the process, that there’s a chance for their vote to be counted. And that vote will be validated and then counted.

It’s all part of the controls that the system has in place to protect the franchise of American voters. Yes, it’s a complicated system, and it’s different in every state, but there are controls at every point along the way.

What would you say is the greatest challenge that you came up against during the course of your research over the four and a half years?

There isn’t a huge amount of transparency about election security, for obvious reasons. But it’s also partly because, in the past, certain security researchers have taken a very antagonistic approach to talking about these issues.

There was one example which I can recall from a presentation at DEF CON. It was by a security researcher who shall remain nameless. The National Association of the Secretary of States came back after the presentation and said it didn’t fully represent the defensive state of elections.

The response of the researcher was to turn around and say, “Well, you’re just a bunch of ******* luddites.”

A few years later I sat in a meeting with the National Association of the Security of States, and the Director just so happened to be sitting next to me.

I said to her, “I’m here to learn about what makes your systems unique, and to share my expertise in this space. I’m here to be a partner, I’m not here to tell you what to do or to cause problems. I would never, for example, call you a luddite.”

She turned to me with a grin and said, “A ******* luddite.”

The insult, quite understandably, had stayed with her all this time.

Because of that type of behavior from others in our field, for every interaction we had with the Secretary of State’s offices, we had to get over that hurdle of, “We’re not here to be that person. That’s not the kind of experience we want you to have.”

I’m not overstretching this by saying that election security officials had a PTSD mentality with threat researchers. Those researchers weren’t looking for a partnership, they were looking for notoriety.

We were very clear that we wanted to be a partner in this process, because we understood that they are the people who specialise in elections. We specialise in nation state actors. Between the two of us, we could come out of the other side of this with a better outcome.

Don’t miss the full interview with Matt in next week’s publication of ‘Defending Against Critical Threats: A 12 month roundup’.

In the meantime, you can subscribe to the Security Stories podcast to hear more about the topics in the report in the next episode out on Tuesday.

And be sure to check out Talos’ election coverage at https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2020/10/what-to-expect-when-youre-electing-recap.html.

The Kickoff: 2021 Manufacturing Trends Podcast Series

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 22:40:57 GMT

The impact of 2020

2020 was a year we all were more than happy to finally put behind us. Between COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns, manufacturing was one of the hardest hit industries, with over $1 trillion lost (Source: IDC’s Worldwide ICT Spending Guide: Industry and Company Size, 2020).

Worker safety, product mix and supply chain breakdowns were some of the biggest areas impacting manufacturers trying to stay open and satisfy their customers during the pandemic. And since responding and reacting to these immediate needs, manufacturers have incurred unforeseen costs, learned how to shift the product mix, and have reflected on the gaps to achieving higher degrees of agility.

Looking ahead

As we go forward into 2021, manufacturers are now re-imagining their business processes, team management and technology needs to help them rebound into a state of “Extreme Agility”; thus preparing them for future unforeseen challenges so they can remain in business, capitalize on new opportunities and continue to satisfy the supply needs of their existing customers.

Some key trends that will enable manufacturers to achieve this high degree of agility are:

Greater amounts of information from the entire value chain
Increased use of automation to offset and compliment human resources
The need for pervasive and secure collaboration
Increased cyber security to protect against hackers during vulnerable/distracting situations
Greater degrees of safety in the workplace

2021 trends podcast series

During our series of 2021 Trends in Manufacturing, we will explore what’s needed to achieve “Extreme Agility,” as well as the technologies that Cisco and others provide that deliver the business needs essential for the “new normal.”

In this first episode, we outline the trends we’ll be focusing on in this series, including:

Sustainability
Data Collection and Edge Compute
Automation
Security

Take a listen to the kickoff episode, available now!

Look for our next episode, 2021 Manufacturing Trends Series – Part 1: Sustainability, coming soon!

To view all Manufacturing Leaders Podcast episodes, go here.

Digital Transformation 2.0: New Architecture for the New Normal

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 22:35:33 GMT

In 2020, one common theme that we have seen amongst businesses big and small was the building of resilient networks. The new normal has accelerated digitization many folds and organizations are navigating how they leverage advanced technology to aid virtualization, remote connectivity, shift to cloud, connected security, and e2e automation.

We have seen the future workplace radically changing, with the modern workplace moving to a hybrid model, where physical locations and remote working will need to be delivered seamlessly and securely. The result of this change has major implications on the organization’s infrastructure. IDC in a recent report surveying business impact across Asia Pacific revealed that almost half (44%) of organizations have accelerated transformation while 54% have increased IT spend.

Areas such as remote connectivity have also caused a huge surge in traffic and increasing pressure on the network. Service providers, in response, have had to drive efficiency while managing severe CAPEX constraints. This has only heightened the anticipation of 5G and the opportunities it delivers through its speed, scale, density, efficiency, low latency, and bandwidth.

Reevaluating Enterprise Architecture

All enterprise customers are reevaluating the foundational parameters of building IT architecture. Businesses have to undergo major operational and behavioral changes, which are set to continue.

Therefore, efforts need to be made to pivot to an architecture that is agile, secure, and helps in value creation. Additionally, the architecture for the modern workplace needs to be open to thrive in a digital world.

The north star architecture for the service providers who are large enterprises in themselves; needs to focus on the following four important parameters which should solve superior user experience, reduced cost of production (CAPEX + OPEX), grow revenue, and mitigate risk. This forms the basis for evolving the strategy of building a service agile, Open, efficient, and automated architecture that will enable Service providers to deliver Digital value plays for all enterprises that will benefit from digitization and hence create enormous value for SP and the entire ecosystem.

Architecture Supporting Digital Transformation 2.0

With rapid digitization, organizational transformation is a top priority for businesses. A successful transformation would account for advanced technologies going mainstream, ensuring connectivity, effectiveness, and proving to be cost-effective. Be it virtualization, e2e automation. AR/VR, the Internet of Things, a new innovation in data, analytics, edge, and connected security is taxing the current architecture.

Network transformation: Service providers are innovating at breakneck speed to address network complexities. With the rise in data consumption (particularly Video), enormous bandwidth demands, need for connected security and automation, there is a resurgence of demand to fast track journey to new north-star for architecture removing complexity and delayering the network to take cost out as well as solve for zero-touch provisioning and connected security. Flattening of the network vision can be achieved by making strategic decisions on converging IP and Optical, bring in automation in every element of network and network operations, suberising complex OSS/BSS systems to ensure self-provisioning, self-billing, and self-care, and last but not least ensuring connected security from the core all the way to end terminal, IoT device or machines that are getting connected.

Data center transformation: We are entering an era of digitization and monetization is only guaranteed through instant gratification. That is the mantra that will drive monetization in industry 4.0. Instant gratification can only be achieved through instant capture of data, analytics, deriving insights, and creating value. Also, bring data back to central repositories will consume bandwidth/infrastructure, data is perishable, if not treated instantly lose value. Hence transformation to the disaggregated data center / multiservice edge compute and analytics is where the game has moved to. Ability to secure data, apply data analytics to draw insights, the ability to cache data are critical for value creation and true monetization.

Multi-Cloud: The emergence of the public cloud and the efficiency and elasticity it can provide to store and manage non-critical IT and consumer data and the need for Telco data centers to ensure critical workloads are managed within the guardrail of service providers calls for a multi-cloud strategy. This will ensure that Service providers will get the best of both worlds while also ensuring sensitivity with regards to consumer data, data sovereignty, and in many countries, compliance with regulatory requirements.

Zero-trust & Ubiquitous security: With remote connectivity and edge computing the notion of the perimeter is disappearing. The new era of security relies on connected security with zero trusts. The architecture needs to be predictable with threats, be able to contain them, and alert the rest of the infrastructure. Also, automation plays a huge role to free up important personnel for innovation.

Executing on above four transformational shifts pro-actively will ensure telco’s/ service providers are capable of delivering digital value plays for all industry verticals, leveraging the entire ecosystem of technology, applications, and industry vertical specialist through this digital platform will ensure monetization and tremendous value creation. A win-win-win for service providers, enterprise verticals and technology, application, and content providers.

Empowering and reskilling our workforce for an inclusive future

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 21:59:49 GMT

The dawn of any new year is met with optimism, fanfare, and celebration. With our world under pressure from the global pandemic and social unrest, the arrival of 2021 holds greater importance and potential for a fresh start and new hope for so many of us.

This collective resolve will serve us well as we tackle the challenges ahead. Here, at Cisco Networking Academy, we’re acutely aware of the extraordinary impact the pandemic has had on the global economy and the billions of people whose lives have been upended. Across the retail, hospitality, and travel sectors especially, many of the hourly workers who work in these services industries have shouldered the greatest impact. And as humanity has hunkered down, those working in other industries disproportionally effected by the pandemic, like the auto and construction industries, are in jeopardy. Life, work, and livelihoods will be dramatically different before and after the pandemic.

Truth be told, the pandemic has accelerated market dynamics that we know were already in play. Digital transformation, led by increasing reliance on automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, is shaping and impacting today’s workers and ushering in new requirements for our current and future workforce. And workers worldwide are competing for fewer jobs and tighter wages.

With newfound clarity, we see a silver lining: we see a clear path to seize this moment in time to pivot to new ways of working and learning. The ability to leverage technology to bridge abilities, distance, and resources reduces friction and lowers the barrier of entry for motivated individuals to re-skill and participate in the new economy – one that allows every person to learn and work from anywhere and contribute in profound ways.

In our Cisco 2020 Corporate Social Responsibility Report, we detail the full breadth of our global impact and our commitment to powering an inclusive future for all. As the leader of Networking Academy, I am exceptionally proud of our contribution. Networking Academy, in combination with our social impact grants and signature programs, aims to positively impact 1 billion people by 2025. During this past year, 2.3 million students participated in Cisco Networking Academy, which exceeded our company goal of 2 million, bringing our total since inception in 1997 to 12.6 million students.

Cisco Networking Academy is the world’s largest and longest-running corporate social responsibility education program, training 12.6 million people in digital skills over 23 years in 180 countries.

The numbers are meaningful, but the individual stories of impact reinforce the importance in investing and enabling our future workforce. Consider Liz Canfield, a married mom of three in the United States. She was on a college path years ago, but life obligations interrupted her plans.

Liz Canfield, Cisco Networking Academy student and mother of three

She earned a job as a personal secretary in the public sector and worked her way up to an analyst position. Ultimately, she took a private sector job, but after an economic downturn, she found herself without a job, three kids in college, and limited prospects. She turned to Cisco Networking Academy to enroll in cybersecurity and network administration courses. Today, she’s on a path to graduation and bright prospects for a rewarding career in IT.

At Cisco, we also measure our inclusive future impact by empowering all students with career opportunities – including students with disabilities. About 15 percent of the world’s population experience a disability, and the rates of disability are increasing. Last year, we reached over 56,000 students with disabilities worldwide, including through 12 specialized programs.

Lucas Kennedy, Cisco Networking Academy alumnus from Bredon School

Lucas Kennedy, who has autism, is a student at Bredon School in the United Kingdom. He started his Cisco Networking journey at age 14. Today, he is a networking technician at Efar. When he started work, a stuttering challenge prohibited him from confidently having a conversation. He points to Networking Academy for encouraging him to seek answers and having the courage to overcome challenges.

Liz and Lucas are shining examples of what can happen when people are provided equitable access to knowledge, skills, and resources to support themselves and their families. Whether students join Cisco Networking Academy via a community college, a library system, or through a self-paced class – we’re proud to play a role in creating a bridge to a new economy, skilling for the future of work, and creating an inclusive future for all.

Making Video Fatigue a Thing of the Past – Webex Devices Deliver 10x Better Experiences

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 17:00:28 GMT

The Create 10x Better Experiences Than in Person Interactions series focuses on enabling and empowering secure inclusive experiences in real-time or anytime, with a focus on seamless collaboration and smart hybrid work experiences

The Movie is Better than the Trailer

It’s like the trailer of a great movie. If effective, a trailer will interest and excite you into watching the movie. Unfortunately, we’ve all seen films where the best part was the trailer. Sometimes we just need to dig into the story before we know if a movie is good or not. Perhaps, that’s how the concept of “10x better experiences than in-person interactions” sits with you. It sounds amazing, interesting, and even exciting, but is it possible? From my own experience, I can tell you it is.

Avoid Video Conferencing Fatigue

Before I explain, I think it’s important to acknowledge the elephant in the room: Working remotely on video or web conferencing for most of the day is an incredible change in work behavior for most. Only 34% of people worked from home 8 or more days a month prior to COVID-19. That means nearly 70% of office employees were thrown into a paradigm shift, where working from home and attending meetings over laptops became the daily reality. This shift is here to stay. Even as we return to the office, collaboration will include remote participants 98% of the time, as I talked about in my previous blog. And while some caution video conferencing fatigue, our new reality necessitates making remote participants first-class citizens. In many ways, this is our new mantra. It’s not a question of whether to use video; it’s a question of how to optimize using video. We need to avoid video conferencing fatigue the same way as we leverage best practices to avoid mental fatigue while working.

In fact, one doctor likens video conferencing fatigue to mental fatigue and discusses the reason we experience it. Essentially, when the rewards-cost tradeoff for an activity tips toward cost over reward, it creates fatigue. When there are delays in video, and the audio and video don’t sync, there is a mental struggle to stay engaged. And, it’s simply annoying! Most people aren’t accustomed to long hours of video conferencing, which leads to many challenges on an individual level and will eventually have ripple effects into an organizational one. All of this creates a cost higher than the reward leading to fatigue.

What if we could create a simple user experience that is consistent across devices no matter what device you used and no matter where you worked? What if it provided 10x better experiences than in-person interactions? When the reward for an activity exceeds the cost, we have more energy and motivation for that task. It’s the opposite of fatigue.

Democratizing Meetings

As mentioned in the WebexOne Keynote, with every hardware and software we design is a desire for people to thrive when faced with distance. This means creating Webex devices that energize and motivate people while working. Since video is the richest media to create face-to-face interactions, we can capture the non-verbal cues needed for smooth communication. Instead of remote participants being second-class citizens to attendees packed in one conference room, meetings are now democratized giving everyone an equal opportunity for engagement. Rather than having everyone focused on the presenter at the head of the room, video layouts provide the opportunity to see body language and facial expressions from more people. And that can best be done with devices designed to meet face-to-face.

In December, we launched three new devices, creating an unprecedented desk line up. First off is the Webex Desk Camera. Packed with the intelligent features you already know from our video portfolio but in a small form factor, the Webex Desk Camera is perfect for both the home and the office. And best of all? Like the rest of the Webex Desk Devices portfolio, it has centralized management through Control Hub. Second is the Webex Desk Hub – the sleek, smart, and powerful device made to take hot desking to the next level. Third, we introduced the Webex Desk. We liken it to the Webex Desk Pro’s little sister. The 24-inch Webex Desk transforms your experience by enabling you to connect to meetings, co-create and stay productive whether you’re at home or in the office. It is competitively priced for an all-in-one device with intelligent features users want like noise cancellation, virtual backgrounds, and facial recognition. The introduction of these three desk devices allows easy management for IT, and flexibility for the end user, making remote meetings 10x better than in-person interactions.

In addition to our new desk devices, we are investing in our software experiences through RoomOS to mirror the Webex app and democratize the video experience. Ever had the problem of being in a large meeting and desperately wanting to ask a question without interrupting the speaker? Or ever held a presentation and wanted to get live feedback without having multiple people speaking in tandem leaving nothing but an inaudible mess and loads of untangling to understand who was first? With our new Raise Hand feature, these scenarios are a thing of the past. Meeting participants can simply click the Raise Hand icon on their device, and their names will show up in a sidebar in chronological order, depending on who raised their hand first. This makes giving and receiving feedback that much easier.

The Raise Hand feature is great when it comes to giving qualitative feedback – asking questions, raising issues, and adding comments. However, not everything requires detailed spoken feedback. Sometimes, a gesture says more than a thousand words. This new feature comes out in February and allows presenters to get live feedback from their audience, making the presentation feel more interactive all without interrupting the speaker.

We’re also making the experience better for the administrators with historical data now being available in the Workspaces tab in Control Hub. We announced Workspaces at Cisco Live last year revolutionizing the way IT, facilities, and HR work together. Historical data in Control Hub provides the ability to analyze over time how your workspace has changed allowing you to slice and dice the data to deliver custom insights. The dashboard natively provides a live snapshot of key data points relevant to your meeting rooms. Historical Workspace Analytics is available today and can be configured in Webex Control Hub. It can be accessed globally with EU-based customers being added in Q1 2021. This is particularly exciting for those needing visibility into different meeting rooms. If you want to learn more about how we are improving the experience for administrators, check out this guide customized for the Hybrid Workplace.

Seize the Moment

Imagine if our opportunity for evolution is to do that with 10x better experiences than in-person interactions. When done right, video democratizes meetings, builds trust and culture, and creates a global village where collaboration connects us, and technology keeps us face to face. It’s important that we seize the moment, recognize its value, and reimagine how we work.

When faced with distance, there are clear advantages over in-person interactions if we only leverage them. Webex and Webex Devices deliver that with personal, consistent experiences from anywhere. This is what I do and experience every day. And you can too.

The trailer sounds good, but it’s time to dig into the story and see for yourself

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

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What’s new in Webex: January 2021

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Resources

Cisco Announces Wave of Webex Innovation to Drive 10x Better Than In-Person Experiences and Much More [News Release]

Cisco Announces Three New Webex Devices To Empower the Remote Worker and Enable a Safe Return to Office [News Release]

Cisco Doubles Down on Webex Ecosystem and Accelerates Webex App Hub, Enabling a Seamless Experience Between the Platforms You Love [News Release]

New Year, New Outcomes: How We Can Do Better in 2021

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 16:00:09 GMT

At Cisco, it has long been our belief that when it comes to security, simplified and integrated is better. I’ve written a number of blogs about this lately, and I know what some of you are thinking: “Multi-product platform solution touted by multi-product platform vendor…surprise, surprise!” And that’s okay. After years of ever-increasing complexity, you have every right to be a tough crowd.

First, let me tell you that we put our money where our mouth is; last year marked a major milestone for our business and the industry. In 2020, we unveiled the result of a huge investment with the launch of our integrated platform, Cisco SecureX. By integrating both Cisco and third-party technologies, SecureX fosters greater visibility, automation, and collaboration. It protects your network, cloud, users, and applications all from a single place, boosting simplicity and efficiency.

But you’d be right to remain skeptical. While all of these capabilities sound great, do they actually result in better security? Yes, they do, but I’m not asking you to take my word for it. In our recent, worldwide, double-blind survey, over 4,800 respondents delivered a resounding ‘yes.’

Up-to-date, well-integrated tech leads to better protection

In the Cisco 2021 Security Outcomes Study, we analyzed the use of 25 security best practices to determine which ones had the greatest impact on improving organizational defenses. We surveyed more than 4,800 IT, security, and privacy professionals across 25 different countries, and from various industries and organizational sizes.

The study found that the two best practices that contribute most to overall security program success are: 1) proactively refreshing technology before it becomes outdated, and 2) making sure technology is well integrated. As can be seen in the below figure, these practices increased the probability of an organization achieving security success by an average of 12.7% and 10.5%, respectively. While we had no influence over these findings, they certainly bode well for SecureX customers.

Practices most strongly correlated with overall security program success

Cisco SecureX is embedded into every Cisco security product. At its very core is integration – not simply bringing together Cisco technologies, but also enabling security teams to integrate a wide range of third-party solutions. Its intuitive interface allows users to view security insights and analytics from multiple products all in one place, and maintain context while navigating consoles. This empowers security professionals to make faster and more informed decisions.

As for the #1 best practice in our report, proactive tech refresh, the cloud-native Cisco SecureX platform makes it easy for customers to start with just the technology they need, and add on over time – with access to new products (or product trials) in a single click. In fact, it’s been shown that organizations can get the SecureX platform up-and-running and begin to experience benefits in as little as 15 minutes.

The 2021 Security Outcomes Study also analyzed how much various security best practices increased organizations’ chances of achieving roughly a dozen specific security outcomes – for example, creating a strong overall security culture within an organization, recruiting talented security personnel, or maintaining a cost-effective security program. As seen below, the two practices of proactive tech refresh and well-integrated technology had a positive impact on every single one of these desired outcomes.

All security practices correlated with each security program outcome

Accurate detection, accelerated response, and automation are also key

Other best practices that had a positive impact on achieving many commonly desired security outcomes include: accurate threat detection, conducting timely incident response, and using automation effectively. SecureX can play a key role in helping organizations embrace all of these best practices.

Accurate detection & timely response

The foundational technology on which we built Cisco SecureX is Extended Detection and Response (XDR). Roughly 11,000 customers are already improving threat detection, investigation, and remediation with SecureX threat response.

According to Stephen Reinhard, IT Director for Ralph Sellers Automotive, “I would highly recommend SecureX threat response. It unites the ability to identify and act on actionable intelligence from multiple security products. It also reduces time to resolution for our team.”

Cisco SecureX boasts powerful XDR capabilities that help organizations fine-tune detection and IR processes. And according to our survey, this can improve many crucial security efforts including minimizing unplanned work, running cost-effectively, and garnering confidence in the security program from both peers and executives.

Using automation effectively

Automation is another important benefit driving the success of SecureX customers. SecureX orchestration allows users to take advantage of pre-built or easily customizable workflows to automate routine security tasks. Customers are saving hundreds of hours, and are reducing attack response time by as much as 85 percent.

“The bad guys are now moving at the speed of the machine, so our automation principle is to move at that same speed,” said Jesse Beauman, M.S., Assistant Vice Chancellor for Enterprise Infrastructure at UNC Charlotte. “Cisco solutions allow us to do so.”

According to our study, in addition to keeping up with the bad guys, automation can also help security groups run cost-effectively and meet the overall demands of the business, among other benefits.

Cross-team collaboration brings additional wins

Our report shows that IT and security teams working together has a positive impact on building a strong security culture and recruiting skilled security professionals – both worthy goals.

We also broke our survey data down into several specific regions and verticals. In the healthcare industry specifically, IT and security working together increased an organization’s ability to avoid major incidents by an average of nearly 16%, and increased the ability to minimize unplanned, resource-draining work by an average of roughly 20%.

By enabling teams to visualize and interact with security, networking, and IT technologies together, SecureX fosters greater collaboration between SecOps, ITOps, and NetOps groups. Based on our survey results, this can greatly improve overall security.

How can SecureX help you?

While this is far from an exhaustive list of Cisco SecureX benefits, we hope it gives you an idea of what organizations can achieve with an integrated security platform versus a plethora of disparate products. If you want to know more about our survey: 1) explore the findings for yourself with an interactive chart (in case, you know, you don’t want to take my word for it), 2) access the full Cisco 2021 Security Outcomes Study, and 3) check out our report blog series.

The nice thing about the study is that the results can be applied in a customizable way. Whether you want to improve your overall security, or achieve more specific goals, you can use the data to inform your security strategy.

Happy New Year!

Join us on January 21 for our next Cisco Secure Insights Summit, Defining the Industry Standard for XDR,
to hear about the many benefits of a platform approach to security.

Challenging Times Quicken the Pace of the Overlay Movement

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 14:43:55 GMT

Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen relentless growth in the consumption of Software as a Service (SaaS) and overlay offers in both the consumer and business markets. The movement started much earlier, but from a Telco perspective, the lines on the graphs are now moving at pace.

This blog will focus on the B2B market, however, the evolution we’re seeing in this market is already happening in the consumer market, where Over-the-Top (OTT) offers like Netflix and Prime Video require no complex engineering to provide high-quality content to our homes and devices. The design of IPTV networks previously required lots of complicated and costly design and equipment. Thanks to OTT services, this is no longer the case.

It’s been predicted for a long time that traditional services like Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and hosted voice would come under pressure from the SaaS/overlay movement.

So, the challenge for the Telco remains relevant, but more importantly, profitability. The challenge for the service provider is illustrated below.

On the left is the traditional approach which we designed to support the traffic profile at the time. This was broadly an 80:20 split of Intranet vs Internet, with fixed VPNs connecting users in offices and reasonably fixed locations connecting through a secure perimeter to applications in the private data centre. Added to this was a helping of Internet connectivity through a secured perimeter.

On the right is the new approach. It’s really not that new but a stark reality gave the pandemic acceleration of change. Devices and users are everywhere, applications reside predominantly on the Internet, and of course, security is required throughout.

The bottom line is that the intelligence and value of the network are being elevated out of the transport and into controllers that sit a layer higher and have a view across the entire network fabric.

The problem is that we have an architecture rich with features and capabilities to support the model on the left, which brings cost and operational complexity. The right side represents a panacea, but in reality, this end state will take time to get to. The customer cost expectation associated with the model on the right can’t sustainably be delivered using the model on the right.

So what do we do? At Cisco, we’ve thought a lot about this. If you strip back the costs associated with a network, it can be boiled down to a few key elements:

Up to 60 percent lower power consumption
Up to 60 percent lower heat output (watts in usually equals power out)
Up to 90 percent footprint reduction

Lastly, we simplify and automate. Automating a complex environment is a somewhat vicious circle because the more complex the network the higher the automation cost becomes, thus negating the benefits. We’re seeing considerable advantages for many of our customers through automation, but as a standalone project, it’s not enough.

I’ve previously written about cleaning the house. I think it’s imperative to do this and set yourself straight for the next 10 years.

The network is more relevant today than it’s ever been, but it must be commensurate with the services it’s supporting. Service providers can reap the benefits of our innovation but they need to be prepared to be decisive and invest in the future. Maybe Cisco can help here too?

My recommendation is to be brave! The revenue and margins associated with the past are dissipating, so I encourage you to work with us to build an architecture and consumption model that allows you to deliver on the opportunities that undoubtedly exists for the service provider. We’re ready, are you?

Cisco DNA Center and Cisco Umbrella- Automate your journey towards DNS Security

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 13:26:55 GMT

Introducing Cisco DNA Center Integration with Umbrella

Cisco Umbrella provides the first line of defense against threats on the internet wherever users go. Umbrella delivers complete visibility into internet activity across all locations, devices, and users, and blocks threats before they ever reach your network or endpoints. Cisco Umbrella helps in securing traffic using Secure Internet Gateway(SIG) in cloud. In this blog, we will look at how Integration of Cisco Umbrella with Cisco DNA Center will help in automating and securing WLAN’s to provide maximum visibility and granularity using network infrastructure.

Wi-Fi is an expected service- but is your Wi-Fi also a liability?

In the world of connected things wireless infrastructure plays a major role in connecting people, processes, and things. According to Cisco VNI, 66% of Global Population will have Internet Access by 2023 and this brings in a bigger question of how to secure the endpoints (It can be Enterprise devices, Guest devices or even IoT Endpoints). It’s interesting that I mentioned about IoT Endpoints, reason being according to Cisco VNI, by 2023, IoT Endpoints will account for 50 percent (14.7 billion) of all global networked devices and one third of those devices will be wireless. The addition of billions of devices to the network edge drives the need for enterprises to provide actionable insights and scalable solutions to secure employees’ devices, IoT connections, infrastructure, and proprietary data.

Enabling Cisco Umbrella on Catalyst 9800 WLC brings in a whole lot of capabilities such as granular policy enforcement per SSID, visibility in identifying internet threats and reporting. Umbrella on WLAN enforces security at the Domain Name System (DNS) layer, which means you can block requests to malicious domains and IPs before a connection is ever made.

The need for Network Policy Automation

In today’s digital world, the network needs to adapt quickly to changing business requirements. The network needs to support an increasingly diverse and fast-changing set of users, devices, applications, and services. It needs to seamlessly and securely onboard this diverse set of devices and deliver the desired user and application experience.

Cisco DNA Center and Cisco Umbrella

Cisco DNA Center provides an intuitive GUI workflow to enable Umbrella policies on WLAN Controllers. Cisco DNA Center supports Umbrella configuration on Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller running software version 16.12.x or higher and Cisco Catalyst 9100 Series Access Points on local, flex connect mode, and on Mobility Express (ME) AP’s. The supported Cisco DNA Center release version is 2.1.x.

As a pre-requisite, necessary keys, such as the API key, legacy token, management key, and secret, needs to be created in the Umbrella Account. To integrate DNA Center with Umbrella Organization ID, Management API Keys, and Network Device API Keys & token needs to be entered manually in Cisco DNA Center.

Once Integrated, Cisco DNA Center can now configure Umbrella policies to Catalyst 9800 WLC, which are managed and provisioned by Cisco DNA Center. Cisco DNA Center provides a comprehensive view all the WLAN Controllers that are eligible for Umbrella deployment in a site. If the WLAN Controllers are Not ready for Umbrella deployment, Cisco DNA Center also provides information on why the Network device is not ready. The major advantage of integration is, Cisco DNA Center can now retrieve policies created in the Umbrella cloud and provides an option to assign these policies at per SSID level to all the eligible WLAN Controllers. This way umbrella policies can be pushed to multiple SSID’s on multiple WLAN Controllers with few simple clicks.

Cisco DNA Center also provides base assurance capabilities for Total DNS Queries and Blocked DNS Queries in the Umbrella Services Dashboard.

The integration of Cisco DNA Center and Umbrella helps deploy Umbrella policies quickly with minimal disruption to other services, ensures that edge devices are secured at the DNS layer without any added latency. This helps maintain the network infrastructure stay up to date by aligning to dynamic business needs.

References:

Cisco DNA Center-Umbrella Youtube Video

Enterprise Network Security- At-A-Glance

Cisco DNA Center-Umbrella User Guide

Check out our Intent-Based Networking video channel

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Overcoming Challenges of Remote Work

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 13:00:17 GMT

One week before I celebrated my very first Ciscoversary, the world changed. Our teams in Israel, like many at Cisco and across the globe, faced a new reality: working entirely from home.

Many of my Cisco colleagues worked remotely prior to this global change, but many of us (myself included) did not. It was during this time that I learned a lot of new things about myself, my skills, and my ability to adapt to any working environment.

At the beginning, working from home sounded like a dream come true. In my head, I ran all kinds of scenarios of what it would look like – easier mornings with no commute, random cuddle sessions with my dog in the middle of the day, and not having to rush back home at the end of the day to make it to my evening workout in time. As I had no children at home, there seemed to be no disadvantages as far as I could see. And, really, who would have thought that working from home would become our routine?

As time ticked on, however, I began to experience the challenges that many remote employees experience at one time or another.

The first challenge I experienced was the difficulty in separating my “working” and “off” hours. Before I began working remotely, it was clear that my workday would start when I arrived at the office, and it would end whenever I got back home for the day. But in the first few months of this new world, I found myself sitting in front of my computer at 10PM or answering emails early in the morning. Suddenly, there was no cut off between my personal and professional life.

I knew I had to change this, so I established a new routine. I now wake up every morning at the same time, take my dog for a walk, jump in the shower, get dressed, and grab my coffee, a huge bottle of water and two dates all before starting my workday. This really helps to start my day off on the right foot.

Then came my second challenge in working from home – this time, it was a social aspect. I had been so focused on my work and finding a new routine, that I almost didn’t realize I really miss my coworkers and our small talks!

When you’re at the office – drinking coffee together or chatting on the way to the next meeting – it all happens naturally, and you don’t understand how crucial it is. At home, all these naturally built in moments were gone, and it occurred to me that whether you are home alone or sharing the house with other people – our social activity in this time had been drastically reduced.

I knew I had to change this, too as I saw it not just affecting me personally – but also my morale throughout the workday. I picked three of my closest coworkers and set up a 30-minute one-on-one Webex meeting with each of them the following week. Immediately, I saw the importance of these calls – and these human connections!

When I opened my camera (something I normally don’t do) – it was so relaxing and comforting to see my friends as if they were right there next to me. We caught up on how we were feeling, what we had for lunch and, of course, what we were binging on Netflix the weekend before.

As the meetings ended, they asked me to set up another one for the following week! What I thought would be a one-time occurrence, has now become weekly meetings that I look forward to. These brief calls fill me with so much energy and positive vibes – I don’t know why I waited so long to start them!

This is something I would highly recommend – find a routine that works for you and incorporate moments that bring you joy throughout your workdays (I’m happy to report that cuddles from your pets do count here!). Then choose a co-worker or two to connect with weekly or bi-weekly on a Webex call to help you stay connected!

These few small shifts can help you to overcome remote work challenges and help you to stay connected in difficult times.

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Cisco’s Data Cloud Transformation: Moving from Hadoop On-Premises Architecture to Snowflake ...

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 20:47:02 GMT

The world is seeing an explosion of data growth. There are countless data-generating devices, digitized video and audio content, and embedded devices such as RFID tags and smart vehicles that have become our new global norm. Cisco is experiencing this dramatic shift as more data sources are being ingested into our enterprise platforms and business models are evolving to harness the power of data, driving Cisco’s growth across Marketing, Customer Experience, Supply Chain, Customer Partner Services and more.

Enterprise Data Growth Impact on Cisco

Enterprise data at Cisco has also grown over the years—with the size of legacy on-premises platforms having grown 5x over the past five years alone. The appetite and demand for data-driven insights has also grown exponentially as Cisco realized the potential of driving growth and business outcomes with insights from data, revealing new business levers and opportunities.

Cloud Data Transformation Drivers

When Cisco started its migration journey several years ago, its data warehouse footprint was entirely on-Prem. With the business pivoting towards an accelerated data-to-insights cycle and the demand for analytics exploding, it quickly became apparent that some of the existing technologies would not allow us to scale to meet data demands.

Why Snowflake and GCP?

Key technology leaders and architects within Data & Analytics conducted market assessments of various data warehousing technologies and reviewed Gartner assessments to shortlist products. We then performed comparative capability assessments, performance benchmarked POCs with representative workloads on Hadoop. Ongoing operational costs are a critical success factor of any solution, which is why cost assessment between the performance and ease of use played a key decision factor.

After significant evaluation, Snowflake and Google Cloud Platform were the chosen Cloud Platforms; Snowflake for our enterprise data and GCP for unstructured data processing and analytics.

Our early POCs indicated that Snowflake was 2-4 times faster than Hadoop for complex workloads. The fact that this was ANSI SQL-based yielded several advantages, including a larger qualified talent pool, shorter development cycles, and improved time to capability. The platform also offered a higher concurrency and lower latency compared to Hadoop. Snowflake was a clear winner!

GCP, by virtue of the rich set of tools it provides for analytics, was the chosen solution across multiple organizations in the enterprise and was a natural choice for analytics with the data residing in Snowflake.

Journey and key success factors

To migrate to Snowflake and GCP, we had to mobilize the enterprise to migrate out of Hadoop within a six-quarter timeline. From a central program management perspective, monumental effort went into planning, stakeholder engagement, vendor selection, and training and enablement of the entire enterprise.

As of December 2020, 100% of the Hadoop workload has been migrated to Snowflake, with key stakeholders like Marketing, Supply Chain, and CX fully migrated and leveraging the benefits of the Cloud Platform.

Some of the key enablers for our successful migration within such a short timeframe include:

Security certification: The first question from all of our enterprise stakeholders was on the security aspects of storing our data in the Cloud. Extensive work was done with InfoSec and the cryptography team on enabling security with IP whitelisting and Cisco’s private key encryption with Snowflake’s tri-secret secure feature. A lot of attention also went into the D&A Data foundation architecture to enable Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and granular role separation to manage applications safely and securely.
Innovation with foundational capabilities: Right from the start, we knew that in order to accelerate migration for the enterprise, the foundation of ingesting data from on-prem sources to the cloud, of maintaining data quality in the cloud data warehouse, of automated on-boarding of new users and applications were critical. The innovative enabler we are especially proud of is the custom ingestion framework that ingests data from our on-prem sources to Snowflake at the speed of ~240MBPS, with an average of 12TB of incremental data ingested each day into Snowflake.
Automation, automation, automation: This was our mantra. With a talented team, APIs were developed for aspects of enforcing security like token/DB credentials rotation and automating common administration and data access flows. We also built client-facing tools so application teams could own and meter their performance and costs: cop jobs, self-service warehouse resizing are two such examples.
Proactive cost management: One key paradigm shift in the Cloud is the fact that platform costs are no longer someone else’s problem, or something you worry about only every few years when planning for capacity. With the ability to track usage and costs at a granular level by application comes the responsibility to manage costs better. Visibility of these usage patterns is key to enabling actionable insights for each application team. Data & Analytics has enabled several dashboards that display costs, usage trends over time, a prediction of costs based on current trends, and more. Alerts are also sent based on customizable criteria, such as a week on week spike.
Enterprise enablement: With the monumental task of having to migrate nearly 300 applications, developed over five years in Hadoop, to Snowflake in 6 quarters, it was critical to ensure that the technology barrier was reduced right away. Over 25 training sessions were conducted with over 3000 participants trained over the course of FY20. This, coupled with numerous working sessions with Snowflake and Data & Analytics architects to share best practices and learnings across the teams, enabled a successful migration for all our stakeholders.
Enterprise alignment: Lastly (but definitely not the least), ensuring we have stakeholder buy-in early in the game was critical to the success of a transformation at this scale. We worked at the grassroots level with the execution team, the leadership team, and executives to secure commitment and support towards this enterprise wide program.

Results observed and testimonials

As a data warehousing platform, Snowflake has significantly surpassed the performance across multiple dimensions, both in reporting and transformations. Transformation jobs that would take 10 or more hours to run are now completing within an hour, a 10x performance improvement. This provides our business teams more current data on their dashboards, allowing for more accurate insights based on the latest data. Reports are now on an average 4 times faster, with a 4x concurrency improvement, which gives our analysts the flexibility to run reports in parallel based on business needs.

The simple SQL-based technology has reduced the overall time to develop new capabilities or enhance existing ones. Our enterprise stakeholders report about 30% productivity improvement allowing faster time to capability, a key goal with this journey.

Some Testimonials:

“The Cloud will help us deliver insights to drive business growth, agility needed for faster and for more informed decision making, and improve productivity” — Digital Marketing
“Customer Service agents can immediately pull case reports and support Cisco customers on average 20x faster than Hadoop” — Customer Experience
“Virtual Demand Center users on Snowflake receive more accurate customer and partner data and receive leads that are more likely to buy.” — Sales and Marketing

The Cloud Data Platform’s rapidly evolving features also bring additional avenues to improve data governance, enforce more granular data security and harness the power of data – both public and Cisco data, more effectively partner with our customers and partners, and deliver data-driven outcomes.

These 5 Learning Labs will Kick Start Your Network Automation Skills

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 19:17:42 GMT

Do you have a New Year’s resolution? Have you been telling yourself that you need to get started with learning network automation? If you are like me the New Year brings new motivation not just to lose weight, but to learn something new.

Right now, you are in the perfect position to gain new automation skills — for free. All you need is your laptop and an internet connection. DevNet has everything you need to get started, from free learning tracks to free access to Cisco platforms like ACI, NX-OS, and Meraki in the developer sandboxes. If you have not already done so, sign up for DevNet free now.

In this post I am going to share with you 5 learning labs that will help you kick start your 2021 and your network automation journey.

Networking Basics

Before we even get started with network automation, we have to know the basics of networking. If you are brand new to networking this is ground zero. This module breaks down the basics of networking, topologies, and IP addressing.

– Duration: 1 hour, 20 minutes. Start here

Developer Workstation and Environment Setup

This module focuses on helping you setup your computer or laptop for DevNet. You will learn why you need a developer environment, how to set one up, and about version control, and shells. If you are brand new to automation but already have a grasp on networking, I would start here.

– Duration: 3 hours. Start here.

Python Fundamentals

Python is the most popular network automation language right now. This module teaches you the fundamentals of Python, APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), JSON, and git as well. These are the core skills for programming and automation. The more you practice, the better you will git!

– Duration: 2 hours 15 minutes. Start here.

REST API Fundamentals

The previous module touches on APIs and this module dives even deeper while introducing us to Postman. You will enjoy this module because you get to parse data from an actual WebEx API. Enjoy!

– Duration: 1 hour. Start here.

Introduction to Model Driven Programmability

Now it’s time to get out of our comfort zone. Explore NETCONF and RESTCONF to communicate with Cisco XE IOS devices. Here is where you can gain some real superpowers that you can use to manage your networks.

– Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes. Start here.

You got this!

So there you have it. 5 free learning labs to help you kick your New Year into gear. Network automation is a journey not a destination. Embrace the journey. Make your goal in 2021 to learn something new every day. I remember how excited I was when I started, but I also remember some of the challenges that I faced. Here is a post on how I got started:

I wish you much success in 2021. This is your year! Don’t let anything stop you. You got this! #DevNet

If you have any feedback let me know in the comments section below – leave me a message, ask a question, whatever you want.

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Webex: Setting the Standard for Security and Compliance with New Tools to Keep Your Meetings ...

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 16:59:08 GMT

Security and Compliance with New Tools

There’s no question that COVID-19 accelerated the digital transformation timeline — shrinking the adoption of technologies from years to weeks or months. According to a recent survey conducted by McKinsey, the time required to deploy remote working and collaboration technology accelerated by a factor of 43, taking 10.5 days versus the expected 454. Plus, 93% of organizations experienced rapid remote work and collaboration adoption, and 54% “believe that change will stick.”⁽¹⁾ We have quickly passed the tipping point and, collectively, are looking at managing a hybrid work model well into the future.

This new world has heightened the need for a mindset that holds security as a foundational thread throughout the collaboration ecosystem. In my previous role in Cisco IT, I managed the team responsible for collaboration infrastructure across the company’s 140,000-plus employees and partners. That experience continually raised my awareness of how critical security, data privacy, and compliance really are. As leaders in managing this broad landscape, having reactive AND proactive solutions is crucial to succeeding in keeping our data secure and our collaboration private, and ensuring we’re supporting users in how they work.

Today, my team and I in Webex Platform & Infrastructure Engineering drive the foundational layers that support the amazing innovation of devices and applications at Webex. Our mantra is to make security ubiquitous across the entire portfolio while also providing tools for users and administrators to manage security needs proactively. We’ve made it a practice to arm organizations with mechanisms that prevent problems before they can happen wherever possible. The Security, Privacy, Management, and Insights of the all-new Webex will help you manage this complexity and keep your company safe from unnecessary risks.

There are multiple ways Webex is working to keep your data secure, ensure privacy, and helping you to meet your compliance challenges.

End-to-End Encryption

As confidential meetings over Webex increase, we’re augmenting our End-to-End Encryption built on a standards-based cryptography model where data in transit, in use, and at rest is encrypted. This “zero-trust” security model means that customers will continue to have control of encryption keys — so that even Cisco won’t be able to access their data. Webex room systems will be end-to-end encrypted, and we’re paving the way for third-party devices’ end-to-end encryption, all based on a single industry-standard cryptographic protocol. And transcriptions and recordings will eventually be encrypted. Cisco is leading this effort together with Google, Cloudflare, Facebook, Wickr, and Wire. Plus, users will know when meetings are end-to-end encrypted with a visible icon in the interface.

Webex is adding E2E Secure identity, which adds an authentication layer to block those who would try to impersonate meeting participants. This “spoof-proof” identity is similar to how e-commerce and secure content are served up via web browsers.

In Webex Teams, all content is already end-to-end encrypted by default, and our servers see only encrypted data. To read more about the Webex future of E2E encryption, you can read the white paper.

Protecting Our Organizations… From Ourselves

Security breaches are often the result of our actions as users. Not only does Webex keep your meetings confidential, but we’ve also put solutions in place to keep users out of trouble. Whether it be accidentally sharing files that shouldn’t be shared, messaging to people we shouldn’t, or saying things we shouldn’t in spaces where we shouldn’t. These are common mistakes that Webex can help you proactively resolve.

Ethical Walls

Ethical walls allow Webex administrators to prohibit Webex Teams interactions for up to five different groups. They’re based on the customer’s Active Directory framework and help prevent select, restricted groups from collaborating. With it, these restricted groups cannot invite each other to spaces or initiate conversations. However, they can continue to work with users in the rest of their organization.

How can this be used? Here’s an example. At a large bank, investment bankers and company research analysts shouldn’t communicate to avoid a conflict of interest. With Webex, the end user doesn’t have to worry about whom they should communicate with because Webex will automatically block them before it happens based on simple rules defined in the Webex Control Hub.

Real-Time Data Loss Prevention

With Real-time Data Loss Prevention (DLP), IT administrators can prevent sensitive data from being accessible by any user, internal or external. These capabilities are powered by Cisco Cloudlock (with the capabilities extended to our partner ecosystem): They flag content in a Data Loss Prevention (DLP) system, whether it’s spoken, shared, or shown.

This capability allows administrators to prevent sensitive data from being transmitted in spaces in real-time. For example, administrators can block certain groups from having access to files at all, like contractors. Or, maybe you don’t want to allow employees to share files outside the company. Or, limit sharing based on access, like narrowing sharing, so it’s possible only via a corporate VPN connection. With Webex, you have the power to set these guardrails for users before any issues crop up.

When activated, the system can analyze and react to breaches and violations. When invoked by a violation, the system creates an incident report viewable in Webex Control Hub and sends the offending speaker and compliance officer an email record. This helps users understand what they’ve done wrong to be better in the future and pose less of a risk to their company. Additionally, we are planning to have inline DLP capabilities that prevent sensitive data from being transmitted to users in spaces in real-time by any user (internal or external) in any space — regardless of who owns that space.

In Closing

So, stay tuned — as you continue to trust Webex to share information that needs to be kept private, Webex will continue to evolve our security and compliance capabilities to keep your meetings and content safe and secure.

Learn more about Security built from the ground up

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

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Resources

[1] How COVID-19 has pushed companies over the technology tipping point – and transformed business forever

Learn More

Welcome to the All New Webex

Collaboration: A Key Driver for Digital Transformation and the Cisco Story

Cisco Collaboration Flex Plan Now Includes Cisco Calling Plans and Better Together Security + Collaboration Offers

Healthcare Now – What’s Next

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 16:43:22 GMT

As we begin the new year, we are optimistic about our global fight against the coronavirus pandemic. With vaccines starting to be deployed around the world and our healthcare workers seeing critical relief on the horizon, we are hopeful for what the future has in store.

2020 was a year unlike any other. The pandemic served as a catalyst for the transformation of healthcare, supported by the adoption of new, innovative technologies in months vs. years. We are incredibly proud of the opportunity we’ve had to support our customers through this challenging time. While the future is bright, there’s still much work to be done.

Until we have widespread access and uptake of vaccines, our global community will continue to struggle with the pandemic and suffer terrible losses. In the meantime, we will continue working with our customers to address the challenges of today while helping to prepare for a brighter future.

Healthcare is facing global challenges

Physical capacity and the ability to scale clinical care resources for those impacted by the pandemic are critical priorities. Healthcare organizations are doing whatever they can to deliver care to populations globally, and technology can help.

Beyond the immediate needs of patients during the pandemic, we’re expecting to see long-term impacts globally on general population health. Unfortunately, many patients have put off care to avoid high-acuity locations, hospitals, ERs, and provider offices. A recent study showed that diagnosis of six types of cancer decreased by 46.4% during the pandemic. The result of delayed diagnosis is that patients present at more advanced stages and with worse clinical outcomes^[1].

At the same time, clinicians are suffering under significant workloads, with much higher levels of stress and anxiety. This also goes for the IT staff that’s supporting the clinical environment. We must consider the role that technology can play to help alleviate clinician burnout, both in the near- and long-term.

Not surprisingly, telehealth visits have skyrocketed this year due to the increased need to social distance and limit exposure. According to a recent report by the American Medical Association, “Physicians and other health professionals are now seeing 50 to 175 times the number of patients via telehealth than they did before the pandemic. The report notes that 46% of patients are now using telehealth to replace canceled in-person visits, up from the just 11% of patients who used telehealth in 2019”^[2].

New opportunities to evolve

While the pandemic has brought tremendous devastation, a few positive innovations have emerged, and the use of critical technologies accelerated.

Patients and providers now have expanded access to virtual care, which includes applications like Webex for telehealth, population health management, administrative collaboration, care team coordination, and family visits. Virtual care technology makes healthcare more accessible for all people, regardless of their physical location or access to specialists and care providers. For providers, virtual care can help minimize burnout and decrease exposure risk, while enabling them to continue delivering care to patients.

As the number of remote devices increased due to administrative staff working from home, so did the exponential threat of cyber incursions. Healthcare has the highest average cost per breach of any industry today, averaging $6.54 million^[3]. Cybersecurity is top-of-mind for healthcare leaders as they scramble to secure network, web, and endpoint connections. Better, more holistic cybersecurity strategies for our healthcare providers mean that sensitive patient data and virtual connections are secure.

The need to do more with less has also driven innovation in delivering location services in clinical environments. Clinical workflows are more complex now, and it’s more important than ever to quickly locate medical devices and equipment. New technologies leverage location data to enable clinical operational efficiency, improve patient throughput capabilities, and monitor asset utilization.

Looking forward

Healthcare institutions are realizing that their investments in technology are more important now than ever before. Not only do new technologies enable them to deliver care to patients wherever they might be, but these technologies make it easier and safer for doctors to visit patients without risking exposure to COVID-19 or other contagious diseases. Based on a recent survey by Cisco and HIMSS, healthcare organizations will continue to prioritize virtual care solutions^[4].

The same study shows that while providers are re-allocating budgets, they are realizing that technology must stay at the top of their list. In fact, the same survey shows that mid-pandemic, there is an increase in spending on upgrading IT, in compliance, regulatory, and standardization requirements, in safety and disaster recovery, and in Artificial Intelligence.

Most importantly, we recommend healthcare organizations take a holistic approach to addressing the issues. There is a need for immediate response, but then for a longer-term strategy to deal with increased uncertainty, waves of the pandemic, the need to continue serving patients and supporting a remote workforce.

As our worldwide battle against the coronavirus pandemic wages on, we at Cisco want to reiterate our support. We are here for your healthcare organization and are committed to supporting you through this pandemic. We are incredibly grateful for our frontline healthcare workers and applaud you for your great work and sacrifice. Here’s to a new year, new innovations, and better health for all.

Read the latest thought leadership from Cisco in the #HealthcareNow series.

https://www.healio.com/news/hematology-oncology/20201001/sharp-declines-in-new-cancer-diagnoses-observed-during-covid19-pandemic
https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/digital/after-covid-19-250-billion-care-could-shift-telehealth
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/industries/healthcare/security-and-compliance.html?ccid=cc001016
HIMSS Survey, Healthcare Technology: Understanding New Priorities, U.S. and U.K., October 2020

Bringing the Individualized Web Experience to In-Person Shopping

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 16:00:54 GMT

Much is made of how the online shopping experience can be customized to the individual, such as making recommendations based on previous purchases or online searches. But what about personalizing the in-person shopping experience beyond the personal touch store associates offer?

If, for example, a shopper spends time physically looking around a particular store aisle, that is similar to searching online or browsing a web page displaying merchandise. If the shopper doesn’t buy anything, how can a brick-and-mortar retailer stay engaged? And even if the shopper does make a purchase, how can the retailer make future recommendations based on this and other purchases?

A similar question can be asked of other industries, such as hospitality where guests enter a hotel or perhaps a restaurant. How does the host personalize the in-person experience, especially for loyal customers?

Cisco and SAP are partnering to deliver an answer. By integrating innovative tools, they are enabling companies to provide in-person customer experiences previously available only online.

I’ll explain how by walking through a customer’s journey using these tools.

Loyalty program mobile app

The journey starts with a company loyalty program, frequently offered through a mobile app. When a customer downloads this app, they enter their profile information and set their consent preferences to control the types of communications they receive. Email and app notifications are examples.

OpenRoaming

When a customer enters a physical location, such as a store or hotel, the mobile app uses OpenRoaming, which is innovative technology under the stewardship of the Wireless Broadband Alliance. This technology automatically connects the customer’s mobile phone to the location’s local Wi-Fi network. This capability is especially important because it simplifies and automates Wi-Fi guest access and connection to the network.

The customer’s loyalty number is associated with an OpenRoaming ID, which means that the customer is known to the Wi-Fi networks in each of the company’s physical locations. If the customer has a loyalty membership at a grocery store chain, for example, every time that customer walks into any one of its stores (which has a Cisco Wi-Fi network), that information is made available.

Cisco DNA Spaces

The next innovation that comes into play is Cisco DNA Spaces, which aggregates location data from Cisco Wi-Fi access points. This technology logs where and for how long a customer roams within a company’s physical location. If the customer spends fifteen minutes in the outdoor barbeque section of a store, DNA Spaces will log this information. As with online properties, Cisco DNA Spaces allows companies to know which parts of their brick-and-mortar locations customers visit and search. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Automated Wi-Fi onboarding via OpenRoaming through Cisco DNA spaces and SAP Customer Data Cloud (CDC)

Next in the customer journey, a collection of SAP applications helps translate this data about the loyal customers into actionable insights.

SAP Customer Data Cloud

To begin, the customer’s OpenRoaming ID is matched with their loyalty number in SAP’s Customer Data Cloud, which is the database that supports many loyalty apps. This database is where companies manage both customer and consent information.

Through an integration of SAP Customer Data Cloud and Cisco DNA Spaces, the data around a customer’s roaming within a physical location is entered into the customer’s data cloud profile.

SAP Commerce Cloud

The SAP Customer Data Cloud is linked to the SAP Commerce Cloud where promotions are pushed to the customer’s loyalty app. Referring to the earlier example, if a loyal customer is spending significant time in the barbeque section of a store, the company can decide to push a 10% off coupon on a particular brand of barbeque to the customer’s loyalty app. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. In-store customer experience

SAP Marketing Cloud

In addition, through the integration of the SAP Marketing Cloud with the SAP Customer Data Cloud, personalized newsletters can be sent to the customer after they have left the physical location. For example, a personalized newsletter can include additional information about barbeques, such as what to look for when buying one or upcoming barbeque sales.

SAP S/4HANA

Information provided through these SAP applications can be further augmented with information around a customer’s previous purchases based on data stored in SAP ERP systems such as S/4HANA. If the customer did purchase a barbeque, for example, complementary promotions such as barbeque accessories, can be offered. If the customer did not make a purchase, a promotional email or survey asking for feedback about their in-store experience can be sent. (See Figure 3.)

Figure 3. Better insights allow more individualized interaction with the customer after an in-store visit

Learn More

It’s now possible for companies to offer a seamless and personalized web-like experience for customers who visit their physical locations. Customers can control the types of interactions they want to receive by setting consent preferences in their loyalty apps; personalized information and offers are automatically based on these preferences.

The bottom line? Companies with physical locations can offer a more personalized experience that complements the personal touch offered by their onsite employees.

Learn more about SAP and Cisco Solutions

Business Resilience: Five things to consider for a successful multicloud strategy

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 14:16:42 GMT

In this installment of our 2021 Networking Trends blog series, we discuss Trend #3 – Facilitating multicloud for greater resilience

Networking after a disruption

If you’ve ever been through a natural disaster, once things start to recover, it’s generally common practice to assess what happened and how things might have been handled differently. We usually think about steps we could have taken to prepare better, and we ponder the ‘what-ifs’ for future scenarios, followed by promises to be more proactive next time.

Networking after a disruption is no different…or is it? It’s similar in that we’ve all been evaluating our networks in preparation for future disruptions, but it’s vastly different from a personal incident because our response is felt across the entire enterprise.

Re-thinking networking for resilience

For this reason, it’s imperative that we consider how our networks enable the business to be resilient in the face of disruptions. Networking for resilience is about strategically implementing those networking capabilities that help your organization absorb and adapt to any disruption. As our latest 2021 Global Networking Trends Report: Business Resilience Special Edition points out, there are four important areas to consider: workforce, workplace, workloads, and operations. Now, I’ll share some thoughts on Workloads and how a multicloud strategy is essential for putting the right secure and agile infrastructure in place to support multiple cloud services.

In particular, I want to explore five different considerations when you’re building your multicloud strategy as it relates to business resilience:

1. Uptime isn’t enough

One might surmise that network availability and reliability metrics are the answer to supporting business resilience. And while those KPIs are critical, they are only table stakes of networking for resilience strategy. Networking for resilience expands beyond having a network that’s always available, to having a network that has the agility, automation, and intelligence to help the organization adapt to whatever the future brings. Take for example an organization that needs to support workload portability in the instance that you need to shift your call center to a new region. In this case, it’s not that the network experienced an outage. The question is whether your architecture has the flexibility and agility to move the workloads to that region, maintaining secure access and compliance.

2. ‘Applications first’ networking model

Applications and workloads are becoming more distributed across on-prem and cloud platforms. Complicating the matter is that application teams are managing between the old world of monolithic applications and traditional on-prem data centers and the new world of microservices-based applications, containers, SaaS, and cloud PaaS. What does this have to do with the network? Everything. In a new IDC whitepaper, Brad Casemore says “The distributed application is the new center of gravity for networking.” * Because the network is the critical conduit that provides the transport of data back and forth, we must look at ways our network infrastructure provides the consistency, security, and performance that optimizes the application experience—wherever the workloads and users are located.

Figure 1. What’s needed for multicloud to work as one

3. Hybrid workloads are the way forward

It’s important to remember that hybrid workload environments will be the way forward for many organizations. In the 2020 Global Networking Trends Report, Vijoy Pandey, Vice President and CTO of the Cloud Platform and Solutions Group at Cisco, says, “Over the last few years, as valuable workloads attempted to migrate to the public cloud, it became apparent that it wasn’t a binary situation and there were some workloads, and critically, some data, that needed to be local.” While managing a hybrid workload environment may add complexity, the ability to offload or scale-up critical workloads during a disruption adds vital flexibility needed for business resilience. A multicloud strategy must ensure your infrastructure provides consistent policy, secure access, and performance across on-prem and the multicloud environment.

4. Comprehensive observability is a strategic capability

When an employee must call the help desk because they are experiencing issues and can’t access the application they need, it’s paramount to have the right visibility to get to root causes quickly. This capability is even more essential when the business is trying to adapt during a time of disruption. Network operators need to know when the issue is coming from the device, home or coffee shop network, access point, application, ISP or cloud provider, or the campus network. Recently, our ThousandEyes solution saw sharp global spikes in both Internet and cloud service disruptions in March through June 2020. An essential component of a multicloud strategy is to ensure you have the right observability – from users to applications – so you’re not flying blind when you need detection the most.

Figure 2. ISP and cloud provider outages chart

5. Operational strategy must keep up

While modernizing your network with the latest automation and assurance capabilities offered by intent-based controllers, a successful multicloud strategy must not overlook the significance of making sure your operational model keeps pace to align with the new technologies. IDC predicts that, by 2023, 55% of enterprises will replace outdated operational models with cloud-centric models that allow for better alignment between IT operations and public cloud operations and facilitate organizational collaboration, resulting in better business outcomes.* Our old ways of managing the network in silos simply won’t be sustainable in the future.

Networking for resilience resources

Clearly, the cloud is changing everything from digital transformation to networking for resilience. And getting the right multicloud strategy in place will help our organizations be prepared to face whatever the future brings.

To learn more about preparing your network to enable business resilience, please check out these complimentary resources:

Report: 2021 Global Networking Trends Report: Business Resilience Special Edition
Webinar recording: Build resilience with the top 5 networking trends for 2021

Share your thoughts below and watch out for the next installment of our 2021 Networking Trends blog series

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*IDC Brad Casemore, Meeting the Challenge of Multicloud Networking: Optimizing Cloud Workloads and Application Experience