Cisco Unleashes Unlimited Opportunities with Industry’s First Open, Intent-Based Networking Platform

The three major technological changes of the Internet of Things, cloud computing and network security are driving the rapid development of the market, and the full digital transformation has further promoted this development trend. This wave of full digital transformation continues to place higher demands on the network, and technology readiness (including network readiness) is the main obstacle for enterprises to carry out full digital transformation. According to Gartner data, companies that fail to regard the network as a strategic investment will be three times more likely to fail in their full digital business transformation. This shows that whether or not a company has a correct and forward-looking network will determine whether it can succeed in its full digital transformation, otherwise it will be replaced by competitors. The network is the key bridge that enables IT and business to operate in coordination. It can continuously enhance and protect all IT and business processes and provide insights.

Based on this, Cisco launched the intent-based network for the digital era in June 2017 with its rich experience in the network field for more than 30 years, the broadest product portfolio and forward-looking insights closest to customers. The intent-based network can capture and interpret the enterprise's intention for the network, automatically decompose and execute the intention, and then collect and interpret data according to the context to ensure that the enterprise's network operates as expected. In January 2018, Cisco released new and accurate predictive analysis and assurance capabilities to further promote the strategy of reshaping the network for digital business. In the past year, Cisco has helped many customers embark on the journey of transformation to intent-based networks: we have created a software-defined access architecture (SDA) for campus access networks and an intent-based network for wide area networks (SDWAN), providing network status awareness across enterprise campuses, data centers and wide area networks, and helping customers coordinate, exchange and execute policies and ensure their effectiveness between multiple IT and security domains.

Cisco's intent-based network uses cutting-edge products, integrated architecture, and deep intelligence to completely change the cumbersome and time-consuming manual network management methods that enterprises have always adopted, and has been widely praised by customers around the world. But at the same time, customers have also put forward higher requirements and expectations for Cisco: how to use the network to further liberate productivity, how to make the network more relevant to the business, and how to provide support for third-party network architectures and simplify the complexity of heterogeneous networks. In order to help customers effectively address these needs, Cisco launched the third round of intent-based network innovations at the just-concluded Cisco Live 2018, building the DNA Center into an open and flexible platform, allowing enterprises to rely on Cisco DNA Center to implement various fully digital business plans and fully unleash the potential of the network, so as to customize the network in the way they expect, and continue to meet their usage needs now and in the future.

This release marks that Cisco has taken the lead in creating the industry's first intent-based open network platform, the DNA Center platform, which can provide 360-degree scalability across campuses, wide area networks, and branches. With more than 100 APIs, SDKs, and adapters, the platform fully utilizes all the analysis and insight capabilities that the network can provide, allowing enterprise developers to flexibly program the system based on their own strengths and needs to achieve higher security, faster operations, and more personalized experiences:

• “Northbound APIs” – Leveraging network intelligence to improve business operations: DNA Center enables business developers to program the entire network as a single system through intent-based APIs, while enabling business and IT applications to provide business intent capture capabilities to the network and provide network insights to the enterprise.
• "Westbound API" - Simplifying functional department IT processes: With the DNA Center platform, network IT managers can exchange, collect and integrate information to automate IT system processes through software adapters, thereby providing a full range of intent-based infrastructure for the entire IT environment, enabling IT resources to shift from traditional operations to innovation.
• "Eastbound API" - realize multi-domain integrated management: campus network, data center, wide area network, wireless network, branch offices, etc. can be integrated with the help of Cisco DNA Center for unified management. This is the implementation of the coordination, exchange, enforcement and protection strategies of multiple IT and security domains.
• Southbound APIs – Manage multi-vendor networks: Integrate heterogeneous network environments into intent-based network policies, allowing for unified management and adjustment using a single system.

These innovations fully unleash the potential of the network as a fully digital business platform and will bring the following unique value to customers:

• Energy efficiency: 34% of network managers use 11 or more tools for network monitoring and troubleshooting. Now they can use DNA Center platform capabilities to integrate many of the previously isolated network and IT systems to simplify and automate operational workflows across multiple domains.
• Simple: Professional network operations teams can detect 60% of problems before end users use them, while network teams using 11 or more tools can only detect an average of 48% of problems. Now, by leveraging DNA Center platform capabilities, IT can centrally gain network visibility and troubleshoot across multiple systems and heterogeneous network devices to achieve a better experience.
• Future support and investment protection: DNA Center provides an open, scalable networking platform that can flexibly support an enterprise’s future IT and business needs and technologies, ensuring strategic value and investment protection.

Cisco is committed to building a new generation of networks that can continuously learn, adjust, and protect themselves. This release is undoubtedly another important milestone in Cisco's journey towards its grand vision of "intent-based networking." Cisco has elevated its unremitting innovation from products to systems and then to the platform level - Cisco DNA Center has become an open network platform that enterprises can trust, helping them simplify operations and innovate now and in the future. Cisco will work with experienced and extensive ecosystem partners to provide them with the opportunity to simplify current services, and by integrating DNA Center with its own or third-party technologies and systems, jointly create new services and solutions with higher value, helping customers unleash the biggest opportunities for key innovation and business development.

——Cao Tuqiang, Cisco Global Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Greater China

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