Opening a new era of network, Cisco takes you to experience an unprecedented network

[51CTO.com original article] In what direction will the future network of mankind evolve?

Cisco's answer is: it will be a fully intelligent network that can self-learn, self-adjust and self-evolve. This answer condenses the wisdom of thousands of Cisco engineers around the world, and it will usher in a new era of the network. Perhaps you can't clearly outline the specific operating state of the future network in your mind after reading this, but it doesn't matter. What's important is that Cisco, the pillar of the global network infrastructure, has pointed out a clear and definite direction for the future evolution of the network this summer, which can be used as a reference for everyone.

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It's time to redefine the web!

In order to help everyone understand Cisco's concept of "Network • Full Intelligence", Cisco Global Vice President and Greater China Chief Technology Officer Cao Tuqiang spoke to more than 40,000 netizens for more than an hour. When the reporter met him, he had just finished the guest discussion.

Why redefine the network? Cao Tuqiang first threw out a set of data: the number of devices currently in use in the world is 8.4 billion, and this number will soon reach hundreds of billions; the average time to discover a security vulnerability is three months, and the loss caused by each attack is as high as 4 million US dollars; Cisco blocks 20 billion threats every day, which is 6 times the number of Google's daily searches. "The explosive growth of data and devices is stretching customers' IT support capabilities. We must redefine the network." He explained that in this era of rapid expansion of everything, facing unlimited possibilities, people must overcome the resulting challenges and complexities to move towards the next glory.

Cisco believes that innovative technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and advanced analytics can bring huge opportunities to the network. They can help people transform from static methods that rely on manual and time-consuming methods to new methods that can predict needs, understand intent and continuously learn from all business-related data contexts.

What capabilities should a fully intelligent network have?

Cao Tuqiang emphasized that Cisco is outlining a future network, a fully intelligent network that can self-learn, self-adjust and self-evolve. This network can truly achieve "knowledgeable and insightful, and can be used for your benefit". So what capabilities does this fully intelligent network have? Cisco summarizes them into three points: intention, context, and intuition.

Intent-based networking can help IT transform from boring traditional processes to automatically understand user intent, making it possible to manage millions of devices in minutes. How to understand Cisco's "intent-based networking"? Cao Tuqiang gave a very vivid example: he used an unmanned car to describe this high-IQ network. Suppose people drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles, they only need to tell the car the destination and their preferences and needs - whether they need to take the highway in a hurry or want to see more scenery and take Highway 1. After setting the intention, people can get in the car and start enjoying the trip comfortably. The car will design the entire route map, or remind the driver whether to avoid congested sections according to road conditions. In short, everything is solved through automation. The same is true for a fully intelligent network. It can understand the user's intentions, and through the network's automated operation, the network can continuously self-learn and self-adjust, so that it can operate automatically and continuously self-evolve until the network is fully optimized.

Context means that a fully intelligent network can interpret the context of the data, including people, events, time, place and method, helping enterprises to have higher security, more personalized experience and faster operation speed.

Intuitive actually refers to insight. Cisco's fully intelligent network applies machine learning technology to the massive data transmitted through its global network, fully unleashing the potential of data and enabling it to provide practical predictive insights.

Multiple pillars support "network and full intelligence"

Liu Shuyi, senior vice president of Cisco Greater China and general manager of marketing, said: "The brand slogan launched by Cisco globally this time is 'The Network. Intuitive.', which means 'Network. Intuitive'. This contains two very important messages: First, Cisco is the network, and the network is Cisco, which is a very important positioning; second, Cisco has thought about the needs of the new generation of networks. We believe that the current network needs to have the ability to continuously self-learn, self-adjust and self-protect, which is 'The Network. Intuitive.'. In English, we use 'intuitive' to describe it, so how can we express this meaning in Chinese? We thought of 'wisdom'. 'Wisdom' is different from intelligence. Wisdom represents deep understanding and the ability to think, analyze and seek the truth. 'Intuitive' can well explain the three major capabilities of Cisco's new generation of networks - self-learning, self-adjustment and self-protection. The expression of 'intuitive' indicates that the development of the network is evolving towards artificial intelligence, and the network will have human capabilities. Therefore, we position the new generation of networks as 'intuitive networks'."

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What technologies and products support this fully intelligent network? Cao Tuqiang said that Cisco has made a huge investment in the new generation of networks and has made innovations in many aspects. Not only has it rewritten the entire IOS operating system, but it has also turned the network switch into a server in the new platform, which can be used as both a virtual machine and a container. In his explanation, DNA center, software, security, and services are the most frequently used keywords, and they are also the innovations that Cisco has spent a lot of effort on researching and developing.

DNA Center is an intuitive central management dashboard that provides IT teams with an intent-based approach covering design, deployment, policy, and compliance. With comprehensive visibility and contextual information for the entire network, DNA Center can centrally manage all network functions. On this platform, through big data analysis, the network can predict where customers will have bandwidth problems, traffic problems, and coverage problems under the current application deployment. For example, the network will recommend customers where to deploy AP signals for better signal.

Cisco is not only focusing on hardware, but also software. Software-defined access provides automated policy execution and network isolation on a single network matrix, which can greatly simplify network access management for users, devices, and things. After testing, network configuration time can be shortened by 67%, problem resolution time can be shortened by 80%, the impact of security vulnerabilities can be reduced by 48%, and operating expenses can be reduced by 61%.

Another innovation worth mentioning is encrypted traffic analysis, which is a brand new disruptive breakthrough in the security field. It is understood that nearly half of network attacks are hidden in encrypted traffic, and this proportion continues to grow. By using network intelligence provided by the Cisco Talos team and machine learning technology to analyze metadata traffic patterns, the network can even find known threats in encrypted traffic without decrypting the traffic or compromising data privacy. Only Cisco can achieve threat detection of encrypted traffic with an accuracy of up to 99%, while achieving a false alarm rate of less than 0.01%.

The Catalyst 9000 switching product portfolio is a product portfolio that Cao Tuqiang spent a lot of time introducing during the live broadcast. Its biggest highlight is programmability. The high-performance, programmable ASIC can adapt to the requirements of future innovations, which is a major innovation in chip technology. Cisco Catalyst 9000 has innovated both the hardware (ASIC) and software (IOS XE) layers and is hailed as the most advanced enterprise switch today.

During the interview, the reporter found that Cisco has really thought through and prepared well for this new network. Whether it is products, architecture, or effective protection of the network, the "all-intelligent network" can provide unique subversive innovation and change for the entire industry in all aspects. The profound meaning of Cisco's all-intelligent network is not only to promote the prosperity and development of enterprises, but more importantly, it provides a wonderful new opportunity for future development. This summer will be a highlight in Cisco's history.

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