Cisco ushers in a new era of networking

The recent WannaCry ransomware cyberattack targeted users running older versions of Microsoft Windows, and quickly infected more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries and regions, affecting healthcare, telecommunications, finance and other industries and organizations. If IT departments can quickly disconnect infected devices within the network, the damage caused by such cyberattacks can be effectively reduced, just like suppressing and eliminating a riot in a prison.

This is just one of many powerful new features in Cisco's new software and hardware products, which are designed to address the challenges facing traditional networks, including large-scale IoT deployments, growing complexity and expanding security threats.

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A major leap forward for the network

A series of recent Cisco launches mark a major leap forward for Cisco's Digital Network Architecture (DNA), meaning that Cisco will adopt a new software-driven approach to building networks to help customers successfully complete their digital transformation.

Kevin Tompkins, network architect at Senstis, believes the technology is a game changer: "Once you can segment users by user rather than IP address, users can log in from any device, anywhere. This scenario was originally just a fantasy that I thought would never happen, but now it has become a reality that can be done immediately."

The next generation of networks is able to learn from the environment, self-learn from information provided by IT, automate operations, and help teams deploy policies in a more consistent and rapid manner.

Scott Harrell, senior vice president of product management for Cisco's Enterprise Networking Division, said Cisco is redefining the network. Harrell said: "The new products are designed to make the network more agile and intelligent, while allowing enterprises to segment the network in a more granular way to ensure security. In addition, users can also gain advantages such as automation and service assurance to operate the network more efficiently."

Fully integrated

Traditional networks are hardware-centric, with a lot of work to be done manually and lacking effective integrated security. The next-generation network is software-driven, fully automated, and has built-in security features that can transform network data into business insights. In addition, through the large-scale application of machine learning technology, the next-generation network can also self-learn, perceive changes, and make predictions. Cisco believes that this will help us build a fully integrated intent-based network system.

Traditional networks are hardware-centric, with a lot of work to be done manually and lacking effective integrated security. The next-generation network is software-driven, fully automated, and has built-in security features that can transform network data into business insights. In addition, through the large-scale application of machine learning technology, the next-generation network can also self-learn, perceive changes, and make predictions. Cisco believes that this will help us build a fully integrated intent-based network system.

The new DNA-ready series of switches kicks off Cisco's new product launch. The Catalyst 9000 switching portfolio forms a platform that supports mobile, IoT and cloud, with integrated security, including the industry's first solution that can detect threats in encrypted traffic.

"It's a long-standing tactic used by attackers to exploit the privacy protections of encrypted traffic to evade detection by security tools," Harrell said. "Now, Cisco has introduced a product that is unmatched in the market that can determine if malicious traffic is inside encrypted traffic without decrypting it."

Cisco's innovation doesn't stop there: as the digital network architecture (DNA) evolves further and the network becomes more open and programmable, application developers will be able to unlock new capabilities by integrating application programming interfaces (APIs) with the DNA hardware infrastructure.

“The network is more important to customers now than ever before, and with a single, fully integrated system, customers can have complete confidence that the right best practices are in place,” said Harrell. “This is the beginning of something cool and incredibly powerful to come from here.”