Cisco unveils future networks that can self-learn, self-adjust and self-evolve

Cisco's next-generation network can continuously learn, adjust and protect itself, helping customers create unlimited opportunities and improve business agility

Today, Cisco announced the launch of a new generation of intent-based networking solutions, which is a disruptive innovation in the field of enterprise networking and fully demonstrates Cisco's vision. Cisco is committed to creating a next-generation system that can predict actions, stop the path of security threats, and continuously evolve and learn by itself, so as to help enterprises create new opportunities and solve previously unsolved challenges in an era of increasing connectivity and distributed technology.

Today, network engineers are managing hundreds of devices, and it is expected that they will manage one million devices by 2020. Against this backdrop, Cisco's new generation of networks, the result of years of research and development, will reshape the network era for the future.

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"Networks are more important to business success than ever before, but they are also facing unprecedented pressures and challenges," said Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco. "By building the next generation network defined by Cisco, we are creating an intelligent platform for today with unparalleled security, and an intelligent platform for the future that will enable businesses to thrive and unlock new opportunities for people and organizations around the world."

Today, enterprises are managing their networks through traditional IT processes, but traditional processes will no longer be sustainable in the new era. Cisco is committed to building a new generation of systems that will have continuous self-learning, self-adjusting, automation, and self-protection capabilities to optimize network operations and defend against evolving network threats.

"Cisco's Encrypted Traffic Analytics solves a cybersecurity challenge that was previously considered unsolvable," said David Goeckeler, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Networking and Security Group. "ETA is using network intelligence from Cisco's Talos team to detect known attack signatures, including those in encrypted traffic, which helps customers maintain security while protecting privacy."

Given that the vast majority of the world's Internet traffic is transmitted on Cisco's network, Cisco has a unique advantage in capturing and analyzing extremely valuable data, providing IT personnel with deep insights, discovering abnormal behavior and predicting problems in real time while protecting privacy. By implementing automation capabilities at the edge of the network and embedding machine learning and analytical capabilities at the bottom, Cisco is making previously unmanageable information organized while allowing IT to focus on strategic business needs.

More than 75 leading companies and organizations around the world are piloting Cisco's next-generation network solutions, including DB Systel GmbH, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, Jade University of Applied Sciences, NASA, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., Scentsy, UZ Leuven and Wipro.

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With a new approach, Cisco is changing the networking landscape with redesigned hardware and state-of-the-art software. This shift from hardware-centric to software-driven networking will enable customers to achieve a quantum leap in agility, efficiency, and performance. The next-generation network is an intelligent and highly secure platform that truly “knows everything and uses it for you”:

• Intent: Intent-based networking can help IT transform from tedious traditional processes to automatically understand user intent, making it possible to manage millions of devices in minutes. This important development has extraordinary significance for enterprises to cope with the ever-expanding technology environment.
• Context: Interpreting data based on context will enable the network to bring new insights to the enterprise. The importance of data is unquestionable, but equally important is the context in which it is located, including who, what, when, where and how. The next-generation network can interpret this information to help enterprises have higher security, more personalized experiences and faster operations.
• Intuitive: Next-generation networks use machine learning at scale. Cisco is applying machine learning to the massive amounts of data flowing through its global network, unlocking the potential of data to deliver actionable, predictive insights.

Leading technologies that empower new networks

Cisco Digital Network Architecture (DNA) provides customers with a broad portfolio of innovative hardware and software products to drive the advent of a new era of networking. Cisco has launched a complete set of Cisco Digital Network Architecture technologies and services that work together as a system to support customers to quickly start operations:

• DNA Center: This 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 across the entire network, DNA Center can centrally manage all network functions.
• Software-Defined Access (SD-Access): Software-Defined Access provides automated policy enforcement and network isolation on a single network matrix, which can greatly simplify network access management for users, devices and things. By automating routine tasks such as configuration, deployment and troubleshooting, software-defined access can significantly reduce the time required to adjust the network, shorten problem resolution time from weeks or months to hours, and significantly reduce the impact of security vulnerabilities. Preliminary analysis and internal testing of trial customers have shown that network configuration time can be reduced by 67%, problem resolution time can be reduced by 80%, the impact of security vulnerabilities can be reduced by 48%, and operating expenses can be reduced by 61%.
• Network Data Platform and Assurance: This powerful new analytics platform efficiently categorizes and correlates the massive amounts of data flowing across the network and uses machine learning to transform it into proactive analytics, business intelligence, and actionable insights, delivered through DNA Center Assurance.
• Encrypted Traffic Analysis: Today, nearly half of cyberattacks 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 99% accuracy in threat detection of encrypted traffic, while achieving a false alarm rate of less than 0.01%. Therefore, Cisco's next-generation network will bring higher security to enterprises while reliably protecting privacy.
• Catalyst 9000 Switching Portfolio: In response to the new requirements of the all-digital era, Cisco has launched a new switch family designed to meet customer needs in mobility, cloud, IoT, and security. Cisco Catalyst 9000 has innovated both the hardware (ASIC) and software (IOS XE) layers to bring unparalleled security, excellent programmability, and superior performance.
• Software subscription: Software subscription is an important part of Cisco's flagship campus switching portfolio. When purchasing the new Catalyst 9000 switch family, customers will be able to use DNA software capabilities through subscription, either by purchasing the packaged Cisco ONE software suite or by purchasing components on demand. Cisco ONE software is applicable to the entire enterprise-class network portfolio, enabling enterprises to take advantage of the latest innovations, better control budgets, and use technology in a more flexible way.
• DNA Services: To help customers quickly and confidently adopt the next generation of networks, Cisco has created a new service portfolio based on proven experience, best practices, and innovative tools. Whether customers want to transform their entire network or integrate new security and automation capabilities into their existing networks, Cisco's complete consulting, deployment, optimization, and technical services can provide reliable help. Cisco channel partners can also resell these services and build network practices to provide their customers with services that integrate software, security, automation, and analytics.
• Developer Center: Cisco has launched a new DevNet DNA developer center, which provides a wealth of resources to help developers and IT experts create network-driven applications and integrate them with their IT systems and workflows. The center provides content including new learning paths, sandboxes, and resources to help developers use application programming interfaces (APIs) and build skills.

Listing Information

• June 2017 – Catalyst 9300 and 9500 Series (orderable)
• July 2017 – Catalyst 9400 Series (orderable)
• August 2017 – DNA Center and SD Access (limited purchase)
• September 2017 – Encrypted Traffic Analysis (Planned for Release)
• November 2017 – Network Data Platform (subscription available), Assurance Services (planned for general availability), Software Defined Access (SD-Access) (planned for general availability)

Supporting Quotes:

Accenture

“As large organizations and government agencies move toward digitalization, their network infrastructure faces tremendous pressure to scale, be secure and reliably support digital business services,” said Gene Reznik, senior managing director of Accenture’s ecosystem and joint ventures. “Together with Cisco, Accenture is helping clients accelerate their digital transformation journey by adopting dynamic, secure, application-centric networks.”

DB Systel GmbH, a subsidiary of the German Federal Railways

“The transportation industry is going through a seismic shift,” said Sebastian Meissner, network architect at DB Systel GmbH, a subsidiary of the German Federal Railways. “With Cisco’s Software Defined Access, we are able to consolidate all our offices across the country in one reliable view and apply consistent policies.”

NASA

"The Cisco Catalyst 9000 meets and exceeds NASA's mission-critical requirements for security and network isolation, while delivering twice the performance," said Eric Latta, solutions architect at NASA.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

“From a technology perspective, our cruise ships are like small cities,” said Michael Giresi, CIO, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. “Cisco’s intent-based networking will revolutionize the way our IT staff remotely and securely configure our ships around the world.”

Senstis

"Cisco's software-defined access automates network segmentation down to the user level, which is critical to creating a great IT experience," said Kevin Tompkins, network architect at Senstis.