The next generation of computing defined by Cisco is born

For more than 30 years, Cisco has been driving the foundational technologies that have enabled the rise and development of the Internet. Today, technology is an integral part of our lives and has spawned countless new industries, new businesses, new jobs and new experiences. I am extremely proud of Cisco's contribution to these advances.

These innovations have propelled us into an era of rapid expansion. Looking ahead, I believe that this era of change will bring outstanding value and huge opportunities to our customers. But before we can achieve this leap forward, we must overcome some real complexities and fundamental challenges.

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Cisco has a long history of leading large-scale change. We know the most important thing: in every transformation, we must rethink everything we do. Cisco sees great opportunities in applying the latest technological innovations, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and advanced analytics, to the way we operate and define the network.

As we reimagine the network, we must move from a static, highly manual, and time-consuming approach to an adaptive approach that anticipates needs, understands intent, and continuously learns from all business-relevant data environments.

Cisco launches next-generation network

For these reasons, Cisco is launching a new generation of networks for the new era, which is the network of today's world and the future. The new generation of networks is the result of Cisco's years of unremitting innovation, and I believe it will change the development trajectory of the entire industry.

Next-generation networking enables a world where you can connect billions of devices, identify them almost instantly, know what is trustworthy and what is not, and extract superior value from the connection. All of this can be done in a matter of hours.

It doesn’t take weeks or months. This capability is critical and we believe it will enable companies to be more aggressive in exploring new opportunities—because change, while big, will be less daunting and less risky.

Intent-based networking is at the heart of a new era that focuses on business outcomes and drives enterprises to achieve their desired goals faster. It is a purpose-driven network that anticipates the future, helping enterprises move faster and smarter. While this network relies on multiple technologies to make it happen, intent and context are the key conceptual pillars that make it happen. As the pace of enterprise continues to accelerate, the need for these capabilities will increase.

Intent-based networking supports large-scale automation, allowing enterprises to easily manage a range of devices and technologies that previously seemed difficult to manage; interpreting data based on the appropriate context so that the network can provide enterprises with more meaningful insights; as an industry, we are creating a new generation of technology, such as interacting with technology naturally through voice or gestures, thereby adding more human characteristics to the technology experience.

At the heart of all this is trust. The new network created by Cisco is a fully integrated unified system that integrates intelligence and security. With decades of experience in networking, enterprises can trust Cisco's best practices, which will help enterprises achieve network automation. At the same time, enterprises can trust a network that can continuously learn and evolve itself, which can detect problems before they occur, provide practical insights and solve problems on its own.

Cisco embraces intent-based approach across its portfolio

Based on the re-imagination of the network, Cisco applies the capabilities of intent and context to the entire Cisco portfolio, including the next-generation data center architecture, advanced IoT applications, the world's largest security portfolio, end-to-end analytics products, and significant investments in core technologies. We are committed to creating new ideas, constantly challenging the limits, and bringing outstanding innovation to our customers in new ways.

We must shift our mindset to build technologies that can continuously learn and evolve. We believe that intent-based infrastructure will be the next major growth opportunity, and the network will be an important enabler and accelerator in this new set of technologies.

Many people believe that Cisco is transforming into a software company, but the reality is that hardware, software, and services are all critical to Cisco's future growth and the foundation for our customers to build a digital business. As we announce how we are transforming our core business area, enterprise networking, today also marks the beginning of a top-to-bottom commitment to intent-based infrastructure at Cisco.

As we embark on a new chapter in intent-based infrastructure, Cisco’s vision is to build a truly secure and intelligent platform that drives greater value for digital business. We believe this will provide a solid foundation for our customers to reshape the future.

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Author: Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco