Cisco Live 2021: The Recap

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Cisco’s annual Cisco Live event wrapped up a few weeks ago. It was 2 days packed with news, vision, and announcements!

With this event being 100% virtual, Cisco’s Chief Sales and Marketing Office, Gerri Elliot, noted that total attendance for the event would be more than 100,000 people in about 200 countries.  Seeing how these events are normally in-person events with about 20,000 to 25,000 attendees, it is staggering to see that over 100,000 people tuned in! Cisco CEO, Chuck Robbins, proudly updated everyone on their goal to positively impact 1 billion people globally.  Cisco has now reached 575 million people with this goal.  Kudos, Cisco!

If you didn’t have the opportunity to catch the keynotes this year, we’ve broken down some of the most notable items shared—just for you!

1. Network as a Service & Cisco Plus

Cisco introduced Network as a Service and Cisco Plus. This is a big story: Cisco is enabling customers to purchase infrastructure as a service. This is a complete solution consumed with a utilization-based subscription. Cisco is just getting started here, and more solutions will be made available later this year.

2. ThousandEyes Acquisition

Cisco provided updates on their 2020 acquisition of ThousandEyes, which is a software solution that provides visibility for internet traffic. With many organizations become more and more cloud-centric, the ability to see past the boundaries of their company networks is becoming a critical need.

3. SASE

Cisco also spoke about one of the industry hot topics, SASE. Cisco’s SASE architecture helps businesses secure an expanding attack surface of users, devices, applications, and data (who doesn’t need help with this?). If you haven’t heard much about SASE head on over here, and then here, and here.

4. DUO

Cisco’s Duo product is now offering passwordless (is that even a word?) authentication, enabling users to bypass passwords and securely log into cloud apps via security keys and platform biometrics, such as Apple TouchID, FaceID and Windows Hello.

5. Service Provider Updates

Cisco also provided updates from their Mass Scale Infrastructure group that is responsible for their service provider business. More innovation with 5G, routed optical networking, and next-level performance with Cisco Silicon One.

6. Webex Innovations

Lastly, Cisco spoke about more Webex innovations. The latest: Personal Insights.  The goal is to empower workers with data so they understand where they are spending time, and with whom. Video fatigue is now a new item to monitor, so everyone needs to balance video calls and productivity. In addition to the Personal Insights, Cisco announced more affordable pricing for customers with a Webex Meetings Active User or Enterprise Agreement.  Webex Desk Pro, Webex Desk, and Webex Desk Hub with the bundled Webex Desk Camera all available with new pricing.

Looking Ahead

Cisco is really investing in their security portfolio and overall approach. From SASE to SecureX to Duo, Cisco is really looking at the growing threat landscape and finding innovative ways to improve an organization’s security posture. Cisco is also fixated on integrations, to make it easier than ever to get data from third-party applications.

Here at Greyson Technologies, we stay abreast of all the emerging trends in the Cisco world. Interested in learning more about how we can help you? Contact us today.