Cisco introduces vision for Cisco Networking Cloud

Source: Cisco. Cisco Networking Cloud aims to simplify networking.

Managing networks in today’s era of connecting everyone, everywhere is hard, Cisco has said. The company explained that simplicity has become increasingly important with the advancement of cloud, the Internet of Things (IoT), Wi-Fi + 5G, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), and security. With so many technologies and applications coming together, it can be difficult for IT staff to deliver a consistent, unified experience whether in the office, at home, or on the go.

Cisco noted that there are struggles with fragmentation, lack of visibility, security threats, and time-consuming integration that get in the way of delivering better experiences. It understands that the journey to simplification is defined by each operator’s business objectives, functional needs, and preferred consumption model. A simplified IT experience influences customer satisfaction, employee retention, and competitive differentiation. This is backed up by Cisco’s State of Global Innovation report, which found that 85% of IT professionals value simplicity in their IT systems.

As part of its journey to simplification, Cisco has been working to create a simpler network management platform experience. Featuring cloud-driven automation, rich network insights, and innovation through its partner ecosystem, Cisco Networking Cloud will accelerate the delivery of unified experiences and drive measurable business outcomes.

“Today we are sharing our vision and first steps to eliminate networking complexity and securely connect the world,” said Jonathan Davidson, Executive VP and GM, Cisco Networking at the time of the announcement in early June.

“Only Cisco has the portfolio, experience, and partner ecosystem to bring together campus and branch, data centre, compute, IoT, and SD-WAN* to optimise outcomes using one networking management platform to deliver unified experiences.”

As a first step, Cisco is delivering the following to increase operational simplicity, efficiency, and reliability:

- Single sign-on (SSO) simplifying access across Cisco networking platforms.

- An API key exchange/repository, which when linked with SSO, makes it easier for Cisco networking platforms to connect and exchange data through automation to reduce friction and opportunities for error.

- Cross-platform navigation, delivering more seamless navigation between Cisco networking platforms.

- A common user interface across Cisco networking platforms, bringing greater consistency and ease of use across a customer’s operational functions.

Cisco is also adding end-to-end assurance and expanded cloud monitoring capabilities:

- Cisco ThousandEyes for end-to-end network assurance over any network: ThousandEyes delivers expanded visibility, automated insights, and seamless workflows to assure digital experiences across any network—whether on premises, the Internet, or in the cloud. New innovations include:

- Expanded visibility into Internet and cloud networks with new vantage points on Meraki MX and Webex RoomOS devices.

- Faster insights into incidents impacting digital experiences with new automated Event Detection plus unmatched insight into AWS connections for enhanced troubleshooting.

- Seamless workflows with simplified ThousandEyes endpoint deployment with Cisco Secure Client, adding to ThousandEyes’ already rich set of ecosystem integrations, including data export via OpenTelemetry.

- Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst to view, troubleshoot and manage Catalyst devices: Enhancements to the Meraki dashboard will now support new capabilities for Cisco Catalyst switches including a command line interface (CLI) view, image management, and advanced troubleshooting.

Simplifying operations with an easier, more predictable, and more scalable Cisco Catalyst stack, improved visibility into data centre power consumption insights and energy footprints, and new AI data centre blueprints:

- Simplified branding for the Cisco Catalyst Stack: Cisco is now connecting the power and flexibility of the Catalyst brand across the entire enterprise networking stack with Catalyst Center (formerly DNA Center), Catalyst Software and Licensing (formerly DNA Software and Licensing), Catalyst Wireless, Catalyst Switching, Catalyst Routing, and Catalyst SD-WAN (formerly Cisco SD-WAN or Viptela SD-WAN).

- New Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN consumption model: With cloud-delivered Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, customers can now consume SD-WAN as a utility with a flexible subscription model. Customers can simply purchase and have the SD-WAN software and services spun up in minutes. Cisco will be responsible for management of the underlying delivery of the SD-WAN fabric automating solution with zero-touch lifecycle deployment and management.

- Simplified licensing options: Starting with Cisco Catalyst switches, new licensing combines hardware and software support into a single subscription—simplifying buying and renewing.

- Sustainable data centre networking: Bolstered by new integrations for Cisco data centre networking and Nexus Dashboard, customers will gain real-time and historical insights for power consumption of all IT equipment in their data centre and estimate the energy footprint of their data centre operations.

- AI data centre blueprint for networking: Leveraging Cisco experience with customer deployments, the Cisco AI/ML data centre network blueprint will give customers a new and proven solution for high performance compute, InfiniBand to Ethernet network migrations, and large-scale ML fabrics. With visibility into AI workloads via Cisco Nexus Dashboard and automation templates, customers can meet the demand for specific network performance characteristics such as deterministic load-balancing, line-rate transmission, congestion management and no drop characteristics with their Cisco Nexus 9000 and NX-OS implementations.