Think about a video call for a remote worker. A user opens their app, turns on the camera, and has a meeting. Hopefully there were no hangups or drops along the way. Seems simple, right? Hardly. That call took a path from a computer through the Wi-Fi network and out to a service provider. Then maybe it went through yet another transit provider, up to the cloud, back through the internet, and finally to the office headquarters. The quality of that video call could have been affected at any point along the way. 

A roadmap for digital resilience 

Digital resilience means that you continue to deliver a good user experience in the face of any disruption. For networking, that’s proactive intelligence, predictive recommendations, and (if something goes wrong) automated remediation. 

IT leaders are expected to deliver experiences that feel seamless, connected, and whole. But that is easier said than done as teams wrestle with how to manage the ever-growing complexity of devices, networks, and data centers they own—plus the service providers, SaaS providers, and public cloud infrastructure they don’t own.  

Because every user experience depends on both owned and unowned infrastructures, solving IT problems in silos (LAN, WAN, and cloud) no longer works. We must begin to think of this combination of owned and unowned as the global area network. Visibility across every part of the infrastructure is now essential. If you can see and understand everything, you can fix anything. 

IT leaders repeatedly tell Cisco that they feel hampered in assuring digital experiences and achieving digital resilience across the global area network. According to the 2024 Global Networking Trends Report, 41% of respondents think providing service reliability to ensure predictable and consistent user experiences is an area for significant improvement. 

For over 40 years, network professionals have been waiting for that superpower. Today, that is going to change. Cisco is introducing Digital Experience Assurance from Cisco ThousandEyes. We’re doing for the global area network what GPS and driver data do for driving—providing IT with a clear view of the entire journey, even the parts they don’t control.  

Digital Experience Assurance is a fundamental change from where the industry has been for decades. Now, IT can use AI-native capabilities to show what’s happening with users and applications across the entire global area network—phones, tablets, laptops, home broadband gateways, switches, and routers. Digital Experience Assurance is part of the Cisco Networking Cloud platform, providing continuous intelligence with predictive analytics and automated remediation, from user to cloud and everything in between.  

It doesn’t just change how IT teams work. It also gives IT leaders time to focus on accelerating the business while reducing operational (and even emotional) stress. 

Networking for the generative AI industrial revolution 

The need for AI-ready infrastructure has never been more important as AI workloads, driven by generative AI models, continue to grow. According to our own survey of more than 8,000 senior leaders with responsibility for AI, 95% believe AI will increase the workloads of their IT infrastructure—but fewer than half believe their infrastructure is ready.  

In partnership with NVIDIA, we are now bridging that gap by bringing operational simplicity to AI data centers with Cisco Nexus HyperFabric. It is the world’s first cloud-managed AI infrastructure solution that gives enterprises everything we’ve learned from deploying AI at hyperscalers. Using a Meraki-style operational model, we automate the entire fabric across networking, NVIDIA accelerated computing, storage, optics, and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, including NVIDIA NIM inference microservices.  

This makes it easier for IT teams to deploy their own enterprise AI clusters where the on-premises data resides, in large data centers, colocation facilities, or edge locations enabling generative AI anywhere. 

Multidomain operational simplicity 

We are also announcing Cisco Workflows for consistent automation across domains as part of the Cisco Networking Cloud platform. In a complex network, making any change or spinning up a new site can be very complicated or may even compromise another domain. Workflows makes it easier.  

With Workflows, you can reduce repetitive tasks and manual errors while eliminating multi-step, multi-app, and probably multi-meeting ordeals. With Workflows as part of Cisco Networking Cloud, you are the IT hero. You create automations across network domains and fix issues at scale. You eliminate trivial, error-prone tasks that used to take hours.  

Cisco Networking Cloud 

Our Cisco Networking Cloud platform has made phenomenal progress toward continuous intelligence, predictive analytics, and automated remediation over the past 12 months. This is just a sampling of the new additions that will help you transform the world. AI-native operations, assurance, secure networking, and infrastructure for AI are all coming together in the Cisco Networking Cloud platform. 

All experiences have a digital component. All experiences will be defined by the network. Cisco will continue to help IT modernize for the future and deliver their most critical business outcomes.  

A version of this article also appears on the Cisco Blog

The post It’s Time to Take Control of Experiences and Transform Infrastructure Operations for AI appeared first on The Meraki Blog.

It’s a warm summer night. The stadium glows from the phones poised to capture the coin toss. The fans are ready. The players are in position. Game time! 

It’s a picture-perfect image of convenience, safety, and punctuality, all working together as one. But peek behind the picture, and it’s a chaotic orchestration of not just players but a dizzying array of IT platforms, networks, and technologies conducted by dispersed people, teams, and organizations. The fans in the bleachers might not be worried about weather conditions affecting the field or game-time communications, but IT staff and operators are tackling a lot.

The IT Reality Today

Complexity constricts IT across so many industries, like sports. Silos and inefficiencies separate dashboards, teams, and technologies, leaving them vulnerable. Progress in one area, like connectivity, increases the threat surface in another. While IT teams are enabling the audacious—hybrid work, modernizing industries, and building greener economies—they often do it blindfolded and handcuffed.  

 Is it working? Not very well. It’s been costly and risky. Is it scalable? Not very … it’s been frustrating and time-consuming. For those who have succeeded, it’s like winning a championship game—heroic, but lots of sweat, stamina, and swearing.

What if we could collapse everything into a simple press of a button? No more navigating dozens of systems and platforms to enable one outcome. No need to switch from one tool to provision, another to manage policy, and yet another to monitor alerts. If technologies, apps, and networks acted as one, it would simplify IT and help you create more unified customer experiences.  

The Power of Unified Experiences 

Today, we’re making the easy button better with Cisco Networking Cloud. It was born from the feedback we heard from you alongside countless other customers. You shared about your unique journeys. Some of you manage networks from the cloud, while others stay on premises. Some of you are first movers and fully digitalized, and others are catching up quickly. You all expressed a need for simple-to-use and predictable platforms with fewer interfaces and simplified licensing. You also echoed each other with the need to prioritize solutions, not products. 

We are grateful for your openness and partnership. And we are delivering. 

Cisco Networking Cloud is our vision—commitment—to simplify IT, everywhere, at every scale. Until now, there has never been a consistent way to automate operations, analyze and diagnose issues, or assure the user experience across networking domains. Cisco Networking Cloud will change that.  

With Cisco Networking Cloud, you will have a unified management experience platform for on-premises and cloud operating models. We are still dedicated to building the best on-premises solutions. However, we believe most of you could benefit from a cloud-first automation strategy in at least some parts of your business. The Cisco Networking Cloud allows you to explore management with both models.   

We are bringing together campus and branch, data center, compute, IoT, SD-WAN, and more. Cisco Networking Cloud binds the applications under Cisco Networking, including Meraki, ThousandEyes, and Cisco Catalyst to act as one. We are fighting rising complexity with radical simplification. 

The Cisco Networking Cloud converges and connects fragmented platforms that exchange data through automation. It replaces isolated pockets of data with telemetry, assurance, and proactive analytics across the network. Together, we will make everyday life more connected, protected, and convenient. 

From Vision to Value 

Let’s go back to our game. Imagine cameras and sensors speaking across the network, guided by AI analytics. Instead of scouring dashboards, you’re alerted to the wayward fan inside the game field, the temperature fluctuations inside the locker room, and the Wi-Fi strength in the stadium. You’ll even receive notifications if the soda machines overheat. Cisco Networking Cloud just took you from troubleshooting in hours—to seconds. It gives you time to easily avoid potential hazards and the space to ensure the game is on time with fans enjoying their favorite drink. Unified experiences delight customers and fuel business.

Every facet of our world today is being reimagined, whether it is winning championships, transforming transportation, eradicating disease, or fighting climate change. IT will be at the heart of this reinvention for years to come—so will unified experiences.

The world is changing fast. It’s time to simplify IT with
Unified Experiences

To learn more:

• Discover how simplifying the platform experience is a core tenet of our vision for the Cisco Networking Cloud.
• Read why the power of the network is about to take a significant leap forward with predictive automations and other features. 

The post How Cisco Networking Cloud Is Simplifying IT  appeared first on The Meraki Blog.