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.

Networking leaders know that to deliver unified, differentiated experiences—remote, branch, in-store, and other, encompassing a myriad of applications—they need to stop thinking about the LAN and the WAN as silos. Instead, they must ensure experiences work across a global area network, spanning campus, branch, cloud, software as a service (SaaS), and other connections.

In this environment, the challenge IT leaders face is maintaining the quality of every experience across infrastructure they own and don’t own.

Resilience through digital experience assurance, simplified operations, and enhanced security

One company that is embracing this challenge is modern home furnishings and decor retailer Room & Board. Their challenge —and competitive advantage—is building strong relationships with customers throughout the design process, delivering exceptional experiences that span both digital and in-store interactions. To make good on that promise, they need to ensure a seamless, secure, and data-intensive experience, no matter how customers connect. In order to solve this complex problem, Room & Board needed a networking and IT platform that could give them visibility and control across the owned and unowned parts of their global network, simplified operations across sites, and the ability to ensure security and customer data privacy. They found the answer in Cisco Networking Cloud, the only IT platform that can deliver:

• Digital experience assurance with AI-insights, proactive and pre-emptive recommendations, and automated operations to help deliver flawless digital experiences
• End-to-end secure networking for consistent policy enforcement and automatic security measures—regardless of how users and devices connect across the digital landscape—by integrating networking and security
• Simplified, AI-native operations to help efficiently scale support and drive business resilience by unifying and automating operations throughout the owned and unowned digital landscape

At Cisco Live US, we are unveiling new capabilities for Cisco Networking Cloud designed to help our customers at any scale achieve more resilient digital experiences across their diverse networks.

Delivering assurance across the global area network

At the heart of our ability to provide Digital Experience Assurance (DXA) across the global area network is Cisco ThousandEyes. With Cisco ThousandEyes, IT teams can instantly see every network they rely on, owned or unowned, as if it were their own environment. With ThousandEyes, identifying issues anywhere along the digital delivery chain is not only automated but proactive, preemptive, and simpler.

And importantly, ThousandEyes enables closed-loop workflows that automate and accelerate critical remediation and optimization actions for our customers across all domains. Room & Board relies on ThousandEyes to provide visibility into the cloud-hosted and internet-enabled services that are outside of the company’s direct control.

“ThousandEyes helps us deliver the quality experience that we want to put forward to our employees and customers,” said Mark Rodrigue, a senior network engineer at Room & Board. “It’s enabled our customers to feel confident in their interactions with us.”

High throughput, end-to-end security with zero trust protections

When users and apps are connected across the global area network, IT teams need a more flexible and resilient WAN backbone to connect and protect every interaction on the network. A Cisco secure WAN edge is the backbone for the digital enterprise, combining high-performance routing, intelligent SD-WAN with integrated Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW), and flexible multicloud connectivity in an architecture purpose-built to extend security and assurance to every touchpoint across the network.

Managed through Cisco Networking Cloud, this WAN architecture defends the entire network by consistently enforcing security policy across campus, branch, industrial environments, remote users, and the cloud. It’s perfect for customers of all sizes, from local retailer showrooms to a global network of bank branches.

At Cisco Live US, we’re debuting innovations across the WAN edge to help our customers build this critical backbone for today’s dynamic workforce and tomorrow’s AI-powered workloads.

• The new Cisco Catalyst and Meraki SD-WAN fabric interconnect allows IT teams to select the best WAN platform for every type of site they operate, without sacrificing security, simplicity, or scale.
• Cisco Meraki Secure Connect is now integrated with Cisco Secure Access, our powerful cloud-based security service edge (SSE) solution, to help connect and protect dynamic remote workforces in a zero-trust model. Along with powerful next-generation firewall (NGFW) capabilities powered by Cisco Talos, this native integration gives customers a seamless path to a unified, scalable SASE solution.
• The new Meraki MX650 extends the Meraki MX secure SD-WAN portfolio, more than doubling throughput for high-performance branch routing and security.

Simplified operations with drag and drop, point and click automation workflows

In today’s complex, distributed networks, making a config change or spinning up a new site can be time-consuming and accident-prone. But now even entry-level admins can confidently create and run complex, multi-step workflows across campus, branch, and data center environments with Cisco Workflows.

Cisco Workflows is the new automation and orchestration service at the heart of Cisco Networking Cloud. Workflows simplifies complex automation through a visual, low-code interface to help admins quickly and confidently configure, provision, and approve networking changes.

New services can quickly be created by connecting and creating automations across Cisco and third-party systems. A catalog of templates, distilled from Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs), is available with drag-and-drop features that make it easy to create and customize automations. With Cisco Workflows, there’s no need to move between different dashboards, so organizations can achieve business outcomes faster while reducing human error.

Innovations with an immediate ROI

Great digital experiences, simplified IT, and stronger end-to-end security. These are just some of the significant benefits companies can enjoy as we help you harness the power of the global area network. Learn more about how Cisco Networking Cloud can help you achieve resiliency through digital experience assurance, end-to-end secure networking, and simplified operations.

See how Cisco Networking Cloud can help you achieve unified, differentiated experiences.

The post Cisco Live 2024: Ensure Digital Resilience, Pervasive Security, and Simpler Operations appeared first on The Meraki Blog.

Accelerating time-to-market with cloud management

Cisco is pleased to introduce its first 5G standalone (SA) cloud-managed FWA devices, the Meraki MG52 and MG52E cellular gateways, to accelerate the way businesses open and connect branches. Managed through the Cisco Networking Cloud, these devices help businesses scale robust, always-on, 5G-connected experiences to more people and places without compromising scale and performance.
For branch-based businesses and organizations with remote operations, the MG52 and MG52E deliver:

• Faster “day zero” operations by enabling businesses to purchase and activate AT&T data plans with an integrated complimentary introductory period directly from the Cisco Meraki dashboard
• Lower operating expenditures by enabling businesses to streamline deployment with instant-on provisioning via Cisco IoT Control Center and Meraki
• Higher return on investment by ensuring long-term compatibility with multigeneration cellular service (4G, 5G NSA, 5G SA) and reducing upgrade costs with future-ready 5G SA

Simplifying the 5G journey

Businesses often suffer from delayed time to market due to long lead times associated with disjointed processes and multivendor complexities in opening and connecting branches. AT&T and Cisco saw an opportunity to reach customers more quickly with a jointly developed, innovative, out-of-the-box experience, offering a deep integration with AT&T Wireless WAN services to help businesses get started even faster.
Businesses can now immediately connect full-stack, secure Cisco SD-Branch and SD-Campus networks with 5G FWA at all their branches—up to thousands at once. AT&T enables business IT leaders to prepurchase FWA data plans directly from the Meraki dashboard to leverage cloud-managed eSIM on the MG52 and MG52E.
“Together with Cisco, we are making it faster and easier than ever for companies to reimagine their networks and conduct business with next-level connectivity,” said Mike Troiano, Senior Vice President, Product and Pricing, AT&T Business. “This offer is yet another way we are demonstrating our commitment to simplifying business challenges and enhancing the end-user experience.”

Consistent, unwavering, robust performance

5G FWA is often the best choice for WAN when a business needs to immediately connect a site with minimal downtime, provide connectivity diversity and redundancy, or conduct a large branch deployment. It is also the best WAN choice for:

• Rural and remote regions where wired WAN can take over nine months to deploy
• Single-occupancy real estate where a wired WAN connection doesn’t exist
• Space-constrained locations where a WAN gateway must be deployed in small, tight spots
• Pop-up sites where a wired WAN is implausible to deploy
• Nonconventional locations such as basements or rooftops too far from wired WAN

Discreet, versatile, pervasive connectivity

The MG52 and MG52E enable businesses to open branches immediately, boost network resiliency, and increase ROI on FWA investments. Multisite, branch-based verticals, such as retail, food services, hospitality, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and supply chain, transportation, logistics, and more, can expand their charters and offer services to new customers in new markets. Well-orchestrated deployments can also offer greater business agility, getting to market faster with same-day, full-stack SD-Branch and SD-Campus connectivity with Cisco Meraki or Cisco Catalyst networks.

Intuitive, streamlined, scalable management

Wired remains a highly reliable and fast-performing WAN option for businesses. For most use cases, FWA offers a strong complement to wired WAN, particularly when using SD-WAN, SD-Routing, or routing to take advantage of Cisco traffic orchestration features such as load balancing, traffic shaping, uplink selection, and more.
Businesses can extend secure connected experiences everywhere using Cisco Talos-powered cybersecurity capabilities—firewall policies, content filtering, intrusion detection and prevention (IDS and IPS), advanced malware protection (AMP), and more—using both wired WAN and FWA.

Partnering with telecommunications industry leaders

For businesses looking to partner with a managed service provider, Cisco is teaming up with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon Business to provide robust, reliable, same-day cloud-managed 5G FWA by offering the MG52 and MG52E as a fully managed solution.
T-Mobile is teaming up with Cisco to enhance its Connected Workplace offering by making the MG52 and MG52E available as part of its fully managed, end-to-end 5G FWA solution.
“When we launched Connected Workplace earlier this year, one of our primary objectives was to continually enhance the solution to meet the evolving needs of our customers,” said Chris Melus, VP of Product Management, T-Mobile for Business. “The addition of the MG52 and MG52E means our customers have a 5G SA gateway that leverages the full power of T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G SA network. It also gives them more choice when it comes to optimizing their networking infrastructure, reducing IT workload and enhancing operational efficiency.”
Verizon Business and Cisco are partnering to offer businesses full-stack, cloud-managed, scalable networking with Verizon 5G FWA built around the flagship MG52 and MG52E FWA devices.
“Businesses need an easy, powerful, and scalable way to deploy high-performance 5G fixed wireless access,” said Debika Bhattacharya, Chief Technology Solutions Officer, Verizon Business. “We’re proud to partner with Cisco to bring businesses reliable 5G connectivity with an emphasis on simplicity, optionality, and capability.”

Business continuity starts now

Together with cloud-managed eSIM integration with AT&T, the MG52 and MG52E offer many new capabilities to elevate the way branch-based businesses get connected and serve their customers. With same-day connectivity, the flexibility to be deployed anywhere, and robust, reliable performance, IT teams can help drive their organizations forward with greater ease and success.

The post Simplify 5G Fixed Wireless Access and Scale Secure Connectivity to More Places appeared first on The Meraki Blog.

In fact, we’re amping up our game to stay ahead of the curve in this fast-paced IT world, and we’ve got some great new updates and accolades to share about our continuous rise as a top-tier device management vendor.

Android Enterprise Silver Partner status—achievement unlocked

The Meraki SM team is all about delivering stellar, flexible device management to all our customers, regardless of device operating systems, and we’ve just been recognized as an Android Enterprise Silver Partner. But what does that mean? We have been given a stamp of approval after meeting Android’s tough standards, and we can now be considered part of the top tier in the Android ecosystem, ensuring smooth integration and hitting Android’s high industry marks.

Next-level Android powers with Meraki SM

Meraki Systems Manager isn’t new to the game; we’ve been helping thousands of our customers manage their org’s devices for a while. But just because we’ve been around for a while doesn’t mean we don’t have great new things to show off. We’ve added some new tools like kiosk mode and zero-touch enrollment to the tool kit. Kiosk mode is all about turning devices into mission-focused machines, locked in on important tasks. With zero-touch enrollment, our customers can set up a fleet of Android devices through a streamlined and hassle-free process.

Leading the charge in innovation

As a part of Cisco—the largest networking technology provider with a massive, powerful networking data lake—Meraki Systems Manager comes with a treasure trove of integration capabilities. We’re blending Meraki technology with powerhouse Cisco security features like Umbrella, Advanced Malware Protection (AMP), and Identity Services Engine (ISE). These integrations have helped our customers take a full-platform approach to organizational security from end to end.

The silver lining

Achieving Android Enterprise Silver Partner status is a game-changer for Meraki Systems Manager. It’s a testament to our commitment to pushing boundaries and delivering top-notch technology services. As the IT scene gets more tangled, we’ll continue to innovate in our work as a trailblazer to help simplify the complex. Stay tuned and learn more here—the adventure is far from over.

Learn more about
Systems Manager MDM

The post Systems Manager Scores Nod of Approval appeared first on The Meraki Blog.

System administrators no longer need to be on-site to keep tabs on their buildings. Instead, the cloud has given them the ability to do more with less. They can monitor access points, provision key cards, and implement system changes from anywhere. However, a new iteration of cloud-based physical security is improving how enterprises, commercial real estate companies, schools, and more interact with their security.

What do we mean by a single view of security?

This approach to security connects otherwise disparate hardware and software infrastructure into one platform. For example, an enterprise team could integrate and see surveillance video cameras all within their access control dashboard. This automation helps IT and security teams save time when monitoring their security and speeds up emergency response time.

It also extends beyond integrating video management systems with access control. Manufacturers offer a wide variety of our API integrations that connect platforms like chat software, visitor management, Internet of Things, mobile credentials, and workforce management, delivering a streamlined way for system administrators to manage security.

How this approach helps enterprises and more

Traditional security approaches often involve managing diverse systems and siloed information, leading to inefficiencies and security breaches—most evident to retailers losing billions of dollars to theft annually. While our security approach helps combat theft more effectively than businesses using multiple different systems, there are many other important features, including the following integrations:

• Automate mobile and key card provisioning. By integrating security with workforce management platforms, like Okta or Azure AD, IT and security teams can automate the provisioning process. When a security team adds or removes a user from workforce software, that user’s key card or mobile badge updates accordingly. When a security team adds or removes a user from workforce software, that user’s key card or mobile badge updates accordingly.
• Support visitor management. Many commercial real estate companies, enterprises, schools, hospitals, and more need a way to safely make sure that visitors get where they need to be. Cloud-based access control platforms can be integrated with visitor management to give temporary access to specific doors. When integrated, these systems work together with chat notifications to alert users when a guest arrives.
• Simplify video management. Whether managing security for an enterprise, hospital, school, or commercial real estate company, video management has become more needed. If you’re working across multiple locations, a unified platform will provide a more organized way to view your entire portfolio.

How video security and access control work together

Cloud-based solutions such as Genea Security act as a hub for monitoring access control and video management. They also help teams monitor, analyze, and respond to threats more effectively for a proactive security posture.

For example, hospitals need robust security measures to protect patients, staff, and sensitive medical information. By integrating video management systems with access control, teams can establish a holistic approach. If a security incident happens, the hospital’s administrators can quickly pull up the appropriate video alongside information about the event within the access control dashboard.

Similarly, if a school experiences a lockdown incident, the security team can quickly pull up video of the appropriate access points, then take immediate action to lock down the necessary points, all from one dashboard.

How Genea + Cisco Meraki can help

Unifying surveillance, access control, and analytics allows IT and security teams to proactively safeguard their environments. Cloud-managed Cisco Meraki cameras and Genea Security integrate with ease, so organizations can log video records of access events for faster reaction time during emergencies. As technology in safety and automation continues to advance in today’s dynamic world, embracing the cloud’s holistic security model isn’t just a choice—it’s a necessity.

The post Do More With Less Using Cloud-Based Security appeared first on The Meraki Blog.

The associated data influx of additional IoT devices could lead to network congestion and slow response times, affecting the performance and reliability of both the network and the IoT devices it supports. Moreover, IoT devices can be susceptible to cyberattacks. Is your network infrastructure ready to handle the expected IoT growth?

Imagine investing in interactive whiteboards to enhance employee collaborations, only to experience network congestion causing delays in sharing and saving content. This would lead to frustrated employees and upset clients.

Realizing IoT investment starts with a secure backbone

We recently expanded our Cisco Catalyst 9300-M switching portfolio with 15 new models designed to meet your most demanding use cases. It enables you to deliver a flexible and secure end-to-end network at scale while managing it with ease and confidence. Here are some features designed to unlock new use cases while lowering deployment and operational costs:

• Secure networking across sites: extension of Adaptive Policy across all new platforms and capable of up to 1T physical stacking and stacking flexibility across models.
• Smart, sustainable spaces: 90W Universal Power Over Ethernet (UPOE+), 1,900W power supply option, and StackPower.
• Digital experiences and assurance: high-density mGig and fiber options and 25G/100G uplinks.

For more detailed information, please refer to the datasheet. Tune in to our latest Cisco Champion Radio episode and learn how these latest Catalyst 9300-M switches can help our customers solve the most challenging IT and security needs at scale.

Power more distributed, smarter, and sustainable spaces with UPOE+

The expansive corporate campuses of yesterday have given way to a new age of decentralized offices and hybrid work structures. A recent Cisco survey underlines this change, showing that 98% of meetings now involve at least one remote participant.

The new Catalyst 9300X-M 90W UPOE+ switching powerhouses can connect more power-hungry PoE devices securely to ensure application operations and frictionless user experiences, such as smart lighting systems, conferencing system, and smart cameras. The best part? All your Meraki devices across distributed locations can be managed centrally on the Meraki dashboard, unlocking dynamic topology and rich telemetry, enabling your team with a deeper understanding and control of the entire network for faster mean time to resolution and effective security management.

When converging network and power management, it reduces deployment and simplifies ongoing operations. PoE management on Meraki dashboard can also help you achieve sustainability goals.

For example, the Wrexham County Borough Council in the United Kingdom used Meraki sensors and Cisco Meraki switch port schedules to reimagine its IT infrastructure to reduce cost and carbon emissions across 70 schools. The council has been able to make significant energy savings of 10 metric tons of carbon and roughly $28,000 in electricity savings per year across its 70 schools.

Connect everyone and everything securely with streamlined security

The traditional VLAN-based security policy approach is insufficient, introducing skill gaps and challenges for your IT and security teams to maintain.

Adaptive Policy enables secure access to network resources by dynamically segmenting the network based on user identity and context. This approach reduces SecOps efforts and costs by eliminating the need for manual management of thousands of access control lists (ACLs) and re-architecting the network infrastructure when deploying policy changes.

It strengthens security by automatically applying appropriate policies to the correct users and devices. Back to the earlier example, it will ensure employees can access the interactive whiteboard without delays, while unauthorized devices such as smart cameras will not have access to business applications.

Simplify network operations with an agile, flexible platform

In a distributed IT landscape, Cisco Meraki provides a centralized end-to-end management experience, from wired and wireless, to security, to IoT. This comprehensive approach helps your team deliver secure network management at scale without a steep learning curve. Your network team can make configuration changes in one place and push to selected locations, eliminating manual processes and potential human errors.

Real-time application visibility and rich telemetry provide your network teams with proactive insights to optimize the network, ensuring a seamless employee experience. Furthermore, firmware updates are made effortless with Meraki. Simply schedule and stage them from the cloud, improving productivity for your team.

Resilient, secure networks start here

The Catalyst 9300-M switching portfolio, along with the scalable Adaptive Policy, can help you navigate this new influx of data and network requirements. For more information, please explore our page or contact our sales team.

The post Is Your Network Infrastructure Ready for More IoT Devices? appeared first on The Meraki Blog.

In this five-part conversation, Forbes and Cisco Meraki examine the tremendous value of a cloud-first approach and discuss how and why cloud-managed platforms have the power to transform and modernize organizations faster than ever before.

Rich Karlgaard, Global Futurist and Editor-At-Large, Forbes, interviews Lawrence Huang, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Cisco Meraki and Wireless

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

How Cisco Networking is simplifying IT

Rich Karlgaard:

Cisco announced a Networking Cloud vision at Cisco Live, your big conference in Las Vegas. Can you tell me a little bit about it and how it differentiates itself from other solutions in the marketplace?

Lawrence Huang:

Yeah absolutely. The way I would articulate it, it is a response to what our customers want. The feedback that they’re looking for from Cisco is, how do you actually build things in such a way that your technology, applications, networks, and solutions work cohesively together as one? And really, a big part of what we’re delivering with Cisco Networking Cloud is a massive simplification and unification of the experience.

When you think about the rich portfolio that Cisco has, we have an opportunity to stitch together these different components in a way that we haven’t done in the past. That way, we can drive more consistent automation, we can drive more consistent analytics, and help our customers diagnose issues faster so that it doesn’t feel like you’re logging into many different solutions from one company.

Yes, cloud is the norm these days, but the power of what we have is the level of depth of our data—the number of customers, the number of networks, the quality of the data that we have to drive better insights, better analytics, and better intelligence.

The other piece to it is that we’re able to have partners build on top of our platform so they can extend the capabilities to solve bespoke use cases that may make sense for a given customer, but not broadly.

And then last but not least, it’s fair to acknowledge that Cisco, as a company with #1 market share in many of our markets, serves a breadth of customers, from on-premises to cloud to hybrid. If you think about what we announced, we said very clearly that our goal is to help our customers with the Cisco Networking Cloud—whether you’re fully on premises, you’re hybrid, or you’re fully cloud first—to be able to benefit from the simplification—this unification of our platform.

The power of a simplified platform experience

Skip to video at 2:23 min

Rich Karlgaard:

Not only is the IT infrastructure often for a hybrid company, we’ve got a mix of on-premises, a mix of cloud, and now the workplace itself is evolving into hybrid. COVID hit us like a lead anvil falling on us in the spring of 2020, and new companies have emerged. It just seems, you used the word “bespoke,” that almost every company and every industry is figuring out what the future of the workplace is going to look like.

Is it going to be back to work, is it going to be staying at home? Is it going to be a hybrid of some kind? How many days in the office? How many days not?

How on earth do you deal with customers coming and telling you these infinite varieties of workplace solutions that they’re working through right now?

Lawrence Huang:

First and foremost, hybrid work is something that every company, to your point, is figuring out. But I think it’s fair to acknowledge that what it was pre-COVID is not going to be the same going forward. Even with the changes in the macroeconomic conditions out there, where you do see some employers trying to pull back people to the office, they are voting with their feet.

The reality is that users of these office spaces, whether it is actually traditional office space or the office of one at home or something in between—what they’re demanding is a better experience bar none. So what IT infrastructure teams need to be able to deliver is a better experience at scale—at global scale.

Oftentimes what this means for them is that security is going to be front and center.

It’s going to be something where it’s not just a centralized architecture. It has to be something that they have to think very judiciously about, no matter where the end points, where the people, where the devices are that need to access the applications. A big part of what these owners of this infrastructure need to be able to do is do this in a way that makes sense—in a way that is simple for them to manage at scale.

What we’re asking here is what Cisco Networking Cloud is centered around: How do we unify the experience? How do we do things like provide single sign-on across our different platforms so that when you bring these different technology components to support hybrid work, you can do so in a way that makes sense where you’re not logging into different systems; that you can understand the policies end-to-end and see where there may be security risks more readily than if it was just bespoke solutions tied together.

Cloud-activated resilience is a business differentiator

Skip to video at 4:58 min

Rich Karlgaard:

Coming back to this idea of resilience, in April we had a Forbes CIO conference called the CIO’s Architects of Resilience, and the idea is that the world is moving beyond the pandemic—it is a different world. We’re not returning to the pre-pandemic world. We’re returning to a world where you need more than one supply chain. You need multiple options for your supply chains. There are more geopolitical risks, there are more monetary and inflation risks, and so the idea of resilience is that you’ve got to be able to create plans to deal with all of those contingencies without making yourself stiff and bureaucratic.

How do you think about resilience, what do your customers ask you about resilience, and what do you think contributes to resilience that works for Cisco Meraki customers?

Lawrence Huang:

Yeah, with your examples, especially over the past few years with the headwinds in supply chain or the changing dynamics with business conditions, resilience is a topic that is front and center with many of our customers. The best ones [customers] can treat resilience as a business differentiator if they’re able to do this well.

Oftentimes, when I think about conversations I have with our customers, they think of resilience as “how do I be more nimble and agile?” Whether it’s supply chain diversification or how do I shift my cloud workflows in a way that I’m leveraging more than one cloud provider?

But from an infrastructure perspective, there’s this concept of simplicity that we talk about a lot here at Cisco Meraki. Simplicity with our platform can be a core way to enable resiliency.

What we’re seeing here is, across the board, the way the infrastructures are being built and managed—it’s very different than it was in years past. Oftentimes what we see is that you have to be able to support employees no matter where they’re working. Whether it’s in the traditional office environment, whether it’s in the home, or somewhere in between.

It’s about simplicity of the experience. Imagine infrastructure at scale where you can actually deploy security policies end-to-end, and where you have visibility end-to-end—that is something that provides a foundation where you can then start adapting to changes in your business condition. This idea of a platform means that as your business needs respond, you can build on top of the platform to solve unique use cases for your business to provide greater resiliency.

From a people and team perspective, I believe that its also important to invest in the culture and the people. This is for many people a little more touchy feely, but i think its an important leg of the stool for how you build a resilient organization.

AI/ML and predictive automation: business development accelerants

Skip to video at 7:51 min

Rich Karlgaard:

Let’s talk about this new onrush of AI. AI’s concept has been around 50 or 60 years, and there have been false dawns of AI, but this dawn looks real for sure. Internet analyst Mary Meeker told me at a conference a couple of months ago she’s never seen anything come on as fast and scale as rapidly as ChatGPT and other forms of generative AI. And really, when you step back and you look at every significant technology advantage that has come along since silicon chips, [AI] has been really an accelerant. It’s an accelerant of the underlying metabolism of how fast business can be conducted.

When you think about all of these accelerants that are now in the marketplace, from cloud infrastructure to generative AI to mobility and connectivity everywhere, companies really need to have their act together and be organized around the speed of change. If they are not, they’re going to find that their lunch is eaten by their competitors or some company they’ve never heard of.

What are you seeing in terms of the sense of urgency that the latest accelerant, generative AI, is bringing to the marketplace? And what are some use cases where you’re seeing that companies are proving out early that there are some real advantages, whether its predictive analytics or machine learning and automation, or whatever that happens to be?

Lawrence Huang:

I think the more crass way to say it is, the gold rush is on. Everyone is trying to figure out what this next wave of AI means for them and their business and their customers. I think it’s fair to say that from a product development standpoint, there’s the internal, “Hey, can we use these tools to increase the productivity of our developers so we can actually get more capabilities out to our customers faster and more efficiently?”

From a customer standpoint, going back to your point about, “What are some of the use cases that we can use this technology for?” I think that a lot of it from our world is going to be centered around, “Can we make this idea of predictive analytics more powerful than it is today?”

And one of the things I’ll say is that I don’t think AI, in and of itself, is the end-all-be-all. Sometimes the right answer, quite frankly, is a better user workflow. But other times, using technologies like AI and machine learning, it’s actually the right set of tools because what’s normal in one environment may not be normal in another environment. Having humans and people trying to figure it out is not the best way to do it. That’s where you apply technologies like AI and machine learning techniques to help.

What I’m excited about is seeing the new opportunities around areas like sustainability and areas like being able to create new businesses out of these technologies. It’s early days, but the other piece to it is that privacy is going to be a big part of how customers think about how they use these tools. That’s one thing that, as a company like Cisco, we think very deeply about when we introduce these capabilities. Privacy is front and center, and not putting our customers at risk.

Be a transformative CIO: infuse innovation

Skip to video at 11:15 min

Rich Karlgaard:

One of the reasons Cisco is a trusted brand is that among C-suite executives, particularly CIOs and CTOs, people see Cisco as rock solid and trustworthy and a good partner to have, not only for their own companies but for their own careers.

In thinking about the future of the CIO, one of the things that we have at Forbes is this idea of the “CIO+.” The “CIO+” runs an impeccable, button-down, no-errors (or very small-level of errors), in terms of the IT infrastructure.

But they also do three other things:

1. They understand the finances and operations of a company and they can go toe-to-toe with the CFO and speak the language of finance.
2. They understand the revenue levers—what drives revenue, what drives profitability, what drives margin-expansion, and all of those things—so that they’re a partner there.
3. And then they are a futurist. When they look at technologies like cloud infrastructure or generative AI, they are looking at it the way a venture capitalist would and organizing a portfolio of future projects.

From your perspective, as somebody who has worked with top-level IT people and served their interests and needs, do you have any comments on the changing nature of the CIO? How does the CIO or CTO get to that level where they’re a 90th-percentile CIO in terms of their ability to really drive transformational change at their company?

Lawrence Huang:

If you look at what’s happening across the industry, if you are not that transformative CIO and a team supporting the business, then quite frankly you’re a cost-center. You’re something that is necessary, but not strategic. The best CIOs realize that the way you actually drive real value is to turn your function into something that is strategic for the business.

Oftentimes, even with the example that we talked about with hybrid work, we know for a fact that across the board we are seeing shrinkage in office real estate. Across the companies that we work for, everyone is having a conversation about employees wanting a better experience when they come into the office. They need a reason to gather.

As a CIO and a team supporting that, how do I start working across different teams, whether it’s the real estate team or the facilities team, to create that better experience for them? What do we need to do differently to make these technologies that span across multiple teams and tie them together in a meaningful way so we can actually bring people together?

I think about the 3-30-300 rule, which is: The utilities of a given space and the square footage is roughly $3, and for real estate itself it’s $30, and for employees it’s $300. So there is this massive leverage that you get out of having productive employees. Everyone knows this, so how do you actually invest in a way to make them more productive?

The last piece to it is the innovation in terms of being able to respond to the business. When I hear the stories from our customers, when they’re looking at, “Hey I have stores,” as an example, “that through the pandemic were booming, and then after the pandemic were not … how do I make sure that I can actually build on the infrastructure that I invested in and layer on additional capabilities?” Whether it’s things like cameras and sensors to help, for example, my leadership team understands the productivity of my store employees better. How do I make sure that I deploy technologies in a way that can drive and support sustainability initiatives?

These are areas that really [top] 1% CIOs are helping their businesses transform to meet the needs that they have, whether it’s business headwinds that they need to go address or whether it’s net new initiatives to target sustainability net zero.

I’m really excited about what these top CIOs are doing within their organizations.

Rich Karlgaard:

Thank you for a very illuminating conversation!

Lawrence Huang:

Thanks a lot Rich, I appreciate the time.

Ready to be a transformational leader? Visit the Meraki platform page and explore how a cloud-first strategy can boost your business.

The post A Platform for Cloud Success appeared first on The Meraki Blog.

Although working from home is cited as being easier and less stressful for many employees, has anyone stopped to ask IT professionals how they feel about this? Probably not.

Remote work = greater complexity and security risks

The hype around remote work often ends at the doorstep of the IT department. When it comes to the management of a remote workforce, what was once solved by a simple VPN has grown into an intricate combination of managing permissions, ensuring secure access, fighting for visibility into remote networks, and scaling to meet the changing demands of the business. These challenges can be attributed to the growing reliance on hybrid cloud workloads, which comes in parallel with the rise of large-scale remote work.

For organizations embracing a work-from-home (WFH) policy, this often creates a headache for the teams in charge of delivering the simple and secure experiences that businesses and their employees expect. Security is key for an effective hybrid work strategy, but when remote employees access corporate networks through low-grade routers operated and owned by residential service providers, a proper security posture becomes difficult to maintain in the long run.

One platform for everything 

Cisco Meraki is positioned to solve the issue of managing a remote workforce and has been doing so for the better half of the past decade. The Z Series cloud-managed teleworker gateway enables IT teams to connect, secure, and troubleshoot remote workers from the same platform as branch, campus, and IoT.

The newest line of cloud-managed teleworker gateways in the Z4 family provides a secure enterprise-grade router with a built-in firewall that is centrally managed and observed from the Meraki dashboard. When combined with the new Secure Teleworker license, customers benefit from deeper visibility and tighter security thanks to advanced content filtering, health metrics, and integrations into Cisco Talos and Cisco AMP. The ability to provide cellular connectivity to remote employees with the Z4C ensures that your business-critical staff such as IT admin, security teams, and support personnel stay online and connected to the network in the event of internet outages.

Secure remote work that is here to stay

The Meraki Z4 provides unique benefits that satisfy each stakeholder in your business’ remote work strategy.

• IT teams enjoy zero-touch provisioning for thousands of remote employees with robust monitoring features and blanketed enterprise-grade security that effectively turns each home office into a mini-branch.
• Remote workers benefit from a sleek, quiet desktop gateway that boosts their overall WFH experience through improved application quality.
• The business benefits from a reliable, long-term remote work strategy that widens their hiring pool, retains top talent, and mitigates a growing security risk.

Built on the Meraki platform, businesses can easily scale through our intuitive product offerings that cover everything from SD-WAN, IoT, switching, and more. IT teams can add even more value by leveraging integrations with both Cisco and third-party applications. All of this can be managed simply from a single Meraki dashboard.

By combining Meraki cloud-managed teleworker gateways with the power of the Meraki platform, businesses can ensure that their remote or hybrid workforce stays secure when accessing applications, regardless of where the user or workload resides.

For more information on how the Meraki Z4 can transform your remote work experience, explore our page or contact our sales team. 

The post Creating a Long-Term Strategy for Secure Remote Work appeared first on The Meraki Blog.

Wireless connectivity—the backbone of modern manufacturing 

Wireless connectivity serves as the backbone of modern manufacturing operations. 

Cloud networking guarantees the reliability of wireless connections, minimizing downtime and optimizing operational efficiency, especially for IoT devices, which rely on robust connectivity to operate effectively. A cloud infrastructure also enhances security protocols, safeguarding wireless networks from potential threats.  

The provision of secure guest Wi-Fi for contractors and visitors further contributes to a seamlessly collaborative environment, allowing external stakeholders to connect securely and participate in manufacturing processes. 

Empowering manufacturing with simplified device management 

Manufacturing companies often grapple with intricate connectivity tasks, particularly in the management and monitoring of network devices. The rise of IoT underscores the importance of connectivity, with numerous devices generating data that necessitates processing and action.  

Cloud networking simplifies these tasks by providing a streamlined and centralized approach, enhancing efficiency for manufacturing companies to seamlessly manage their devices, even in remote operations. The cloud’s scalable infrastructure and remote accessibility further contribute to simplifying the complexity of device management, ultimately optimizing operational processes.  

Safeguarding manufacturing operations with robust security 

Security is of utmost importance in manufacturing, not only for protecting assets but also for ensuring compliance, including adherence to personal protective equipment (PPE) regulations.  

Cloud networking solutions excel in addressing security challenges in manufacturing by automating processes to reduce human errors, implementing robust cybersecurity measures to counter threats, and centralizing control for enhanced protection against vandalism, thereby ensuring the overall safety and integrity of manufacturing operations. 

Increasing efficiency to enhance operations and achieve sustainability targets 

Manufacturing companies can turn to IoT and cloud solutions in their pursuit of increased efficiency and sustainability. Cloud networking technology enhances manufacturing efficiency by providing real-time monitoring of restricted areas, optimizing energy usage through data-driven strategies, and detecting environmental anomalies for proactive intervention.  

Ensuring the physical security of manufacturing facilities is integral to operational efficiency and sustainability. Real-time monitoring of restricted areas, facilitated by IoT and cloud solutions, not only safeguards assets but also streamlines operations, minimizing disruptions. This proactive approach to physical security contributes directly to the longevity and sustainable performance of manufacturing processes. 

These capabilities contribute to improved operational performance and can help teams align to organizational sustainability goals. Embracing cloud solutions enables manufacturing companies to achieve a more resource-efficient and environmentally responsible approach to their operations. 

Boosting efficiency and safety through advanced asset management 

Effective asset management is a game-changer in manufacturing. Most notably, cloud networking can minimize inventory shrinkage by enabling optimization of asset management. Real-time monitoring facilitated by cloud solutions enhances efficiency and safety, allowing for immediate identification of asset status and potential issues.  

Furthermore, cloud networking provides effective oversight of staff, ensuring compliance with safety protocols and contributing to a comprehensive approach to asset management within the manufacturing environment. 

Keeping your network resilient and adaptable  

As manufacturing companies embrace the opportunities presented by IoT and cloud technology, cloud networking solutions stand as a secure, scalable choice to empower their Industry 4.0 transformation. The journey toward a more connected, secure, efficient, and sustainable manufacturing operation is well within reach.  

Meraki cloud networking provides the tools necessary to navigate this revolution successfully, ensuring that manufacturing operations remain resilient and adaptable in the face of evolving challenges. Embrace the future of manufacturing and experience the benefits of connected machines and smarter factories.  

Learn more about Meraki cloud networking solutions by downloading our Top Tech Trends in Manufacturing e-book. 

The post Connected Machines, Smarter Factories appeared first on The Meraki Blog.

Thanks to cloud networking technology, retailers can secure, scale, and simplify their operations to ensure a seamless shopping experience while efficiently managing increased traffic and safeguarding customer data.

Scalability and reliability for retailers 

When Black Friday hits, websites experience a substantial increase in traffic. The hallmark of any successful Black Friday operation is the ability to handle the influx of customers, both online and in-store.
Cloud networking can empower retailers to effortlessly scale their network to accommodate the surge in online and in-store traffic, allowing for smooth transactions, minimal downtime, and satisfied customers without the risk of network crashes or slowdowns. This scalability is essential to handle the abrupt spikes in traffic that occur during the holiday season.

Elevating the shopping experience 

In addition to managing the surge in traffic, retailers must prioritize engaging their customers to boost sales. Shoppers are always on the lookout for the best deals and a personalized shopping experience.

By deploying advanced digital solutions, retailers can implement real-time inventory updates to ensure customers can easily find what they need, personalized promotions based on customer preferences that can be delivered in real-time, and interactive features that captivate shoppers and encourage them to explore products. Adding these experiences for shoppers ultimately leads to higher conversion rates and increased customer loyalty.

Streamline operations through optimized supply chain management 

Black Friday success goes beyond delivering a seamless shopping experience and enhancing customer engagement. Retailers must also ensure efficient supply chain management, encompassing inventory, distribution, and order fulfillment.

Retailers can leverage cloud networking technology to streamline these operations. Additionally, real-time insights into inventory levels can enable retailers to make data-driven decisions about restocking and distribution, minimizing the risk of stockouts and ensuring prompt order deliveries.

Data-driven insights for informed decision-making 

These advanced analytics tools aren’t only useful for optimizing your supply chain. They can also provide insights into customer behavior to recognize trends that can help inform marketing and product strategies.

By harnessing the power of data-driven insights, you can create personalized shopping experiences that resonate with your customers. This, in turn, enhances customer satisfaction, drives loyalty, and ensures your business remains agile and competitive in an ever-evolving retail landscape.

Cybersecurity and data protection: safeguarding retailers and customers

Cybersecurity stands out as a major concern during high-traffic events like Black Friday. With the escalation of cyber threats, retailers need to fortify their networks and protect customer data.
Cloud networking technology incorporates advanced security features designed to shield retailers from cyber threats while keeping sensitive customer data safe. This creates a more secure shopping environment, bolstering consumer trust and enabling retailers to confidently navigate the hustle and bustle of peak shopping seasons.

Stay in the black beyond November 

As Black Friday approaches, retailers must be prepared to meet the challenges of increased traffic. The Meraki platform offers a simple solution, providing the ability to scale, better engage with customers, streamline operations, gain actionable insights, and ensure data protection. This empowers retailers to provide a seamless shopping experience while efficiently managing the holiday rush. Embrace the power of cloud networking technology and elevate your retail success this Black Friday and beyond.

To learn more about Meraki solutions for retail, register to visit our booth at the National Retail Foundation (NRF) show this January.

The post Navigating Black Friday & Beyond appeared first on The Meraki Blog.