The News: Cisco, a provider of enterprise networking and security solutions, unveiled its AI-driven Cisco Security Cloud solution to simplify cybersecurity and empower distributed workforces at Cisco Live. Read the full Press Release from Cisco here.
Cisco Live 2023: Cisco Launches AI-Powered Security Cloud to Empower Enterprise Security Teams
Analyst Take: Cisco deftly used its annual Cisco Live 2023 event to announce its AI-driven Security Cloud solution, aimed primarily at empowering security teams to meet the expanding challenges of an increasingly intricate threat landscape by streamlining operations and boosting efficiency. Cisco’s multi-year investments in AI and machine learning (ML) played an integral role in the launch of Cisco Secure Access, Cisco’s new security service edge (SSE) solution.
In my assessment, Cisco is directly addressing the topmost security concerns of enterprise IT decision makers by designing Cisco Secure Access to provide swifter detection and response, single cloud-managed console, and common access experience capabilities. For instance, Cisco collaborated with Apple to incorporate Zero Trust Access (ZTA) powered by Cisco Secure Access into a native experience on iOS and macOS, making secure access to applications universal, while making it easier for IT to implement as well as more secure for all users.
Generative AI Is Ready to Play an Integral Role in Cisco Security Cloud
I see Cisco’s preview of the first generative AI capabilities in the Security Cloud as essential to ensuring that enterprise customers can quickly remediate threats and decrease the policy complexity across their existing security implementations. Today, too many organizations are using a fragmented security framework based on the variety of products they have adopted and accumulated over the years, which has made security more difficult to apply efficiently across distributed workforces.
As such, security teams are obliged to administer complex, multi-pronged security policies while countering increasingly sophisticated threats across multiple solutions. Now the Cisco Security Cloud will be able to use a generative AI-enabled Policy Assistant that enables Security and IT administrators to describe granular security policies and assess how to best implement them throughout different aspects of their security infrastructure. Plus, Cisco’s SOC Assistant can support the Security Operations Center (SOC) to identify and counter threats quicker.
Moreover, the new Cisco Firewall 4200 Series supports the cryptographic acceleration, clustering, and modularity that uses AI and ML-based encrypted threat blocking without decryption and the evolved application of Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) with comprehensive threat inspection and policy for each individual application.
Through the recent acquisition of Valtix, Cisco unveiled Cisco Multicloud Defense, developed to unify security controls across all cloud environments. As a result, we can expect that customers can experience a consolidated, unified control plane for their public and private cloud environments, enabling the writing of a policy once and distributing it wherever its applicable. Additionally, Cisco is ready to deliver an integrated approach to secure cloud native applications from code to cloud using Panoptica, Cisco’s cloud native application security offering.
I find that Cisco’s development of Panoptica by the Outshift at Cisco teams puts the company in a strong position to drive innovation across cloud native, edge native, AI, and quantum technologies, especially in the security domain. Starting in September 2023, Panoptica will offer cloud security protection from development to runtime, to make it easier for teams to adopt DevSecOps best practices and secure applications, workloads, and the cloud resources they run on.
Additionally, Cisco is ensuring that its entire portfolio is immune to quantum computing-generated cyberthreats by implementing its optimized crypto mechanisms across all its products, assuring post-quantum safe technologies and outcomes. Cisco is committed to working with partners to use quantum computing to use security analytics in areas such as correlation of security signals and additional innovations that counter quantum-originated cyberattacks.
Key Takeaways: Cisco Launches AI-Powered Security Cloud to Empower Enterprise Security Teams
I anticipate that Cisco has the ecosystem-wide influence and portfolio resources to accelerate enterprise adoption of cloud security solutions with greater confidence. From my view, Cisco can provide valuable support not only in improving overall cloud-related security, but also in providing insight and assistance in areas such as upholding emerging AI rules and regulations including protecting intellectual property (IP) across generative AI environments as well as best practices for using AI ethically.
Overall, I believe Cisco is the trusted partner that enterprises can rely on to advance their AI-powered security cloud journey. Cisco Secure Access in combination with new security offerings such as Cisco Firewall 4200 Series, Cisco Multicloud Defense, and Panoptica, fulfill the topmost security priorities of enterprises, assuring that the security and IT teams can streamline their overall security implementations by delivering swifter detection and response, single cloud-managed console, and common access experience capabilities.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
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Author Information
Ron is an experienced, customer-focused research expert and analyst, with over 20 years of experience in the digital and IT transformation markets, working with businesses to drive consistent revenue and sales growth.
Ron holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from University of Nevada — Las Vegas and a Bachelor of Arts in political science/government from William and Mary.
