Cisco announced new intent-based networking solutions to help optimize business and network operations.

The new innovations, focused on simplifying automation and providing IT and business insights, will enable IT teams to be agile, while staying closely aligned with business objectives. This alignment has never been more important than in today’s dynamic business environment.

“In today’s everchanging world, it is critical for a business’s network to be in tune with its strategic goals, whether that’s supporting and securing a remote workforce, accelerating expansion to the cloud, or driving business transformation,” said Scott Harrell SVP and GM of Cisco's Intent-based Networking Group. “With today’s announcement, Cisco is helping IT rapidly roll out advanced networking and security capabilities by simplifying and automating segmentation and cloud-based security at scale. We’re delivering on our promise to build a networking platform that continues to deliver innovation to help customers, no matter where they are on their intent-based networking journey.”

Cisco is providing advanced automation capabilities to drive better user experiences, while simplifying processes for IT. Automation has become foundational to increasing IT efficiency, enabling IT teams to become increasingly flexible and proactive while reducing the amount of time simply maintaining the network. New automation innovations include:

- Cisco SD-WAN Innovations: Cisco SD-WAN powered by Viptela now offers complete cloud-native security through the integration with Cisco Umbrella to deliver protection to enterprises against major web attacks arising from SaaS and Internet access. Cisco Umbrella offers secure web gateway (SWG), DNS-layer security, firewall, and cloud access security broker (CASB) functionality in one integrated cloud service. With automated provisioning and simplified licensing, Cisco SD-WAN unified with Cisco Umbrella is fast to deploy and easy to consume while delivering an optimized user experience and the best security protection. This convergence of security and networking is a crucial step for customers as they move towards a SASE architecture. Other new SD-WAN innovations include support for multicast and integrated voice and unified communications.

- Cisco User-Defined Networks: With Cisco User-Defined Networks, IT staff can provide end-users control of their own wireless network partition through Cisco DNA Center. End-users have the ability to securely onboard their devices, as well as control which devices can connect to their own personal network partition through the User Defined Network mobile app.

Cisco is expanding insights to previously unmonitored devices, granting IT the ability to drive more efficient segmentation and better manage IoT devices. Network segmentation – the act of dividing the network into smaller parts to improve performance and security - has traditionally been a difficult task, particularly in environments with an evolving and diverse ecosystem of IoT endpoints. To help solve for this challenge, Cisco is introducing:

- AI Endpoint Analytics: With AI Endpoint Analytics, Cisco DNA Center will identify previously unknown endpoints​ at scale, then use various contextual sources and artificial intelligence to logically group them. With this information, IT can create the basis for scalable, automated policies​.

- Group-based policy analytics: Cisco DNA Center can analyze traffic flows between groups of endpoints to design policies that can be used as the basis for proper segmentation.

Cisco’s indoor location services platform, Cisco DNA Spaces is adding new capabilities to extend visibility and provide information to businesses as they look to maintain safe physical spaces.

- Cisco DNA Spaces for Return to Business:Cisco has added real-time and historical analysis tools to the platform, designed to help businesses monitor workspaces to meet social distancing guidelines. Customers can leverage built-in apps to monitor real-time density in buildings and analyze how buildings are being utilized. This information is critical as businesses aim to help keep people safe, while making workspaces more effective and efficient.

- Indoor IoT Services: Cisco DNA Spaces introduces the industry’s first Indoor IoT-as-a-Service offering on WiFi-6 access points to help customers rapidly and cost-effectively deploy indoor IoT applications at scale. Cisco DNA Spaces simplifies activation, configuration and management of a wide number of supported IoT devices, including support for Bluetooth (BLE) devices. Through Cisco’s wide ecosystem of industry partners, Cisco DNA Spaces enables asset tracking, environmental monitoring of employee safety, space utilization, room finding and other use cases across healthcare, workspaces, retail, education, manufacturing and hospitality verticals.

Cisco’s intent-based networking portfolio is designed to deliver consistent, ongoing innovation to customers. Through software-based platforms, built on industry-leading hardware, Cisco can provide the flexible, secure network a business needs to drive business transformation and stay resilient in uncertain times.

Cisco DNA Center and Cisco DNA Spaces innovations will be available in the summer of 2020.

Cisco SD-WAN innovations are available now.