Cisco Secure Connect: The Turn-Key SASE Solution for Managed Service Providers

We understand that Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are always on the lookout for solutions that can streamline their service delivery while ensuring top-notch security for their clients. Cisco Secure Connect stands out as a turnkey Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) offering that simplifies the deployment and management of multi-customer SASE environments. Here’s why MSPs should be paying attention to Cisco Secure Connect and considering it for their managed service offerings.

What is Cisco Secure Connect?

Cisco Secure Connect is a unified SASE solution that enables secure access to applications and resources no matter where they are hosted, from any location and at any time. It is built on the robust Meraki platform, bringing together networking and security services through a single, user-friendly interface, simplifying the management of complex multi-cloud environments.

Why Should MSPs Care?

Secure Connect MSP portal capabilities are inherited from the existing Meraki MSP architecture. For MSPs, operational efficiency and the ability to provide a seamless service experience are critical. Cisco Secure Connect, with its new Meraki GUI, enhances the admin experience by streamlining workflows, allowing for easier deployment, usage, and management through a unified cloud dashboard. This improves agility, speed, and scalability, reducing operational complexities.

Cisco Secure Connect MSP Architecture

The Global Overview Page, replacing the older “MSP portal page” and offering a summary view of all customer environments. This allows MSP admins to manage multiple organizations with a single login, while still maintaining customer privacy as each organization’s licensing, inventory, users, and configurations are treated independently. The global dashboard is customizable to select and display the required columns. Also the view can change based on “Organisations”, “ Networks” or “Network Tags”.

Cisco Secure Connect Global Overview Page

Benefits of Adding Cisco Secure Connect to Your Managed Offering

Easy Operations: Raise support tickets directly from each organization’s page on Secure Connect. The platform provides unified support, making troubleshooting for both network (Meraki) and security (Umbrella) simpler.

Global Overview Page: serves as the command centre. This page has been enhanced with a new “Ticket” column, so MSP admins can view and manage support tickets for each organization with ease.

Dashboard Branding: Cisco Secure Connect allows MSPs to brand their dashboard, providing a personalized experience for clients. If this feature isn’t visible, MSPs can request activation through a support ticket.

Automation: Cisco is introducing an integrated API for Secure Connect, consolidating what used to require separate calls to Meraki and Umbrella APIs. This streamlines automation workflows and maintains a unified platform approach.

Monetization: Cisco Secure Connect is based on the Meraki cloud platform, enabling MSPs to upsell additional services without added management overhead. For instance, MSPs can extend their offerings to include physical security by provisioning Meraki smart cameras, all managed from the same portal.

Final Thoughts

Don’t hesitate to reach out to your existing Meraki SD-WAN customers and discuss layering security for secure internet and cloud access. With Cisco Secure Connect, you can augment your managed SD-WAN offering by adding security features with just a few clicks, providing a comprehensive SASE experience.

MSPs looking to simplify their operations while expanding their service portfolio should consider Cisco Secure Connect as a strategic addition to their managed services. It’s a solution that not only brings efficiency but also opens the door to new revenue opportunities.

Source: cisco.com

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Why IT Leaders Are Evolving the Network into a High-Performance Digital Engine

In 2024, digital methods of payment are outpacing cash. 3D printers are becoming a fixture in implant surgery and AI is adding color to the world for people who are visually impaired, using just a phone—and the network.

Society expects and depends on an ever-increasing fusion of digital and physical experiences for everyday life and business progress. This dependency is apparent in the 2024 Cisco Global Networking Trends Report, which shows a continued correlation between network investment in fueling digital experiences and the benefits felt by organizations.

When the 2,000+ IT leaders surveyed were asked about their network investment and results over the past 12 months, they quickly pointed to a clear uptick in every key business metric: increased customer and employee satisfaction, improved operational efficiency, and business growth.

The road to success has been bumpy.

Driving transformation while on empty

IT is at the helm of delivering digital experiences, and the pressure is more intense than ever. Network architectures are more sophisticated, more complex, and spread across more multiclouds and multi-vendors than ever. IT leaders are also besieged by rising cybersecurity risks, increased demand from new app and workload types, and vastly distributed workforces and infrastructures.

Even more, over a third of respondents use multiple, separate management systems or ad hoc integrations when managing their campus, branch, WAN, data center, and multicloud architectures.

Identifying or solving just one network issue is currently a dizzying swivel-chair operation as IT teams hop between various management systems. Some respondents even admit they currently have no API-driven network ecosystem integrations today, meaning these management systems are working independently and inefficiently.

After years of grappling with point solutions deployed during the pandemic, that in part led to current IT challenges, there have been bright spots.

Over a third (39%) of IT leaders shared that they currently use a platform architecture across some networking domains and strongly support platform adoption. They see the value of a platform approach leading to faster IT and business innovation (43%), improved network performance and security posture (40%), and cost savings (37%). Also clear is that a platform equals the simplicity of having software, policy, open APIs, advanced telemetry, and automation all in one place.

So, it’s no surprise that respondents said 72% of their organizations will adopt a network platform to handle one or more network domains within two years. Even more, 39% of them expect to scale across all networking domains, as shown in the maturity model below.

Figure 1: This graphic compares the status of network maturity today vs. where respondents expect to be in two years.

Blind spots ahead

Deploying and managing digital experiences and ensuring everything is up and working—at scale—is top-of-mind for IT, and it hasn’t proven easy.

Providing service reliability to ensure predictable and consistent user experiences is an area for significant improvement for 41% of respondents. A key factor is the lack of visibility into complete network paths, including internet and cloud networks, according to 35% of respondents. IT leaders feel hampered in assuring the digital experience and achieving digital resilience across owned and unowned infrastructure—more on this from me at Cisco Live 2024.

The alarms are going off

As digital experiences and the network scales, so does the threat landscape. According to the report, 40% of IT leaders cite cybersecurity risks as their number one concern impacting network strategy over the next 12 months. They’re looking to combat these threats in a few ways.

First is integrating network and security processes, technology, and tools, with half of respondents making this their top network security investment over the next two years. Second is moving more security tools to the cloud to protect the increasingly distributed infrastructure and workforce better.

Like cybersecurity, we can’t have a conversation in 2024 without AI.

Speeding ahead with AI

The promise of AI is the needed reprieve for IT organizations struggling with a lack of resources and automation to handle basic operational tasks. Only 5% of respondents believe their teams are equipped to deliver the innovations needed to help steer business strategy, satisfy customers, and optimize operations.

Within two years, 60% expect AI-enabled predictive automation across all domains to manage and simplify network operations.

Data center upgrade plans for greater throughput and scalability to meet the AI need include enhanced Ethernet (56% of respondents). 59% of respondents also plan to simplify their data center network operations with AIOps within two years.

This is just a snippet from the 2024 Global Networking Trends Report. It provides a critical perspective from IT leaders who must ensure the network delivers secure digital experiences for all. One thing is clear: the network continues to be in the driver’s seat for digital experiences and a catalyst for business transformation.

Source: cisco.com

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