Showing posts with label Cisco Secure Connect. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cisco Secure Connect. Show all posts

Tuesday, 18 June 2024

Stay Compliant: Cisco Secure Workload Introduces State-of-the-art, Persona-based Reporting

Stay Compliant: Cisco Secure Workload Introduces State-of-the-art, Persona-based Reporting

Workload security tools draw the attention of diverse cohorts, united by a mission: fortifying hybrid cloud workloads. In a market filled with disparate tools, Secure Workload offers a tailored reporting solution that revolutionizes how SecOps, Network Administrators, and CxOs interact with their workload security solution.

A New Era of Informed Decision Making


Traditional workload security tools often fail to provide metrics tailored to the distinct needs of SecOps, Network Administrators, or CxOs. These tools fall short due to a lack of development focus on holistic user requirements and an inadequate understanding of the diverse metrics that each of them values.

For example, SecOps teams require detailed insights into Cisco Security Risk scores, workload vulnerabilities, and the effectiveness of security policies. NetOps, on the other hand, requires visibility into agent health and policy compliance, and CxOs need high-level summaries that demonstrate cost savings and ROI. Without these tailored insights, traditional tools fail to offer a comprehensive view of security effectiveness.

The shift towards DevSecOps, AI-driven security, and Cloud Native security has led to cumbersome back-and-forth communication and the need to share information across siloed network, security, and application development functions. In the past couple of years, we have seen a surge in productivity-enhancing feature requests from customers, driven by the challenges of siloed networks and security organizations not sharing information. This lack of integration highlights the critical need for a single pane of glass view that can provide a unified perspective of the organization’s security posture.

By consolidating data from various functions into one comprehensive dashboard, the Reporting Dashboard addresses these challenges facilitating smoother communication, enhanced collaboration, and more effective security management across all teams.

Addresses Challenges Directly


Let’s delve into the specific outcomes that the Reporting Dashboard delivers.

Stay Compliant: Cisco Secure Workload Introduces State-of-the-art, Persona-based Reporting
Reporting Dashboard Landing View

Data-driven Insights for CxO and SecOps

The feedback from CxO participants at Secure Workload’s Customer Advisory Board highlights the need for personalized reports that deliver actionable intelligence. The out-of-the-box summary of security, compliance, and evidence-based metrics is invaluable for the CxO. By showcasing the percentage of workloads protected with Secure Workload agent coverage on the license utilization chart and workspace policy coverage, SecOps can demonstrate tangible productivity gains to CxOs. Moreover, by quantifying the time savings in policy maintenance, SecOps, and Network Admins can provide CxOs with actionable analytics that illustrate the efficiency and effectiveness of their microsegmentation strategy.

This data-driven approach empowers CxOs to make informed decisions and strategically channel investments to optimize their company’s security posture.

Empower NetOps

NetOps enjoys enhanced visibility with the Reporting Dashboard, which provides a consolidated view of deployed agents and other assets. This allows NetOps to quickly identify and address agent issues, ensuring seamless operation of critical assets.

Policy Compliance is simplified through a single, unified view that highlights workspaces without enforcement and identifies policy discrepancies, and policy sync issues. This streamlined approach aids NetOps in ensuring policy compliance.

Insights from the Cluster Summary enable NetOps to establish retention policies for regulatory compliance and mitigate the risk of unauthorized access, while the Telemetry Summary provides a comprehensive view of telemetry sources and their health status enabling NetOps to swiftly identify and resolve issues.

The effectiveness of the ‘Telemetry Summary’ was validated when a customer shared their feedback –  “I like this quick viewpoint which should help troubleshoot duplicates.”​

Stay Compliant: Cisco Secure Workload Introduces State-of-the-art, Persona-based Reporting
Telemetry Summary section highlighting Inventory issues for NetOps

Elevate SecOps Productivity

◉ Prioritizing CVEs alleviates the challenge of CVE prioritization as shown in the image below.
◉ Providing workload summaries with enforcement status, enabling seamless policy enforcement assessment.

Stay Compliant: Cisco Secure Workload Introduces State-of-the-art, Persona-based Reporting
CVE Prioritization

Equipped with predefined rules and MITRE TTPs, CSW agents can detect suspicious application behavior with precision. Reporting Dashboard complements these capabilities by providing users with a brand-new intuitive experience.

Source: cisco.com

Wednesday, 12 June 2024

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

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: The Turn-Key SASE Solution for Managed Service Providers
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: The Turn-Key SASE Solution for Managed Service Providers
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