Visualize, validate policy and increase remote worker telemetry with Network Analytics Release 7.3.1

We have heard it before. Securing your organization isn’t getting any easier. The remote workforce is expanding the attack surface. We need context from users and endpoints to control proper access, and IT teams need to ensure our data stores are resilient and always available to gain the telemetry they need to reduce risk. Yes, zero trust is a great approach, but network segmentation in the workplace is hard, and it can shut down critical business functions if not deployed correctly.

To answer these challenges, we are excited to announce new features in Cisco Secure Network Analytics (formerly Stealthwatch). In 7.3.1, we are introducing TrustSec-based visualizations that allow network operations and security teams to instantly validate the intent of policies. This is a big jump that provides organizations the visibility required to confidently embrace network segmentation, a critical component of the zero-trust workplace.

To answer the remote work challenge, the Cisco Secure Network Analytics team has simplified how customers obtain user and endpoint context from AnyConnect. And to ensure the expanded attack surface doesn’t increase risk, Secure Network Analytics has advanced its integration with Cisco Talos, one of the largest threat intelligence teams in the world. But there is more; read on to learn how we virtualized the Data Store to simplify how organizations big and small ensure resiliency and manage the growing volumes of data required to stay a step ahead in the arms race that is network security.

TrustSec Analytics reports offer new ways to visualize group communications between SGTs

Secure Network Analytics’ TrustSec Analytics reporting capability leverages the Report Builder application and its integration with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) to automatically generate reports that map communications between Security Group Tags (SGTs) to provide users with unprecedented visibility into all communications across different groups within their environment. For security teams that want to adopt a group-based policy management program to build network segmentation but lack the resources to pursue one, TrustSec Analytics reporting lowers the entry point to doing so. Now any Secure Network Analytics user can effortlessly visualize, analyze, drill down into any inter-group communication, adopt the right policies, and adapt them to their environment’s needs.

Figure 1. A TrustSec Analytics report generated in Secure Network Analytics that displays volumetric communications between different SGTs that have been assigned and pulled directly from ISE.

Streamline policy violation investigations with TrustSec Policy Analytics reports

TrustSec Policy Analytics reports can also be generated to assess whether policies are being violated. By clicking on any cell in the report, users can gain insights into the volume of data being sent between any two groups, how that data is being distributed, the protocols being used, what ports they are operating on, and more.

Additionally, when it comes to the typically lengthy processes associated with determining a policy violation’s root cause, the capabilities offered by the TrustSec Policy Analytics report quite literally enable users to find the proverbial ‘offending-flow needles’ in their vast ‘network haystacks’. Rather than performing hours of cumbersome tasks such as conducting manual searches and cross-references across different datasets, users can get granular by drilling down into policy violations to view all associated IPs and related flows, associated endpoints, ISE-registered usernames, and events with timestamps on single pane. This effectively enables users to streamline their root cause analysis efforts and expedite their ability to diagnose why a policy violation occurred.

Figure 2. A TrustSec Policy Analytics report generated in Secure Network Analytics with intuitive color-coded cells and labels that indicate whether communications between different SGTs are violating a policy and require further investigation.

Increased Remote Worker Telemetry

Amidst the recent explosion of people working from home, organizations face new challenges related to monitoring and securing their remote workforces as they connect back to the network from anywhere and on anything.

Secure Network Analytics has made endpoint Network Visibility Module (NVM) data the primary telemetry source to meet these challenges, effectively eliminating the need for NetFlow to gain user and device context. Customers are gaining the following benefits:

◉ Simplified remote worker monitoring with endpoint NVM data becoming a primary telemetry source

◉ More efficient remote worker telemetry monitoring by collecting and storing on-network NVM endpoint records without the need for NetFlow

◉ Increased Endpoint Concentrator ingestion bandwidth to support up to 60K FPS

◉ NVM driven custom alerting and endpoint flow context

Figure 3. Examples of NVM driven custom alerting and endpoint flow context within the Secure Network Analytics Manager.

Introducing the Secure Network Analytics Virtual Data Store!

The Secure Network Analytics Data Store is now supported as a virtual appliance offering. Similar to the Data Store that was introduced in 7.3.0, the virtual Data Store offers a new and improved database architecture design for Secure Network Analytics that enables new ways of storing and interacting with data more efficiently. A virtual Data Store supports a 3-node database cluster with flow ingest from virtual Flow Collectors.  This new architecture decouples ingest from data storage to offer the following benefits:

◉ Query and reporting response times improved by a significant (10x faster!) magnitude

◉ Scalable and long-term telemetry storage capabilities with no need for additional Flow Collectors

◉ Enterprise-class data resiliency to allow for seamless data availability during virtual machine failures

◉ Increased data ingest capacity of up to 220K flows per second (FPS)

◉ Flexible deployment options – as a fully virtualized appliance, the Virtual Data Store does not require additional rack space and can be rapidly deployed using your existing infrastructure

Enhanced security analytics

As threats continue to evolve, so do the analytical capabilities of Secure Network Analytics to deliver fast and high-fidelity threat detections. The cloud-based machine learning engine has been updated to include:

◉ System alarms have been ported to appear as notifications in the Web UI

◉ Brand new confirmed threat detections related to ransomware, remote access trojans (RAT) and malware distribution

Figure 4. New confirmed ransomware, remote access trojan (RAT) and malware distribution-related threat detections.

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Explore NSO in the new Always-On DevNet Sandbox

Today’s model-driven programmability makes the network a core foundation for revenue generation. Therefore, companies must implement network orchestration to simplify their entire lifecycle management for services. For virtualized networks, this means transparent orchestration that spans multiple domains in the network and includes network functions virtualization (NFV), and software-defined networking (SDN), and the traditional physical network with all its components.

This is where Network Service Orchestration or NSO steps up. NSO is a model-driven (YANG) platform for automating your network orchestration. It supports multi-vendor networks through a rich variety of Network Element Drivers (NEDs). Supporting it supports the process of validation and implementing, as well as abstracting network configuration and network services, and providing support for the entire transformation into intent-based networking.

How does it work?

NSO gathers, parses, and stores the configuration state of the network devices it manages in a configuration database (CDB). Users and other applications can then ask NSO to create, read, update, or delete configurations in a programmatic way either ad hoc or through customizable network services. NSO uses software packages called Network Element Drivers (NEDs) to facilitate telnet, SSH, or API interactions with the devices that it manages. The NED provides an abstraction layer that reads in the device’s running configuration and parses it into a data-model-validated snapshot in the CDB. 

The NEDs also allow for the reverse – i.e., creating network configuration from CDB data inputs and then sending the configurations to the network devices. There are hundreds of NEDs covering all the Cisco platforms (including IOS-XE, IOS-XR, NX-OS, and ASA) and all major non-Cisco platforms. 

Want to get hands-on now? 

You’re in luck! Check out the new DevNet NSO sandbox. You’ll find a production NSO server deployed to manage the multi-platform network within the sandbox environment lab. This network is made up of Cisco NX-OS, IOS, IOS XE, IOS XR, and ASA devices, and includes Linux hosts which can be used as clients for connectivity testing. 

This always-on sandbox lab provides access to everything you need to explore the APIs for NSO, as well as develop network automation packages and services for use in your networks.   If you are just getting started with NSO APIs check out the new updated Postman Collection which has been updated to work with the new always-on NSO Sandbox. 

Now you have everything you need to get started with NSO – Import, the collection in your Postman client set the environment for the new Always-On NSO sandbox and start making API calls today! You can find the new DevNet NSO sandbox here, no reservation is required.

And for all things NSO, visit and bookmark the DevNet NSO Dev Center.

Source: cisco.com

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SAN Insights Discovery: The Match-maker tool for SAN

From the dictionary of Oxford: match·mak·er  /ˈmaCHˌmākər/  a person who arranges relationships and marriages between others, either informally or, in certain cultural communities as a formal occupation.

But what is the matchmaker doing here?

Well, in the past few years, we have seen new speeds and feeds generating a lot of synergy in the FC storage and FC switching market. It took ~5 years to transition from magnetic spinning discs based storage HDDs to Hybrid arrays, followed by All-Flash Arrays. Now, looking at the new transition into NVMe, it seems like NVMe will be mainstream very soon.

At the same time, SAN switching took ~5-6 years to transition from 16G FC to 32G FC. But it took only 3 years for 64G FC to become a reality.

New things bring fresh challenges, right? The same goes for all SAN switching infrastructure. Whether it is a Cisco or non-Cisco SAN, it requires considerable effort to identify the right platform, technology, and set of required features.

Challenges:

There are tools in the market to help meet these challenges; however, there are also concerns:

1. Future readiness: Is my SAN ready for Nextgen FC features (64G, NVMe, etc.)?

2. Security: Is my data secured and following all security rules and adhere to security policies?

3. Interoperability: Can this tool identify and support multi-vendor switching environments?

4. Multi-platform support: Is it supported across multiple client OS?

The solution:

With Cisco’s recent announcement of the SAN Insights Discovery (SID) tool, all of the above challenges are met, along with some additional benefits:

1. Nextgen Ready SAN: The report will provide component-level details that can help us identify if the SAN is ready for 64G FC speed.

2. Security: It follows the rules set by the customer. Customers decide who they want to share their data with and when. The tool has the option to integrate the Single Sign-On for authentication.

3. Usability: A tiny program that can run on Windows or Linux workstation. Simply provide the management IP address of any NPIV enabled switch in the fabric, using read-only account authentication, and the tool will do the rest.

4. Result accuracy: Run this tool for a longer period of time (to capture more performance statistics) and it will prepare a more detailed, accurate picture of your SAN.

5. Migration help: Lastly, it will help you migrate/refresh by converting your existing (Cisco or non-Cisco) switch configs to Cisco MDS based SAN fabric configuration.

There is also this common saying for this analogy: Sometimes, you don’t need to make a mountain out of a molehill. That’s the story of this tool. A small, tiny tool can help you – scan, identify, suggest, install and migrate/refresh to Cisco MDS based SAN fabric.

Ok, enough talking, what’s in it for you?

For Partners: Engage with your customers, recommend them to run the tool, suggest the right platform, and help them migrate and close business smoothly. More details can be found here (Cisco Partner level access required).

For Customers: Identify the current usage, the future requirements, select the right platform based on actual usage, and deploy without disruption. That’s a huge saving and prevents budget overspending.

That’s like extra icing on the cake, right?

And that’s the story of match-maker in our context: Identify, visualize and suggest Nextgen Cisco MDS SAN switches to our customers.

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How Can Webex Control Hub Help You, the IT Admin?

A Day in the Life of the IT Admin

8:50 AM (EST): It’s the start of a typical workday, and you’ve been notified that users are having trouble joining meetings and experiencing poor video quality. You’re an IT admin at an enterprise in the middle of a large product launch, and critical virtual meetings across your leadership teams are reporting technical issues with their meetings.

As IT admins, we’ve all been through periods when the services we provide are experiencing higher than normal workloads — the type of scenario we’ve planned for. But layer on top of that a forced remote work environment brought on by a pandemic and the scenario expands, requiring additional resources, expansion of our collaboration footprint, and additional capacity. We’ve all had to pivot to the new normal.

8:53 AM (EST): You set out to tackle the issue as you normally would, but now, with Webex Control Hub, you have visibility in real-time into what’s happening across your collaboration ecosystem, along with actionable insights as to how to address it.

Digging deeper into Control Hub, you can see the dramatic increase in the total number of meetings — a trend you’ve been watching for the past month as your firm ramped up preparations for the launch.

Dig in further, you can confirm a significant increase in the number of participants. You see poor video quality indications and that colleagues in the London area are having trouble joining meetings. Plus, diving into a specific meeting that ended 20 minutes ago, you can see that your VP of product marketing, based outside London, has significant issues with their device.

Diagnosis? You first discover that their Desk Pro doesn’t have the latest patch installed. Second, after verifying with ThousandEyes that VP’s internet service provider is having issues, you can confirm the network issue on the provider’s network status pages.

8:57 AM (EST): Armed with this near real-time insight, you can act! You quickly notify the VP of product marketing that your team is remotely installing the latest firmware patch for the Desk Pro. Plus, you communicate that their provider is aware of their network traffic issue and working to resolve it within the hour.

9:37 AM (EST): You receive notification that your VP’s firmware has been updated and that the internet provider has resolved their issue — all in time for a critical meeting marketing has with analysts and media at the top of the hour. You set a Webex Notification in Control Hub to track your VP’s meetings so that you can get an email alert in case you VP has any media quality issues.

Reducing IT’s Response Time While Empowering Long-Term Planning

Webex Control Hub received a significant revamp. With an improved user experience design, faster load times, trending charts with summary statistics, and contextual filtering capabilities, gaining visibility into the performance of your organization’s collaboration has become easier and in near real time. The result is a dramatic decrease in your team’s response time.

At the same time, with Control Hub, the partnership between your team and the business is bolstered by real insights into adoption and performance. As your organization looks to the future and planning for hybrid work environments is being debated, a better understanding of trends becomes a vital tool in planning for success. You’re able to identify gaps and weaknesses, highlight opportunities to improve, and document models that work well.

9:48 AM (EST): You continue with your morning, reviewing incident reports and monitoring systems. All services are stable, the engine is humming, and you’re free to move on to the next part of your day. You spend the following 30 minutes preparing for your meeting with the head of HR, where you’ll be reviewing the latest version of an internal HR monitoring tool. This tool provides a top-level view of the company’s team collaboration and meeting trends, leveraging data from Webex through Control Hub APIs and other data sources.

Webex Control Hub: An Essential IT Admin Tool

At Webex, we’re working to make sure Control Hub increases your ability to monitor and manage your collaboration experiences. We understand the role IT admins play in managing these complex ecosystems and how you participate in the planning for new work models, growth, and employee engagement.

Source: cisco.com

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A Framework for Continuous Security

Technology is at the core of business today. Maintaining the resiliency of critical data, assets, systems, and the network is mission-critical; crucial to meeting business goals. As a result, development operations (DevOps) professionals must continuously improve the overall resilience —along with the security posture — of workloads, software, and applications (Figure 1). To do this at scale and speed requires the integration of a suite of application security tools in the continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines that automate posture assessment and provide visibility to help manage security risks.

At Cisco, we learned early on that application security processes were inhibiting our business agility. We knew we had to embrace an Agile and DevOps culture as early adopters to deliver software products based on business demands rapidly and iteratively. Agile DevOps without application security automation leads to a “hurry up and wait” situation, where some processes move quickly only to be bogged down by others. With evolving technologies such as cloud, Docker, Kubernetes, open-source as well as daily and frequent release cycles, it is hard for application security teams to keep up with the threat landscape. In a typical modern application development and deployment technology stack, 80% of the code base is comprised of third-party software. Only 20% is custom code. Most of the security breaches we have seen in recent years were entirely preventable had there been necessary security measures taken, not only for the custom code but also for the third-party software.

We set out to create a DevSecOps culture that empowers the application teams to continuously build and deploy secure applications instead of being gated by a central security function. To do this, we integrated and orchestrated a suite of application security tools within CI/CD pipelines under a program called Continuous Security Buddy (CSB) for CI/CD pipeline edition. It enables the development teams to ramp up their application security program while making application security transparent and friction-free.

Figure 1: DevSecOps – Security Implementation as Code

We used the following basic principles in the design of the program:

◉ Co-design and co-develop the security automation solution so it can work for the DevOps teams

◉ Integrate the DevSecOps workflow and empower the developers by giving them the flexibility to choose their application security tools

◉ Propagate security compliance requirements and hence eliminate the security friction points between security and development teams that impact development velocity

Co-design and Co-development of the Solution

We initially co-designed and co-developed CSB for CI/CD re-usable automated security capabilities using joint scrum planning with teams from Cisco Webex. To encourage adoption across development teams, we created an innovative, configurable rollout of CSB for CI/CD shared libraries to simplify the process.

Shared libraries are a collection of pipeline code made for Jenkins that can be used by any pipeline to reference any available code quickly. With one line of code in Jenkins, developers can access all the security scans available in the shared library. The shared library framework simplifies the code contribution workflow via the inner-source process and reusable code configuration in the pipeline by any team using Jenkins.

We quickly learned that we needed to provide CI-agnostic solutions for teams that used other CI tools. We offered such a solution using containers that are published in a centralized repository for development teams to access via Docker.

Security Scan Flexibility

Users can choose what type of automated security scans they want to configure and run. For example, a production pipeline may consist of a binary image scan, static code analysis scans, and a way to view a consolidated report of scans. The final step in the automation process is to send the scan results aligned to Security Control Framework (SCF) to a centralized security platform to meet compliance requirements. These features are all available as part of the shared library and the user needs to add configuration parameters to run it. As part of the CI process, security scans are configured and triggered to run whenever there is a code change. Developers can then continuously monitor the scan results for any new security issues.

Automated Compliance Reporting

Using the CSB for CI/CD shared library, teams can view reports generated from each security scan on the Jenkins dashboard and identify any failing security issues. Teams can also send the security results data to a centralized interface to Jira to help in various assessment processes, such as reviews by security architects. A consolidated report is generated (as shown in Figure 2), which shows an overall compliance score that considers which scans were enabled in the job, (e.g., binary scans, static code analysis, and dynamic scans). Developers can then use this report to view any quick fixes to improve the security posture.

Figure 2. CSB for CI/CD Scan Report

Measuring Progress and Success

After initial development with our Webex team, we scaled the CSB CI/CD approach across several business units at Cisco. We measured the agility, reliability, efficiency, quality, and success of the CSB for CI/CD shared library to ensure the system was operating effectively.

With the program now in place for over a year, some of business value we were able to deliver is captured in Figure 3.

Figure 3. CSB for CI/CD Benefits

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Best Tips for Passing Cisco 300-715 SISE Exam Hassle-Free

Cisco claimed the new CCNP Security Certification aims to allow network security engineers expected to design, deploy, maintain, and administer end-to-end network security solutions. Implementing and Configuring Cisco Identity Services Engine v1.0 (SISE 300-715) has been created to qualify applicants for Cisco CCNP Security 300-715 SISE exam and obtain a certificate. Cisco 300-715 SISE exam is comprising of 55-65 questions answerable in 90 minutes.

The CCNP Security 300-715 SISE Exam's core objective is to sharpen the skills and improve applicants' knowledge concerning implementing routing and switching protocols in a Data Center environment.

Cisco 300-715 SISE exam assess your knowledge of Cisco Identify Services Engine, including:

• Architecture and deployment
• Policy enforcement
• Web Auth and guest services
• Profiler
• BYOD
• Endpoint compliance
• Network access device administration

How Can You Prepare for the CCNP Security 300-715 SISE Certification Exam?

To pass the Cisco 300-715 SISE exam, you need to have a thorough preparation plan because passing the Cisco certification exam is not a cakewalk. All the more, your performance will always impart to your potential employers how skilled you are in network security technologies. Thus, you have to study smartly. Here is how you can pass your Cisco 300-715 exam effortlessly and that too with a good score:

1. Go through Cisco 300-715 Exam Objectives

To stay consistent and study the required concepts, you need to ensure that you soak up every topic included in the Cisco 300-715 syllabus. Moreover, you can use the exam objectives as a blueprint or a checklist to make out the gaps in your knowledge.

2. Take Exam Preparation Sincerely

Preparing for Cisco 300-715 SISE exam should be your #1 priority before you even think of scheduling your exam. Ensure that you take up your preferred learning method because preparation can be an intimidating task if you use methods that annoy you. The preparation process should be absorbing and stimulating. If you like video tutorials, then explore youtube, where you will find a significant number of videos related to the Cisco 300-715 SISE exam and relevant technology.

3. Utilize Cisco 300-715 SISE Practice Tests

You know what they say, practice makes perfect! This is why you should take as many Cisco 300-715 SISE practice tests as possible before your scheduled exam date. To help you consistently revise the concepts you studied, it is also going to help you find out the distinct topics where you have to work on your skills.

Besides, you will get an idea of what the actual exam appears to be, eliminating the shock factor in the Cisco 300-715 SISE exam. When you are doing the practice tests, you enhance your time management skills. There are 90-110 questions that you are expected to answer in the CCIE 400-101 exam, and you will have about one and half a minute for every question.

4. Engage in the Online Community

There is nothing more intense than correlating with fellow peers who have the same vision as you. An online community is an excellent platform for sharing ideas, taking challenges, and finding extra preparation materials. The online community members are real exam takers and seasoned experts who can tell you how Cisco 300-715 SISE exam is set and help you solve problems you may encounter during your preparation. Therefore, the online community pretends a vital role in ensuring that you get support and extensive training.

5. Formulate a Plan for Your Exam Day

Before the actual exam day arrives, plan it properly not to get stressed during the exam. Ensure that you have everything that you require before you start your 300-715 SISE. You can create a list to make sure that you have not left anything behind. Be calm and rest well so that you can be active and energetic on this momentous day.

6. Free Your Mind

Yes, free your mind! Your time to shine has ultimately come. Take control of your thoughts and direct all the energy to the exam you are about ace. Avoid thinking of your work responsibilities or any other commitment. Be focused – keep in mind that you have delivered your best for the exam preparation so that you can get a flying score in the Cisco 300-715 exam.

7. Read the Questions Carefully

During the exam, you have to concentrate on every word of every question. Many people have failed their Cisco exams because of the hurry and anxiety. Pay close attention to the terms that are somehow pointed out in the text (uppercase/bold type). If you get stuck, apply the elimination method. By eliminating the most unlikely options, you can get the correct answer.

Conclusion

If you wish to ace the Cisco 300-715 exam on the first try, try to concentrate on covering all the topics and prepare for all types of questions. If you have some experience working with network security technologies, it should surely help. Just make sure to take out the maximum of studying with practice tests once you feel all the topics covered, and crack your exam! Happy Learning!!

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DevNet Automation Bootcamps Overcome the Forgetting Curve

We’ve all heard about the learning curve – showing the relationship between time spent studying material and proficiency.

The Learning Curve

Research indicates that there are multiple factors that impact the technology learning curve – or how quickly people can learn new technologies.

Some of them include:

◉ Motivation – this can come from internal motivation, work related motivation, or even the accountability provided by a good instructor

◉ Relevancy – training that is immediately relevant to your situation is more engaging

◉ Training modality – training that is multi-modal – visual, aural, kinesthetic (or see, hear, do) focused is, all else being equal, more successful than single modal

◉ Complexity of topic – more complex topics (ACI) are more difficult than simple topics (making a cheese sandwich).

◉ Repetition – repetition over several days

What many people don’t realize is that there is an analogous “forgetting curve,” which is surprisingly steep. Students sometimes leave a 5-day training and get back to their home environments and feel frustrated because they can’t do what they learned.

Forgetting Curve

DevNet Automation Bootcamps help your team focus, learn, and retain

The same factors that make it easier to learn new ideas, also help combat the forgetting curve. The newly launched DevNet Automation Bootcamp is based on recent andragogy research about not just how adults learn, but how to help them retain their knowledge.

The goal of a bootcamp is to maximize your team’s ability to leave with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to implement what you’ve learned.

Automation Bootcamps flatten the forgetting curve by providing an immersive training experience where we:

1. Focus on what you are most motivated to learn – the ideal customer for the Bootcamp has a goal, a big change, for example an implementation, taking over work from a vendor, building a new team, or implementing a new technology. The students generally need the skills, and they need them soon.  They know that they will be using what they learn within the next few months.  They are motivated.

2. Provide just the training you need and remove training you don’t – Every lecture and lab is relevant – the Cisco team starts by interviewing the customer and learning exactly what they need to know to succeed, and creating a tailored outline – focusing on the areas the customer needs and taking out any training they don’t need. This maximizes classroom time as all topics are identified as important for the success of their project.

3. Deliver training based on technical learning research and styles – the bootcamp brings together the best of instructor led training and self-paced training in a robust format that maximizes student learning and retention.

4. Reduce complexity – the mix of tailored content, multi-modal learning, repetition, and bootcamp style labs helps students internalize complex topics and take the learning back to their home environments and succeed.

5. Repeat concepts at different levels to lock in knowledge and build confidence – The training is broken up into three portions, and each portion reiterates and deepens the core knowledge of the topics:

◉ 5-days of instructor led training –This is foundational training focusing on the concepts, paradigms, and a deep introduction to the core concepts reinforced with over 40% labs

◉ 2-3 weeks of self-paced training with regular instructor led review sessions, leveraging the “flipped classroom” model and using repetition to settle the learning into the retention parts of the brain

◉ 4-days of hands-on deep dive lab where the students are taking their knowledge and applying it in hands on labs and building end-to-end solutions and/or troubleshooting real issues

In the 5-Day instructor-led training, you’ll work with Cisco experts to identify topics specific to your situation. In the 4-day deep dive lab, you’ll extend the skills you gained in the 5-day class

Examples of Automation Bootcamps Topics

ACI Troubleshooting and Operations Immersion Bootcamp

◉ 5-Day Instructor-led training – May include an introduction to ACI (fabric infrastructure, configuration) and ACI Operations (configuration management, monitoring, and troubleshooting)

◉ 4-day Deep Dive Lab – May include building an ACI fabric and troubleshoot issues and then explore ACI Multisite, ACI Multipod, hypervisor integration, complex ACI configuration problems.

ACI Automation Bootcamp

◉ 5-Day Instructor-led training – May include an introduction to automation (Python, APIs, and more) and then dive into ACI automation with Python, SDKs, tools, and more.

◉ 4-day Deep Dive Lab – May include exploring automation actions, tools, toolkits, SDKs and doing deep labs on ACI REST API interface, ACI API Inspector, ACIToolkit, Ansible, pyATS, and CI/CD pipelines using GitLab-CI.

NSO Automation Bootcamp

◉ 5-Day Instructor-led training – May include intro to NSO (components, use cases, installation, NETCONF/YANG, manage devices) NSO services, administration, and DevOps.

◉ 4-day Deep Dive Lab – May include exploring introductory techniques such as installation, the network CLI and config database, and more. Or choose to practice advanced topics such as Python-powered services, advanced YANG constructs, northbound integratiosn, and more.

NX-OS Automation Bootcamp

◉ 5-Day Instructor-led training – May include an intro to automation (Python, APIs, and more) and exploration of NX-OS automation (day-zero provisioning, on-box / off-box programmability, and telemetry).

◉ 4-day Deep Dive Lab – May include performing complete automation actions and learning the roles of tools, toolkits, and SDKs. You will build gain immersive experience with technologies such as NX-API CLI and NX-API REST, model-driven programmability, GuestShell, Ansible, NX-SDK, pyATS, CML, and CI/CD pipelines using GitLab-CI.

Meraki Automation Bootcamp

◉ 5-Day Instructor-led training – May include intro to automation (Python, APIs, and more) and Meraki automation (workflows, APIs, and more)

◉ 4-day Deep Dive Lab – May include exploring Meraki Dashboard and REST, Meraki action batches, and troubleshoot common Meraki issues, or focus on automation provisioning and configuration.

SDA Product Immersion Bootcamp

◉ SDA 5-Day Instructor-led training – May include an introduction to SDA (Cisco SDA fundamentals, provisioning, policies, wireless integration, and border operations) and SDA operations (operating, managing, and integrating Cisco DNA Center, and understanding programmable network infrastructure)

◉ SDA 4-day Deep Dive Lab – May include performing complete SDA implementation tasks. You will build an SD-Access fabric network and nodes and then solve common issues using troubleshooting use cases.

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