AIOps Drives Exceptional Digital Experience Through Network Assurance

The distributed workforce―and the distributed applications and services they consume―have vastly changed the enterprise network paradigm. Many connections—such as private cloud, internet, public cloud, multicloud, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) networks—now begin and end outside of the traditional corporate infrastructure. The coexistence of these complex connections creates new layers of operational complexity for teams responsible for ensuring predictable performance and quality of service.

What is needed to combat this complexity is a network assurance platform that includes true end-to-end visibility capabilities. Insight is needed into users and their devices, locations, and connected things, as well as into access networks, network services, multiple clouds, and corporate enterprise data centers and applications (Figure 1). A solution that combines these different data sets and uses artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to analyze the data, can help drive decisions that make network operations proactive and predictive, instead of reactive.

Figure 1. Span of end-to-end visibility required (click to enlarge)

In our 2023 Global Networking Trends Report, nearly half (47%) of respondents said they are prioritizing the adoption of predictive network analytics over the next two years, primarily to help with managing the connectivity and digital experience of their remote workforce.

A predictive network analytics solution requires the ability to correlate massive amounts of network data in real time and at tremendous scale. By continuously analyzing performance data and applying predictive modeling to forecast conditions and recommend actions, predictive capabilities can become a reality. Predictive analytics empowers teams to avoid adverse application impacts to distributed workers and to ensure the best possible user experience.

Predictive analytics for SD-WAN and an internet-centric world

For the software-defined WAN (SD-WAN), a platform that uses artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps) can provide predictive analytics to forecast performance (Figure 2). AIOps refers to the strategic use of AI, ML, and machine reasoning (MR) technologies to simplify and streamline IT processes and optimize the use of IT resources. By correlating and analyzing real-time and historical SD-WAN performance data and applying predictive models, AIOps can use these forecasts to deliver per-site recommendations for optimal path selection by application type to deliver an optimal experience based on available paths.

By integrating predictive analytics into SD-WAN solutions, IT teams can improve dynamic enforcement of application service levels with intelligent routing across alternative paths before any degradation occurs.

Figure 2. Predictive analytics through a continual feedback loop (click to enlarge)

Combining traffic data sets from an organization’s ecosystem of ISPs, cloud providers, SaaS applications, and other external services, further enriches predictive analytical systems. Operations teams can rapidly identify, escalate, and remediate issues with providers using internet telemetry data. When outage behavior is detected, a root cause can be identified and shared with providers to prioritize fixes or escalate to peers and transit providers.

Predictive analytics at work in the real world 

When Insight Global—one of the largest staffing agencies in the United States—allowed its employees to return to the office, they leveraged information from ThousandEyes’ WAN Insights to optimize its SD-WAN policies and improve application experiences proactively and continuously. Once the solution was in place, they gained greater visibility into critical network environments and routing, and Insight Global’s IT team was better able to detect and avoid potential issues before those issues could impact the business.

Predictive and proactive operations is the way forward

It’s time to move from reactive to proactive operations management through end-to-end visibility and AI/ML-powered predictive analytics. It’s time for a consistent way of automating operations, analyzing and diagnosing issues, and assuring the user experience across all the different networking domains.

We believe strongly in this way forward. It’s the cornerstone of Cisco’s approach to network assurance and Cisco’s Networking Cloud vision—a unified management experience platform for on-premises and cloud operating models to simplify IT, everywhere, at scale.

Source: cisco.com

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5 Environmental Sustainability Trends for 2024

Reflections from COP28 and looking ahead to next year.

The 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was recently held in Dubai, UAE, and brought government officials and heads of state, business leaders, young people, climate scientists, journalists and various experts together to accelerate global efforts to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Reflections from COP28

I had the opportunity to spend a full week in meetings and sessions, and am energized by the engagement – early numbers of delegates indicate this is the most attended COP ever.

A common thread pulled through discussions surrounded the criticality of public/private partnerships. When we think about climate change, this is the crisis of our lifetime. The progress we make in this decade will be critical for future generations. As we look ahead to 2024, one thing is clear: we must drive action and we must do it together.

As I reflect on the conversations I had at COP28, five trends rose to the top and should be top of mind for all of us as we move into the new year.

Environmental sustainability trends for 2024 and beyond

1. 2024 will be a year of accounting for progress on climate action.

• In 2015, the UN-brokered Paris Agreement established an international treaty on climate change. To limit global warming to 1.5°C, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must peak before 2025 at the latest and decline 43% by 2030. Plans and targets were made by countries and organizations globally to achieve this.
• As we get closer to that milestone, it’s becoming increasingly clear that there is no consistent or accurate way to measure progress, both within countries and industries, and globally, to hold us accountable.
• Pressure is growing on both the public and private sector, with demands for mandatory reporting now a worldwide refrain.
• Regulatory bodies are now considering approaches that can deliver concrete outcomes, but data sources are varied in quality, reporting is fragmented, and many organizations lack the technology to generate and analyze the data they require.
• 2024 could see this come to a head with the emergence of new industry standards with a focus on GHG emissions accounting and climate impact materiality. The tech industry can play a critical role in delivering enabling technologies that will help companies monitor and assess their footprint.

2. The world’s energy delivery systems will start to show major cracks in the next three years. Governments worldwide must prioritize and incentivize smart grid development in 2024 to avoid major issues.

• Many traditional ‘power grids’ are already being stretched to their limits, and increasingly common weather phenomena will continue to add more and more stress. In the U.S., the North America Electric Reliability Corporation warned that much of the U.S. power grid is at an increased risk of failure during major storms or long cold snaps this winter.  (Source: 2023–2024 NERC Winter Reliability Assessment)
• At the same time, the growth of renewables demands a more efficient grid to allow renewables to become more viable and avoid the conversion losses all too common in today’s grids. (Source: Digitalizing Europe’s energy system to power the green energy revolution)
• Micro grids have already begun to show their viability, which may start encouraging more ideas in harnessing them.
• In order to avoid dangerous and costly failures of energy delivery systems, businesses and the public sector must begin now to address the future needs of the grid.

3. The growth of artificial intelligence (AI) creates an opportunity to use this new technology to further our sustainability goals.

• We know that AI workloads increase demand for electricity and water as they place enormous demands on data center infrastructure. (Source: The AI Boom Could Use a Shocking Amount of Electricity) But the benefits of AI for sustainability have the potential to outweigh that impact.
• Like many other areas, data will be crucial to tackling sustainability challenges. With the promise of AI to make sense of data and offer crucial insights, sustainability could benefit greatly from the application of AI.
• AI is only as good as the data it is being fed. So, the emergence of AI may also help solve another major challenge in sustainability: accurate and consistent measurement and the need for centralized and common tooling.

4. A 20-year-old technology, Power over Ethernet (PoE), will finally get its moment in 2024.

• Power over Ethernet (the coupling of connectivity and power delivery on the same cable) was first adopted as an IEEE standard in 2003. Since then, use cases for PoE have been varied, but fairly niche, as the vastly preferred method of electrical connectivity remains copper wiring.
• The need for buildings to become smarter has never been greater. Building operations and construction accounted for an estimated 37% of CO2 emissions globally in 2021. PoE will allow builders, owners and tenants to use the network to deliver power and connectivity together, enabling a true smart building.

5. Nature-based solutions to climate change will gain traction.

• Technological developments are an important part of strategies to mitigate climate change, but discussions at COP28 reinforced the critical role of nature-based solutions, like protecting forests or restoring coastal marshes.
• We must innovate and fill gaps in our understanding of nature-based solutions and when to use them. We must deliver climate mitigation, safeguard biological diversity, improve food security, and create more inclusive and resilient communities.
• Anticipate an uptick in projects that leverage nature’s capabilities, such as afforestation, reforestation, and sustainable land management.

We’re at a pivotal moment, but with bold, strategic, and collective action, I believe we can help mitigate the worst outcomes of climate change, ensuring the opportunity to build an inclusive future for all.

Source: cisco.com

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Webex Connect and a new digital experience

Consumers are relying on digital channels for their retail needs now more than ever. This shift requires online experiences to be increasingly enhanced, and a strong digital experience can make a significant difference in consumer attraction and retention.

While creating such engaging experiences is necessary for businesses of all sizes, smaller teams in particular need to find a way to get their customers’ questions answered without relying on as much manpower. The Cisco Store is one such program, and Webex Connect provides an efficient, easy-to-use solution to this problem.

Multi-Channel Communication

Webex Connect is an enterprise-grade Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) that transforms how businesses engage with their customers. In simple terms, CPaaS is a cloud-based technology that lets companies easily add custom communication features—like messaging, video, and voice—into their apps or services by deploying application programming interfaces (APIs). Webex Connect enables enterprises to deliver secure, automated, and hyper-personalized interactions at scale. And with little to no coding required, it empowers technical and non-technical teams alike to create rich, seamless customer interactions.

With a diverse API portfolio and multitude of integration options, businesses can connect their existing backend systems – such as their customer relationship management (CRM), order management, delivery management or even shift management – with the latest digital communication channels to create personalized, automated customer experiences.

Webex Connect handles customer communications over multiple digital channels, including SMS, WhatsApp, Voice, Email and more. The platform allows for inbound messages and automated two-way interactions, allowing customers to feel just as attended to as they might in a physical location. Customers can manage their communication preferences and consent at all times in accordance with online regulations, giving them full control over their digital experience. On the business side, employees can easily debug any issues in real-time and view key statistics through the platform’s centralized dashboards, data visualization, and data analytics capabilities.

Ease of Use

The Cisco Store sets up multiple travel stores every year at events such as Cisco Live Amsterdam, Cisco Live Vegas, and Cisco IMPACT. These stores feature both our merchandise and our Tech Lab equipment, and our small team hosts numerous customer tours every day. To streamline efficiency with our limited staff, we can easily program Webex Connect to have prompts and answers ready regarding our events, such as the store’s hours and location in the building. Customers simply need to message the bot on their channel of choice to receive rapid assistance.

Live Agent Handover

The platform also allows for bot interactions to be seamlessly handed over to live agents while still retaining the conversation context. Escalation to an agent is routed to a Webex Space, where someone on the Cisco Store team can claim the task and interact directly with the customer.

Webex Connect and a New Digital Experience

Webex Connect is currently being used both online and in-person at the Cisco Store, with 77% of the bot’s sessions occurring on the web, followed by 23% of the sessions occurring on Apple Messages for Business. Moreover, throughout the first quarter of FY24, Webex Connect averaged 30.4 messages per day, with 42% of the total sessions being handled by the bot.

 Interactions with Webex Connect during Q1 FY24 have mostly occurred online compared to in-person at the store locations. The most common conversation topics with the bot, in order of frequency, were engagement with a live agent, order tracking, store timings, and store locations. 

Looking Ahead

The Cisco Store plans to use Webex Connect in a multitude of additional ways moving forward to truly maximize customer engagement. Customers may be able to do self-checkout via the platform by simply scanning a QR code and paying from their mobile devices. To speed up their order process, customers could buy their products online and pick them up curbside with the assistance of the chatbot. Moreover, Webex Connect could eventually be integrated with order management systems: customers can receive updates on their order statuses and shipping notifications via their preferred mobile channel. 

The possibilities of Webex Connect reach far beyond a simple Q&A platform – teams will receive 24/7 support, developer resources, account management, and expert live chat whenever they need it. Webex Connect will prove to be an efficient solution for customer engagement, starting with the Cisco Store itself.

Source: cisco.com

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Managing API Contracts and OpenAPI Documents at Scale

Cisco DevNet presents at API Days Paris 2023

Year after year, this global event for API practitioners gets bigger. This year the event was held in the newly renovated CNIT Forest – a central and easy to join location in the Paris La Defense business area. Many of us were amazed by the number of talks and exhibitors showing their latest advances in API Design, API Management, and Event Driven Management gateways and the many discussions around OpenAPI, JSON-Schema, and GraphQL.

As a sponsor of API Days Paris, Cisco DevNet – Cisco’s developer program – offered a booth where we engage 100+ conversations with attendees and discussed how to build and publish robust APIs, sharing our experience driving API Quality and Security initiatives. (We also had the opportunity to meet and, for some of us, play chess with Laurent Fressinet, the two-time French Chess Champion, and ‘second assistant’ with opening preparation during Magnus Carlsen‘ World Chess Championship matches. But that’s a different story.)

The importance of API Contracts

DevNet offered 2 talks explaining the importance of API Contracts, how we are evaluating and scoring our APIs internally, and also the challenges that come with the lifecycle and management of OpenAPI documents (see resources below for recordings and slides).

We were able to show why and how a successful API-first strategy not only encourages consistent practices when designing, versioning, and documenting APIs, but also lets you look into testing and observing live traffic to ensure APIs behave as per their contract.

Schedule a live Panoptica demo

In this regard, we offered demonstrations of the latest version of Panoptica – Cisco Cloud Application Security solution – with a particular focus on API Security. If you are interested in this topic, we encourage you to schedule a live demo of Panoptica.

Source: cisco.com

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The Next One Billion Lives

Cisco shared the news that we’ve achieved our ten-year goal to positively impact one billion lives through the Cisco Foundation, Social Impact grants, and Networking Academy – one year ahead of schedule.

As the leaders of these organizations, we’ve never been prouder of the extraordinary work of our teams and our global nonprofit partners, and the contributions of leaders and employees across our company in innovating to help solve the world’s greatest challenges.

Expanding our impact

Now, we’re exploring what’s next.  How will we continue to expand our approach – and accelerate our progress? What inspired, ambitious goals will we set? And how will we impact the next one billion lives?

These are questions worthy of the same thoughtful consideration, passion, and drive as the original ambitious goal.  Now that we’ve achieved it, we can stand on the shoulders of what we’ve learned along the way in connecting longstanding challenges with new possibilities to overcome them – pushing beyond limits – and deepening our understanding of how to create meaningful impact.

What we believed nine years ago continues to be Cisco’s guiding principle: Our ability to impact billions of lives lies in our ability to scale. We’re now expanding our areas of focus and aligning on impacting entire communities – and countries – through our Social Impact, Networking Academy, and Country Digital Acceleration programs. And we’re focusing on addressing the systemic causes of inequity and driving innovation to create lasting, generational change.

Anchoring the workforce of the future

Cisco’s Networking Academy, which now operates in 190 countries has trained more than 20.5 million students in networking and cybersecurity skills over the past 26 years.  In training thousands of learners every year, we not only empower individuals to start a rewarding new career, but also create millions of next-generation jobs and that will anchor the workforce of the future.  We know, however, that connecting the unconnected isn’t just a moral imperative; it’s economically prudent. According to a 2022 World Bank Report, raising internet connectivity to 75 percent of the population in all developing countries (from the current level of approximately 35 percent) would add up to US$2 trillion to their collective gross domestic product (GDP) and create more than 140 million jobs around the world.

By continuing to scale our impact, we’re changing the economic trajectory of communities around the world, increasing economic productivity, and fulfilling our purpose to power an inclusive future for all.

Scaling tech-enabled social impact solutions

Within our global Social Impact Grant programs, our focus on promising nonprofits and NGOs with tech-enabled solutions that we can scale is continuing to create lasting change across communities. When we bring the full measure of Cisco’s strengths to support our nonprofit partners in developing their solutions – and give them the time, space, and flexibility to test their ideas – the impact they create can be astonishing. Like the women of Living Goods, which combines game-changing technology, quality products, and vital health services to empower community health workers to deliver on-call care to their neighbors’ doorsteps. And they earn a livelihood while doing it.

Cisco was an early supporter of Living Goods’ work to leverage technology to deliver healthcare products and services at scale, in a cost-effective manner.  We were proud to partner with them to help them reach their goal of providing quality healthcare to more than 25 million people via 34,000 digitally empowered community health workers by 2021.

Sharing what we’ve learned on the journey to one billion lives

As we contemplate our next inspired goal, we’re committed to sharing more about what we’ve learned in positively impacting one billion lives and to understanding more about the challenges faced by communities around the world.  The most important words of Cisco’s purpose statement – to power an inclusive future for all may be the final two.

Source: cisco.com

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Cisco and Nutanix Team Up in Response to Customer Demand: Another Win for Customer-Centric Innovation

In the ever-evolving landscape of IT, organizations continually seek solutions that simplify complexity, break down silos, and enhance agility. At Cisco, we’re continually tuned into the demands and requirements of our customer base, and it’s this laser focus that has led to our most recent collaborative venture. We are thrilled to announce our new integration with Nutanix, a leader in enterprise cloud computing solutions.

Listening to You: Our Driving Force

Time and time again, our commitment to delivering top-notch, efficient solutions is fueled by the needs and feedback of our customers. You spoke, and we listened. The partnership with Nutanix is a direct reflection of this two-way dialogue, a testament to our commitment to not just hear, but actively listen and respond to what you are saying.

Bridging the Gap with ACI VMM Integration

One of the key facets of this collaboration is the integration of Cisco’s Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) with Nutanix. This marriage of technologies effectively bridges domain silos between the network and server teams. Network configurations and server deployments, historically segmented tasks, can now be coordinated more efficiently, fostering a more agile and responsive infrastructure. This integration is designed to simplify operational complexities, promoting a more streamlined and efficient operational workflow.

Cisco ACI: Beyond Traditional Networking

Before we jump into the integration, let’s re-familiarize ourselves with Cisco ACI:

◉ APIC (Application Policy Infrastructure Controller): It’s not just a management tool; think of it as the brain behind the orchestration of network policies.

◉ Spine and Leaf Architecture: This ensures a swift and efficient flow of data, connecting all aspects of the data center seamlessly.

◉ Policies: The linchpin of ACI, these pre-defined functionalities ensure the network is adaptive and responsive to specific needs.

Why Nutanix?

Nutanix is a frontrunner when it comes to hyperconverged infrastructure, bringing together compute, storage, and virtualization under one roof. Their solution, which focuses on simplicity and scalability, offers an ideal playground for ACI’s capabilities. Integrating with Nutanix’s VMM functions ensures that ACI’s policy-driven approach aligns perfectly with the agility and dynamism of virtualized workloads.

The Power of Integration

Holistic Visibility: ACI’s already granular insight extends into Nutanix environments. Network administrators can track activities from the physical infrastructure up to individual VMs in the Nutanix cluster.

Elastic Networking: As virtual machines and workloads shift within the Nutanix ecosystem, ACI adapts, ensuring network policies remain consistent and effective.

Enhanced Security Posture: ACI’s renowned micro-segmentation, when combined with Nutanix’s security features, offers a formidable defense against malicious activities and breaches.

Unified Management: With APIC interfacing directly with Nutanix’s Prism management, it consolidates the administrative experience, simplifying operations.

Getting Started with ACI and Nutanix

Integration at a glance:

• Kickstart with a robust ACI environment and an operational Nutanix cluster.
• Through APIC, navigate to VM Networking, and add a VMM domain specific to Nutanix.
• Detail out the Nutanix cluster specifications and correlate with ACI’s bridge domain.
• Watch as ACI seamlessly integrates its policies with Nutanix, creating a cohesive networking environment.

Joint Commitment to Customer Success

Both Cisco and Nutanix are firmly committed to jointly supporting our customers. Our shared goal is to deliver the best infrastructure automation experience possible. By harmonizing the strengths of ACI’s policy-driven architecture with Nutanix’s prowess in hyperconverged infrastructure, we aim to offer a solution that epitomizes efficiency, simplicity, and most importantly, customer satisfaction.

In Conclusion

The integration of Cisco’s ACI with Nutanix marks a pivotal moment in data center networking. It signifies a future where the physical and virtual, the network and the application, are in perfect harmony. For enterprises looking for agility, security, and simplicity, this integration opens up new vistas of possibilities.

Source: cisco.com

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Why CISOs and CIOs Should Work Together More Closely

Although there are overlaps in the goals and responsibilities of the CIO and the CISO, there are also challenges that get in the way of a more cohesive relationship, including reporting lines, organizational structures, budgets, and risk appetites.

If they don’t overcome these challenges, they’ll stall the technology from achieving its full potential, silos will persist, and the rifts will widen.

What’s the aim? Unite these two executive leaders under a common purpose. A panel of CIOs and CISOs identified some of the shifts that can get these two roles working better—together.

Shift #1: Identify the overlaps.

CIOs and CISOs have different jobs to do.

◉ The CISO is the cybersecurity leader who leverages compliance and regulations to protect information and stop data leakages.

◉ The CIO is the enabler of business growth and innovation who makes sure that the organization is getting the most out of the information at hand.

The overlap is their perspective on the “information” part of “information technology.” Specifically, how the CISO’s technical and cybersecurity responsibilities juxtapose the CIO’s growth mindset.

Conflict emerges when CIOs and CISOs look at the IT risks and opportunities as separate responsibilities. This doesn’t make sense to Brian Brackenborough, CISO at Channel 4, who says it is inefficient to separate the many responsibilities that CIOs and CISOs carry.

He said there is no need for separate IT teams to focus on fixing devices while another focuses on networks. Instead, there should be one team managing it across the board.

Shift #2: Overcome the tension in your reporting lines.

Consider both viewpoints of CISOs and CIOs, which is to understand the origins of tension between the roles. Some of this friction can be attributed to reporting structures: when the CISO reports directly to the CIO there is typically less friction, but with more CISOs reporting directly to the CEO with a seat at the board room table, this dynamic changes. The choice of reporting structure could be down to strategic priorities flexing between regulation and innovation phases of the business cycle.

Organizations can choose to approach this dynamic duo differently. Johnson Matthey’s CIO, Aidan Hancock, says the CISO has always reported to him, but that reporting lines can grow and spread out. His focus is making sure the CISO is fully on board with the rest of his IT leadership team.

Equality in reporting lines will be a dead end if CIOs and CISOs don’t share responsibility for risk. That’s not to say they must have identical perspectives—each leads the organization from a different vantage point—but they do need to understand and align.

Shift #3: Align on risk.

Doug Drinkwater, Director of Strategy at HotTopics, suggests that historically, the CISO will be the one to “take the hit” when it comes to risk.

At the top of any organization, the CIO and CISO must be united and share the responsibility for leading risk. Hancock’s main concern is a CISO with an independent reporting line owning risk while “the CIO delivers most of the actions that meet that risk.” His solution to this is for the leaders to find a common purpose.

Shift #4: Work together for a shared purpose.

Anuj Tewari, CISO at TMF Group, looks at collaboration between CIOs and CISOs as a key success factor. The moment they stop working together, everything becomes a challenge. The greater the disconnect, the less optimistic the partnership can be.

The budget exercise was one example where Tewari said he saw CIOs and CISOs work hand in hand. In the end, he maintains that collaboration is about creating a road map to ensure that CISOs and CIOs can secure the data and overall “crown jewel” for the organization. That means consciously overriding our human instinct to stick with our “people.”

For Brackenborough, transparency between the two roles is foundational. He gave the example of the traditional CIO and CISO conferences. An information security conference is full of CISOs and information security professionals. Brackenborough suggests they swap. This way, technology leaders will know what’s happening in each other’s camps and help the CISO and CIO overcome the feeling that they’re talking different languages.

Understanding the overlap in the roles and becoming intentional about reporting lines while aligning on risk and purpose can bring IT organizations closer together. This is ideal because technology is starting to do the same.

The convergence of technology and people

The industry is moving forward and the convergence of networking and security is giving organizations the technology to scale. This shift allows organizations to better support demand, fulfill performance requirements, and allow for deployment of new services, all while securely connecting hyper-distributed teams, places, and things.

Think about security, incident response, and detection paired with the alignment of goals, objectives, and priorities. Modern tools break down the silos between the CISO and CIO so that convergence can take place.

Resultingly, teams can start working together to push forward. CIOs and CISOs get a holistic view of what is going on in the organization they’re leading. With the right tools for the job and doing business with security in mind, there’s a lot of potential to be unlocked.

CIOs and CISOs must clarify roles, responsibilities, and reporting structures. By aligning on risk and purpose they can organize their teams to work better—together.

Source: cisco.com

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