What You Missed: Cisco Live 2023
Just like that, another conference is in the books! After an insightful journey at Dell Technologies World, team CDI took the flight to Las Vegas to attend Cisco Live. Now, we’re geared up to share with you the most exciting moments and significant announcements from this premier tech gathering of the year. Let’s dive into the highlights from Cisco Live 2023!
Unmasking the Future at Cisco Live 2023
June is that time of year when temperatures rise, and over 20,000 leaders and practitioners in networking, security, and IT gather in Las Vegas to attend Cisco Live. This event is Cisco’s annual tech conference dedicated to customers and partners.
At Cisco Live, Cisco unveils its flagship innovations. This year was no different, with announcements spotlighting Cisco’s commitment to network simplification, augmented security measures, AI integration, and environmental sustainability. With an impressive spectrum of product releases and strategic initiatives, here’s a comprehensive look at what was showcased.
Fortifying Security
Security continues to be a priority for both Cisco and enterprises worldwide. Significant product and service developments were announced, including the newly unveiled Cisco Secure Access. This offering promises to enhance protection across any location, device, and application via a single platform, a single endpoint agent, and a single administrative console. Set for general availability in Fall 2023, Cisco Secure Access unifies and elevates the capabilities of Cisco’s previous cloud security offerings.
Additionally, Cisco announced the Secure Firewall 4200 series, expanding their security toolkit. Available later this year, this addition to the Secure Firewall line promises advanced performance tailored for data center and large corporate office needs, incorporating new cryptographic engines to handle increasing network encryption and utilizing AI/ML for threat and application identification in encrypted traffic.
The Cisco Multicloud Defense was also unveiled, extending traditional firewall concepts to public cloud environments like AWS, GCP, Azure, and OCI. Cisco further expanded its cloud-native application security with the Cisco Secure Application Cloud, providing comprehensive Container, Serverless, API, Service Mesh, and Kubernetes Security in a single platform.
Redefining Networking
In the networking domain, Cisco unveiled its vision for the Cisco Networking Cloud. This solution, supporting the Catalyst product line and integrated with the Nexus Dashboard, will utilize AI to interact with the network, optimizing configurations and reducing human workload. Furthermore, Cisco unified all its Campus/Enterprise network products under the Catalyst brand, with the Meraki line of cloud-managed networking solutions continuing to exist under its own banner.
Embracing AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) formed a significant part of the conference narrative. Cisco announced two security operations-focused AI solutions: the AI Policy Assistant and AI SOC Assistant, designed to automate security policies and reduce alert volumes. Additionally, WebEx will be enhanced with AI-powered meeting summaries, providing a more focused meeting experience.
Pledging Sustainability
Cisco also reiterated its commitment to environmental sustainability, announcing plans to integrate energy usage information into dashboards for monitoring and reduction in data centers.
The Experience Beyond Announcements
New product announcements and technology initiatives aside, if you didn’t make it to Cisco Live this year, you also missed out on tons of great opportunity to learn, network, and have fun including:
- A CDI-hosted customer dinner
- Over 1,000 technical training sessions
- Hundreds of hands-on labs and extended half-day lab experiences
- The World of Solutions showcasing over 300 Cisco ecosystem partners
- An evening at Top Golf for CCIE-certified attendees and their guests
- A private concert for Cisco Live attendees at the Allegiant Stadium featuring Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton
Conclusion
In summary, Cisco Live 2023 painted a vivid picture of Cisco’s strategy. The company is clearly focused on leveraging the power of AI, enhancing network security, simplifying network management, and demonstrating its commitment to environmental sustainability. The emphasis on the convergence of network management and operations, the use of AI to enhance network administration, and the deployment of advanced security measures reflects Cisco’s ambitions for a future where networks are more secure, efficient, and responsive. This underlines the company’s overarching vision: to create a network that is secure but remains invisible to users. One of the tag lines used in the major keynote speeches was “Connect & Get to Work.” This is the future that Cisco is driving – seamless and transparent connectivity and security to enable productivity anywhere.
Here at CDI, we see Cisco Live as an opportunity to send members of our team to learn, engage, network, and become the leaders in networking and security. We are excited by Cisco’s vision of the future, and we’re even more thrilled to help our customers on their own journey to success. Cisco Live is back in Las Vegas again next year, and we hope to see you there!