ANM attends Cisco Live!
Cloud management
Cisco announced several new management solutions delivered via the cloud for everything from data center to networking to application visibility. The most prominent theme was “cloudifying” many of their traditional on prem tools with the addition of further AI and visibility that comes with a cloud delivered model.
The biggest cloud management news centered around the ability to integrate traditional Catalyst technologies into the cloud based Meraki Dashboard, a long time ask for clients. Cisco Catalyst 9200, 9300, and 9500 switches (17.3.x or later w/ DNA Essentials or DNA Advantage license) can now be onboarded to the Meraki dashboard and are supported with two options: Cloud Monitoring or Cloud Management. Cloud monitoring provides the ability to view Catalyst switch statistics, configuration, and troubleshooting capabilities. These switches will be automatically tagged with “Monitor Only” in the dashboard to distinguish them from fully managed Meraki switches. Aside from this difference, “Monitor Only” Catalyst switches appear and function very similarly to Meraki MS switches in the dashboard, including a visual representation of connected ports and traffic information. This integration allows customers to see devices in their Topology view and receive relevant telemetry data. As part of this continued “Merakification” of the network portfolio, Cisco announced new Access Points supporting multigig and Wifi 6E. The kicker however, is that these new converged AP models are compatible with both traditional Cisco on premise controllers or Meraki cloud management platforms.
CX Cloud is a new service that will allow customers to see what Cisco devices they own via a unified view of the assets with access to insights and analytics. This single point of visibility will enable clients to determine which devices may be having issues and more quickly remediate issues in their environment. Easier inventory visibility also reduces the risk of potential out of compliance software, reducing potential security risks.
Nexus Cloud is a SaaS network management solution bridging on premise and cloud based deployments. This allows customers to extend visibility from their applications through the network, regardless of where they sit. The tool has built in anomaly detection leveraging AI and predictive analytics to alert potential configuration impacts. In addition, there’s an auto-discovery engine with dynamic topology views that will ease upgrades.
Cisco also announced AppDynamics Cloud, a purpose built, cloud native monitoring tool for distributed and dynamic cloud native apps. AppDynamics Cloud also supports modern container technologies.
ISE Updates
With fewer workers in the office, ISE has expanded with additional support for Hybrid Cloud. The latest updates enable infrastructure as code to onboard users and devices with zero-touch provisioning leveraging Ansible and Terraform playbooks. In addition, the latest updates enable management to reside in the cloud, seamlessly managed from anywhere, while maintaining critical functions on-premise.
ISE also announced an Agentless Posture for Endpoints, enabling ISE to posture check an endpoint without having to install any agents for the first time. This will greatly help with visibility for BYOD and IoT.
ThousandEyes WAN Insights
Following the acquisition of ThousandEyes, Cisco has continued to add features with WAN Insights. WAN Insights can forecast network conditions and provide associated recommendations to optimize SD-WAN performance in conjunction with vManage and vAnalytics. This visibility also extends into key SaaS apps like Office365, enabling a proactive approach and better user experience in cases where the WAN had historically been a black box.
Nexus 9800
Cisco announced the Nexus 9800, a new modular chassis based switch in the 9000 series portfolio that supports very high density 400Gb Ethernet line cards. As machine learning and AI start to expand in size and scope in data centers, customers will require higher capacity, higher speed, and higher efficiency switches. The new Nexus 9800 switches will support high density 400Gb and 800Gb port density to help enable next generation application stacks.
Cisco Secure connect for a turnkey SASE solution
Cisco also announced a further evolution of their SASE offering, releasing Cisco Secure managed via the Meraki Dashboard. The solution consists of remote and hybrid worker connectivity, zero-trust network access (ZTNA) based on Identity, Posture, and Context, Meraki SD-WAN support, and Security Services Edge (SSE), powered by Cisco Umbrella.
About ANM
One of the fastest-growing IT consultancies in the U.S., ANM provides innovative solutions and expert local service to large and mid-sized companies. Our dedicated team designs, implements and supports IT solutions in enterprise networking, cloud, remote workforce solutions, collaboration, security, cabling, and audio visual. We are an award-winning partner of leading technology providers such as Cisco, Cohesity, CommScope, Commvault, Dell Technologies, F5, HPE, Infoblox, Palo Alto Networks, Pure Storage, Salesforce, , Veeam, Verkada and VMware.
ANM is headquartered in Albuquerque and has offices in Denver, Colorado Springs, Scottsdale, and El Paso. We enjoy a 98.6% customer satisfaction rating, as well as excellent employee and customer retention rates.
Contact
Kurt Huegin
ANM
480-385-0609
[email protected]