Cisco has launched its secure networking approach in India, an offer that combines advanced capabilities of networking and cybersecurity. The offer is built on the concept of zero trust to provide businesses with seamless and secure connectivity to tackle the risks of cybersecurity in a hybrid world.

Amid the dynamic and expanding threat landscape, businesses face a core challenge: strengthening their IT infrastructure to remain resilient in a hybrid world. With employees working from different locations, using multiple connections, and accessing information across diverse platforms, resiliency becomes even more critical. Here, the network plays a crucial role as the first line of defence and the sole control point that comprehensively monitors every connection, be it users, devices, or entities.

Commenting on the launch, Vish Iyer, president, architectures, Asia Pacific, Japan and China, Cisco, said, “One of Cisco’s unique differentiators is its unmatched visibility of the network, which allows us to secure everything that is connected. With Cisco Secure Networking, we are bringing together security capabilities including the ability to apply zero trust principles and enforce granular security policies into a single console. At Cisco, secure networking isn’t just a theory – it’s an experience that we provide to our customers, partners, and people, enabled by our own technology. The launch of Cisco Secure Networking marks a new era of security-centric networking, bridging Cisco Networking Cloud and Cisco Security Cloud for a best-in-class secure connectivity experience.”

Additionally, companies in India are not ready to fully tackle the cybersecurity challenge. According to Cisco’s Cybersecurity Readiness Index, only 24 per cent of organisations in India have a mature level of readiness needed to be resilient against today’s modern cybersecurity risks. This readiness gap is telling, not least because 90 per cent of the respondents in India said they expect a cybersecurity incident to disrupt their business in the next 12 to 24 months. The cost of being unprepared can be substantial, as 80 per cent of respondents said they had a cybersecurity incident in the last 12 months and 53 per cent of those affected said it cost them at least $500,000. To tackle modern cybersecurity challenges, Cisco recognises that businesses need a networking experience built on zero trust, visibility and analytics, and enforcement to secure every connection, regardless of its location.

Meanwhile, Yoshiyuki Hamada, managing director, global security sales organisation, Asia Pacific, Japan and China, Cisco, said, “As we navigate a hybrid world, organisations face an increasing pressure to safeguard their distributed infrastructure and provide employees with fast, reliable, and secure connectivity to applications. Cisco leads the way in the convergence of networking and security, providing enterprises with a scalable infrastructure that is simpler to manage and more flexible, secure, and resilient than ever before. We are therefore excited to launch the secure networking offering to enable organisations to enhance their security posture and innovate securely at scale.”

Some of the highlights of the Cisco Secure Networking include:

  • Common access experience that enables organisations to deliver a simple and frictionless way for employees to access all applications and resources across any location, any device, and any application. The offering will authenticate user identity and device health before granting secure access.
  • Intelligent security policy management helps organisations ensure that their policies are attached to identity, simplified, consistent, and managed across campus, branch, and remote sites in a way that governs the integrity and safety of the network. Artificial intelligence (AI) powered capabilities enable security teams to prescribe granular security policies across the enterprise’s security infrastructure.
  • Quick threat visibility and detection leveraging Cisco’s security portfolio, Cisco Talos Intelligence Group, and network visibility from Cisco ThousandEyes, security operations teams can natively analyse and correlate telemetry-centric data. This enables them to identify priority incidents and respond with evidence backed automation. 
  • Enforcement of zero trust policies at scale across the fabric of organisations’ multi-environment IT ecosystem, by leveraging contextual insights to secure trusted access and eliminate security gaps within the organisation.