Networking News

Cisco’s Software Updates Represent A Paradigm Shift In Networking, Says Presidio CTO

At Cisco Live, Cisco introduced new innovations around artificial intelligence and machine learning to give customers more visibility and control over their networks. Cisco’s Gordon Thomson and Presidio’s Vinu Thomas weigh in on the news.

For Vinu Thomas, CTO at New York City-based Presidio, Cisco’s latest innovation around artificial intelligence and machine learning represent a “paradigm shift” in networking.

“When you look at how traditionally networks were managed, you had a certain way of managing the campus networks, a certain way of managing the branch, a certain way of managing the data center and now things have changed,” Vinu told CRN at Cisco Live 2019. “What we’ve heard from our customers is they do not want these silo approaches to managing networks. They want a consistent network policy, consistent security and consistent user experience across the entire portfolio and that’s why I call it a paradigm shift.”

The original premise behind intent-based networking focused the network on what the business wants to achieve; but now, the network has grown even more complex and nearly impossible to manage. Executives say the new additions of machine learning and artificial intelligence will provide more visibility and simplicity across the network.

“Where we are moving to now is recognizing that when you deploy software over networks you need to do more than drive automation into that environment, and this is where Cisco has really invested a lot of time, money, effort and innovation to now start to look at how we can pull information off the infrastructure to start to analyze that on a real-time basis,” explained Gordon Thomson, VP of Global Sales for Enterprise Networking at Cisco.

Thomson told CRN that updates will be provide more services opportunities for partners to update and manage their customers’ networks. To learn more, watch CRN’s video included in this article.

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