Networking News

WATCH: Cisco Partner Summit Spotlights Biggest Partner Opportunity In Decades

Cisco partners are in the midst of their biggest opportunity in decades. That was the message of Cisco’s VP of Networking and Security David Goeckeler on the second day of the Cisco Partner Summit in Las Vegas as he discussed the need to build a multi-domain, cloud-centric network.

“We need to build networks that securely connect any user, on any device, on any network, on any application,” said Goeckeler on Tuesday, who explained that customers are increasingly looking to manage everything in a single instance as more applications move to the cloud.

“This hybrid model that people want – Cisco is the thing that connects those two worlds and they are in a great position to help facilitate that,” said Zeus Kerravala, analyst and founder at ZK Research in Massachusetts.

One of the ways Cisco is positioning itself for the future is through its investments in SD-WAN. Cisco introduced new SD-WAN security features at the Cisco Partner Summit, and it’s also speeding up application performance for users through a partnership with Microsoft Office 365.

“The idea that I can look specifically in application characteristics and improve security and performance of that because I understand how that application works and it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach is pretty powerful,” said Ron Temske, VP of Security Solutions at Logicalis, a NY-based solution provider.

Also on Tuesday, Cisco announced two big additions to the Catalyst 9000 family: The Catalyst 9200 switch and the Catalyst 9800 wireless LAN controller. Each of the new products demonstrates Cisco's drive to expand its Catalyst 9000 family without watering it down. The capabilities that have helped the product family become the company's fastest-growing since its launch in June 2017 remain as it moves down-market.