Several industry analysts have pointed out the lack of a unified experience for Cisco’s secure access service edge (SASE) solution and the vendor is rolling the management into its Meraki console to address this concern.

In the latest Forrester Wave for zero-trust edge (aka SASE) solutions report, the firm identified Cisco as one of the contenders, noting the vendor's struggle to integrate and unify its SASE portfolio that includes several product lines or platforms such as Secure Connect, Umbrella and Meraki.

“Reference customers commented on the need for Cisco to unify various ZTE functions under a single management system,” analysts wrote in the report.

Similarly, Gartner noted in its first Magic Quadrant for Single-Vendor SASE report that Cisco offers multiple options for different SASE use cases, which increases the console numbers. The firm categorized Cisco as a visionary in the report and wrote that the vendor has been “less responsive” compared to its competitors in terms of delivering a unified experience with comprehensive security in a timely manner.

Omri Guelfand, VP of product management and SASE/networking-as-a-service (NaaS) at Cisco Meraki acknowledged this concern, noting the integration is a “work in progress” but is central to Cisco’s SASE strategy.

The networking and security giant’s SASE solution, dubbed Cisco+ Secure Connect, combines its Meraki SD-WAN and Umbrella security capabilities. Back in June, the vendor introduced its security services edge (SSE) solution — Cisco Secure Access — for dual- or multi-vendor SASE options.

Guelfand explained Cisco’s unified SASE option aims to create “a single pane of glass” that leverages the component unification from its SSE and networking platforms.

“That is one of the key elements that we're solving for with Cisco+ Secure Connect: unified management across networking and security,” he told SDxCentral. “And with SSE, we're creating that unified management across the different security offerings.”

Cisco has been responding to this consolidation and integration customer demand by introducing its Security Cloud and Networking Cloud.

The Security Cloud is designed to streamline its 27 security services into a few product suites such as its extended detection and response (XDR) and SSE platforms. Meanwhile, the Networking Cloud is a vision to create a simpler network management platform experience to manage all Cisco networking products from one place.

“Essentially, think of [Cisco+ Secure Connect] as buying together our Cisco Networking Cloud and the Cisco Security Cloud into an outcome that focuses on SASE. And we do that on top of the Meraki platform, which is a platform that allows us to manage devices at scale,” Guelfand said. “That's part of the Cisco Networking Cloud Vision. And we extend that over to essentially leverage the unification as we're doing with SSE.”

Meraki is pivotal to that vision. Acquired by Cisco for $1.2 billion in 2012, Meraki was brought into the fold to enhance Cisco’s Wireless Local Area Network and cloud networking business. Last year marked the initiation of integrating Catalyst switching and wireless hardware into the Meraki dashboard.

Guelfand elaborated on the progression of Cisco’s SASE offerings: the first version was akin to an “Umbrella-plus” offering with separated Umbrella and Meraki consoles; later, the vendor rolled out Secure Connect, which is designed to allow users to access their entire SD-WAN deployment and manage Umbrella directly from the Meraki console, rather than having to log into two consoles.

“Unified SASE is part of the Meraki console,” which aligns with Cisco's ongoing efforts to converge its networking and security portfolios and bring them together through SASE, Guelfand said.

“That's why we're implementing that on top of the Meraki dashboard that is the front end for our unified SASE solution,” he added.

SASE is part of Cisco’s efforts to execute its platform strategy.

A platform should streamline the user experience; offer an integrated managing console, common data plans, and government-rule constructs among various environments; and reduce the number of touchpoints on the endpoints or end users, Gartner’s senior director analyst Charlie Winckless told SDxCentral in an earlier interview.

“We've had these different products, and we've sold them all individually. And therefore you need to compete with those individual competitors. So you need subspecialists, you need specialists in every little area of security,” Cisco Chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins said during the company’s earnings call for Q4 2023. “And what we've been doing across the portfolio is moving to more of a platform approach.”

He touted the platform strategy has been receiving positive feedback and the vendor is working with Apple to incorporate Cisco’s SSE solution into iOS and macOS.

Robbins added Cisco’s security business has moved into a suite strategy. “We're now packaging up the Security portfolio in different suites, which allows for us to sort of optimize the security specialist or actually align them more effectively is probably the best way to say it.”