Looking to help customers build unified and integrated strategies for managing and securing their networks, Cisco updated its cloud networking and security portfolios to target IT priorities like security, automation, a user experience and artificial intelligence (AI) -powered applications.

Cisco claims it is in “a unique position to build the industry’s premier AI-driven, secure and simple networking management platform,” Cisco Networking EVP and GM Jonathan Davidson said.

“The vision for Cisco Networking Cloud is the most comprehensive in the market,” Cisco VP of Customer Solutions Marketing Juan Vela told SDxCentral. “Cisco has the ability to tap into our industry-leading security portfolio for native integrations, as well as offer the visibility through ThousandEyes that stretches even beyond the networks a customer owns or has control over.”

Cisco’s new integrations between its security and networking portfolios underscore the vendor’s goal to provide technologies that join together networking and security teams in the same secure access service edge (SASE) converges networking and security technologies.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN now offers a Cisco Secure Access (Cisco’s SSE solution) integration to help customers rapidly deploy scalable, secure and simplify SASE architectures on top of the Catalyst 8000 routing platform, Vela explained.

The integration of its networking and security cloud platforms with Catalyst SD-WAN and ThousandEyes automates digital experience monitoring, and shares insights from device, application and network performance data with customers. Users can also “manage thousands of sites and secure all users across their network through a single configuration and dashboard, eliminating the need for additional appliances,” Vela said.

In a move toward delivering a unified portfolio experience, Cisco also introduced updates to its network management platforms.

The new cloud monitoring tool for Cisco Catalyst wireless switches expands the capabilities initially designed for Catalyst switching. Customers can now oversee and manage select Catalyst wireless devices directly from the Meraki dashboard – a comprehensive, cloud-managed view of their access networks.

The cloud monitoring feature is supported by the Catalyst 9800 Wireless Controllers and most Catalyst WIFI 5 Wave 2, WIFI 6 and WIFI 6E access points, according to the vendor.

On the hardware side, Cisco revealed new Catalyst 9300-M switches designed to be managed natively from the Meraki dashboard. This marks the initial step in the evolution toward complete cloud management for the Catalyst switching portfolio.

The networking vendor also launched new infrastructure, UCS X-Series Direct, as an extension of the Cisco UCS X-Series Modular System. The new infrastructure caters to edge environments that need high levels of connectivity and compute power and allows customers to support a significant number of large applications with minimal infrastructure.

Cisco UCS X-Series Direct changes the modular system “into a self-contained system with pair of internal Fabric Interconnects that integrate each up to eight server nodes with Cisco unified fabric connectivity, upstream IP and Fiber Channel connectivity, all managed through Cisco Intersight or Cisco UCS Manager,” Vela said.

Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects build a self-contained system that includes IP, storage and management networks with two 100-Gbps connections to each of eight slots in a chassis. “This architecture makes Cisco X-Series Direct ideal for deployments at edge or remote branch, and there is no need for top-of-rack Fabric Interconnects, which reduces the overall system costs,” he said.

Cisco also launched new AI Validated Designs that help customers create high-performance compute and data center network fabrics with automation and visibility, while catering to a variety of AI-driven enterprise scenarios.

These designs encompass validated solutions across diverse use cases. Based on the vendor’s existing AI/machine learning (ML) blueprints for data center networks, the new designs are meant to help mitigate risks and accelerate the adoption of AI/ML.

Cisco customers with existing “operating models built on solutions like FlexPod and FlashStack can bring AI workloads into that same domain of simplicity, scalability, security and automation,” Vela said. The vendor says it plans to continue working with additional partners for compatibility with Cisco's validated designs and “to pave a path for customers to mainstream AI,” he said.