Cisco today unveiled a bevy of updates to its DNA Center that promise to improve performance, speed zero trust adoption, and increase the scale and security of corporate networks.

Unveiled in 2016, Cisco DNA Center seeks to programmatically reduce the cost of administering networks via data analytics, machine learning, and automation.

Today’s update adds a variety of new features including an integration with ThousandEyes, new artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps), and WiFi planning capabilities to help customers better understand what’s going on in their network. The update also seeks to ease the transition to Cisco’s SD-Access networking architecture and increase the number of supported endpoint devices on the network.

Perhaps the headline feature of today’s DNA Center update is an integration with ThousandEyes' network performance monitoring platform, which Cisco acquired for $1 billion last year. The integration aims to help enterprise IT teams determine where in the network, whether it be in the LAN or WAN, anomalous networking behavior is originating.

“As we go into 2021, the focus has been a lot more on how do we do full-stack observability and pull that in through the ThousandEyes integration,” Jeff Scheaffer, VP of product management and strategy at Cisco, said during a press conference earlier this week.

The update builds on an existing ThousandEyes integration, which injected the monitoring service’s agent directly into Cisco’s Catalyst 9000 appliances.

Nevada-based health care provider Renown Health is among the first customers using the new ThousandEyes integration. “Being able to implement that [ThousandEyes] through DNA Center is going to make the deployment, and the visibility of ThousandEyes way easier for us, and a lot quicker for us to deploy it,” said Dustin Metteer, lead network engineer for Renown Health.

Cisco also rolled out machine learning enhanced predictive analytics features, designed to identify baseline networking activity and reduce the number of false alarms.

“By creating a baseline, we can ignore things that are normal for your network that might not be normal for other networks,” explained Duval Yeager, marketing manager for DNA Center at Cisco.

Cisco claims the functionality could be used to improve wireless access point (AP) placement or identify WiFi-deficient areas in buildings.

On the topic of WiFi, Cisco DNA Center can now provide greater insights into how individual APs are functioning beyond traditional 2D heat maps. The feature is powered by a separate integration with Ekahau, and claims to reduce interference caused by improperly placed APs.

Yeager said the feature could be used to proactively identify problem APs before employees need to submit trouble tickets.

With this update, Cisco aims to smooth the transitioning to its SD-Access architecture, which fully embraces a zero-trust, posture-aware mindset to network access.

The latest edition of DNA Center now allows customers to begin transitioning to an SD-Access model without negatively affecting users. Cisco claims customers don’t even need to reconfigure virtual LAN IDs.

“What we're really focused on doing, No. 1, is being able to identify all of the endpoints that are in the network,” Scheaffer said.

Cisco does this using a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning functionality to identify endpoints using protocol decomposition, deep packet inspection, and cluster analysis. This data is then validated via the community to establish device posture, he explained.

DNA Center also now allows enterprise IT to sort and apply policy based on an endpoint device’s security score. This score is applied automatically based on behavioral analysis of traffic activities and device state.

Using this information, IT teams can automatically quarantine devices that are out of date or behaving erratically.

In other words, if an endpoint device, like an IoT camera, suddenly begins sending or receiving traffic that isn’t a video stream, it can be identified, classified, and quarantined as a potential threat, explained Scheaffer.

Cisco DNA Center also made some tweaks under the hood to boost scalability and redundancy. These include support for twice as many endpoint clients per management instance, faster image upgrades, and more resilient or high-availability configurations.

The platform also supports upgrading up to 1,000 Catalyst 9000 devices every hour, often without needing to take them offline, and now exposes the platform’s APIs for security advisories.

Finally, Cisco claims DNA Center can automatically track savings enabled by the platform via a new return-on-investment (ROI) dashboard. The dashboard keeps track of automation tasks, anomalies, and network automation, and attempts to quantify value in terms of hours saved or improved efficiency.

Cisco DNA Center version 2.2.2 will be generally available June 14.