Cisco announces new innovations, updates for hybrid enterprises

IT networking major Cisco Systems has announced a slew of new products across its networking, security, collaboration, and optimised applications portfolio, at Cisco Live 2022, held in Las Vegas. According to Cisco officials, these offerings can help organisations drive the productivity, resiliency and agility required in today’s hybrid world.

“Through the challenges and unpredictability of the past few years, I believe we’ve seen the true power of technology. Digital transformation remains core to every business as we navigate this complex world alongside our incredible customers and partners,” said Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO of Cisco.

“I’m excited for us to share our latest innovations with our customers this week at Cisco Live to continue to help them transform and adapt,” Robbins said, as he took the stage in front of an in-person Cisco Live audience for the first time since 2019.  

Of the latest innovations, Cisco announced new cloud management capabilities that provide a unified experience across the Cisco Meraki, Cisco Catalyst, and Cisco Nexus portfolios – and a new Cisco ThousandEyes product for advanced optimisation of WAN performance .

Cisco unveiled its new strategy for a global, cloud-delivered, integrated platform delivering secure access and connectivity for organisations of any shape and size.

“Security has become really an imperative together with sustainability. The energy consumption always has to be optimised,” Koen Jacobs, Vice President, Systems Engineering, EMEAR at Cisco, said. 

 “Where that data resides, how it moves, and how we look after it from a sovereignty and privacy perspective is extremely important,” he noted.

To enable a connected hybrid work experience, Cisco has announced some updated features in Webex Calling – the company’s cloud-based phone system inside the Webex collaboration suite.

Webex Calling now includes site survivability so businesses can make and receive Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) calls during a network outage. The new audio intelligence enhancements extend Webex’s AI-powered background noise removal technology, it said. That means, with Webex Calling “users can eliminate an external caller’s background noise by logging onto the Webex App or on supported devices."

Webex Calling’s audio intelligence enhancements will go live this summer and the local survivability feature will be available for preview this fall for Webex Suite customers. Webex Calling is now available in over 110 countries around the world, with the company expanding the calling plans to select locations in the Asia-Pacific region, said Cisco. Further, Salesforce and Oracle Eloqua are now integrated into Webex Webinars to provide flexible workflows for enhanced productivity, the company said.

Cisco also launched AppDynamics Cloud, a cloud-native platform for modern applications designed for complex and distributed IT environment. The new solution empowers IT teams to deliver enhanced digital experiences for its consumers and end users.