Cisco Advances Secure Enterprise Networking to Power AI-Driven Workloads

Following the launch of its AI-ready secure network architecture for enterprises, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is introducing innovations to modernize campus, branch, and industrial networks for the AI era. Cisco's solutions simplify operations, scale for evolving business needs, and enhance security—all critical for unlocking the full potential of enterprise AI.

Designed to deliver automated deployment and security across highly distributed networks in minutes instead of months, these innovations meet the high-bandwidth, ultra-low latency, and intelligent traffic management demands of distributed AI workloads that are increasingly moving to the enterprise edge. 

"The networks of the future not only need to power the massive compute and bandwidth demands of AI experiences that are surging into campus and branch networks, but also be easy to deploy and secure with powerful AI tools of their own," said Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer, Cisco. "Cisco delivers the only networking infrastructure that can scale to AI's exponential growth, while also giving over-worked and under-resourced IT teams truly agentic tools for managing and securing deployments from core to edge." 

Simplified Operations, Powered by AgenticOps  

Cisco is leading the transition to AgenticOps—the future of IT operations where AI-powered agents and human teams work together to solve complex problems before they impact users.IT teams can automate routine tasks, quickly troubleshoot issues, and gain unified visibility across their entire infrastructure. Key advancements include: 

Unified network visibility. The new Global Overview in Meraki Dashboard provides direct visibility and access to Catalyst Center-managed networks for a single cloud dashboard experience. It radically simplifies network management across campus and branch, whether cloud-based or on-premises.  

Simplified campus management. Introducing cloud-managed fabric, a scalable and secure architecture to simplify network management. Cloud-managed fabrics reduce the steps required to provision, manage, and troubleshoot large sites, while enabling adaptive segmentation policies. 

Agentic workflow automation. Available today, workflows spanning Meraki, Catalyst Center, Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, ISE, Nexus and more can be automated and orchestrated with AI Assistant. With a simple prompt, AI Assistant can automate previously manual tasks, such as switch migration, Wi-Fi setup, and device onboarding. 

Collaborative AI-powered troubleshooting. Built to enable AgenticOps, AI Canvas expedites the speed at which NetOps, SecOps, and app teams can collaborate with AI Agents to solve cross-domain problems. Teams can use the AI Assistant within AI Canvas to troubleshoot a network issue using natural language in seconds by unifying real-time telemetry, AI insights, and collaboration into one intelligent workspace. Now in Alpha. 

Making It Easier for Partners and Customers to Deploy Branches  

IT teams are being asked to move faster than ever before, even as they face rising operational complexity and heightened security concerns caused by gaps between disparate products. With Cisco Unified Branch, new innovations make branch deployments faster and more reliable. With new automation toolkits, Cisco Validated Designs powered by Agentic Workflows empower Cisco partners to enable customer IT teams to deploy, scale, and secure branches in minutes instead of hours, minimizing errors and complexity.

Scalable Devices Purpose-Built for AI 

Introducing the latest innovations in secure, high-performance networking and wireless connectivity, designed to empower distributed organizations with advanced routing and next-generation Wi-Fi, including: 

Secure routing at scale. New 8200 and 8400 Series Secure Routers bring high-performance routing, advanced security with a built-in firewall, and ultra-low latency for branch and campus deployments for seamless, automated connectivity. Devices orderable in calendar Q4 2025. 

Ultra-fast, automated wireless connectivity. New Wi-Fi 7 access points (CW9171I, CW9174 Series) and the CW9800L Wireless Controller for low and medium-density deployments provide high throughput, low latency, and intelligent management for seamless scaling. New wireless assurance capabilities including Roaming Health and the upcoming Active Testing feature powered by Cisco ThousandEyes uses Wireless APs to deliver enhanced visibility, faster troubleshooting, and optimized performance. Devices orderable in calendar Q4 2025. 

Security Fused into the Network 

To empower IT teams with simplicity, visibility, and control, Cisco is delivering a cloud-managed, identity-driven architecture that unites access control and cloud security within the Meraki Dashboard. This new approach simplifies operations while strengthening defense across the branch, campus, and cloud, addressing the dual challenge of securing an expanding attack surface with limited resources. These new security solutions leverage unified policy enforcement to simplify operations and protect users, devices, and things across the entire campus-to-cloud environment, including: 

Security at the edge. Cisco Secure Access extends Zero Trust to the cloud, providing consistent protection for users and applications everywhere. All Cisco SD-WAN offerings, including Meraki, now integrate with Cisco Secure Access, enabling a complete secure access service edge (SASE) offering. This delivers secure, seamless access for hybrid workforces by applying unified identity-based policies across SaaS, internet, and private apps, eliminating policy gaps between on-prem and cloud environments, and ensuring one policy framework for every connection. 

Identity-based security. New Cisco Access Manager fuses identity into the network, delivering full identity-based access control natively through the Meraki Dashboard. Fueled by Cisco ISE, optimized for cloud-managed networks, and delivered as SaaS, Access Manager is designed for simple deployment with no hardware or complex setup. It enables adaptive segmentation to isolate users, devices, and IoT by identity and posture and ensures every connection in the branch is authenticated, segmented, and secure.