Tim Bertino explores the collaborative evolution of Cisco Meraki and Catalyst in his recent LinkedIn article. The piece emphasizes the augmentation of cross-platform support between the brands without compromising on their individual product offerings – effectively a ‘best of both worlds’ approach. Bertino celebrates the flexibility this provides customers, allowing them to select the hardware platform that meets their needs while managing it through the Meraki Dashboard, and he highlights the unification of the security solution across platforms.
BackBox- Network Vulnerability Manager
Girard Kavelines delves into the technical advantages of BackBox’s Network Vulnerability Manager, a system designed to proactively combat cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities. The Network Vulnerability Manager can identify and prioritize vulnerabilities as they appear, automating patches and upgrades across network devices for efficient remediation. The tool also enables multi-step upgrades in a seamless process, cutting down on intervention and enhancing the overall security of networks.
Network Field Day 33 – Day 0
Jordan Villarreal shares his excitement about Network Field Day 33 in this YouTube video. With leading names such as Cisco, Nokia, Fortinet, and Intel as well as new faces like Graphiant and RG Nets, the event provides significant insights into the ever-evolving networking domain. The topics range from versatile network solutions to edge gateways and from switching platforms to the anticipated wildcard entry of Intel.
Finishing Strong With Networking Field Day 33
Tech Field Day is back with the final Networking Field Day event of 2023, live on October 25 and 26, and featuring presentations from Graphiant, Cisco, RG Nets, Nokia, Fortinet, and Intel. Tom Hollingsworth and company anticipate exciting updates on growth, debut products, and new technology advancements in areas like SD-WAN, SASE, optical networking, digital experience monitoring, and sustainable networking solutions. The event will stream live on LinkedIn and the Networking Field Day 33 event page, encouraging audience engagement and inquiries.
Networking Service Awareness
Writing on the NetCraftsmen blog, Peter Welcher discusses the challenges that professionals face in staying updated with the latest features and technologies from Network as a Service (NaaS) and Cloud vendors. The post contends that vendors should be more proactive in communicating their capabilities and new features, instead of relying on customers to research these advancements. Welcher emphasizes the importance of structured knowledge acquisition and suggests use-case focused marketing could be beneficial for potential customers.
Ramping Up Multicloud Visibility With Cisco Multicloud Defense
Enterprises’ journey to multi-cloud is often fraught with security concerns and deadlocks. As enterprises adopt multi-cloud strategies, the distribution of data and assets across various cloud providers can lead to reduced visibility, hindering security and impeding business resilience. Cisco Multicloud Defense addresses this challenge by providing unobstructed visibility and unified security across platforms, enabling consistent protection against threats and data exfiltration. Read about it at Gestalt IT or watch the demo live on the website.
Fast-Tracking Decision Making and Incident Response With Cisco’s Secure Network Analytics and XDR
The relentless onslaught of cyberattacks has made it amply clear that the appropriate countermeasure is a stringent routine of intelligently devised and religiously enforced practices. Cisco makes the path from observation to action short and speedy with Cisco Secure Network Analytics and the new Cisco XDR. Secure Network Analytics (SNA) serves as a collector and aggregator of network telemetry, providing broad security analytics, while XDR collects telemetry from various sources and analyzes it to identify threats and incidents. Together, these solutions streamline data processing, enhance threat detection, and enable prompt response, making high-security standards a priority. Read the review at Gestalt IT or watch the demo here at the website.
Designing a Lossless AI/ML Network With Cisco Data Center Networking Blueprint
Cisco presented the Cisco Data Center Networking Blueprint for AI/ML Applications, a detailed and instructive handbook on AI/ML network, at the recent Tech Field Day event. The document decodes the strict requirements of modern AI/ML workloads, and provides a blueprint for building a high-performing AI/ML network. Cisco’s Nexus 9000 Series switches offer high throughput, low latency, and congestion management features necessary for AI/ML applications, including RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) in network transport. Read about it at Gestalt IT or watch the presentation here at Tech Field Day.
Achieving a Consistent Policy Across Enterprise With Cisco Security Group Tag
A common policy across products and use cases can cut the chaos and solve the challenges of policy management in enterprises. Cisco’s Security Group Tag enables a central policy control, allowing teams to collaborate more effectively, and put up a strong front against cyber threats. Cisco’s approach to bridging policy islands through context sharing and the use of Security Group Tag (SGT) are described as effective solutions for centralized policy control, interoperability, and cost benefits. Read about it at Gestalt IT or watch the demo on the website.
Thirty-Six GigaToasters
In this episode of Chaos Lever, Chris Hayner and Ned Bellavance cover Security Field Day 9, highlighting presentations by Comvault, Noname Security, Cisco, Cribl, and NetAlly’s Cyberscope. They discuss Comvault’s ThreatWise platform, which focuses on ransomware detection, and the use of fake hosts and lures to trap potential attackers. They also mention Cisco’s new hardware firewalls, the 4200 series, and their multicloud network security model. Chris shares insights on NetAlly’s Cyberscope, a handheld cybersecurity analyzer.
Thwarting Malicious Cyberattacks With the New Lightspin CNAPP From Cisco
In this Gestalt IT article, Sulagna Saha discusses Cisco’s cloud security solution, Lightspin CNAPP, and its capabilities in protecting microservices applications from vulnerabilities and malicious cyberattacks. Saha highlights the complex nature of microservices applications and the need for layered security across development and runtime phases. She explains how Lightspin CNAPP, with its graph database technology and comprehensive scanning capabilities, can identify vulnerabilities, correlate events, and provide remediation recommendations. The article also mentions the recent acquisition of Lightspin Technologies by Cisco and provides a link to watch Cisco’s demo of Lightspin CNAPP.
Cisco Rolls Out Industrial Ethernet Catalyst Switches for the Most Rugged Outdoor Deployments
Outdoor industrial environments can be harsh to enterprise switching and wireless equipment that are most suited to work in controlled indoor settings. That’s why Cisco has launched a new set of weather-proof industrial ethernet switches that are built to provide speedy connectivity in the most unfriendly locations. Read about the Cisco Catalyst IE9300 Rugged Series at Gestalt IT or watch the demo here at the website.
Drilling Down Into the Invisible Parts of the Network With ThousandEyes
Uninterrupted visibility is no longer a privilege, but an absolute essential in today’s digital scene. ThousandEyes eliminates obscurity, bringing transparency and observability into the most complex IT environments, thus unlocking accelerated innovation. Read about the platform’s new capabilities at Gestalt IT, or watch the presentation on the website.
Meraki in the Enterprise ASTERISK
In this article, Sam Clements discusses the evolution of Meraki and its suitability for enterprise deployment. He highlights that over the years, Meraki has addressed various concerns, such as external antennas, firmware update controls, RF profiles, high gain antennas, and operating temperature. He also notes that with the integration of the Catalyst portfolio, Meraki now offers monitoring and insights for Catalyst 9800 WLCs through the dashboard, hinting at a potential future for configuration capabilities. Clements suggests that those who may have previously had reservations about Meraki should reconsider, as the platform continues to evolve and align with enterprise requirements.
Cisco Introduce a Directional WIFI 6E Low Power Indoor (LPI) Access Point
Cisco introduced the Catalyst 9166D1 access point that delivers the required performance for high-density environments with its internal directional antenna feature, unlike the omnidirectional antenna access point provided by current regulation policies for Wi-Fi 6e deployment. The access point gives the same coverage pattern as previous products using a 6 dBi directional antenna but with fewer bulky cables and accessories, providing a more aesthetically pleasing solution for WLAN installations. Read this article by Mario Gingras to learn more!
Announcements From Cisco Live
In this episode of the Gestalt IT Rundown, Stephen Foskett and Jeff Ton discuss significant developments in the IT sector, including the recent Cisco Live event, which unveiled several new solutions for network management, Secure Service Edge, observability, and Panoptica, which offers end-to-end lifecycle protection for cloud native applications.
Safe and Sound at Security Field Day 9
Security Field Day 9 promises to showcase how security companies and teams are addressing ever-evolving cybersecurity threats to keep users safe. A lineup of prominent security companies will present their innovative solutions to reduce security risks, ensuring a better and secure user experience. Broadcasting live on June 28 and 29, we will see presentations from Commvault, HashiCorp, NetAlly, Cisco, Cribl, and Noname Security, highlighting their approach to enhancing data security and protection focused on critical areas such as backups and disaster recovery, multi-cloud defense, and Data Loss Prevention (DLP). Learn more about Security Field Day in this video featuring Tom Hollingsworth!
Cisco Wireless and a Common Management Strategy With Meraki Dashboard
The Meraki Dashboard provides Cisco with high levels of observability into its clients’ networks, giving the company access to data from 12 million online Meraki devices. Designed to be as automated as possible, the platform can perform sophisticated comparisons and assist in making predictive analyses while allowing the company to troubleshoot numerous networking issues easily. With its new business unit, Cisco Wireless, Cisco is focused on having a common management strategy, allowing it to deliver a more comprehensive and seamless experience across the Meraki and Catalyst wireless platforms. Read about the transition of the Meraki Dashboard through the years at Gestalt IT or watch the demo on the website.
Cisco Does the “AFC Side Step” With the CW9166D1
In this post, Troy Martin discusses the new Cisco CW9166D1 access point shown at Mobility Field Day. A redesign of the CW9166i front end, the CW9166D1 features an integrated directional antenna and some new tricks related to AFC. The integrated antenna enables directional focused antennas to be implemented without additional hardware costs. The CW9166D1 is capable of running in dual 5GHz mode and waiting to enable the 6GHz radio once client support reaches critical mass.
“So I Put the Directional Antenna IN the AP.”
Cisco’s Mobility Field Day 9 saw the unveiling of its 9166D1 directional antenna, which can substitute for traditional external antennas in almost any indoor application. The antenna design proves the company’s RF design skills, with additional features such as easier connectivity for Cat 6A patch cables. Fred Niehaus, TME at Cisco, highlighted the company’s 9166D1 as a simple, feasible solution for 6GHz and Wi-Fi 6 antennae, which eliminates the need for external antennae in most indoor applications and can be an affordable resource to resolve issues of connectivity, capacity and coverage. Read on for Field Day delegate John Kilpatrick’s thoughts on Cisco’s new access point design.
