Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 47 | Page 56

INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cloud

Cisco accelerates secure cloud adoption with launch of new WAN Edge Platform

Networking giant Cisco has

announced its new Wide Area
Networking ( WAN ) edge platform to help customers accelerate cloud adoption and deliver secure and automated connectivity to applications across cloud , data centre and Edge .
A foundational piece of Cisco ’ s intent-based networking portfolio , the Catalyst 8000 Edge family provides customers with an innovative and high-performance routing platform . Through built-in analytics , the new platform delivers greater visibility into network or application problems and drives informed decisions to optimise user experiences . As organisations accelerate their adoption of cloud and place more computing power at the Edge to run a wider range of applications and improve performance , IT teams are faced with increased complexity , less control and visibility over the applications running on their networks .
“ With the proliferation of applications , workloads and services becoming more distributed across the edge-cloud continuum , organisations are facing new realities at the
WAN Edge ,” said JL Valente , Vice President , Product Management for Cisco ’ s Intent- Based Networking Group . “ In building secure multi-cloud access architectures , IT organisations need the agility to change course and scale quickly along with the needs of business . The Cisco Catalyst 8000 Edge Platform bridges the WAN Edge and the cloud Edge , providing secure , highperformance connectivity for distributed users to any cloud while delivering IT visibility and business agility .”
The new platform allows customers to adopt cloud solutions at their own pace . For those looking to adopt a Secure Access Service Edge ( SASE ) architecture , Cisco SD-WAN converges cloud-managed SD-WAN and cloud-delivered security into one solution . For customers requiring an on-premises solution , full-stack SD- WAN security is supported . The Catalyst 8300 Series Edge Platform is made to handle Edge connectivity at branch sites , offering modular access with a diverse set of connectivity choices for customers to deliver services on-demand to quickly adapt to changing business requirements .
It also provides customers with up to four times better SD-WAN service performance than the current Cisco Integrated Services Routers ( ISRs ). •

WITH THE PROLIFERATION OF APPLICATIONS , WORKLOADS AND SERVICES BECOMING MORE DISTRIBUTED ACROSS THE EDGE- CLOUD CONTINUUM , ORGANISATIONS ARE FACING NEW REALITIES AT THE WAN EDGE .

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