Because the complexity of the network grows as digitization takes over IT, customers are wanting to:
Simplify WAN/branch management: Some organizations have thousands of branches or remote sites and managing them can get difficult with the diversity in location as well as diversity in types of branches and users. Simplifying the branch and WAN connections from the branch can save IT lots of time and money invested in keeping the business running.
MPLS can get expensive depending on the location of the branch office and reducing those costs can add up.
As applications move into the cloud and number of apps that users (employees, customers, partners) use change as well as quantity rise, users expect great application experience. People expect their business apps to run like recreational apps and the mixture of the two in an enterprise network is now a must.
Cisco 2017 3.2Midyear Cybersecurity Report. (3.24hours time to detection (TTD)
The Network. Intuitive. A platform that is constantly learning / adapting / protecting (security) and is built on Cisco Digital Network Architecture (DNA)
This continuous loop of defining intent, collecting context, learning, and then optimizing the network base on those insights is intent based networking. The combination of Cisco’s Intent based, secure infrastructure with DNA Center’s single point of policy definition, context collection, and learning will become a powerful new approach to building and scaling enterprise networks.
DNA Center is a new centralized management dashboard which is used to translate business goals (intent) into network policy. DNA Center is powered by three key engines:
Policy control is provided by the Identity Service Engine (ISE)
Automation is provided by APIC-EM
Analytics is provided by the Network Data Platform (NDP)
DNA Center is the “command and control center” of the Intent based infrastructure, including our routing (ISR 4000/ASR 1000), switching (Catalyst 9K) and wireless products (Aironet 1800/2800/3800).
Security is embedded into the networking, to full protect all points in the the network.
The network and see and block all threats – even those in encrypted traffic using the new Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA)
The network infrastructure also provides 360 visibility which gives Context that supports the continuous learning through DNA Center.
Bottom left, automation provides a huge opportunity to take cost out of their operating expenses. Moving from a model where every device on the network has a CLI and was configured independently. But we are in an environment now of central points of control which can push out the change to the devices at scale – this drives significant savings
