Cisco held its European user event in Amsterdam this month, presenting a good mix of industry trends, product innovation, and vision from Cisco as to where they see the market going. To no surprise, the primary theme at Cisco Live EMEA was artificial intelligence (AI) and how this technology will change the way we live. And more importantly for IT pros, how AI will forever alter how we deploy and operate our IT environments. While AI was the primary high-level theme, there were several key takeaways from the show. Below are my top five.
1. Cisco’s platform approach is taking hold
In late 2024, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins named Jeetu Patel as the company’s first chief product officer. Since taking the helm, Patel has been laser focused on Cisco becoming a “platform” company where the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts. At Cisco Live EMEA, Patel made the comparison to Apple where if one buys all Apple products, they are treated to “magical experiences,” which prevents one from doing something like using a Samsung phone with an Apple watch. At the event, we caught some glimpses of the Cisco platform with ThousandEyes integration with the collaboration portfolio and Splunk; Hypershield, which brings networking and security together; AI Pods; and a common AI assistant. More of these magical experiences are needed, but Cisco Live EMEA was a good start, and I’m expecting to see a continuation of this at Cisco Live US in June, with many use cases revolving around AI.
2. Cisco has the opportunity to redefine security in the AI era
The lead product announcement from the event was the N9300 Smart Switch that features an integrated DPU. The DPU enables Cisco to run security services in the switch, enabling security enforcement to be distributed at a port level. Typically, enforcement is done by deploying firewalls at strategic points in the network. East-west firewalls are expensive and require a tremendous amount of operational support. Even if a company has unlimited budget and people, continually making changes in dynamic environments is a challenge. With the N9300, security policies can be applied in the network infrastructure, enabling enforcement to be ubiquitous so that as the environment changes, the policies remain consistent.
Cisco is positioning itself as a “secure networking” company, and the challenge with this is that many other vendors have used the term to describe security and networking, not security infused into the network. Cisco needs to use the opportunity AI creates to have customers rethink how they deploy technology to redefine security for AI.
3. Businesses can’t rely on the model providers to secure AI
As AI has moved into mainstream workflows, the question of how to secure it and provide the necessary guardrails has been raised. Prior to the event, Cisco issued a blog post highlighting that its research team could jailbreak DeepSeek R1 with a 100% success rate. While this is shocking, what’s more alarming is that no model provider scored all that well. The best was the OpenAI O1-Preview, which blocked 26% of the attacks – better but not great. During the press and analyst briefing, Patel stated: “You can’t rely on the model providers to provide safety and security guard rails.” This statement may seem a bit self-serving as Cisco wants to be the provider of security for AI, but he’s right. It’s not up to the model provider to determine what’s “safe,” since that differs by company. A better approach would be to assume the models are inherently insecure and to build the guardrails around it.
A good analogy is with networks. The network providers could offer transport that’s secured, but the level of protection companies want is different. Healthcare and financial firms are much more security conscious than a company that’s primarily internally facing. Similarly, organizations should choose the models that meet their needs, and then secure the environment to their specifications.
4. Europe is on the AI clock
Each wave of technology creates an opportunity for the different regions of the globe to establish themselves as a leader. The battle for AI supremacy is well underway with the US having a strong foothold. The Middle East is likely to have an impact, as many countries there have made commitments to investing in this area.
During a press Q&A, Oliver Tuszik, president of EMEA for Cisco, talked about the opportunity for Europe and the need to act as one. He commented that often, the larger EU countries, such as Germany and France, tend to act in their own best interests. But that may not have the best long-term outcome. While they carry economic heft within the EU, each individual country is small when compared to the likes of the US, India, the Middle East region and others. But the EU as a whole carries significant weight.
Tuszik expressed some urgency for the EU to act as one and is optimistic that country leaders are aligned on this. He pointed to the EU AI Act as a proof point that the region understands what’s at stake. He added that the structure of the AI Act being outcome based versus overly regulated is another indicator of change within the EU. Time will tell if Tuszik’s optimism is warranted, but we shouldn’t have to wait long to tell.
5. Silicon One remains Cisco’s best kept secret
Cisco is one of the few network vendors that manufactures its own silicon. The tech industry tends to gravitate to certain trend that become absolutes, such as “everything is moving to the cloud.” For years, in networking, doing more in software was all the rage. But it’s always a combination of things that create a great experience. In networking, one can do a lot in software, but there are certain tasks, such as managing traffic, deep packet inspection and buffering, that are best done in silicon.
A good way to understand the importance of custom silicon is to look no further than the AI space. Nvidia initially made a GPU because general purpose processors could not handle high performance graphics. Similarly, Cisco makes Silicon One because the network has unique requirements that don’t perform well with off-the-shelf chips. Initially, Silicon One was used for Cisco to regain a foothold with the hyperscalers, but the company has done an excellent job of bringing the benefits of Silicon One to the rest of its product line, including the above-mentioned N9300.
Given the price/performance and feature consistency benefit Cisco gets with Silicon One, I’m surprised at the lack of marketing and related awareness of it. Over the last year or so, I’ve seen Martin Lund, executive vice president of the common hardware group at Cisco, get in front of customers, press and analysts more often. But articulating the benefits is something Cisco should double down on rather than it being a “best kept secret.”
Final thoughts
Overall, from an analyst perspective, it was a good event. Although the AI trend has been hot, Cisco has been on the outside looking in, primarily because there is a lack of awareness around the role of networking in AI. At the event, Cisco used security, Silicon One and platform to raise the awareness of how it can help its customers safely move forward with AI and how Cisco is rapidly gaining a seat at the AI table.
Historically, Cisco Live events were often filled with product announcements but they lacked a common thread, making the innovation seem disconnected. The messaging at Cisco Live EMEA and the recently held AI Summit – combined with naming the company’s first chief product officer – can be thought of as Cisco kickstarting the “Cisco” value proposition for AI. It’s a good start with more to see in the year ahead.
Source:: Network World