NETWORKING

When the pandemic forced many businesses into remote working models, this caused a lot of headaches for IT operations. While employees in the line of business have been adjusting to working from home, it’s not like IT could just shut the campus network down like flicking off the lights in the building. So how well are IT teams doing, now that we’re one year into the upheaval caused by COVID-19? In our next Insiders Series…

Cisco employee, Maha Akkari, drawing with a child at a distribution event Like many, I have searched for the meaning of life and the secret to happiness. As I grew to know myself, I discovered that helping others brings deep peace and joy to my soul. I started engaging in giving back activities at an early age, and I always made sure to lend a hand to anyone who needs it. Volunteering has become a…

As the nation emerges from the pandemic, new opportunities will emerge for community colleges. From reskilling the workforce to overcoming declining enrollment, educators must reconsider their approaches to learning. New methods for engaging students, acknowledging their achievements and delivering secure remote access are now front of mind. But which approaches will be most effective as we enter the next normal? We’re going to need to reskill our workforce, and community colleges are well poised to…

Privacy and security are in constant tension. Hiding internet activity strengthens privacy—but also makes it easier for bad actors to infiltrate the network. In fact, 63% of threats detected by Cisco Stealthwatch in 2019 were in encrypted traffic. The European Union is concerned enough that it drafted a resolution in November 2020 to ban end-to-end encryption, prompting outcry from privacy advocates. Along with others in the networking industry, we at Cisco are working to continually…

What is the toughest question you have asked someone today? Maybe it was work related, “Do you have the P.O for me?” or maybe it was personal, “Can I borrow some money?” For me, it was asking my 81-year old dad, “Hey. Do you think it’s time to maybe give up your car?” Yesterday, it was the same question.   You see, my dad has Dementia and over the last several months it has gotten progressively…

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is the optimized “middle mile” that delivers networking and security services at the edge of the internet. Instead of building out and managing a network and security stack in the locations where it’s needed, SASE changes the whole model by leveraging a security private cloud and service-delivery approach that the customer manages in a shared responsibility with the vendor. This is a dramatic transformation, but also an amazing opportunity—one we’re…

The best way to avoid paying ransom to attackers who have infected your systems with ransomware is to have those systems adequately backed up so you can wipe them and restore them from safe backups. Here are several options for making sure those backups are up to the task. In this article, backup refers to any system that you’re going to use to respond to a ransomware attack, including old-school backup systems, replication systems, and…

Mansi Jain Technical Leader Co-Author: Mansi Jain, Technical Leader in IBNG at Cisco Systems The Life of an IT Administrator  It’s 6:30 AM, Monday morning, and you’ve just been woken up by the incessant buzzing of your phone. Still half asleep, you open your email to check what the fuss is about, and to your displeasure, 50+ IT Tickets have flooded in overnight.     Email 1 Subject: *Alert* Wireless Network Down in Building A.   Email 2 Subject: *Alert* Employees Unable to Access Email in Building B.  …  …  Email 50 Subject: *Alert* Video Conferences Dropping Users in…

I’m excited to announce that Cisco Systems has been recognized as a Wi-Fi Alliance 2020 Top 10 Certifier based on the number of Wi-Fi devices it certified for interoperability in 2020.  And I’m not talking about a handful of certs, I’m talking about more than 170 individual product certifications!   Dedication to standards and integration For many across the world, Wi-Fi is the preferred means to connect to the online resources they want and need….

Cisco has bulked-up its rack server offering with new models that promise to deliver low latency and high-speed computing needed for hybrid-cloud and financial workloads. The new servers are part of Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS) family and are built with AMD’s new EPYC 7003 processors, which feature up to 64 Zen 3 cores per processor and a variety of performance and security features. Cisco and AMD have worked together on server offerings since 2018…