Cheers to 2023 and a Year of Partner Prosperity Ahead

This year, my family (including the dogs) loaded up the car and drove into the beautiful Oregon mountains to cut down a Christmas tree. Despite relentless wildfires earlier in the year, we found the perfect survivor tree to take home with us—a symbol of perseverance and prosperity. Going into 2024, I wish the same for you—as our partner—to thrive and prosper. Our momentum is greater together in security.

AI Everywhere: Cisco Security

In the recently released Cisco Talos 2023 Year in Review Report, they saw that ransomware and extortion continue to be a common concern, rate of attacks against network infrastructure devices have escalated, and the activities of advanced persistent threat (APT) actors have increased. As cyber-attacks continue to evolve, our customers’ defenses must, too.

At Cisco Live APJC earlier this month, we announced the new Cisco AI Assistant for Security, which analyzes more than 550 billion security events each day across web, email, endpoints, networks and applications. With this data, the AI Assistant aims to close the gap between cybersecurity intent and outcomes.

First going live is the Cisco AI Assistant for Security within the Cisco Cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center and Cisco Defense Orchestrator to solve the big challenge of setting and maintaining complex policies and firewall rules.

We also announced the AI-powered Encrypted Visibility Engine for all firewall models. Most data center traffic today is encrypted and the inability to inspect encrypted traffic is a key security concern.

We are committed to leading the charge for AI adoption and advancement, and we know our partners are looking to Cisco to help drive this innovation in new solutions and offerings they can take to market to benefit their customers.  With the new capabilities of AI Assistant for Security, our partners will be able to offer a better solution for their customers enabling better efficacy, a better customer experience, and better economics.

“If It’s Connected, It’s Protected”

Cisco works with more machine-driven telemetry and on a scale larger than most in the industry. That’s in part because of our large presence and visibility across network AND security.  We have the network, infrastructure, and expertise to make sure organizations are protected from attacks in a well-rounded way.

To make good on this promise, we’ve opened new roles across sales, engineering, leadership, and support to help win deals alongside our partners, distributor, and MSP stakeholders. These resources will help Cisco’s security and networking platform, combined with partner value-added services, to address our customers’ greatest business and security outcomes.

2023 Reflections

If I reflect on my reasons for joining Cisco, it’s exactly this—the importance of our partners’ critical role in driving security and our ability to deliver even more growth together. Over the course of my entire career, I witnessed the power of the Cisco channel and the professionalism and expertise of Cisco partners. Now, seven months into this role, I am amazed every day at just how accurate that outside perception was. Thank you for everything that you do to ensure our joint success.

On the festive front, I’m ready for a unique AI solution for tangled Christmas lights if anyone has one. I would love the time back unwinding a mess of lights and extension cords every year while my daughter and I string the trees in our yard. Wishing you and your families a very merry holiday season, and I have great faith that 2024 will be our best year yet!

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