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SecureX marks the spot: Cisco vows to make unified security control panel thingy generally available this month
And announces a bunch of other tweaks at today's virtual shindig
Cisco Live Like pretty much all tech events at the moment, this year's Cisco Live conference was forced online by the coronavirus pandemic. Being a networking giant with Webex up its sleeve, this shift from physical to virtual should have been a cinch for Switchzilla.
We popped our head round the door this morning to see what the US corp was touting to netizens tuning into the show. It was mostly CEO Chuck Robbins setting out his team's mission, that life has changed for all of us, and that Cisco has gear to make remote-working possible. You could probably write the keynote yourself.
Here's a quick summary of what Cisco announced today, on day one of its two-day internet-hosted shindig:
- SecureX will, it is claimed, be generally available globally from June 30. This suite combines a chunk of Cisco's security portfolio – firewalls, web and email services, malware protection and intrusion detection systems – in a way the manufacturer hopes will be more digestible for network admins. Or as Switchzilla put it: "SecureX connects the breadth of Cisco’s integrated security portfolio with customers’ entire security infrastructure for a consistent and simplified experience."
- Webex has a number of updates:
- It has added capacity to accommodate businesses, government organizations, and folks using the video-conferencing system to stay in touch during the pandemic lockdowns. We're told Cisco is "now running the Webex platform at 3X the previous capacity" after seeing its platform usage volume triple, which suggests to us the IT titan is just about keeping up with demand.
- Cisco has added data loss prevention (DLP) retention, Legal Hold, and eDiscovery features found in Webex Teams to Webex Meetings. Its end-to-end encryption option now supports 256-bit AES-GCM cryptography, which is good.
- Cisco Webex Control Hub has been updated to help admins manage workloads and staffers, whether they are at home or in the office. That means things like the voice-controlled Webex Assistant can be pushed to conference room devices so folks don't have to touch screens or control panels, meeting data can be analyzed for troubleshooting purposes, and conference room usage stats pored over to discover which physical areas of an office are in use and need coronavirus cleaning.
- Cloud storage outfit Box and electronic health record software Epic have new integrations with Webex.
Presentations and sessions are still ongoing if you want to drop in and get the spiel direct. The show was supposed to take place in Las Vegas at the end of May. ®