It’s important that Cisco products, and the knowledge of distributors, remain on the cutting-edge of technology for our customers. To help our customers maintain secure and efficient networks and businesses, we must stay up to date with technological advances and adapt to meet new needs. In a recent webinar hosted by Will Scruggs, Product Business Manager, Cisco Enterprise Networking at TD SYNNEX, speaker Jason Guararra, Solutions Architect at TD SYNNEX, shared insight about Cisco Catalyst Cloud Monitoring. With innovations that combine the best networking technologies and the number one cloud-managed network, distributors can help customers accelerate the transition to cloud-managed experiences.
Why Cloud? Why Now?
In today’s world, practically everyone is turning to Cloud options. It has become so ubiquitous that Gartner predicts by 2025, 95 percent of new digital workloads will be deployed on Cloud-native platforms. The trend was already underway before the pandemic, but the pandemic forced many to work from home, and many haven’t returned to former ways. In fact, research from Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) states that 85 percent of organizations have experienced a permanent increase in the number of employees working from home at least part-time. Guararra discussed how Cisco is increasingly hearing from customers that with this new hybrid work environment, “they want to take the best-in-class, Meraki cloud management, and merge that with the Catalyst switches.”
Catalyst Cloud Monitoring
Whether in a remote or hybrid environment, or neither, Cloud is the future, and it’s here now, which is why it’s easy to see why it has become more important than ever to offer customers more Cloud options. “The current capabilities of Catalyst Cloud Monitoring today are focused on unifying the Cisco infrastructure into that single pane of glass,” said Guararra. This full, unified topology view allows customers increased visibility on a single dashboard. Using a single dashboard saves customers time and increases security. In addition to enhancing security through added visibility, Catalyst Cloud Monitoring also helps with device health and troubleshooting. Guararra explained some of the capabilities, including in-dashboard alerts for switch or port issues, port-level packet and error counters, remote troubleshooting, and diagnostic tools. As a result of these alerts and tools, users can resolve issues quickly and effectively, reducing downtime, and preventing security threats. Even better, for customers, anything they are already able to do on the Meraki dashboard, they can do on Catalyst, with the licensing already purchased.
The Future Roadmap
This next step of Catalyst Cloud Monitoring is exciting for everyone. A free trial period is currently running, as well as a qualified promotion. C9300 customers looking to convert switches can convert and use the Meraki dashboard without needing a Meraki license until June 2023. Additionally, customers with active DNA and SNTC can obtain Meraki licenses free of charge. As we look at the official Cloud Management for the Catalyst roadmap, there has been lots of progress in both cloud monitoring and management. Although the roadmap has been modified since it was designed, and may be modified further, it outlines the current state and future plans. With cloud monitoring, the goal is comprehensive network visibility, which includes device, client, and traffic observability and insights, issue diagnosis, and troubleshooting. CY22 saw the 9200, 9300, and 9500 become available for monitoring. In CY23, C9800-connected APs, 9400, and 9600 will become available for monitoring. Added capabilities included automation, zero-trust security, and programmability through APIs and ecosystem integration. In CY22, 9300 and 9166/64/62 Wi-Fi 6E became available for management. The 9300X and 9300L are planned for CY23, followed by 9200L, 9200, 9400, 9500, and 9600 in CY24 and beyond.
Conclusion
Catalyst Cloud Monitoring brings a number of new benefits to customers looking to convert switches. Distribution partners must understand the newest technology and how it can improve the services they provide and the businesses they serve. The presenters ended with an appropriate quote from American author Joseph Krutch: “Technology made large populations possible; large populations now make technology indispensable.”
To watch the full Catalyst Cloud Monitoring webinar, click here.
