As the workforce moves more and more aggressively into the cloud to better support remote work initiatives, it’s important to understand innovation around an important component of that migration: Data centers. Data centers and their networking abilities help power multi-cloud environments, hybrid cloud environments, and everything in-between.
In this roundup, EDGE360 takes a closer look at what’s happening in the data center arena for the Cisco community and how leaders are empowering their clients to optimize their data center strategies.
From Data Center to Cloud, Guidance for Managing Data Everywhere
In a recent Cisco blog post, Daniel McGinniss, Senior Director, IBN and Data Center Solutions Marketing at Cisco, sheds light on the various factors of digital transformation in data centers as the needs in the workforce evolve. With specific needs resulting from an increasing remote workforce, agility and resiliency in IT solutions specifically are top-of-mind for IT decision makers right now.
“Data center and cloud networking agility provide the ability to react quickly to changes and goes way beyond traditional measurements of speeds and feeds,” wrote McGinniss. “Agility depends on being able to manage the network fabric holistically with emphasis on higher-level infrastructure orchestration platforms, automation tools, programmability through APIs, and end-to-end visibility through deep analytics with machine learning.”
In this piece, McGinniss also referenced Cisco’s standing as a leader in the 2020 Magic Quadrant for Data Center and Cloud Networking report, marking the sixth consecutive year for Cisco to receive this rating.
Read more about Cisco’s leadership in the space and the determining factors that led to it here.
Is Security the Most Critical Element of Your Multi-cloud Network? Bien Sûr!
As part of a series on multi-cloud strategy on the Cisco blog, Mark Ellwanger, Marketing Manager – Data Center Networking at Cisco, dug into the unique challenges that come with securing a multi-cloud environment and the corresponding ways to address them.
“Cloud infrastructure is a growing target for cyberattacks because of available computing resources as well as being a repository of valuable data,” Ellwanger explained. “Attackers have unlimited attempts and resources to be effective, so defenders have to win every time. This requires a strategy with depth in defense, immense visibility, rapid intelligence, and the ability to respond quickly and effectively.”
Ellwanger went on to explain the different options IT teams have at their disposal to mitigate these cyber threats such as Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and SD-WAN.
Learn more about these different approaches to multi-cloud security here.
All Things Data Center Networking at Cisco Live and DevNet Day 2020
For the first time, Cisco Live US took place virtually due to the pandemic. But that didn’t decrease attendance. The event drew in an impressive crowd of more than 124,000 viewers, 53 percent of whom were first-time attendees. Cisco’s Senior Product Marketing Manager for Data Center Solutions, Ravi Balakrishnan, shared key Data Center Networking highlights from this year’s live broadcast and DevNet Day in a recent Cisco blog post.
In addition to keynote addresses from Cisco’s CEO Chuck Robbins and Todd Nightigale, SVP and General Manager, Enterprise Networking and Cloud, there were compelling Data Center Networking breakout sessions for Cisco partners to enjoy, including Flex Your IT Superpower by Harnessing The Network and Multi-cloud Networking for ACI and NX-OS Enabled Data Center Fabrics.
“Each day focused on how Cisco technology innovations, and the IT heroes behind them, are powering an inclusive future,” wrote Balakrishnan. “Cisco leadership sessions focused on the role of IT in helping our customers move quickly and enable connections during these dynamic times.”
Find out more about on-demand Cisco Live content in Balakrishnan’s post here.
How to Maximize the Success of Your Data Science Initiatives
Francoise Reese, Marketing Manager, Product & Solution Marketing, Desktop Virtualization at Cisco, shared an overview of interesting results from a recent study conducted by ESG titled The Impact of Collaboration Quality on Data Science Success. The study unpacks the recurring gap between the data science and IT teams that Cisco experts have heard from their partners.
Reese noted, “When examining the challenges each team faces in working with one another, some interesting data percolated: IT’s top shortcomings were due to skill gaps, infrastructure limitations, and lack of agility. On the other hand, 40 percent of the organizations surveyed said the greatest challenge impacting a better partnership between data science and IT teams is the data science team’s rapidly changing priorities.”
Reese’s solution to this disparity? Better, more frequent collaboration. The study revealed that on average, organizations with high-quality collaboration achieved greater business benefits related to AI initiatives faster than those with low-quality collaboration.
Read more about the study and how to better align your data science and IT teams here.
