Cisco Unveils New Products, Services for Secure Office Return, Remote Workforces
Most workers are uncomfortable about returning to the office amid the continuing pandemic.
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Recent Cisco research shows:
· A real fear of returning to the office, with 95% of respondents uncomfortable about returning to the office given the ongoing health crisis.
· The desire for more advanced tools, with 96% wanting intelligent technology to improve work environments.
· More prioritization of the employee experience, with 86% saying empowering a distributed workforce with seamless access to applications and high-quality collaborative experiences is important or very important. This jumps to 95% for companies with more than 1,000 employees.
Organizations are looking to transform their workplace for a hybrid workforce, Cisco said. And they’re looking to create a more inclusive future of work for all. Business agility and resilience are core to this transformation. This prompts the need for tools that connect, secure and automate technologies and applications to bring the workforce and workplaces together, regardless of where employees work.
Cisco says Webex collaboration devices enable a safe return to office. They provide capabilities like wayfinding, digital signage, touchless calls and meeting joins, room capacity alerts, environmental sensors, and more.
The DNA Spaces Back to Business applications suite provides location analytics and insight into user behavior to support customers’ safe return-to-office strategies. Cisco Catalyst and Meraki wireless customers can deploy DNA Spaces for immediate business impact, the company said. Since their release, the applications have been deployed in over 50,000 business locations.
The Cisco Meraki platform includes smart cameras for security monitoring to keep people, workplaces, infrastructure and sensitive inventory secure. New sensors provide more insight with real-time environmental monitoring, from temperature to humidity and leaks, to opened/closed doors and cabinets.
Cisco says Industrial Asset Vision helps businesses simplify asset and facility monitoring with IoT sensors. To ensure workers are safe, remote monitoring provides real-time data from both IT and industrial environments, and enables businesses to know workers’ locations and minimize contact.
Workplace Zero Trust for Industrial Networks leverages Cisco Cyber Vision and Cisco ISE/DNA Center. It creates trusted production zones and ensures security policies are not disrupting industrial processes. Furthermore, it provides identity-based, secure access to the network for users and devices, Cisco said.
The carrier unveiled multiple new offerings, both involving technology partnerships.
First, AT&T announced a new secure access service edge (SASE) solution that it launched in conjunction with Fortinet.
Then AT&T bolstered its 5G play by adding fixed wireless routers from Sierra Wireless and Cradlepoint.
Maribel Lopez is founder and principal analyst at Lopez Research.
“Organizations are facing the need to transform their workforce and workplace amid unprecedented change, while maintaining productivity and avoiding complications,” she said. “Those who didn’t already have a plan to digitally transform have moved rapidly toward prioritizing one. And those that did have accelerated those plans. The need for a workforce that’s protected and connected from anywhere, on any device, requires businesses to be more agile and prioritize digitization, automation, security and collaboration in order to create trusted work experiences for employees and customers.”
Maribel Lopez is founder and principal analyst at Lopez Research.
“Organizations are facing the need to transform their workforce and workplace amid unprecedented change, while maintaining productivity and avoiding complications,” she said. “Those who didn’t already have a plan to digitally transform have moved rapidly toward prioritizing one. And those that did have accelerated those plans. The need for a workforce that’s protected and connected from anywhere, on any device, requires businesses to be more agile and prioritize digitization, automation, security and collaboration in order to create trusted work experiences for employees and customers.”
Just-released products and services from Cisco focus on helping businesses rethink how they work and address fears over returning to the office.
The new offers support multiple options to create a trusted workplace that helps enable a safe return to office and a secure remote workforce. They cover:
Automating, securing and expanding network connectivity.
Social density and proximity insights for employee health and safety.
Securely bringing people together to work however and wherever they want through Webex and collaboration devices.
Cisco’s Todd Nightingale
Todd Nightingale is Cisco‘s senior vice president and general manager of enterprise networking and cloud.
“As we think about the return to office, Cisco is helping our customers find solutions that work best for their teams,” he said. “Whether they are in the office, at home or on the road, every employee deserves the best experience.”
Check out our slideshow above to learn more about the new Cisco products and services; also, what they will address for businesses.
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