Cisco generative AI heads to Security Cloud, Webex

LAS VEGAS -- Cisco has introduced generative AI in its collaboration and security software to increase worker productivity while bolstering safety in the hybrid workplace.

Cisco unveiled the upcoming AI capabilities in Security Cloud and the Webex video conferencing and collaboration platform this week at the Cisco Live customer and partner conference.

Within the Webex Suite, Cisco has tapped generative AI to provide workers with summaries of missed video meetings, conference calls and group chats. Workers can also opt in to automatically receive the critical elements of a meeting, key points and items they need to address.

Webex lets managers and others send video casts instead of meetings to distribute information. Cisco's AI technology will organize the video cast into chapters so that workers can navigate to essential segments quickly.

Within the Security Cloud platform, Cisco launched a generative AI preview that simplifies policy management to bolster cybersecurity in an organization. Cloud-based Security Cloud leverages network telemetry to defend against cyber attacks on remote workers, office employees, and on-premises and cloud applications.

Writing and managing security policies implemented by Cisco firewalls and other appliances is complex. Cisco plans to offer a generative AI Policy Assistant that lets security and IT administrators describe granular policies and evaluate their impact across security infrastructure.

At Cisco Live, the company previewed how Policy Assistant can help implement rules within the Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, the administrative console for firewalls, application control, intrusion prevention, URL filtering and malware protection.

Cisco's ability to provide comprehensive security with the Webex platform is a differentiator in the collaboration market, said Irwin Lazar, president and principal analyst of tech research firm Metrigy. The company also has an extensive hardware portfolio and Webex integration with Microsoft Teams, a more dominant competitor in the collaboration market.

"Cisco's primary differentiations right now are around security, integrated management of software and hardware, quality of hardware, interoperability with Teams, and use of AI for voice and video improvement," Lazar said.

Cisco plans to roll out the AI-powered Security Cloud and Webex features by the end of the year.

In the first of next year, Cisco plans to launch a Security Cloud AI assistant for security operations centers, facilities where information security teams monitor for and analyze possible cyberthreats.

When a threat is spotted, the assistant will contextualize events across email, the web, endpoints and the network to help understand its impact. Analysts can interact with the assistant to determine a remediation approach.

Antone Gonsalves is networking news director for TechTarget Editorial. He has deep and wide experience in tech journalism. Since the mid-1990s, he has worked for UBM's InformationWeek, TechWeb and Computer Reseller News. He has also written for Ziff Davis' PC Week, IDG's CSOonline and IBTMedia's CruxialCIO, and rounded all of that out by covering startups for Bloomberg News. He started his journalism career at United Press International, working as a reporter and editor in California, Texas, Kansas and Florida. Have a news tip? Please drop him an email.

Tech News This Week 06-09-2023

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