Cisco on Wednesday confirmed a series of updates to its BYOD strategy and wireless networking, including a unified access framework intended to simplify how devices and infrastructure are managed.
"One of the big challenges for IT is to show they're enabling business instead of just reacting to problems," Inbar Lasser-Raab, senior director of marketing for Cisco's Borderless Networks team, told CRN. "We need to enable IT organizations through offers and services and roll out to them so they can grab opportunities quickly."
New to Cisco, which is touting the unified access concept at Interop New York this week, is an updated version of its Identity Services Engine (ISE), which streamlines how role-based access control is enforced across both wired and wireless networks. ISE 1.1.1 also offers a "My Devices" portal for simplifying which devices are registered and secured.
[Related: Cisco Acquires ThinkSmart Technologies For Wi-Fi Analytics]
In addition, Cisco is launching several new 802.11n wireless access points, the Aironet 2600 and Aironet 1600, as well as a new high-end wireless controller, the 8500 Series, intended for service providers and large enterprises and able to manage up to 6,000 access points and 64,000 clients. Cisco is also targeting the emerging 802.11ac standard -- expected to eventually eclipse 11n -- with a module for its Cisco Aironet 3600 APs.
Other updates include a bolstered version of its Prime platform for managing applications and services across the network, paring down the management layers so that wired, wireless, campus and branch infrastructure tools can be viewed, managed and secured as a single system. SMB and midmarket customers can also access virtualized controllers and virtualized versions of Cisco's Prime, ISE and Mobility Services Engine platforms.
Context-aware security features like Cisco TrustSec are also now available on Cisco's 3560-X and 3750-X switches and will be available on Cisco 4500E switches in the new year.
PUBLISHED OCT. 3, 2012
