The Internet of Things (IoT) brings with it enormous potential, but only if a business can get it right. Each company has its own specific set of IoT requirements and needs an infrastructure that will grow and adapt with their business. Most IoT projects struggle because they cannot scale to production, while security is an afterthought.
As a result, says network infrastructure leader Cisco, it is introducing new IoT networking products, developer tools, validated design guides and partner specialisations to deliver greater scale, flexibility and security for IoT environments.
The innovations, announced at Cisco Live 2019 in Barcelona this week, include (as supplied by Cisco):
- New IoT Networking platforms: Cisco is introducing new Catalyst industrial switches and industrial Integrated Services routers purpose-built for IoT environments. They are powered by IOS XE – the modern operating system that powers intent-based networking across the campus, branch and WAN. The new platforms are managed by Cisco DNA Center, which gives customers a single pane of glass view across their campus, branch and IoT environments.
- IoT Developer Tools: Cisco’s developer program, DevNet, features a new set of developer tools to enable customers and partners to unleash innovation at the IoT Edge. Ecosystem partners now have a consistent way to build and manage applications at the edge and enable the extra flexibility customers need to enable better business outcomes. The new IoT Developer Center is complete with learning materials, developer tools and support resources so partners can start building solutions and applications today.
- Blueprints for Utilities, Manufacturing and Remote and Mobile Assets: Working with industry partners, Cisco has created three new Cisco Validated Designs: blueprints for IoT architectures that have been tried, tested and proven to deliver business results. Cisco Validated Designs enables customers and partners to quickly accelerate from proofs of concept to successful, scaled deployments
- IoT Partner Trainings: Cisco partners are critical for successful implementation of IoT Projects. Cisco is building a global ecosystem of IoT partners by providing IoT training and specialization programs. Cisco IoT certified partners gain the highest visibility across our sales teams and customers as trusted advisors across all IoT projects. Cisco also has a rich ecosystem of industry partners, ISVs, machine builders and service providers to deliver IoT projects for customers in manufacturing, transportation, energy, retail, public sector and more.
“In IoT, the conversation is about business outcomes. It starts with secure connectivity as the foundation of every IoT deployment. By providing scale, flexibility and security, we’re turning the network into a secret weapon for our IoT customers,” said Liz Centoni, senior vice president and general manager, IoT at Cisco. “And, with a new DevNet IoT developer center, we’re empowering thousands of partners and developers around the world to build upon our IoT platform.”
“We closely collaborated with Cisco on Cisco’s new compact, low-power industrial router to meet the stringent environmental and safety standards used in the utilities industry,” said Didier Hinguant, telecom director, Enedis. “We operate and deploy our connected grid with thousands of Cisco routers via Field Network Director zero touch provisioning, with an agile, highly secure and future proof network using IPv6 to address our scalability constraints.”
Click here to read on, about how Intent-Based Networking is extended to the IoT Edge.
Extending Intent-Based Networking to Edge
Intent-based networking represents a fundamental shift in the way networks are built and managed. Moving away from the manual, time-intensive methods by which networks are traditionally managed, these modern networks capture business intent and translate it into network policy. For the past few years, customers have been embracing this new way of networking across the campus and branch. Now, IT can work with operations to manage these environments.
Intent-based networking delivers three major benefits for customers:
- Scale: Cisco has simplified IoT deployment. IT teams can now leverage their expertise with familiar tools like Cisco DNA Center to scale in an automated, simplified way. Complex deployments that previously took months can now be completed in hours or even minutes.
- Flexibility: In many cases, the cost and effort of replacing IoT infrastructure can be prohibitive. A modular design, says Cisco, means its platforms are flexible and future-proofed. So, customers can easily upgrade to new technologies, like 5G, without replacing the networking infrastructure. The Cisco Industrial Routers are the industry’s first 5G-ready IPv6 deployable industrial routers.
- Security: Cisco says it believes in a multi-layered security approach, where security in built into every layer of the IoT stack, from the networking hardware to the operating software and the edge computing apps. With the breadth of its security portfolio, Cisco provides a fully integrated security solution.