Cisco taking major steps with predictive networking solutions to improve modern IT landscape

By Osama AlZoubi, Chief Technology Officer – Cisco -Middle East and Africa

In today’s connected world—where every business, application, and device relies on a digital connection, driving superior digital experiences is the outcome that matters most.

The quality of digital experiences, delivered via apps both within business environments and for consumers, is top of mind for our customers in the Middle East and Africa. Most business and IT leaders I talk to are thinking about how they can reimagine the way they design, develop, and deploy applications.

However, as digital experiences get simpler for consumers, they get more complex for companies. They are struggling to keep pace with network demands and looking for new ways to manage their new dependency on cloud and Internet networks.   

Cisco anticipated this challenge. Two years ago, we acquired ThousandEyes, known for its cloud and Internet monitoring technology. Today, Cisco is taking pivotal steps to deliver industry-first predictive networking for today’s modern IT environments where cloud and Internet networks are core to the corporate backbone.

This intelligence is one-of-a-kind and empowers organizations to unlock digital transformation projects using cloud-powered solutions such as SaaS, SASE, and SD-WAN.

Using software-as-a-service (SaaS) to help organizations predict network problems before they happen, Cisco is now able to deliver a predictive analytics engine called ThousandEyes WAN Insights. With this specific product, we help our customers detect potential networking and connectivity issues before they turn into critical problems that need to be resolved.

This is a significant step towards automated, self-optimizing networks and services, and we are proud to be offering that to our customers in the region.

Network as a Service and predictive networking are significant trends in today’s tech world, as IT departments shift focus from managing IT to using it as an innovation platform. According to Cisco’s Global Networking Trends Report 2022, IT teams recognize the top Network as a Service (NaaS) benefits as freeing them up to deliver innovation and business value (46%). Another 40% recognize NaaS as improving response to disruptions and 34% as improving network agility, enabling them to innovate with the pace of change.

In addition, 35% of respondents recognize the requirement to continually deploy the latest networking technologies such as Wi-Fi 6, SD-WAN, SASE, 5G, AI and others as the top drivers for NaaS.

Cisco’s innovative work in improving networking and connectivity is sparked over 30 years of experience in building the foundation of today’s digital economy. This uniquely positions Cisco to understand the needs of enterprises and what it takes to reimagine and develop solutions that enable businesses to thrive in today’s cloud-centric world.