Cisco claims the integrated security solution, which launches in June 2015, will allow companies to secure their networks and datacentres from the infrastructure right through to the application level.
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As part of a singular package, Cisco is challenging rivals/partners such as Palo Alto and reducing infrastructure and management costs.
ACI, its form of Software Defined Networking, means that its open ecosystem will make it available to work in conjunction with specialist security vendors such as Check Point, Fortinet, and Symantec.
The Firepower brand of network based security appliances run the gamut from hardware to virtualised software offerings, and Cisco claims will offer global threat intelligence, network security visibility and the opportunity to isolate threats to silos within the network before they can do too much damage. It will be completely compatible with Cisco's Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC), allowing for whitelisting/blacklisting on firewalls, and centralised automation - reducing human input.
Rob Soderbery, Cisco's senior vice-president of enterprise products and solutions, used his spot on the day two keynote to treat the company's new security focus as a throwdown to the rest of the security industry.
"Not only are we in it to win, not only can we win, but we will win," he said.
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