Cisco Partner Summit 2016: Security is a commitment for Cisco
At its global Cisco Partner Summit 2016 in San Diego, the company’s security business group senior vice-president and general manager, David Goeckeler, said at a keynote session that security is a key component of all its technologies.
“Many people don’t understand how interlinked our businesses are. Because security is in our networks and other technologies, we need a good security infrastructure and network infrastructure and they need to connect with each other,” Goeckeler said.
“Last year, we said security was our number one priority. This year, we hear everybody talking about security. It has become so important to our business and is one of our most profitable architectures.”
Goeckeler mentioned partners have requested Cisco to help drive demand.
“So, we have invested a large amount into our security portfolio, in addition to a number of security-based acquisitions over the last three years. That has seen us grow from not only being top of the networking list, but also on the security list as well,” he said.
In speaking about the strategy that’s driving the security demand, Goeckeler said there’s a problem in the industry now where there are too many point products. He said the partner channel has a huge role to play in alleviating this situation.
“There’s a lot of technology that’s in this industry, which is great, but all those products are just being offered to customers and they’re having to integrate all this technology themselves. The complexity that it leads to is overwhelming the innovation available,” he mentioned.
“Partners are having too many security vendors in their portfolio and that is leading to even more insecurity.”
So he questioned what partners need to do different and said they need to bring a best of breed portfolio with an integrated architecture – being intelligence under the network, endpoint, and Cloud.
“It also needs to be open and flexible. Our most profitable partners sell security. It drives a larger business, there is recurring revenue in its software, and it is also a service rich market.
“The opportunity for all of you in this space is incredible. So, what’s the next big opportunity Partners need to adopt new products and services that will enable the network to be an integral part of the strategy that focuses on detecting and responding to security,” he added.
In further banking on its security strategy, Cisco worldwide sales executive vice-president, Chris Dedicoat, handed out a 2000-seat Infosec OpenDNS licence for attendees (worth $US41,500).
Dedicoat said the move was to further support its channel to sell security, as the company is privy to more than 80 billion DNS addresses each day.
“It will protect your people and your data and is our commitment to you to help you get on-board [with security].
“This is an incredibly fast-growing business for us and it should be and could be for you as well; but we cannot do this on our own, because that’s not the way we operate,” Dedicoat added in closing the Summit.