Organizations are shifting to observability over the entire application stack to achieve exceptional, secure, performant digital experiences

Whether managing supply chains, transferring funds,… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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Organizations are shifting to observability over the entire application stack to achieve exceptional, secure, performant digital experiences

Whether managing supply chains, transferring funds, delivering medical services, collaborating with geographically dispersed teams, or streaming the latest movies, today’s hyper-connected users expect highly personalized and secure digital experiences that work every time, everywhere.

Applications are the face of nearly every modern organization as they deliver products or services. Reliance on cloud-enabled and modern applications means that business experiences are synonymous with digital experiences. Flawless application performance and seamless security are baseline expectations.

At stake are revenue, reputation, brand promise, and business relevance.

The stakes have never been higher

Virtually every organization now depends upon applications to deliver digital experiences. Modern applications are built on top of microservices running on cloud architectures, which are based on massively decentralized services. This creates a complex and fast-evolving environment where a minor issue in one service can have a cumulative effect on overall application performance.

When something goes wrong, it can take hours or even days to identify, analyze, and triage the root cause simply because there are so many dependencies and potential points of failure across multiple domains and environments.

The information and experience required to operate these environments is scattered and siloed across different tools and teams. This reduces the ability to identify, prioritize, and effectively address the issues that directly impact user experience – and ultimately brand and reputation.

At the same time, the attack surface is growing exponentially with many possible entry points and potentially misconfigured services and infrastructure. Malicious actors have become more sophisticated, overwhelming IT and security teams.

With so much on the line, there is little room for error and time is critical. Teams work hard to stay on top of both performance and security, often using multiple monitoring tools to see and make sense of what’s happening within their environment and across the entire application stack.

The age of observability has arrived

This situation is enormously challenging. According to IDC, 47% of businesses report using between 11 and 40 different monitoring tools while only 17% say their current approach meets their monitoring and observability requirements.

The sheer volume of alerts generated by distinct monitoring systems can be overwhelming, leading to “alert fatigue” that can result in critical information being overlooked. Alerts are also siloed, lacking the business context that would allow teams to prioritize threats according to the risk and impact posed to the business.

With so many tools, businesses face a high total cost of ownership (TCO) for what they have available, while still experiencing lengthy mean time to detect (MTTD) across domains and mean time to resolution (MTTR) when issues arise. That is because those same monitoring tools cannot correlate issues in a way that supports actionable remediation.

Observability brings a wider scope to the equation. An evolution beyond monitoring, it is the process of understanding the internal states and behaviors of a complex system, such as applications, by gathering, evaluating, and visualizing pertinent data from diverse sources.

Nearly three-quarters of respondents to an IDC survey say observability solutions must provide a single source of truth for use by all mission-critical IT management tools and teams. Sharing context among teams – IT operations, DevOps, SecOps, NetOps, site reliability engineers (SREs), line of business, and even the C-suite – is critical to delivering flawless digital experiences.

However, there are numerous barriers to observability. For example, a recent IDC report indicates that 60% of IT professionals are concerned that most observability tools are too narrowly focused and fail to give them a complete view into current and trending operating conditions. Additionally, 65% say they want a programmable and extensible observability solution that can be leveraged for use cases specific to their environment.

This calls for a platform that scales as businesses scale and easily extends across the infrastructure and lifecycle of their applications. A platform-centric approach must first support application performance monitoring (APM) for hybrid and cloud native apps to establish a foundation for observability.

Organizations can then leverage native and open integrations and extensions for digital experience monitoring, business risk observability, cost and workload optimization, AIOps, and DevSecOps, for instance, to help teams deliver the best application experiences.

From monitoring to observability to full-stack observability

The concept of observability over the “full stack” – full-stack observability – has emerged as a potent new category with the goal of enabling organizations to aggregate and correlate data across environments and domains.

Full-stack observability offers comprehensive monitoring, tracking, and analysis of applications, their dependencies and related infrastructure across all layers and components to gain real-time insights into their performance, risks, and behavior.

It strives to aggregate and correlate data from across operational domains — including applications, networking, multicloud infrastructure and cloud services, security, end users, and business itself. It then surfaces recommended actions enriched with business context, enabling teams across multiple domains to proactively identify, prioritize, and resolve issues to deliver always-on, secure, and exceptional digital experiences.

Making complex systems and applications observable in this way empowers technology and operations teams to effectively see around corners, achieving swift resolution that mitigates disruption, or even avoids it altogether. It helps them wrap their arms around everything that can impact any user experience when customers, employees, or partners are engaging with their applications.

Cisco’s answer is Cisco Full-Stack Observability. For this, Cisco has taken a platform approach. Cisco Observability Platform aggregates and correlates data from across operational domains — including applications, networking, multicloud infrastructure and cloud services, security, end users, and business itself.

Cisco Full-Stack Observability offers comprehensive monitoring, tracking, and analysis of applications, their dependencies and related infrastructure across all layers and components to gain real-time insights into their performance, risks, and behavior. It then surfaces recommended actions enriched with business context, enabling teams across multiple domains to proactively identify, prioritize, and resolve issues to deliver always-on, secure, and exceptional digital experiences.

Read the IDC Report: An Executive Blueprint for an Observability Platform

"}]]  Full-stack observability offers comprehensive monitoring, tracking, and analysis of applications, their dependencies and related infrastructure across all layers and components to gain real-time insights into application performance. Read the IDC Blueprint for an observability platform.  Read More Cisco Blogs 

The Social Impact Partner Spotlight series highlights various Cisco non-profit organization partners that are helping transform the lives of individuals and communities. This blog features Cisco’s p… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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The Social Impact Partner Spotlight series highlights various Cisco non-profit organization partners that are helping transform the lives of individuals and communities. This blog features Cisco’s partnership with the NIIT Foundation, highlighting its impactful work around cybersecurity education and awareness.

India has the world’s second-largest internet user base. While digitization is rapidly increasing, the vulnerability towards cyber threats is also rising. A major threat to security is around personal information, organizational data, and national security. With an increased focus on cybersecurity in India, there are also job opportunities in this emerging industry.

Keeping these aspects in mind, the Cisco India Cash Grant Program (ICG), along with its implementation partner NIIT Foundation, a not-for-profit education society which has the mandate to reach the unreached, uncared for, and unattended to ensure inclusive development, launched Cyber Suraksha. Suraksha in Hindi means safety and Cyber Suraksha is a flagship Cisco purpose initiative for creating Cyber Security awareness amongst citizens of India and contributing to cybersecurity aligned skilling. Over a three-year grant period (2022-2025), the goal is to engage and impact one million individuals in the country. The program has already reached out to a diverse set of audiences, including senior citizens, persons with disabilities, border security force personnel, youth, and individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community.

The initiative offers three main courses, some of which are available through the partnership with Cisco Networking Academy.

The courses are:

Cyber Awareness: A 20-hour foundational program focused on building citizens’ knowledge on personal security. The program builds awareness of cyber security threats and how to be better protected against misuse of personal identity, cyber-bullying, financial fraud, online fraud, racial abuse, pornography, and gambling. The program is targeted at age groups 13 and above.
Cyber Smart: An advanced program for college students who want to explore cyberspace and a career in this field. Students learn to develop an understanding of cybercrime, security principles, technologies, and procedures used to defend networks. The program is targeted at age groups 16 and above.
Cyber Workforce: An employability program that helps students to build their skill set in cyberspace and move forward with a job in the industry. The program is targeted at age groups 18 and above, specifically for individuals wanting to work in cybersecurity.
Student beneficiary speaking at the Cyber Suraksha event

Since its launch, the Cyber Suraksha initiative has led to:

500,000 individuals trained
More than 3,300 youth placed in Cybersecurity jobs
42 percent of participants in the training identify as female

“In this digital age, the need for Cybersecurity knowledge and awareness is paramount. We have noticed through experience that marginalized sections of society lack information about the ever-evolving risk within cyber space and this was a key driver to conceptualizing this program.” —Sapna Moudgil, Director, NIIT Foundation

Get involved:

To learn more about Cyber Suraksha, check out their program page and this video.
Nominate an organization such as a non-governmental organization (NGO) or a school to be considered for the program, by reaching out to contact@niitfoundation.org.
For further information on Cisco Networking Academy’s partnership with the NIIT Foundation, check out this blog.

"}]]  Learn how Cisco and the NIIT Foundation have partnered to increase cybersecurity awareness and skills training in India.  Read More Cisco Blogs 

Once upon a time, there were two Stanford University employees — a husband and wife — who weren’t able to email one another because their computers were on different networks. Eventually, they figur… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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Once upon a time, there were two Stanford University employees — a husband and wife — who weren’t able to email one another because their computers were on different networks. Eventually, they figured out a way to connect their computers, developing the multiprotocol router.

The year was 1984, and this new connection … well, it’s how Cisco was born!

And thanks to the innovations of Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner, my husband and I are here today. You see, I’m a Collaboration Sales Specialist at Cisco, and my husband, Scott, is a Sales Admin at Meraki. You could call us Mrs. Webex and Mr. Meraki — but for the record, I was here first!

I started my Cisco adventure in March 2021, which I owe to a fellow Cisconian who pushed me to apply for my role. I clearly talked enough about how much I loved working here that in January 2022, when Scott saw an opportunity that suited his background and skillset come up in Meraki, he jumped at the chance to apply. I’m so glad he did!

As much as I was initially wary of working at the same place as my husband, particularly as a fiercely independent person (as he will attest to!), it has turned out to be the best move for us as a couple and as a family. It’s just as well that Cisco is such a BIG organisation, so much so that even though my husband and I are both Cisconians working from the same place (most of the time), we very rarely “run into one another” at work.

As parents, Scott and I both feel so grateful to work for an organisation like Cisco — a workplace that truly values working families and puts the right tools and benefits in place to support us as we juggle working and family life. Our oldest son, Charlie, was just 18 months old when I joined Cisco. Now, he’s nearly five and is big brother to baby Brodie, who recently turned one. From maternity leave to the return to work support I received after having Brodie, coupled with the healthcare and financial benefits we receive here, as a woman looking to progress in her career and raise a family, Cisco makes it feel possible.

Our culture that puts people before all else makes having a career here a joy. In the city we’re both from, Glasgow, there’s a saying, “People make Glasgow.” I feel the same way about Cisco. The people here truly make Cisco what it is. From supportive managers to caring, hardworking, and fun teammates, we’re surrounded by good people every day.

As for how we juggle it all? The flexibility of hybrid work is key for us as a family. Scott works predominantly from home, whereas I take a blended approach. I am a Collaboration Specialist after all! Some days, I work from home; some days, I go into the office, and other days I’m on the go. Thankfully, with Webex we’ve got all the technology at our fingertips to make “working from anywhere” possible.

My role — covering Scotland and Ireland — includes a bit of travelling, which, as a mum with two young kids, requires planning and the right kind of support. Thankfully, with Scott having the flexibility to work from home and be around for the kids’ nursery drop-offs and pick-ups when I’m away, I don’t have any of the added worry or mum guilt that usually comes with work travel.

Another added bonus we’ve found as a couple and as parents working at the same place is our holidays align! We can also use the perks and benefits here at Cisco, like Time2Give — 80 hours of paid time off in addition to our regular paid time off — to support initiatives at our kids’ nurseries or projects in our local community together. There’s one downside, however: a Day for Me — a quarterly day off for the whole company to prioritise well-being — isn’t ever truly a day for ME. It’s a day for us!

Scott and I have been together for 17 years. We’ve studied in different cities, travelled around the world with and without each other, and seen each other through our fair share of good and not-so-good jobs. Now, it’s just great to both be settled somewhere like Cisco while navigating these whirlwind early years as parents together.

It has also always been Scott’s dream for us to raise our kids in the small village where he grew up. For so many years, I was reluctant to try the idea because there was no train station and no easy commute to work. Now, with the flexibility of Cisco’s hybrid work culture that we both enjoy and the connection that’s possible thanks to the pioneering technology that Cisco was founded on, we’re living in that little “dream” village after all — and the commute once or twice a week really isn’t so bad. In fact, as a busy mum, the 40-minute solo car journey is actually a treat!

Are you ready to start your Cisco adventure? Explore the possibilities.

Subscribe to the WeAreCisco blog.

"}]]  Through benefits, support, and connection, see how Collaboration Sales Specialist Collette N. and her husband, Scott, are navigating careers and parenthood at Cisco.  Read More Cisco Blogs 

In parts one and two of this AI blog series, we explored the strategic considerations and networking needs for a successful AI implementation. In this blog I focus on data center infrastructure with… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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In parts one and two of this AI blog series, we explored the strategic considerations and networking needs for a successful AI implementation. In this blog I focus on data center infrastructure with a look at the computing power that brings it all to life.

Just as humans use patterns as mental shortcuts for solving complex problems, AI is about recognizing patterns to distill actionable insights. Now think about how this applies to the data center, where patterns have developed over decades. You have cycles where we use software to solve problems, then hardware innovations enable new software to focus on the next problem. The pendulum swings back and forth repeatedly, with each swing representing a disruptive technology that changes and redefines how we get work done with our developers and with data center infrastructure and operations teams.

AI is clearly the latest pendulum swing and disruptive technology that requires advancements in both hardware and software. GPUs are all the rage today due to the public debut of ChatGPT – but GPUs have been around for a long time. I was a GPU user back in the 1990s because these powerful chips enabled me to play 3D games that required fast processing to calculate things like where all those polygons should be in space, updating visuals fast with each frame.

In technical terms, GPUs can process many parallel floating-point operations faster than standard CPUs and in large part that is their superpower. It’s worth noting that many AI workloads can be optimized to run on a high-performance CPU.  But unlike the CPU, GPUs are free from the responsibility of making all the other subsystems within compute work with each other. Software developers and data scientists can leverage software like CUDA and its development tools to harness the power of GPUs and use all that parallel processing capability to solve some of the world’s most complex problems.

A new way to look at your AI needs

Unlike single, heterogenous infrastructure use cases like virtualization, there are multiple patterns within AI that come with different infrastructure needs in the data center. Organizations can think about AI use cases in terms of three main buckets:

Build the model, for large foundational training.
Optimize the model, for fine-tuning a pre-trained model with specific data sets.
Use the model, for inferencing insights from new data.

The least demanding workloads are optimize and use the model because most of the work can be done in a single box with multiple GPUs. The most intensive, disruptive, and expensive workload is build the model. In general, if you’re looking to train these models at scale you need an environment that can support many GPUs across many servers, networking together for individual GPUs that behave as a single processing unit to solve highly complex problems, faster.

This makes the network critical for training use cases and introduces all kinds of challenges to data center infrastructure and operations, especially if the underlying facility was not built for AI from inception. And most organizations today are not looking to build new data centers.

Therefore, organizations building out their AI data center strategies will have to answer important questions like:

What AI use cases do you need to support, and based on the business outcomes you need to deliver, where do they fall into the build the model, optimize the model, and use the model buckets?
Where is the data you need, and where is the best location to enable these use cases to optimize outcomes and minimize the costs?
Do you need to deliver more power? Are your facilities able to cool these types of workloads with existing methods or do you require new methods like water cooling?
Finally, what is the impact on your organization’s sustainability goals?

The power of Cisco Compute solutions for AI

As the general manager and senior vice president for Cisco’s compute business, I’m happy to say that Cisco UCS servers are designed for demanding use cases like AI fine-tuning and inferencing, VDI, and many others. With its future-ready, highly modular architecture, Cisco UCS empowers our customers with a blend of high-performance CPUs, optional GPU acceleration, and software-defined automation. This translates to efficient resource allocation for diverse workloads and streamlined management through Cisco Intersight. You can say that with UCS, you get the muscle to power your creativity and the brains to optimize its use for groundbreaking AI use cases.

But Cisco is one player in a wide ecosystem. Technology and solution partners have long been a key to our success, and this is certainly no different in our strategy for AI. This strategy revolves around driving maximum customer value to harness the full long-term potential behind each partnership, which enables us to combine the best of compute and networking with the best tools in AI.

This is the case in our strategic partnerships with NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, Red Hat, and others. One key deliverable has been the steady stream of Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs) that provide pre-configured solution blueprints that simplify integrating AI workloads into existing IT infrastructure. CVDs eliminate the need for our customers to build their AI infrastructure from scratch. This translates to faster deployment times and reduced risks associated with complex infrastructure configurations and deployments.

Another key pillar of our AI computing strategy is offering customers a diversity of solution options that include standalone blade and rack-based servers, converged infrastructure, and hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI). These options enable customers to address a variety of use cases and deployment domains throughout their hybrid multicloud environments – from centralized data centers to edge end points. Here are just a couple of examples:

Converged infrastructures with partners like NetApp and Pure Storage offer a strong foundation for the full lifecycle of AI development from training AI models to day-to-day operations of AI workloads in production environments. For highly demanding AI use cases like scientific research or complex financial simulations, our converged infrastructures can be customized and upgraded to provide the scalability and flexibility needed to handle these computationally intensive workloads efficiently.
We also offer an HCI option through our strategic partnership with Nutanix that is well-suited for hybrid and multi-cloud environments through the cloud-native designs of Nutanix solutions. This allows our customers to seamlessly extend their AI workloads across on-premises infrastructure and public cloud resources, for optimal performance and cost efficiency. This solution is also ideal for edge deployments, where real-time data processing is crucial.

AI Infrastructure with sustainability in mind 

Cisco’s engineering teams are focused on embedding energy management, software and hardware sustainability, and business model transformation into everything we do. Together with energy optimization, these new innovations will have the potential to help more customers accelerate their sustainability goals.

Working in tandem with engineering teams across Cisco, Denise Lee leads Cisco’s Engineering Sustainability Office with a mission to deliver more sustainable products and solutions to our customers and partners. With electricity usage from data centers, AI, and the cryptocurrency sector potentially doubling by 2026, according to a recent International Energy Agency report, we are at a pivotal moment where AI, data centers, and energy efficiency must come together. AI data center ecosystems must be designed with sustainability in mind. Denise outlined the systems design thinking that highlights the opportunities for data center energy efficiency across performance, cooling, and power in her recent blog, Reimagine Your Data Center for Responsible AI Deployments.

Recognition for Cisco’s efforts have already begun. Cisco’s UCS X-series has received the Sustainable Product of the Year by SEAL Awards and an Energy Star rating from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. And Cisco continues to focus on critical features in our portfolio through agreement on product sustainability requirements to address the demands on data centers in the years ahead.

Look ahead to Cisco Live

We are just a couple of months away from Cisco Live US, our premier customer event and showcase for the many different and exciting innovations from Cisco and our technology and solution partners. We will be sharing many exciting Cisco Compute solutions for AI and other uses cases. Our Sustainability Zone will feature a virtual tour through a modernized Cisco data center where you can learn about Cisco compute technologies and their sustainability benefits. I’ll share more details in my next blog closer to the event.

 Get more information about Cisco Compute solutions for AI.

Read more about Cisco’s AI strategy with the other blogs in this three-part series on AI for Networking:

Why 2024 is the Year of AI for Networking  by Denise Shiffman
Building Data Center Infrastructure for the AI Revolution by Kevin Wollenweber

"}]]  AI is a disruptive technology that requires advancements in datacenter infrastructure. It’s time to take a new look at your AI needs and uncover the power of Cisco Compute solutions.  Read More Cisco Blogs 

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) plays a fundamental role in ensuring that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has the necessary information technology and communications support to… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) plays a fundamental role in ensuring that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has the necessary information technology and communications support to fulfill its mission. Among its many initiatives, DISA’s Comply-to-Connect (C2C) is a vital framework that enhances network security. In this blog, we will explore how DISA’s C2C approach is transformative, with simplified compliance and a centralized platform. Specifically, one that automates the discovery of endpoints – all done with the use of Cisco’s Identity Services Engine (ISE).

If it’s connected, it’s protected

As Cisco’s Area Leader for Cybersecurity supporting United States National Security entities and the DoD, I have the privilege of witnessing an evolution in how our government is securing its most critical information assets. I also have the distinct honor of still wearing the uniform, serving as a Lieutenant Colonel with the Army National Guard. In my military role, I serve as my Commander’s G6, or Chief Information Officer, overseeing all aspects of mission critical information; from dissemination to transport to storage and everything in between.

Why Cisco ISE is critical

DISA’s Comply-to-Connect approach is designed to reduce vulnerabilities and enhance the resilience of the DoD’s information network against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. That’s where Cisco ISE can help. It is the industry’s most widely adopted and awarded network access and control (NAC) solution, but it’s so much more than that. It enables the creation and enforcement of security and access policies for endpoint devices connected to the agencies’ routers and switches. Not only, that but ISE can be deployed in the cloud as well and is packed with all the same enhancements and features found in the on-premises version.

Cisco ISE is a crucial component in the implementation of DISA’s C2C approach. For Cisco’s Federal Customers, Cisco ISE has maintained market dominance with a platform approach to securing access that is integrated, not bolted into the network. I encourage you to watch my brief discussion on how they’re better together:

How Cisco ISE enhances DISA’s Comply-to-Connect mandate

With Cisco ISE, our National Security & Defense teams are closing the gaps in device visibility by enabling and enhancing DoD network management and security strategies. In the field, I have seen how Cisco ISE has assisted the Department of Defense in the following ways.

Device Profiling: Cisco ISE excels at identifying and profiling devices attempting to access the network. It can dynamically classify endpoints into specific groups, offering granular control over network access.
Policy Enforcement: Cisco ISE automates the enforcement of security policies, making sure that all devices comply with the necessary security requirements before they can connect to the network. This adherence to policy enforcement is critical in maintaining the integrity of DISA’s C2C approach because if those devices don’t comply, they’re not getting on the network. Simple as that.
Threat Containment: When a threat is detected, Cisco ISE can quickly contain it by limiting network access or completely blocking the device from the network. This rapid response diminishes the catastrophes that a bad actor can do while significantly reducing the potential damage from any security breaches.
Continuous Monitoring: Cisco ISE continuously monitors the security posture of connected devices, ensuring that they remain compliant with the latest security updates and policies. This constant monitoring is vital for maintaining the ongoing security of the network under the C2C framework. Even after a device is let on to the network, it still gets rechecked every time to make sure that it’s safe.
Scalability: Cisco ISE can be scaled to accommodate large, diverse networks. This scalability is essential for a massive organization like the DoD, ensuring that all devices, regardless of number or location, can be securely managed under the C2C framework.

Meeting DoD Zero Trust mandates

Cisco ISE with Comply-to-Connect is the bridge that helps our mission focused stakeholders meet their five-year zero-trust strategy because it is the ideal Zero Trust policy decision point. Cisco ISE uses adaptive policies to continually verify trust, enforce trust-based access, and quickly respond to changes in trust for resilient incident response.

As outlined in the DoD Zero Trust Strategy document,[1] adopting zero trust requires a shift from a perimeter-based model for trust to a “multi-attribute-based” model for trust using authentication and authorization that enforces least privileged access. By easily integrating into existing environments, Cisco ISE simplifies the transition to zero trust access – especially for complex and vast networks like the DoD.

Conclusion

I love that I’m a part of the Cisco team because Cisco’s Security solutions are an indispensable tool in our National Security and Defense arsenal against cyber threats. And with the integration of Cisco ISE with DISA’s Comply-to-Connect approach, we’re helping to provide a robust and comprehensive solution for managing network access and enhancing cybersecurity. One that is enabling the DoD with the critical capability to profile devices, enforce policies, contain threats, and continuously monitor security compliance.

By ensuring that all devices comply with the latest security updates before accessing the network, the C2C approach is significantly bolstered by Cisco Security’s capabilities, enhancing the resilience of DISA’s information network against cyber threats.

Next steps for Comply-to-Connect success

A Peek into the Newly Released DoD Zero Trust Strategy (Part 1 of 2)
Delving Deeper into the DoD Zero Trust Strategy (Part 2 of 2)
Comply to Connect: The Bridge to Zero Trust
Dive into Cisco ISE

Reference

[1]DoD Zero Trust Strategy (October 2022) – PDF

"}]]  Comply-to-Connect and Cisco ISE are better together! Discover how they're revolutionizing the Department of Defense.  Read More Cisco Blogs 

This is Part III of a three-blog series on solutions to overcome challenges associated with bridging the digital divide.   

In part I of this series, we discussed traditional broadband network a… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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This is Part III of a three-blog series on solutions to overcome challenges associated with bridging the digital divide.   

In part I of this series, we discussed traditional broadband network architectures and their limitations. In part II, we discussed details on the evolution of broadband networks, using a distributed architecture with a centralized control plane, designed to address the challenges associated with traditional broadband networks. In this final blog, we will focus on the Cisco solution with Subscriber Edge.

Cisco Subscriber Edge solution

The Control and User Plane Separation Broadband Network Gateway (CUPS BNG) solution from Cisco terminates residential broadband subscribers, is aligned with TR-459, and called Cisco Subscriber Edge or cloud-native BNG (cnBNG), because cloud-native technology is used to host control plane functions.

Given the critical need for resiliency in the control plane, which is tasked with terminating millions of subscriber sessions over hundreds of distributed user planes, Cisco’s subscriber edge control plane has been developed as a cloud-native application from the ground up using Go programming language to ensure superior reliability.

As part of the evolution to cloud-native network functions, the Cisco Subscriber Edge control plane architecture is decomposed into multiple microservices and deployed as containers that can be independently scaled, upgraded, and deployed according to requirements (see Figure 1 on cloud-native tenets used for the control plane architecture).

Figure 1. Cisco control plane tenets

The decomposition of control functions into multiple independent stateless microservices allows better resiliency. It also enables hitless upgrade of the control plane, independent patching of problem or failed containers, and limited rollout of features or software changes with no widespread functional impact. These microservices are deployed using the same infrastructure as Ultra 5G Packet Core, which hosts the 5G Packet Core Functions as containers, and can be easily extended to run on third-party container-as-a-service (CaaS) platforms.

Cisco Subscriber Edge architecture

Cisco Subscriber Edge architecture (see Figure 2) is aligned with Broadband Forum TR-459 . In this architecture, the control plane is cloud-native with choices of hardware and software user planes based on the IOS XR network operating system (NOS).

Figure 2. Cisco Subscriber Edge architecture

The Cisco Subscriber Edge architecture provides numerous technical advantages and benefits, positioning CSPs to effectively broaden their networks in alignment with the changing demands of the market. These advantages are distinctive to the Cisco architecture and complement the benefits already inherent in the CUPS framework. The additional benefits include:

Operational ease: Cisco’s control plane architecture includes an Ops Center function, which makes BNG operations more user-friendly for BNG network engineers and reducing the need to manage Kubernetes directly. For added efficiency, Cisco Crosswork Network Automation offers automation for deployment, lifecycle management, and service orchestration, while also maintaining service assurance.
Industry-leading scale: At the heart of Cisco Subscriber Edge is a cloud-native control plane, designed for massive industry-leading scale, supporting a network of one million sessions with hundreds of user planes. Expanding capacity is simplified by adding extra computing resources or new nodes, ensuring a smooth scale-up process that keeps existing subscriber sessions online without any impact.
Resiliency: Cisco’s architecture uses a layered approach for resilience that ensures the control plane is protected from server to data center failures in a cloud-native environment. The user plane protection is ensured by subscriber redundancy group (SRG) feature support, which mitigates risks from link and platform failures to entire site outages.
Simplified BNG Monitoring: With Cisco Subscriber Edge, the task of monitoring BNG key performance indicators (KPIs) is simplified through an included Grafana Dashboard, doing away with complex monitoring setups and extra licensing costs. This intuitive dashboard showcases an extensive selection of metrics that operation teams can customize, simplifying the monitoring experience significantly. Moreover, Cisco Subscriber Edge ensures smooth integration with third-party dashboards, through telemetry and bulk statistics.
Easier integration: Cisco Subscriber Edge architecture is aligned to TR-459 standard, which utilizes the CUPS model to reduce OSS/BSS touchpoints with the control plane, thereby facilitating smoother integration. Built on a foundation of cloud-native technology and a microservices framework, the control plane ensures rapid deployment of new features, streamlining the integration process for enhanced efficiency.

Bridge to universal broadband

The Cisco Subscriber Edge solution, aligned to Broadband Forum TR-459 standard, marks a significant advancement in broadband network gateway technology. With the cloud-native control plane, CSPs can efficiently manage the demands of millions of subscriber sessions across a vast array of distributed user planes deployed at different layers in the network.

The Cisco solution can help CSPs adapt to evolving broadband and traffic requirements, expand their networks effectively, and leverage unique solution advantages which complement benefits inherent in the CUPS framework.

For BNG engineers, the Cisco architecture simplifies operations and increases efficiency through the Ops Center function and Cisco Crosswork automation capabilities.

Network operators can benefit from a fortified solution using a layered architecture that protects both the control plane and user plane from various malfunctions and outages, including site failures and data center outages. Other operational benefits include easier integration with standards-based alignment, and simplified monitoring of key BNG performance indicators using the embedded Grafana dashboard for a customizable and comprehensive view of performance metrics without extra costs.

Cisco’s commitment to innovation and the cloud-native approach empowers network operators to build a brighter future for broadband networks. Reducing costs, simplifying networks, and enabling high-quality services can help make the internet more affordable and ubiquitous with better end-user experiences for all.

Reimagine your broadband network gateway architecture with

Cloud Native Broadband Network Gateway

Resources

Cisco CUPS BNG Solution Overview
Broadband Forum TR-459 Issue 2: Multi-Service Disaggregated BNG with CUPS. Reference Architecture, Deployment Models, interface, and Protocol Specifications
Broadband Forum MD-459.4
Blog – Part 1 in the series:  Bridging the Digital Divide with Subscriber Edge
Blog – Part 2 in the series:  Re-architecting Broadband Networks

"}]]  Bridging the digital divide requires scalable infrastructure to deliver affordable services for everyone. Our Cisco Subscriber Edge solution simplifies the broadband network architecture with a distributed data plane and cloud-native control plane to enable better experiences, lower costs, and increase revenue opportunities.  Read More Cisco Blogs 

This year at Cisco Live EMEA in Amsterdam, the Cisco Store began a new initiative to continue promoting sustainability in our daily operations. The power for the technology deployed at our travel… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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This year at Cisco Live EMEA in Amsterdam, the Cisco Store began a new initiative to continue promoting sustainability in our daily operations. The power for the technology deployed at our travel store was routed through twelve Meraki MT40s (smart power controllers that can monitor and remotely control power). With our devices running 24/7, we baselined the store’s power consumption throughout the event with the help of CAE Labs’ WiserWatts: our total energy consumption for the show was 222.01 kWh. WiserWatts monitors our Meraki devices’ power consumption and provides power-saving, energy-efficient recommendations. Next year, we will schedule our power to compare energy and cost savings to actively reduce our carbon footprint. Similar baselining and consequent power scheduling will be conducted at Cisco Live Global starting this June.

We similarly baselined our power consumption at our San Jose store, with the total power consumption for 15 screens running 24/7 over one week coming out to 429.72 kWh. With the help of CAE Labs, we scheduled the store’s access points and switches to turn on and off over PoE (Power over Ethernet), and screens were routed through Meraki MT40s. We began shutting off the power during off-hours in San Jose, only allowing screens to remain ‘on’ for 12 hours a day, Monday through Friday: this resulted in our power consumption over one week reducing to 154.87 kWh, a 274.85 kWh difference!

Compared to the baseline week, scheduling power shut offs during off-hours also resulted in energy costs reducing from $64.46 USD to $23.23, a $41.23 difference (assuming $0.15/kWh in the United States).

As one of the Cisco Store’s six core pillars is Sustainability, we heavily prioritize reducing our carbon emissions. Our scheduled power shut offs also resulted in a reduction of our greenhouse gas emissions (GHG emissions) from 204.96 kg CO2e to 74 kg CO2e, a 130.96 kg CO2e difference.

The Cisco Store plans to regularly track our energy, cost, and GHG savings with this new initiative, and monthly updates will be published on our Cisco Store Tech Lab SharePoint page (Cisco employees: log in via SSO to view). Be sure to check back in to see our progress!

Interested in learning more about CAE Labs? Visit their page or reach out now.

"}]]  Follow along with the Cisco Store as we baseline our energy consumption in a conscious effort to boost sustainable practices!  Read More Cisco Blogs