At its core, a firewall is a shield that protects your network from malicious traffic. Sounds simple, but those who work with firewalls every day know the reality: An average firewall has thousands… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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At its core, a firewall is a shield that protects your network from malicious traffic. Sounds simple, but those who work with firewalls every day know the reality: An average firewall has thousands of rules governing how traffic should be handled, many of which may be outdated, redundant, or contradictory. In fact, a Cybersecurity Insiders report revealed that 58% of organizations have more than 1,000 firewall rules, but we know of customers with highly complex environments where their firewall rules number in the millions. Not only is this a complexity issue, but a security risk. Gartner asserted that misconfigurations would cause 99% of all firewall breaches through 2023. 

It’s no surprise, then, that when we spoke to our customers, there were a few challenges we heard over and over: (1) Checking configuration details is hard, (2) Troubleshooting is hard, (3) Optimizing the ruleset is hard. So, when we got to work on our AI Assistant for Firewall, those were the three use cases we focused on: assist (policy identification and reporting), augment (troubleshooting) and automate (policy lifecycle management).

Built inside Cisco’s cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center (cdFMC) and leveraging the latest large language models (LLMs), we created a generative tool designed to simplify firewall management for both seasoned admins and novice users. Utilizing advanced natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML), it provides answers in seconds rather than forcing an administrator to spend their time sorting dependencies, network maps, and documentation. A change ticket that might have taken two hours to close in the past, can be resolved in a fraction of the time — we’re talking minutes — thanks to the context-based AI.

Below are a few examples of the Cisco AI Assistant for Security in action.

Assist policy identification and reporting

Imagine this scenario: Someone from the SecOps team reaches out to the firewall admin because they’ve noticed suspicious activity. It appears some data is being exfiltrated from SalesApp, representing a potential data breach. Going forward, SecOps wants all outbound traffic to be blocked from this application.

To start, the firewall admin wants to understand what policies are already in place for SalesApp. With the AI Assistant, the admin doesn’t have to sort through thousands of existing rules manually, but instead, they can ask the AI Assistant and get the answer in seconds.

Now that they’ve seen the existing policies in place, they can ask the AI Assistant to add a rule blocking outbound traffic. The AI Assistant recommends a rule, which can be approved before being implemented.

Augment troubleshooting

Next, let’s imagine your firewall rule engine keeps restarting for an unknown reason. The assistant can detect this issue and recommend resolution steps – in this case, updating the Vulnerability Database (VDB). Not only does this eliminate the need to search through documentation or create a support ticket, but the Assistant is taking proactive actions.

Automate policy lifecycle management

Lastly, the policy analysis and optimization features built into the AI Assistant can find duplicates and suggest a course of action to help with policy hygiene. On average, our customers found that 29.7% of their rules need adjustment. For one customer, that equaled over 17,000 rules. 

Assuming an admin could manually find and resolve these issues within one hour at $56/hr, this organization stands to save $971,040 over manual optimization efforts and 8.3 years of time.

Optimize through feedback

To provide the best quality experience for customers, we are also focused on optimizing the AI Assistant through user-provided feedback — helping the AI Assistant learn and improve over time. 

More AI innovations ahead

The AI assistant is more than just a convenience; it represents a paradigm shift in how we configure, manage, and ensure efficacy for firewalls — the true backbone of network security.

While this is the first instance of the AI Assistant for Security, it won’t be the last. We are injecting Generative AI and unifying telemetry across all Cisco Security solutions to create a more effective experience and safeguard our customer’s business.

The Cisco AI Assistant for Security will be Generally Available (GA) for our Firewall customers in the Spring of 2024 at no cost via the cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center (FMC) and expanding to other management tools in the future. Learn more about how the AI Assistant for Security works with our Firewall.

We’d love to hear what you think. Ask a Question, Comment Below, and Stay Connected with Cisco Security on social!

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  Cisco's context-based AI is changing the game for security teams. Learn how Cisco AI Assistant for Security can help resolve change tickets in minutes.  Read More Cisco Blogs 

There is no event quite like Cisco Live for our Customer Experience (CX) team. It’s an important time to connect with our customers to celebrate their successes in transforming their businesses. S… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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There is no event quite like Cisco Live for our Customer Experience (CX) team. It’s an important time to connect with our customers to celebrate their successes in transforming their businesses. Successful transformation happens when innovative leaders dream big and collaborate with Cisco CX to execute on those dreams.

Today, we are presenting a Cisco CX Customer Hero Award to seven outstanding APJC customers who have demonstrated excellence in their specific categories. These customers were selected from a large pool of nominations across multiple industries. Now let’s reveal the winners!

CX Customer Hero of the Year Award: ANZ Bank

This top CX award goes to the customer who achieved the strongest business outcomes through collaboration with Cisco CX.

The winner is Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ Bank), an Australian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Melbourne. Raj Simhadri, Head of Network Services, and his team launched a comprehensive digital transformation initiative to enhance the experience of customers across all branches of the bank. Working with Cisco CX, the team modernized the network with SD-WAN and simplified operations so that employees can access applications faster to provide outstanding service, and customers enjoy Wi-Fi connectivity in the branches, even in remote locations.​

Please join us in congratulating ANZ Bank!

Cybersecurity Excellence Award: Cognizant Technology Solutions

This award is presented to a customer who has partnered with Cisco Services to successfully strengthen its security and proactively protect and defend its IT infrastructure.

The winner is Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS), a leading global technology consulting company offering software development, integration, and maintenance services for more than a thousand enterprises throughout 50 countries. Network security is critical to Heroo Mulchandani, NOC Leader, and his team. When you are in charge of network and security for a business that serves more than a thousand enterprises in more than 50 countries, you know that every device that connects to your network must be in good health. That is why Heroo and his Cognizant team drove the project for Network Access Control and implemented end-user monitoring for more than 300 thousand employees, who connect to the network daily.

Please join us in congratulating Cognizant Technology Solutions

Innovation Award: MYOB

This award is presented to a customer who has achieved amazing innovations through collaboration with Cisco.

The winner is MYOB, a multinational corporation based in Australia that provides tax, accounting, and other services to small and medium businesses and Enterprises. Working with the Cisco team, Glenn Kerr, Engineering Manager, and his networks team developed an extensive initiative to support shifting workloads via a platform that allows them to adopt a SASE architecture and provide secure segmentation. The innovative end-to-end solution alleviated operational challenges, providing MYOB with better visibility and control. The Cisco CX team has also been engaging on their adoption strategy. As a result, MYOB has realized significant operation efficiencies and easier management of subscriptions.

Please join us in congratulating MYOB!

Outstanding Automation Award: Samsung SDS

This award goes to a customer who partnered with Cisco CX and dramatically transformed IT operations using automation.

The winner is Samsung SDS, a South Korean multinational corporation that operates mission-critical infrastructures including semiconductor factories, requiring stable service operations and innovation through new solutions. Through collaboration with Cisco CX, Mr. Scott Koo, Corporate Executive Vice President, and his team have successfully automated data center networking, ensuring reliable managed cloud services for thousands of businesses and resulting in reduced costs and improved operations.

Please join us in congratulating Samsung SDS!

Digital Transformation Award: Coles

This award recognizes a customer who accomplished a high-level digital transformation through their work with Cisco CX.

The winner is Coles Supermarkets, a national full-service supermarket retailer with more than 1,400 stores across Australia. At Coles, stable Wi-Fi is critical to keeping shelves stocked. When employees experienced difficulties scanning merchandise in the stores, Chrissy Chu, Network Experience Team Leader, and her teams partnered with Cisco Services to leverage Cisco’s observability tools and build reliable store Wi-Fi. As a result, the employee experience is dramatically improved, shelves are quickly replenished, and the Coles support teams can resolve customer experience issues significantly faster.

Please join us in congratulating Coles!

Operational Excellence Award: ASB Bank

This award is presented to a customer who is realizing tangible and compelling outcomes by leveraging Success Tracks/CX Cloud.

The winner is ASB Bank, one of New Zealand’s leading commercial banks, with a combined campus and branch network spanning more than 110 sites. Josef Vodanovich, Senior Network Engineer, and his team collaborated with Cisco CX to shift from reactive to proactive network management and connect the IT team with insights, learning, and unified visibility. With CX Cloud, ASB has raised the skill level and knowledge of its employees to ensure they’re getting the most out of all their Cisco products. Through collaboration with Cisco CX, ASB has better inventory management, enhanced support coverage, and increased security.

Please join us in congratulating ASB Bank

Visionary End Customer Experience Award: Woven by Toyota

This award goes to a customer who partnered with Cisco Services to enhance the experience of their customers in an innovative way.

The winner is Woven by Toyota, responsible for helping Toyota develop next-generation cars to realize a mobility society in which everyone can move freely, happily, and safely. By adopting Cisco’s software-defined networking technologies for their company-wide network to achieve agile and rapid software development, Kyosuke Uchida, Group leader of Woven by Toyota IT Network, and his team transformed their network design and operation model. In addition, with Cisco Success Tracks, they have realized cost savings in network operations and reduced network deployment time.

Please join us in congratulating Woven by Toyota!

Celebrating the Excellence of Cisco Customers

The CX Customer Hero Awards were created to recognize the amazing work of our customers across their industries, to celebrate their successes, and to inspire others to do the same. I would like to thank the 2023 winners for their continued support and partnership with Cisco CX. We are all looking forward to what else we can accomplish together in the future. I hope you will join me in congratulating this year’s award winners.

Explore the Cisco CX Heroes today

If you would like to read more about our customer heroes, visit the Customer Stories page on cisco.com. You’ll find stories that highlight how Cisco customers transform and innovate across their industries and the world.

Some of our most recent stories are:

Aerolineas Argentinas – A major Argentinian airline increased visibility to proactively manage and secure its network.
BT – This UK service provider automated and delivered new buildings faster and enabled hybrid work.
Puntonet – See how this service provider transformed the network to provide more national coverage in Ecuador.

If you’re interested in sharing your own customer story, connect with us at cxcustomerstories@cisco.com. We would love to hear your story! Be sure to follow @CiscoCX for more CX updates.

If you don’t have a story to tell yet, why not work with us to help build one?

  Today, we are presenting a Cisco CX Customer Hero Award to seven outstanding APJC customers who have demonstrated excellence in their specific categories. These customers were selected from a large pool of nominations across multiple industries. Now let’s reveal the winners!  Read More Cisco Blogs