It's been a few exciting weeks recently at Cisco. On the heels of Cisco and Apple innovations for iOS 10, came the Tetration Analytics announcement to provide pervasive visibility across everything in your data center in real time. Now, I am ecstatic to continue that momentum with an update to our Digital Network Architecture (DNA) that will ignite your digital journey and drive network innovation for further automation and analytics in enterprises.

What's new?

The network is an informational highway of intelligence, but today's static infrastructure can't see the intelligence. The first step in addressing this issue is increasing visibility into the network with insights and analytics. Next is automating network services to make it easy to deploy, manage and maintain. Cisco's new network innovations address both challenges, and include:

Insights and Experiences:

• Cisco Connected Mobile Experience (CMX) 10.2.2 -a software update with new features and enhancements for better customer engagement, operations and streamlined guest experiences
• Cisco Aironet 1560 Series Outdoor Access Point -Cisco's first outdoor Access Point that extends 802.11ac Wave 2 Wi-Fi to high-density environments, the foundation to enable CMX for your outdoor environments.
• Cisco Catalyst 3650 Multigigabit Switch-a new Catalyst Multigigabit technology (based on NBASE-T standards) switch with up to 48 ports (12 MGig) and UPOE up to 60w for voice, video, and data performance assurance

Automationand Assurance:

• ASR 1001-HX and ASR 1002-HX-new fixed -HX chassis that offer WAN edge high availability and resiliency with Service Level Agreement (SLA) assurance in a small form factor.
• Cisco Unified Compute Services (UCS) E-Series -new 6-core single-wide compute blade for ISR 4000 with enhanced processing, memory and storage for 2x more app hosting.
• 3^rdParty App Hosting on ISR 4000 & ASR 1000 -Cisco now supports KVM-based application hosted as container on Cisco Enterprise Routers, providing more choices and openness support for 3rd party or custom application.

What are the challenges Cisco is helping you overcome?

The roadmap to a digital network may seem simple, but there are significant challenges that must be overcome. With these new network innovations customers can tackle:

• WAN Edge Challenges -The WAN is the fabric that connects users to apps and things. It also is the central point between the enterprise core and its edges-from the core to campus/HQ, branches, cloud and fog or among enterprise private data centers. The WAN edge must balance between performance, visibility, and security to ensure the best user experience (i.e. quality of voice, video, and data).
• Branch Challenges -The branch is the first node of connection for users and guests to apps and things , as well as the first line of defense to nullify a threat. Given its small IT footprint and often remote locations, the branch challenges include application experience, connectivity, management and automation, threat detection and defense.
• Customer Experience Challenges -To deliver a personalized customer experience, two integral steps must happen in tandem: (i) ubiquitous and robust connection, indoors and outdoors, and (ii) user, app, and device intelligence.

How will the new innovations help customers?

This is always a question we ask ourselves when rolling out any new technology. Focusing on real business outcomes for your enterprise, Cisco and our DNA approach is built on three design principles. 

• Services-centricto give enterprises the freedom to run services and applications when, where, and how they want it across the WAN and branch.Outcome: Faster service delivery.
• Software-drivenby virtualizing and optimizing applications and network functions for effective deployment on any platform: physic, virtual, or a mix of both.Outcome: Freedom of choice.
• Automation of devices, apps and services for greater agility.Outcome: Less human errors.

Cisco DNA is the future of the network. These innovations allow you to reach greater network agility and achieve real business outcomes. Check out our collection of supporting blogs and Cisco Live US Virtual Experience on Cisco Enterprise Networks Communities for more details.