The Cisco logo is on display at the World Action Conference in Barcelona, Spain on February 26, 2024.
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Enterprise technology giant Cisco Systems A new security architecture product launched Thursday aims to protect data centers, clouds and other IT environments with the help of artificial intelligence.
The product, called HyperShield, uses artificial intelligence to protect applications, devices and data in public and private data centers, clouds and physical locations, according to a company press release.
HyperShield follows last year’s $28 billion acquisition of Splunk, a cybersecurity company that competes with data dogelastic band, solar windand Dynatrace. Its launch also builds on Cisco’s partnership with Nvidia to manage and secure artificial intelligence infrastructure.
In technology giants such as Microsoft, Googleand Amazon Spend billions of dollars to become a leader in artificial intelligence.
“This is not a product, it’s a new architecture — the first version of something new,” Jeetu Patel, executive vice president and general manager of security and collaboration at Cisco, told CNBC this week.
Other brands are moving in a similar direction.Hewlett Packard Enterprise New large-scale AI model ensemble recently announced its Aruba networking unit, while Broadcom’s VMWare launched a tool Allow companies to use generative AI products in a privacy-preserving manner.
how it works
HyperShield acts as a “security shield,” Patel said, explaining that it brings security directly to the things that need protection.
Patel said the technology acts like a “structure” rather than a “fence”, allowing network workers to better understand software vulnerabilities in applications.
The product features autonomous segmentation capabilities designed to help enterprises avoid vulnerabilities and breaches. It allows Cisco’s artificial intelligence to divide computer networks into smaller parts to improve performance and security.
Another feature, called self-limited upgrades, allows organizations to automate the process of testing and deploying upgrades.
Patel said organizations dealing with critical infrastructure such as oil rigs, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and hospital MRI machines need to be particularly careful when upgrading their systems.
Designed with artificial intelligence in mind
Patel said Cisco’s HyperShield technology was designed with the new world of digital AI assistants in mind, such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini and other advanced tools.
“We are moving from a world of scarcity to a world of abundance, where digital AI assistants can handle everything,” Patel told CNBC. “Those assistants live in data centers.”
“So when you think about the higher demands this places on data centers and how we architect for it, it’s a case of re-architecting rather than building more of the same data centers,” said Patel.
He noted that a security architecture like HyperShield has never been built before because many architectures across the industry were created at a time when modern applications and technologies like generative artificial intelligence did not exist.
Patel said it currently takes about four days for network vulnerabilities to be discovered before they are exploited, and it takes even longer to patch vulnerabilities, with an average of 45 days.
He said new technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning are needed to identify and patch vulnerabilities, reducing the time from days to minutes.
“Previously, you had to assume there was a breach and once someone got in, you had to identify the lateral movement before you could react,” Patel told CNBC.
“We need to move to a position where we can anticipate and respond.”
Why it matters to investors
Cisco’s stock price has underperformed the Nasdaq over the past 12 months, falling nearly 5% from the same period last year, while the technology index has risen more than 30%.
It has been a worse investment relative to the broader industry over the past five years. The stock has lost 14% in the period, lagging the Nasdaq’s 95% gain.
Cisco’s stock price performance compared to the performance of the Nasdaq Composite Index over the same period last year.
Cisco has long been the world’s largest maker of computer networking equipment such as switches, modems and routers. It has been driving its cybersecurity business to meet customer needs and drive growth.
That’s where the company’s blockbuster acquisition of Splunk comes in: Splunk’s technology helps enterprises monitor and analyze their data to minimize the risk of hackers and resolve technical issues faster.
As the public cloud eats up more of Cisco’s traditional back-end business, the company needs to find new, larger revenue streams — and cybersecurity becomes a key bet.
—CNBC’s Rohan Goswami and Jordan Novet contributed to this report
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