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The challenge: security is breaking at the edges<\/h2>\n
Today\u2019s enterprise networks extend far beyond the data center. They stretch across sprawling campus networks<\/strong>, remote branch offices<\/strong>, hybrid WANs<\/strong>, cloud services, and increasingly complex industrial IoT (OT) environments<\/strong>.<\/p>\n This distributed footprint has unlocked enormous agility and business value, but it has also expanded the attack surface exponentially.<\/p>\n Attackers no longer target just your core. They strike anywhere: at the user edge, across the WAN, inside factories, or through cloud-connected apps.<\/p>\n Alone, traditional bolt-on security architectures\u2014firewalls, VPNs, and siloed point tools\u2014can\u2019t handle today\u2019s dynamic, machine-speed world. They can fall short in stopping modern threats as the network perimeter expands. These solutions can also create significant operational overhead: fragmented policies, overlapping dashboards, and complex integrations that put strain on already overburdened IT teams. By fusing security directly into the network, Cisco delivers stronger protection and radically simplifies day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n Modern enterprises need networks that are designed to:<\/p>\n This is the breakthrough Cisco delivers with its AI-Ready Secure Network with security fused into the network<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Across every domain, including campus, branch, WAN, and industrial edge, enterprises face five critical threat vectors:<\/p>\n Traditional perimeter-based security models simply can\u2019t keep up.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s networks are hybrid, dynamic, decentralized, and moving at machine speed. Security should no longer be added onto a solution\u2014it must be embedded directly into the infrastructure.<\/p>\n Cisco takes a distinctive approach to security: it turns the entire network into a defense system.\u00a0Every router, switch, access point, and industrial device becomes an active participant in protecting the business. This architecture integrates AI, Zero-Trust principles, quantum-resilient encryption<\/strong>, and embedded enforcement\u2014working together to secure the enterprise from edge to core.<\/p>\n At Cisco, we believe the only way to stay ahead is to build security into the network itself, from the hardware and firmware to user access and traffic flow. This includes Zero Trust and post-quantum encryption across LAN and WAN.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t aspirational\u2014it\u2019s how our architecture works today.<\/p>\n We deliver multilayered protection that is deeply integrated into the network fabric, always on and always aware. Here\u2019s how security all comes together for network devices, network access, data, and applications.<\/p>\n We start at the foundation\u2014hardening the network device itself. Because if the network hardware isn\u2019t secure, nothing else matters. Our approach includes:<\/p>\n This gives you resilient, self-defending infrastructure that stays protected\u2014even against the unknown.<\/p>\n Once the network device is secure, we control what connects to it and how. Whether it\u2019s a user, device, or IoT endpoint, access is always based on identity, posture, and context. For example:<\/p>\n This is Zero Trust, operationalized in every environment.<\/p>\n Data is no longer static. It flows constantly across campus, branch, SD-WAN, Direct Internet Access (DIA), and multicloud environments. Cisco secures that data wherever it travels.<\/p>\n MACsec, WAN MACsec, and IPsec encryption with post-quantum readiness protects traffic in motion\u2014including SD-WAN links and DIA connections\u2014without sacrificing performance. With Cisco SD-WAN and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), segmentation, identity-based access, and continuous threat inspection are extended to the cloud edge\u2014ensuring secure connectivity regardless of path. Integrated Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) capabilities at the WAN edge provide application-aware controls and threat prevention in-line with traffic.<\/p>\n This is how we stop adversaries midstream\u2014before data is lost or systems are compromised.<\/p>\n Apps live everywhere now\u2014SaaS, private cloud, public cloud\u2014and users expect seamless access from any location. We ensure that access is secure, continuous, and based on real-time trust.<\/p>\n Delivered through Cisco\u2019s SASE architecture, Universal Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) applies continuous identity, posture, and risk assessments across every session, including over SD-WAN, Direct Internet Access, and remote connections. Whether on a managed laptop, personal device, or IoT endpoint, access apps issegmented, encrypted, and policy enforced. Post-quantum-ready encryption secures these sessions end-to-end, while policy controls ensure that only authorized users reach approved apps.<\/p>\n What does Cisco AI-Ready Secure Network Architecture deliver to enterprises?<\/p>\n Cisco uniquely combines:<\/p>\n Where competitors stitch together point products, Cisco delivers a unified, AI-powered, quantum-ready architecture\u2014transforming your entire network into your most powerful security asset.<\/p>\n With Cisco, you\u2019re not just protecting infrastructure\u2014you\u2019re building the foundation for faster innovation, resilient operations, and long-term competitive advantage.<\/p>\n Attackers target every layer of the network, from firmware to endpoints. Security can\u2019t be bolted on. It must be built in. Cisco transforms the network into a unified defense system, with embedded protection, centralized policy, and self-defending infrastructure. It\u2019s a smarter, simpler way to secure what matters. Built for today and ready for what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n Discover how to streamline network and security, overcome key challenges, and boost IT efficiency with insights from Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG\u2019s) eBook, Network and Security Convergence: Assessing SASE Progress and Best Practices. Read the eBook.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ESG SASE eBook | VOD LNL page | SASE hub page <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
The new threat landscape across enterprise domains<\/h2>\n
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Phishing, stolen credentials, rogue devices, and unmanaged endpoints form a critical attack vector at open entry points across headquarters, branch offices, and industrial sites.<\/li>\n
Once attackers breach one point, they spread sideways\u2014across LANs, SD-WAN overlays, cloud interconnects, or even IT-OT links\u2014seeking high-value targets.<\/li>\n
Factories and critical infrastructure often run legacy or unprotected systems that attackers can hijack to disrupt operations or pivot into IT networks. Unlike end-user endpoints, which can often support agents for Zero Trust enforcement, many IoT and OT devices lack an operating system or interface to support agent-based controls. This makes it significantly harder to enforce identity, posture, and policy at the edge of industrial networks, which compounds the security challenge and requires enforcement mechanisms to be embedded into the network itself.<\/li>\n
The latest evolution in threat tactics targets the infrastructure itself: switches, routers, wireless controllers. In these cases, threat actors exploit firmware, OS-level flaws, and control plane vulnerabilities to take over the network, not just move through it.<\/li>\n
Quantum computing threatens to break today\u2019s encryption, endangering WAN tunnels, device authentication, and industrial communications.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nWhy bolted-on security no longer works<\/h2>\n
How Cisco fuses security into the network and tackles each threat head-on<\/h2>\n
Switches, routers, and access points, built to defend themselves<\/h2>\n
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Every connection controlled\u2014dynamic, contextual, secure<\/h2>\n
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Data defended in motion across every edge and cloud<\/h2>\n
Every app session protected from edge to cloud<\/h2>\n
The business benefits: resilient, future-ready security<\/h2>\n
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Why only Cisco can deliver this vision<\/h2>\n
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A unified approach to modern threats<\/h2>\n