Cisco Rolls Out Secure, Borderless Network Architecture for Mobile Workforce

Cisco Systems Inc. unveiled a new, secure architecture called the Cisco Secure Borderless Network that the vendor said permits business customers to access information irrespective of device or location, backed by a high degree of security.

The vendor announced the architecture at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, CA and the CeBit trade show in Hannover, Germany.

Cisco offered that the framework is important because traditional security approaches are no longer sufficient for an increasingly mobile workforce using new forms of Web-based collaboration and communication.

“Imagine a solution that always on, always running, always there, and works on every device imaginable—a desktop, a laptop, a handheld, a netbook, the plethora of devices that are emerging that we use for enterprise computing—Cisco has an answer that spans all of these different devices,” said Tom Gillis, vice president and general manager, Cisco security technology business unit.

“The end user experience is it just works,” he said.

The architecture revolves around Cisco’s AnyConnect Secure Mobility solution, a collection of products integrating remote access, web security and threat intelligence technologies; and, TrustSec, a vehicle to simplify policy and access control.

AnyConnect provides seamless, always-on, highly secure connectivity, automatic security gateway detection, trusted network detection and highly secure application access for managed and unmanaged devices.

Cisco’s IronPort Web Security Appliance features appliance visibility and deep control, SaaS access controls, enhanced threat defense and unified on-premises and off-premises security policies and reporting.

Cisco said that ultimately it will extend AnyConnect to include hybrid enforcement delivered through the Cisco IronPort S-Series appliances and cloud-based security delivered through Cisco ScanSafe.

“From a security standpoint, this is a huge step forward because now we’re giving our customers advanced security controls that are always on, always running,” Gillis said.

“So you have better policy enforcement, more fine grain controls, the ability to embrace Web 2.0 apps like Facebook and YouTube and putting intelligent controls around them that are always in force. “It’s a really profound step forward for Cisco and the security community in general,” he said.

TrustSec, included in the AnyConnect solution, helps customers to build policy, identity and protection into the network using policy-based access control, identity-aware networking and data integrity and confidentiality, Cisco said.

TrustSec is a “foundational component to secure borderless networks,” said Fred Kost, director, Cisco security solutions marketing. “It supports communication and collaboration for the right user on the right device at the right place and at the right time.”