Cisco + Duo Security: The Evolution of Secure Access Everywhere
By now, you may have heard about Cisco’s plans to acquire Duo Security. Sure, it’s about security, access, and shifting revenue models, but it’s also about making it easy to connect users, apps, and data.
David Goeckeler, Executive Vice President and General Manager for Cisco’s Networking and Security Business, shared his thoughts on what this means to Cisco’s strategy in his official Cisco blog post.
Duo’s relevance within the context of our intent-based networking strategy spans across the entire extended enterprise. It […]enables Cisco to deliver what our customers require in today’s multicloud world, the ability to connect any user with any app on any network.
If you’re unfamiliar with intent-based networking, Owen Lystrup penned a fantastic explainer on the topic. In it, he explains how Cisco has been quietly re-engineering the network over the last several years to take advantage of automation, provide context and visibility like never before, and leverage the network as a powerful defense against an ever-changing threat landscape. Whether you’re a networker by trade, or not, the post is worth a read.
More than a few prominent industry thought leaders have shared their congratulations and sentiments, which lend some perspective to today’s news:
The media so far have focused on the acquisition as the latest in Cisco’s move toward security offerings, as well as recurring, subscription software revenues.
Cisco was interested in purchasing Duo in part to boost its security unit, which grew at a fast clip of about 11% — about three times more than its overall business — in the company’s fiscal third quarter. The acquisition will also help Cisco along as it transitions from a focus on hardware sales of networking gear, like routers and switches, to software subscriptions.
Others took note that it is one the largest acquisitions Cisco has made in recent years.
It’s Cisco’s biggest acquisition since the $3.7 billion deal for application management company AppDynamics in early 2017 and continues CEO Chuck Robbins’ string of moves to push the company deeper into software.
The Journal notes that this move is part of Cisco’s transformation to a recurring software and part of the company’s aggressive play in the security space.
Cisco has beefed up its software offerings over the last several years, aggressively picking up companies that offer a variety of security services… Two years ago, it bought CloudLock Inc., a startup that helps companies monitor and control how employees are using cloud services, for $293 million.
It paid $635 million in 2015 for OpenDNS, which uses internet domain name servers to help block cyberattacks, and $2.7 billion in 2013 for Sourcefire Inc., a maker of security hardware and software.
During an interview with eWeek, David Goeckeler remarked that Duo’s capabilities will extend Cisco’s security architecture, with tie-ins to existing platforms like ISE.
“Duo’s capabilities will complement and integrate with Cisco technologies such as the Umbrella cloud-delivered security service and the Stealthwatch visibility and Identity Service Engine (ISE) platforms … Cisco’s existing ISE platform provides policy and access control within an enterprise network. Goeckeler said there will be a natural tie-in with Duo, which provides identity in a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.
You can also read the official news announcements below:
“You cannot have a world-class security posture without leveraging the network.”
“Cisco is not only the world’s largest networking company, but also the world’s leading enterprise security business. They agree with us on the past state of security, and we’re going to fix it together.”
