The recent announcement about the fusing together of our core product teams – networking, security and collaboration – into one cohesive organization will position Cisco to continue to serve our partners and customers even more effectively. The emphasis on showing up as One Cisco will deliver differentiated outcomes for our customers as they modernize their data centers for AI, invest in better-connected employee and customer experiences, and build digital resilience to protect the entire landscape from cyber threats and downtime.
In my corner of the Cisco universe, I’m struck by how this comes to life so successfully in our role as the Official Enterprise Networking Partner and an Official Cybersecurity Partner of the National Football League. Since 2021, the NFL has relied on Cisco to connect and protect the league and its operations 365 days a year, including its marquee moments like NFL Kickoff, the NFL Draft and the Super Bowl. And for a global enterprise whose operations span across 32 teams, 30 stadiums and now far beyond that with NFL International Games, this represents a complex and varied undertaking. Not to mention securing the largest single-day television event each year, broadcasting to millions of viewers worldwide.
Which is why for the past several years, the NFL and Cisco have worked together to develop a playbook that is now coming to life across our partnership, leveraging the collective power of our industry-leading networking, security and observability expertise and solutions. The integrated, end-to-end security deployment in place at Super Bowl LVIII this past February leveraged Cisco Secure Firewall, Cisco Umbrella, Cisco Security Malware Analytics, Cisco XDR, and more, ensuring that the NFL has security baked into the fabric of their entire operation – plus the ability to respond rapidly when something does go wrong.
The results continue to speak for themselves, delivering reliable connectivity and secure and reliable digital experiences. At Super Bowl LVIII, our efforts successfully blocked 39,000 security intelligence events and 354,000 connections to or from blacklisted areas of the world; and identified, analyzed and triaged 1,600 intrusion events to keep the game and all its operations running smoothly. Great security requires visibility and insights across the entire digital footprint, and Cisco’s unique ability to empower the NFL’s IT, engineering, and security teams to prevent, detect, and respond to events that could disrupt the delivery of the Super Bowl makes us a trusted partner for NFL CISO Tomás Maldonado and his team. And even though the 2024 season is just beginning, our teams are already hard at work with the NFL preparing for Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans on February 9, 2025.
This ability to deliver across complex and dynamic environments, on the biggest stages, to help achieve positive business outcomes offers an unparalleled showcase for why organizations rely on Cisco. The reliability, trust, intelligence, visibility and protection that we can offer uniquely positions us to help our customers feel prepared and confident in a constantly evolving, digital environment.
So even as we all prepare to root individually for our favorite teams this NFL season, I think we can all agree that we are better together as One Cisco.
Be sure to keep an eye out for our security resilience campaign spots airing throughout the season during select Monday Night Football broadcasts on ESPN and ABC. These highly watched spots are just one of many impactful media moments on NFL-owned and operated channels that are available to us through Cisco’s partnership with the league. You can catch a sneak peek of the spots below!
Love this Rob!!!
This is such a great story!!
Love the game-changing challenge Cisco is facing along every game, Cisco leading networking in NFL is awesome!