Meeting Customers Where They Are …. And Where They Don’t Want to Be

Cisco Secure Managed Remote Access is Support Worth a Smile

Chandrodaya Prasad (VP, Network & Application Security Product Management) and AJ Shipley (VP, Product Management, CX Security & Collaboration) discuss the new cloud-delivered managed service offering—Cisco Secure Managed Remote Access (CSMRA)—and the value it delivers enterprise customers.

One of the biggest challenges enterprises have today is the war for talent—not just any talent, cybertalent. The open cybersecurity headcount is upwards of 3.5 million global IT jobs unfulfilled. That’s enough to fill 50 NFL stadiums (Cybersecurity Ventures). This massive shortage of IT and SecOps talent, their overwhelming workloads from the constant and ever-evolving flow of security threats, and the rapid shift to more permanent hybrid work, is pushing organizations to seek outside support.

Multiply the demands on security teams by the transition to hybrid work, which dispersed users and applications across a mix of cloud and enterprise datacenter and from multiple devices, locations. Hybrid work has driven a shift in the times of day when peoples work, making legacy context-based security even more challenging.

In addition to creating a complex and dynamic network, hybrid work expanded the attack surface exponentially, making networking and security difficult to manage—further fueling the cybercrime epidemic and opening the floodgates to additional cybersecurity-related challenges. In fact, 25% or more companies experienced a jump in cyber threats or alerts since March 2020 (Cisco’s Future of Secure Remote Work Report). The concern over ransomware attacks in a hybrid workplace increased 69% among leaders (Security Magazine). And, last year, bad actors sent 61% of malware through cloud applications to target remote workers (Security Intelligence).

Seeking a secure and simple solution

Certainly, the pandemic highlighted the need for many of our customers to strengthen their security postures, as well as provide remote access capability at scale with real-time security support—adding to the complexity of the challenge. While in the throes of transitioning to hybrid work, enterprises are determining how to leverage a simpler, more scalable method to securely connect their workforce to the applications they need, wherever they reside and wherever they are accessed from.

Simultaneously, they must ensure their organizations can adapt to the next disruption, keeping their people and data safe. And, without qualified talent who understands the threat landscape, the issue is compounded with how to handle all the routine remote access management.

It’s a lot for any enterprise to handle.

Conundrum it may have been, riddle no more.

All the features and functionality

Enterprises know they cannot afford security breaches, so they are turning to Cisco to get the help they desperately need, securely outsourcing routine remote access management. Our new cloud-delivered managed service offering—Cisco Secure Managed Remote Access (CSMRA)—tackles the pervasive staffing issue, the pivot to a distributed workforce, the need to maintain secure connectivity for that workforce, and the variety of complex security challenges that enterprises face.

Cisco Secure Managed Remote Access allows customers to take a deep breath and offload the provisioning and management of their remote access infrastructure for on-demand, secure remote connectivity, without compromising the functionality of traditional remote features. This is where Cisco Secure Managed Remote Access plays the biggest role. We’re giving customers what they want. Flexibility with all the functionalities. Parity with features they know.

Customers can sit back, relax and smile knowing that, when Cisco takes on their secure managed remote access, they are getting the maximum value from their technology and the best experience throughout the entire journey—from implementation to business optimization to ongoing support.

While we are there every step of the way with customers, we also ensure that when they want a peek inside the proverbial hood, they have the visibility. Cisco Secure Managed Remote Access offers continuous 24x7x365 monitoring, operations, and support, in addition to providing customers a web-based portal—should they want to access service-related information, view reports or logs, submit support tickets, and review and respond to incidents.

Business continuity ingenuity  

Cisco Secure Managed Remote Access helps our customers maximize business continuity and growth—simply, securely, and rapidly. Our focus responding quickly to organizations’ changes and delivering consistent, secure remote access, enables customers to concentrate on their most critical priorities that drive the business forward—instead of dealing with the plethora of operational complexities that would otherwise consume their time and resources.

We are focused on delivering all the agility and value that the cloud affords—all part of Cisco’s commitment to meet customers’ unique security needs wherever they are on their journey to the cloud. With the mass migration of enterprises to the cloud—and to hybrid work—a key part of Cisco’s strategy is to move remote access infrastructure from an on-prem to cloud-delivered service. Cisco Secure Managed Remote Access is a significant first step in that direction.

As a scalable cloud-delivered subscription service, Cisco Secure Managed Remote Access offers simplicity from the start, making it easy for customers to advance business continuity and accelerate time-to-value—while delivering a seamless end-user experience, regardless of workstream, location or device. Enterprises can get up and running quickly through a simple ordering process, providing the number of users to enable, the data consumption rate, and the number of connections for data centers and branches. With its flexible subscription model, businesses can easily scale up or down and optimize costs by paying only for what they need.

Not our first remote access rodeo

The managed security services market is arguably the largest and fastest growing, and Cisco has been part of the journey with customers. As the market leader in secure remote access, with over 60,000 customers worldwide and 180 million endpoints connected. Cisco manages over one million devices for companies in 175 countries and 38 different industries. 

Clearly, we understand the operational model and how to deliver effective managed operations. To tout a bit of our security clout, Cisco Secure Managed Remote Access is powered by the Cisco Secure Firewall family of security devices that has over 15 years of proven network security engineering leadership and over one million deployments across the world.

And when it comes to agility, Cisco has an entire team—an ecosystem of talent around the world—to scale and serve customers with the goal of making their lives easier.

Given the growing demand in the market, Cisco Secure Managed Remote Access is one of our many innovation MVPs (most valuable products) within our expansive value-driving portfolio that is making a difference in the lives—and security—of enterprises and end-users everywhere.

Some call us the best in breed. Others call us a trusted partner and an extension of their IT team.

Enterprises who call on us know that we are here when they need us.

To learn more about how Cisco Secure Managed Remote Access drives accelerated time to value, productivity, and user experience, all while reducing overhead and operational complexity, please also review our At-A-Glace and Frequently Asked Questions.