What’s the Cisco DNA? What the Cisco DNA can do for you? In today’s digital world and era, we need to talk about the Cisco DNA, Cisco Digital Network Architecture, is an open, programmable architecture that turns business intent into business results.
This open, extensible and software driven architecture accelerates and simplifies your enterprise network operations.
Only Cisco provides a single network fabric that is powered by deep intelligence and integrated security to deliver automation and analytics across your entire organization at scale. Cisco DNA gives IT time back from time-consuming, repetitive network configuration tasks so you can focus on the innovation your business needs.
Cisco DNA automation is built on a Software-Defined Network (SDN) controller, rich contextual analytics, network virtualization and the limitless scalability of the cloud.
Most Cisco routers, switches and wireless systems shipping today support Cisco DNA now or with a software update. And with Cisco ONETM Software, you can continue to protect your investments and benefit from new architecture innovations that can be activated through software.
Traditional network architectures are unable to scale for the digital era. Cisco has reimagined our network architecture with the following characteristics:
- Cloud service management: Design, provision, enable policy and assure network services through centralized management. Enable visibility of end-to-end network services for campus and branch environments, on-premises or in the cloud.
- Automation: Fully automate the network infrastructure based on one policy across the entire access network, acting as a single fabric. Simplify and scale operations by automating day-to-day configuration, provisioning, and troubleshooting.
- Analytics: Proactively predict performance through machine learning to correlate user, device and application data for business and operational insights. Identify issues and provide actionable insight to deliver better, more personalized experiences.
- Security: Detect and mitigate threats with end-to-end network segmentation and enforce security policies across the network. Identify and mitigate threats and vulnerabilities in encrypted traffic with network analytics.
- Virtualization: Deploy network services in minutes on any platform – branch, colocation or public cloud – and connect users to applications with one seamless network.
Cisco has applied these characteristics to Enterprise Networks products and solutions so you can move forward with building an open, extensible and agile network.
Cisco Digital Network Architecture products and solutions
| Product or Solution | Description | Benefits |
| Cisco IOS XE Software | Enhanced operating system software for Cisco devices that supports programmability, controller-based automation, and serviceability.
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Provides IT flexibility through programmability, Network Functions
Virtualization (NFV) and SDN-based automation |
| Cisco DNA Center | A single dashboard for managing your enterprise network. Uses intuitive workflows to simplify provisioning of user access policies combined with advanced assurance capabilities.
|
Makes it easy to design provision and monitor the network. Increases user satisfaction with a policy-driven on boarding experience and increases network uptime. |
| Software-Defined Access (SD-Access) | Secure end-to-end segmentation, automated user policy access and a single network fabric. | Enables network access in minutes for any user or device to any application without compromising security. |
| Cisco Intelligent WAN (IWAN)/SD-WAN | Comprehensive set of traffic and application control and security features for the WAN that have been integrated into Cisco branch office routers.
|
Enables hybrid WAN by securing Internet connectivity, therefore reducing bandwidth costs. Delivers a great user experience and allows you to deploy branch offices quickly.
|
| Network Security | Use the network as a sensor to gain visibility through real-time analysis and intelligence. Your network also enables you to have more granular control to enforce policy across the network.
|
Reduce risk and protect your organization against threats.
Gain 360 visibility through real-time analytics for deep intelligence across the network. Lower complexity with end-to-end security. |
| Network Analytics and Assurance | Proactively monitors the network, gathering and processing information from devices, applications and users. Correlates events and presents actionable insight through Cisco DNA Center. Evaluates trends within the network to identify areas where there might be performance degradation in the future.
|
Identifies root causes and provides
Suggested remediation for faster troubleshooting. Integration with Cisco DNA Center provides an easy-to-use single dashboard with insights and drill-down capabilities. Machine learning continually improves network intelligence to predict problems before they occur. |
| Digital-Ready Infrastructure | Physical or virtual routing, switching and wireless products that serve as the foundation for Cisco DNA.
|
Robust infrastructure built from the ground up with Cisco DNA software capabilities in mind to move faster, more efficiently and more securely. |
Cisco DNA services are delivered through Cisco ONE Software, which provides simplified, high-value solutions with license portability and flexibility. You can start your journey today to a digital-ready network on our current portfolio of network equipment and then continue to adopt network innovations in the months and years ahead through the power of software.
Learn more details related to each Cisco DNA products and solutions
1. Cisco Products supported by IOS XE
Software for a new era in networking. Cisco IOS XE 16 is an open and flexible operating system optimized for a new era of enterprise networks.
Its standards-based programmable interfaces automate network operations and give you deep visibility into user, application, and device behaviors.
As the single OS for enterprise wired and wireless access, aggregation, core, and WAN, Cisco IOS XE reduces business and network complexity. You can qualify and deploy new services faster.
| Enterprise switches
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Aggregation/edge routers
|
Branch routers
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Virtual Routing ISRv
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Mapping between Cisco Catalyst 3850 and 9300 |
Migrating from ISR 2900/ISR 3900 to ISR 4000 |
2. What Cisco DNA Center enables you to do?
Save time by using a single dashboard to manage and automate your network. Design your enterprise network by starting with geographical locations, creating sites, and then adding network devices. Quickly scale your business with intuitive workflows and reusable templates. Configure and provision thousands of network devices across your enterprise in minutes, not hours.
Automate network changes to respond to business needs quickly. Cisco DNA Center uses real-time feedback from the network data platform, which collects information from network devices. Using deep insights through machine learning and correlation of data sources, Assurance provides insights about network, client, and application performance. These insights lead to recommendations for solving issues and identifying the root cause of problems, as well as predicting utilization based on trends and deviations from a baseline behavior. Basically, Assurance allows you to run the network with maximum performance.
Quickly implement policy across your network to address changing business needs. Deploy group-based secure access and network segmentation based on business needs. With Cisco DNA Center, you apply policy to users and applications instead of to your network devices. Automation reduces manual operations and the costs associated with human errors, resulting in better uptime and improved security. Assurance then assesses the network and uses context to turn data into intelligence, making sure that changes in the network device policy configuration achieve your intent.
Reduce network downtime with real-time network assurance. Use Assurance to deliver a consistent, high-quality application experience. Move from a reactive to a proactive monitoring strategy with Cisco DNA Center. Assurance will determine how the network will perform, predict network problems across your enterprise, and provide recommended solutions to reduce downtime.
3. Software-Defined Access
Software-Defined Access (SD-Access) provides a single, highly secure network fabric that makes it possible.
Supported Cisco Hardware
| Cisco Switches | Cisco Routers | Cisco Wireless |
| Simplify and help secure digital networks—data center, core, and edge. SD-Access is supported on Catalyst 9300, 9400, 9500, 3650, 3850, 4500E, 6500, 6800, and Nexus 7000 Series switches. | Cisco routers provide access to applications, services, and integrated technologies. SD-Access is supported on the Cisco 4000 Series ISR and 1000 Series ASR. | Optimize, personalize, and secure your wireless network. SD-Access is supported on Cisco Aironet 3800, 2800, 1850, 1830, and 1815 Series wireless access points, as well as Cisco 8540, 5520, and 3504 Wireless Controllers. |
More info about Cisco Software-Defined Access from: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/enterprise-networks/software-defined-access/index.html?stickynav=5
4. Cisco SD-WAN
Cisco is committed to offering the broadest range of SD-WAN solutions to our customers. Selecting the right solution is based on understanding our customers’ needs and goals. With that in mind, we’ll provide our customers with the following options:
- For customers and partners that require cloud-first SD-WAN solutions with advanced routing, complex topologies, or granular segmentation capabilities, Cisco’s SD-WAN solution based on Viptela will be the preferred solution.
- For customers looking for unified threat management (UTM) solutions with SD-WAN functionality or are existing Cisco Meraki customers looking to expand to SD-WAN then Cisco Meraki is the recommended solution.
- For customers of Cisco’s IWAN solution, we will continue to invest in the roadmap of IWAN and support customers on Cisco’s IWAN solution. As new unified offers are made available with Viptela’s technology incorporated in the ISR and ASRs, customers will be able to migrate to the new unified solution as needed or desired.
Routing platforms: Choose physical or virtualized platforms to meet your branch and WAN needs.
- 800 Series ISR
- 4000 Series ISR
- ASR 1000
- CSR 1000V
- Viptela vEdge
Learn more about the Cisco’s next-generation SD-WAN solutions: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/enterprise-networks/intelligent-wan/index.html?stickynav=3
5. Network Security
Click here to learn more…
6. DNA Analytics and Assurance
DNA Analytics and Assurance offers comprehensive network visibility. It collects data from users, devices, and applications to proactively identify problems. Network analytics and automation help you quickly resolve them, so you can increase availability and deliver a better user experience.
Putting analytics into action
The key to Cisco DNA Analytics and Assurance is its ability to continually collect and put insights into action. Cisco Network Data Platform (NDP) collects next generation streaming telemetry, as well as traditional NetFlow records, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) events, and syslog information in real time to continually monitor how devices, users, and applications are performing. The solution baselines the collected data to establish “norms” and then uses it for network analysis to find outliers.
The solution then performs advanced processing to evaluate and correlate events. You don’t need dedicated data scientists. In fact, we’re able to quickly identify the most likely root cause and offer proven best practices for resolving issues. For more detailed discovery, you can still drill down to the underlying data.
This correlated data is instantly actionable through the Assurance functions within Cisco DNA Center. The analytic insights are fed directly into this single-pane-of-glass dashboard. Inside the dashboard, the insights are aligned to tasks, so the information is available to support the way you work.
Faster troubleshooting, proactive monitoring, and anomaly detection
With a quick check of the health scores, you can see where there is a performance issue and the most likely cause. We even give you remediation options based on 30 years of Cisco expertise. When there are no issues, Cisco DNA Analytics and Assurance continues to evaluate trends within the network to identify areas where there might be performance or capacity degradation in the future. As a result, you can mitigate problems before they affect your network.
The insights you gather from your network devices can influence your automation configuration and deployment decisions. Cisco DNA Center provides an integrated automation and assurance/analytics workflow, enabling you to quickly take action to remediate the issue. Think of it as a closed feedback loop.
More info about Network Analytics and Assurance here: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/enterprise-networks/dna-analytics-assurance.html
7. Cisco Digital-Ready Infrastructure
The Cisco DNA-Ready Infrastructure gives you innovative wired, wireless and router solutions, combined with a robust architecture, DNA. With it, you can create and apply policies over the entire network with a few clicks and have the ability to diagnose past issues. As data traffic is expected to grow exponentially, Cisco’s innovation with switching, wireless and routing provides a solid foundation that enables Cisco DNA. You can roll out new services and applications more easily for the best possible experience with Cisco DNA. And policy compliance can be automated on a per-user-group basis.
LEARN MORE: Cisco DNA for Mobility, for Switching, and for Routing
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