Cisco Launches Next Phase of Digitaliani

Milan, May 8th 2019   –   At a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Chuck Robbins, Chairman and CEO of Cisco reconfirmed the company’s commitment to support the digitization of Italy, and announced new initiatives and projects for the Country Digital Acceleration program Digitaliani, launched in 2016.

With an innovative digital agenda, Italy is a showcase for how Cisco is the trusted partner for advancing Italians’ quality of life, creating jobs, driving economic growth, and addressing key social needs like homelessness. Cisco is excited to continue working closely with partners, customers, and government leaders across the country to drive even more positive impact.” – said Chuck Robbins, Chairman and CEO, Cisco

“Skills, Security, Social Impact: these are the key areas that are the focus of Cisco’s renewed commitment to our country, based on three pillars: cybersecurity, digital skills and solidarity,” – added Agostino Santoni, general manager, Cisco Italy.

Cyber security: the foundation of the future

Cisco announced plans to open a new Cisco Co-Innovation center, focusing on Privacy and Cybersecurity, to be located in Milan, Italy.

The center in Milan will be part of Cisco’s global network of Co-Innovation Centers. It will bring together customers, industry partners, startups, developers, government organizations and the academic community into an open ecosystem, working to solve real-world business and social problems for increasing security, privacy and trust in the digital era.

The center will focus on key aspects of Cybersecurity, including complex supply chains, IoT technologies, critical country infrastructures like utilities,  smartgrids and 5G; as well as Public Digital Services with embedded security. Based on the collaboration with Italian innovators, the Co-Innovation Center will also connect innovative companies with Cisco DevNet, a platform with more than 500,000 developers. The official opening of the center is planned for 2020.

Chuck Robbins will close his visit to Italy with a Lecture on Cybersecurity at the Politecnico di Milano on May 9^th. Cisco is one of the main supporters of the new Master’s Degree in Cyber Risk, recently established in partnership by the Politecnico and Bocconi University. This alliance between two leaders of the academic world, to which Cisco is planning to contribute with some scholarships, was created to train highly specialized professionals.

Digital skills for innovation in cities, for businesses and for people

With regard to digital skills, Cisco has set a new, ambitious goal: to help train 200,000 people in the next three years in areas such as cybersecurity, big data, IoT, programming and digital transformation.  During the first three years of Digitaliani the company focused on training students, now the focus is on reskilling initiatives for active workforce and for job seekers, based on content from Cisco Networking Academy.

In April, Cisco launched an online reskilling platform aimed at small and medium businesses and professionals in Italy, but training and skills development is also an integral part of Cisco collaboration with its customers.

The latest example of this approach is a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with SNAM, a natural gas distribution company. Under the MoU, SNAM and Cisco plan to evaluate how IoT solutions can help digitize the management of the national gas network, also to generate positive impact for communities, allowing for the potential creation of new services related to the circular economy, environmental sustainability and safety. With regards to training, companies will promote digital and general development courses aimed at both the professional world and schools, with a particular focus on topics such as data science, artificial intelligence and robotics.

Social impact: corporate responsibility and technology to create new opportunities

In Cisco’s vision, technology enables inclusion and opportunities for people, wherever they live and whatever their condition. For this reason, since the year 2000, Cisco has made its  Networking Academy Program available in Italian prisons, supporting inmates’ social reintegration. During Chuck Robbins’ visit to Italy, Cisco announces that Unicredit bank is joining Cisco to open a new Academy in the Women’s section of Bollate Prison, located near Milan. To date, there are Cisco Networking Academies in seven Italian prisons (including juvenile prisons), with over 100 students.

As part of its commitment to Italy, Cisco also announced a 1 million USD donation to Comunità di Sant’Egidio, which will work with the support of fio.PSD (Italian Federation of Bodies for People Without Home) to house homeless people in Rome, introducing a “Housing First” approach. In addition, Cisco will provide technology to the two associations and will contribute Cisco Networking Academy content for the training programs carried out by Comunità di Sant’Egidio.

Originally Posted at: https://emear.thecisconetwork.com/site/content/lang/en/id/10505