Cisco recognized for security leadership at the 2016 RSA Conference

Best Security Company and Best Security Organization Awards for Cisco

I speak with customers and partners frequently and I always hear common themes in the challenges that prevent them from achieving effective security. The diversity, rate of change, and complexity of what customers and partners are protecting continues to rapidly grow while the attackers continue to innovate on a global scale and become more efficient in exploiting this increasing complexity. Meanwhile resource-constrained security teams are struggling to operationalize dozens of disparate security technologies that were never designed to interoperate. These disparate technologies are often effective in their own silos at detection or protection, but are proving increasingly inept at protecting against today’s multi-vector modern threats.

These issues are a daily reality for organizations everywhere. At Cisco, we are combining best of breed products with an architectural led approach that reduces complexity and fragmentation, while providing superior visibility, continuous control and advanced threat protection.

Witnessing the industry response at this year’s RSA Conference, it’s clear that our momentum is building and that customers, partners, analysts, and the press all recognize that Cisco is leading a much needed transformation in security.

2016 SC Magazine Awards

SC Magazine is a leading IT security publication. In its annual awards ceremony during the RSA Conference it honors the most outstanding contributions in the information security industry.

Cisco won top honors at the awards ceremony this year and was named Best Security Company. Award criteria for Best Security Company included product line strength, customer base, customer service/support, research and development, innovation and more. I see this as enormous validation for our threat-centric approach and breadth and depth of our security portfolio.

Additionally, Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) won the award for Best Network Access Control (NAC) Solution. ISE Cisco’s enables customers to control all access throughout the network from one place, simplifying access delivery across wired, wireless, and VPN connections. ISE can see who and what is on the network and share across network solutions and stop threats from getting in or spreading by granting the right access to the right people.

12th Annual Info Security Product Guide’s Global Excellence Awards

Also announced during the conference were the winners of the 12th Annual Info Security Product Guide’s Global Excellence Awards. Cisco and our Chief Security and Trust Officer John Stewart were recognized for the Security Organization of the Year, underpinning Cisco’s pervasive security strategy across process, policy, people and technology. Cisco CISO Steve Martino was honored with the Gold award for People Influencing Information Security for Cisco’s outstanding Information Security program, sharing Cisco on Cisco security best practices and for Cisco Unified Security Metrics. And Cisco CSO, Global Value Chain Edna Conway was awarded CSO of the Year for her work in maintaining the integrity of our Value Chain ecosystem, influencing policy and instilling customer trust throughout the value chain lifecycle.

The Way Forward

Cisco was represented at 14 RSA Conference speaking sessions this year, with topics ranging from cloud security to automation to encryption. Our presence was capped off with a keynote by my colleague, VP and Chief Architect, Martin Roesch. Marty cautioned against the complexity that often accompanies the accumulation of disparate security solutions, and the impact that has on real world security. He talked about a passion that we share for automating security operations to enable faster responses to advanced threats. His keynote highlighted the direction that we are, and must, move towards as an industry. I encourage you to watch it here.

Cisco delivers the industry’s most robust security portfolio with products and services across the full attack continuum. Together, these solutions enable customers to reduce complexity and focus on their core businesses. The recognition we received this past week reinforces the dedication and continued focus on innovation taking place across the security business group at Cisco.