Cisco Jumps on Compliance Bandwagon

Cisco Systems on July 31 let the next shoe drop in its bid to raise its stature as a management software provider to its networking customers when it launched its Proactive Automation of Change Execution suite.

The suite, made up of both products and services, is aimed at helping the network operations team implement a more mature change management process that can map to the regulatory requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley Act, HIPAA and other industry-specific regulations.

Rather than focus specifically on the automated network configuration management capabilities it acquired through its deal with Opsware, Cisco opted to broaden its approach to help solve several problems.

Cisco customers now are grappling with best-practices policy and regulatory compliance implications for the network while struggling with increased complexity in the network for handling new types of traffic.

At the same time, many network operations groups are still performing manual configuration changes, where “even small errors can cause problems,” said Karen Sage, director of marketing at Cisco in San Jose, Calif.

“We also heard a lot of concern from customers about being squeezed to death by auditors, who require expensive documentation of processes,” she added.

“This allows us to make changes with a lot more confidence. These are a set of tools and expert systems validating configuration changes across the network and at a network element level,” said Cliff Meltzer, senior vice president of Cisco’s network management technology group.

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