By Enrico Mercadante, VP, EMEA Networking, Cisco
AI is reshaping how organizations operate, compete, and scale. As AI workloads grow and complexity, they place unprecedented demands on the networks that support them. Cyber threats are, at the same time, becoming more automated, more targeted, and harder to contain. In this environment, the strength of an organization’s network directly influences its ability to innovate securely. Networks are no longer passive infrastructure. They are central to performance, resilience, and trust.
An Intensifying Threat Landscape Meets Aging Infrastructure
Global networks have been under siege for years, but recent attacks are more sophisticated and move at unprecedented speed. Many organizations are still relying on outdated infrastructure, with Cisco research revealing that 48% of network assets worldwide are aging or obsolete. This creates vulnerabilities that attackers eagerly exploit. It’s no longer enough to patch and maintain; a fundamental shift in strategy is required.
The business impact is significant: According to our research, just one severe network outage per business per year results in an aggregated $160 billion in losses globally driven by congestion, cyberattacks, and software misconfigurations.
This mounting risk is prompting organizations to rethink and evolve their network architectures for greater resilience. And Cisco is accelerating efforts to refresh outdated customer infrastructure and share best practices for securing existing environments through the Resilient Infrastructure initiative. This initiative aims to shrink the attack surface, strengthen default protections, eliminate outdated features, and deliver advanced security tools that help protect data and enable faster threat detection.
Network Complexity is a Business Risk
Modern networks typically span solutions and services from a range of different vendors, creating layers of complexity that can quickly overwhelm even experienced IT teams. This complexity often translates into vulnerability, especially when secure configurations aren’t consistently implemented or maintained. For many, simplicity and automation are now mission critical.
Businesses increasingly need networks where secure configurations, protocols, and features are enabled by default and adapt automatically. There is also a growing demand for AI-assisted systems that support troubleshooting and proactively alert administrators to insecure practices, helping to phase out legacy methods that no longer meet today’s security standards. Cisco’s focus on agent-based AI operations for networks builds on established network automation practices, supporting companies as they evolve their network management and integrate with continuous development workflows.
Building Security into the Core
Security for network devices should never be an afterthought. Historically, network infrastructure hasn’t been monitored as closely as other areas of IT, but today it serves as a critical control point for managing risk. Organizations now face the challenge of not only detecting threats quickly, but also responding before vulnerabilities can be exploited. There is an urgent need to reduce the attack surface, remove legacy insecure features, and introduce advanced capabilities for detection and response.
That’s why Cisco is doubling down on building security into the foundation of the networking portfolio. Recent enhancements enable teams to respond to threats in real time, often before a patch is available resulting in less downtime, greater resilience, and increased peace of mind.
Security is Essential for the AI Era
As the digital landscape evolves, businesses need infrastructure that not only keeps pace with innovation but also establishes a secure, future-ready foundation. With AI workloads expanding rapidly and quantum computing on the horizon, many are under increasing pressure to ensure their networks can protect sensitive data against emerging threats.
The next generation of security requires networks to seamlessly provide identity management, deep visibility, integrated detection and protection, and streamlined management, while also incorporating advanced technologies like post-quantum cryptography. Secure Networking, something Cisco can truly deliver, is the architectural foundation that makes this vision possible. By bringing networking and security together, organizations gain the deep visibility, integrated protection, and reduced complexity needed to evolve their infrastructure for the AI era.
Building Resilience Starts Today
The next phase of digital transformation will favor organizations that treat networking and security as inseparable. As AI driven applications scale and new technologies emerge, resilience can no longer be added after the fact or managed in isolation. Leaders must take a full lifecycle view of their networks by modernizing infrastructure, removing outdated features, and adopting architectures designed to reduce risk by default.
A secure network provides the stability and visibility organizations need to innovate with confidence. By strengthening the foundation today, businesses can better withstand disruption, protect critical data, and enable sustainable growth.
