Microsegmentation With Meraki Adaptive Policies

When it comes to networking and user based security policies in a Cisco environment, a lot of people will immediately point to Cisco ISE and its process of creating policies based on a wide range of factors. Now when you think of Meraki, a lot of people still have the mindset that Meraki is built around simple network management and easy of deployment, which it is. They look to other Cisco products for the larger scale, more in depth, and customizable security features. That is a view that a lot of “old-school” engineers still keep. Meraki is now once again pushing boundaries and bridging the gap, bringing their product forward as a true enterprise option. This post by Kevin Blackburn breaks down the details of Meraki Adaptive Policies, which the company is using to make sure they are a viable enterprise option for the more security minded environments. Kevin recently heard from Meraki at the Tech Field Day Cisco Live Virtual Experience, so he has details on all their latest.

Meraki Health – Your Wireless User Watchguard

Troubleshooting is an inevitable part of IT, especially when it comes to wireless networking. As Kevin Blackburn points out in this piece, unfortunately, many organizations lack the staff to have 24/7 help or even large daytime staffs. At Tech Field Day Virtual Cisco Live Experience, he saw Meraki Health as a potential solution for this problem. This provides a health snapshot of all connected devices and shows where users might be experiencing performance issues. This information is stored in the cloud for 30 days, giving an additional way to get historical context to these issues, and help track down root causes to larger issues. Kevin was impressed to see this monitoring didn’t just stop at the wireless component, showing the experience from APs to switches and to backing application servers.

Cisco SecureX – A Single Security Pane of Glass

Cisco is not unfamiliar to the world of network security solutions, but Kevin Blackburn thinks SecureX is a recognition that the company could do more from the standpoint of a consolidated security interface. Rather than being a tool that only works within the Cisco ecosystem, SecureX allows admins to take advantage of data from devices across your infrastructure. Cisco has a number of direct integrations with other vendors, as well as a general API that you can plug into. This really helps SecureX standout, not just from Cisco’s other security minded solutions, but within the industry at large. For Kevin, this allows you breakdown silos and get more visibility into possible security issues.

Connecting Networks Without the IPSec Overlay

128 Technology has an interesting pitch in the crowded world of networking, particularly in the emerging SD-WAN market. They use secure vector routing rather than typical IPSec overlays. In this post Kevin Blackburn looks at how the company does this, based on what the company showed at their Tech Field Day Exclusive event earlier this year.

DNS: More Than Just Name Resolution

Kevin Blackburn was a delegate at Networking Field Day last month, and clearly was intrigued by what he heard from BlueCat Networks. During their presentation, the company showed how DNS can be more than simple name resolution. This involves using it for threat protection and utilizing as a store of a single source of networking truth. For Kevin, this was some next-level DNS.

Exciting SD-WAN Updates From Riverbed

Kevin Blackburn was along as a delegate at Networking Field Day last week. At the event, he got to hear the latest updates on SD-WAN from Riverbed. SD-WAN is a great tool for routing connections between disparate locations in the enterprise. Riverbed demonstrated how their solution allows this to scale to large networks by seamlessly managing the overlay and underlay with a unified approach. Kevin was also impressed by Riverbed’s new subscription model pricing, as well as their overall ease of use.