The corporate network infrastructure has undergone fundamental changes in recent years. Campus network management needs to respond to the way IT is currently consumed. Cloud environment, IoT and hybrid working create extreme demands on network performance and security. Cisco Catalyst Center (CCC) is a centralized virtual platform designed to simplify and streamline network management while significantly improving security posture.
Cisco Catalyst Center offers centralized, intuitive network management that makes it easy and fast to design, provision, and apply policies across the entire network environment. The Cisco Catalyst Center graphical user interface provides complete network visibility and uses network information to optimize network performance and deliver the best user and application experience. CCC can be deployed as a hardware appliance, but most customers appreciate the virtual platform option, which is available for the AWS cloud service and now also for VMware on-premise platform.
The Soitron team, an implementation Gold Partner of Cisco, is one of the top specialists in deploying Cisco Catalyst Center in corporate environments. Soitron was one of about 60 selected companies worldwide involved in testing the very first pre-production version of the tool (then known as Cisco DNA Center). “We used the platform to manage our own network in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria. We tested the tool for any issues with installation, resources, certificates, and security. Our actual telemetry data were made available to Cisco and used for further development,” said Marianna Richtáriková, Network Business Unit Manager at Soitron.
Having first hand practical experience with the tool, Soitron experts were able to identify the areas and situations in which the Cisco Catalyst platform has the highest added value.
Network Design: If you are building a new network from scratch, CCC makes it very easy to design connections in a hierarchical way, adding and defining additional elements in a single tool. Of course, it is also possible to gradually convert the legacy network infrastructure to a modern software-defined network infrastructure.
Centralization: Cisco Catalyst Center enables the centralized management of the entire network, simplifying device configuration and monitoring from a single dashboard.
Automation: CCC provides advanced tools for automating network operations, allowing for fast and consistent network deployment, reducing error rates, and saving time. Any configuration changes can be applied at once across an entire group of devices, minimizing the time a network administrator needs to spend on tedious manual tasks.
Analysis and Diagnostics: The tool provides extensive monitoring and analysis capabilities for network traffic and selected application services. It helps identify problems and respond quickly to outages or security incidents. CCC telemetry provides real-time as well as historical data, making diagnostics much easier.
Security: Cisco Catalyst Center integrates security features and makes it possible to monitor the network’s security status. It helps identify threats and enhance network protection. Automated procedures allow security policy to be prepared in advance and then applied from a single point to any device managed by CCC. For end-users, security policies are applied upon user login (authentication) to the network.
Integration: CCC is designed to be compatible with other Cisco products and technologies, allowing the functionality to be scaled as necessary. It can be connected to platforms such as ThousandEyes for network, internet, and cloud monitoring. An interesting integration is the connection of Apple, Samsung or Intel devices, enabling the monitoring of communication from the device end-user perspective. As for application services, CCC can evaluate and interpret the status of application services such as Webex, MS Teams, and others. An integral part of the solution is also the support for location-based services through integration with DNA Spaces.
Choosing Cisco Catalyst Center makes it possible to create connections not previously possible and transform slow manual processes into automated workflows.
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