It's a router. No, it's a firewall. No, it's unified threat management. It's ... the new Cisco ISA500.

We hear a lot lately about how many mobile devices are connecting to the internet. And, with today's BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend, more employees are wanting to use their preferred devices. They're also wanting flexibility with where they work. We're in a new work world, where mobility is the name of the game, and security is the game controller that determines who will have the advantage. Enter: The new Cisco ISA500.

As a recent infographic from research and industry analyst firm Techaisle shows, 61 percent of SMBs in North America allow BYOD; and 53 percent expect productivity improvement. But for those two things to happen together successfully, there needs to be strong security in place. This becomes especially important given that we're seeing an uptick in the number of SMBs targeted for cyberattacks and the number of employees engaging in risky behavior when accessing the web.

So when Cisco looks at these challenges, we focus on three key things: safeguarding outside threats that can bring down the network, the ability for employees to securely access information, and a simple way to manage it all. The Cisco ISA500 helps customers do exactly that, by acting as a highly sophisticated router, firewall, and unified threat management in one device. Not only did it win "Outstanding Hardware Solution" at IT Nation, it's also getting a lot of praise from our partners.

We sat down with David Lawrence, president of Smart Technology Enablers, who talked about his views of this offering. Take a look at what he had to say.

https://youtu.be/3bSQMb0bXsc

If you'd like to learn more about Cisco small business products, please visit www.cisco.com/go/smb. And to learn more about responsive, proactive support options that Cisco Services offers to help keep your small business network running smoothly, click here.