Six months ago, Cisco announced the Digital Network Architecture (DNA), providing companies with infrastructure capabilities necessary to digitize their businesses. At the core of DNA are four guiding principles:

1. Virtualizenetworking services into software, with the freedom to run on a variety of platforms
2. Automatethe deployment & configuration of networking services through controllers
3. SurfaceAnalyticalcapabilities directly from the network which has broad traffic visibility
4. Cloud-enable the network and applications through "software as a service" and hybrid-cloud

DNA represents a new architectural approach and is directly aligned to Cisco's investment priorities. Many of the latest Cisco innovations showcase these principles, such as:

• Virtualization: Enterprise NFV enables customers to rapidly deploy virtual network services
• Automation: APIC and APIC-EM provide centralized policy-based automation, for both data center and campus/branch environments
• Analytics: Tetration Analytics delivers real-time insights into data center telemetry
• Cloud: CMX Cloud allows customers to better connect and engage their customers

Although the architectural approach is changing, we wanted to keep the way that customers access Cisco's latest technology consistent: Cisco ONE Software. Cisco ONE Software gives our customers a simple and more valuable way to consume Cisco's software capabilities for their infrastructure.

Now 20 months after launch, over 14,000 customers have purchased Cisco ONE Software. 91% of the Fortune 100 have Cisco ONE Software today. 39% of customers have already adopted new capabilities included in the suites, with another 50% planning to use new capabilities over time. While the suites may cost more than purchasing a few individual features, customers who have purchased Cisco ONE Software have found the additional value justifies the price.

If you're still wondering whether Cisco ONE Software is right for your infrastructure needs, please connect with your Cisco account team or partner, to see if you could benefit from this new model. I'd appreciate any questions or feedback below.

Dan Lohmeyer