Recently I was looking for some research around IOT to assist our partners to understand the gravity of the market opportunity for the next decade.  According to IOT Analytics the IOT device market is growing by 16% right now. This IOT growth data is inspiring as we think about the tools, tech, and innovations we can offer to our customers and for our partners to bring new solutions and build opportunities to keep up pace with the pace of growth expected over the next decade.  All of this IOT device growth wouldn't be possible without a great network, great wireless connectivity and great lifecycle planning from our partners, but there is more.  There is a need to address three major concerns we are seeing:

1. Complexity:is high with OT/IT and management of various systems, vendors and devices are is difficult to scale and manage. A great opportunity for our partner community to assist in this area.
2. Cybersecurity:IT teams don't have visibility into what assets are connected in OT environments or what are the security risks. Partners have the opportunity to work with Cisco to secure infrastructure and manage all of the various unmanaged and unsecured devices.
3. Lack of Skilled Resources:Limited IT teams covering OT environments where it is hard to securely and efficiently managed connected assets.

To help address those challenges, at Cisco Live Amsterdam in February we announced new cloud services for a new way for IT and OT to collaborate on managing and securing the network via our Catalyst Industrial Routers. With our cloud-delivered IoT Operations Dashboard, customers can use Cyber Vision to provide visibility into OT assets and their security posture, as well as leverage Secure Equipment Access for safe remote access to machines.

This past week at Cisco Live US we expanded our cloud services to our Cisco Industrial Ethernet switching portfolio in alignment with our Networking Cloud announcements. Now, customers can leverage their existing Catalyst Industrial Ethernet Switches and quickly realize the benefits of these cloud-driven software functionalities since there's no additional hardware needed. This further enables our customers to use their network as a platform for IT to simplify, innovate, and deliver unified experiences to their customers. And it's a key part of our Cisco Networking Cloud vision.

These OT services will be available on IE switches (Cisco IE3x00, Heavy-Duty Series Switches and Catalyst IE9300 Rugged Series Switches) independent of the network management platform used to manage the IE switches. This means that your customers can manage the industrial network through Cisco DNA center while benefiting from the simplicity and scalability of the cloud to meet the needs of OT.

What 's in it for you as the partner? The possibility to expand or unlock new industries such as roadways, manufacturing, and many others meaning ... new industries, verticals, and businesses opportunities. For your customers, this allows different industries and industrial network architectures to leverage these OT services, bringing simplicity and scale to their organizations.

Lastly, we continue to expand our industrial networking portfolio to ensure your customer success for a variety of deployment scenarios and locations, including:

• Cisco Catalyst IE9300 Rugged series switches: 5 new models that enable more high-wattage and high-bandwidth devices to be connected in settings such as manufacturing, utilities, roadway intersections, transportation including train stations, seaports, and airports, and smart communities.
• Cisco Catalyst IW9167I Heavy Duty access point: a new Wi-Fi 6 access point with integrated antenna for outdoor and industrial deployments, so your customers can be ready for Wi-Fi 6E.

These announcements complement our comprehensive industrial networking portfolio giving you the opportunity to deliver an end-to-end solution to your customers with enterprise and industrial use cases.

For more information check out the Partner Launch Experience
featuring IOT and the Partner Launch Guide

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