Learning to SWIM sooner, extra simply – and extra usually

In collaboration with Christie Pinschmidt

“If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.”

This time-worn expression has been utilized to numerous conditions, by many organizations, through the years – usually with unlucky outcomes.

The draw back of this method is particularly obvious in the case of managing community software program. Too usually, IT groups delay community software program upgrades as a result of they view the method as painful, tedious, and time-consuming. As a consequence, they maintain off till a vital subject arises – usually a safety vulnerability that requires an all-hands-on-deck “fire drill” to treatment.

Cisco IT has taken steps to determine a extra constant course of for managing community software program upgrades prescribed by the Cisco Product Incident Response Team (PSIRT). PSIRT is a devoted, international group that receives, investigates, and publicly experiences safety vulnerability info associated to Cisco merchandise and networks. Often, resolving a reported incident requires upgrades to merchandise underneath energetic assist from Cisco.

Cisco IT lately realized that it wanted to handle two situations related to “chasing” PSIRT upgrades:

1. Having to implement these upgrades by working weekends – and generally by scrambling to handle zero-day vulnerabilities.
2. Struggling to deal with an ever-increasing variety of lower- and medium-priority PSIRT upgrades.

The goal was clear: allow sooner, simpler, and extra frequent upgrades of community components, whereas sustaining a safe atmosphere. As a part of its mission, Cisco IT sought to scale back the variety of noncompliant/undefined community gadgets to zero, whereas additionally making the method as painless as upgrading a cell phone.

Harnessing a controller and automation to ship sooner, simpler SWIM upgrades – at scale

To obtain these objectives, Cisco IT is harnessing the ability of Cisco DNA Center and Cisco Business Process Automation (BPA) to carry out working system software program picture administration (SWIM) upgrades sooner and extra persistently than ever earlier than.

Cisco DNA Center is a strong community controller that, amongst different issues, permits zero-touch machine provisioning and SWIM options that cut back machine set up or improve time from hours to minutes. Cisco BPA offers a scalable, microservices-based platform with an embedded workflow engine, digital consumer interface, and customary integration middleware that helps automate complicated community configuration adjustments and related processes. BPA permits Cisco IT to enhance operational effectivity, cut back complicated labor-intensive duties and IT failures, and be sure that community adjustments are validated to stick to organizational insurance policies.

Best of all, the dynamic duo of Cisco DNA Center and Cisco BPA permit Cisco IT to ship SWIM upgrades at scale.

The capability to conduct SWIM upgrades at scale is vital for Cisco IT, which has a objective of upgrading each machine managed by the Cisco Network Service (NWS) group – about 35,000 components – at the very least twice per year. These networks span Cisco’s campus LAN, WAN, information facilities, and department places of work (about 400), together with companions and Cisco’s distant staff who’ve managed connections (CVO/MVO). The community gadgets comprise entry factors (about 14,000), work-at-home gadgets resembling CVOs and MVOs (about 10,000-11,000), and “big boxes” resembling switches, routers, and firewalls (about 9,000-10,000).

Cisco IT’s twice-yearly improve goal is designed to align with the community software program improve schedule set by Cisco’s Enterprise Networking and Meraki enterprise unit (BU), which releases PSIRT bundles (vital releases, main patches, and so on.) each two quarters for every platform. In addition, the BU sprinkles smaller updates all year long.

Cisco IT shortly realized it may attain and maintain twice-yearly upgrades of 35,000+ gadgets solely by leveraging community controllers like Cisco DNA Center – mixed with enterprise course of automation – to implement SWIM. Using Cisco DNA Center and Cisco BPA, Cisco IT’s engineers can carry out SWIM upgrades just by choosing a picture, clicking just a few buttons, and leveraging automation capabilities to improve gadgets routinely.

The resolution presently utilized by Cisco IT is, admittedly, comparatively primary – it performs SWIM duties on an inventory of gadgets by way of easy automation, then updates and pushes pre- and post-checks to the change report and closes the change. In the long run, nonetheless, Cisco IT sees the potential to completely automate the improve course of, in order that engineers don’t even want to the touch the system. Each machine kind would have its personal improve window, and the system would carry out the check-in and check-out steps fully by itself.

Driving vital early-stage advantages

Although Cisco IT continues to be within the preliminary phases of implementing its twice-yearly SWIM upgrades throughout the corporate’s 35,000+ NWS-managed gadgets, early returns are promising:

• By reaching constant, twice-yearly upgrades at scale, Cisco IT is establishing a typical for purchasers to observe. Few, if any, Cisco prospects are presently upgrading community components twice per yr. In reality, some are presently not performing any upgrades over the lifetimes of their merchandise.
• Cisco IT’s resolution incorporates easy automation to speed up and clean community upgrades – with the potential for sooner and much more frequent upgrades sooner or later.
• The mixture of Cisco DNA Center and Cisco BPA improves Cisco IT staff’ productiveness and expertise by eliminating tedious handbook patching and upgrading.
• Most necessary, the answer permits Cisco IT to handle the BU’s vital improve bundles in a well timed vogue. This improves the corporate’s safety posture by figuring out vulnerabilities attributable to out of date variations of the O/S software program, or by having too many software program variations on the community.

Based on Cisco IT’s early SWIM improve success, maybe it’s time for a brand new catchphrase: “Fix it before it’s broken.”

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