cisco case study

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to content
• Skip to footer

Experiences

From hybrid workforces to smarter workspaces, bring together technology and touchpoints to deliver exceptional experiences.

Hybrid Workforce

Enable teams with superior performance no matter the environment.

Remote Workforce

Enable your workforce with the tools for success.

Safe Environments

Protect and securely connect what matters most, regardless of location.

Smart Spaces

From contact tracing to footpath optimization, create the office of the future.

Technologies

Deliver exceptional experiences to people, places, and things with best-in-class Meraki technologies.

The cloud-first foundation for your entire network.

Meraki Dashboard

Monitor, manage, and optimize your network.

Converge networking and security stacks.

Access Products

Mobile Device Management

IoT PRODUCTS

Smart Cameras

Secure SD-WAN Products

Security and SD-WAN

Hybrid Cloud

Unified SASE

Cellular Gateways

Touchpoints

Think beyond endpoint devices to all the people, places, and things connecting with the web.

  Industries

• Financial Services

• Manufacturing

Local Government

• Federal Government

Primary Education

• Higher Education

• Small Business

• Hospitality
• Physical Security

Learn best practices, explore innovative solutions, and connect with others across the Meraki community.

Customer Stories

Documentation

Product Catalog

Resource Library

Sustainability

App Marketplace

Developer Hub

• K-12 Education/Primary Education
• Service Provider
• State and Local Government
• Professional Services
• Hybrid workforce
• Remote workforce
• Safe environments
• Security/SASE
• Smart spaces
• Sustainable Operations
• Cisco Cloud Monitoring
• Lean Operations
• MR – Meraki Wireless
• MX – Security & SD-WAN
• MS – Meraki Switching
• MV – Meraki Cameras
• MG – Cellular Gateway
• MT – Meraki Sensors
• Meraki Health
• Meraki dashboard
• SM – Systems Manager
• Developer API
• Asia Pacific
• Middle East and Africa

Try our technology.

Smart, cloud-managed IT solutions that make life simpler.

You are about to leave the US Meraki site...

• Skip to content
• Skip to search
• Skip to footer

Support & Downloads

• Worldwide - English
• Arabic - عربي
• Brazil - Português
• Canada - Français
• China - 简体中文
• China - 繁體中文 (臺灣)
• Germany - Deutsch
• Italy - Italiano
• Japan - 日本語
• Korea - 한국어
• Latin America - Español
• Netherlands - Nederlands">Netherlands - Nederlands
• Helpful Links
• Licensing Support
• Technology Support
• Support for Cisco Acquisitions
• Support Tools
• Cisco Community

To open or view a case, you need a service contract

Get instant updates on your TAC Case and more

Contact TAC by Phone

800-553-2447 US/Canada

866-606-1866 US/Canada

• Returns Portal

Products by Category

• Unified Communications
• Networking Software (IOS & NX-OS)
• Collaboration Endpoints and Phones

Status Tools

The Cisco Security portal provides actionable intelligence for security threats and vulnerabilities in Cisco products and services and third-party products.

Get to know any significant issues, other than security vulnerability-related issues, that directly involve Cisco products and typically require an upgrade, workaround, or other customer action.

Check the current status of services and components for Cisco's cloud-based Webex, Security and IoT offerings.

The Cisco Support Assistant (formerly TAC Connect Bot) provides a self-service experience for common case inquiries and basic transactions without waiting in a queue.

Suite of tools to assist you in the day to day operations of your Collaboration infrastructure.

The Cisco CLI Analyzer (formerly ASA CLI Analyzer) is a smart SSH client with internal TAC tools and knowledge integrated. It is designed to help troubleshoot and check the overall health of your Cisco supported software.

My Notifications allows an user to subscribe and receive notifications for Cisco Security Advisories, End of Life Announcements, Field Notices, and Software & Bug updates for specific Cisco products and technologies.

More Support

• Partner Support
• Small Business Product Support
• Business Critical Services
• Customer Experience
• DevNet Developer Support
• Cisco Trust Portal

Cisco Communities

Generate and manage PAK-based and other device licenses, including demo licenses.

Track and manage Smart Software Licenses.

Generate and manage licenses from Enterprise Agreements.

Solve common licensing issues on your own.

Software and Downloads

Find software bugs based on product, release and keyword.

View Cisco suggestions for supported products.

Use the Cisco Software Checker to search for Cisco Security Advisories that apply to specific Cisco IOS, IOS XE, NX-OS and NX-OS in ACI Mode software releases.

Get the latest updates, patches and releases of Cisco Software.

The Cisco Learning Network

Cisco validated framework case study labs, the knowledge article provides the details behind the cisco validated framework (cvf) operations team's case study labs. it is intended for reference when readers view future articles or look to create their own testbeds. nov 18, 2022 • knowledge, information, what is this knowledge article about.

A significant portion of the CVF Operations Team’s efforts involve evaluating the solution adoption and user experiences. This requires a suitable environment to deploy and operate the solutions in. The more realistic and comprehensive the setup, the more valuable the evaluation effort. Of course, it is not realistic to address all possibilities, but having a solid lab setup designed to mimic common production deployments is possible. This article provides a deep dive into the current state of lab setup used by the team.

What are the Guiding Principles?

Keep it real – Use the equipment and software that our customers use – no development code. Deploy topologies that reflect what our customers commonly deploy.

Consider the Cloud - Modern IT infrastructure often includes cloud components. To realistically emulate connectivity to cloud components, new dedicated DMZs and associated routable IPv4 and IPv6 addressing were deployed.

Take a comprehensive approach – Don’t build a lab to do a specific thing. Instead build a mock customer environment. This facilitates enabling many things in combination and eliminates building a setup specifically adjusted to make one thing work.

Think production – The mockups are built, upgraded, and expanded over time. They are treated like production networks and not just torn down and rebuilt all the time. The team is staffed with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). These SMEs have diverse backgrounds in SD-WAN, Campus, Security, and Data Center. These SMEs own this environment and operate like a traditional Infrastructure support team in a real customer environment. They are the Network, Security, and Data Center support staff for this mock customer.

Where are we now?

The team began its work focusing on the Cisco SD-WAN and SASE solution. The teams SD-WAN subject matter experts worked for over a year remotely delivering Proof of Value (PoV) sessions for customers considering deploying the solution. This required a realistic case study environment that continually evolved with learnings from over 100 multi-day customer PoV sessions. The resulting real-world Cisco SD-WAN case study environment is now the center of the CVF Operations Team’s mockup. The team is also in the process of expanding the setup by adding robust Campus and Data Center deployments in the main sites. Meraki SD-WAN components will also be added soon. The remainder of this document will outline the details of the current state of the WAN setup, and it’s connected sites .

The Details at present

(For a detailed view, please review the Main Topology PDF file below )

Main Sites – The two main sites are New York City (NYC) and Newark New Jersey (NNJ). Each site has a core block that inter-connects WAN, Campus, Data Center, and Internet distribution blocks. As discussed above, the Campus and Data Center blocks are currently being reworked and expanded. Details for those blocks will be provided in future Knowledge Articles. The core blocks at each of the two main sites are interconnected with metro-ethernet providing high bandwidth routed connectivity and redundancy between the sites. The WAN distribution block at each of the main sites has redundant WAN-Edge devices connected to multiple transports. These would be considered “well connected” sites from the Cisco SD-WAN perspective. The core block runs BGP, and the campus block uses EIGRP. eBGP is used from the core block to the WAN block and between the core blocks over metro-e.

Branch Sites – There are four standard branches in the setup that are always present. Other branches are added if/as needed and can include external equipment over Internet transport. The four branches are Chicago (CHI), San Diego (SAN), Boston (BOS), and Philadelphia (PHL). CHI, BOS, and PHL are all single WAN-Edge device sites attached to dual transports with Layer 3 connectivity on the LAN side. The sites support evaluating redistributing connected, static, and routing protocols into OMP on the LAN side. The SAN branch is a dual WAN-Edge site with one transport on each WAN edge. SAN is layer 2 on the LAN side. This site supports evaluating TLOC-Extension on the WAN side and various First Hop Redundancy Protocols (FHRPs) on the LAN side. Reachability in SAN is based on redistributing connected into OMP. All the branches connect over the Internet transport as well as MPLS and are therefore ideal for evaluating Direct Internet Access (DIA), on-box Firewall, Secure Internet Gateway (SIG), and when combined with the main site’s internet distribution blocks, Cloud onRamp for SaaS functionality. Dual transports also support evaluation of Application Aware routing (AAR).

Site IDs and IP Addressing – The mockup is configured to use RFC 1918 10.0.0.0/8 address space. Each site is assigned a /16 from that range. Each site is also assigned a Cisco SD-WAN site ID which is a numeric ID from 1 through 4294967295. The site ID matches the third octet of the assigned IP subnet for ease of understanding and troubleshooting. The host addresses range 10.site.255.201 through 10.sites.255.208 is reserved for the Cisco SD-WAN Edge device system IPs. Other site-specific loopback IP addresses are assigned from the remaining addresses in the 10.site.255.0/24 range.

Cisco SD-WAN controllers – In most production environments, the controllers are cloud-based running on Cisco provided compute and hypervisor managed by the Cisco Cloud Operations Team. The other option is to deploy the controllers “on prem” on customer provided compute and hypervisor. In most on-prem deployments, the controllers sit in a DMZ at main sites and run-on local DC compute. We opted to load the controllers into our own lab hypervisor but engineer the connectivity to mimic a cloud deployment This allows us maximum flexibility when evaluating outages. We can “break” anything at any time. The controllers sit on the Internet with routable public IPs in VPN 0. We also deployed a WAN-Edge device to provide “back-end” connectivity from the management VPN 512 to the rest of the SD-WAN overlay network. When the controllers reside in the cloud, this connectivity is required for access to services including RADIUS, TACACS, SNMP and SYSLOG that live in a service side VPN. There is 1x vBond, 2x vSmart, and 1x vManage controllers. Additional controllers can be added on the fly to support specific evaluation needs such as adding additional vSmarts to support Multi Region Fabric (MRF) or vSmart affinity.

Legacy Site – Greenfield deployments are rare, and in most cases, SD-WAN rollouts are shrink-and-grow migrations. There is a legacy site deployed with two traditional WAN routers. One is connected to MPLS transport and routing directly in the MPLS VPN with no overlay technology. The other router is connected to the Internet and configured as a DMVPN spoke. The DMVPN Hub hangs off the core block at the NNJ site. This provides the capability to evaluate different migration techniques including swapping a site such as PHL back and forth between Cisco SD-WAN and traditional connectivity by swapping the device between Autonomous and Control-Mode.

Service Side VPNs – There are two Service Side VPNs deployed in the standard setup. VPN 100 is intended for Employees and VPN 200 is for Guests. Both VPNs use the assigned 10.x.0.0/16 address space. The Employee VPN is present in every site, and the Guest VPN is present in most sites. The Employee VPN has a default route pointing out the two Main Sites via their Internet Distribution Block. The Guest VPN has no default route to start with. All sites have Internet transport and can be setup for Direct Internet Access (DIA) with on-box and or cloud firewall functionality. This also provides an opportunity to evaluate Cloud onRamp for SaaS. Note the Guest VPN is shown on the topology diagrams in green.

Telecommuter Site – Having real Internet connectivity provides the ability to connect WAN Edges from anywhere in the world. There is a SOHO site that connects in from Florida. It has Dual Internet and Cellular. The Internet handoffs are Comcast Cable and ATT Fiber. The Cellular connectivity is provided by Verizon Wireless. This site uses an “all-in-one” ISR 1121 including 2x WAN, an embedded Cisco AP, an embedded LAN switch, and a cellular module slot. Both AireOS and IOS-XE Wireless LAN Controllers are present in the Data Centers to support various wireless evaluations.

Third Party IPsec Site – Cisco SD-WAN leverages “tunnel mode sdwan”. This next generation tunnel technology encrypts the original IP Packet into an IPsec ESP payload which also includes a VPN tag. The ESP payload is then encapsulated into a new IP/UDP packet. The new packet is then transported over the carrier links in the underlay. However, the Cisco SD-WAN edge devices can also support traditional IPsec tunnels. This functionality is often used to support third party site-to-site connectivity when the Cisco SD-WAN owner does not want to provide a WAN edge for the far end of the connection. The third-party vendor site was created to support evaluation of traditional IKEv2 based IPsec connections. In addition to the site, service side VPN 800 is defined in NYC-Edge1 along with a L3 handoff off to the NYC-Core1. This provides a connection point for the site-to-site evaluation.

Cloud Connectivity – Many modern networks leverage Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) for compute. AWS, Azure, and GCP are among the most popular CSPs. Accounts exist in all these CSPs to support evaluation of Cisco SD-WAN Cloud onRamp for MultiCloud capabilities. Accounts for Software Defined Cloud Interconnect (SDCI) providers Megaport and Equinix are also available for evaluation of cloud Interconnect capabilities.

Also, connect further with Walt and the "CVF Operations Team" in our Secure SD-WAN / SASE (Viptela) Community space to continue the discussions.

Meet the Author

Article details.

Nov 12, 2022 419 KB pdf

Nov 12, 2022 405 KB pdf

Thanks for sharing this information.

Related Articles

• Number of Views 82
• Number of Views 18.25K
• Number of Views 411

Trending Articles

• Cisco Packet Tracer: Software de Simulación para Redes
• 200-301 CCNA Study Materials
• Packet Tracer Labs

If you encounter a technical issue on the site, please open a support case .

Communities: Chinese | Japanese | Korean

Cisco.com © Copyright 2024 Cisco, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Statement Terms & Conditions Cookie Policy Trademarks

Cisco Video Portal

• Contact Center /
• Case Studies /

Case Studies

Unemployment use-case with cisco contact center.

This video is an unemployment use-case with Cisco Contact Center for Public Sector & Cisco Citizen Experience.

The All-New Webex Contact Center - Customer Testimonial Video

In this video, Cisco Contact Center customers T-Mobile, OceanX, and Paychex provide their thoughts on the all-new Webex Contact Center platform.

Vivint Solar - Webex Contact Center Case Study

See why Vivint Solar chose Cisco Webex Contact Center when moving to the cloud and the benefits they've seen being able to bridge the gap between their customers and agents across the globe.

City of Buffalo Case Study

Buffalo Citizen Services needed its call center agents to be able to work from home, to take calls from concerned residents, and to have secure access to city information and the latest guidance. And it needed this set up over the weekend.

Vivint Solar Collab Customer Case Study Video

See how Vivint Solar truly unifies their communications with Webex Collaboration. This full-stack case study includes Webex Contact Center, Webex Calling, Webex Teams, Webex Meetings, and Webex Room devices.

Customer Case Study: How Sprint supports their Work From Home Agents

Omar Tawakol chats with Marshall Caldwell from Sprint as they discuss Sprint’s remote hashtag#ContactCenter agent model powered by Cisco Contact Center technology.

T-Mobile transforms customer care with Cisco Contact Center

T-Mobile is famous for care. See how Cisco Contact Center is at the heart of their world-class customer service.

Veracity Networks: Transformational Growth with Cisco

See why Veracity Networks integrates Cisco Customer Journey Platform cloud contact center to own the customer relationship for both their own customers and their business.

Share this video

A bold vision to free up the most important resource—time

Cisco Systems wanted to move away from traditional HR approaches to create a better workplace. The goal? Leverage technology to give back precious time.

10-MINUTE READ

Call for change

Unleashing people’s potential with a new vision for hr.

To create a better and more innovative workplace, Cisco Systems wanted to move away from traditional HR approaches and build a new, seamless, and fit-for-purpose approach to talent management. The goal? To create an environment in which Cisco’s People and Communities could not only do their best work, but also assume more strategic and advisory roles in the business. As part of this transformation, Cisco opted to replace its aging and cumbersome Human Capital Management (HCM) system. In its place, Cisco wanted to deploy a scalable, cloud-based Workday solution that would enable simpler processes and collaboration on a global scale.

A big part of our focus is eliminating tedious work, helping teams be their absolute best, and leveraging our technology to free up one of our most important resources.

Fran Katsoudas / Executive VP and Chief People Officer, Cisco

When tech meets human ingenuity

A complete cultural shift, enabled by workday.

In Cisco’s reimagined view of HR, Workday serves as the critical enabler for new ways of working across HR. With Accenture, Cisco designed the suite of Workday cloud solutions—including core HR, compensation planning, Workday Prism Analytics and more—to serve as the digital heart of HR and enable the agility and insights needed in a work anywhere/anytime economy.

Through a series of collaborative workshops, the team also defined a new vision for HR. The vision was supported by new governance and accountability models, as well as comprehensive change management and communications programs aimed at building trust, rewiring mindsets around the new HR mandate, and ensuring that Cisco’s spirit of inclusivity and “Conscious Culture” was woven into all the organization does.

Rounding out the transformation was a redesign of the organizational structure and roles to support a broader people ecosystem and ensure the voice of the customer was embedded in all solutions.

Accenture brought the deep technical and change management expertise to orchestrate the complex change required to bring our new vision to life. And together, we brought a shared commitment to work as a single team…

Jason Phillips / Senior VP People Experiences, Cisco

A valuable difference

Optimizing people experiences to optimize business results.

Cisco’s new People and Communities, Policy and Purpose organization is taking full advantage of the Workday solution to drive operational efficiencies, meet regulatory compliance requirements, generate valuable organizational insights, and boost the workforce’s productivity, collaboration and agility. New roles, structures and processes have accelerated innovation, changing the way HR delivers services and value to Cisco’s people. New, simplified processes and technologies make it possible for Cisco teams to activate new programs and capabilities in as little as three months— 60% faster than under its old ways of working .

In all these ways, Cisco is ushering in a new era of people-first services and inclusive growth for all.

Within just 21 months Cisco successfully created an entirely new approach to HR services.

In as little as three months Cisco can activate new programs and capabilities with Workday’s simplified processes and technologies.

Cisco can activate new programs and capabilities 60% faster than under its old ways of working.

MEET THE TEAM

Stephanie DeHaven

Managing Director – Talent & Human Performance

Managing Director – Workday Business, Advisory Services Lead

Cisco IT – Adopting Agile Development – A SAFe Case Study

“Continuous delivery improved quality, increased productivity, and improved the employee experience .”

— Ashish Pandey , Technical Lead, CSIT Team

Cisco wanted to shift away from waterfall, and replace periodic major releases with continuous delivery of new features.

Information Technology, Telecommunications

Cisco achieved significant improvements by using SAFe on two major projects:

• 16% drop in the defect rejected ratio (DRR)
• 40% decrease in critical and major defects
• 14% increase in defect removal efficiency (DRE)
• Improved employee satisfaction by eliminating the need for after-hours work and reducing meetings/calls
• 25 percent fewer quality assurance defects
• Sprints that ran more efficiently each subsequent time

Best Practices:

• Carefully build teams  – Build teams with the best members from any location.
• Assemble the right tools  – Cisco realized it could not have conducted regression testing every two weeks without test automation tools.
• Adjust as needed  – For un-integrated or loosely integrated products, features or components, consider eliminating the Program level of SAFe.

Introduction

Cisco IT constantly looks for new ways to go faster and simplify. As part of its digital IT strategy, the Cisco Cloud and Software IT (CSIT) organization wanted to adopt more Agile development as a way to replace periodic major releases with continuous delivery of new features.

“Our goals are to speed up releases, increase productivity, and improve quality,” says Ashish Pandey, technical lead for the CSIT team.

Although a few small teams had adopted Agile techniques, waterfall was still the norm for teams that were large, distributed, or working on complex projects.

To solve these challenges, CSIT moved to the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) and immediately began applying scaled Agile practices on two major initiatives: their Subscription Billing Platform, and the Webex app for Samsung tablets..

Cisco ®  Subscription Billing Platform Challenge

For its Subscription Billing Platform (SBP)—which supports various subscription services—the company originally formed different teams for design, build, test and deploy. In waterfall fashion, each team began work once the previous team had completed their part.

• The separate tracks bogged down the process
• Release cycles exceeded three months
• They got late closure on requirements documents
• Teams missed delivery dates
• There were quality issues due to late integration cycles
• Teams worked long hours to make up for schedule slippage

The Solution

• On SBP, Cisco launched three Agile Release Trains (ARTs) in 2015: capabilities, defects and fixes, and projects.
• All three trains worked together to build and test small features within one SaaS component, while regularly delivering tested features to the system integration and testing team.
• Every day, the delivery team met for 15 minutes and determined action items.

Results – 40% Defect Reduction

Cisco delivered the new release of SBP on time and with all planned capabilities. When the company compared this release to those using waterfall, it found a 16 percent drop in the defect rejected ratio (DRR). Plus, critical and major defects decreased by 40 percent.

Continuous delivery also increased defect removal efficiency (DRE) by 14 percent due to greater collaboration among international teams, and by helping members identify opportunities for improvement during daily meetings.

The CSIT team attributes those quality improvements to several factors:

• Improving team collaboration and focus
• Enabling all team members to see current project status, promoting accountability
• Helping the three teams see beyond their own track
• Enabling teams to manage themselves

Additionally, the new way of working improved employee satisfaction by eliminating the need for after-hours work and reducing meetings and calls. Employees also saw how they fit into the bigger picture.

WebEx ®  App for Samsung

In early 2014, the application for WebEx Meetings came pre-installed on Android tablets. Leading up to the release, developers had to work quickly to meet the release date, despite frequently changing requirements.

The team followed an Agile Scrum framework with three sprints for geographic rollout, the first two consisting of three weeks and the last of five weeks.

During planning, Cisco IT and others gathered requirements, and evaluated the readiness of environments, partners, and engineering and marketing teams. Developers employed extreme programming, including test-driven development, where they first write an automated test case for a new function. Then they produced the minimal amount of code needed to pass the test and then refined code to make it simpler and easier to maintain.

Results – 25% Reduction in Quality Assurance Defects

On the WebEx app, Cisco reduced quality assurance defects by 25 percent. Plus, with developers checking code in several times a day, the business group reviewed new features sooner in the cycle than before. And each sprint ran more efficiently than the last.

Ultimately, Samsung sold more than 35 million tablets with the new app, creating wide exposure for the brand.

Back to: All Case Studies

Suggested case study: royal philips, privacy overview.

What can we help you find?

We changed the way network administration training is delivered across Cisco’s organization.

Alongside their hardware offerings, Cisco Systems is a leading provider of professional networking certifications. For years, a library-sized catalog of books and classroom-style courses made up the main paths of study.

Looking to the success of Code School ’s technical training approach, Cisco’s learning team sought to expand the reach of their instructor-led content — ultimately turning to Envy Labs for definition and implementation of the solution.

• Design System

Content Delivery

Cisco had no shortage of content, but lacked the three components of an effective training platform: Content delivery, tracking user progress, and real-time assessments.

Interactive Networking Challenges

Multiple choice and matching questions have their place, but the networking giant saw a need to interact with actual devices — both real and virtualized.

Organizational Shift

Web software comes and goes, but Cisco wanted an eye on the horizon. Delivery would be the beginning of a cycle involving new departments, courses, and students.

Meeting of the Minds

Course instructors, content authors, contractors, users — finding the right place to start meant assembling the current creators and consumers for an in-depth dive into needs and objectives.

Mindful of organizational size and hierarchy, planning and research paired up with interactive prototypes to communicate and test direction.

Continuing Education

Software that sticks around for years stagnates unless re-discovered. New features and new direction would be funneled through a similar process to avoid changes (or lack thereof) for the wrong reasons.

Flexible Presentation

Subbing in for a number of sunsetting systems made flexibility king. Configuration options allowed content authors to bring the best approach to each topic — whether it’s a focus on videos, long-form text, practice exams, or other formats.

Originally meant as supplemental training, the course platform would eventually add certification exams. Timed challenges (and added stress) forced us to hit the reset button on what information was presented during assessments.

Gamification

Even network administration training benefits from medals and achievements. Taking it a step further, achievements helped encourage users to take advantage of features like bookmarking and the glossary.

LMS Content

Content continues to be the hardest problem in instructional design, and we sought to meet the creators where they were. The application ingests XML from an existing Learning Management system to drive text, assets, challenges, and everything else course-related.

Syncing Windows

Network administrators are picky about device window arrangement. Rather than hit uncanny valley problems with our own custom implementation, the application uses WebSockets to sync multiple OS windows during challenges.

Device Interaction

Emulated devices are great for simulating specific challenge solutions, but Cisco desired the creativity that live devices provide. Through command lines or VNC, users could interact directly with Cisco hardware.

With an on-brand design system and a course delivery platform unrivaled by Cisco’s previous offerings, we paved the way for 7 years (and counting) of continual content expansion. As their needs changed, so did the application — new and revised features paired to provide a modern learning experience.

Organizational Adoption

Good technology travels fast. The platform’s success saw its use expand across the organization, serving as delivery method of choice for 100+ courses (and counting).

For startups — and organizations with that same innovative spirit — we’re an experienced guide. An ally in digital transformation, assisting with discovery, design, and development.

Let's Compare Notes

• First Name *
• Last Name *
• Country * United States Canada Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Costa Rica Côte d'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Greenland Grenada Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati North Korea South Korea Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestine, State of Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Sudan, South Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, U.S. Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe
• Sign me up!

ISO GQL: A Defining Moment in the History of Database Innovation Learn More

• Neo4j Graph Database Self-managed, deploy anywhere
• Neo4j AuraDB Fully-managed graph database as a service
• Neo4j Graph Data Science Graph analytics and modeling platform
• Deployment Center Get started. Download, integrate, and deploy.
• GRAPH TOOLS
• Neo4j Developer Tools Tools to make graph application development easier
• Neo4j Workspace Import, explore, and query Neo4j
• Neo4j Bloom Easy graph visualization and exploration
• Cypher Query Language Declarative graph query language, created by Neo4j
• Neo4j GraphQL Library Low-code, open-source API library
• Generative AI Back your LLMs with a knowledge graph for better business AI
• Industries and Use Cases Fraud detection, knowledge graphs, financial services, and more
• Case Studies Customer success stories across industries
• Customers Companies, governments, and NGOs using Neo4j
• Developer Center Best practices, guides, tutorials, and downloads
• Developer Blog Deep dives into more technical Neo4j topics
• Community A global forum for online discussion
• DATA SCIENTISTS
• Graph Data Science Home Learn what Neo4j offers for data science
• Get Started With Graph Data Science Download or get started in Sandbox today
• Data Science Community A global forum for data-driven professionals
• Resource Library White papers, data sheets, and more
• Executive Insights Get to know Graph Technology
• Neo4j Blog Daily reads on general Neo4j topics
• FEATURED EVENTS
• GraphSummit Touring 20+ cities globally. Join us for free and hear from data and business trailblazers.
• Connections Free, online conference every quarter focusing on new themes every time
• QUICK LINKS
• Find a Partner
• Become a Partner
• Solution Partners
• OEM Partners
• Technology Partners
• Partner Portal Login
• Awards and Honors
• Graphs4Good

Neo4j Graph Database

Intro to the advantages of graph databases

Neo4j AuraDB

Fully-managed graph database as a service

Neo4j Graph Data Science

Graph Analytics and modeling platforms

Deployment Center

Get started. Download, integrate, and deploy.

• Neo4j Data Connectors Download Apache Kafka, Apache Spark, and BI tools

Generative AI

Back your LLMs with a Knowledge Graph for better business AI

Industries & Use Cases

Fraud detection, knowledge graphs, financial services, and more

All Use Cases

Developer Center

Best practices, guides, tutorials, and downloads

GraphAcademy

Free online courses and certifications. Join the 100K+ Neo4j experts.

Hear directly from data and business trailblazers

Touring 20+ cities globally | Free

Join our online conference. New themes every time.

Virtual | Every Quarter | Free

• Get Started Free

Warning: JavaScript is disabled on your browser. Parts of Neo4j.com will not work properly.

Cisco case study.

• Real-Time Graph Analysis of Documents Saves Company Over 4 Million Employee Hours

The Challenge

The solution, english a4 | german | french | spanish |.

• Knowledge Graph
• Master Data Management

Related Articles

• Enabling the Cisco Decoder Ring with Neo4j
• The 5-Minute Interview: Peter Walker, Project Manager at Cisco
• Exploring Data Migration Techniques with Neo4j
• Cisco discusses Master Data Management with Neo4j

China-Linked Hackers Suspected in ArcaneDoor Cyberattacks Targeting Network Devices

The recently uncovered cyber espionage campaign targeting perimeter network devices from several vendors, including Cisco, may have been the work of China-linked actors, according to new findings from attack surface management firm Censys.

Dubbed ArcaneDoor , the activity is said to have commenced around July 2023, with the first confirmed attack against an unnamed victim detected in early January 2024.

The targeted attacks, orchestrated by a previously undocumented and suspected sophisticated state-sponsored actor tracked as UAT4356 (aka Storm-1849), entailed the deployment of two custom malware dubbed Line Runner and Line Dancer.

The initial access pathway used to facilitate the intrusions has yet to be discovered, although the adversary has been observed leveraging two now-patched flaws in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances ( CVE-2024-20353 and CVE-2024-20359 ) to persist Line Runner.

Telemetry data gathered as part of the investigation has revealed the threat actor's interest in Microsoft Exchange servers and network devices from other vendors, Talos said last month.

Censys, which further examined the actor-controlled IP addresses, said the attacks point to the potential involvement of a threat actor based in China.

This is based on the fact that four of the five online hosts presenting the SSL certificate identified as connected to the attackers' infrastructure are associated with Tencent and ChinaNet autonomous systems ( AS ).

In addition, among the threat actor-managed IP addresses is a Paris-based host ( 212.193.2[.]48 ) with the subject and issuer set as "Gozargah," which is likely a reference to a GitHub account that hosts an anti-censorship tool named Marzban .

The software, in turn, is "powered" by another open-source project dubbed Xray that has a website written in Chinese.

This implies that "some of these hosts were running services associated with anti-censorship software likely intended to circumvent The Great Firewall ," and that "a significant number of these hosts are based in prominent Chinese networks," suggesting that ArcaneDoor could be the work of a Chinese actor, Censys theorized.

Nation-state actors affiliated with China have increasingly targeted edge appliances in recent years, leveraging zero-day flaws in Barracuda Networks, Fortinet, Ivanti, and VMware to infiltrate targets of interest and deploy malware for persistent covert access.

The development comes as French cybersecurity firm Sekoia said it successfully sinkholed a command-and-control (C2) server linked to the PlugX trojan in September 2023 by spending $7 to acquire the IP address tied to a variant of the malware with capabilities to propagate in a worm-like fashion via compromised flash drives .

A closer monitoring of the sinkholed IP address (45.142.166[.]112) has revealed the worm's presence in more than 170 countries spanning 2.49 million unique IP addresses over a six-month period. A majority of the infections have been detected in Nigeria, India, China, Iran, Indonesia, the U.K., Iraq, the U.S., Pakistan, and Ethiopia.

"Many nations, excluding India, are participants in China's Belt and Road Initiative and have, for most of them, coastlines where Chinese infrastructure investments are significant," Sekoia said . "Numerous affected countries are located in regions of strategic importance for the security of the Belt and Road Initiative."

"This worm was developed to collect intelligence in various countries about the strategic and security concerns associated with the Belt and Road Initiative, mostly on its maritime and economic aspects."

Cybersecurity Webinars

Discover the hidden tactics of cyber criminals.

Join us to explore how attackers are turning your tools against you and what you can do about it.

Mastering Data Security in the Age of Petabytes

Ever wondered how giants like McDonald's and the CIA secure petabytes of data? Find out in our exclusive webinar.

How to Investigate an OAuth Grant for Suspicious Activity or Overly Permissive Scopes

Why You Should Consider Leveraging Your Python Skills to Code Securely on Blockchain

Securing SaaS Apps in the Era of Generative AI

GitHub Abuse Flaw Shows Why We Can't Shrug Off Abuse Vulnerabilities in Security

Sign up for free and start receiving your daily dose of cybersecurity news, insights and tips.