Cisco Unveils Predictive Services Powered by AI

Cisco Systems has rolled out a new portfolio of services that leverages artificial intelligence to anticipate IT failures, mitigate risk, and reduce maintenance costs.

Marketed as Business Critical Services and High-value Services, the offerings are expected to enable organizations to invest more of their IT budgets on innovation as opposed to the more basic blocking and tackling commonly associated with IT departments.

“Today’s world is moving faster than ever, and to be successful, businesses must have the right blend of IT talent and services,” said Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins. “By leveraging AI and machine learning to address critical IT issues, Cisco’s new services offerings will truly help our customers free up time to focus on the growing IT talent gap, and remain competitive into the future.”

Leveraging internal talent, Cisco’s Business Critical Services portfolio extends from basic optimization to include enhanced analytics, automation, compliance and security. These features are expected to help minimize human error and help extract the most value from products and solutions while creating a secure IT environment. The next result, according to the San Jose-based vendor, will be reduced complexity and costs, combined with enhanced business agility and transformation.

Meanwhile, Cisco’s High-value Services are designed to help organizations better utilize advanced software, solutions, and the network. This portfolio includes product support services, but also adds offerings that use analytics, onboarding, expertise, and scale to deliver more proactive and prescriptive services.

Channel Impact^®
This initiative may have beneficial effects in managing the widely known technical skills gap through the use of expertise, intelligence and automation. The vendor also intends to engage channel partners in the sale of these services.