Cisco and AT&T have unveiled a sophisticated digital purchasing platform designed to streamline and expedite the process for businesses to leverage 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA). This initiative enhances operational efficiency and provides seamless access to advanced 5G FWA capabilities, empowering businesses to rapidly integrate cutting-edge wireless technology into their infrastructure.

For businesses looking to quickly extend connectivity across diverse campus and branch office environments, Cisco’s newest line of cellular gateways, the Meraki MG52 and MG52E, are the first true-5G, Standalone (SA) capable, discreet FWA devices to offer cloud-managed eSIM technology powered by Cisco IoT Control Center. Available this summer, the new devices are paired exclusively with an integrated wireless WAN service experience and zero-touch, instant-on provisioning from AT&T, customers can simply plug the device into power and provision AT&T’s 5G connectivity through the Cisco Meraki dashboard.

The new Cisco cloud-managed FWA devices can scale robust, always-on, highly secure 5G connected experiences nationwide* making it simpler for businesses to take advantage of:

• Increased operational efficiency with scalable and flexible management
• Minimized downtime and disruptions with seamless, resilient network performance
• Greater return on investment with long-lasting, durably designed FWA devices
• Flexibility to deploy in difficult-to-reach locations
• Ability to deploy branch sites within minutes with instant-on, built-in AT&T 5G connectivity

 

With a complimentary 30-day introductory period, businesses can reduce deployment times for branch connectivity through self-service purchasing of AT&T data plans directly from the Cisco Meraki dashboard. Instant-on data from AT&T will also allow for immediate provisioning of full-stack Cisco networks to accelerate “day zero” operations.

“Together with Cisco, we are making it faster and easier than ever for companies to reimagine their networks and conduct business with next-level connectivity,” said Mike Troiano, Senior Vice President, Product and Pricing, AT&T Business. “This offer is yet another way we are demonstrating our commitment to simplifying business challenges and enhancing the end user experience.”

“As businesses continue to digitize their operations and connect more people, places, and things to the network, digital resiliency will continue to rise in importance,” said Jonathan Davidson, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Cisco Networking. “AT&T and Cisco share a vision to help businesses simplify operations so they can spend less time worrying about connectivity and security and focus on delivering unified experiences their customers can rely on.”

AT&T FWA is available nationwide. Instant-on, zero-touch provisioning is limited to USA and select countries. To learn more about Cisco 5G FWA, visit the website here.

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Cisco released results from a survey revealing that software developers allocate over 57% of their time to resolving application performance issues in “war rooms,” rather than focusing on developing innovative software applications as part of their organization’s innovation strategy.

Software developers play a critical role in building, launching and maintaining the applications and digital services that are essential to the way modern organizations operate today, and the pressure on them has never been higher. Globally, 85% of those surveyed report encountering increased pressure to accelerate release velocity, while 77% point to mounting pressure to deliver seamless and secure digital experiences.

But while developers are being expected to deliver new tools and functionality at ever faster speeds, they also find themselves on the receiving end of endless demands to help Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) and IT operations teams manage the ongoing availability and performance of applications. The result is teams of developers spending hours in war room meetings and debugging applications, instead of creating code and building new applications.

Lack of Critical Insight into Application Performance 

Developers report that the issue is down to their organizations not having the right tools and visibility required to understand the root cause of application issues. They believe this stems from IT departments lacking a full and unified view into applications and the supporting IT stack. Developers are acutely concerned about the potential consequences this could have, with three quarters (75%) of those surveyed fearing that the lack of visibility and insight into IT performance is increasing the chances of their organization suffering downtime and disruption to business-critical applications.

The situation is significantly affecting morale amongst developers, with 82% admitting that they feel frustrated and demotivated, and 54% increasingly inclined to leave their current job. These findings should ring alarm bells for organizations who are now dependent on developers to create the compelling, intuitive digital experiences that customers and users expect. With demand for developer skills at an all-time high and a finite pool of talent, businesses cannot afford an exodus of talent simply because their IT teams don’t have the tools they need to do their jobs.

“While most IT departments have deployed a multitude of monitoring tools across different domains, they simply fall short when it comes to today’s complex and dynamic IT environments, leaving technologists unable to generate a full and unified view into their applications and the supporting IT stack,” said Shannon McFarland, Vice President, Cisco DevNet. “When things go wrong, it’s incredibly difficult to quickly identify where the root cause lies, often resulting in panic war room situations and developers having to spend hours trying to help their colleagues in IT operations identify the quickest path to remediation.”

The Potential for Full-Stack Observability 

Encouragingly, developers are acutely aware that there are solutions available to address these concerns, and as many as 91% feel that they should be playing a bigger role in shaping and deciding on the solutions needed within their organization. Above all else, developers point to full-stack observability as being a potential game changer, providing SREs and IT operations teams with unified visibility into applications and supporting infrastructure, across both cloud-native and on premises environments.

While developers themselves may not be the primary users of full-stack observability solutions – focusing instead on their specific areas of domain expertise – 78% believe that implementing full-stack observability within their organization would be beneficial. Developers recognize the benefits of having unified visibility across the IT estate and acknowledge that full-stack observability would make it much easier and quicker for operations teams to identify issues, understand root causes, and carry out necessary remediation. In turn, this would result in fewer technologists from multiple domain teams being required to attend war room sessions, and free up that talent – including developers – to focus on their day jobs.

76% of developers went so far as to state that it’s becoming impossible for them to do their job because SREs and IT operations teams don’t have the insights they need to effectively manage IT performance. This explains why 94% point to full-stack observability as the single thing that would most help them to escape war rooms and focus on innovation.

The Role of AI 

Alongside full-stack observability, many developers (39%) also feel that their organization (and they themselves) would benefit from deploying AI to automate application issue detection and resolution. Rather than relying on manual processes, AI can enable IT teams to cut through overwhelming volumes of application data to identify the most serious issues and apply fixes in real-time.

In addition, developers are ready to embrace new ways of working within the IT department to drive greater efficiency and productivity, and a more streamlined approach to managing application performance. The majority (57%) believe that there needs to be greater ongoing collaboration between developers and IT teams. This is already being seen in shift left testing and widespread adoption of DevOps and DevSecOps methodologies, so that application availability, performance and security considerations are embedded into the development lifecycle from the outset.

“At a time when developer talent is in such high demand, organizations must do everything they can to empower their teams with the tools they need to be able to perform to their full potential and maximize impact,” added McFarland. “Full-stack observability has become mission-critical – without it, IT teams simply cannot deliver the levels of digital experience that consumers now demand.”

For more information about how full-stack observability can help software developers escape “War Rooms,” visit the website here.

Research Methodology 

Cisco conducted research amongst 500 global software developers split across the U.S. (200), UK (100), Australia (30), and the rest of the world (170 – including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Japan, Singapore, India). The research was conducted by Insight Avenue in March and April 2024.

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Cisco and Morgan Solar have unveiled a pilot initiative aimed at utilizing solar energy to power collaboration and meeting areas.

The first pilot project is currently deployed at Cisco’s Toronto Innovation Centre with plans to include two additional customer sites. The concept leverages Morgan Solar’s Energy Blinds, capturing clean, solar energy in a direct current (DC) microgrid, and Cisco’s Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) switch, which helps to distribute energy within the room. Cisco’s Webex platform is also integrated and detects when the room is not in use to help maximize energy generation and minimize energy consumption.

“To take meaningful steps towards a sustainable future, businesses need to think creatively about how to get there,” said Wayne Cuervo, Director of Cisco Canada’s Digital Impact Office. “Collaborating with forward-thinking companies like Morgan Solar, we’re driving the development of smart solutions aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from traditional energy generation technologies and giving businesses new pathways towards sustainability.”

The initial results show production of up to 50W of renewable energy per window, enough to effectively run the pilot room’s required equipment and devices. When the room is not occupied, the system stores excess solar energy to use later when needed or for use during peak times when energy from the grid may be more expensive. If expanded across office spaces, the solution could enable greater energy efficiency and on-site energy generation than rooftop solar alone.

Beyond sustainability considerations, the pilot project intends to support tangible business value, including cost savings and enhanced productivity. It may also help lower the cost path towards U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification in older buildings.

Canada, like many nations, has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. The Cisco-Morgan Solar concept represents new thinking on how innovative technology solutions can contribute to national sustainability goals. As stakeholders look for pragmatic solutions to address climate change, technology can unlock new opportunities for growth and environmental stewardship in Canada and around the world.

“We’re committed to creating solutions that make solar energy more accessible to organizations and are working with Cisco to make that happen,” said John Paul Morgan, President and Chief Technology Officer at Morgan Solar. “Energy flow through windows is the main driver of a building’s energy use. Actively managing and capturing sunlight at the window paves the way for offices to become more self-powered and sustainable, while also being more comfortable spaces for people to work in.”

This initiative was born from Morgan Solar’s winning submission in Cisco’s Fast Future Innovation Awards in 2022 and funded through Cisco Canada’s Country Digital Acceleration Program. Grounded in the understanding that innovation cannot thrive on its own, through this awards program, Cisco dedicates its resources, expertise and scale to help solve challenges faced by Canadian businesses.

Cisco’s Net Zero Goals

Cisco has been reporting on its environmental impact since 2005. In 2021, Cisco set a goal to reach zero greenhouse gas emissions across our value chain by 2040. Our goal includes all scopes of emissions and is approved by the Science Based Targets initiative under its Corporate Net-Zero Standard, the world’s only framework for corporate net zero target setting in line with climate science. In Cisco´s fiscal year 2023, Cisco consumed more than 1.3 million MWh of renewable electricity, making up approximately 91 per cent of its total global electricity demand, including sourcing 100 per cent of the electricity used at Cisco facilities in Canada from renewable sources.

To learn more about the Cisco and Morgan Solar’s collaboration to pilot sustainable solar energy blinds, visit the website here.

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Cisco introduced a groundbreaking strategy to safeguard data centers and clouds, adapting to the growing requirements imposed by the AI revolution on IT infrastructure. Cisco is redesigning the way we harness and protect AI and other modern workloads through the industry-leading Cisco Hypershield. This remarkable advancement shifts the balance in favor of defenders, complementing recent initiatives to advance AI infrastructure using Cisco’s ethernet switching, silicon, and compute portfolio.

Cisco Hypershield protects applications, devices and data across public and private data centers, clouds and physical locations – anywhere customers need it. Designed and built with AI in mind from the start, Hypershield enables organizations to achieve security outcomes beyond what has been possible with humans alone.

“Cisco Hypershield is one of the most significant security innovations in our history,” said Chuck Robbins, Cisco Chair and CEO. “With our data advantage and strength in security, infrastructure and observability platforms, Cisco is uniquely positioned to help our customers harness the power of AI.”

Hypershield is a revolutionary new security architecture. It’s built with technology originally developed for hyperscale public clouds and is now available for enterprise IT teams of all sizes. More a fabric than a fence, Hypershield enables security enforcement to be placed everywhere it needs to be. Every application service in the datacenter. Every Kubernetes cluster in the public cloud. Every container and virtual machine (VM). It can even turn every network port into a high-performance security enforcement point, bringing completely new security capabilities not just to clouds, but to the data center, on a factory floor, or a hospital imaging room. This new technology blocks application exploits in minutes and stops lateral movement in its tracks.

“AI has the potential to empower the world’s 8 billion people to have the same impact as 80 billion. With this abundance, we must reimagine the role of the data center – how data centers are connected, secured, operated and scaled,” said Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and General Manager for Security and Collaboration at Cisco. “The power of Cisco Hypershield is that it can put security anywhere you need it – in software, in a server, or in the future even in a network switch. When you have a distributed system that could include hundreds of thousands of enforcement points, simplified management is mission critical. And we need to be orders-of-magnitude more autonomous, at an orders-of-magnitude lower cost.”

Security enforcement with Hypershield happens at three different layers: in software, in virtual machines, and in network and compute servers and appliances, leveraging the same powerful hardware accelerators that are used extensively in high-performance computing and hyperscale public clouds.

Hypershield was built on three key pillars:

• AI-Native: Built and designed from the start to be autonomous and predictive, Hypershield manages itself once it earns trust, making a hyper-distributed approach at scale possible.
• Cloud-Native: Hypershield is built on open source eBPF, the default mechanism for connecting and protecting cloud-native workloads in the hyperscale cloud. Cisco acquired the leading provider of eBPF for enterprises, Isovalent, earlier this month.
• Hyper-Distributed: Cisco is completely reimagining how traditional network security works by embedding advanced security controls into servers and the network fabric itself. Hypershield spans all clouds and leverages hardware acceleration like Data Processing Units (DPU) to analyze and respond to anomalies in application and network behavior. It shifts security closer to the workloads that need protection.

 

Cisco, with its industry-leading expertise in networking, security and extensive partner ecosystem, together with NVIDIA, is committed to building and optimizing AI-native security solutions to protect and scale the data centers of tomorrow. This collaboration includes leveraging the NVIDIA Morpheus cybersecurity AI framework for accelerated network anomaly detection, as well as NVIDIA NIM microservices for powering custom security AI assistants for the enterprise. NVIDIA’s class of converged accelerators combine the power of GPU and DPU computing, to augment Cisco Hypershield with robust security from cloud to edge.

“Enterprises across all industries are seeking the security that can protect them against ever expanding cyber threats,” said Kevin Deierling, Senior Vice President of Networking at NVIDIA. “Together, Cisco and NVIDIA are leveraging the power of AI to deliver powerful, incredibly secure data center infrastructure that will enable enterprises to transform their businesses and benefit customers everywhere.”

As a revolutionary new security architecture, Hypershield is solving three key customer challenges in defending against today’s sophisticated threat landscape:

• Distributed Exploit Protection: Attackers are adept at weaponizing newly published vulnerabilities faster than defenders can patch. With defenders seeing nearly 100 new vulnerabilities every day, according to Cisco Talos Threat Intelligence, this can lead to catastrophic results. Hypershield delivers protection in minutes by automatically testing and deploying compensating controls into the distributed fabric of enforcement points.
• Autonomous Segmentation: Once an attacker is in the network, segmentation is key to stopping their lateral movement. Hypershield perpetually observes, auto-reasons and re-evaluates existing policies to autonomously segment the network, solving this in large and complex environments.
• Self-qualifying Upgrades: Hypershield automates the incredibly laborious and time-consuming process of testing and deploying upgrades once they are ready, leveraging a dual data plane. This completely new software architecture allows software upgrades and policy changes to be placed in a digital twin that tests updates using the customer’s unique combination of traffic, policies and features, then applying those updates with zero downtime.

 

Built into the Security Cloud, Cisco’s unified, AI-driven, cross-domain security platform, Cisco Hypershield is expected to be Generally Available in August 2024. With Cisco’s recent acquisition of Splunk, customers will gain unparalleled visibility and insights across their entire digital footprint for unprecedented security protection.

“AI is not just a force for good but also a tool used for nefarious purposes, allowing hackers to reverse engineer patches and create exploits in record time. Cisco looks to address an AI enabled problem with an AI solution as Cisco Hypershield aims to tip the scales back in favor of the defender by shielding new vulnerabilities against exploit in minutes – rather than the days, weeks or even months as we wait for patches to actually get deployed,” said Frank Dickson, Group Vice President, Security & Trust at IDC. “With the number of vulnerabilities ever increasing and the time for attackers to exploit them at scale ever decreasing, it’s clear that patching alone can’t keep up. Tools like Hypershield are necessary to combat an increasingly clever malicious cyber adversary.”

“Cisco Hypershield takes aim at the complex security challenges of modern, AI-scale data centers. Cisco’s vision of a self-managing fabric that seamlessly integrates from the network to the endpoint will help redefine what’s possible for security at scale,” said Zeus Kerravala, Founder and Principal Analyst of ZK Research. “For instance, this level of visibility and control across a hyper-distributed environment prevents lateral movement of attackers, enabled through a unique approach to segmentation that’s autonomous and highly effective. While this may seem fantastical, the time is right given recent AI advances combined with the maturity of cloud-native technologies like eBPF.”

“At AHEAD we believe cybersecurity should be integrated into everything we do. Bolted-on security is more expensive and less effective,” said Steven Aiello, Field Chief Information Security Officer at AHEAD. “Cisco Hypershield ensures that cyber protections are included into the fabric of the enterprise. Distributed Exploit Protection will be a massive win for blue teams – legacy synthetic patching was primarily limited to edge devices, allowing lateral movement once an attacker breached the perimeter. It’s a great day for cyber-defenders!”

To learn more about Cisco Hypershield, visit the website here.

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Cisco, alongside a consortium comprised of Accenture, Eightfold, Google, IBM, Indeed, Intel, Microsoft, and SAP, along with six advisors, has introduced the AI-Enabled Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Workforce Consortium. This initiative aims to upskill and reskill roles most likely to be impacted by AI. The Consortium is inspired by the efforts of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council’s (TTC) Talent for Growth Task Force, which seeks to assess AI’s impact on ICT positions, facilitate access to relevant training programs for workers, and establish connections between businesses and qualified, ready-to-work individuals.

Working as a private sector collaborative, the ICT Workforce Consortium is evaluating how AI is changing the jobs and skills workers need to be successful. The first phase of work will culminate in a report with actionable insights for business leaders and workers. Further details will be shared in the coming months. Findings will be intended to offer practical insights and recommendations to employers that seek ways to reskill and upskill their workers in preparation for AI-enabled environments.

Consortium members represent a cross section of companies innovating on the cutting edge of AI that also understand the current and impending impact of AI on the workforce. Individually, Consortium members have documented opportunities and challenges presented by AI. The collaborative effort enables their organizations to coalesce insights, recommend action plans, and activate findings within their respective broad spheres of influence.

The Consortium’s work is inspired by the TTC’s Talent for Growth Task Force and Cisco Chair and CEO Chuck Robbins’ leadership of its skills training workstream, and input from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The TTC was established in June 2021 by U.S. President Biden, European Commission President von der Leyen, and European Council President Michel to promote U.S. and EU competitiveness and prosperity through cooperation and democratic approaches to trade, technology, and security.

“At the U.S. Department of Commerce, we’re focused on fueling advanced technology and deepening trade and investment relationships with partners and allies around the world. This work is helping us build a strong and competitive economy, propelled by a talented workforce that’s enabling workers to get into the good quality, high-paying, family-sustaining jobs of the future. We recognize that economic security and national security are inextricably linked. That’s why I’m proud to see the efforts of the Talent for Growth Task Force continue with the creation of the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “I am grateful to the consortium members for joining in this effort to confront the new workforce needs that are arising in the wake of AI’s rapid development. This work will help provide unprecedented insight on the specific skill needs for these jobs. I hope that this Consortium is just the beginning, and that the private sector sees this as a call to action to ensure our workforces can reap the benefits of AI.”

“AI is accelerating the pace of change for the global workforce, presenting a powerful opportunity for the private sector to help upskill and reskill workers for the future,” said Francine Katsoudas, Executive Vice President and Chief People, Policy & Purpose Officer, Cisco. “The mission of our newly unveiled AI-Enabled Workforce Consortium is to provide organizations with knowledge about the impact of AI on the workforce and equip workers with relevant skills. We look forward to engaging other stakeholders—including governments, NGOs, and the academic community—as we take this important first step toward ensuring that the AI revolution leaves no one behind.”

The AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium’s efforts address a business critical and growing need for a proficient workforce that is trained in various aspects of AI, including the skills to implement AI applications across business processes. The Consortium will leverage its members and advisors to recommend and amplify reskilling and upskilling training programs that are inclusive and can benefit multiple stakeholders – students, career changers, current IT workers, employers, and educators – in order to skill workers at scale to engage in the AI era.

In its first phase of work, the Consortium will evaluate the impact of AI on 56 ICT job roles and provide training recommendations for impacted jobs. These job roles include 80% of the top 45 ICT job titles garnering the highest volume of job postings for the period February 2023-2024 in the United States and five of the largest European countries by ICT workforce numbers (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands) according to Indeed Hiring Lab. Collectively, these countries account for a significant segment of the ICT sector, with a combined total of 10 million ICT workers.

Consortium members universally recognize the urgency and importance of their combined efforts with the acceleration of AI in all facets of business and the need to build an inclusive workforce with family-sustaining opportunities. Consortium members commit to developing worker pathways particularly in job sectors that will increasingly integrate artificial intelligence technology. To that end, Consortium members have established forward thinking goals with skills development and training programs to positively impact over 95 million individuals around the world over the next 10 years.

Consortium member goals include:

• Cisco to train 25 million people with cybersecurity and digital skills by 2032.
• IBM to skill 30 million individuals by 2030 in digital skills, including 2 million in AI.
• Intel to empower more than 30 million people with AI skills for current and future jobs by 2030.
• Microsoft to train and certify 10 million people from underserved communities with in-demand digital skills for jobs and livelihood opportunities in the digital economy by 2025.
• SAP to upskill two million people worldwide by 2025.
• Google has recently announced EUR 25 million in funding to support AI training and skills for people across Europe.

 

Accenture

“Helping organizations identify skills gaps and train people at speed and scale is a major priority for Accenture, and this consortium brings together an impressive ecosystem of industry partners committed to growing leading-edge technology, data and AI skills within our communities. Reskilling people to work with AI is paramount in every industry. Organizations that invest as much in learning as they do in the technology not only create career pathways, they are well positioned to lead in the market.” – Ellyn Shook, Chief Leadership & Human Resources Officer, Accenture

Eightfold

“The dynamics of work and the very essence of work are evolving at an unprecedented pace. Eightfold examines the most sought-after job roles, delving into the needs for reskilling and upskilling. Through its Talent Intelligence Platform, it empowers business leaders to adapt swiftly to the changing business environment. We take pride in contributing to the creation of a knowledgeable and responsible resource that assists organizations in preparing for the future of work.” – Ashutosh Garg, CEO and Co-Founder, Eightfold AI

Google

“Google believes the opportunities created by technology should truly be available to everyone. We’re proud to join the AI-Enabled Workforce Consortium, which will advance our work to make AI skills training universally accessible. We’re committed to collaborating across sectors to ensure workers of all backgrounds can use AI effectively and develop the skills needed to prepare for future-focused jobs, qualify for new opportunities, and thrive in the economy.” – Lisa Gevelber, Founder, Grow with Google

IBM

“IBM is proud to join this timely business-led initiative, which brings together our shared expertise and resources to prepare the workforce for the AI era. Our collective responsibility as industry leaders is to develop trustworthy technologies and help provide workers—from all backgrounds and experience levels—access to opportunities to reskill and upskill as AI adoption changes ways of working and creates new jobs.” – Gian Luigi Cattaneo, Vice President, Human Resources, IBM EMEA

Indeed

“Indeed’s mission is to help people get jobs. Our research shows that virtually every job posted on Indeed today, from truck driver to physician to software engineer, will face some level of exposure to GenAI-driven change. We look forward to contributing to the Workforce Consortium’s important work. The companies who empower their employees to learn new skills and gain on-the-job experience with evolving AI tools will deepen their bench of experts, boost retention and expand their pool of qualified candidates.” – Hannah Calhoon, Head of AI Innovation at Indeed

Intel

“At Intel, our purpose is to create world-changing technology that improves the lives of every person on the planet, and we believe bringing AI everywhere is key for businesses and society to flourish. To do so, we must provide access to AI skills for everyone. Intel is committed to expanding digital readiness by collaborating with 30 countries, empowering 30,000 institutions, and training 30 million people for current and future jobs by 2030. Working alongside industry leaders as part of this AI-enabled ICT workforce consortium will help upskill and reskill the workforce for the digital economy ahead.” – Christy Pambianchi, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at Intel Corporation

Microsoft

“As a global leader in AI innovation, Microsoft is proud to join the ICT Workforce Consortium and continue our efforts to shape an inclusive and equitable technology future for all. As a member of the consortium, we will work with industry leaders to share best practices, create accessible learning opportunities, and collaborate with stakeholders to ensure that workers are equipped with the technology skills of tomorrow,” – Amy Pannoni, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, HR Legal at Microsoft

SAP

“SAP is proud to join this effort to help prepare our workforce for the jobs of the future and ensure AI is relevant, reliable, and responsible across businesses and roles. As we navigate the complexities of our ever-evolving world, AI has the potential to reshape industries, revolutionize problem-solving, and unlock unprecedented levels of human potential, enabling us to create a more intelligent, efficient, and inclusive workforce. Over the years, SAP has supported many skills building programs, and we look forward to driving additional learning opportunities, innovation, and positive change as part of the consortium.”  – Nicole Helmer, Vice President & Global Head of Development Learning at SAP

To review The ICT Workforce Consortium press release, visit the website here.

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At Enterprise Connect, Cisco revealed insights from a survey outlining the alignment between the in-office experience and employee expectations worldwide. Additionally, the survey explores how employers are leveraging AI as a transformative tool for enhancing workplace collaboration and productivity.

The Cisco Hybrid Work Study report shows that while employees are positive about the return to the office, they find that the spaces are too focused on individual work, rather than environments that foster collaboration and creativity. As global companies transition to hybrid models, employers and employees alike recognize the need for office spaces that encourage collaboration and innovation. Employers agree that technology and AI investments are essential to enhancing productivity and attracting top talent, but few have strategies to implement the technology throughout their organization.

“Making the office a magnet means creating experiences that employees value,” said Cisco Executive Vice President and General Manager of Security and Collaboration, Jeetu Patel. “To achieve this, organizations must embed hybrid work solutions, infused with AI, into office spaces to foster collaborative experiences for everyone.”

Key survey findings from 14,050 employees and 3,800 employers in 19 countries include:

• Employees seek in-office collaboration: The report reveals a surprising truth: employees feel positively about returning to the office, provided the spaces support seamless collaboration, social interaction and creative brainstorming. While 72% of employees are positive about returning to the office, only 47% believe their work environments are equipped for this new era of hybrid work. It’s time to advocate for and design office spaces that truly support the ways employees want to work together.
• Office tech needs to change to enable collaboration: 85% of employers say that most of their office space is allocated to personal working spaces, creating individual working environments and encouraging individual working habits. Technology infrastructure and integration is a major area of concern across the globe, with ineffective meeting rooms due to inadequate audio and video technology hindering productivity and collaborative efforts. Among employers who find meeting rooms ineffective in boosting in-office productivity, the main reason is insufficient audio and video endpoints, with 41% in the Americas, 52% in Asia Pacific and 42% around Europe.
• Employers will invest in office design and tech to attract top talent: 81% of employers have already or plan to redesign workspaces in the next 24 months. But these enhancements are not just cosmetic; 90% of employers in the Americas, 94% in Asia Pacific and 85% in European countries report that collaboration-driven workspace enhancements are highly or moderately effective at attracting and retaining top talent. This is a testament to the belief that the right environment can be a powerful draw for a skilled workforce.
• Organizations realize the value of AI to increase productivity: Employers are making a strong commitment to integrating AI into the workplace. By 2025, 73% will invest in AI-powered collaboration software, with 68% planning to enhance their workspaces with AI technologies. 80% of employers plan to invest in AI for workspaces and collaboration by the end of 2025, recognizing the potential of AI to revolutionize the working environment. This underscores the need to accelerate AI adoption within the workplace to enhance productivity and create a future-ready office environment.
• Employers must focus on closing the AI skills gap: While 43% of employees have access to AI technologies, less than half feel proficient in using them. With 1 in 4 employees not well prepared to use AI, this highlights the need for training and that businesses must select AI that meets both the organization and individual team’s needs.

 

For more information about the Cisco Hybrid Work Study visit the website here.

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Methodology 

The Cisco Hybrid Work study is an online survey of 14,050 full- time employees and 3,800 employers, undertaken in December 2023 and January 2024. Respondents are from 19 different markets, grouped into three different regions: the Americas (Brazil, Canada, Mexico, USA), Asia Pacific (Australia, Hong Kong, India, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand) and Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom). Data was also collected from the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East and is included in the global data analysis but is not included in the breakdown of the regional results.