Cisco and Endava: transformation in networking/cybersecurity

Networking giant Cisco is a leader in helping companies to communicate and collaborate, both internally and externally, as Paul Maravei, General Manager, Cisco Romania explains: “Having helped build the internet, we’re now at the stage where more than 80% of internet traffic flows through our products. The only limit to what the internet can transform across all industries and locations is expertise - having the specialists that can take these technologies and put them to good use for companies and society at large.”

Cisco plays its own part in creating those specialists through its Networking Academy, which saw 2.3 million people take courses in the last fiscal year. “Having more than 80% of the internet flowing across our devices means we hold ourselves to the highest standards of trust, transparency and accountability,” says Maravei. “Because we are in that position, we have to be open in terms of the way we operate and conduct our business globally.”

Maravei sees a number of trends emerging as the latest wave of transformation via the internet, such as the methods to combat the complexity of IT in the modern workplace. “One clear trend over the last couple of years is the rise of automation to manage massive amounts of IT infrastructure with a limited number of people. That basically allows teams to focus on more creative tasks. Another is the rise in cybersecurity attacks.“ Alongside its investment in those areas, another critical area made even more important by the ongoing pandemic is remote collaboration, with Cisco’s Webex a key player. 

Cisco has worked closely with software company Endava as part of its digital transformations. “One of the challenges of the most successful companies is the ability to grow while ensuring the base is solid. We’ve helped to sustain their growth with IT infrastructure and cybersecurity solutions as they’ve grown to 6,700 employees and 20 branches.” Maravei is clear that the relationship goes beyond the classic vendor and customer interaction, and instead represents a true partnership. “The difference is firstly about investing time to understand what the customer is all about. In our partnership with Endava, the team took that time to understand in detail what the customer’s needs and challenges are, and provide bespoke solutions rather than what already exists in our portfolio.”

Maravei is confident the partnership will remain strong going into the future, with Cisco standing ready to adapt to a shifting marketplace. “With the pandemic, the adoption and demand for collaboration solutions has skyrocketed,” says Maravei. “On the other hand, 

customers are on one side developing their own data centers, and then at the same time looking into public clouds with tremendous computing power. The focus is then going to be on providing the infrastructure to connect those two and securing the data across both.” Web applications are another domain that Maravei believes Cisco will have a key role in enabling: “increasing the visibility and managing the performance of those applications that are out there on the world wide web will be another of our focuses.”