Cisco has unveiled a series of new AI-driven networking and security capabilities at Cisco Live 2026 in Las Vegas, introducing the new Cloud Control platform and expanding its Live Protect functionality as organisations face increasing operational and cybersecurity challenges.
The announcements reflect Cisco’s broader strategy to simplify the management of complex digital environments while helping businesses and service providers adopt AI more effectively and securely.
At the centre of the launch is Cisco Cloud Control, a platform designed to provide a unified view across networking, security, compute, observability, and collaboration environments. The platform also enables users to build applications and AI agents using natural language and integrates with technologies including Amazon Web Services (AWS), ServiceNow, Slack, and Linear.
According to Rodney Hamill, Managing Director, Partner and Routes to Market for Cisco Australia and New Zealand, the new capabilities are designed to help partners address growing operational complexity while supporting the next phase of AI adoption.
“From accelerating agentic AI adoption through a unified data layer to providing real-time, proactive security that eliminates maintenance downtime, these innovations ensure our partners remain at the forefront of operational efficiency and customer protection,” he said.
Cisco said Cloud Control provides a single data layer combined with agentic AI capabilities, allowing partners and managed service providers to streamline operations and develop custom applications more efficiently.
“By providing a single data layer and robust agentic AI capabilities it empowers partners, especially managed service providers, to streamline operations and build custom applications at machine speed [– all] of this while humans stay in control,” Hamill said.
“With extensive integrations across major platforms, it will help partners accelerate the use of agentic AI on both their own and customer environments. We have also done this with giving them a clear view on quantum safe infrastructure, which is one of the key challenges partners and customers must now start to prepare for.”
Cisco confirmed that Cloud Control will be included with eligible subscription licences under its Essential and Advantage tiers, with initial availability in the United States before expansion into additional regions as data sovereignty requirements are addressed.
The company also expanded its Live Protect technology, which Cisco describes as a digital immune system that delivers vulnerability protection in real time without requiring downtime.
Currently available on Cisco’s N9000 switch series and included with Nexus One, the capability will be extended to additional products over the coming months.
“Partners have been inundated with requests from customers to support them with the evolving security challenges amplified by AI,” Hamill said.
“With Cisco Live Protect, partners can now help secure customer environments, shielding them from newly discovered and prioritised vulnerabilities for supported platforms at runtime: no reboots, no upgrades, no maintenance windows.”
Cisco executives also highlighted a growing shift in enterprise AI adoption, with organisations increasingly focused on measurable business outcomes rather than experimentation.
Speaking ahead of the event, Ben Dawson, President of Sales for Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China (APJC), said the next year is expected to mark an important transition in how businesses evaluate AI investments.
“I do see the conversation with customers and partners shifting from building an AI capability to increasingly trying and understand how they realise true return on investment there,” he said.
“I think that conversation is going to increasingly shift from a CIO-centric conversation to a CFO-centric conversation, as businesses want to understand the true opportunity realisation looks like for each of them.”
Additional announcements made during Cisco Live included new quantum-safe communication capabilities across Cisco’s portfolio and enhancements to Cisco Services designed to help organisations mitigate emerging risks associated with advanced AI models.
