A visit to the website for Cisco Systems Inc. reveals specific products tailored for a multicloud approach. There are tools like Meraki vMX and SD-WAN vEdge for connectivity, Cloudlock for protection, and AppDynamics or CloudCenter Suite for application deployment.

Yet, the underlying message surrounding Cisco’s multicloud strategy is to deliver a consistent set of tools that will support workloads in any environment.

“All applications still need security, visibility, networking and management,” said Dave Malik (pictured), fellow and chief architect at Cisco. “As we’re working with Google, Microsoft and Amazon, we have on-premises solutions as well so that as customers are going on their multicloud journey, and eventually their workloads will transition, you have the same management experience.”

Malik spoke with Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Cisco Live event in San Diego, California. They discussed how Cisco is building its multicloud strategy around tools for any environment and the importance of governance in managing workloads across multiple clouds (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

Normalizing the plane

There are a number of enterprise tools for building and managing hybrid applications, such as Google Anthos, open-source container products like Red Hat Inc.’s OpenShift, and an assortment of capabilities offered by VMware Inc. Cisco prefers an agnostic approach, according to Malik.

“We don’t care,” Malik said. “You shouldn’t have to have a specific policy model, connectivity model, or security model for each provider. So, we’re normalizing that plane completely.”

The company’s multicloud approach also places emphasis on management and providing customers with key tools, such as CloudCenter Suite, to deliver workflow automation, governance, and app lifecycle handling across multiple clouds.

“One key point that we keep hearing from our customers is around governance,” Malik stated. “How do you provide cloud-based governance regardless of where the workload is? That’s something we’re doing in a very large fashion with customers that have a multicloud strategy.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Cisco Live 2019 event. (* Disclosure: Cisco Systems Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Cisco nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE