Keerti Gautam, Partner Account Executive, Cybersecurity, Cisco Middle East, North Africa & Levant, Sanjaya Satharasinghe, Senior Business Development Manager, Comstor Gulf and Ahmed Roshdy, Senior Business Development Manager, Comstor Gulf, highlight the real-world applications of Cisco security and the evolving cloud marketplace in this exclusive interview.
Can you share an example of how Cisco Security solutions have helped organisations address real-world threats?
Keerti: Cisco XDR collects and correlates data and telemetry from multiple sources across both Cisco and third-party environments—including network, cloud, endpoint, email, identity, applications and more —to provide unified visibility and deep context into advanced threats while reducing time-consuming false positives. This enables customers to see the bigger picture of even sophisticated attacks throughout the entire kill chain, quickly understanding the who, what, where, and when of an attack.
Cisco Talos powers the Cisco security portfolio with comprehensive threat intelligence and unmatched visibility across the threat landscape. Observing over 800 billion security events daily, Talos operates on a “see once, block everywhere” principle, meaning when a threat is detected in one place, protections are immediately updated across all Cisco security products to prevent its spread. This combination empowers organisations to detect, investigate, and respond to threats faster and more effectively, enhancing overall security posture.
What role does AI play in Cisco’s security strategy, and how do you ensure safe adoption of AI in customer environments?
Keerti: Cisco is embedding AI capabilities across its entire portfolio, not limited to security. Within security, AI is deeply integrated to assist, augment, and automate cybersecurity operations, enhancing efficacy, user experience, and cost efficiency.
Cisco AI Assistant in Cisco XDR, Firewall, and other products empowers security teams to simplify policy management, detect threats faster, correct misconfigurations, and automate complex workflows. Recently, Cisco launched Cisco AI Defence, which ensures safe AI adoption by safeguarding the development and usage of AI applications. This solution addresses real-time AI model validation, defends against adversarial threats, mitigates AI-specific risks such as data poisoning and prompt injection attacks, and embeds AI guardrails to prevent data loss and security.
Combined with the unmatched telemetry and threat intelligence from Cisco Talos, these efforts help organisations stay ahead of evolving threats and achieve stronger, smarter, and more resilient cybersecurity in the AI era.
How does Comstor help partners navigate the evolving cloud marketplace and capitalise on new opportunities with Cisco Security?
Sanjaya: Our recent DSOR (Designated Seller of Record) agreement with AWS allows us to list Cisco’s security solutions on AWS Marketplace, giving partners more flexibility in procurement and deployment. We also provide data-driven insights, custom campaigns, and ongoing support to help partners identify and capture emerging market opportunities, ensuring they stay competitive and profitable in a rapidly changing landscape.
What role does threat intelligence play in Cisco’s security offerings?
Sanjaya: Threat intelligence plays a crucial role in Cisco’s security and, in fact, for any vendor. At our core, we have Cisco Talos, Cisco’s threat intelligence platform.
Talos plays a vital role in gathering and analysing massive volumes of threat data, from malware and vulnerabilities to emerging attack campaigns, leveraging AI and machine learning. This intelligence feeds seamlessly into our entire security portfolio, including Secure Firewall, Secure Endpoint, Cisco Umbrella, Duo, and Secure Email. This integration, combined with AI embedded across our security portfolio, ensures our customers are shielded from the latest evolving threats, providing enhanced proactive defence, rapid incident response, and the capability to predict future attacks.
What advice would you give to organisations looking to strengthen their cybersecurity posture in 2025?
Roshdy: Strengthening cybersecurity in 2025 requires a proactive, layered, and adaptive approach organisations need to adopt the principle of “Never trust, always verify.” by implementing strict identity verification for every person and device trying to access resources, regardless of location.
Organisations also need to Conduct regular, role-specific training on phishing, social engineering, and secure practices a leading source for Digital Frauds and credentials theft.
The Use AI-driven Extended Detection and Response (XDR), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) helps organisations to Continuously monitor for anomalies and automate incident response where possible.
Organisations also need to have a Strengthen identity and Access Management (IAM) by Enforcing Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), Use Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and Monitor for Credential Misuse.
How do Cisco security products integrate with modern zero-trust architectures?
Roshdy: Cisco security solutions support zero-trust principles by continuously authenticating and authorising users and devices before granting access. Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) enforces policy-based access control, while Cisco Duo provides multi-factor authentication. Network segmentation and micro-segmentation further restrict access, and continuous monitoring detects anomalous behaviour, aligning with zero-trust’s “never trust, always verify” model.
Image Credit: Cisco & Comstor
