Cisco says layoffs, cost-cutting won’t derail SecureX

Despite cutting 6,500 jobs and reducing operating expenses by about $1 billion, Cisco has affirmed that it has no intention of pulling back from its commitment to its new security architecture known as SecureX.

“Cisco is committed to our SecureX architecture and our security business,” stated a Cisco spokesman.

SecureX involves use of a tagging technology for network visibility and security purposes that would be supported in Cisco gear such as firewalls to identify a wide range of information about a user’s network usage, such as applications, devices, location and time of day, so that security decisions can be made in a context-aware fashion, the company said.

Two of the main champions at Cisco behind SecureX — Tom Gillis, VP and GM of Cisco’s security technology business unit, and Ambika Gadre, senior director for Cisco’s security technology business unit — remain at the company, although the downsizing is said to include a 15% reduction in executive ranks.

Cisco last month said it had largely completed the so-called Identity Service Engine that will be used as part of the SecureX architecture to establish the context-aware policy for an organisation to gain visibility about user actions and establish policy-based controls in a dynamic and changing environment. Many analysts expect Cisco to make a bigger push with SecureX later this fall.