At Cisco, we continuously seek out innovative startups with transformative solutions. These companies introduce cutting-edge technology that complements our offerings, ensuring our customers have the best tools to stay ahead and explore new business opportunities.
New Investments:
Query is a federated search platform that utilizes Artificial Intelligence to help security teams get the data-driven answers they need, from data located across their environments, including cloud systems, security tools, data lakes, and IT platforms, while functioning almost like a common search engine. We explain more about our investment into Query in our blog “Query: The Search Engine for Distributed Security Data.”
Xscape Photonics is building photonic chips that enable ultrahigh-bandwidth connections within data centers and high-performance computing systems. At the heart of their groundbreaking approach is their multi-wavelength laser technology that encodes multiple data streams onto different colors of light within a single optical fiber. Learn more about our investment int Xscape Photonics in our blog “Harnessing the Power of Light: Multi-Wavelength Technology Transforms Data Centers.”
CorPower Ocean is creating specialized buoys that harness wave-energy. Wave-energy can play a key role in stabilizing the clean energy mix, helping to fill the gaps of wind and solar, accelerating the transition to Net Zero while supporting broader global decarbonisation and climate change mitigation. Read more about what CorPower Ocean is doing in their press release announcing their Series B funding.
Navigating Emerging Technologies: AI for Security/Security for AI
Join us on Thursday, October 24 for "Innovation Unleashed: Navigating Emerging Technologies – AI for Security / Security for AI," where experts from Cisco Investments, Query.AI and Securiti will explain how security, privacy, and compliance can be integrated across multi-cloud environments, and how accessing that data could be as easy as using a “search engine.”
National Cybersecurity Awareness Month
October marks National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. In today’s ever-evolving cyber-environments, strong security posture is more important now than ever. In our blog “Securing the Future: Cisco's Strategic Investments in Cybersecurity,” we dive into our latest cybersecurity investments.
Island explained seven essential best practices for enterprise password management, including implementing strong password policies, using multi-factor authentication, employing centralized password managers, and conducting regular audits. The blog emphasizes employee training and awareness to strengthen password security and suggests tools like password vaults to secure shared accounts.
SGNL depicted the need for enterprises with cloud-based architectures and zero-trust security models to rethink their dependence on legacy Privilege Access Management solutions by evolving to Privileged Identity Management (PIM), which presents a more comprehensive approach for managing access in modern, distributed environments.
Tidelift issued its 2024 'State of the Open-Source Maintainer' report, with data from more than 400 open-source maintainers about their work, including how they fund it, what kinds of security and maintenance practices they have in place, and their thoughts on "in the headlines" issues like AI-based coding tools and the xz Utils hack. One key finding: paid maintainers are 55% more likely to implement important security and maintenance practices than unpaid maintainers.
Artificial Intelligence
Cohere detailed its new API v2, enhancing developer capabilities with expanded features for natural language processing, including improvements in command, embedding, and fine-tuning. This update provides more flexibility for application integration, aiming to streamline workflows for developers working on advanced AI applications.
Cloud and Data Center
Cohesity outlined a comprehensive approach to AI-powered data security by focusing on five key outcomes: speed, scale, security, simplicity, and intelligence. It explains how the Cohesity Data Cloud accelerates cyber recovery, enhances scalability for growing data volumes, strengthens data protection with security protocols, simplifies operations through a unified interface, and leverages AI for smarter data management and insights.
Cogniac introduced their CloudFlow offering, which enables users to leverage all Cogniac application types, excluding box detection, in conjunction with Meraki cameras. Subject matter experts can design CV workflows for demanding use cases and utilize their expertise to label images for automatic model creation and large-scale deployment.
Lightbits Labs highlighted how their software-defined storage achieves high performance in MLPerf Storage benchmarks, supporting heavy machine learning workloads. Their solution demonstrates low-latency, high-throughput performance using minimal hardware, maintaining efficient GPU utilization and flexibility for complex ML tasks.
HYCU released their first global report, 'The State of Data Protection' in 2024. The report explored the cyber resilience of SaaS usage based on an independent survey of 417 IT decision makers worldwide. Findings were surprising: 90% of respondents said they are unable to recover encrypted SaaS data and 43% of respondents lack staff required to protect SaaS.
Collaboration
Aisera unveiled its vision for "Agentic AI," which enables fully autonomous AI agents that adapt in real-time to user needs, transforming enterprise workflows by automating data-driven decision-making. This technology focuses on proactive assistance, efficient task completion, robust, domain-specific language models, enhancing customer and employee experiences.
Uniphore launched X-Stream platform, accelerating enterprise digital transformation by offering tools for creating domain-specific AI applications using a Knowledge-as-a-Service (KaaS) approach. The platform features multimodal data ingestion, advanced Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) capabilities, and robust governance, enabling businesses to convert raw data into AI-ready knowledge for scalable, production-level applications.
Voiceitt was featured on CNN, discussing how to leverage the best of AI-powered technology. Their AI-powered speech recognition technology aims to assist people with speech impairments by converting non-standard speech into clear, understandable audio or text.
Networking
Aliro secured a contract with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) to provide quantum network simulation and control software for the AFRL quantum computer networking initiative. Using the Aliro Simulator, AFRL can test components and configurations, bridging simulated and physical quantum experiments.
Aviz Networks released ONES 3.0, advancing AI-driven network management with enhanced tools, including multi-site anomaly visualization, real-time GPU and NIC monitoring, and a streamlined AI Fabric Manager for efficient resource utilization. Integrated with ServiceNow for incident management, ONES 3.0 empowers operators with improved visibility, performance analytics, and automated configurations tailored to AI workloads.
Observability and DevOps
Nobl9 will host its "Build vs. Buy" webinar, set for October 22, 2024, will explore the considerations of building an internal SLO solution versus purchasing a dedicated platform. Topics include resource investment, integration challenges, implementation timelines, and the risk of failure, aiming to help teams make informed choices on SLO adoption.
Looking to connect with a startup or delve deeper into our portfolio of more than 100+ startups, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at work-with-cisco-investments@cisco.com. Our dedicated team is eager to assist you by providing additional information, addressing your specific interests, and ensuring that you have a comprehensive understanding of our portfolio.