Cisco has introduced new solutions under the Cisco Unified Access umbrella that simplifies network design by converging wired and wireless networks.

This, the firm said, will help simplify network operation issues.

Unveiling these technologies in Lagos on Thursday, the Head of Architectures and Enterprise, emerging markets, Cisco, Mr. Den Sullivan, said, “Our customers in Nigeria are looking for a simple, highly secure network with reduced total cost of ownership that allows them to address the demands that new access requirements such as BYOD and new innovative line of business applications bring.

“Cisco Unified Access allows customers to achieve these goals by moving away from individual vertical stacks of technology and disparate components and creating a single architecture for an intelligent network.”

As organisations in Nigeria face the ever-growing challenge of managing the growth of mobile devices and business applications across multiple networks, businesses are finding it difficult to consistently find time to address issues that are enabling innovation and agility, the firm explained.

With the increasing need to connect more people, data, processes and things to the network, the role of wireless and wired networks is growing and network operations and feature requirements are becoming more complex, it added.

According to Cisco Visual Networking Index, global mobile data traffic forecast for 2012 to 2017, in Middle East and Africa, will grow 17-fold from 2012 to 2017, a compound annual growth rate of 77 per cent.

The technologies include new Cisco Catalyst 3850 Unified Access Switch with built-in wireless LAN controller functionality; and new Cisco 5760 Unified Access WLAN Controller appliance featuring IOS-based software and 60Gbps performance.

These new enhancements to Cisco Unified Access will allow IT organisations in Nigeria to rapidly manage changing network demands and greater services innovations, the firm said.

According to Sullivan, the Cisco Unified Access is Cisco’s strategy to unify wired, wireless and virtual private networks into a single, highly secure network infrastructure based on one policy source and one management solution for the entire campus network.

The new Unified Access products deliver consistent simplicity and intelligence across the entire network, enabling IT organisations to shift the focus away from time-consuming operational activities to those that enable innovative smart /business processes, it explained.

It also includes features such as software-defined networking open interfaces, which offer greater investment protection through support of new features in the future. Previously, wireless networks have been built as overlays to the wired network, resulting in two logical networks to manage, and in increased complexity.

These problems have been increased as users have brought multiple devices onto the network, leading to difficulty within IT of implementing common access policies, enabling BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), securing the network and providing an uncompromised experience.