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Cisco Live EMEA: Cisco AgenticOps Bridging the Capability Overhang with Trusted, Multi-Domain Automation
Cisco has expanded its AgenticOps framework across networking, security, and observability to provide a unified, agent-first operating model for modern, fragmented IT environments.
02/10/2026
Key Highlights
- Cisco AgenticOps prioritizes closed-loop automation, allowing AI agents to independently execute complex workflows like switch migrations and policy updates within established safety guardrails.
- By unifying real-time data from Splunk, ThousandEyes, and Nexus One, Cisco provides agents with the cross-domain context needed to correlate localized network issues with broader security threats or ISP failures.
- The system is powered by the Deep Network Model, a specialized LLM trained on 40 years of Cisco’s proprietary intelligence and CCIE-level logic to provide precise, multi-step troubleshooting and reasoning.
- These new capabilities extend from data centers and service providers to air-gapped industrial sites, offering intelligent execution and one-click remediations starting in February 2026.
- To maintain its competitive edge, Cisco is moving toward higher levels of autonomy and Sovereign AgenticOps, which enables localized, edge-first AI processing to meet global demands for data privacy and security.
The News
Cisco announced new AgenticOps innovations for the AI era at Cisco Live EMEA 2026. First launched last year, AgenticOps is an agent-first IT operating model for autonomous action with built-in oversight. New capabilities unveiled across networking, security, and observability can further transform how IT teams operate at scale. For more information, read the Cisco press release.
Analyst Take
Cisco has unveiled significant advancements to its AgenticOps framework, an agent-first IT operating model designed to transition organizations toward autonomous action. This model integrates automated execution with essential human oversight. The latest updates expand these capabilities across Cisco’s core pillars, networking, security, and observability, aiming to modernize how IT departments manage large-scale infrastructure in an increasingly AI-driven landscape.
We see that modern IT environments have become more fragmented and volatile, especially in the AI era, putting immense pressure on teams to maintain security and uptime. Cisco’s AgenticOps addresses these burgeoning requirements by providing a structured foundation that handles complex operational tasks. The model is designed to deliver intelligent, automated execution without sacrificing the governance, accuracy, or reliability that enterprise organizations depend on.
Building on its initial launch, which focused on managing network complexity through tools like Agentic Workflows and AI Canvas, Cisco is now scaling this technology. By using Deep Network Models and unified data, the platform helps teams resolve issues faster and automate workflows securely. These agent-driven operations are now being deployed across a diverse range of environments, including data centers, service providers, on-premises facilities, and even air-gapped industrial sites.
The power of AgenticOps stems from its vast system-wide awareness, fueled by telemetry from Cisco’s extensive portfolio, including Splunk, Nexus One, and ThousandEyes. By analyzing real-time data from both internal and external networks, the system achieves a level of context-aware execution that can handle real-world scale. This creates a trusted, closed-loop system where routine daily operations are shifted from humans to machines, enabling IT staff to focus on high-level strategy while maintaining ultimate control over the results.
From our perspective, Cisco’s AgenticOps delivers competitive advantages over networking rivals such as HPE Juniper, and Arista by centering its strategy on cross-domain data integration, specialized AI reasoning, and high-stakes autonomous execution. Cisco leverages an unparalleled telemetry pool by unifying insights from Splunk, ThousandEyes, and Secure Firewall, ensuring that Cisco’s agents can troubleshoot across the entire digital ecosystem.
This combination of deep networking expertise with the deep capabilities in the Observability space with Splunk is compelling and can’t be overstated. This enables Cisco to correlate a localized network bottleneck with broader security breaches or external ISP failures, offering comprehensive intelligence and holistic resolutions that rivals are unable to counter and deliver.
The foundation of this edge is the Deep Network Model, a specialized large language model built on four decades of Cisco’s proprietary intelligence, including CCIE-level logic and millions of technical support cases. Specifically, Cisco’s agents possess the reasoning capabilities required for multi-step troubleshooting. This sophisticated logic applies across varied environments, from public clouds to air-gapped industrial sites, providing a level of diagnostic precision that is fine-tuned for the realities of complex enterprise architectures.
Moreover, Cisco moves beyond the predictive insights offered by platforms like Arista’s CloudVision or Juniper’s Marvis by prioritizing closed-loop autonomous execution. Instead of merely alerting human operators to a problem, AgenticOps is designed to carry out complex workflows, such as switch migrations or network access control updates, independently within established guardrails. This agent-first philosophy shifts the operational burden from humans to machines more aggressively than rival systems, which typically still require manual intervention to bridge the gap between an AI discovery and the final implementation of a fix.
What Was Announced: Cisco AgenticOps Driving Intelligent Execution and Autonomous Scale Across the Modern Enterprise
Cisco is introducing a comprehensive suite of tools and platform enhancements designed to bring intelligent execution to networking, security, and observability. For campus, branch, and industrial environments, the new AgenticOps capabilities focus on continuous optimization and rapid troubleshooting. By leveraging millions of live signals, the platform provides real-time experience metrics and automated wireless or WAN adjustments to ensure user confidence.
Additionally, enhanced AI-powered packet analysis and ambient monitoring accelerate root-cause diagnosis, while new natural language tools allow teams to create production-ready workflows that automate network changes with built-in validation. These capabilities, launching in February 2026, extend across the Catalyst Center and even into air-gapped industrial sites, ensuring high-performance operations in the most complex hybrid environments.
The expansion of AgenticOps also reaches deep into the data center and service provider sectors to drive more proactive business outcomes. In the data center, Nexus One now uses intelligent event correlation to offer prescriptive recommendations for both traditional and AI workloads, significantly optimizing performance. Simultaneously, Cisco is accelerating the shift toward autonomous networking for service providers through Crosswork AI, which is currently in Beta. This tool is specifically designed to identify and resolve complex, multi-vendor issues with unprecedented speed and accuracy.
In the realm of security and observability, Cisco is transforming firewall management and AI application monitoring. Through Cisco Security Cloud Control, new agentic capabilities provide proactive policy recommendations and one-click remediation for performance issues like elephant flows, while also ensuring continuous PCI-DSS compliance.
These security updates are targeted for general availability in May 2026. To round out the ecosystem, Splunk Observability Cloud now features AI Agent Monitoring, giving organizations the ability to track the cost and quality of LLM applications. By integrating with Cisco AI Defense, this solution helps mitigate modern AI risks such as hallucinations and data leakage, providing a trusted foundation for agentic application deployment.
We see Cisco’s strategy as directly addressing the primary challenge facing modern enterprises: the need to scale operations without exponentially increasing human headcount or operational risk. By embedding AgenticOps across the entire infrastructure, from air-gapped industrial sites to complex cloud environments, Cisco meets the urgent demand for intelligent execution that doesn't sacrifice reliability. Enterprises need to scale operations without exponentially increasing human headcount or operational risk. By embedding AgenticOps across the entire infrastructure, from air-gapped industrial sites to complex cloud environments, Cisco meets the urgent demand for intelligent execution that doesn't sacrifice reliability.
Customers are no longer looking for mere alerts; they require the closed-loop automation and prescriptive recommendations found in Nexus One and Security Cloud Control to manage the sheer volume of data generated in the AI era. This alignment with customer needs for faster troubleshooting and continuous compliance ensures that Cisco remains a vital partner in maintaining business continuity amidst growing complexity.
Looking Ahead
We believe the industry is pivoting toward agentic IT, and success hinges on execution and trust. Cisco’s AgenticOps stands out by anchoring AI in deep operational experience and trustworthy guardrails. By balancing automation with human oversight, Cisco offers the most confident path for enterprises to manage increasing complexity at scale.
To improve the competitiveness of its AgenticOps proposition, Cisco should focus on bridging the capability overhang, the gap between the advanced potential of AI agents and the speed at which enterprises actually deploy them. The emphasis on unifying networking, security, and observability is a strong start, and Cisco can gain further influence by moving toward Level 4 and 5 Autonomy, where agents move from guided remediation to proactive optimization, providing low-risk reversible changes without requiring manual clicks.
By integrating its Deep Network Model more with the Cisco 360 Partner Program, Cisco can empower a global network of specialized partners to build custom agentic workflows for vertical-specific needs, such as air-gapped industrial manufacturing or highly regulated financial services, turning the trust deficit into a competitive barrier for less experienced rivals.
Moreover, Cisco can solidify its lead by pioneering Sovereign AgenticOps to address the rising global demand for localized AI control and data privacy. As 2026 sees a shift toward sovereign AI infrastructure, Cisco should offer edge-first agentic models that process and execute decisions locally on Nexus or Catalyst hardware, ensuring that sensitive operational data never leaves the premises.
This approach, coupled with the integration of Spatial Intelligence for physical environments such as smart warehouses or industrial campuses, would extend Cisco’s influence beyond traditional software management and into the physical world. By positioning AgenticOps not just as a tool for IT efficiency, but as a secure, plug-and-play foundation for the broader industrial AI era, Cisco can further augment its role as the industry benchmark.
The only area we need to see more of is continued execution of the integration with ThousandEyes and the wider Splunk portfolio in the same way the company has integrated AppDynamics into Splunk Observability Cloud. HyperFRAME expects to see Jeetu Patel, Cisco’s CPO focus his time on driving further integration over the coming months as the benefits of a tighter integration will drive a more competitive posture for the company. The networking persona and SRE persona require different user experiences, but the product integration below the UI level needs to be closer and delivered faster, in our opinion.
Ron Westfall | VP and Practice Leader for Infrastructure and Networking
Ron Westfall is a prominent analyst figure in technology and business transformation. Recognized as a Top 20 Analyst by AR Insights and a Tech Target contributor, his insights are featured in major media such as CNBC, Schwab Network, and NMG Media.
His expertise covers transformative fields such as Hybrid Cloud, AI Networking, Security Infrastructure, Edge Cloud Computing, Wireline/Wireless Connectivity, and 5G-IoT. Ron bridges the gap between C-suite strategic goals and the practical needs of end users and partners, driving technology ROI for leading organizations.
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Steven Dickens | CEO HyperFRAME Research
Regarded as a luminary at the intersection of technology and business transformation, Steven Dickens is the CEO and Principal Analyst at HyperFRAME Research.
Ranked consistently among the Top 10 Analysts by AR Insights and a contributor to Forbes, Steven's expert perspectives are sought after by tier one media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and CNBC, and he is a regular on TV networks including the Schwab Network and Bloomberg.