Avatar

Cisco and Intel have a long history of collaboration and co-development. In fact, our partnership spans more than a decade.  As Cisco’s wireless CTO, my team’s work with Intel is focused on all things wireless. User experience is foremost in mind, so we jointly work hard to optimize and simplify device connectivity, roaming and security. This means users get uninterrupted, fast, and reliable service and IT departments can easily manage, operate, and troubleshoot some of the largest networks in the world.  Our partnership extends across industries and technologies from the carpeted enterprise to industrial IoT, and we lead with the latest innovations, like Wireless TSN, Wi-Fi 6/6E and more.

Today, I’m excited to announce our latest collaboration, Intel Connectivity Analytics. This new feature enables enterprise IT to proactively troubleshoot and optimize both the network and the user experience via advanced device visibility. Intel Connectivity Analytics is implemented through real-time client-network information exchange between Intel-based PCs deployed with Wi-Fi 6/6E chipsets and the latest Cisco Wi-Fi access solutions.

Making wireless easy through advanced visibility

All current Cisco platforms can provide network assurance analytics at every hop across the network communication path. These analytics give IT teams end-to-end visibility into network performance, potential bottlenecks, and the ability to troubleshoot any issues.

Now with Intel Connectivity Analytics, we’ve extended analytics to the client itself. The feature provides specifics about the client make and model, driver version, connection path, and lots more, giving IT teams unprecedented visibility from both the network and the clients’ perspective.

The benefit is the ability to quickly correlate device details to solve wireless driver and potential client connection issues at scale.  This results in lower mean time to identification of issues with faster root cause isolation to eliminate long drawn-out troubleshooting steps.

Considering its ability to see client-side analytics, Intel Connectivity Analytics is especially powerful for today’s hybrid work environments where employee devices have extended periods away from corporate networks. The feature enables IT teams to quickly identify and solve connectivity issues proactively, and ensure productivity remains virtually uninterrupted.

Take advantage of Intel Connectivity Analytics, today

As mentioned above, the advanced visibility provided by Intel Connectivity Analytics simplifies troubleshooting and gives wireless teams the ability to make more informed decisions that deliver better wireless experiences.

To ensure all Cisco customers can take advantage of this solution, we developed Intel Connectivity Analytics to work across the complete line of Cisco Catalyst 9800 series wireless controllers, including the Embedded Wireless Controller, and the full range of Meraki cloud-managed access points.

The feature is accessed in your Catalyst 9800 series wireless controller menu (version 17.6 and higher) and Meraki Dashboard.

Stay tuned for additional updates about the Cisco and Intel partnership and don’t forget to check out our podcast on Intel Connectivity Analytics where I chat with Eric McLaughlin, VP of Client Computing at Intel about this capability, and what’s next.

Check out the Intel Connectivity Analytics FAQ

 

Check out our Cisco Networking video channel

Subscribe to the Networking blog



Authors

Matt MacPherson

Chief Technology Officer, Wireless

Engineering - Innovation Labs