Cisco Supports Customers with Expansion of Free Security Offerings

Social distancing and self-isolating are key aspects of the attempts to flatten the curve; however, these measures are having increasingly negative impacts on businesses both locally and globally. Empower your employees that don't have to be in the office or onsite to work remotely from home.

Helping employees, customers and partners in a time of need are one of Cisco’s core values. Right now, COVID-19 is forcing many people around the world to work remotely. This is putting a sudden strain on both IT and security teams who are being tasked with providing support for an unprecedented number of offsite workers and their devices.

"Coronavirus has been a huge topic of conversation, both for us internally and for our customers,"

Recently, Cisco Webex expanded its free offerings to allow employees to stay connected to their teams and continue their business operations. In response to customers asking us for guidance, today, Cisco is broadening this offer to include security for remote employees by providing extended free licenses and expanded usage counts at no extra charge for three of our key security technologies that are designed to protect remote workers anywhere, anytime and on any device.

Gee Rittenhouse, senior vice president, and general manager of security for Cisco said in a blog post that these offers will remain in effect July 1. "Supporting our customers and partners remains a top priority, and we hope these proactive steps help companies manage the business impact and keep employees safe during this evolving situation," Rittenhouse said.

Cisco has also expanded the free licenses to the following products.

• Cisco Umbrella protects users from malicious Internet destinations whether they are on or off the network. Because it is delivered from the cloud, Umbrella makes it easy to protect users everywhere in minutes. With this offer, existing customers can exceed their user limit to support an increase in remote workers, and new customers can access a free license. To have the initial 14-day period extended to 90 days, please contact the Cisco sales team.
• Duo Security enables organizations to verify users’ identities and establish device trust before granting access to applications. By employing a zero-trust model, it decreases the attack surface and reduces risk. With this offer, existing customers can exceed their user limit to support an increase in remote workers, and new customers can access a free license.
• Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client empowers employees to work from anywhere on company laptops or personal mobile devices. It also provides the visibility and control security teams need to identify who and which devices are accessing their infrastructure. Existing AnyConnect customers can exceed their user limit to support an increase in remote workers, and new customers can access a free license. To get started, existing and new customers should talk with a Cisco representative or partner to get the requested usage counts. For more information on implementation, please view the online documentation.

These offers will be available from now until July 1, 2020. Supporting our customers and partners remains a top priority, and we hope these proactive steps help companies manage the business impact and keep employees safe during this evolving situation.

To learn how Cisco and NiSystems can help you with business continuity planning during the COVID-19 pandemic, please Request a Call Back to allow your employees to work from home.

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Tags: #RemoteWork #stayconnected #WorkFromHome AnyConnect Cisco AnyConnect Mobility Solution Cisco Security Cisco Umbrella coronavirus COVID-19 Duo Featured Helping our communities mobile worker remote worker Stay Connected WFH Work from anywhere