Company: Cisco Systems, San Jose, CA
Company Description: Cisco is the worldwide leader in IT, helping companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. At Cisco, an integral part of our DNA is creating long-lasting partnerships with customers, employees, investors and ecosystem partners, helping them succeed in transforming how people connect, communicate and collaborate.
Nomination Category: Product & Service Categories - Business Technology Solutions
Nomination Sub Category: Platform as a Service
 Nomination Title: Cisco Cloud Application Environment (CAE)
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the the nominated new or new-version product or service, OR written answers to the questions for this category? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this first question: If this is a brand-new product, state the date on which it was released. If this is a new version of an existing product, state the date on which the update was released:
New version, updated 2022
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this second question: Describe the features, functions, and benefits of the nominated product or service (up to 350 words):
Total 306 words used.
The Cloud Application Environment (CAE) is Cisco’s leading Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering, leveraging Kubernetes to create an environment that fosters agility, efficiency, and security for application development. Engineered at scale with 24 fully-automated, interconnected clusters hosted on-premise with OpenStack, CAE offers an unparalleled level of control and customizability.
The primary features of CAE revolve around automation and strict adherence to code-based operations, eliminating human error and promoting consistent, reliable builds. This is achieved utilizing a Jenkins pipeline for automated Day 1 cluster builds and leveraging GitOps for Day 2 configurations and management. These automated processes ensure that changes only occur through a traceable, controlled process.
The CAE has implemented strict, layered security measures, including Kubernetes RBAC, network policies, and multi-tenant network CNI for rigorous isolation and boundaries, ensuring that services remain separate and secure. In addition, the platform's security processes include active scanning of all images used, with proactive alerts and rejections for images with high vulnerability scores.
From a client perspective, the CAE offers extensive features such as Certificate as a Service, SSO as a Service, DNS as a Service, Load Balancer as a Service, Global Server Load Balancer as a Service, Logging as a Service, and Metrics as a Service. These turnkey solutions empower clients to focus solely on application development, relieving them of infrastructure management tasks.
Benefits of the CAE platform are manifold, from significant cost savings due to on-premise operations and full automation, to improved efficiency by handling all the “plumbing.” High availability is a paramount concern, and every aspect of the infrastructure, including servers spread across different availability zones and clusters spanning multiple data centers, is designed for resilience.
By adopting CAE, organizations not only simplify their application development lifecycle but also enhance their operational efficiency and security, making it an ideal choice for a modern PaaS solution.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this third question: Outline the market performance, critical reception, and customer satisfaction with the product or service to date. State monetary or unit sales figures to date, if possible, and how they compare to expectations or past performance. Provide links to laudatory product or service reviews. Include some customer testimonials, if applicable (up to 350 words):
Total 253 words used.
The CAE platform has over 1,000 clients onboarded and is used by all business units within Cisco, demonstrating not only significant user adoption but also widespread acceptance across diverse operational requirements. The platform's flexibility in hosting both internal and Internet-facing applications testifies to its versatile and robust architecture.
Financially, the on-premise nature of the CAE platform translates into massive cost savings for Cisco. It eschews the need for spending millions of dollars on public cloud services without compromising operational ease. A lean, yet highly-skilled team of engineers can effectively manage this extensive platform, which further optimizes operational cost-efficiency.
Customers laud the CAE platform for its comprehensive service offerings, enabling them to focus solely on application development. The platform eliminates common concerns such as SSO, certificates, load balancing, high availability, security, and container registries by providing these as value-added services. In addition, it guarantees an impressive uptime of 99.999%, with negligible P2, P1 incidents extending beyond a few hours. The promise of this level of reliability significantly enhances customer satisfaction.
The CAE platform's recognition extends beyond Cisco. Its architectural ingenuity, scalability, security, and commitment to 100% automation have earned it considerable accolades in executive briefings with Cisco clients. The platform's features and capabilities were also showcased at several Red Hat Summits, receiving widespread acclaim.
The CAE platform demonstrated rapid adoption, glowing customer feedback, and impressive market performance. Its focus on eliminating operational inefficiencies, promoting high availability, and its cost-effectiveness make it a market leader, redefining Platform-as-a-Service norms. See our attachments for detail.
- You have the option to answer this final question: Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 65 words used.
Cisco Blog: Cloud Application Environment (Initial Release)
Attached is a document ( CAE Platform View). This document showcase size of the platform. It includes a number of nodes, clusters, projects, and applications running into this platform.
Also attached is a slide deck that we used to present this platform at the Redhat conference to showcase this large-scale platform build & automation to RH customers.
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