Cisco has unveiled what it's calling "intent-based networking solutions" which, it claims, are the culmination of its vision to create "an intuitive system that anticipates actions, stops security threats in their tracks, and continues to evolve and learn. It will help businesses to unlock new opportunities and solve previously unsolvable challenges in an era of increasing connectivity and distributed technology." Cisco's pitch is that companies are currently managing their networks through traditional IT processes that are not now sustainable as the network grows and gets more complex - there are just too many buttons to push and adjustments to be made, so the whole construction is becoming unmanageable, it claims. So in response Cisco's says it's harnessed the concept of'intent networking' to create an "intuitive system that uses AI and machine learning to constantly learn, adapt, automate and protect, to optimize network operations and defend against today's evolving threat landscape." The broad idea of an'intent model' is easy enough to understand and one of its most robust originators and promoters has been Tom Nolle of CIMI Research who, as I thought he might, has popped up today with a timely blog post on the Cisco launch.

The year 2016 was one dominated by disruption -- from society to politics, the economy to technology -- in India, and around the world. The year 2017 is shaping up to be one where some of the dust of disruption begins to settle, and we find a new way forward. As the consequences of a customer-led and digital-centric market start to take shape, businesses in particular have had to come to grips with the stark reality that slow, calculated change won't cut it in this new environment. In the race to disrupt or be disrupted, and as organisations face fierce competition both at home and abroad, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) are seeping into the mainstream enterprise. While self-driving cars and virtual assistants continue to dominate headlines and capture the imagination of consumers, enterprises in India are quietly grappling with how they too can effectively leverage AI as they seek the holy grail of deeper contextual insights.