5 recent Cisco updates you need to know about
Easier NetOps, AI routing, and big evolutions… we break down the most relevant key take-aways from Cisco Live EMEA 2026
Cisco is no stranger to unveiling new products on the grand stage – and this year’s Cisco Live was no exception. In fact, the tech giant’s annual EMEA event has created an almost cult-like following, giving attendees a much-desired peak under the incubation bonnet.
This glimpse is massively important for Cisco tech users. These updates usually outline future product roadmaps making it easier to plot your digital strategy and investments. As well as uncover new benefits for your operations.
However, there’s a lot to go through and not everything is relevant. So, we’ve asked our techies here at Block to distil the details down to the most important updates. (Although if you’d like a more extensive look, do check out our full key takeaways ebook).
Here’s what you really need to know.
1. Improvements are coming for NetOps and tech domain integrations
“Aside from the new hardware, the big announcements for me were the Cisco Nexus One and Cisco Cloud Control platforms,” says Adam Husband, Enterprise Networks Architect at Block.
“These are going to make a huge improvement to operational management and integrating technology domains.
“The bottom line is, it’s going to become easier to manage complex networks and to take advantage of Agentic AI across all Cisco products.”
“Cisco Nexus One looks like a big step on operational management of the data centre designs,” agrees James Galliers-Parker, Enterprise Networks Technical Success Specialist at Block.
“There’s a big move towards Agentic AI built-in to all the individual management platforms, with Canvas and other overarching platforms. The having the ability to integrate with them all to create a holistic view.”
2. AP design will be king when it comes to Wi-Fi 7 deployments
“With the ever increasing saturation of wireless endpoints in the RF airspace, focus should be on how to optimise airtime efficiency,” says Jamie Jones, Enterprise Networks Principal Consultant at Block.
“A solid, future-proof, AP design is paramount as the foundation to deploy the next generation of wireless infrastructure and best leverage the new functionality.
“This will provide ever-increasing returns as Wi-Fi 7 clients build in number as well as being ready for leveraging any future use cases that may become relevant/critical to customer operations.”
3. AI Routing is coming to Webex Contact Center
“Webex Contact Center is introducing AI Routing. This is where the platform makes informed decisions based on historic success rates to route contacts to the best person for that kind of contact,” says Rich Booth, Collaboration Technical Success Specialist at Block.
“It also features Shadow Mode which gives you an insight into how it would’ve handled each contact before turning it on (like peeping over the fence).
“The output provides ‘before and after stats’ before enabling it.”
4. Get ready for more code, Ansible, and Terraform
“The shift at Cisco Live has become impossible to ignore: the traditional CLI-focused engineer is being nudged – if not pushed – toward a future defined by code,” says Peter Pazik, Enterprise Networks Architect at Block.
“In the Data Centre track specifically, this evolution is glaringly obvious; nearly every deep-dive architectural session now comes paired with a “shadow” session dedicated to achieving those same results through automation.
“Cisco has effectively crowned Ansible and Terraform as the dual engines of this transformation, positioning them as the standard for consistent, repeatable deployments across Nexus and ACI fabrics.”
5. New high-bandwidth silicon and predictive analytics for AI workloads
“Beyond mere configuration management, there is a massive, industry-wide surge toward AI integration,” says Peter.
“While the “how” depends heavily on specific customer use cases, Cisco is aggressive in ensuring their underlying technologies – from high-bandwidth silicon to predictive analytics – are ready to help engineers onboard these complex AI workloads without breaking the network.”
Hungry for more? Discover further updates in our Cisco Live ebook
