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Cisco Unveils Cloud Control, a Unified AI-Enabled Operations Platform at Cisco Live 2026
On a sun‑lit June day in Las Vegas, the Cisco Live conference became the stage for the company’s most ambitious orchestration platform yet. On June 2, Cisco Systems announced Cisco Cloud Control, a single‑login platform that stitches together networking, security, compute, observability, and collaboration management into one operational plane.
Cisco’s President and Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel described Cloud Control as a “command center for agentic AI.” He emphasized that continuous‑operation agents will reshape how environments are scaled, monitored, and defended only if they work within a unified, governed platform. The new system delivers a consolidated view of Cisco infrastructure and services, eliminating the need for separate consoles for networking, security, and collaboration tools.
The announcement highlighted several key features. Cisco AI Canvas offers a collaborative workspace that preserves operational history across handoffs, shifts, and escalations. Cloud Control Studio introduces two development environments: Agent Builder for crafting workflow‑aligned agents and App Builder for building natural‑language‑prompted applications. Both environments connect to more than 50 third‑party platforms via native connectors or the Model Context Protocol, and customer‑built extensions can be published through a Cloud Control Marketplace.
Security sits at the core of the launch. Cisco said it is a charter member of Anthropic’s Project Glasswing and OpenAI’s Daybreak, using frontier AI models to stress‑test its own products before adversaries can. The company highlighted the open‑source Foundry Security Spec as a way to broaden evaluation rigor. At the infrastructure layer, Cisco expanded Live Protect, a runtime protection capability that shields supported platforms from newly discovered vulnerabilities without requiring reboots or maintenance windows. Live Protect is currently available on Cisco Nexus 9000 series switches and will be extended to campus and branch smart switches and secure routers later in 2026.
Cisco also introduced the Hybrid Mesh Firewall, which extends policy enforcement across networks and applications—including Cisco and third‑party firewalls—to reduce blast radius in distributed and hybrid environments. Additional security capabilities announced at the event build on earlier RSAC announcements, adding AI Defense, Zero Trust for agents, and an Agentic SOC model to protect both the agents themselves and the environments they operate in.
Quantum‑safe communications are part of a new roadmap. Cisco said it will enable quantum‑safe capabilities across most of its core portfolio by December 2026, with new campus, branch, and data‑center routers, switches, and firewalls shipping with quantum‑safe secure boot enabled by default. Cisco also introduced two assessment tools: Quantum Ready Assessments, available through Cisco IQ, to identify assets most exposed to harvest‑now‑decrypt‑later risk, and a Quantum Resilience Framework that organizes enterprise preparation into quantum‑safe communications and quantum‑safe products.
To support the operational model, Cisco rolled out Resilient Infrastructure Services through Support and Professional Services. The services framework includes exposure assessment, infrastructure modernization, and defense resiliency stages, providing a structured path for customers to evaluate AI‑era threats and modernize infrastructure. Cisco IQ, now integrated with Cloud Control, serves as an AI‑driven delivery interface for support and professional services, helping customers build long‑term resilience plans using AI insights and Zero Trust principles. Peer Benchmarking in Cisco IQ, which compares anonymized data on last‑day‑of‑support exposure and vulnerability rates, is planned for global availability in July 2026.
Cisco Cloud Control entered Controlled Availability in the United States on June 2, with global availability to follow. The platform’s launch signals Cisco’s intent to unify operational management across domains, embed AI agents with human oversight, and address emerging security and quantum‑resilience challenges in enterprise networks.
Cisco’s President and Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel described Cloud Control as a “command center for agentic AI.” He emphasized that continuous‑operation agents will reshape how environments are scaled, monitored, and defended only if they work within a unified, governed platform. The new system delivers a consolidated view of Cisco infrastructure and services, eliminating the need for separate consoles for networking, security, and collaboration tools.
The announcement highlighted several key features. Cisco AI Canvas offers a collaborative workspace that preserves operational history across handoffs, shifts, and escalations. Cloud Control Studio introduces two development environments: Agent Builder for crafting workflow‑aligned agents and App Builder for building natural‑language‑prompted applications. Both environments connect to more than 50 third‑party platforms via native connectors or the Model Context Protocol, and customer‑built extensions can be published through a Cloud Control Marketplace.
Security sits at the core of the launch. Cisco said it is a charter member of Anthropic’s Project Glasswing and OpenAI’s Daybreak, using frontier AI models to stress‑test its own products before adversaries can. The company highlighted the open‑source Foundry Security Spec as a way to broaden evaluation rigor. At the infrastructure layer, Cisco expanded Live Protect, a runtime protection capability that shields supported platforms from newly discovered vulnerabilities without requiring reboots or maintenance windows. Live Protect is currently available on Cisco Nexus 9000 series switches and will be extended to campus and branch smart switches and secure routers later in 2026.
Cisco also introduced the Hybrid Mesh Firewall, which extends policy enforcement across networks and applications—including Cisco and third‑party firewalls—to reduce blast radius in distributed and hybrid environments. Additional security capabilities announced at the event build on earlier RSAC announcements, adding AI Defense, Zero Trust for agents, and an Agentic SOC model to protect both the agents themselves and the environments they operate in.
Quantum‑safe communications are part of a new roadmap. Cisco said it will enable quantum‑safe capabilities across most of its core portfolio by December 2026, with new campus, branch, and data‑center routers, switches, and firewalls shipping with quantum‑safe secure boot enabled by default. Cisco also introduced two assessment tools: Quantum Ready Assessments, available through Cisco IQ, to identify assets most exposed to harvest‑now‑decrypt‑later risk, and a Quantum Resilience Framework that organizes enterprise preparation into quantum‑safe communications and quantum‑safe products.
To support the operational model, Cisco rolled out Resilient Infrastructure Services through Support and Professional Services. The services framework includes exposure assessment, infrastructure modernization, and defense resiliency stages, providing a structured path for customers to evaluate AI‑era threats and modernize infrastructure. Cisco IQ, now integrated with Cloud Control, serves as an AI‑driven delivery interface for support and professional services, helping customers build long‑term resilience plans using AI insights and Zero Trust principles. Peer Benchmarking in Cisco IQ, which compares anonymized data on last‑day‑of‑support exposure and vulnerability rates, is planned for global availability in July 2026.
Cisco Cloud Control entered Controlled Availability in the United States on June 2, with global availability to follow. The platform’s launch signals Cisco’s intent to unify operational management across domains, embed AI agents with human oversight, and address emerging security and quantum‑resilience challenges in enterprise networks.
