Networking king Cisco plans to deliver an air-gapped, cloud-based collaboration system for companies involved in US national security and defence work.
Beginning in 2024, the new Webex system — Air-Gapped Trusted Cloud — will provide an added layer of security for teams collaborating through the Webex App, Cisco said.
An air gap isolates a computer or network and preventing it from establishing an external connection. An air-gapped computer cannot connect to the internet or any other communications networks to have complete security with the information that resides within it.
Currently, the US government has an established approach to security assessment and authorisation for cloud products and services for national security and defence. This includes air-gapped cloud deployments, which are isolated from public networks and operated on US soil by local staff with specific security clearances to handle sensitive data.
Cisco claims the new Webex tools will meet the security standards required by US agencies involved in national security and defense without compromising user experience.
The company also said that all fully compliant collaboration systems for government will take into account local regulations, compliance requirements and security controls for individual government communities.
This product is built specifically for companies working on national security and defence projects to address their specific network and data handling requirements and therefore will not be available to customers outside this sector, Patel said, adding that defence contractors can choose to use it when working on government contracts that require the level of security provided by the product.
“While this announcement is specific to national security and defense, we’ll continue to innovate in developing fully compliant, customised collaboration solutions across all facets of government” a blog post announcing the news said.
