Cisco has launched the ONE Software suite amid a major update to its managed cloud portfolio, in moves that signal an increased focus in the software market.
ONE is made up of a range of applications, featuring an emphasis on software development, IT automation and flexible consumption, including a number of open application programming interfaces (APIs).
Speaking at Cisco Live in Milan, Gordon Thomson, MD of enterprise networking at Cisco EMEAR, said: "The blueprint of how IT organisations have been run successfully over the last 20 years isn’t going to be the blueprint that our customers use for the next five or ten years.
"Something fundamentally has to change to enable our customers to operate quickly and in an agile way as the world changes."
Alongside ONE, the company has launched ONE Enterprise Cloud, a hybrid cloud service that Cisco claims will incorporate the privacy of private cloud with automation and user self-service normally associated with public cloud.
It has also updated its managed IT service Meraki, which will be expanded cross the entire IT infrastructure and offered to larger companies, following earlier rollouts to small and mediums enterprises (SMEs).
"If we can reduce complexity in the IT environment we believe it improves operational efficiencies and makes it more effective," Thompson added. "We believe this reduces costs and lets organisations invest in more innovation."
