New Training: Explain SD-Access Services

In this 9-video skill, CBT Nuggets trainer Jeff Kish covers the services and benefits SD-Access solutions provide, such as network automation, analytics, assurance, encrypted traffic analytics (ETA), and more. Watch this new Cisco training.

Learn Cisco networking with one of these courses:

• Cisco CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure

• Cisco CCIE Enterprise Wireless

• Cisco CCNP Enterprise Core

This training includes:

• 9 videos

• 46 minutes of training

You’ll learn these topics in this skill:

• Intro to SD-Access

• Network Automation

• Network Analytics

• Network Assurance

• Network Security

• Encrypted Traffic Analytics

• Anycast Gateways

• Network Programmability

• Review and Quiz

How to Achieve Granular User-Level Access Control On Your Network

Software-defined access is part of the software-defined network paradigm. It's a way for systems administrators to easily control things like an ACL through automation, but SD access can be so much more powerful than that.

For example, Cisco has built software-defined access mechanisms into the DNA of its networking products. With Cisco's Identity Service Engine, network admins can pull information in from Windows Active Directory and inject that data straight into the networking environment.

That means network admins can control access for users via policy automatically. How can this reduce the workload for systems administrators, though? Let's say that an engineering team is developing a product that needs direct access to the internet without firewall restrictions. Network admins can define a policy for that role, assign it to resources for that product, and let their automation mechanisms configure the network appropriately. In this scenario, the network admin didn't need to manually edit an ACL, define any routes, or perform any other configurations by hand.

Software-defined access can be a powerful tool, but there are a lot of different tools available for SD access to systems administrators. Network admins will need to understand how these tools work, what they offer, and the differences between them to choose the right automation platform for their business.