Excellent Gateway Guardian!

My primary use of Cisco AnyConnect is to ensure I have a secure gateway for accessing my company's systems when I am working or traveling out of town. Since I've worked remotely since March of 2020, Cisco AnyConnect has been key to maintaining security for my laptop. It also is a requirement of my company for accessing specific platforms, e.g., accounting, process workflows, and so on.

Speaking for myself and my department, Cisco AnyConnect has been instrumental in preventing any breaches of our department's security and has been very easy to use. We have definitely benefited from having our gateway protected from intrusion. I have also heard no complaints from other users in my department or in other departments about connecting to it or using it.

We are privately held, and keep our cards close to the vest with any accounting, sales or other information. Preventing intrusion by bad actors keeps the company's assets safe and safeguarded. Since we are in a competitive industry in domestic and global markets, it is very vital to maintain our security so that pricing and bids are held closely and not revealed outside the company and our customers.

I wasn't part of the selection process; I'm very happy with how it was implemented. It was seamlessly integrated into our routine, and to my daily routine, without a lot of extra steps necessary.

Ultimately, I suspect it came down to ease of use and dependability across our (numerous) users and systems. I'm basing this upon the overall results I'm seeing and the lack of complaints from others in my organization. Having it work with the rest of our platforms and do so without interfering with the idiosyncrasies of each one of them taken individually and as a group would have been important in making the selection.

I'm not an expert with AI, but it will be both a good and a bad thing for companies and individuals. Good in that there is a second set of eyes, so to speak, watching the user and the company, but bad in that hostile groups can use the new AI structure to potentially bypass new and existing security frameworks.

Our IT department is constantly running tests on users to see what will get someone to click on the wrong link or open a hostile text or e-mail. This gives them some predictors in determining what is effective in breaching and allows them to train personnel to watch closely and not respond or open a risky file without looking at it closely.

I've been working offsite at home since March 18th, 2020. Implementation of the hybrid work solution was very quick and easy. The importance of this was due to the Covid-19 pandemic, where we, as a company, needed to remain both active and connected to help our customers continue to operate. While the implementation is complete, and has been for some time, using Cisco AnyConnect was key to successfully transitioning to remote work.

The primary concern was remaining in contact with other employees and all of our various platforms, in a secure environment. AnyConnect makes it very simple to connect swiftly and securely to our various software platforms, e.g., our ERP and Accounting platforms, as well as unified notes, so that if we're not in the same location we can still work efficiently to support our logistics and our customers.

Overall, the transition was fairly easy going from an office environment to a home or other remote environment. The most notable effects of this were keeping our software working quickly and efficiently, while maintaining the secure aspects of our platforms. The fact that we can connect quickly and almost intuitively, with a minimum of delays or downtime has been very important in keeping everyone connected and available at need, has made the transition very successful.

Since our records are mostly electronic, there was very little issue with not being in the office, as we didn't have to access physical records, e.g., files and paperwork. Copying and sending information internally or to our customers is much easier than running to a copy machine, then scanning materials to send to our customers at their need. Our ability to connect reliably to our network through Cisco AnyConnect has enhanced our ability to communicate and to provide what our customers and internal clients need without issue.

I have not used other hybrid network solutions.

It is vital. Simply put, there are bad actors out there who will dig repeatedly until they are able to penetrate a system. A resilient platform prevents that digging, or mitigates the effects when and if someone breaches that platform or burrows into the servers or other aspects of a company's operations. Cisco AnyConnect is an excellent VPN solution, and I have not to date experienced any cyber penetration when working on the internet.

At our company, we have training seminars that are mandatory for all people who use our computers over a network. In addition, our IT department sends out fake phishing emails at irregular intervals to see how we respond to them. If anyone clicks where they shouldn't, they get a quick mini-course assigned to them to complete. This is part of a management initiative to keep our systems secure and ensure everyone stays aware of cyber threats.

I would include more end-users to evaluate the software. I have heard no complaints from my co-workers about Cisco AnyConnect, and I haven't had any issues myself. If there were a move to evaluate and possibly replace Cisco AnyConnect, I would caution the company strongly against it, because of ease of use and simplicity.

My training consisted of simply being told what to do to log into the system. It was a relief, in the middle of a very complex onboarding process, not to have yet another software that I would have to spend time mastering. With a minimal amount of training, I was able to use AnyConnect easily and without hiccups.