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Chambers Outlines Next Step Toward Self-Defending Network

Cisco Systems President and CEO John Chambers sees the future of networking: self-defense.

In a keynote speech at the RSA Conference in San Franicsco Wednesday, Chambers outlined some of the San Jose, Calif.-based networking vendor's latest products in its Self-Defending Network strategy.

"Whatever you do has to be self-defending and cannot require human intervention," Chambers said. "It has to be one that focuses as much on process change as it does on IT change, and it has to anticipate where the IT industry is going three or five years down the road."

Less than 24 hours after Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and Symantec CEO John Thompson traded barbs on the same stage, Chambers took a more peaceful stance, delivering what Cisco sources said was his first product speech at a general-interest security event.

Cisco's new Self-Defending Network products, which span the gamut from desktop-level to switch-level security, share a common framework called Adaptive Threat Defense, which simplifies architectural designs and enables tighter control of Cisco security devices.

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