Like most industries, security has gone through many different evolutions. Over the past 20 years, the industry has been largely product focused, with customers deploying point products across the network in an effort to "cover" all security gaps. Over time and with the arrival of mobile, social and cloud, customers now recognize that having all the security products in the world is not going to close all the gaps. Today's customers are looking for fully integrated solutions -a combination of services, products and people.

This is where Cisco delivers. We are elevating our security solutions efforts with the creation of aServices Security Practice, led by security industry veteranBryan Palma, who comes to Cisco with an extensive background in both services and security. Reporting to Edzard Overbeek, Senior Vice President of Cisco Services, Bryan's team will build three new service categories for our customers:Consultation;Product Implementation and Support; andManaged Servicesfor enterprises and governments.

Cisco's integrated security strategy is to defend, discover and remediate the most critical threats. With world-class products, research teams, global intelligence, advanced threat protection -and nowservices-our customers will benefit from continuous security in more places across the infrastructure.

Edzard and I are pleased to welcome Bryan to the team because our goal is to help customers solve their toughest business challenges based on an integrated security architecture. With Bryan's leadership and deep industry expertise, we will drive further innovation in our security solutions portfolio with comprehensive services that help protect the critical data information and intellectual property that travels on our customers' infrastructure.

Our goal at Cisco is to be the number one security partner for our customers.  In today's increasingly intense security environment, we need a combination of products and services to help our customers effectively tackle their most difficult security issues. I look forward to working with Bryan and his team to deliver security solutions that will support the growth and evolution of our customers' businesses.

Bryan Palma's Extensive Background in Security

He most recently served as Vice President of Cyber and Security Solutions at Boeing, where he delivered critical infrastructure protection, network surveillance, data analytics, and cyber simulation solutions to federal, commercial, and international customers. Prior to that, he was VP of Service Delivery Operations for HP and was the first Chief Information Security Officer at PepsiCo.

Bryan has a unique skillset that combines expertise working for governments and corporations. As a special agent with the United States Secret Service, he helped pioneer efforts to combat cybercrime. Having been responsible for internal security and for providing security services to governments and other customers, Bryan is exclusively qualified to help Cisco build a security services practice for our customers.