Consulting on the Development of Cisco’s Panoptica CNAPP Product

The Challenge

Cisco was in the process of developing their in-house Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP), named Panoptica. During the development phase, Cisco aimed to ensure that the platform would meet the critical needs of CISOs and security teams in large enterprises. They later acquired a smaller competitor and sought to integrate both products to create a comprehensive solution. Cisco needed insights into how security leaders prefer information to be visualized, reported, and the scope of security coverage required to effectively protect cloud-native environments.

The Solution

As a consultant, I provided strategic insights into how Panoptica could be optimized for enterprise security teams:

• Visualization & Reporting: I advised on how CISOs and security teams typically consume data, focusing on clear and actionable reporting that helps drive executive decision-making. This included dashboard designs that prioritized key risk indicators (KRIs) and threat landscapes that could be quickly understood by both technical teams and executive leadership.
• Scope of Security Coverage: I guided Cisco on the essential security features that Panoptica should offer, including visibility into cloud-native workloads, container security, and vulnerability management across multi-cloud environments. This helped ensure the platform would provide comprehensive security for modern cloud infrastructure.
• Integration Strategy: With the acquisition of the smaller competitor, I consulted on the integration of their product with Panoptica, ensuring that the combined offering provided robust and seamless coverage for cloud-native applications.

The Result

• Enhanced User-Centric Design: My recommendations influenced the design of Panoptica’s reporting features, making the platform more aligned with the needs of security leaders and improving the accessibility of security metrics.
• Comprehensive Security Coverage: By shaping the scope of security features, I ensured that Panoptica was equipped to protect enterprise cloud environments with the depth and breadth of security capabilities required in today’s market.
• Successful Product Integration: The integration of the acquired product with Panoptica created a unified CNAPP solution, allowing Cisco to offer a more competitive and comprehensive product to its customers.