Technology giant Cisco has added more capacity, increased security capabilities and intelligent insights and expanded the global capacity of its Webex platform, which is experiencing unprecedented demand and more than triple its normal volumes.

Secure collaboration technologies that help people get work done from anywhere are top priorities for every CIO, putting pressure on information technology teams to both support the unprecedented shift to remote work while simultaneously planning a return to the office.

New Webex enhancements include enhanced security and compliance capabilities, intelligent and actionable insights to deliver consistent user experiences and integration with Box, as well as the integration of Epic for healthcare, which will give patients choices when engaging with providers key to their wellness.

“There has been no playbook that could have prepared us for 2020,” says Cisco Collaboration VP and GM Javed Khan.

“We thought we knew everything that was possible with our collaboration technology. But what happened in March changed everything. Twelve weeks later, we are on the other side of the most amazing work-from-home experiment the world has ever seen,” he says.

“Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine having to build a product that would need to support the entire business world at the same time instantly.”

The collaboration provider already hosted half the world’s video traffic on its network prior to the lockdowns implemented globally.

By April, Webex was supporting half a billion meeting participants, generating 25-billion meeting minutes – more than three times the size of its normal monthly average.

Cisco invested “incredible amounts” to stay ahead of demand and continues to deliver the quality its users expect.

The global increase in remote work has made security and privacy more critical than ever and, building on the security capabilities designed into the Webex platform, Cisco has extended data loss prevention retention and legal holds to Webex meetings.

“This gives an unprecedented level of security and protection for all meeting content – recordings, transcriptions, action items and highlights. This is yet another industry-first security offering for Webex meetings,” Khan comments.

“We are also expanding our end-to-end encryption options to include AES 256 bit encryption with Galois/Counter mode, providing increased protection for meeting data and resistance against tampering,” he continues.

Further, Cisco is adding a cloud-connected unified communications feature to its Control Hub that will simplify information technology (IT) workflows for hybrid deployments and expanded Webex Calling analytics.

The Cisco Webex Control Hub aims to address IT complexities by providing intelligent and actionable insights, enabling the management of collaboration workloads through a single pane of glass whether workers are at home or in the office.

The Covid-19 era use cases for Control Hub include the instant deployment of voice assistant technology, Webex Assistant, to conference room devices, minimising the number of times people touch the screen or touchpad in shared spaces.

The newly introduced Webex Assistant is a personal digital assistant trained to automatically take notes and capture action items, as well as assist with meeting controls.

The Control Hub also provides insights about meeting room use to influence cleaning schedules and enable future office layout planning and configuration, as well as analyse use trends to highlight which services and devices an organisation needs to invest in, while providing data to better troubleshoot experiences and understand changing work style patterns throughout the transition back to the office.