Cisco Live 2025: Industrial IoT Breakthroughs in Switching, Wireless and Cybersecurity.

This year at Cisco Live 2025 in San Diego, Industrial IoT (IIoT) took centre stage. As industries face rapidly evolving cybersecurity threats, harness the power of AI in operations, and push for stronger IT/OT integration, Cisco has unveiled major updates designed to simplify, secure, and supercharge industrial environments. It’s an exciting time for Industrial IoT.

Cisco’s Industrial Networking portfolio has received a significant upgrade, enhancing its offerings with rugged switches, unified wireless solutions, and AI-driven asset segmentation. The Cisco Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul (URWB) is now part of the Wi-Fi 7 offerings, and Cisco Cyber Vision has become smarter with the addition of new AI-based clustering features.

Cisco Expands Industrial Switching Portfolio: IE3500 Series

First up: the new Cisco IE3500 Rugged Series and IE3500 Heavy Duty Series switches.

These aren’t your average switches; they’re built to thrive in demanding environments, deliver high bandwidth and power, and come packed with features. The IE3500 Rugged Series is modular and ready for advanced use cases like machine vision, AI analytics, virtualisation, and seamless edge-to-cloud connectivity. Made to handle large-scale networks and deliver robust security.

Need something even tougher? The IE3500 Heavy Duty Series brings all the same power but in a fully dustproof, waterproof shell, ideal for the harshest industrial settings.

A New Era of Wireless: URWB Meets Wi-Fi 7

We’re also entering a whole new era of wireless. Cisco is now combining Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul (URWB) and Wi-Fi across a wide range of their Wi-Fi 7, 6E, and 6 access points. That means more use cases and more possibilities.

URWB offers fast, multi-gigabit speeds, connects moving equipment, and provides solid temporary links between locations. It’s low-latency, lossless, and offers seamless handoffs. And now, both URWB and Wi-Fi can run on the same hardware, managed with tools you already know, like Catalyst Center. That makes setup and management easier and cuts down on training and licensing headaches.

Cisco Cyber Vision Gets AI-Driven Security Upgrades

Cyber Vision also got a major itelligence boost. It now provides you with even clearer visibility into your industrial environment, enabling you to identify thousands of devices and understand their functions. What used to be overwhelming amounts of data can now be turned into smart, actionable security policies.

One of the coolest updates? AI-based asset clustering. It automatically groups devices into logical zones, making it significantly faster and easier to set up segmentation and keep threats contained—think weeks, not months.

Figure 1: Cyber Vision AI Asset Clustering

Cisco AI Assistant and Secure Equipment Access

And there’s more: Cisco Secure Equipment Access (SEA) can now detect suspicious activity such as remote logins from unusual locations or times. Plus, with Cisco AI Assistant onboard, admins no longer need to sift through endless audit logs. Just ask the AI, and get the info you need in seconds.

Leading the IIoT Revolution with Smarter, Safer Networks

The 2025 updates to Cisco’s Industrial Networking Portfolio reflect the company’s deep commitment to secure, scalable, and AI-powered industrial environments. With stronger switching, unified wireless, and smarter security tools, Cisco is empowering teams to build more resilient and intelligent infrastructure—from the plant floor to the cloud.