The Webex Platform: Enabling the full potential of hybrid work
* CREDIT: Cisco Webex & Author Anurag Dhingra
As organizations accommodate the needs of hybrid workers, IT leaders are pressured to balance both enterprise-grade management and the changing needs of end users. Users now expect a high-quality collaboration experience accessible from anywhere and any device. Meanwhile, IT is striving to secure networks and ensure the protection of documents and other corporate assets.
The Webex platform uniquely offers a seamless end-user collaboration experience based on enterprise-grade security, privacy, and compliance standards. The Webex approach ensures that your organization is ready for hybrid work today — and can readily adopt innovation in the future.
Let’s explore the architectural pillars that make Webex the best choice for collaboration, including security, cross-organizational collaboration, extensibility, AI capabilities, scalability, and manageability.
Enterprise-grade security, privacy, and compliance
Webex offers a 360-degree approach to security, ensuring the safety and integrity of your organization’s content, applications, and user accounts — regardless of where your employees are located or on which device they’re connected.
- Zero-trust security for Webex protects your communications with end-to-end encryption built on modern, standards-based cryptography for clients & Webex devices. Strong identity verification gives you confidence that the people who are in your meetings are supposed to be there.
- Flexible key management includes on-premises key management, and bring your own key (BYOK) capabilities (coming in early 2022), so you can control encryption of your data without anyone, including Webex, receiving access.
- Cisco Security bundle makes it easy to purchase state-of-the art security capabilities including CloudLock, Talos, Duo, AMP, Umbrella DNS, and SecureX.
Webex works with dozens of partners to offer comprehensive data loss prevention (DLP) solutions across the entire collaboration space so you can be sure sensitive information is not shared. You can apply policies to meetings, recordings, and transcriptions. We offer:
- Redaction and deletion APIs to support organizational policies.
- Real-time data loss prevention for documents to ensure that documents uploaded to a Webex space are scanned, and if they violate policy, the document is blocked from sharing with other users.
- Integrated compliance tools for Webex Calling including integrated legal hold, eDiscovery and DLP support for voicemail and call records, starting in 2022.
Seamless collaboration across organizations
Employees often need to collaborate with people outside their organization, and prefer to do so without having to configure complex guest accounts and data sharing options. At the same time, IT departments need to manage data assets, and ensure that shared documents are scanned for viruses and comply with data loss prevention policies. Webex’s comprehensive single user identity model enables collaboration outside of your organization in a way that protects data and accounts, while also enabling an intuitive user experience.
- Our single-identity model enables users to collaborate in Webex spaces that have been shared with them — from internal co-workers or outside participants — without having to logout and switch accounts.
- Visible sharing indicators warn users that they are sharing with an external user or a Webex space with outside participants.
- FedRAMP-authorized sharing enables Webex for Government users to communicate securely even with people outside their organization who are not using government-approved services
Extensive ecosystem of third-party apps and integrations
Employees want to create departmental workflows, often relying on third-party apps and services. The Webex platform makes it easy for employees to discover and connect with third-party applications to support their line-of-business workflows.
The Webex platform is a tremendous opportunity for developers. With a robust set of APIs and SDKs, developers can leverage the Webex open platform to increase discoverability and adoption within Webex’s customer base. IT administrators can manage third-party apps and services on a secure collaboration platform.
- Embedded Webex integrations enable calling, meetings, and messaging directly within other apps, for example within Salesforce, Zendesk or ServiceNow
- Embedded Apps Framework enables apps from ISVs such as Smartsheet, Hacker Rank, Miro, Mural, Workboard, Thrive Reset, and many more directly inside the Webex app. We are excited to announce that over 60 partner apps are coming to Webex.
- Webex Assistant Skills APIs enable developers to add voice-driven applications that extend Webex Assistant and offer new capabilities across Webex apps and devices
Powerful AI-enabled collaboration capabilities Organizations that are powered by Webex continually access a stream of innovation, including the latest advances in artificial intelligence (AI). Webex’s approach to AI increases user engagement and productivity with powerful tools like meeting highlights and transcriptions. Webex audio intelligence features remove distracting background noise and optimize voices, so meetings are more engaging and inclusive. And Webex collaboration insights helps users gain a deeper understanding of their work habits
