Connect. Secure. Manage.
Cisco Hypershield Readiness
Assess Cisco Hypershield for supported environments, reviewing enforcement placement, platform prerequisites and a controlled proof-of-concept scope.
Devices supported
across the UK
Client locations
supported
Traffic handled
at peak time
Average
response time
Average response is not a resolution time or a contractual guarantee. Support scope and response commitments are agreed for each engagement.
Cisco Hypershield readiness checks whether a supported design fits your apps, equipment and support process. We identify what must be in place and define a controlled proof of concept. The work also considers where rules will be enforced and who will manage them. Product plans are kept separate from features proven on your proposed setup.
Defined trust
Make access boundaries explicit rather than relying on an assumed internal network.
Controlled access
Connect identity, policy and network enforcement to the services people actually use.
Evidence for change
Test the intended security outcome and retain useful operational records.
Begin with a specific security requirement
We establish the problem the organisation wants to solve. It may involve limiting application-to-application access, improving the handling of new vulnerabilities or introducing more consistent controls across a supported estate. Each aim requires different evidence and a different test. So a general desire for automated security is not enough to define success.
The assessment identifies the apps, setups and admin teams involved. We also record what is already protecting those systems. Hypershield should be assessed alongside current segmentation, firewall and endpoint controls, with a clear account of which duties it would add, change or leave untouched.
Standards & partnerships
Confidence in the team behind your network.
Cisco Partner
Cisco Meraki
Cyber Essentials
Cyber Essentials PlusMCI Network Services is operated by Proxar Ltd. Certifications apply to the certified legal entity and the scope of its certificates. View accreditation information
Verify the current supported architecture
Cisco's Hypershield offering includes distributed enforcement and integration with supported infrastructure, including specified Smart Switch arrangements. We check the current documentation for the exact hardware, software, rollout mode and entitlements proposed. We do not assume that a conventional Catalyst or Nexus installation becomes eligible simply because it carries the Cisco name.
Platform prerequisites are recorded as an evidence-backed checklist. This includes management network access, rollout resources, supported integrations and any dependencies on particular infrastructure components. Where a required capability is unavailable in the customer's estate, the assessment identifies the gap and its practical consequences rather than describing it as a minor setup task.
A useful starting point
Not sure where to start?
Bring the requirement. We will help you define the engineering work.
Understand application dependencies before policy
A distributed control still needs an accurate view of legitimate communication. We identify app owners, important service flows and the systems used for administration, monitoring and recovery. Short observation periods can miss scheduled processes, seasonal workloads and rare recovery actions, so traffic data is interpreted with operational knowledge.
The intended policy model must also cope with change. Applications may be redeployed, scaled or moved, and the organisation needs a reliable way to preserve their correct identity and permissions. We examine how those lifecycle events would be handled in the proposed rollout instead of assuming that automatic discovery removes the need for ownership.
Different environments. The same care.
Built around the work
your network supports.
Finance, banking and the wider private sector. We start with the systems and people that depend on your connections.
Finance & banking
Market-data paths, routing and provider coordination on clients’ behalf.
Financial-market services ↗Offices & multi-site teams
Reliable access between people, workplaces and business applications.
Office network design ↗Data centres & cloud
Network boundaries, workload connections and operational ownership.
Data centre networks ↗Define responsibility for recommendations and enforcement
Automation can assist policy and support decisions. But the customer still needs an approval model. We establish who reviews recommendations, who authorises enforcement and how exceptions are recorded. Different apps may require different levels of review according to their business impact and recovery constraints.
The readiness work also considers separation of duties. Security, network and app teams should know which changes they can make and how an incident is escalated. A platform that can propose a control is not, by itself, an agreed mandate to apply it across every production workload without change authorisation.
Design a bounded proof of concept
The pilot uses an agreed app or infrastructure segment with representative dependencies and a practical recovery path. Success criteria are stated before rollout: the flows that must work, restrictions that must be shown, evidence that must be visible and operational tasks that the support team must be able to perform.
We include failure and maintenance questions, not only normal traffic. The assessment asks how the proposed control behaves when management network access is interrupted, a component is updated or a policy needs reversal. Any claimed reduced-impact update or automated safeguard is assessed in the supported setup rather than assumed to guarantee uninterrupted app service.
Assess visibility, data handling and integration
The organisation needs to understand which telemetry is collected, where it is processed and who can access it. We review the proposed logging and integration paths with the customer's security and data-protection owners. Useful operational visibility should not mean unrestricted retention of sensitive app or user information.
Existing incident processes also matter. Alerts must reach a team that can interpret them and act within the agreed service scope. We identify how the new platform would connect with monitoring, ticketing and investigation workflows, and whether those integrations are supported, configured and actually tested during the pilot.
Make a decision with explicit evidence
The deliverable is a readiness assessment, prerequisite register and proof-of-concept plan or results, depending on the engagement. It distinguishes confirmed capability from untested assumptions and records the cost or operational implications of closing gaps. A decision to defer rollout can be a valid outcome when the setup or service model is not yet suitable.
MCI's east-west network security work provides context for assessing distributed enforcement alongside other controls. We can help your team assess Hypershield without making blanket breach-prevention, zero-trust or compliance claims. Share the intended apps and infrastructure scope, and we can define what needs to be shown before a production decision is made.
Technical references
- Cisco Hypershield platform overview — Cisco / Cisco Meraki
- Cisco N9300 Series Smart Switch overview — Cisco / Cisco Meraki
Talk to a specialist
What does your network need next?
Tell us what you are planning, changing or trying to improve. We will help define a practical next step and the engineering scope.
+44 203 196 6566Choose option 1
sales@proxar.co.ukUK-wide service.
Most of our engineers are based in Kent, with a focus on London, Sussex, Essex and Berkshire.
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