Organizations that want to start using AI want (and need) to do so securely. By deepening their partnership, Cisco and ServiceNow aim to make this possible. How do the companies plan to do this?
If you had to make a list of IT suppliers that many (larger) organizations use and need, chances are that both Cisco and ServiceNow would at least be on the long list. In other words, the products and services offered by Cisco and ServiceNow are high on the wish list.
Partnership between Cisco and ServiceNow is not new
Saying that Cisco and ServiceNow are on the list does not mean that these two providers will always be chosen; ultimately, customers may also select competitors of those companies. However, building and managing an IT environment without underlying infrastructure, cybersecurity, ITSM, and other operational tooling is virtually impossible. A partnership between two players active in these areas is therefore an excellent idea for organizations. Cisco and ServiceNow are also keenly aware of this.
The partnership between Cisco and ServiceNow is not new. However, until now, there have been some loose integrations between the two players, whereby one’s tooling could use the other’s environment as a data source. Examples include improving the data in ServiceNow’s CMDB by means of data from Cisco environments or ingesting ServiceNow data into Cisco’s security modules.
Cisco and ServiceNow expand partnership
Today’s announcement at RSAC 2025 Conference (yes, that’s how it’s officially called nowadays) is much more fundamental, according to Jeetu Patel, CPO of Cisco, and Amit Zavery, president and CPO of ServiceNow. Cisco and ServiceNow want to bring their platforms closer together for better integration. This means that the product teams at Cisco and ServiceNow will also have to take each other more into account when developing new components for both platforms.
Cisco and ServiceNow are taking the first major step today. The first integration is that of Cisco AI Defense with ServiceNow SecOps. The purpose of Cisco AI Defense is clear from its name. Cisco developed it to enable the secure deployment of AI within organizations (be sure to read the detailed article we wrote about this in January via the link below). ServiceNow SecOps aims to link existing security tools to the operational side of the organization.
Read also: Cisco AI Defense enables secure deployment of AI
What is possible with the integration of Cisco AI Defense and ServiceNow SecOps?
The first integration announced jointly by Cisco and ServiceNow certainly sounds promising on paper. It will enable joint customers of the two companies not only to secure AI and AI applications, but also to deploy them responsibly within their organizations. ServiceNow has recently positioned itself as the “AI control tower”, a role it is explicitly taking on in this partnership.
In practice, the integration of Cisco AI Defense and ServiceNow SecOps offers several concrete possibilities for customers at launch. For example, it should provide greater visibility into AI workloads. Cisco AI Defense detects these and then forwards its findings to the ServiceNow platform. The vulnerabilities identified by AI Defense will also be sent to ServiceNow Vulnerability Response, where they can be monitored and remedied. The same applies to Incident Response. Here too, Cisco AI Defense provides telemetry to ServiceNow Security Incident Response, after which action can be taken.
ServiceNow Security Posture Control and Cisco AI Runtime Protection should also reinforce each other. Cisco AI Runtime Protection was developed to indicate in real time whether AI applications are behaving within the desired parameters. ServiceNow Security Posture Control can monitor this. If it finds gaps in Cisco AI Runtime Protection, it can respond accordingly. Finally, the integration between Cisco and ServiceNow components gives customers the ability to map the capabilities of Cisco AI Defense to the standards of ServiceNow Integrated Risk Management. The idea is that this will enable organizations to demonstrate compliance in the field of AI.
Availability
Customers of both Cisco and ServiceNow who want to use the integration of Cisco AI Defense and ServiceNow SecOps will have to wait until the second half of this year (2025). Field trials for this integration will start soon. Finally, Cisco and ServiceNow promise that more integrations between the portfolios of both players will follow later this year. It is clear that they are positioning this as a strategically important partnership for both parties involved.