CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Cisco vs Dispersive Stealth Networking

Cisco sells security products that protect users, devices, apps, and data. Dispersive Stealth Networking, from Dispersive Holdings, Inc., is a preemptive cybersecurity platform that makes data in motion invisible, resilient, and fully under an organization's control. CISO Tribune files both under SASE and SSE. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • Cisco
  • Dispersive Stealth Networking
Cisco vs Dispersive Stealth Networking: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
CiscoCisco sells security products that protect users, devices, apps, and data.cisco.comDispersive Stealth NetworkingDispersive Stealth Networking, from Dispersive Holdings, Inc., is a preemptive cybersecurity platform that makes data in motion invisible, resilient, and fully under an organization's control.dispersive.io
What it sells
  • Cisco HypershieldA security architecture for data centers that segments workloads and closes exploit gaps at scale.
  • Cisco Secure AccessA secure access service edge (SASE) product that unifies networking and security policy for a distributed workforce.
  • Cisco Duo[1]An identity security product that gives visibility into an organization's identity ecosystem and enforces access policy.
  • Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)A network access control product that uses data from across Cisco's stack to enforce policy, manage endpoints and grant trusted access.
  • Splunk Enterprise Security[1]A security information and event management product that detects and responds to threats using collected logs and events.
  • Cisco Talos[1]A threat intelligence and research organization that supplies threat data used across Cisco's security products.
  • Dispersive® Stealth NetworkingA software overlay that fragments traffic across dynamic paths. It runs on the infrastructure a customer already operates.
  • DispersiveCloud™A hosted SaaS deployment of Dispersive. It runs on global cloud infrastructure.
  • DispersiveFabric™The self-hosted deployment of Dispersive. The customer runs and controls every component.
  • Trusted Cloud Edge (TCE)[5]Splits and secures traffic across multiple invisible paths. It is described as tunnel-free.
Categories
Headquarters
San Jose, United States[3][13]Not stated on its pages
Founded
1984[4]Not stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Public (NASDAQ: CSCO)[1][2][10][12][13]Not stated on its pages
Named customers
  • Marriott[5]
  • United States Golf Association[6]
  • Rosen Hotels & Resorts[7]
  • Elon University[8]
Not stated on its pages
Recent news
  • August 12, 2026Cisco reported fiscal fourth-quarter 2026 revenue of $17.3 billion for the period ended July 25, 2026.[2]
  • May 13, 2026Cisco reported fiscal third-quarter 2026 revenue of $15.8 billion for the period ended April 25, 2026.[9]
  • May 4, 2026Cisco announced its intent to acquire Astrix Security, a non-human identity security company, and completed the acquisition on June 29, 2026.[10]
  • April 9, 2026Cisco announced its intent to acquire Galileo Technologies, Inc.[11]
  • November 25, 2025Cisco completed its acquisition of EzDubs, a privately held AI software company based in San Francisco.[13]
  • September 2, 2026Dispersive Stealth Networking announced an expansion of its partner-led go-to-market capacity, citing rising demand for AI communications protection and post-quantum readiness.[9]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: listed, seen November 5, 2026[12]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, Cisco sells mainly to enterprises that need to secure hybrid environments spanning data center, cloud, campus, and IoT. Cisco addresses organizations with a global workforce that need secure access for humans, things, and agents under one consistent policy model. Cisco addresses enterprises that want to govern an agentic AI workforce. Security teams are addressed with unified intelligence and operations for visibility across users, systems, and AI agents.Its pages describe protected remote access and control traffic for energy, utilities, and industrial operations. Security for the AI communication layer is described for agents, inference calls, and data moving between models, tools, and GPUs. The self-hosted deployment is built for larger, more complex environments, where the customer runs and controls every component.
Last verified
October 10, 2026September 30, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Cisco and Dispersive Stealth Networking are both filed under SASE and SSE.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Cisco's primary category is Firewalls and NGFW; Dispersive Stealth Networking's is SASE and SSE.
  • Cisco is also filed under Network access control and SIEM. Dispersive Stealth Networking is also filed under Zero trust network access, Microsegmentation and Post-quantum cryptography.
  • Cisco lists Cisco Hypershield, Cisco Secure Access, Cisco Duo, Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), Splunk Enterprise Security and 1 more. Dispersive Stealth Networking lists Dispersive® Stealth Networking, DispersiveCloud™, DispersiveFabric™ and Trusted Cloud Edge (TCE).
  • Cisco is headquartered in San Jose, United States.
  • Cisco was founded in 1984.
  • Cisco is a public company listed on NASDAQ as CSCO.
  • Cisco publicly names Marriott, United States Golf Association, Rosen Hotels & Resorts and Elon University.

What it sells: Dispersive Stealth Networking

What Dispersive® Stealth Networking does
It secures the communication paths that connect users, applications, agents, models, and infrastructure. Post-quantum protection extends across the data plane and the control plane. Dispersive runs over transport including internet, 5G, VSAT, MPLS, and cloud backbone.
What DispersiveCloud™ does
DispersiveCloud is a hosted SaaS deployment and is SOC 2 Type II certified. It runs on global cloud infrastructure from providers including Amazon Web Services and Azure. DispersiveCloud is a cloud-native deployment that integrates into hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
What DispersiveFabric™ does
DispersiveFabric is the self-hosted deployment, built for larger, more complex environments, where the customer runs and controls every component. It is a software-defined overlay network with a microservices architecture. DispersiveFabric deploys on public cloud, private cloud, containers, VMs, or dedicated hardware.
What Trusted Cloud Edge (TCE) does[5]
Trusted Cloud Edge (TCE) dynamically splits and secures traffic across multiple invisible paths. It delivers stealth networking and tunnel-free connectivity. Trusted Cloud Edge (TCE) can augment or fully replace SD-WAN. Deployment options include software, virtual, container and hardware based gateways and endpoint software for remote users and data scientists.

Questions about Cisco and Dispersive Stealth Networking

What do Cisco and Dispersive Stealth Networking sell?
Cisco sells Cisco Hypershield, Cisco Secure Access, Cisco Duo, Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), Splunk Enterprise Security and 1 more. Dispersive Stealth Networking sells Dispersive® Stealth Networking, DispersiveCloud™, DispersiveFabric™ and Trusted Cloud Edge (TCE).
Are Cisco and Dispersive Stealth Networking in the same category?
They share SASE and SSE. Cisco's primary category is Firewalls and NGFW and Dispersive Stealth Networking's is SASE and SSE.
Where are Cisco and Dispersive Stealth Networking headquartered?
Cisco is headquartered in San Jose, United States.
When were Cisco and Dispersive Stealth Networking founded?
Cisco was founded in 1984.
Who owns Cisco and Dispersive Stealth Networking?
Cisco is a public company listed on NASDAQ as CSCO.
Which customers do Cisco and Dispersive Stealth Networking name?
Cisco publicly names Marriott, United States Golf Association, Rosen Hotels & Resorts and Elon University.
Who are Cisco and Dispersive Stealth Networking sold to?
From its own pages, Cisco sells mainly to enterprises that need to secure hybrid environments spanning data center, cloud, campus, and IoT. Its pages describe protected remote access and control traffic for energy, utilities, and industrial operations.
What have Cisco and Dispersive Stealth Networking announced recently?
August 12, 2026: Cisco reported fiscal fourth-quarter 2026 revenue of $17.3 billion for the period ended July 25, 2026. September 2, 2026: Dispersive Stealth Networking announced an expansion of its partner-led go-to-market capacity, citing rising demand for AI communications protection and post-quantum readiness.

About Cisco

Cisco sells security products that protect users, devices, apps, and data. Cisco describes the offering as an open, network-native platform built to handle today's threats and enable the agentic enterprise at scale.

Cisco says its security applies policy, inspection, and enforcement at every connection. Cisco also describes unified data for earlier detection and faster response, powered by AI-driven context.

For cloud protection, Cisco describes securing modern cloud and AI apps at runtime with segmentation that keeps up with change, vulnerability shielding to close the patching gap, and protection for AI workloads. Cisco Encrypted Visibility Engine (EVE) is used to find malicious flows in encrypted traffic and to decrypt without sacrificing performance. Cisco says it stops zero days using Snort ML and Talos Threat Intelligence. Cisco offers distributed, optimized enforcement with unified management across a hybrid enterprise, and the same enforcement is described for data center, cloud, campus, and IoT environments.

Cisco describes a security architecture designed to defend modern, AI-scale data centers. Cisco says the architecture closes exploit gaps, segments everywhere, and self-qualifies updates and changes.

For workforce protection, Cisco describes secure access for humans, things, and agents with one consistent policy model. Cisco offers a cloud-native security service edge (SSE) that includes digital experience monitoring. Cisco offers a single-vendor SASE that unifies networking and security for a global workforce. Cisco offers identity security for the workforce that helps see across the entire identity ecosystem. Cisco offers multicloud NAC with zero trust, which uses intel from across the stack to enforce policy, manage endpoints, and deliver trusted access.

For threat intelligence and response, Cisco describes detecting, investigating, and responding faster with unified intelligence and operations. Cisco says this gives a team continuous visibility across users, systems, and AI agents in a single platform. Cisco describes unifying the data fabric, analytics, tooling and AI to automate the mundane, clarify the complex, and proactively mitigate risk.

Cisco also addresses agentic AI. Cisco describes safeguarding the agentic workforce against malicious attacks and data leakage. Cisco says it integrates identity, access, and behavioral controls to govern an agentic AI workforce and reduce risk. At RSAC 2026, Jeetu Patel, Cisco's President and Chief Product Officer, challenged the industry to fundamentally reimagine security.

Cisco Services provide expert guidance to plan, design, implement, operate, and optimize an IT environment. Cisco says support for Cisco Security products is available through the Cisco support hub, which provides product-specific resources, documentation, downloads, and expert assistance.

Cisco on the record

Sources

Cisco full record

  1. [1]Security Products and Solutions for Cloud and Workforce Protection - CiscoCisco · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Cisco reports fourth quarter earningsCisco · newsroom.cisco.com · published August 12, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]IndexCisco · cisco.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Cisco systems reaches agreement with state city on major land purchaseCisco · newsroom.cisco.com · published April 17, 1996 · Tier A
  5. [5]MarriottCisco · cisco.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]cisco.comCisco · cisco.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Rosen hotels and resortsCisco · cisco.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Elon universityCisco · cisco.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Cisco reports third quarter earningsCisco · newsroom.cisco.com · published May 13, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Cisco announces intent to acquire astrix securityCisco · blogs.cisco.com · published May 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Making AI Trustworthy and Observable in Real-Time: Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire GalileoCisco Blogs · published April 9, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Cisco Security Services Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier C
  13. [13]Cisco completes EzDubs acquisition - CiscoCisco · published November 25, 2025 · Tier A

Dispersive Stealth Networking full record

  1. [1]dispersive.ioDispersive · dispersive.io · undated page, accessed September 30, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Our partnersDispersive · dispersive.io · undated page, accessed September 30, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Dispersive Stealth Networking | Secure, Resilient CommunicationsDispersive Stealth Networking · undated page, accessed October 31, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Quantum-Resilient Stealth Networking | DispersiveDispersive Stealth Networking · undated page, accessed October 31, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Trusted Cloud Edge | Secure the Gaps Between Cloud, Edge, and UsersDispersive Stealth Networking · undated page, accessed October 31, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]About Dispersive | Cyber-Resilient Network Infrastructure in the AI EraDispersive Stealth Networking · undated page, accessed October 31, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Defense Network Security SolutionsDispersive Stealth Networking · undated page, accessed October 31, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Financial Services Security | Secure Transactions & Data ProtectionDispersive Stealth Networking · undated page, accessed October 31, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Dispersive Expands Partner-Led Growth and National Security Engagement as Demand Accelerates for Quantum-Resilient Stealth NetworkingBusiness Wire · published September 2, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Dispersive Zero Trust | Advanced Security for Digital InfrastructureDispersive Holdings, Inc. · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Zero Trust Academy | Master Zero Trust SecurityDispersive Holdings, Inc. · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Request a Demo | See Dispersive in ActionDispersive Holdings, Inc. · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

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