CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Cisco vs Elisity

Cisco sells security products that protect users, devices, apps, and data. Elisity sells identity-based microsegmentation for the network a customer already runs. CISO Tribune files both under Network access control. 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
  • Elisity
Cisco vs Elisity: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
CiscoCisco sells security products that protect users, devices, apps, and data.cisco.comElisityElisity sells identity-based microsegmentation for the network a customer already runs.elisity.com
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.
  • Elisity Cloud Control Center[1]The cloud-delivered console for visibility, policy and reporting.
  • Elisity IdentityGraphCombines network observations with context from identity, endpoint, CMDB, IoT and cloud tools.
  • Elisity Intelligence[1]Proposes device classifications, Policy Groups and policies with the evidence behind each suggestion.
  • Elisity Virtual Edge[1]Connects a customer's network infrastructure to Cloud Control Center.
  • Elisity Assistant[1]Answers plain-language questions about devices, traffic and policies inside Cloud Control Center.
Categories
Headquarters
San Jose, United States[3][13]San Jose, United States[2]
Founded
1984[4]2019[2]
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]
  • November 4, 2026Elisity announced that IonQ's acquisition of the company has closed.[10]
  • October 12, 2026Elisity announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by IonQ.[11]
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.Elisity also addresses manufacturers with connected IT and OT networks, and enterprises with users, devices and workloads to contain. Financial institutions that connect branch services, corporate systems and acquired environments are another group Elisity describes. Elisity positions its enforcement as running through supported network infrastructure rather than software agents on the assets being protected.
Last verified
October 10, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Cisco and Elisity are both filed under Network access control.
  • Both are headquartered in San Jose, United States.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Cisco's primary category is Firewalls and NGFW; Elisity's is Microsegmentation.
  • Cisco is also filed under SASE and SSE and SIEM.
  • Cisco lists Cisco Hypershield, Cisco Secure Access, Cisco Duo, Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), Splunk Enterprise Security and 1 more. Elisity lists Elisity Cloud Control Center, Elisity IdentityGraph, Elisity Intelligence, Elisity Virtual Edge and Elisity Assistant.
  • Cisco was founded in 1984. Elisity was founded in 2019.
  • 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: Elisity

What Elisity Cloud Control Center does[1]
Elisity Cloud Control Center is the cloud-delivered console for visibility, policy and reporting. Each customer has a dedicated instance. Elisity uses AWS to host Cloud Control Center.
What Elisity IdentityGraph does
Elisity IdentityGraph combines network observations with context from identity, endpoint, CMDB, IoT and cloud tools to build one record per asset that policy can use. It brings AWS and Azure workloads in alongside users and devices.
What Elisity Intelligence does[1]
Elisity Intelligence proposes device classifications, Policy Groups and policies with the evidence behind each suggestion. Suggested policies start in simulation, and administrators decide what moves to enforcement. Elisity flags Allow policies that have carried no traffic over a review window.
What Elisity Virtual Edge does[1]
The Elisity Virtual Edge connects a customer's network infrastructure to Cloud Control Center. It sits outside the data path and programs policy into the data plane.
What Elisity Assistant does[1]
The Elisity Assistant answers plain-language questions about devices, traffic and policies inside Cloud Control Center. It uses live data from the customer's tenant and is scoped to each user's permissions.

Questions about Cisco and Elisity

What do Cisco and Elisity sell?
Cisco sells Cisco Hypershield, Cisco Secure Access, Cisco Duo, Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), Splunk Enterprise Security and 1 more. Elisity sells Elisity Cloud Control Center, Elisity IdentityGraph, Elisity Intelligence, Elisity Virtual Edge and Elisity Assistant.
Are Cisco and Elisity in the same category?
They share Network access control. Cisco's primary category is Firewalls and NGFW and Elisity's is Microsegmentation.
Where are Cisco and Elisity headquartered?
Both are headquartered in San Jose, United States.
When were Cisco and Elisity founded?
Cisco was founded in 1984. Elisity was founded in 2019.
Who owns Cisco and Elisity?
Cisco is a public company listed on NASDAQ as CSCO.
Which customers do Cisco and Elisity name?
Cisco publicly names Marriott, United States Golf Association, Rosen Hotels & Resorts and Elon University.
Who are Cisco and Elisity sold to?
From its own pages, Cisco sells mainly to enterprises that need to secure hybrid environments spanning data center, cloud, campus, and IoT. Elisity also addresses manufacturers with connected IT and OT networks, and enterprises with users, devices and workloads to contain.
What have Cisco and Elisity announced recently?
August 12, 2026: Cisco reported fiscal fourth-quarter 2026 revenue of $17.3 billion for the period ended July 25, 2026. November 4, 2026: Elisity announced that IonQ's acquisition of the company has closed.

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

Elisity full record

  1. [1]Identity-based microsegmentation platform | ElisityElisity · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Elisity microsegmentation enables st lukes to secure 85 000 medical devices and unlocks clinical innovation in 46 days 302783594Elisity via PR Newswire · prnewswire.com · published May 28, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Identity-based microsegmentation | ElisityElisity · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Supplemental Terms of Service for Data Protection | ElisityElisity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Enterprise Microsegmentation | ElisityElisity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Manufacturing and OT Microsegmentation | ElisityElisity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Healthcare Microsegmentation for Medical Devices | ElisityElisity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Financial Services Microsegmentation | ElisityElisity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Zero Trust Microsegmentation | ElisityElisity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Elisity joins IonQ to help customers move faster toward PQC readinessElisity · published November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Elisity announces acquisition by IonQ to advance Zero Trust for the quantum eraElisity · published October 12, 2026 · Tier A

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