For the past few years, our group has had the pleasure of introducing ourselves as Cisco Emerging Technologies & Incubation, or ET&I for short. While our name might have been a mouthful, our mission is more to the point: We incubate new businesses and deliver what’s next and new for Cisco: Emerging technologies for tomorrow’s customer needs.

We also prioritize the next and new ways to achieve innovative results. This means being actively curious and pushing boundaries on how we can make the biggest impact on the market. That drive to explore and evolve recently led us to an important question: Are we showing the world who we really are?

What’s in a name?

Beyond a simple brand exercise, exploring our identity as a source of technological innovation for Cisco became an important reflection of how we want to commit to driving real change for our customers.

If you think about it simply, identity is who we are and how we show up in the world. Our teams show up day in and day out to create transformational products and experiences. We hope to exhibit that passion and creativity through every touchpoint, to be clearly seen for what we can deliver to our customers and beyond.

This is why we’re excited to introduce you to Outshift, Cisco’s incubation engine for what’s next and new in emerging technologies, tomorrow’s customer needs, and future-forward research and ideas.

Sparking a new identity

Our new identity is built on the foundation of Cisco’s decades-long track record of innovating technology solutions for the world’s biggest and best organizations. Cisco has closed the loop time again from innovation to action as it consistently builds and launches successful new products used by billions of people worldwide.

Extending from that perfect circle of innovation-to-action or “O,” which starts Outshift and ends Cisco, our new logo is a creative evolution of the Cisco bridge and extends the company mission to empower an inclusive future for all.

The Outshift “spark” is a visual symbol of the innovative mandate of our team to transform new opportunities on behalf of Cisco and our customers with the speed and agility of startup, while harnessing the strength and scale of a global technology leader.

A few views from our new brand guidelines exploring the spark.

Our portfolio of innovative endeavors

As you explore the new outshift.com, you’ll be able to learn more about our exciting portfolio of transformative products and offerings across cloud native, edge native, AI and more emerging tech:

• Panoptica Our cloud native application security solution with code to cloud protection.
• Recon.cloud: Our cloud security reconnaissance tool scans domains and lets you save findings and track trends.
• AI: Discover trustworthy AI best practices and generative AI strategies that will protect and revolutionize your enterprise.
• Open Source @ Outshift: Community-powered innovation in cloud native, AI/ML, API security and more with contributions from Cisco developers.

Plus, more developing products, research, and ideas coming regularly!

Visionaries found here

As Outshifters, we know that innovation is nothing without action. But taking a moment to stop and reflect on how we show this identity to the world is an important step towards turning that action into something memorable and successful.

So here we are: Outshift, Cisco’s incubation engine. We are engineers, architects, strategists, and leaders. We’re innovators, inventors, futurists, and explorers. But we don’t stop there.

By thoughtfully applying innovation to what we build and how we build it, we outpace the competition. And we always bring our customers along for the ride. Put simply, we are here to deliver really awesome products that solve real customer problems—full speed ahead.

Let’s build what’s next.

P.S. We're looking for more visionaries to join our team of Outshifters—check out our latest career opportunities for more info.