As 2025 comes to a close, it is clear this has been a year unlike any other for cybersecurity across EMEA. The rapid acceleration of AI, both as an engine for innovation and as a tool leveraged by adversaries, has redefined what it means to safeguard our digital world.
For our people, partners, and customers across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, one theme has remained constant: resilience is now intelligent, adaptive, and deeply collaborative. This year demanded that we rethink traditional security models, double down on trust, and embrace AI as an indispensable ally in fortifying our digital future.
Addressing EMEA's Core Security Imperatives: Customer Use Cases in Focus
Throughout 2025, our conversations with customers across EMEA consistently highlighted a few critical areas where organizations are actively seeking to strengthen their defences. These aren't just theoretical concepts; they are the battlegrounds where resilience is built:
- Zero Trust Access & Security-First Identity: With hybrid work models firmly entrenched and cloud adoption accelerating, securing access has become paramount. Organizations are moving aggressively towards Zero Trust Access, ensuring that every user and device is verified before gaining access, regardless of location. This shift fundamentally redefines identity as the primary control plane, moving beyond traditional perimeters to protect data and applications at every interaction point.
- Network Micro/Macro Segmentation: The ability to contain threats and prevent lateral movement within networks is more crucial than ever. We've seen a strong drive for both micro and macro segmentation strategies. This involves logically dividing networks into smaller, isolated segments, limiting the blast radius of potential breaches and protecting critical assets from unauthorized access, even if an attacker gains initial entry.
- Vendor Consolidation & Strategic Partnerships: The complexity of managing disparate security tools has become unsustainable. EMEA leaders are actively pursuing vendor consolidation, seeking integrated, platform-based solutions that offer unified visibility and streamlined management. This often involves forming deeper, strategic partnerships with vendors who can provide a comprehensive, end-to-end security architecture, reduce operational overhead and improve overall efficacy.
These imperatives underscore a collective understanding: security must be simplified, integrated, and intelligent to be effective against today's sophisticated threats.
Raising the Bar with the Cybersecurity Readiness Index
Earlier in the year, the Cisco Cybersecurity Readiness Index 2025 set the tone for the months ahead. Its insights, particularly those around identity maturity, cloud resilience, and dynamic network security, became a guiding compass for many EMEA organizations.
What stood out most was not just the progress made but the persistence of a global challenge: the cybersecurity talent shortage. This served as a reminder that readiness is not a static milestone but a moving target that we must collectively work toward. Throughout 2025, the index helped us benchmark our posture, sharpen our priorities, and quantify the gaps we are closing together.
Upholding Trust Through Regulation
A defining thread of 2025 has been the continued evolution of policy across EMEA, policy that aims not to restrict innovation, but to protect it. The UK's new Cyber Security and Resilience Bill underscored the urgency of creating robust, modern frameworks that address AI-driven threats with precision. Our work to help unlock the region's AI potential reinforced a critical truth: innovation-friendly regulation must go hand in hand with AI-powered cybersecurity controls.
A significant step in strengthening our regional infrastructure and commitment to local data residency came with our points of presence going live in Jeddah and Riyadh. These strategic deployments enhance our ability to deliver secure and compliant digital ecosystems, reinforcing our dedication to working hand-in-hand with policymakers and customers across the Middle East.
AI at the Front Lines of Security
If 2024 was the year AI surged into mainstream operations, 2025 was the year we operationalized it for defence. Cisco Secure Firewall was recognized as the Best Enterprise Next Generation Firewall 2025, awarded dual AAA ratings for protection and performance. This includes being the industry's first to achieve an AAA rating in advanced performance and demonstrating 100% accuracy in advanced security and NDR protection. Further solidifying its position in Hybrid Mesh Firewall solutions, Cisco was positioned as a Visionary in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Hybrid Mesh Firewall and an IDC Leader in the 2025 IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise Hybrid Firewall. Customer satisfaction further underscores its strength, with Cisco Secure Firewall achieving an impressive 4.8/5 overall rating in Gartner Peer Insights for Network Firewalls, outperforming competitors like Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet (based on scores as of Oct 27, 2025). These significant accolades reflect what EMEA customers told us repeatedly: they need uncompromised, ultra-resilient perimeter security as threats grow more automated.
Perhaps the most transformative shift has been the rise of AI-driven security agents, a core component of our Cisco AI Defence strategy. Empowering these agents with real-time intelligence through capabilities that evolve from solutions like Cisco Umbrella, towards a comprehensive Secure Access (SSE) approach, is changing the game. We are moving from detecting threats to anticipating them, from reacting to pre-empting, and from manual triage to autonomous decision-making. This holistic, AI-powered approach, leveraging our Secure Access capabilities, is the kind of innovation that frees human expertise to focus on strategy, not just firefighting, ultimately strengthening the entire security posture across EMEA.
A People-First Approach to Cybersecurity
Ultimately technology is only powerful when people feel confident using it. That is why 2025 was also a year of significant investment in talent development across EMEA. The Cisco Networking Academy expanded its AI and digital skills curriculum across multiple European languages, an important step toward building a more diverse, local, AI-ready security workforce.
We also celebrated Fast Lane's recognition as Cisco EMEA Learning Partner of the Year 2025, their third consecutive win. Their contribution to upskilling the region, especially around AI-enabled security operations, has been invaluable. Through practical guidance, we helped organizations navigate some of the year's most complex security transitions with confidence.
Charting the Course for 2026
As we look ahead, the progress achieved in 2025, built through collaboration with customers, partners, and policymakers has strengthened EMEA's position as a hub of secure, responsible digital innovation.
In 2026, we will continue to push boundaries by:
- Accelerating AI-assisted security operations
- Enhancing regional resilience and compliance
- Investing in local talent and ecosystem growth
The challenges will evolve, but so will we, smarter, faster, and more united.