Software Upgrade: The Why

The most common question when we discuss our software upgrades is the why question. Why should I change my system since it's working fine? Why should I change the system since it's doing what I wanted to do? Why.00:07Should I spend time? Regardless of vendors, there are four important reasons to put upgrades in our mindset. Security, reliability, support, and of course new features. Cisco publishes software updates on a regular basis to address security vulnerabilities and threats.00:20By upgrading to the recommended version, we make sure that our catalyst center has the latest security patches and thus we reduce the risk of potential breaches and enter attacks. Except from security, we also have improved reliability.00:39And this comes with the recommended versions that have passed rigorous testing and validation and they are considered stable and reliable. As it happens with hardware, software versions also reads an end of support date.00:54Cisco provides support for the recommended releases, the current recommended software releases, but the older versions are it's end of software maintenance releases date at some point. And for those versions, the versions that are end of support, that will not be able to assist.01:11And will request an upgrade. Furthermore, if you are several releases behind, you may need to upgrade in more than one phases. To avoid such a case, you want to have a release that is supported and there is NO better release than the recommended version.01:29And you achieve that by upgrading your system frequently. As for new features in release 23710, we have a better visibility and control for our device configurations. We have 3rd party device support for me too. We have enhancements in the software image management.01:45Process where you can now upgrade devices sequentially and in parallel. We have analytics for events occurred in catalyst center, enhancements in land automation and a lot more and even more new features are coming with the release of version three.one, which is expected soon.02:05To conclude, we upgrade our systems, not because our manager asked us to do it, not because we have some free time, but because it is essential for the security, the reliability and the support of our system, and brings more features that enhance and then reach our capabilities to manage our network effectively.02:26To find more information, please visit our community page for expert inside series where you can watch recordings of previous sessions on various topics around and also register for upcoming events. If you would like to talk to a customer success specialist, please send us an email and we will contact you.02:43And if you want to upgrade your catalyst center, you can watch the next video. Thank you for watching.03:02