In today’s hyperconnected healthcare environments, the convergence of IT, IoT, and OT systems has created a complex digital ecosystem—one that’s increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats. Traditional IT security tools often fall short when it comes to identifying and protecting the vast array of connected medical devices and operational technologies that power modern hospitals. As a result, integrated cybersecurity solutions have become essential, not just for safeguarding data, but for ensuring patient safety and uninterrupted clinical operations.
Enter Cylera and Cisco: two platforms that, when combined, offer a powerful, complementary approach to securing healthcare’s most critical assets. Cylera brings deep, context-aware visibility into IoT and IoMT devices, while Cisco’s Identity Services Engine (ISE) delivers robust network access control and segmentation. Additionally, integrations with Cisco Catalyst Center (formerly DNA Center) and Cisco Prime Infrastructure extend this value by enabling centralized network and device management, policy-based segmentation, and real-time analytics. These integrations allow healthcare organizations to unify device intelligence with network orchestration, streamlining operations, accelerating threat response, and supporting zero-trust security principles.
Together, these capabilities empower healthcare systems with real-time asset discovery, automated policy enforcement, and risk-based segmentation, enhancing not only security posture but also operational efficiency and clinical continuity. In the sections that follow, let’s explore how this partnership delivers measurable value across the healthcare cybersecurity landscape.
Cylera Platform Overview
Cylera’s platform is purpose-built for the complexities of healthcare IoT and connected medical devices, offering deep, passive visibility without disrupting clinical workflows. Using agentless deep packet inspection (DPI) and machine learning, Cylera continuously discovers and profiles every device on the network—whether known or unknown—capturing granular details such as device type, manufacturer, operating system, communication patterns, and clinical context. This real-time inventory forms the foundation for dynamic monitoring and risk assessment across the entire connected ecosystem.
What sets Cylera apart is its ability to contextualize device behavior and vulnerabilities in a way that’s actionable for both security operations and clinical engineering teams. The platform correlates threat intelligence, vulnerability data, and device usage patterns to generate automated risk scores and identify indicators of compromise (IOCs). It also maps device dependencies and potential service impacts, enabling teams to prioritize remediation based on clinical criticality, not just technical severity. This unified view bridges the gap between cybersecurity and patient care, empowering stakeholders to make informed decisions that protect both infrastructure and outcomes.
Cisco Network and Security Platforms
As healthcare organizations modernize their infrastructure, the need for intelligent, policy-driven network security has never been greater. Cisco’s suite of network and security platforms plays a pivotal role in enabling zero-trust architectures, dynamic segmentation, and real-time visibility across complex clinical environments. When integrated with Cylera’s specialized IoT and medical device intelligence, these platforms become even more powerful—bridging the gap between device context and network enforcement.
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is the cornerstone of Cisco’s identity-based network access control strategy. It enables dynamic policy enforcement based on user identity, device type, and contextual attributes, ensuring that only authorized devices and users can access specific network segments. With support for Cisco TrustSec, ISE simplifies microsegmentation by applying scalable security group tags (SGTs) that follow devices across the network.
When integrated with Cylera, Cisco ISE gains enriched asset intelligence, including detailed device profiles, clinical context, and risk scores. This allows healthcare organizations to create more granular access policies and automate segmentation based on real-time device behavior and criticality, which enhances both security and operational continuity.
Cisco Prime/Catalyst Center
Cisco Catalyst Center (formerly DNA Center) is Cisco’s current intent-based network management platform, offering centralized automation, assurance, and policy control across wired and wireless infrastructure. It enables IT teams to define business intent and translate it into network configurations, while continuously monitoring performance and compliance. Catalyst Center’s integration with Cylera allows for seamless orchestration of network policies based on real-time IoT and medical device insights, accelerating threat response and supporting zero-trust initiatives.
For organizations still operating on Cisco Prime Infrastructure, Cylera continues to offer full support. While Prime is no longer sold, it remains a widely used legacy platform for network management. Cylera’s compatibility ensures that healthcare systems can maintain visibility and control over their connected assets, regardless of their current Cisco deployment model.
Cylera Integration with Cisco ISE
As healthcare networks grow more complex, traditional network access control (NAC) solutions often struggle to keep pace, especially when it comes to the unmanaged, mission-critical devices that populate clinical environments. Cisco ISE is a powerful NAC platform, but its effectiveness hinges on the quality of device intelligence it receives. That’s where Cylera steps in, enriching Cisco ISE with deep, clinically contextualized insights that transform how healthcare organizations manage access, enforce segmentation, and respond to threats.
Addressing NAC Limitations in Healthcare
Traditional NAC platforms like Cisco ISE are designed to authenticate and authorize managed endpoints—laptops, desktops, and mobile devices. However, in healthcare, a significant portion of the network consists of unmanaged IoT and medical devices that lack agents, standardized identifiers, or consistent behavior patterns. This makes it difficult for NAC systems to accurately classify these assets or apply appropriate access controls, leaving critical gaps in segmentation and security.
Cylera addresses these limitations by delivering rich, passive device intelligence tailored to healthcare environments. Through deep packet inspection and machine learning, Cylera identifies and profiles every connected device, capturing clinical function, communication behavior, and risk posture. This context enables Cisco ISE to make more informed decisions about how to segment and secure devices that would otherwise remain opaque.
Integration Overview and Clinical Relevance
Cylera integrates with Cisco ISE via Cisco pxGrid, a secure, bidirectional data-sharing framework. Through this integration, Cylera shares detailed device profiles, behavioral baselines, and risk scores directly with ISE. These profiles include clinical metadata—such as modality type, department usage, and patient care relevance—providing a level of context that traditional IT tools simply can’t offer.
This clinically informed data allows ISE to enforce policies that reflect not just technical attributes, but real-world operational impact. For example, a high-risk infusion pump in an ICU can be automatically segmented from the broader network, while a low-risk imaging workstation in radiology may be granted broader access. The result is smarter, safer segmentation that aligns with both security and clinical priorities.
Automating Access Control Policy Creation
One of the most powerful outcomes of the Cylera–Cisco ISE integration is the ability to automate access control policy creation. Cylera continuously analyzes device behavior and risk, then translates that intelligence into policy recommendations that can be pushed to ISE. These policies are precise, context-aware, and aligned with clinical workflows, reducing the risk of misconfiguration or service disruption.
By bridging the gap between cybersecurity and clinical operations, Cylera empowers both IT and clinical engineering teams to collaborate on access control strategies. The result is a streamlined, error-resistant process for enforcing segmentation and protecting patient care environments without compromising usability or uptime.
Cylera Integration with Cisco Catalyst Center/Prime
As healthcare organizations strive to modernize their infrastructure while maintaining clinical continuity, the ability to unify cybersecurity intelligence with network orchestration becomes a strategic advantage. Cylera’s integration with Cisco Catalyst Center (formerly DNA Center) and Cisco Prime Infrastructure delivers just that—bridging deep medical device insights with Cisco’s powerful network management platforms. This synergy enables healthcare IT and clinical engineering teams to make faster, smarter decisions that enhance security, visibility, and operational efficiency.
Seamless API-Based Integration
Cylera integrates directly with Cisco Catalyst Center and Cisco Prime and through built-in, standards-based APIs, eliminating the need for external professional services or custom development. This machine-to-machine integration enables real-time data exchange between platforms, allowing Cylera to push enriched device intelligence into Cisco’s network management ecosystem. By automating this process, organizations reduce the risk of human error and accelerate the deployment of access control and segmentation policies.
The result is a streamlined, scalable integration that supports dynamic environments without disrupting existing workflows. Whether an organization is operating on the legacy Cisco Prime platform or has transitioned to Catalyst Center, Cylera ensures consistent, reliable interoperability.
Enhanced Device Context for Network Management
Cylera enriches Cisco’s network management platforms with clinical-grade asset intelligence that goes far beyond traditional IT attributes. This includes detailed metadata such as device type, manufacturer, firmware version, physical location, risk status, and real-time usage metrics. By feeding this context into Cisco Catalyst Center or Cisco Prime, healthcare organizations gain a more accurate and actionable view of their connected ecosystem.
This enhanced visibility improves the precision of asset inventories and strengthens segmentation strategies. For example, a high-risk ventilator in the ICU can be automatically flagged and segmented differently than a low-risk smart TV in a waiting room—ensuring that network policies reflect both technical and clinical realities.
Operational Efficiency and Optimization
Beyond security, Cylera’s integration with Cisco Catalyst Center and Cisco Prime supports broader operational goals. By providing usage metrics such as hours in use, patients served, and idle time, Cylera enables data-driven decisions around maintenance scheduling, staffing allocation, and capital planning. Facilities teams can identify underutilized devices, optimize preventive maintenance cycles, and make informed rent-versus-buy decisions based on actual clinical demand.
This level of insight also supports physical patching workflows by helping teams prioritize updates based on device criticality and usage patterns, minimizing downtime and maximizing patient care continuity. Together, Cylera and Cisco empower healthcare organizations to align cybersecurity with operational excellence.
Benefits of the Integrated Solution
In healthcare, where every second counts and every device matters, the integration of Cisco’s network security platforms with Cylera’s clinical-grade intelligence delivers a powerful advantage. This combined solution not only strengthens cybersecurity but also streamlines operations and safeguards patient care, without adding complexity to already burdened IT and clinical teams.
Enhanced Security
By combining Cisco ISE’s identity-based access control with Cylera’s deep clinical risk intelligence, healthcare organizations can dramatically reduce their attack surface. Cylera enriches ISE with real-time device profiles and risk scores, enabling dynamic segmentation that isolates high-risk or compromised devices, protecting sensitive patient data and critical systems from lateral movement and targeted attacks.
Improved Operational Efficiency
Manual NAC policy creation is time-consuming and error-prone, especially in environments with thousands of unmanaged medical devices. Cylera automates this process by translating device behavior and clinical context into precise policy recommendations, allowing IT and clinical security teams to focus on strategic initiatives rather than routine configuration tasks.
Uninterrupted Patient Care
Dynamic segmentation is only effective if it doesn’t interfere with clinical workflows. The Cylera–Cisco integrations ensure that access control policies are informed by real-world device usage and clinical criticality, allowing segmentation to occur without disrupting device availability or patient care delivery.
Cost Savings
Faster threat detection, automated policy enforcement, and optimized device utilization all contribute to measurable cost savings. By reducing time-to-remediation and minimizing the risk of costly breaches or downtime, the integrated solution helps healthcare organizations protect both their bottom line and their mission.
Support for Compliance and Zero Trust
With continuously updated device posture and behavior data, the Cylera and Cisco integrations support Zero Trust principles and regulatory compliance. For example, Cisco ISE enforces segmentation policies in real time, while Cylera ensures those policies are grounded in accurate, clinically relevant intelligence, helping organizations meet HIPAA, HITRUST, DSPT, and other security framework requirements with confidence.
Combined Value for Healthcare Organizations
The integration of Cylera with Cisco’s network and security platforms delivers more than just technical synergy—it creates a unified, intelligence-driven foundation for healthcare cybersecurity and operations. By aligning clinical context with network enforcement, this partnership empowers organizations to reduce risk, streamline workflows, and make smarter decisions across departments.
Unified Device Intelligence Across Cisco Systems
Cylera serves as a centralized intelligence layer that feeds enriched, clinically contextualized device data into Cisco’s ecosystem—including ISE, Catalyst Center, and Prime Infrastructure. This integration creates a single source of truth for asset visibility, enabling IT, security, and clinical engineering teams to operate from a shared understanding of device identity, behavior, and risk. The result is improved collaboration, reduced silos, and more consistent policy enforcement across the enterprise.
Measurable Improvements to MTTR and Risk Management
By providing accurate device location, usage patterns, and real-time risk scores, Cylera significantly accelerates mean time to respond (MTTR) during security incidents. Integrated vulnerability data—including CVEs, patch availability, and clinical impact—enables teams to prioritize remediation based on both technical severity and patient care relevance. This targeted approach reduces dwell time, limits exposure, and strengthens overall risk posture.
Business and Clinical Impact
The combined insights from Cylera and Cisco extend beyond cybersecurity, supporting strategic initiatives across finance, operations, and clinical care. From optimizing capital planning and resource allocation to ensuring device uptime and patient safety, the integration delivers measurable value across the organization. It empowers stakeholders to make data-driven decisions that align with both business objectives and clinical outcomes.
Real-World Outcomes and Use Cases
In real-world hospital environments, the integration of Cylera and Cisco has enabled security and clinical engineering teams to automate network access control (NAC) policies with unprecedented precision. For example, one large health system used Cylera’s behavioral baselining and risk scoring to identify unmanaged infusion pumps communicating outside expected parameters. This intelligence was shared with Cisco ISE via pxGrid, triggering automated segmentation policies that isolated the devices without disrupting care—reducing manual policy creation time by over 60% and improving response time to potential threats.
In another case, a regional hospital leveraged Cylera’s integration with Cisco Catalyst Center to enrich its network inventory with clinical-grade metadata, revealing dozens of legacy imaging systems that had been overlooked in prior audits. With Cylera’s real-time usage metrics and vulnerability data, the hospital prioritized patching based on clinical impact and device criticality, reducing its exposure to known CVEs while maintaining uptime for essential diagnostic services. These outcomes underscore how the combined solution not only strengthens cybersecurity and compliance, but also supports uninterrupted patient care and smarter resource allocation.
Unified Cybersecurity and Operational Resilience for Healthcare
The integration of Cylera and Cisco delivers a powerful, scalable solution purpose-built for the complexities of healthcare environments. By combining Cylera’s deep device visibility and clinical context with Cisco’s robust network access control and orchestration platforms, healthcare organizations gain a unified approach to risk-based segmentation, automated policy enforcement, and operational efficiency. This joint solution not only strengthens cybersecurity and compliance, but also supports uninterrupted patient care and smarter resource allocation, bridging the gap between IT, security, and clinical operations.
Unlock Greater Value from Your Current Cyber and IT Investments
Cylera’s IoT integrations are designed to seamlessly enhance your existing cybersecurity, asset management, and network infrastructure by enriching them with clinical-grade intelligence and real-time device context. Whether you're using CMMS, ITSM, NAC, or vulnerability management platforms, Cylera’s plug-and-play interoperability ensures your tools work smarter, not harder, by delivering deeper visibility, faster response, and more informed decision-making. See how leading healthcare organizations are already benefiting on the Customer Success Highlights page, explore Cylera’s full integration ecosystem, or request a personalized demo to experience the value firsthand.
