Ask any business in any industry: If your network infrastructure goes down, business comes to a halt. It is the lifeblood of all communications, data transmission, storage, and even application services that your business relies on daily. That is why Phil Murphy of Forrester Research claims that IT spends 80 percent of its budget to keep the lights on. That high cost comes from companies throwing money at the most expensive hardware, the newest box with lots of blinking lights, and a high-priced staff that needs to be specially trained in the various components that keep the network infrastructure chugging along.

Yet by going with a proven leader in network infrastructure solutions like Cisco, you can get a better return on those dollars spent and focus less on outages and more toward strategic planning and growth. The reason: Cisco has proven benefits that make it a leader in its space.

1. Training and certification for IT professionals

Those who work with Cisco products and have been certified have received one of the highest levels of training that the IT industry has to offer. Not only are the Cisco certifications highly regarded by other IT professionals, but those who undergo the training for these exams have demonstrated hands-on knowledge of the products through configuration, maintenance, and troubleshooting. The training they receive is not like some other certifications where you can read a book and take a test.

2. Cisco ONE makes operating software easy

The hardware that powers your network infrastructure all requires operating system software so that it can do its job. Cisco ONE allows you to buy software for your data center, wide area network (WAN), and access domains with the freedom to deploy this software on both physical and virtual machines. And because these licenses are portable and not tied to any specific hardware, they make it much easier for your company to grow, whether you need to expand access, the WAN, or the data center capabilities.

3. Cisco takes security seriously

Each and every component on your network provides attackers with a point of entry into your systems. Unfortunately, if attackers are able to successfully circumvent perimeter security controls like firewalls, intrusion prevention, and intrusion detection, their activity becomes much harder to spot. Cisco helps you detect anomalies in network traffic by embedding intelligent sensors and enforcers into the switches, routers, and wireless solutions that make up your network infrastructure in order to give you enhanced visibility and a better opportunity to spot things that aren’t right.

For years, Cisco has been one of the most trusted names in networking technology. As it continues to expand its portfolio of products, it focuses on providing its users with tools that allow them to grow their network infrastructure, connect with cloud applications and services, and make sure that security is at the forefront of what they do. By partnering with a professional team that understands how to design, implement, and support network infrastructure solutions and relying on top-of-class tools in order to build that network, you can worry less about downtime, crashes, and bottlenecks and focus more on your business.