Optus validates Cisco Live Protect on 8000 Series routers, claims world first

Optus has validated Cisco's Live Protect on Cisco 8000 Series routers and describes itself as the first telecommunications provider worldwide to do so. According to Optus, the technology puts targeted protections onto network gear without a restart. The carrier said the aim is to shield infrastructure from potential vulnerabilities in the period before a permanent software fix has cleared testing.

Optus said its existing testing and change management processes stay in place, and that it expects to shorten the time needed to get protections across its national network. In editors' notes, the company said Live Protect is meant to sit alongside current patching and software lifecycle processes, not replace them. CIO Monitor observed that the announcement offered no deployment timelines, no count of affected routers and no measured cut in patch lead time.

Optus chief technology officer Sri Amirthalingam said the capability lets the carrier split the job of protecting the network from the job of delivering a permanent update. He said the time a permanent fix takes "should not determine how long we wait before applying a protective measure". Amirthalingam said AI is shrinking the time available to respond but not simplifying a national network, and that compressing testing can bring about the very disruption operators want to avoid. "Customers should not have to choose between a network that remains up to date and one that stays available," he said.

The work falls under Optus' IP network modernisation partnership with Cisco and follows close to a year of activity across 5G, spectrum, AI and automation. Optus has also validated Live Protect on Cisco Nexus 9000 Series switches in production. Andy Schutz, Cisco's vice president of product management, called the validation "great confirmation of our strategy". Schutz said current software lifecycle and patching practices would not hold up in the new era of AI.

Optus and Cisco expect to extend validation next to Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) Series routers. That phase is intended to cut manual deployment steps while retaining the operational checks used to manage changes, though CIO Monitor said no date was given. Cisco also noted that some products and features mentioned are in development and may be delivered on a when-and-if-available basis.