Cisco and Teleport Team Up on Identity-Aware Infrastructure

Cisco Systems has announced a strategic partnership with Teleport to bring identity-aware infrastructure to the enterprise. This move is part of Cisco's fourth identity-focused deal in four months, following its acquisition of Astrix Security and updates to Duo IAM and its Splunk-based Agentic SOC platform.

The partnership centers around 'Infrastructure Identity', a cryptographic model that replaces standing credentials with short-lived, task-scoped access for every human and machine actor. This approach aims to address the limitations of traditional identity-agnostic systems, which are no longer sufficient in an era where AI agents and other autonomous systems play a critical role in enterprise operations.

Cisco's Security Business Group SVP/GM Peter Bailey and Teleport CEO Ev Kontsevoy co-authored a blog post announcing the partnership. Kontsevoy emphasized that 'there should be no anonymous computing in critical infrastructure,' highlighting the need for Infrastructure Identity to anchor cryptographic identity to every human and machine action within the enterprise.

The initial focus of the partnership will be on privileged access for network and infrastructure administrators, giving security teams greater visibility into who accessed a resource, why access was granted, and what happened during the resulting session. Over time, the goal is to extend identity context beyond traditional network information such as IP addresses, allowing organizations to apply identity-based policies deeper within their infrastructure.