Cisco Security — Hypershield, XDR, Talos, and AI Defense

Cisco's security business hit $1.95B in Q4 FY25 (+9% YoY) and added 750 new customers in a single quarter on Hypershield, XDR, and AI Defense. Combined with Talos (one of the largest commercial threat-intelligence teams in the world) and the Splunk integration, security has become one of Cisco's two main growth engines alongside AI networking. Candidates should understand how the pieces fit together — even non-security roles will be expected to grasp the strategy.