NFL and Cisco gain yardage with network and security partnership

The National Football League (NFL) has been working on expanding beyond its US national home, with London now an almost permanent fixture for some teams, as it looks to bolster its operations across a growing slate of international games. This includes games in London, as well as matchups in São Paulo and Munich in 2024, and then Madrid in 2025.

To help with this expansion, the NFL has reached out to Cisco to provide enterprise networking and cyber security solutions to connect and protect the NFL International Games.

Founded in 1920, the NFL is America’s most popular sports league, comprising 32 franchises that compete each year to win the Super Bowl, the world’s biggest annual sporting event.

The league believes that it has developed the model for the successful modern sports competitions, including national and international distribution, extensive revenue sharing, competitive excellence and strong franchises.

Since 2021, Cisco has served as the official enterprise networking partner and an official cyber security partner of the NFL, connecting and protecting the league and its operations. Every NFL stadium’s replay control room is built on Cisco technology and connected back to the Art McNally Gameday Central in New York via a Cisco network. Nearly all of the league’s official partners and two-thirds of NFL stadiums rely on Cisco technology, including Levi’s Stadium and SoFi Stadium – sites of the Super Bowl LX and LXI, respectively.

Through the new agreement, the NFL will continue to rely on the same technology and expertise used for the Super Bowl, NFL Draft and NFL Kickoff, including switching for networking, as well as a combination of on-premise hardware and cloud-based software from the Cisco security portfolio.

The two parties said that they are putting a networking and cyber security playbook play book onto the field that they have developed over the past several years, encompassing networking, security and observability expertise and solutions.

The NFL’s growing international operations will also use the playbook, with solutions including switching for networking, and a combination of on-premise hardware and cloud-based software from the Cisco Security portfolio. This includes Cisco Umbrella, Cisco XDR, Cisco Firepower and Cisco Secure Malware Analytics. Cisco’s CX services team continues to support the NFL from deployment to monitoring and troubleshooting in real time.

“Cisco has been a trusted partner of the NFL for many years, providing the networking and cyber security technology that we rely on to connect and protect our biggest events, as well as our daily operations,” said NFL chief information officer Gary Brantley. “As we continue to expand our presence globally, Cisco’s proven track record in delivering on the biggest stages, in constantly evolving, digital environments, allows us to execute with confidence.”

For its international games, the NFL said that it requires a technological infrastructure that prioritises simplicity, visibility, reliability and protection. The secure firewall helps the NFL with end-to-end visibility, simplified security management and network segmentation across distributed and hybrid networks, while Cisco XDR will allow the league to investigate, prioritise and remediate the highest priority incidents with AI-enhanced speed, efficiency and decisiveness.

The solutions saw use as part of an integrated, end-to-end deployment at Super Bowl LVIII February 2024, when they are said to have successfully blocked 39,000 security intelligence events and 354,000 connections to or from blacklisted areas of the world, ensuring 100% network uptime to keep the game and all its operations running smoothly.

“The NFL International Games presents an enormous opportunity for the NFL, so we are proud to be the partner they trust to deliver the connectivity and security required to operate globally,” added Rob McQueen, vice-president of global sponsorships at Cisco. “Failure is not an option in these dynamic, high-pressure environments, and Cisco technology continues to deliver for the biggest leagues, teams, events and stadiums everywhere.”