Leonardo and Cisco Systems have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the aim of scaling up their mutual business relations and launching a structured collaboration in the civil and defence industry domains.

Within the framework of the MoU, activities will be carried out with the aid of dedicated working groups to periodically and jointly identify business opportunities and areas of technical cooperation that can meet market demands, particularly in the sectors of cyber security, secure networking, Internet-of-Things, the digital workplace and cloud edge computing.

Amongst other things, the agreement provides for the development of potential integrated solutions based on the two players’ specific and distinctive technological capabilities, with a view to proposing appropriate solutions for market needs.

Detailed roadmaps will be drawn up for specific technology areas, such as quantum cryptography, the green transition and security solutions for logistics and transport, enabled using drones and advanced urban security systems.

The MoU also embraces the possibility of joint commercial offerings, via a process of analysing existing products and solutions aimed at national and international markets, in order to broaden the business opportunities and the audience of potential customers for both players.

Finally, under the agreement, Leonardo and Cisco commit to guaranteeing each other reciprocal commercial advantages on proposals previously identified by the two companies that will be finalised in a series of strategic programs.

To optimise the joint activity governed by the MoU, a steering committee will be set up to monitor the progress of the partnership and evaluate the overall performance of the collaboration. In turn, the steering committee will set up specific working groups to concretely pursue the joint business opportunities that have been identified.