As you modernize your buildings, the network sits at the center of that transformation. Whether your priority is ultra-reliable high-density connectivity, IoT at scale, indoor navigation, asset tracking, occupancy analytics, sustainability, the decisions you make today will shape your buildings for the next decade. Cisco is doubling down on its commitment to help customers future-proof their workplaces while refreshing their network. At the forefront of this effort is Cisco’s Smart Spaces Stack, which integrates Cisco infrastructure like Wi-Fi 7 Access Points, Cisco Switches, the Cisco Collaboration Device portfolio, and the Cisco Spaces software platform. Together, these components redefine how physical spaces operate, turning Cisco endpoints into intelligent sensors.

Introducing the Smart Spaces Stack

Watch Cisco Spaces VP, Product Management, unveil the Smart Spaces Stack in this brand new webinar

The Smart Spaces Stack, unveiled recently by Rajesh Reddy, VP of Product Management, is designed to empower businesses with a comprehensive, integrated solution that reduces costs, simplifies management, and strengthens security- all without the complexity of additional hardware, multiple vendors, or parallel networks that burden IT teams. We’ve reinvented every layer of the stack – from the infrastructure capabilities and deployment approach to the middleware that powers it and the outcomes it delivers. The Smart Spaces stack includes…

1. Cisco Infrastructure as the foundation

Cisco Wi-Fi Access Points | Cisco Collaboration Devices | Cisco sensors | Third-party sensors + Network design validation & use case deployment support​

Smart spaces are built on a robust Cisco foundation – best in class networking infrastructure (Catalyst, Meraki) and sensors, and Cisco Collaboration Devices, as well as third-party IoT devices. ​

  • ​Our Wi-Fi 7 access points are not only top-tier networking devices; they also function as real-time location and occupancy sensors and serve as gateways for a wide array of IoT devices. ​
  • ​Cisco collaboration devices provide advanced room-level sensing for occupancy, air quality, temperature, humidity, desk utilization, and space reservation. ​
  • ​Cisco switches also double as sensors and deliver power (UPOE) to wired IoT devices. Meraki MT sensors monitor environmental conditions such as air quality, temperature, and CO₂. ​
  • Complementing these capabilities is our open ecosystem of third-party IoT sensors, all of which seamlessly integrate with Cisco network infrastructure without requiring any overlay gateways – to deliver a range of use cases.
  • In addition, to guide your through deployment, the Smart Spaces Studio recommends which devices to purchase at what density​ while the Smart Spaces Copilot works with your teams to validate the network design for smart spaces use cases.

This level of guidance and automation has never been available in the industry—and it’s now part of the Cisco Smart Spaces Stack.​ With this, you can deploy with full confidence—choosing from medium-density configurations (ideal for Wi-Fi location, BLE, and OpenRoaming use cases) or high-density configurations (for granular UWB-based location accuracy and indoor navigation 2.0). Explore the Studio here.  

2. The Spaces OS, deployed, secured & managed by IT

Connect People & Things  | Digitize your Spaces  | Analytics into spaces, people & things ​

The Cisco Spaces OS is the ultimate platform for your buildings — connecting people, devices, and physical spaces, while providing robust analytics to ensure smarter, safer, and more efficient environments. Deployed, secured, and managed by IT, the Spaces OS acts as the operating system for your buildings and is powered by four key building blocks:

​1. Connect & onboard people:
The first step to making a building smarter for its ‘people’ is to provide high-speed, seamless connectivity. Spaces offers three powerful ways to achieve this: Enable secure, automatic Wi-Fi and roaming via OpenRoaming, ensuring effortless connectivity for users. Use the Spaces SDK to auto-onboard app users and deliver personalized experiences. Authenticate and onboard users through Captive Portals while capturing visitor data and integrating it with your CRM for deeper insights. By offloading traffic from cellular to Wi-Fi, you can reduce dependency on Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) and lower operational costs.

2. Connect & onboard things:
Once your people are connected, the next step is connecting and onboarding the ‘things’ inside your buildings. You have more IoT devices in your workplace today than ever before – all running on your network. How do you connect them all securely and reliably? Cisco Spaces integrates a wide range of Cisco and third-party IoT devices — from occupancy and environmental sensors to asset tags and beacons – enabling you to connect, onboard, manage and monitor all devices through a single platform. By leveraging Cisco infrastructure as gateways, Spaces offers simplified IoT management, without the complexity of shadow networks or overlay gateways.

3. Digitize buildings:
It’s great to have your people and things connected – but the next question is, where are they inside the building? To truly understand context, you need to digitize your physical spaces with maps. That’s where Cisco Spaces’ AI Maps and Location Metadata comes in to automatically create a digital twin of your buildings. These intelligent maps provide real-time spatial context, and provide a 3D view of your space, making it possible to visualize occupancy, deliver navigation, overlay asset locations, air quality, and more.

4. Understand behavior:
The Spaces OS collects data from all connected people, devices and sensors, then normalizes and processes it through powerful location and data engines, feeding insights into a suite of Cisco Spaces and ecosystem partner applications. By understanding how people and things move, interact, and behave within buildings, organizations can design smarter experiences, optimize space utilization, save energy and make data-driven decisions that enhance both efficiency and well-being.

3. Outcomes delivered by Spaces & ecosystem apps

Indoor Navigation | Asset Tracking | Occupancy Analytics | Sustainability & more, across industry verticals & business teams

Cisco Spaces, combined with its ecosystem of apps, empowers organizations to achieve transformative results across experience, efficiency, and analytics, catering to various industry verticals and business teams. Whether you aim to enhance individual interactions, optimize operations, or unlock meaningful insights from data, Cisco Spaces and its suite of applications — native Spaces apps, ecosystem partner apps and the Spaces API — enable businesses to maximize their potential.

1. Experience: Enable innovative and personalized experiences for employees, customers, visitors, patients, and guests through solutions like…

  • Indoor Navigation: Seamless wayfinding in complex environments like hospitals, corporate campuses.
  • Smart Rooms: That automatically adjust ventilation based on occupancy to ensure sufficient air flow and comfortable meeting spaces.
  • Smart Desking: Empower hybrid workers to easily locate and reserve available workstations from anywhere.
  • Wi-Fi Onboarding: Frictionless connectivity that also allows you to deliver secure and personalized digital engagements.
  • Personalized Engagement: Real-time, contextual interaction with users to boost satisfaction and meet their needs effortlessly.

2. Efficiency: Optimize the operational performance of teams across IT, real estate, facility management, and sustainability initiatives using…

  • Asset Tracking: Monitor and locate high-value equipment across your facility.
  • Sustainable Smart Rooms: That power down automatically when unoccupied, ensuring energy-efficiency and sustainability.
  • Patient & Staff Safety: Leverage real-time location tracking to enhance patient safety and provide staff with panic buttons for faster emergency response in healthcare environments.
  • Rogue Device Detection: Maintain secure networks by identifying and managing unauthorized devices.

3. Analytics: Unlock valuable, actionable insights to improve business decisions and operational strategy through rich data visualizations:

  • Space Utilization Analytics: Maximize the use of real estate by analyzing historical occupancy data and trends.
  • Real-time Occupancy Analytics & Heatmaps: Understand how people are using your physical space, with real-time occupancy analytics and heatmaps.
  • Environmental Analytics: Monitor temperature, humidity, and air quality to ensure safe and comfortable spaces.
  • Location Personas: Gain insight into user preferences and behavior for enhanced personalization.
  • Visitor Trends: Measure footfall data to assess business performance and customer engagement.

New Product Innovations: Unlocking Industry Opportunities

Built on the core capabilities of the Smart Spaces Stack, Cisco Spaces is bringing a wave of product innovations to tackle industry-specific challenges. These new solutions are built on the stack’s robust foundation to deliver significant enhancements across sectors.

>> Indoor Navigation 2.0 & AI Maps for Healthcare

Patients already have enough to worry about in a hospital – finding their way through it shouldn’t be one of them. Indoor Navigation 2.0 reimagines wayfinding in healthcare with AI-powered maps that make navigation simple, accurate, and stress-free. Cisco Spaces leverages Cisco wireless access points to provide interactive 3D maps and step-by-step directions, guiding patients and visitors easily from parking to appointments or between departments. The results? Fewer missed appointments, smoother patient flow, and more on-time arrivals – driving better patient experiences, optimized operations, measurable revenue recovery, and higher hospital ratings. By reducing missed appointments and late arrivals, Indoor Navigation 2.0 can recover up to ~$752K in revenue – all while making every visit easier and more stress-free for patients. Read the full ROI report here.

>> Workspaces

Cisco Spaces is redefining hybrid work environments through innovations under its Smart Workspaces solution.

  1. Space Explorer web: Now available on desktop and mobile in addition to kiosks, it lets employees quickly find rooms, desks, and points of interest, boosting efficiency and helping optimize the workplace experience.
  2. Smart Desking: Wandering the office in search of a free desk is a thing of the past. Just log in to the Space Explorer Web App, find a desk, and book it in seconds. Now you can come to the office knowing a desk is ready and waiting – making hybrid work seamless and letting employees focus on what really matters.
  3. New & improved UI for the Space Explorer kiosk: Customize it with your logo and enjoy a more intuitive interface.
  4. SDK & Android Mobile App for Indoor Navigation​.

>> Venues

Cisco Spaces’ Smart Venues solution is getting a few interesting upgrades, too.

  • OpenRoaming on Meraki: OpenRoaming is now available on Meraki enabling seamless, secure Wi-Fi onboarding.
  • Carrier Offload on AT&T, T-Mobile (​Verizon coming soon): This means you can reduce costs by avoiding expensive Distributed Antenna Systems DAS systems and offering seamless connectivity for visitors. ​Cisco Spaces’ OpenRoaming allows you to bypass the need for costly DAS, by delivering a carrier-grade experience over your existing Wi-Fi infrastructure – no extra hardware is required. This results in lower capital and operational expenses, faster time to value and a superior experience for all your visitors​.

Ready to transform your space?

Businesses of all sizes, across industries, are already benefiting from Cisco Spaces. Whether transforming a hospital with accurate asset tracking, creating seamless customer journeys in retail spaces, or revolutionizing hybrid workplaces, Cisco is unlocking new opportunities with its technology.

Start your journey today and see how Cisco Spaces can turn your building into a Smart Space! Visit spaces.cisco.com to discover more and the Smart Spaces Hub to explore the latest tools and resources.