If I were cooking lobster risotto for the first time, I probably wouldn’t just leave it to trial and error, hoping for the best. I would go to my favorite website for recipes that had already been tested by fellow home chefs. It’d either be that or order pizza again.
So, when it comes to networks, wouldn’t it be great if there was a similar resource—a place you could tap into to find successful “recipes” for building your customer’s network without having to start from scratch?
Well, there actually is a resource available to Cisco partners and it’s free! Cisco SMART Designs is a portfolio of validated and replicable network solutions, optimized to meet the needs of Cisco partners serving small business customers with up to 250 users. By removing the guesswork from building the right network for your customers, you can make your operation more profitable and help protect your customers’ investments.
If that isn’t enough to convince you to tap into this free resource, how about this fun fact?
Select partners worldwide using Cisco SMART Designs have 52 percent higher average quarterly bookings than those who don’t.
Ready to get started? Read on to learn more about the benefits of using Cisco SMART Designs and how to access this free resource today. Read More »
Q: My company has been trying to figure out how we can do better at connecting our remote users to our main site, as well as making our other location seem like it’s right next door. Any advice?
As many of you know Cisco Live UK will soon be held at the end of this month – that’s from January 30th through Feb 3rd in London. Cisco Live is actually Cisco’s flagship event of the year for customers and partners and offers an unparalleled combination of education and training on the latest technologies and industry trends.
This year, we’re going to have a major presence with our very own Cisco Industrial Solutions Booth. Targeted at manufacturers in industries like Automotive, Food & Beverage and Consumer Packaged Goods, as well as organizations in Transportation, Oil and Gas, and utilities like Water and Waste Water Treatment, the booth will showcase our capabilities in industrial networking, wireless networks, collaboration and more.
On several recent occasions, in discussions with my customers, colleagues and industry peers, the importance of the network, as it relates to Cloud Computing and Data Centers, has been challenged. I am surprised that such a topic is even up for debate ! In my opinion, the underlying network infrastructure of any given Data Center is the architectural foundation for service and application strategy; be it Cloud Computing, Virtual Desktops, Video or even Hosting services.
If we look at a broader scale, no one can argue the complexity and at the same time, the intelligence the modern Internet brings to it’s consumers. How would enterprises and service providers alike, offer converged services like voice, video and data without any network intelligence ? Not to mention, security, application scaling and other managed services. Networks are no longer the traditional packet switching platforms, it’s the heart and soul of intelligence which integrates with other intelligent applications to differentiate the multitude of services that can be enabled over a common medium. As application requirements are increasingly becoming complex, the need for equally smarter transport is critical.
Virtualization is bringing a whole new perspective to this discussion. It’s true you can account for network, compute and storage virtualization within a given solution; virtual switch, virtual machine, virtual firewall, virtual load-balancer, etc.; but how far can we abstract the network ? One can absolutely argue, Cloud Computing is server/compute resource centric, however for most enterprises, when you combine this compute structure with application workload requirements from business, technology and operations perspectives, suddenly the foundation architecture plays a crucial role -- i.e. the network and it’s interconnects.
I was at a technology conference in London late last year, and the topic was mobility – and, inevitably, BYOD: bring your own device.
The mobility evangelists (and they dominated the four-person panel) waxed poetic as to all the fabulous things that iPhone- and Android-armed employees could bring to the business. Rich content! Social networking! Collaboration! Meeting each other for lunch!
Then a grouchy American analyst walked to the podium, and growled two words: “Data Security.”
And silence fell like a thick blanket over the room.
BYOD is one of technology’s topics du jour, an issue that will create a few tons of PowerPoint and a fresh revenue line for consulting firms in the next 18-24 months.
Cynicism aside, it’s a very important issue – and not just for ICT shops. And, it’s an issue that will be easily misunderstood.
Yes, BYOD is about data security. Yes, there’s a need for hard and high corporate security walls. Clearly-stated rules. And devout attention to PCI.
But beyond that, let’s pause and reflect.
BYOD is not about the devices. The devices will continue to evolve at Moore’s Law speed, and the stuff the kids are bringing into the office today will be obsolete by the time your new policies reach the governance committee.
Truth be told, BYOD is about the big tech-driven generational change in expectations and behavior. It’s about the new normal of life with the Internet. Life in the Internet.
It’s about Millennials who use technology like I use a knife and fork. It’s about a tsunami wave flooding every phase of business life – from the headquarters office to the distribution center to the store.
And this tsunami will not just touch devices. It will drive change in the cloud content that employees will use. It will drive change in their willingness to sit in cubes (versus do the work at home or at Starbucks or wherever there’s a fast wireless pipe). It will drive change in their expectations for interaction and participation, for education and training.
It will even touch the glowing third rail of data security. (As this is the generation of Wiki-Leaks and unbridled transparency on Facebook.)
If I were cooking lobster risotto for the first time, I probably wouldn’t just leave it to trial and error, hoping for the best. I would go to my favorite website for recipes that had already been tested by fellow home chefs. It’d either be that or order pizza again.
