2012 - Page 4 of 30 - Cisco Blogs

December 19, 2012 Leave a Comment

From Hudson River to Data Center : When Teamwork, Process and Respect Save the Day .

This is my first year as an attendee at the Gartner DC conference. I’ve been here once before working demos on the tradeshow floor, but this year it’s purely about information gathering. Tradeshows floors are great. You get to wander around and chat with a captive audience of your industry peers, partners, and “frenemies” collecting pens and light up bouncy balls. Based on where the swag really ends up, I think the pen purchasers really need to start thinking about logo branded crayon packs. But there is so much to learn in the conferences even in the most unexpected sessions.

My primary take aways from the initial keynotes were that Hadoop is a strong early adoption application candidate for cloud in a non-virtual context (Hadoop in the data center was recently covered in Jason Rapp’s blog) , that commodity compute is the leader in cloud computing (I cried a little on the inside with this one), and that personnel development and team building/creation is one of the biggest factors in an IT success story.

For day one the celebrity keynote was from Captain Chesley Sullenberger which seemed out of place before listening to him. His talk about teamwork, process, and respect leading to his success in pulling off that harrowing landing on the Hudson spanned well from the people aspect of organizations, and was a very enjoyable listen.

These take aways seem to me even more critical as IT organizations have to quickly evolve their data centers to meet demanding business requirements, without expecting additional resources .

Gartner does a very nice job of interactive polling within their conference. For the starting keynote the audience poll (~2,000?) revealed that budgets edging up, but for the greatest number of attendees are mainly flat.

It seems that 34% of the audience has to deal with a flat budget, 20% of the attendees benefit from a marginal increase (<5%), and 14% experience a small decrease (<5%)

Talking about data center evolution, as a Cisco guy, I had absolutely to attend (by choice ) David Yen’s presentation. David is our Sr VP & GM in charge of our DC Technology Group, so he’s the big picture for anything Cisco in the Data Center. He is a Phd, with a very large experience in compute, applications and network, acquired through executive role at Sun Microsystems, Juniper and Cisco. David’s talk was about the evolution of the data center and the relevance of Cisco -You may want to check the blog from Giuliano Di Vitantonio, VP Marketing Data Center and Cloud with slides and videos “ The Evolving Data Center : Perspectives from the Gartner DC Conferences” In his presentation David Yen covered some of the background for the evolution of the data center model, and the gains to be expected in the fabric model we see through Fabric Path in optimization of the new East/West data patterns.

This all has a strong relationship to our Unified Computing System solution. Which as a server platform “loaded with features ” might be perceived at some disadvantage in comparison to commodity compute, we’re happy to see that in reality our customers have placed us at #3 in datacenter compute world wide, and #2 in the US for an implementation that is only three years into the market, thanks to providing strong management capabilities, system agility, and dynamic integrated network functionality, as well as great TCO. As proof points , you may want to check Bill Shields blogs on this topic, but also the Cisco Buil& Price website with promotions of the month.

This Conference gave me also the opportunity to discuss other “more technical ” topics such as security for cloud and virtual services.
So stay tuned, as I will be back in January for additional conversations.

Ramesh Isaac

Technical Marketing Engineer

Advanced Systems Solutions Architecture

December 18, 2012 Leave a Comment

The path to mature Infrastructure and Operations is through culture?

Ben Del Vento

As the Gartner Data Center conference in Las Vegas, NV closes, I can’t help feeling a bit of irony in bearing witness to the contrast in culture and atmosphere that this city encompasses relative to the experience many of us have interacting with Information Technology organizations today.

Moving any taboos about Vegas aside, the experience here is about an immersion into a culture of service. From the moment you step into a hotel to the moment you sit down to test your gaming fortunes, your experience is facilitated by professionals whose job it is to ensure you have a good time. Whether greeting you at the door, serving that fine cocktail or dealing your next hand of blackjack, an excellent experience is made possible by people who know how to be of service.

In contrast, many IT organizations today struggle in providing such a positive service experience to those who are seeking to use IT resources for their own productivity. Having some experience of my own in the world of hospitality, I was delighted but not surprised in observing the conference lunch staff have a plan to insure everyone who finished a session around lunch time, was fully accommodated. Each attendee was guided to the next available seat and immediately greeted with a fresh salad, ice tea and warm roll. Careful attention was paid to whether or not I want more or less of something, and if I’m ready for what’s next. Throughout lunch, I experienced a pleasant positive attitude by the attentive wait staff that satisfied my expectations.

What would it take to bring this culture of service excellence to users and organizations? Users of IT resources need the assistance and care of IT professionals so that they can be fully enabled for productivity.

Thankfully, while attending presentations around Infrastructure and Operations, I noticed an ominous theme around what it will take to mature the IT services in organizations today, the message pointed directly to a problem of culture.

In an example of how a change in culture really can transform productivity, Jarrod Green describes in his session, “Kill the IT Service Desk: Create a Business Productivity Team to Transform IT From the Grassroots”, the concept of the Business Productivity Team(BPT). Jarrod discusses business productivity teams having a singular focus on enabling business outcomes through:

1. Extending the capabilities of current and new IT resources
2. Proactive Identification to the solution to a problem
3. Understanding of and alignment with Business Challenges
4. Enabling user self sufficiency and digital literacy
5. Establishing the relationship with the business as a trusted advisor

This savvy service team sounds really excellent! But what does it look like?

It starts with someone who has knowledge of both technical and business processes. Instead of being an expert up the Ivy tower, they meet the user face to face where they are, leading them in solving their technical problems and teaching them about a new feature or way to do their work faster and smarter. Because a Business Productivity team is customer oriented, they earn the ability to influence by building partnerships and driving the consumption of features in current and new technologies that add value.

Wow, I must have stepped into an imaginary organization whose culture expects nothing less and rewards its professionals well! A pretty serious culture change is necessary in order to facilitate this unique capability.

In working with customers during services engagements, I am often asked by CIOs and IT Management how they can facilitate maturing their organization into becoming a strategic differentiator in the business they support. When focused on the evolution of customer service, support and the improvement of end-user experience I often refer to the “Fanatical” Customer Support that differentiates Rackspace in being a market leader of data center and cloud services. Rackspace’s support model encompasses the spirit of enabling productivity and success as the outcome for its customers.

We can speak endlessly about novel technologies that create all kinds of efficiencies and time saved for users. In order to get the most out of the investment in technology, an evolved IT Service desk that drives productivity and end user satisfaction is needed for that next step toward an extraordinary IT organization. Within the Operate Practice in Cisco’s Advanced Services, we strive to help customers achieve the goal of operational excellence in the planning, building and management of their IT Investments.

In my coming posts I will share more about what I think the IT organization of the future, enabled by new cloud tools and processes, will look like. More importantly, I want to bring forward what I think a proactive, inspiring and value-creating culture looks like for both IT teams and the organizations who depend on them.

Ben Del Vento

Senior Solutions Architect

Cisco Advanced Services

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To Bring Or Not to Bring?

Stacey Arthur

There’s no question, the employee-led mobility revolution has arrived. Will the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policies that must inevitably follow come soon enough?

Everyone is bringing their devices, everywhere they go. People, no matter their occupation, want to check the news, keep in touch, catch up on email, and stay productive or entertained wherever they are. So the real question for government organizations becomes, “how do we address this mobile explosion and the proliferation of employee devices?”

Many have yet to implement BYOD policies for fear of the security implications and exposing sensitive data. But what is the security risk of doing nothing? In a recent Forrester survey of 498 government employees from around the world, more than half of the respondents (57%) said their organizations provided limited or no support for employee devices and some even said their employers prohibit mobile devices outright. The survey also revealed that 3 out of 10 government workers in these situations find “alternative ways” of using their device for work.

This poses a problem for government agencies: having no policy or prohibiting devices is risky because employees are bringing and using their devices anyway.

Continue reading “To Bring Or Not to Bring?”

Stacey Arthur

Public Funding Advisor

U.S. Public Funding Office

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Journey to “Self-Healing” Enterprise Networks

Parag Parekh

Within IT & Network Process Operations community, automation started with the big hype and promise for “self-healing” solutions for systems, network, and process automation. Remember the promise of “Robotics”!? Wouldn’t it be great to have our servers, systems, and networks solve their own problems? Leading to more stable systems and networks in which system administrators and network administrators would be free to work on higher priority activities and be more productive, improving the quality of Enterprise solutions. Though it is a noble goal, IT and network process automation did not deliver its full promise but instead started us in the journey towards the goal.

There are many reasons why IT process automation solutions for network domain has not fulfilled its promise. Many people have done in-depth analysis, which can be summarized as two big inhibitors for wide-spread adoption of automation in network operations:

Need for out-of-the-box workflow templates for rapid development of network operation process automation for quick-wins
In-depth understanding of complex network implementations with domain knowledge of the Enterprise processes and industry best-practices for support

Continue reading “Journey to “Self-Healing” Enterprise Networks”

Parag Parekh

Data Center and Cloud Services

Advanced Services Product Management

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The Smartphone Gets Which Side of the Bed?

Carlos Dominguez

A whopping 90% of young people use their smartphones to help them face the day …often BEFORE they get out of bed.

Even before a cup of coffee, young people grab their smartphone. They’re checking it for emails, texts and social media updates. The phone has become as much a morning ritual as the toothbrush.

When the recent third annual Cisco Connected World Technology Report surveyed 3,600 young people ages 18-30 from 18 countries about their tech habits, we found that Gen Y’s attachment to phones continues throughout the day:

3 in 4 check their phones in bed;
More than a third check it in the bathroom (not sure which one makes me more
nervous);
46% text, email and check social media during meals;
60% say they’re ‘compulsive’ about checking their smartphones and 42% admit to feeling ‘anxious’ when disconnected;
Two-thirds say they spend the same amount — or more time — with friends online as they do in person.

My Aha! moment from this study? I may be a Boomer, but I’m not much different.

The gap between my generation and younger ones in how we use technology is getting smaller. (In fact, my smartphone is always the first thing I touch in the morning…because I use it for my alarm clock!)

Interestingly, as we older folks are getting more comfortable with technology (and seeing its value), younger people are getting less starry-eyed. For example, more than a third suspect that people present themselves differently online than in the physical world. This year’s study also found three out of four don’t trust Internet sites to keep their data private, and nearly a third are very concerned about security and identity theft.

This younger generation’s relationship with technology is really maturing. The first year we did this report, many Gen Yers were convinced that the Internet was more important than dating or having a car.

The results from Connected World are truly global. In India, for example, 96% use their smartphone first thing in the morning. Use our interactive map on cisco.com to hover over any country and get its stats. Here’s the snapshot for the U.S.

Another of the report’s interactive graphs is discovering your “data footprint” — or how much YOU are on your devices. Are you an explorer, highly connected or — like me– a super user? Go here to do the test!

Here’s another way I see myself reflected in this year’s Connected World report. For many of us, there’s no clear line between work time and personal time. Work is what we do, not where we are. I used to have two phones – one for work and one personal. Now I have one phone for both. It’s truly an integrated life.

When it comes to shopping during the holidays, many of us mix our physical world with the online world, too. Cisco’s study found 90% of the young people surveyed shop online and 58% rely on customer reviews online. Oftentimes, we go into a store, price compare on our phones (or tablets), and complete a purchase on them before we leave.

We’re in a connected world. Our phones and all our network-connected devices are becoming an intrinsic part of ourselves. Now we just have to decide which side of the bed our phone gets.

Check out all the findings from the study here on the Connected World site. As always, we’d love your comments!

Happy holidays!

Carlos

Carlos Dominguez

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Cisco NRF 2013 – Preview of Cisco BYOD Demonstration

Sarah Vanier

This is our third preview of what Cisco will be showcasing at the 102nd National Retail Federation Convention and Expo on January 14 and 15, 2013 in New York City. We’ll be showcasing Cisco Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) Smart Solution and see the technology that enables you to support mobile access that’s both easy and secure. Come learn how you can improve employee productivity and customer service with a highly secure BYOD environment. Please watch this video about the BYOD demonstration and then mark your calendar to join us at Cisco Booth #252 at NRF 2013. I look forward to seeing you there!

Sarah Vanier

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Cisco NRF 2013 – Preview of Cisco BYOD Demonstration

Sarah Vanier

This is our third preview of what Cisco will be showcasing at the 102nd National Retail Federation Convention and Expo on January 14 and 15, 2013 in New York City.

We’ll be showcasing Cisco Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) Smart Solution and see the technology that enables you to support mobile access that’s both easy and secure. Come learn how you can improve employee productivity and customer service with a highly secure BYOD environment.

Please watch this video about the BYOD demonstration and then mark your calendar to join us at Cisco Booth #252 at NRF 2013. I look forward to seeing you there!

Sarah Vanier

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Let’s Hack Some Cisco Gear at SecCon!

Omar Santos

Cisco SecCon 2012 brought together hundreds of engineers, live and virtually, from Cisco offices around the globe with one common goal: to share their knowledge and learn best practices about how to increase the overall security posture of Cisco products.

It is amazing to see how many definitions the word “hack” has out on the Internet. Just look at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hack. In short, the word “hack” does not always mean a “bad” or “malicious” action.

I’ve had the opportunity and honor to present at SecCon several times, 2012 being my fourth year. My session this year was titled “Cisco PSIRT Vulnerability Analysis: What Has Changed Since Last SecCon”. As you probably already know (or might have guessed), I’m part of Cisco’s Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT). During my talk I went over an analysis of the vulnerabilities that were discovered, driven to resolution, and disclosed during this past year, as well as lessons learned from them. I also highlighted several key accomplishments Cisco has achieved during the last few years. For example, Cisco now has the ability to correlate and patch third-party software vulnerabilities. Additionally, we have grown Cisco’s Secure Development Lifecycle (CSDL) into a robust, repeatable and measurable process. As Graham Holmes mentioned in a recent blog post:

Our development processes leverage product security baseline requirements, threat modeling in design or static analysis and fuzzing in validation, and registration of third-party software to better address vulnerabilities when they are disclosed. In the innermost layer of our products, security is built-in to devices in both silicon and software. The use of runtime assurance and protection capabilities such as Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), Object Size Checking, and execution space protections coupled with secure boot, image signing, and common crypto modules are leading to even more resilient products in an increasingly threatening environment. Continue reading “Let’s Hack Some Cisco Gear at SecCon!”

Omar Santos

Distinguished Engineer

Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) Security Research and Operations

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Cisco solves Healthcare BYOD challenges

Michelle Tschudy

Research from IDC Health Insights (Clinical Buyer Behavior Study) shows on average clinicians typically use 6.4 different mobile devices daily for professional use. Recently, I participated in a Cisco Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) workshop discussing challenges Healthcare organizations have supporting mobile devices with reliable, high performance, in-building wireless coverage while maintaining operational efficiencies. Healthcare experts from Networking, Security and IT discussed challenges facing Healthcare and various ways BYOD is defined. A common question is how to address challenges with BYOD. What recommendations does Cisco Healthcare offer in implementing BYOD? What options are available with wireless reducing security risks? What are Cisco’s best practices with BYOD maintaining compliance with regulatory policies and accreditation requirements?

Continue reading “Cisco solves Healthcare BYOD challenges”

Year: 2012

From Hudson River to Data Center : When Teamwork, Process and Respect Save the Day .

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