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Unless you did all your Holiday shopping online this season, you no doubt experienced the nuisance of trying to find a parking spot. In San Carlos, this was becoming an issue beyond just frustration. Businesses were worried about losing customers due to the lack of parking availability. The city took action using Internet of Everything (IoE) technology and came up with “smart parking.”

The idea is simple: install sensors in each parking spot that can detect when a vehicle is present or not. Motorists who have installed the smart parking app on their smart device have visibility into available parking spots in the vicinity.

But why stop with parking? The use of sensory devices can be implemented in many other areas of city improvement as well, such as prevention in sewer problems, traffic lights, and more. Simply by detecting an issue, city maintenance crews can be dispatched to solve the issue before it becomes a bigger problem.

To see smart parking in action, watch this short video.



Authors

Adrian den Hartog

Senior Marketing Manager

Field Marketing US Commercial

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Due to the tremendous amount of data generated daily from fields such as business, research, and sciences, big data is everywhere and represents huge opportunities to those who can use it effectively. In the past, this information was simply ignored and opportunities were missed. Realizing the great importance of big data, organizations scramble to find hidden information buried in big data and try to make the best use of it. I have recently contributed to a reference book titled Big Data Management, Technologies, and Applications published with IGI Global that provides the most up-to-date, crucial, and practical information for big data management, technologies, and applications. My chapter contribution titled “A Review of System Benchmark Standards and a Look Ahead Towards an Industry Standard for Benchmarking Big Data Workloads”, looks into techniques to measure the effectiveness of hardware and software platforms dealing with big data.

For additional information on this chapter, including a full abstract, visit the chapter website: http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/a-review-of-system-benchmark-standards-and-a-look-ahead-towards-an-industry-standard-for-benchmarking-big-data-workloads/85466. Also see contribution from my colleague Kapil Bakshi, titled Technologies for Big Data.



Authors

Raghunath Nambiar

No Longer with Cisco

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As we come to the end of 2013, there is a lot to look back at, and still more to look forward to in 2014.  Last year I speculated whether 2012 was the year of converged infrastructure and all indications are that it was true.  I was at the Gartner Data Center conference in Las Vegas earlier this month, where they referred to converged infrastructure as Fabric-based infrastructure, and expect it to become mainstream within 2-5 years.

As I look back at 2013, some of the big events, from a UCS and management perspective were:

  1. Cisco entered the ranks of the top 5 server vendors with the UCS.
  2. The virtual UCS community started a monthly UCS Tech talk series.
  3. Cloupia was renamed Cisco UCS Director, and won the Storage, Virtualization and Cloud (SVC) 2013 product of the year award
  4. Cisco extended the innovative concept of the UCS Service profiles and introduced Application Centric Infrastructure.
  5. Updated version of the Cisco UCS Manager (2.2) was released this month

Interestingly at the Gartner conference, data center automation was a topic of great interest and many sessions were dedicated to it. The Cisco UCS Management portfolio products are designed specifically to automate data center operations, increase operating efficiencies and Continue reading “2013 – A year in review for UCS Management! What will 2014 bring?”



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Takeaway: The Cisco Enterprise Mobility group has stayed ahead of the competition by staying innovative and cutting edge while delivering quality, high performing products and solutions, while displaying thought leadership on major technological trends such as 802.11ac and location-based services. We use this mobility blog as a platform to deliver information straight to wireless fans and readers. Here are the top 10 most read posts in 2013.

10. Monetize Your WLAN Using Cisco Location Analytics

9.  Cisco Hacks: Notes from the CMX Hackathon

8. Looking Past the Mobile Phone

7. 802.11ac: Is Your Network Ready for Next-Gen Wi-Fi Traffic?

6. Cisco’s New Wall AP Helps Hoteliers Deliver In-Room Wi-Fi Access

5. Client Adoption for 802.11ac Wireless Technology Continue reading “Year in Review: Top 10 Mobility Blogs of 2013”



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Over the weekend I had a brief twitter chat with someone who mentioned he had been wondering ‘what the heck is IWAN?’ (I’m paraphrasing here) and hadn’t been able to find anything on it.  Besides asking the obvious – why he hadn’t asked me or @CiscoEnterprise about it – I thought I’d put together a brief on IWAN.  Here, you’ll find the top 7 items to get you started learning about IWAN.  Also, just wanted to put in a plug for Cisco Champions for Enterprise Networks – you can still nominate yourself or a colleague and one of the perks is that we’ll be making sure to do briefs and/or deep-dives on our solutions with Cisco Champions so you’re in the know.

First, what is the “I” in IWAN? Intelligent.  (The I doesn’t refer to “i” as the Pods, Pads, and Phones and should be written upper case, not lower.) We’re calling the capability to use both internet and MPLS for your WAN as Intelligent WAN (IWAN).  This idea comes as a result of the confluence of the forces hitting *right now* you’ve probably already heard about that I’ll may over simplify.  Skip to the pretty list if need be or check out this intro to the CVDs that has 5 great use cases for IWAN on pages 2 and 3. Continue reading “IWAN Starter Kit and CiscoChampions”



Authors

Lauren Friedman

Marketing Manager

Enterprise Networks

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For the sixth time in as many years, the Ethisphere Institute honored Cisco by naming us to its list of the “World’s Most Ethical Companies” and we continue to be proud of our long-standing commitment to ethics and integrity. At Cisco, we hold ourselves to a very high standard of business and professional conduct. Our company was founded on a platform of open communication, empowerment, integrity and respect. These values remain at the forefront of the way we do business each day. As a result, our customers, partners, and stakeholders around the world continue to trust our products and services. Continue reading “The Importance of Ethics in Global Business”



Authors

Roxane Marenberg

Vice President

Compliance Systems

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It’s the holiday season, and ’tis the season for giving!

Since one-third of donations occur in the month of December (source: Network for Good, Chronicle of Philanthropy), digital plays an increasing role in expanding the reach of requests for donations, in creating a propensity to give, and in delivering connected experiences that even themselves provide community benefit.

Known as ‘digital philanthropy,’ more and more donations are digital and utilizing mobile, social media, web and video. Growth of online donating has increased to 11.8% year-over-year, while overall giving increased 3.8% (source: Blackbaud, Charitable Giving Report: How Nonprofit Fundraising Performed in 2012, February 2013).

salvation armyEasy Giving via Text Message

Donations come in all sizes and packages. The one we often hear about most is donating money  via text message. To donate for typhoon relief in the Philippines via the Salvation Army, for example, all you need to do is text TYPHOON to 80888. And with just a click or two you’ve made a contribution. Quick, simple and immediate.

Continue reading “Digital Philanthropy – How Are You Giving this Holiday Season?”



Authors

Mark Yolton

Vice President of Digital

Cisco Marketing

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2013 was the year I started working on SDN – specifically in the area of devising professional services for Cisco ONE and Application Centric Infrastructure, ACI.  A few months ago, I used a compendium to summarize my Cisco Domain TenSM blogs.  This was well received, so  I thought it would be a good idea to wrap up the year with a summary of my 2013 journey into the SDN world, and in particular the adoption challenges I learned about along the way, some of which are illustrated in the diagram below.

SDN Adoption Challenges
SDN Adoption Challenges

Continue reading “SDN Adoption Challenges: My Wrap Up For 2013”



Authors

Stephen Speirs

SP Product Management

Cisco Customer Experience (CX)