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Over the past 18 months, I’ve had the privilege to assist the City of Cleveland Office of Sustainability in developing a city-wide Climate Action Plan (CAP).  This scope of this plan is not limited to the city’s own operations, although there is a plan for that as well, but instead looks at the entire carbon and environmental footprint for the whole city, it’s inhabitants, businesses, everything!

It goes without saying that this in an enormous undertaking that very few cities have even tried.  My biggest take-away from participating in and observing the process is the importance of broad stakeholder engagement when working to improve environmental sustainability.  And that thought resonates when I consider the success factors for the programs that I have been a part of in private industry.  The team working on the CAP included 50 individuals with sustainability expertise representing government, private companies, and community organizations in the greater Cleveland region.

Since joining Cisco three years ago, my job has been to reduce the climate impact of Cisco’s internal operations.  We achieved our 2012 carbon reduction goals of 25% and are now gearing up for our 2017 goal of 40% reduction (for a 2007 baseline).  As a resident of Cleveland, I was excited to take my experiences at Cisco and volunteer my time and expertise to Cleveland’s project.

So why is it important to cast a wide net when engaging stakeholders?

Continue reading “It Takes a Village to Green a City”



Authors

Ali Ahmed

Senior Manager

Workplace Resources Global Energy Management and Sustainability

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Cisco Live Orlando EntranceCisco live is here and the news and awards around the Nexus 1000V cloud networking and services platform just keep rolling in. Last week we announced the Citrix NetScaler 1000V virtual application delivery controller, which will be sold by Cisco. The Microsoft Hyper-V version of Nexus 1000V was officially released this month, and just like its VMware vSphere companion, there is a free version users can download and deploy. On the heels of its release the Nexus 1000V for Microsoft Hyper-V won the Best of Show in the virtualization category at Microsoft’s Tech Ed Conference.

Best of InteropAwards just kept piling up for the broader portfolio as Nexus 1000V InterCloud, our secure hybrid cloud connectivity solution, won a Best of Interop award in Tokyo this month. And just to show the marketing team is pulling its weight, a Nexus 1000V InterCloud video won a prestigious Silver Communicator award in the Online video/ B2B category.

There’s lots of new stuff to talk about Cisco live as well. If you recall, in February I discussed enhancements that Cisco was making in the Nexus 1000V portfolio to eliminate the requirement in VXLAN for IP Multicast. [Those enhancements are now shipping in a new Nexus 1000V release 2.2, full code string 4.2(1)SV2(2.1).] This new version even supports virtual switching for up to 128 hosts and 4096 virtual ports for greater scalability.

Continue reading “Nexus 1000V Winning Multiple Awards; VXLAN Scaling with BGP and More on Display at Cisco live!”



Authors

Gary Kinghorn

Sr Solution Marketing Manager

Network Virtualization and SDN

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Last Friday, Cisco welcomed the announcement by the Australian Federal Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Hon. Bill Shorten that The University of Melbourne was selected to establish the inaugural Australian Centre for Workplace Leadership (ACWL) at a press conference hosted in our Melbourne Office. The establishment of the ACWL supports the government’s aim to improve productivity by creating higher performing workplaces and stronger leadership capability in Australian organisations.

We welcome the creation of the ACWL as management look to learn new skills and leadership capabilities in order to capture the opportunities presented by Australia’s growing digital economy. Cisco supported Melbourne University’s submission to establish the centre, as the two organisations have successfully partnered on a number of initiatives, such as National Telework Congress, to improve management capability and leadership in Australian workplaces.  Continue reading “Cisco to Partner with The University of Melbourne at the Inaugural Australian Centre for Workplace Leadership”



Authors

Linda Horiuchi

Senior Manager, Australia and New Zealand PR

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Cisco Ent Networks AppIf you’re at CiscoLive Orlando, and you didn’t catch the Mobility Guides Part 1 and Part 2, you’re going to want two things: have the Cisco Ent Networks app downloaded onto your smartphone or tablet an you’re going to want to find the Enterprise Networks booth. As of Cisco Live! London there has been a new module to the applet just for mobility items!

For the booth, we’re in the back, dead center.  For the Ent Networks App, use your magic QR code reader and scan the code to the right.  Should work on most Android and iDevices.

That, and don’t forget to go to Rob Soderbery’s keynote! Seriously–DO NOT MISS THIS.

Your Enterprise Network: Getting You Where You Want to Go

Is your enterprise network ready to take you where you want to go? Will it support the business applications that you are being asked to support? In this keynote, you will hear how Cisco is unifying access, building out new network services and making the network more manageable so you can meet the coming needs of your organization. We will also show you how you can support more aspects of your business using the network as a platform for the Internet of Things.
Monday, June 24, 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Continue reading “Last Minute Mobility Tips for Cisco Live! Orlando: Get the Ent Networks App!”



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If you are following the industry debates around Software Defined Networking (SDN), and are wondering “What really is SDN?”, “How the concepts of network virtualization and network programmability relate to SDN?” and perhaps more pertinently, “What can it do for my business” and “What network problems, indeed what IT problems, could it solve for my organization?” Well, don’t worry, you are in good company. Many customers looking at SDN are asking exactly these questions.  When I blogged the other week on “The Missing ‘S’ in the SDN Debate”, I mentioned I would write again in more depth on the offerings from Cisco Services that would help you identify and benefit from SDN, the next evolution in the network.  Today, then, I will share more information on the “Cisco Strategy and Analysis Services for Open Network Environment (ONE)”, which helps you gain an appreciation of what SDN is, what Cisco ONE is, and how it will help you.  This service has been design specifically to answer the questions above for you, enabling you to optimize your IT strategy to greatest effect.

First, if you are attending CiscoLive in Orlando this coming week (week of 24 June 2013), please do look out for our “Design Centers” in the Data Center Cloud or Enterprise Networks areas of the Cisco booth.  Here you can discuss your SDN and Cisco ONE questions with Cisco Services’ solutions architects, who have already been running strategy workshops with some of the early adopters of SDN and beta customers of Cisco ONE.

 

Cisco Strategy and Analysis Services for ONE
Cisco Strategy and Analysis Services for ONE

Continue reading “Leading the Network Evolution to SDN – Helping You with Your SDN Adoption Strategy”



Authors

Stephen Speirs

SP Product Management

Cisco Customer Experience (CX)

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Have you caught the new “Star Trek” summer blockbuster yet? If you’re a Trekkie, you know that one of the spin-offs of the original series was “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” and the Star Trek universe just continues to evolve. This puts me in mind of where our industry is heading today with the next-gen data center. IT is going boldly where none of us techies have gone before. But to really get there we need to tap into the greater potential for speed locked in the engines of our data center. But how? We’re techies, not magicians! Well, read on…

IT is advancing to next-gen data centers that encompass compute, network, and storage into converged standardized units in order to reduce costs and increase resource and IT staff-related efficiencies. Fundamentally, IT is moving away from compartmentalized infrastructure resources toward unified infrastructure pools. The industry’s leading shared/converged infrastructure solutions from EMC VSPEX, NetApp FlexPod, and VCE Vblock are the most prominent in this enterprise upgrade.

Like any bold adventure into new territory this shift is presenting major challenges to enterprise IT crews. Mainly, they lack tools to efficiently and securely manage converged infrastructure — that’s what’s preventing enterprises from achieving “warp speed IT”. As I covered in my earlier blog entry, new hardware architectures are important, but alone they lack the capabilities needed to deliver the cost savings and management efficiencies needed for IT to shift attention from mundane maintenance to services innovation which translates to organizations reaching their goals speedily and more easily. What are the missing ingredients? Centralized automation and management.

Earlier this year, we introduced Cisco Cloupia as the key to letting IT spend 75 percent of staff time and resources on innovation and 25 percent on maintenance—instead of the industry norm of the other way around. This week at Cisco Live in Orlando, Florida, we’re announcing the rebranding of Cisco Cloupia to Cisco UCS Director, and I would like to explain why.

First of all, the Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS) is a strategic component that powers the industry-leading shared/converged infrastructure solutions offered by EMC, NetApp, and VCE. Cisco UCS Director (formerly Cisco Cloupia) is the perceived market leader in managing the virtual, physical, and bare-metal layers across compute, network, storage, and virtualization components and presenting these separate components to IT from a single pane of glass. This alone significantly diminishes the complexity of IT, and diminished complexity leads to reduced risks and costs.

Second, Cisco UCS Director complements the natural management hierarchical progression of Cisco UCS Manager and Cisco UCS Central. The scope of Cisco UCS Manager is a single UCS domain. When customers need to manage multiple UCS domains, Cisco UCS Central provides a single console from which IT can administer UCS devices across multiple data centers. Acting as a “manager of element managers,” Cisco UCS Director is the next progression up the solution stack. Using the native API layer within the compute, network, and storage components, the software virtually eliminates the need for human intervention.

Third, Cisco UCS Director provides a centralized connection point for higher level management applications to integrate with Cisco infrastructure. For an example of this, stop by the Cisco Unified Management booth at Cisco Live to see our initial integration of Cisco UCS Director and Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud.

Finally, Cisco UCS Director delivers multiplatform vendor support that helps customers manage not only Cisco’s compute functionality, but also that of Dell, IBM, and HP. Organizations using non-Cisco hardware can take advantage of Cisco UCS Director without having to rip and replace their data center architecture. To be enhanced moving forward, the software’s multiplatform support also opens up new market opportunities for Cisco that had previously been unavailable with a hardware-only focused solution.

Cisco UCS Director is a new name to reflect that it is a true next-gen data center solution, with software that offers you the same competitive advantages as before. It still provides the centralized automation, orchestration, and management functionality required by today’s infrastructure models to help data centers conquer a new frontier.

Although warp speed doesn’t really apply to data centers, and enterprises are still earth bound, Trekkies can think of Cisco UCS Director as that special “crystal” in the engine room that lets you unlock the potential speed inherent in your converged infrastructure investment and make you feel like you are on a whole new fast, sleek, ship. So welcome aboard, Cisco UCS Director will help you accelerate and even set cruise control with confidence. Go ahead, beam it up and try it for yourself. Warp drive engaged!



Authors

Joann Starke

No Longer with Cisco

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We’re just a few days away from joining the record-breaking attendance at Cisco Live! in Orlando!

It’s been a busy week with the Internet of Everything and Connected Mobile Experiences project launch in Nice, the SITA Air Transport IT Summit in Brussels, and the recent news that our very own Cisco Aironet 3600 Series AP is the first publicly announced WFA 802.11ac certified commercial enterprise access point–that was a mouthful! Next week is busy too: ISTE in San Antonio, HITEC in Minneapolis, and, of course, Cisco Live! in Orlando.

This is Part 2 of the Mobility Guide to Cisco Live! Orlando:  Whether you’re in person or not, follow the whole thread on Twitter at #CLUS and follow @Cisco_Mobility for specific coverage.

In part I of the mobility guide, I gave a laundry list of some very special mobility-focused sessions in Orlando–here they are split out by days, plus some fun activities you should make sure not to miss!

Monday, 6/24
8:00 am RF Standards Update, Brian Hart

10:00 am Beyond BYOD, One Policy, One Management, One Network, Prashanth Shenoy

10:00 am AND 1:00 pm CCNA Wireless, Master the 802.11 protocols, Jerome Henry

3:30pm Solutions Keynote: Enterprise Networking presented by Rob Soderbury [editor’s note: it’s MONDAY not Tuesday–corrected in the last post] Continue reading “A Mobility Guide to Cisco Live! Orlando Part II”



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Amrit Hanspal Formal photoWritten by Amrit Hanspal, Sr. Product Manager, Service Provider Segment Lead, Network OS Tech Group

Cisco Live at Orlando in 2013 offers a host of opportunities if you are a service provider or a large enterprise that offers services to internal groups. Watch out for the following five key areas and the respective speaking sessions when it comes to software capabilities of the Routing & Switching platforms—(1) IPv6, (2) SDN, (3) Core IP & Optical, (4) Ethernet Access & Aggregation and (5) IP Routing.

IPv6

June 2012 officially marked the IPv6 Internet with the World IPv6 Launch led by the Internet Society. Within the first six months, IPv6 traffic broke the 1% threshold and established the fact that IPv6 had moved from an experiment to mainstream phase with US traffic approaching close to 3%. Join us for a discussion on where IPv6 is headed (Session ID: PSOSPG-1330) — new opportunities for IPv6 with Internet of Everything. We will be delighted to share our experiences deploying IPv6 (Session ID: PNLCRS-2303) as our IPv6 gurus highlight deployment best practices and real-world challenges. For those of you in Networking, we got you covered with the Troubleshooting IPv6 session (Session ID: BRKRST-2304).

See full list at http://www.slideshare.net/getyourbuildon/ipv6-at-cisco-live-orlando

SDN–Software Defined Networking Continue reading “Hitchhiker’s Guide for Service Providers at Cisco Live Orlando”



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Today, as Cisco EVP and CFO Frank Calderoni presided over the closing bell ceremony at NASDAQ with our customers and with the Cisco Live! logo behind him, I couldn’t help but get excited about this year’s Cisco Live!

Cisco Live, Cisco’s annual IT and Communications conference, starts in Orlando, Florida this weekend, and it is already certain to be the largest customer event in our company’s history. (You can see more photos of Frank at the “Closing Bell” ceremony here.)

Cisco CFO Frank Calderoni Closing NASDAQ
Cisco CFO Frank Calderoni Closing NASDAQ

More than 20,000 of the brightest in the industry will gather to see and discuss the latest innovations and to learn and demonstrate how the network is transforming the way we live, work, learn and play.

And this year more than ever, it feels like the possibilities of the Internet of Everything are endless. From Wall Street, where the fastest switches in the world are helping traders get a competitive edge, to main street where networked systems and applications are helping us shop, park, bank, and communicate on the go, from anywhere.

In the wake of the network’s increasingly important role in all aspects of our lives, it’s perhaps no surprise that attendance at Cisco Live! has doubled in the past five years. Just about every technology trend – from 3D printing, to connected cars, robots, tele-medicine, cloud computing, big data – has come to rely on a secure and dynamic network.

Continue reading “At the close of the NASDAQ bell, let Cisco Live! begin”



Authors

David McCulloch

Director, Corporate Communications

Cisco