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Tina-lamBy Tina Lam, Product Manager

MPLS based Layer 2 VPN has been around for over 10 years since the inception of IETF Pseuduowire Edge to Edge (PWE3) Working Group. Many drafts and standards have been added, since then, to address different applications and to improve scale and convergence in different topologies. L2VPN as a whole is widely deployed in both service providers and enterprises, from Ethernet services, to fixed and mobile convergence, to enterprise campus layer-2 transport.

Recently, one emerging driver that has been picking up a lot of momentum is to use L2VPN for Data Center Interconnect (DCI). Data centers are often situated in different locations, to be geo-redundant for the purpose of workload mobility and business continuity. At the same time the physical location of the data center has to be transparent to users and to applications. Hence the need for layer-2 connectivity between sites. While Ethernet over MPLS (EoMPLS) and Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) have been used for this purpose, DCI presents new requirements and challenges not fully addressed today.  To keep the data center always on, and to utilize all the resources and links as efficiently as possible, data centers need all-active redundancy and load balancing. The technology should be as simple as possible to provision and manage Continue reading “E-VPN and PBB-EVPN Take Data Center Interconnect to the Next Level”



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One of the hottest topics in the data center lately is around big data and the actual dollar value that businesses are deriving from making sense from tons of unstructured data.  Virtually every field is turning to gathering big data, with mobile sensor networks, cameras everywhere, and information archives.  New techniques are being developed that can mine vast stores of data to inform decision making in ways that were previously unimagined.   The fact that we can derive more knowledge by recognizing correlations can inform and enrich numerous aspects of every day life.

Cisco is partnering with leading software providers to offer a comprehensive infrastructure and management solution, based on Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS), to support our customers’ big data initiatives.  Taking advantage of Cisco UCS’s Fabric based infrastructure, Cisco can apply significant advantage to big data workloads.

There are actually many advantages to hosting big data applications on Cisco UCS infrastructure.  With UCS, Cisco offers a balance of performance, management and scale that sets UCS apart from other industry solutions.  Although we’ll be discussing the benefits in more detail at Cisco Live next week, here is a sneak peak of what you can expect:

Reason #1 to deploy Cisco UCS for your big data analytics: Form factor independence and administrative parity.

 

Cisco UCS

Cisco UCS provides a single point of management for the overall infrastructure—whether it’s blade architecture on the enterprise application side or rack architecture on the big data side, including troubleshooting, monitoring, and alerting capabilities. Customers can proactively monitor the system and keep operational costs down.

In other words, Cisco UCS Rack Servers can be managed the same way as UCS Blade servers with full workload mobility across both blades and racks.  This simplifies the management construct and eliminates the need for additional management silos in the data center.  This form factor independence is made possible by Cisco Unified Fabric with single wire management and Cisco Unified Management that includes UCS Manager with Service Profiles.

Continue reading “Top Three Reasons Why Cisco UCS is a Better Platform for Big Data”



Authors

Scott Ciccone

Sr. Marketing Manager

Global Marketing

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AL79165(1)Having completed all of the previous strategy elements, you are ready to deploy.  Is that all there is to it? Not quite.  In this post, I’ll highlight strategies you can use for a smooth post-deployment.

Change Management

In one of my past experiences, deployment of our branch routers went off without a hitch and we patted ourselves on the back and went home.  In the morning, operations noted a reload on two of the routers we had upgraded the night before.  It appeared that one of the defects we evaluated had not discovered “all” of the traffic that could force the reload. So what was the impact of all this? As part of our change management strategy, we were certain to ensure that we could back out on our changes.  Additionally, we set the device to load the old software and configuration if the device reloaded.  This resulted in less than a minute outage for those devices that did reload and the design allowed for seamless failover between the two switches.  Failure to do so would have resulted in the router continuously reloading as these packets were encountered -, which would unlikely be noticed. It is important to note that there was no impact on the production network or business services. Continue reading “Steps to Optimizing Your Network- Change Management & Network Management Strategies”



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Has it been a whole year already? It’s that time again to gather with fellow technologists from around the globe to talk shop at Cisco Live, this time in Orlando. It’s going to be hot in every way. Here is a quick guide to what’s happening from tech to social, plus waffles.

Waffles. Just because.
Waffles. Just because.

Continue reading “Data Center Cloud Guide to Cisco Live 2013: Technology with a Side of Waffles”



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Cisco CPAK 100G LR-4 Transceiver

Although we introduced the Cisco CPAK 100G pluggable transceiver back in March at OFC/NFOEC, many people hadn’t yet seen our CMOS photonics technology from our acquisition of Lightwire back in 2012. As a result we had a lot of interest at the WDM Monaco event this week to learn more about the solution capable of lowering the space, power, and complexity of deploying 100 Gbps interfaces by up to 70%. So much interest in fact that we won the “Best Optical Product – 100G” award!

Cisco Wins Best 100G Product.
Cisco Wins Best 100G Product.

Some in the Continue reading “Cisco CPAK Helps Win Best 100G Optical Product”



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UPDATE: This blog post is related to the redirection of domain name servers that occurred back in June 2013.  This post is NOT related to the ongoing activity occuring July 16, 2013.  Cisco TRAC is currently analyzing the ongoing issues with Network Solutions’ hosted domain names and has more information available here.

Multiple organizations with domain names registered under Network Solutions suffered problems with their domain names today, as their DNS nameservers were replaced with nameservers at ztomy.com. The nameservers at ztomy.com were configured to reply to DNS requests for the affected domains with IP addresses in the range 204.11.56.0/24. Cisco observed a large number of requests directed at these confluence-network IP addresses. Nearly 5000 domains may have been affected based on passive DNS data for those IPs.

Traffic hits to 204.11.56.0/24
Traffic hits to 204.11.56.0/24

Continue reading “‘Hijacking’ of DNS Records from Network Solutions”



Authors

Jaeson Schultz

Technical Leader

Cisco Talos Security Intelligence & Research

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gunter_vandeveldeBy Gunter Van de Velde, Sr Technical Leader, NOSTG Engineering

It has been a year since the World IPv6 Launch and in that year the global usage of IPv6 has more than doubled. Where traditionally it is believed that there is no IPv6 traffic on the Internet is now shown differently! The reality of real existing user traffic demonstrates the progress of the next generation of the Internet. During the World IPv6 Launch a year ago there was about 0.64% of Internet traffic carried over IPv6, while right now about 1.35% of the Internet traffic is carried over IPv6. That is nearly double and experts believe exponential growth is expected over the next couple of years.

Another data-point is the readiness of the service providers regarding IPv6. On the Internet there are about 44,470 Autonomous networks announcing one or more IPv6 prefixes into the global routing system. A year ago only about 13.7% of them were announcing IPv6 prefixes. That number increased to 16.1% resulting in 7.168 networks out of the 44.470 that are announcing IPv6 prefixes right now.

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Source: http://www.worldipv6launch.org/infographic/

Looking at these Continue reading “The March of the IPv6 Internet”



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In the first part of the “Evolution of Immersive Video in the Retail Bank Branch” series, I discussed how the retail banking industry is currently undergoing organizational changes that are affecting customers’ banking experience, including the knowledge and interaction they receive upon entering a bank.

Through these new organizational changes, banks are integrating new technology as part of their business processes to attract the more tech-savvy customers that desire choices and convenience when banking. Through Cisco’s Remote Expert solution, banks can meet these customer needs while making their business processes more cost and time-efficient and improving the customer experience. The Remote Expert solution enables virtual face-to-face meetings with high-definition audio and video.

RE Expert

Through Remote Expert’s integration with Cisco’s contact center, retail banks can leverage their existing database of enterprise-wide, skills-based information on the organization’s experts and make it available to customers at any time during business hours. Remote Expert allows a customer in the branch to find the right banking expert to meet their needs, including inquiries about annuities or questions specific to mortgage brokers.

Not only does Remote Expert enhance the bank’s existing channels and provide convenience for banking customers, it also reduces costs for all parties involved. Continue reading “The Evolution of Immersive Video in the Retail Bank Branch Series (2): Bring an expert to any branch”



Authors

Tom Caddoo

Practice Architect

Banking, Americas Business Transformation

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The tech industry is at its strongest in Washington, DC when we speak with one voice.  That’s just what happened today, when more than 100 tech leaders, including Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers, called on the U.S. Senate to pass a strong and fair immigration bill.

Cisco believes that immigration reform is critical.  It will help draw the best, brightest and most ambitious minds from around the world to the United States, while treating those already here with more compassion.  This would be accomplished by reducing the green card backlog and by increasing the number of H1B visas available.  Such reforms would be good for our industry, for Cisco, our employees and their families.

If you care about immigration reform, then reach out to your Senator or Representative – and just as our tech leaders did today – make your voice heard.

Following is the letter released today.

 

Technology Leaders Urge U.S. Senate to Approve Comprehensive Immigration Reform Legislation

June 20, 2013

Washington, DC – More than 100 executives from the technology sector and leading innovation advocacy organizations today called on the U.S. Senate to approve comprehensive immigration reform legislation (Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013/S. 744).

In the letter, the technology executives wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and all members of the Senate.The executives urged the Senate to quickly approve the bill that includes reforms to enable a more open and flexible U.S. immigration system for high-skilled workers.

The following is the text of the letter from leading technology executives:

“As representatives of the leading technology innovators, designers, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, and job creators in the United States, we write to request your support for S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.  This critically important legislation would help ensure that America continues to be the location of the world’s most innovative and fastest growing industries—those that rely on intellectual property and highly educated talent.  Your support for S. 744 will allow America to better realize opportunities for innovation and job creation today, as well as secure our economic strength in the future.

“America is the most prosperous country in the world.  The U.S. technology sector employs over 6 million Americans and contributes $1 trillion to our country’s Gross Domestic Product.  Our success stems from our historic diversity, and the constant infusion of new and innovative ideas fostered by our democratic system of education and innovation. 

 “We applaud the Gang of Eight, the bipartisan sponsors of S. 744, as well as the bill’s bipartisan supporters in the Senate Judiciary Committee, who have collaboratively crafted and refined a comprehensive bill that would truly modernize a broken and outdated immigration system. We strongly believe the many reforms in S. 744 that impact high skilled immigration – including key improvements in the availability of both green cards and H-1B visas – will help address the national talent shortage in the near-term, while also creating a long-term pipeline of American workers through establishing a much-needed new fund for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, including computer science education.  The bill will also protect and better prepare American workers, and enable employers and entrepreneurs of all sizes in every state to recruit and retain the world’s best talent. 

Senate approval of S. 744 is essential for our economy to continue to foster innovation and invigorate many U.S. business sectors through an educated and highly skilled workforce of domestic and foreign-born talent.  Absent reform, if every American graduate receiving an advanced STEM degree gets a job, the U.S. is estimated to face at least 200,000 unfilled advanced-degree STEM jobs by 2018.   These unfilled jobs represent lost opportunities for our country, but with S. 744, we can fill these jobs, create new ones and invest in a future of economic growth.

We urge your support for S. 744, which will help to open a new path to American innovation, American economic strength, and greater opportunities for American workers.

The following executives have signed on to the letter:

Evan Burfield, Co-founder, 1776; Maury Blackman, President & Chief Executive Office, Accela;Khaled Naim, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer, Addy Inc.; Darrell Ford, Chief Human Resources Officer, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD); Pankaj Jindal, Chief Operating Officer, Akraya Inc.; Hannah Kain, Chief Executive Officer , ALOM; Eric Davidson, President, American Automation & Communications, Inc.; David A. Raymond, President & Chief Executive Officer,  American Council of Engineering Companies; Mike Splinter, Chief Executive Officer, Applied Materials, Inc.; Kevin Surace, Chief Executive Officer, Appvance; Steven Zylstra, President & Chief Executive Officer, Arizona Technology Council; Richard Lord, President & Chief Executive Officer, Associated Industries of Massachusetts; Morgan Reed, Executive Director, Association for Competitive Technology; Randall Stephenson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AT&T;Carl Bass, President & Chief Executive Officer, Autodesk, Inc.; Kevin Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer, Avaya Inc.; Jim Wunderman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Bay Area Council;Michael S. Scheeringa, President & Chief Executive Officer, BBA Aviation Flight Support; Brad Bullington, Chief Executive Officer, Bridgelux; Matt Reid, Senior Vice President External Affairs, BSA | The Software Alliance; Mike Montgomery, Executive Director, CALinnovates; Pasquale Romano, President & Chief Executive Officer, ChargePoint; Richard Lowenthal, Chief Technology Officer, ChargePoint, John Chambers, Chief Executive Officer, Cisco Systems; Kim Polese, Chairman, ClearStreet Inc.; Edward Black, President & Chief Executive Officer, Computer & Communications Industry Association; Todd Thibodeaux, President & Chief Executive Officer, Computing Technology Industry Association; Gary Shapiro, President & Chief Executive Officer, Consumer Electronics Association; David Spreng, Managing Partner, Crescendo Ventures; Kim Fennell, President & Chief Executive Officer, deCarta Inc.; Steve Price, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Dell; Don Means, Founder & Principal, Digital Village; John Donahoe, President & Chief Executive Officer, eBay Inc.; Ronald Sege, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Echelon Corporation; Vishal Verma, Partner, EDGEWOOD Ventures;Fabio Rosati, Chief Executive Officer, Elance, Inc.; Michael McGeary, Co-Founder, Engine, Belal Hummadi, Chief Executive Officer, ExciteM; John McAdam, President & Chief Executive Officer F5 Networks Inc.; Mark Zuckerberg, Chief Executive Officer, Facebook; Jerry Mix, Chief Executive Officer, Finelite Inc.; Caroline Dowling, President INS, Flextronics; Jeff Bussgang, General Partner, Flybridge Capital; Martin Schoeppler, President & Chief Executive Officer, FUJIFILM Dimatix, Inc.; Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google; Rami Branitzky, Chief Executive Officer, Grok; Koichi Fujikawa, Co-Founder, Hapyrus Inc.; Josh Mendelsohn, Managing Director, Hattery; Fred Hoch, President & Chief Executive Officer; Illinois Technology Association; Thomas Fallon, Chief Executive Officer, Infinera; Dean Garfield, President & Chief Executive Officer, Information Technology Industry Council; James Gutierrez, Chief Executive Officer, Insikt; Douglas Melamed, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Intel; Adriane Brown, President & Chief Executive Officer, Intellectual Ventures; Paul Lovoi, Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer, Jan Medical; Kevin Johnson, Chief Executive Officer, Juniper Networks; Mary Meeker, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers; John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers; Shaun Cross, Chief Executive Officer, Lee & Hayes; Josh Becker, Chief Executive Officer, Lex Machina; Marty Beard,President & Chief Executive Officer, LiveOps, Inc.; Karl Sun, Chief Executive Officer, Lucid Software Inc.; Geetha Vallabhaneni, Chief Executive Office, Luminix, Inc.; Matt McIlwain, Managing Director, Madrona Venture Group; Tom Hopcroft, Chief Executive Officer, Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council; Darlene McCalmont, Chief Executive Officer, McCalmont Engineering; Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft; Robert Greifeld, Chief Executive Officer, NASDAQ OMX; William Reinsch, President, National Foreign Trade Council; Bobbie Kilberg, President & Chief Executive Officer, Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC); Randell J. McMills, Senior Vice President, Regional Executive the Americas, nxp Semiconductors; Ralph Schmitt, President & Chief Executive Officer, OCZ Technology Group, Inc.; Eric Stang, Chief Executive Officer, Ooma; Chris Larsen, Chief Executive Officer, OpenCoin, Inc.; Safra Catz, President & Chief Financial Officer, Oracle; Joseph Taylor, Chairman & CEO, Panasonic Corporation of North America; Maryse Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, Pokeware; Paul Jacobs, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Qualcomm Incorporated; Lanham Napier, Chief Executive Officer, Rackspace; Steve Case, Chief Executive Officer & Chairman, Revolution LLC; Rita Cepeda, Chancellor, San Jose Evergreen/Community College District; Barbara Holzapfel, SVP & Managing Director, SAP Labs North America, SAP;Denny McGuirk, President & Chief Executive Officer, SEMI; Brian Toohey, President & Chief Executive Officer, Semiconductor Industry Association; Greg Becker, President & Chief Executive Officer, Silicon Valley Bank; Carl Guardino, President & Chief Executive Officer, Silicon Valley Leadership Group; Scott Lang, Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Silver Spring Networks; Ken Wasch, President, Software & Information Industry Association; Gary Yacoubian, Chief Executive Officer, Specialty Technologies, LLC, Andrew Ball, President, West RegionSuffolk; Virginia Klausmeier, Chief Executive Officer, Co-founder, Sylvatex Inc;  Steve Bennett, President & Chief Executive Officer, Symantec Corporation; Aart de Geus, Chairman and co-Chief Executive Officer, Synopsys, Inc., Scott Allison, Chief Executive Officer, Teamly Inc;Bruce Mehlman, Executive Director, Technology CEO Council; Shawn Osborne, President & Chief Executive Officer, TechAmerica; Alix Burns, Acting Chief Executive Officer, TechNet; Terry Howerton, Founder, TechNexus LLC; Grant Seiffert, President, Telecommunications Industry Association; Rich Templeton, Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Texas Instruments Incorporated; James Brett, President & Chief Executive Officer, The New England Council; Steve Westly, Managing Director, The Westly Group; Ryan Rogowski, Chief Executive Officer, Translate Abroad; Robert Lally, President, TransPak, Inc.; Steven Berglund, President & Chief Executive Officer, Trimble Navigation; Stephen Kaufer, President & Chief Executive Officer, TripAdvisor; David Cush, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin America; Susan Sigl, President & Chief Executive Officer, Washington Technology Industry Association; Steve Milligan, President & Chief Executive Officer, Western Digital Corporation; Moshe Gavrielov, Chief Executive Officer, Xilinx; Marissa Mayer, Chief Executive Officer,Yahoo!; Jeremy Stoppelman, Chief Executive Officer, Yelp; and, Mark Pincus, Chief Executive Officer, Zynga.

The leading technology associations organizing this effort include: American Council of Engineering Companies; Association for Competitive Technology; Business Software Alliance; Compete America; CompTIA; Computer and Communications Industry Association; Consumer Electronics Association; Engine Advocacy; Information Technology Industry Council; Inspire STEM USA; Internet Association; Partnership for a New American Economy; SEMI; Semiconductor Industry Association; TechAmerica; Tech CEO Council; and TechNet.

A copy of the letter is available here.

Media Contacts:

TechNet:  Jim Hock, 463 Communications, 202-463-0013 ext. 202, moc.364@kcoh.mij

Association for Competitive Technology: Jonathan Godfrey, 202-331-2130,gro.enilnotca@yerfdogj

Business Software Alliance: Randolph Court, gro.asb@chplodnar

CompeteAmerica: Kasey Pipes, 817-542-3870, moc.sepipyelroc@yesak

CompTIA: Lisa Fasold, 630-678-8558, gro.aitpmoc@dlosafl

Consumer Electronics Association: Laura Hubbard, 703-907-4326, gro.ec@drabbuhl

Engine: Eva Arevuo, 415-404-0991, moc.yrettah@aave

Information Technology Industry Council: Meghan Fletcher, 202-524-4389, gro.citi@rehctelfm

Internet Association: Betsy Barrett, gro.noitaicossatenretni@ysteb

SEMI: Deborah Geiger, 408-943-7988, gro.imes@regiegd

Silicon Valley Leadership Group: Steve Wright, 408-501-7853, gro.glvs@thgirws

TechAmerica: Stephanie Craig, 202-682-4443, gro.aciremahcet@giarc.einahpetS

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Authors

Scott Gerber

Senior Manager, Government Affairs

Government Affairs