Isn’t it great to meet your respected peers all in one place to share ideas on improving industrial business performance?
Executives, engineers, developers and analysts did just that at the ARC World Industry Forum in Orlando recently. And Cisco representatives were there to discuss the challenges and rewards of networking in industrial environments. Here is a summary on forum discussions specific to cyber security, the Internet of Things and risk management.
Brian Uffelman is a Security Solutions Architect for the Cisco Connected Industries Group. In this video Brian summarizes his talk on securing the end-to-end (Plant-to-Business) network from internal network threats. Brian speaks of the benefits of a complete security architecture that starts in the DMZ to keep threats out of the network and extends security all the way to the individual production user. Read More »
So you’ve decided you are going to run 2vCPU VMs in one, or all (GHAST!) of your VDI pools.
Why did you decide this?
Because your application is multi-threaded and you need better response times?
Or simply because ((2 > 1) = TRUE) all the time?
What DOES 2 vCPU VMs really get you in your VDI environment?
Well, we wanted to know as well. But I’m going to twist this question a little bit to satisfy my blogging agenda: How can I get the most out of 2vCPU VMs in my VDI environment?
To answer these questions and more, we tested this combination in several variants and flavors, and are posting some conclusions in our blog series “VDI The Missing Questions:” Read More »
Our business applications, which we call EasyApps @Work, have really caught on at Cisco. We track growth in usage by comparing legacy systems vs. the new applications and the results are compelling – Cisco employees far prefer the ease of use the new apps offer. Today, the two most popular apps are My Approvals and My Paid TimeOff (PTO). Read More »
Last week at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, I had the pleasure of speaking to thousands of security professionals about the opportunities and risks associated with using Software Defined Networking (SDN) for security, which will be the underlying fabric of our next generation data centers and networks. SDN-enabled security will provide a better way to secure our most valuable applications, users and data, now and in the future.
Each vendor has a different definition of how the network is changing, and there are many different terms being used, such as software defined data center and software defined storage. Cisco calls this Application Centric Networking, for example, because we are introducing programmable APIs with a focus on distributed control plane intelligence so that applications can get value directly from the network.
It’s obvious why the networking industry is embracing SDN: lower operational costs and the ability to deploy applications and network services in a quicker, more scalable manner. Cloud bursting, which is about flexible compute in the cloud, is another SDN benefit that gives us the ability for applications to interact directly with the network in ways that do not happen today. For example, applications will be able to query the network for location of users to manage Quality of Service and deliver highly targeted content.
So why should the security industry care about SDN? As the threat landscape evolves, the opportunity is to make Security a key application for SDN. We can use SDN to build a Network-based Threat Defense System. I see three key elements to this system:
Europe’s leading home improvement retailer, Kingfisher, was looking for a way to streamline its supply chain and enhance their direct sourcing. As a company that makes do-it-yourself projects easier and more affordable, Kingfisher was facing increasingly difficult logistical challenges with key partners and offices spread out across the globe.
Employees from multiple locations had to travel frequently to meet with buyers and quality control teams in operating companies, resulting in huge travel costs and significant wasted time . Kingfisher found that these issues impeded design processes and the company’s attempts to adopt more agile ways of working.
