Avatar

In a multi-point TelePresence press briefing on Friday 31st May Cisco Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Managing Director, Ken Boal, and VP for Global Technology Policy, Dr. Robert Pepper, teamed up to deliver the Australian and New Zealand specific findings of the annual Cisco Visual Networking Index.

Photo Press Conference

The latest forecast paints a picture of a world which is consuming the Internet at an astronomical rate with the Cisco VNI predicting that in 2017 there will be more than 19 billion devices connected to the internet! Dr. Pepper and Ken Boal were quick to point out to the attending media from ANZ that these 19 billion devices will increasingly be made up of devices that many people never thought would be Internet-enabled. As we move into the era of the Internet of Everything, more and more items will be connected to the Internet. Livestock, wearable tech and household appliances were just some of the examples given.

Continue reading “Dr. Robert Pepper and Ken Boal Present Australia and New Zealand’s Cisco VNI Forecast”



Authors

Linda Horiuchi

Senior Manager, Australia and New Zealand PR

Avatar

The Australian Government’s announcement last week of the National Strategy for Cloud Computing is a welcome development and one that really moves the needle on the government’s procurement policies for cloud computing.

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, used the opportunity to set out the government’s vision for using the cloud to boost innovation and productivity across Australia’s digital economy.

Cisco has been working closely with the various stakeholders to help shape the strategy and feels passionately about the significant benefits offered by cloud computing. Our vice president of global technology policy, Dr. Pepper, has been particularly vocal on the topic; not least at Cisco Live in Melbourne earlier this year when he strongly advocated for advanced cloud computing services to be made available over a high-speed broadband network.

Continue reading “One step closer to realising Australia’s cloud computing vision”



Authors

Linda Horiuchi

Senior Manager, Australia and New Zealand PR

Avatar

Adrienne Meyer, ODVA, Manager of Member Services and Guy Denis, Business Development Manager at Cisco Systems, explain the value and integration that Cisco brings to ODVA for the past decade at Hannover Messe 2013.

Here is the third and final installment from the recent Cisco presence at Hanover Messe presence. The first installment can be viewed here: Cisco Messages on Hannover Messe Part 1, Guy Denis talks about the Cisco Booth, and the second here: Messages on Hannover Messe Part 2 – Rudolph Maly and 4th Industrial Revolution.

Adrienne is asked about the value that Cisco brings to the ODVA, and how long Cisco has been working with the ODVA. Adrienne talks about the decade long relationship and how Cisco works with a number of the ODVA technical working groups. Adrienne goes on to talk about how the ODVA manages the development of the Ethernet IP technology that Cisco Supports, and how Cisco is showing the breadth of the technology that has been developed and is available at the event.

Guy Denis talks about the strategic nature of the relationship and how Cisco supports the open-standards-based approach of the ODVA. This is very important to Cisco, our partners, and, of course, to our customers. Cisco strongly believes in the open-standards approach to TCP-IP for industrial networking moving forward, for the benefit of all parties.

As I mentioned in my last blog, this is another example of the Internet of Things which is the part of The Internet of Everything and the part that is already with us today in the manufacturing industry. Continue reading “Cisco Messages on Hannover Messe Part 3 – That knowing look between ODVA and Cisco”



Authors

Peter Granger

Senior Sales Transformation Manager

Avatar

Orchestras are often used as metaphors for all sorts of things–organizational structure, planning sessions and even families.

Have you been to the symphony recently? Musicians sit in a regimented ordering around the stage. The concertmaster sets the tune. The conductor lifts the baton. And then, with the pull of a bow across a string, or breath across a mouthpiece, the music begins. Throughout the performance, each section of the orchestra plays a specific part – either separately or together – to create a harmonized work of art.

The prestigious Czech National Orchestra, known for its versatility, lived up to its reputation during a recent performance (for a new BNP product called Hello Bank!). They put their instruments – some hundreds of years old – aside in favor of newer, more common instruments: smartphones and tablets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHnfVGtniaY

Continue reading “What an Orchestra and a Mobile Device have in Common”



Authors

Erica Schroeder

Director of Marketing, Emerging Technologies

Avatar

Earlier in the week I had blogged about Cisco UCS in a world of open source computing. And now with Microsoft TechEd right around the weekend, I get to blog about Cisco UCS in a Windows world. Both are relevant now that Cisco is the #2 x86 blade server vendor worldwide with 17.6% of the market and in a statistical tie for #4 in the server category according to research firm IDC. So if you plan to be in New Orleans next week for Microsoft TechEd, or if you use Microsoft technologies in your data center will find the following very interesting.

Last year Cisco UCS Manager, the single point of management for UCS domains, was the Best of TechEd Winner in the breakthrough product category. If you use Microsoft PowerShell or some of the Microsoft System Center 2012 suite of products for management, you definitely want to check out the demos we will have at TechEd.  The Cisco PowerTool for Powershell lets you use a comprehensive list of commands called “cmdlets” to manage all the components of a UCS domain.  With Cisco UCS PowerTool, your operations team can tie together the management of storage components, computing components, and software applications into custom, end-to-end management solutions that are easy to use and easy to script.

If you use the Microsoft System Center Operations Manager, you can download the UCS Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager and monitor the health of Cisco UCS.  With the Management pack you can

  • Monitors Cisco UCS devices such as Cisco UCS blades, chassis, and rack servers.
  • Correlate faults and events across bare metal and virtualized Cisco UCS infrastructure.

msft

If you use the Systems Center Orchestrator, you can get the UCS Integration Pack for System Center Orchestrator and automate UCS Management.  Continue reading “Cisco UCS in a world with windows”



Avatar

Robert Metcalfe popularized the idea of the “network effect,” where the value of a network grows exponentially in proportion to the number of users and things on that network. Many people these days wonder if this principle applies to the “bring your own device” (BYOD) trend—where the complexity of all the devices, software, and standards that must be accommodated may cause some IT leaders to question whether the promised value is worth the headache.

Certainly there’s potential for tremendous value: the most recent report from Cisco Consulting Services onthe Financial Impact of BYOD reveals that with the right approach to implementation, companies across the globe could be generating an average annual value of $1,650 per mobile user. In the United States, than number grows to $3,150.

So, how can you know whether or not you are realizing the full potential of BYOD in your company? And more important, how can you progress from wherever you currently are along the value journey to where you want to be?

Read more at The Platform Blog



Authors

Joseph M. Bradley

Global Vice President

Digital & IoT Advanced Services

Avatar

Han Yang PodcastThis week Nick Lippis from the Lippis Report sat down with Cisco Nexus 1000V Product Manager, Han Yang, to talk about the latest enhancements and trends with VXLAN, the primary virtual overlay tunneling technology in Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual networks.

In this 15 minute podcast (registration required), Han touches on three key innovations in the VXLAN area: 1) Cisco approaches to eliminating the requirement for IP Multicast by VXLAN (which I earlier blogged about here), 2) the support for virtual services, like virtual firewalls, with vPath (which I blogged about here), and 3) the use and availability of VXLAN gateways to connect virtual workloads to physical workloads in mixed application environments (which I haven’t blogged about yet, but probably should have :-)).

Nick’s podcasts always provide a good perspective on emerging technology trends and he takes complex topics and really helps his listeners get up to speed on the important bits. We always enjoy the chance to work with him. Give it a listen and let us know what you think.



Authors

Gary Kinghorn

Sr Solution Marketing Manager

Network Virtualization and SDN

Avatar

It is no small task to enforce change within a well established industry and organization, but it’s not impossible. At Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities’ (LG&E and KU) – where operations were inefficient and obsolete – change was needed. With no easy way to obtain data, employees were conducting a lot of time consuming manual paperwork. In addition, disparate systems in which the data lived presented further complications. That is no way to stay competitive in the digital age.

On a quest for change

LG&E and KU deployed Cisco® Unified Computing System™ (UCS), based on Intel® Xeon® processors. Using the Cisco UCS® in conjunction with business intelligence software, They found that information from all systems could be brought together, easily accessed, and efficiently reported. This, in turn, led to faster and more informed decision making.

But it didn’t end there. The company is also now utilizing (pun intended) mobility, which allows for access to the system from anywhere, at any time. Users don’t have to be on-site to obtain information that will help them complete their tasks in the field. And collaboration capabilities are proving extremely helpful in time sensitive situations, such as power outages.

No surprise here: the benefits from LG&E and KU’s IT transformation is also reflected in the customer service end of business. Their customers are now experiencing lower costs and higher satisfaction.

Regardless of industry, the lessons learned by LG&E and KU’s implementation can apply to your business as well. Engage with us and find out how.

Read more about the transformation of LG&E and KU and their journey to adopting Cisco technologies on Unleashingit.com.



Authors

Adrian den Hartog

Senior Marketing Manager

Field Marketing US Commercial

Avatar

Emarin Cisco Cloud PortfolioAmong all the Megatrends that have significant implications from an infrastructure perspective (as discussed here), the one that customers in EMEAR currently expect the most from Cisco is Clouds. Both in terms of technical guidance as well as architectural innovations.

In the Cisco Cloud approach, intelligence in the network can help ensure delivery of cloud services, provide access and services to the right users, and offer the flexibility to connect with public, hybrid, and community clouds.

As shown in the illustration to the right, three main elements must be considered to build an efficient cloud. In addition, the network needs to provide dynamic access to these resources, and the Cloud applications and services must deliver anywhere, anytime access.

With the emergence of Cloud architectures, innovation is required within the network to allow IP to gain two critical features not natively provided by IP today: IP mobility and the Virtual Private Network (VPN). Continue reading “Cisco Innovations You Should Really Look at for Faster Adoption of Clouds”



Authors

Eric Marin

CTO

Borderless Network Architecture, EMEAR