2013 - Page 152 of 232

April 26, 2013 Leave a Comment

MegaTrends: The Need for Securing Data Center Traffic

Data Centres are evolving rapidly, in response to the many industry IT Megatrends we have previously discussed. Services and applications are increasingly being delivered from very large data centres and, increasingly, from hybrid and public clouds too.

Specifically, a good example of services being delivered from data centres is Hosted Desktops. I discussed in my last post how technologies such as TrustSec can help secure VXI/VDI deployments. VXI is a good example of a service originally delivered only from private data centres, now being delivered As A Service as well.

Video is (and will be) increasingly delivered from data centers as a service. Infrastructure services (servers/VM, storage…) are also delivered internally more and more through Private Clouds.

Consequently, securing those environments is now perceived by our customers CTOs and architects, as the biggest barrier to adopting clouds on a much larger scale.

We will therefore look at how TrustSec can pervasively help secure all data centre traffic. Continue reading “MegaTrends: The Need for Securing Data Center Traffic”

Eric Marin

CTO

Borderless Network Architecture, EMEAR

April 25, 2013 4 Comments

ICT for Girls, Women in Technology and a Dialogue at the European Union

Monique Morrow

April 25 2013 is a super day for girls and women in technology and Cisco was very present! I am so energized by the fantastic people I met throughout the day commencing with a breakfast session Women2020 platform hosted by DIGITALEUROPE with the topic of Women In Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics for Smart Growth of the pillars of the European 2020 Strategy.

The morning session included a panel chaired by Ms. Cheryl Miller, Founder of Women2020, and Dr.Hamadoun Toure’, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union; Ms. Eva Fabry, Director European Centre for Women and Technology; Ms. Marietje Schaake, member of the European Parliament for the Dutch Democratic Party; Dr. John Higgins, Director-General Digital Europe; Ms. Patricia Reilly Member of the Cabinet-Research, Innovation and Science; Ms. Linda Corugedo Steneberg, Director for Cooperation-DG Connect; Ms. Sabiine Everaet, CIO Europe Group at Coca Cola and a packed room of participants including myself.

Continue reading “ICT for Girls, Women in Technology and a Dialogue at the European Union”

Monique Morrow

CTO-Evangelist

New Frontiers Development and Engineering

2 Comments

Social Media for Savvy Marketers Event: On Demand

Cecelia Taylor

We want to thank you for your participation the Social Media for Savvy Marketers event last week! All of the individual sessions presented last week are now available for viewing on demand: http://cs.co/socialsavvy

SMSM Web Replay3 — Jonathan Perelman, Buzzfeed: Driving Social into Business April 19, 2013

You can view any of the sessions from the 2-day event. Please take a short event survey to provide your feedback. If you haven’t previously registered for Social Media for Savvy Marketers, you will need to complete a short registration form to view the replay. You can also search our event hashtag #SocialSavvy and #CiscoSMT for conversations related to the event.

We encourage you to use the Cisco Global Events Mobile app as a companion (second screen!) when watching the videos. You can download or access the mobile app here: http://ddut.ch/savvy. We value your feedback, so please make sure to rate the sessions you viewed within the app.

We would love to hear from you! Which sessions did you like?

Cecelia Taylor

Cisco Power Over EtherNet (POE) – What’s the Benefit to Your Business?

Peter Granger

An introduction to how Cisco Industrial POE can simplify electrical wiring, increase device portability, and lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). This is available on the Cisco IE3000 and IE2000 Series products now.

IP devices are becoming Ubiquitous, and the Internet of things is upon us, and predictions are for billions of devices connected over the Internet of Everything. So, what does this mean in terms of connectivity? Will everything be wireless? Clearly not for several reasons, including up-stream and downstream high speed connectivity with data centers and storage, and issues of reliability in harsh environments. However, many devices such as sensors will be wireless, and they’ll need to be back-hauled back to the data center or control areas.

So those sensors and devices, which may or not be battery powered, will need to connect to a wired infrastructure of some sort. Many will need a wire-line, especially in the world of manufacturing, energy and utilities. That’s where Power over Ethernet, or PoE, is proving invaluable. Continue reading “Cisco Power Over EtherNet (POE) – What’s the Benefit to Your Business?”

Peter Granger

Senior Sales Transformation Manager

1 Comment

The Importance of the Omnichannel in Financial Services

Will Bunge

Technology has and will continue to be a key enabler across every product delivery channel within the financial services sector. You simply need to explore some of the newer bank branches, available applications within app stores or investigate online innovations inherent in many institutions’ web presence to see how engrained technology has become in the customer experience. While firms are making this transition in differentiated form factors and across different channels, the trend itself is clear and pervasive; underpinned by the “anywhere, anytime” mantra and the continued consumerization of technology.

These channel developments cut across all products, but all have one common element – enabling improved and increased collaboration between institutions, their clients, businesses and/or consumers to drive accretive revenue. While these developments have and will continue to deliver impressive initial returns, they are largely siloed by either a business unit and/or delivery channel. The true potential value can only be unlocked by enabling a seamless and contextual integration of the physical, direct and mobile channels – the evolution from multi-channel to omnichannel.

The omnichannel model enables the customer to choose how and by what method they want to conduct their business, be that in person, via a mobile device, from the home, online or with telephony. Cisco’s IBSG team has published a white paper that looks into the transformation of institutions from multi-channel to omnichannel. While the method of communication is important, the true differentiator in transformational channel evolution is the ability to integrate interaction. Institutions must be aware of the context and outcomes of customer interactions as customers move from channel to channel, product to product, or business line to business line.

From an institutional point of view, the value in the omnichannel impacts multiple factors. Continue reading “The Importance of the Omnichannel in Financial Services”

Will Bunge

Executive Director, Financial Services

Americas Business Transformation

12 Comments

“Let’s Hear it for the Girls”

Blair Christie

Girls and careers in information communications technology (ICT). A contradiction?

Unfortunately that is the case in so many classrooms and companies around the world. Teenage girls use computers and the Internet similar to boys – they text, they take pictures on their phones, yet they are five times less likely to consider a technology-related career. In fact, in the OECD countries, women account for less than 20% of ICT specialists. Today, on International Girls in ICT Day, I’m wondering how we can reverse that trend.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon at Fairmont Heights High School in Capitol Heights, Maryland. I had the privilege of talking to dozens of young women who are passionate about technology and are getting trained and certified in IT skills through Cisco’s Networking Academy program. I also met Ashley Covington, a Networking Academy graduate who is currently a systems administrator for the City of Baltimore public schools. Ashley told us that she loves her job and “I take pride in my data center.” That is music to my ears.

Continue reading ““Let’s Hear it for the Girls””

Blair Christie

Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

Cloud for Local Government Global Blog Series, Be an Agent of Change in Your Organization: Embark on the Cloud Journey

Robert Nucci

Great challenges can bring great opportunities to any business, and with the inevitability of cloud on the horizon, IT organizations will need to embrace this change. Taking the first, second or even third step can be scary, but the return on taking such risks will pay off so long as the IT organization champions the deployment.

Cisco itself has also had to face these risks of deploying cloud, and has already embarked on the private cloud (IaaS) journey —all the way from virtualizing the compute, network, and storage resources to integrating change management, and metering services for “pay as you use”.

Some of the challenges that we encountered typical that other IT organizations could face in cloud adoption were:

• Ensuring security. Each cloud solution has to be matched to appropriate security capabilities. The new capabilities may include centralized management (vs. trying to manage firewalls on ever-changing edges or trying to manage security on each endpoint), scalable multi-tenant architectures, real-time threat analysis and dynamic mitigation delivery.

Continue reading “Cloud for Local Government Global Blog Series, Be an Agent of Change in Your Organization: Embark on the Cloud Journey”

Robert Nucci

No Longer at Cisco

3 Comments

The Mobile Paradox

Stuart Taylor

Today’s world is characterized by what I call the “mobile explosion”—an environment defined by mobile cloud becoming a platform for delivering everything. It is a world of heterogeneous networks, licensed macro small cell networks, and unlicensed small cell networks (Wi-Fi for example), all seamlessly combined. In this world, however, I believe we are facing a mobile paradox: on the one hand, there is a staggering demand for data from our smartphones, tablets, and other connected devices; on the other hand, the telecommunications industry is grappling with business and monetization challenges around profitability, how to build up these networks fast enough, and competition from over-the-top (OTT) operators. But, operators are struggling with building the business case and understanding how to make Wi-Fi pay.

The much quoted Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) predicts that global mobile data traffic will increase 13-fold from 2012 to 2017, reaching 11.2 exabytes per month. In parallel, the use of unlicensed small cell networks (Wi-Fi) for Internet access is exploding as more mobile devices are Wi-Fi-enabled, the number of public hotspots expands, and user acceptance grows. Until recently, most technologists and mobile industry executives viewed Wi-Fi as the “poor cousin” to licensed mobile communications. And they most certainly never saw any role for Wi-Fi in mobile networks or their business. The explosion of mobile data traffic has changed all of that. Most mobile operators now realize that offloading data traffic to Wi-Fi can, and must, play a significant role in helping them avoid clogged networks and unhappy customers.

In the “Business Models and Monetization Video” in Big Thinkers in Small Cells, my colleagues and I discuss revenue opportunities and challenges mobile operators face today with small cells, both licensed and unlicensed. Mobile operators Continue reading “The Mobile Paradox”

Year: 2013

MegaTrends: The Need for Securing Data Center Traffic

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