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A few weeks ago with the introduction of the 2012 Cisco Connected World Technology Report (CCWTR), we asked San Franciscans what they would give up in order to stay connected to the Internet and about what else they’d like to see connect to the Internet.

Meanwhile, we asked our Twitter followers and Facebook fans some of the same questions. We learned that when it comes to having the data on your phone deleted or skipping showering for a week, nearly 70% of you would choose to conserve water.

We also learned that over half of our fans and followers would rather lose their wallet than their smartphone and close to 90% would sooner cut the cord on their cable TV subscription to keep their smartphones.

These anecdotal findings are consistent with what we found from our global survey. The 2012 CCWTR confirmed that this smartphone behavior is ingrained in 18-30 year olds. And while the drive to stay connected is global, the CCWTR uncovered a few regional differences as well. For example, the CCWTR found that nearly 2 out of 3 Canadian consumers say they use their smartphones for non-phone functions more than phone functions. In India, China and Korea, millennials said they were more likely to meet online with friends than in person. Latin American countries Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina were found to be the most Twitter-savvy countries by the Report and millenials in European countries were least likely to feel anxious about losing contact through smartphones.

How does your country stack up? Click here to view our interactive world map with CCWTR findings. Keep following the conversation at #DataInMotion.



Authors

Jessica Williamsen

PR Specialist

Public Relations

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The annual Consumer Electronics Show, held last week in Las Vegas, has been called the “Super Bowl of Technology.” This year’s event was no exception. The largest in the 45-year history of CES, it featured 3,250 exhibitors, 150,000 attendees, and more than 20,000 new products unveiled. But while it may have been impossible to nail down every trend, breakthrough, and future implication, some key themes emerged as I wandered the sea of vendors and engaged in many customer discussions.

Particularly from a service provider perspective, here are a few of the most important trends that seemed top of mind throughout the show:

  1. An Explosion of Endpoints. In recent years at CES, particular devices, such as the iPad, or new technologies, such as 3D, proved dominant. This year, however, the show was characterized by the sheer, massive breadth of innovative new devices. This vast permutation of media-rich gadgets is the result of accelerated innovation that is bringing ubiquitous, mobile access to all endpoints. Even the TV is “becoming mobile” as it gains the ability to access content wirelessly. At the same time, these devices are getting “touchy-feely,” if you will, as touchscreen technology grows equally ubiquitous.
  2. Going Ultra. One new technology, Continue reading “CES 2013: An Explosion of Innovative New Devices”


Authors

Chris Osika

Senior Director, Global Lead

Service Provider Practice Internet Business Solutions Group

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“We’ve tried, it can’t be automated!” I’ve heard this more times than I can keep track of and if you read my previous blog you will know that I just do not agree. I have written about automation with Linux utilities, UCS PowerTool, AutoHotKey, Excel, etc… 99.999% of operations can be automated. So when a customer tells me that something cannot be automated I usually respond with “Have you tried …?”

Here is the scenario; the customer has an automated build process for ESX hosts. At the point where the host is ready to be connected to the Nexus 1000V the process becomes manual. The customer would like to use VMWare PowerCLI to migrate the host interface but the Cmdlet to retrieve Distributed Virtual Switches, Get-VirtualSwitch, just returns the DVS objects,  there isn’t a Cmdlet to migrate the ESX vmnic interface.

Hold on a second, I know that VCenter knows about the Nexus 1000V because I see it in the interface. I know that VCenter can manipulate the Nexus 1000V because VCenter is where interface migration is done. I am fairly certain at this point that ESX interface migration from the VCenter vSwitch to the Nexus 1000V can be automated. But what to use to do it, there is no PowerCLI command like Set-ESXHostInterfaceToN1kv. This is typically where automation ends for many, sometimes you have to dive deep into the objects that the system manages and figure out what to do. Sometimes someone has already done a deep dive into something like what you are trying to do and maybe you can build off of their work.
Continue reading “Automate Migrating ESX Host Interfaces to Nexus 1000V”



Authors

John McDonough

Developer Advocate

DevNet

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As we’ve all seen, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) made its way rather quickly into the public sector, and the challenges of implementing within government agencies has been well documented. In order to help agencies face these challenges, GovLoop recently conducted a survey & released “Exploring Bring Your Own Device in the Public Sector”. The report highlights challenges for implementing a BYOD initiative and best practices, and it also provides insights from industry and government experts related to mobility and BYOD.

Included in the report, David Graziano, Director, Security and Unified Access, U.S. Public Sector, Cisco, recently spoke with Pat Fiorenza of GovLoop on the current state of BYOD in government. David stressed that while challenges still remain for BYOD it’s one of the most important trends impacting government agencies. He advised that agencies must embrace BYOD and act on it along with their other mobility initiatives.

Not only does BYOD optimize business lines to workforce productivity and morale, but it’s becoming a necessity for recruitment, as a new demographic of employees enter the workforce and expect to be mobile and access information on any device, any time anywhere. Continue reading “BYOD & Mobility: Transforming the Public Sector”



Authors

Kerry Best

Marketing Manager

Public Sector Marketing

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2012 was a big year for technology in education, and as promised, I’ll be diving into 5 of the top tech trends in education that are sure to take 2013 by storm! One of the biggest trends I hear teachers and administrators talking about is the Flipped Classroom. While this isn’t a new concept, it certainly became much more prominent trend over the last couple years.

A high school biology teacher in Los Gatos, California is using the power of video to implement a Flipped Classroom and transform his students’ learning environment. As Renee Patton points out in her blog post, it’s not all about the technology, but when implemented with sound pedagogy the technology can have a profound impact on student engagement and learning. Continue reading “Do you do the flip? Flipped Classroom that is…”



Authors

Kerry Best

Marketing Manager

Public Sector Marketing

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As part of my work at Cisco, I get to talk to customers very often. Through these conversations, I learn what works for them and what concerns them. Lately, I’ve been hearing a common theme from a lot of customers: in many organizations IT staff is small and not growing while they are being asked to do more to meet the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) challenge.

BYOD has drastically changed the technology landscape as users bring many different types of personal devices to the networks of schools and colleges, hospitals, financial agencies, enterprises and other organizations. One university IT team, including their chief technology officer and their IT administrators, recently told me that they had 200% network user growth and 300% endpoint device growth over the last several years. As for their network, they used to have less than 100 wireless access points (APs). Guess how many they have today? Over a thousand. And they are planning to deploy several hundred more APs in the coming months. How about their IT headcount growth? As you might have guessed, it’s not grown at all.

Continue reading “One Management for the BYOD Challenge”



Authors

Steven Song

Business Manager

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Last quarter I had the chance to record a video webinar with Bob Laliberte, Senior Analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), where we talked about the basics of virtual networking, as well as why organizations need consistency across their physical and virtual network infrastructures.

Bob presents some great research data on virtual network overlays, and talks about what features customers are looking for, some of the technical challenges in maintaining consistency with the physical infrastructure, and how organizations are rolling out this key technology. Naturally, I relate a lot of his insights to our own Nexus 1000V portfolio, and our own virtual networking strategy. It’s about 36 mins and I really enjoyed working with Bob on this video. Hopefully you’ll find it informative as well.

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



Authors

Gary Kinghorn

Sr Solution Marketing Manager

Network Virtualization and SDN

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panoramaAfter a long day of showing the Cisco BYOD Smart Solution and Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences solutions at the 2013 National Retail Federation (NRF) trade show, I am waiting for a colleague to meet me for a well-deserved dinner. I had many, and yes there were MANY, conversations with Retail IT professionals,  and nearly every conversation I had seemed to revolve around the same two problems:

  1. How do I allow employees and / or customers to access the network when I don’t have dedicated local IT support?
  2. How do I give up the control and make sure my security and compliance requirements are met?

We know almost all organizations are struggling with BYOD, but it’s now clear that the lack of local IT support adds a new dimension to the problem. With the increased adoption of mobility, there’s also the added complexity of security and compliance, and with all the connected consumers walking around, it’s becoming a growing concern in the retail space. Retail organizations want to take advantage of the promise that leveraging Wi-Fi access to engage with employees and customers, but fear the management and security of such services.

Fortunately, Cisco is addressing both these issues with its mobility solutions.

Continue reading “Reflections from the Floor at NRF 2013”



Authors

Brian Robertson

Product Marketing Manager

CMO EMM Mobility Solutions