I’ve just had the honor of speaking at this year’s InfoComm conference and wanted to share with you some of the ideas I explored in depth during my session. It’d be great to hear your thoughts in response and get a conversation going … because, to me, that sort of collaboration is just what the future of digital communication is going to be about.
The way I see it, we’re moving from an “Internet of Things” to an “Internet of Everything.” The Internet of Things is the connection of the 50 billion apps and clouds and devices that join up to networks and enable some level of communication. But the Internet of Everything is about synthesizing these connections and data to transform business processes and make them accessible to people in ways that matter in the real world. The real value is in the connections—in other words, it’s about enabling truly powerful collaboration. The value of the Internet of Everything is only as good as the breadth of the people, process, data and things it can reach.
This post was written by Gary Coman, who oversees engineering and development for Cisco Networking Academy. It originally appeared on the Huffington Post.
I love my job and I want you to love yours too. I meet people of all ages, everywhere in the world who are shaping the future of their communities and transforming their lives. As director of engineering with the Cisco Networking Academy, I am part of a global community dedicated to training the next generation of networking technology professionals who will design, build, and dream up the technology networks that will connect everyone, everywhere. They will change the way we work, live, play and learn.
Whether you’re just planning a career or considering a career change, here are 5 reasons you should include computer networking in your course studies.
1. Opportunities abound
People with ICT and networking skills are in short supply worldwide. The US Department of Labor estimates the number of jobs for network systems and data communication analysts will grow by 53 percent from 2008 to 2018. In Brazil, these types of jobs will grow from about 60,000 today to more than 115,000 jobs by 2015. The story is the same in country after country from continent to continent. As organizations and institutions invest in mobile devices, cloud computing, social media and big data, they depend on a workforce with networking technology experience. The current number of people working and studying technology simply won’t match the expected demand. Individuals who choose to add networking to their studies or professional skills can transform their lives. Ntombozuko (Soso) Luningo leveraged her interest in computers into a successful career first as an IT professional and now inspires others as an instructor.
Soso Luningo teaches computer networking skills at the CIDA City Campus in Johannesburg, South Africa.
2. You don’t have to be a math wiz
Networking starts with basic logic and connections. The only prerequisite for the Cisco Networking Academy IT Essentials class is an interest in information communications technology (ICT) and basic math and reading comprehension. If you are in or have completed high school, you have the skills to launch a networking career. High school students in Bulgaria have become networking champions through online study, simulations, hands-on activities, and working in teams. You can study networking technology at a broad range of educational institutions — high schools, community colleges, institutes, community knowledge centers, and universities as part of your degree studies or while you work.
Students at Technology School Electronic Systems (TSES) in Sofia, Bulgaria, benefit from taking the rigorous Cisco Networking Academy curriculum.
3. Every workplace needs a few friendly geeks
Networking skills give you an edge and an opportunity to make a career in almost any sector you can imagine: financial services, education, transportation, manufacturing, oil and gas, mining and minerals, technology, government, hospitality, health care, retail… you name it. If you have an interest in a particular field, technology is probably part of it. For example, health care clinicians study networking technology to better understand how to use it in their practice. At Effat University in Saudi Arabia, women have dramatically expanded their career opportunities by adding networking to their skills set. Veteran Matt Hefler became a virtual systems engineer with several job offers after his networking studies. Whether you see yourself with your own business, as part of a small company or inside a global corporation, networking basics open the door to help advance your career.
4. Get connected to the most connected people
There is a worldwide community of people just like you. More than 4.75 million students in 165 countries have participated in Cisco Networking Academy courses since 1997. That’s a lot of friends to find and connect with on LinkedIn or the Cisco Networking Academy Facebook page, which has over 530,000 student and instructor members who use it to stay in touch, ask questions, and learn about new learning opportunities. Most academies have their own Facebook sites and many have LinkedIn communities.
5. The places you’ll go and the things you’ll do
Networking standards are global. That means your skills and certifications are recognized anywhere in the world your career takes you. Cisco certified professionals have worked their way up through global corporations in places all over the world. They live in every sized community, supporting small businesses, schools, and social services in every town or village where someone connects to the Internet. They build networks for essential communications after disasters like in Haiti after the earthquake. They connect isolated places like refugee camps to the world, giving displaced persons a bridge to a more promising future.
I know that networking can take you wherever you want to go, because I’ve lived it. I started out as a systems analyst with Fidelity Investments. But I had ambitions to build life experience and travel the globe. I used my knowledge in networking and technology to move to Europe and then to Asia for over 10 years, advancing my career from systems to sales to business development. Now, as director of engineering for Cisco Networking Academy, I ensure that people everywhere benefit from the power of ICT. When you choose to add networking skills and Cisco certification to your résumé, you open the door to opportunities.
Gary Coman will be speaking about the connection between networking technology studies and career opportunities at the U.S. News STEM Solutions Conference, June 17-19.
One noted economist believes “the real impact of the electronic revolutions has already occurred.” We could not disagree more. With over 2B more people and 37B more things planning to join the Internet by 2020, our economic analysis identifies a potential “value at stake” of $14.4 trillion. This number equates to the impact of increased connectedness that the Internet of Everything (IOE) will make possible for private-sector firms over the next decade. What does that mean? A potential 21% aggregate increase in profits for the global private sector between 2013 and 2022.
Every day Cisco works with customers to address their technology opportunities and challenges as they focus on driving growth, improving customer experiences and increasing their productivity. But it’s not just the technology that is driving the benefit to their business – corresponding shifts in strategy around people and information management is driving the gap between the leaders and the followers. In 2013 alone, over $600B in profits are flowing to some of those leaders as they take advantage of the Internet of Everything -- the intelligent connection of people, processes, data and things
It’s not just our technologies that help customers achieve amazing things in their organization,. With our role as architects for our customers IT strategy, we also have a window on how they use everyone else’s technology. We see, first hand, what happens when they connect the unconnected – both people and things – and how these connections generate more data and require new processes as “everything” comes online. We wanted to better understand how the Internet of Everything can help businesses create economic value and how to design a roadmap to take advantage of the increased connectedness.
Today, we’re releasing the results of the Cisco IoE Value Index that begins to tackle these questions. This index is a global survey of 7,500 business and IT decision makers providing a sense of how well businesses worldwide are doing in their efforts to realize their share of the value at stake in 2013. We surveyed executives from large and midsize firms across nine different industries in 12 of the world’s largest economies, which together represent approximately 70% of global GDP.
How much value are we talking about here? From a business perspective, the results of the IoE Value Index tell us that private firms will capture a staggering $613 billion in profits in 2013. How? By taking advantage of Internet of Everything to increase efficiencies and create better customer experiences. Some highlights to note:
Are you thinking about the evolving threat landscape? You should be. Each day, new vulnerabilities are found and new exploits are crafted. Attackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, while industry trends such as cloud computing and mobility are rapidly expanding the attack surfaces. Your mobile device could act like a Trojan horse, passing right through your network perimeter. Or your compromised server could spread an infection to your most sensitive assets.
This is the first in a series of blog posts that focuses on how Cisco stays ahead of the latest security threats. Of course, to stay on top of something as fast changing and widespread as security threats, you need to understand them in great detail.
Cisco Live 2013 opens on June 23, 2013, at Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida with more than 20,000 registered attendees including customers and partners expected to attend the event.Cisco’s unique, fabric-centric architecture-Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS), allows IT organizations to align people, process and infrastructure to lower the cost of computing and open up new ways for IT to transform business.
The best way to quickly learn about latest Cisco UCS innovations and solutions is by seeing them “LIVE IN ACTION”. Come to the Cisco Data Center booth # 758 at Cisco Live 2013 in Orlando to leverage the Cisco UCS demos, theater sessions and related activities at Cisco Live 2013.
Learn more about Cisco UCS: Visit the Data Center zone in the Cisco Campus #758 to interact with peers, Cisco executives,, and Cisco partners.
Ask Our Experts: Cisco UCS experts will be available to answer your questions and provide interactive live demonstrations of Cisco UCS.
Attend Cisco UCS Theater Sessions: Visit the Cisco Campus Solutions Theater to attend the informative Cisco UCS theater sessions.
This post was written by Gary Coman, who oversees engineering and development for Cisco Networking Academy. It originally appeared on the 
The best way to quickly learn about latest Cisco UCS innovations and solutions is by seeing them “LIVE IN ACTION”. Come to the Cisco Data Center booth # 758 at 