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The slides below are from my presentation at EuroMPI’13 about Open MPI’s flexible process affinity interface (in OMPI 1.7.2 and later).  I described this system in a prior blog entries (one, two, three), but many people keep asking me about it.

Josh Hursey from U. Wisconsin, LaCrosse, wrote this IMUDI paper about the interface (IMUDI is a sub-workshop of EuroMPI focusing on end-user issues) to get a little more publicity and awareness of this process affinity system.  Specifically, we designed this affinity system so that we could get feedback from real end users about what is useful and what is not.

Continue reading “EuroMPI’13 Cisco slides: Open MPI Process Affinity User Interface”



Authors

Jeff Squyres

The MPI Guy

UCS Platform Software

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This past week, the Meeting of the Minds convened in Toronto, Canada with more than 375 invited CXOs debating the convergence of urban sustainability and connected technologies. During the three-day summit, a variety of smart public policies and breakthrough technology innovations were presented by leading innovators.

The solutions showcased– from lighting to energy grids to parking – are all designed to enable cities and metro-regions to better respond to increasingly complex challenges: urban planning, city design, network technology and infrastructure. As a keynote speaker, I had the opportunity to address a topic that was top of mind for many of these leaders – The Smart City Powered by the Internet of Everything (IoE).

Continue reading “#ExecInsights: Transforming Tomorrow’s Smart Cities… Today”



Authors

Wim Elfrink

Executive Vice President, Industry Solutions & Chief

Globalisation Officer

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Last month, the Internet of Things was added to Oxford Dictionaries Online.  IoT was added along with such august terms as BYOD, Bitcoin, and even selfie.  While the ODO isn’t the OED – it’s the younger, hipper sibling focused on current English and modern meanings – this addition is just one more datapoint on the growing awareness around the coming Internet of Things.

Internet of things has been around as a term since about 1999, however, it’s recent popularity is due to a few emerging trends.  In the consumer space there’s been wide adoption of connected products such as smart thermostats and intelligent pedometers.  In the enterprise (and here I am using enterprise to represent many types of larger organizations – including local and national governments, non-profits, academia and companies) we’ve seen the rise of BYOD which you could argue is the first mainstream IoT form-factor. Continue reading “Internet of Things World Forum – Why, What, Who and How”



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First Look New Catalyst 2960-XCisco Catalyst 2960-X is our greenest Catalyst access switch ever. If all similar switches shipped in 2012 were as energy efficient as Catalyst 2960-X, you would save enough energy to power every household in San Francisco for more than 3 years. Here’s how:

  1. At power up, Catalyst 2960-X consumes lower power than other comparable switches.
  2. Cisco EnergyWise monitors and controls the power consumption of PoE and PoE+ devices connected to the switch. You can turn off IP phones and wireless access points automatically after business hours.
  3. Energy Efficient Ethernet provides power savings when there is no traffic on switch ports. This saves about 15 watts for a 48 port-switch and 8 watts for a 24 port-switch.
  4. Downlink Hibernation Mode shuts down the downlink interface to save half watt per port when the connected devices are not in use, for example, after the office hours.
  5. Switch Hibernation Mode puts the switch to sleep mode during off hours and weekends. In this mode, the switch consumes as low as 6 watts, compared to 47 watts in active mode.

Collectively, these green features can reduce power consumption by up to 80%. Continue reading “[INFOGRAPHIC] Reduce Switch Power Consumption By Up To 80%”



Authors

Pradeep Parmar

Senior Marketing Manager

Enterprise Networks

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As a working mom of two of the best and brightest kids (no bias here!) I couldn’t be prouder that Cisco again made the Working Mother 100 Best Companies list.  When you think about it though, “Mother” is a bit of a misnomer here. Really most Cisco employees, about 99 percent in fact, benefit from the flexible work practices that have become the hallmark of our corporate culture and one of the things that makes Cisco such a great place to work.

Progressive, flexible work policies are table stakes, but lets not forget about the technology that has made it all possible. I remember back in the day, I was working late one night at home when my dial up (yes, dial up) malfunctioned. I had to hop in the car close to midnight and drive to the Cisco office just to log onto the corporate network and send an email. Today, thanks to the power of the network (do I sound like a commercial?) I can work from anywhere, at anytime and be productive.

While flexibility is key, it’s not the only thing that Working Mother highlights as a characteristic of a “Best Company.”   Check out the complete story for more details.



Authors

Robyn Jenkins Blum

Public Relations Manager

Corporate Communications

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Your smart sprinkler system is happily pumping water to your lawn in highly efficient sprays that are “aware” of the soil, the climate, the weather, the time of day, and even whether or not your kids are playing in the backyard on a Saturday. Suddenly, a faulty valve bursts and an uncontrolled geyser erupts. One part of your property is about to be ruined by flooding while the rest of the lawn is left to yellow in the sun.

You and your family are miles away, yet you know all about it.  Sensors throughout the system alert your smartphone. At the same time, machine-to-machine signals shut down the pumps, and an expert from the sprinkler company is dispatched to your home with the precise replacement part and the real-time knowledge to fix the system.

It’s a great example of how the Internet of Everything (IoE) may soon funnel precise information in real time to the people — or machines — that need it most. Many of these “remote expert” technologies are either already here or on the horizon.

remote-expert

  Continue reading “Have a Problem? Ask an Expert (Even if He, She, or It Is 3,000 Miles Away)”



Authors

Rachael McBrearty

Chief Creative and Group Leader

Cisco Consulting Services

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By Tim Rooney, Director, Product Management, BT Diamond IP

The discipline of network management has long offered technical and business benefits to organizations with the centralization of the monitoring, control, and provisioning of distributed network elements such as routers and application or services databases. These benefits include holistic management of a network from a centralized point where appropriate resources can be leveraged for troubleshooting, resolution, and escalation. The centralized “top down” approach also lends itself well to supporting structured network change control procedures.

It’s a small leap to consider DNS and DHCP servers as network elements in need of network management within an IP network, as they provide critical enabling services to clients or subscribers. While not in-band or on the data path for user IP traffic like traditional network elements, DNS and DHCP servers provide foundational services required to make such in-band data paths possible and usable, including automated IP address assignment and simpler IP application navigation.

But one cannot manage Continue reading “IPAM is Essential to Network Management”



Authors

Jamie Lerner

Senior Vice President and General Manager

Cloud and Systems Management Technology Group

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chowj-300x400By Joe Chow, VP & GM, Connected Devices Business Unit, Cisco

Headsup: Worldwide, Cisco’s TV technologies are present in nearly 300 million homes. Three. Hundred. Million. Homes! As my kids would say: Get. Out! That means that nearly a quarter of the homes on planet Earth are watching TV powered by Cisco – pretty amazing, right?

For us, it’s a very big deal, because it makes us the market share leader in set-top boxes. It took a long time to get here. We’re very happy, and grateful, to the 150 service providers and media companies who chose us for the television services they deliver.

One of the reasons for the introduction of the set-top box, dating back to the analog boxes of yore, is to secure television programming from theft. On the condition that you’re a subscriber, you get access to multichannel video. That, and channel expansion beyond channel three (which was as high as early television sets could go) gave Continue reading “Cisco’s TV Technology Footprint Spans Nearly 300 Million Homes”



Authors

David Yates

as Director of Service Provider Video Marketing at Cisco

SP360

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You don’t have to look far to see how mobile video is changing how we communicate, collaborate and consume information. From collaborating with co-workers across the globe while you catch the morning train to connecting with friends and family from the comfort of your sofa. From checking out the latest viral Vine video during a 2-minute coffee break to catching the latest TED Talks in a cab on your way home. Video is pervasive and in demand.

KipCompton-VideoAccording to Cisco’s recent VNI Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast, this demand for mobile video is expected to increase over the next five years with estimates stating that two-thirds of the world’s mobile data traffic will be video by 2017.

These projections come as no surprise. Mobile video is poised for explosive growth because it has the unique capability to move us to act in real-time while we are on-the-go. How can enterprises and consumers benefit from this video in motion? Here are key ways organizations can keep employees and customers top-of-mind and access the competitive advantages of mobile video.

Make mobile video a priority in the overall enterprise IT strategy.

According to a recent report by Gartner, the consumption of video on mobile devices for work-related purposes is on the rise. With 66 percent of employees now using two or more mobile devices for work, the ways video can be viewed and accessed are increasing. Whether employees are accessing video on smartphones, tablets or a networked computer, a strong connection with enough bandwidth to provide an optimal viewing and sharing experience needs to be an essential part of the overall enterprise IT strategy. Continue reading “Capturing Value from Mobile Video in Motion”



Authors

Kip Compton

No longer with Cisco