Once again this year, Cisco is a proud to sponsor the EG 7 Conference in Monterey, California, April 18-20, 2013. The theme this year is Everything is Learning — and Learning is Everything,  and many of the world’s leading inventors, explorers, educators, entertainers, artists and entrepreneurs are coming together to probe these frontiers.  The content is truly inspirational.

Everything is learning… and in higher education, the sea change has become a tsunami: Stanford-born Udacity and Coursera are racing with edX from Harvard and MIT to flood university curricula online.  Will this be the most significant transformation of universities to date?  After all, these thrusts aspire to reach billions of learners — anywhere, anytime.

At EG this year, the founding CEO’s of all these movements are speaking: Sebastian Thrun, Daphne Koller, and Anant Agarwal.  This is a revolution in the way higher education is purveyed.  How it affects learners around the world — the billions who may someday benefit — remains to be seen.

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Tags: Coursera, education, edX, elearning, highered, MOOCs, Udacity

Protecting Your Business in an “Any to Any” World

Innovation never stops in the mobile world, and that rule applies to security threats as well. Network attacks are becoming more sophisticated and even high-tech businesses with the most advanced security may find themselves in the crosshairs as we shift to more devices and anywhere access.

Just a few weeks ago, multiple leading social networking and large enterprises were hit with an attack when their employees visited a known and trusted website focused on mobile application development. Read More »

Tags: byod, Internet of Everything, IoE, mobility, security, unified access, wired, wireless

By Uwe Lambrette, Director, IBSG Service Provider

Cloud adoption is accelerating at an impressive pace. To gain a deeper understanding of the current rate of change, and the dynamics of cloud’s evolution, the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) engaged with wide-ranging groups of IT executives and decision makers—first in 2010, and then again in 2012. Our in-depth interviews focused on five industry verticals: government, manufacturing, financial services, professional services, and retail.

In our interviews, we encountered many examples of cloud implementation projects, which we call “adoption dynamics,” because they are nearly always part of the enterprise cloud adoption process. While there is no prescribed order, enterprises often begin with smaller, well-defined projects that fall into six categories:

1. Consolidation of IT resources into cloud-based architectures for true cloud transformation
2. Next-generation workspace
3. Simple back-office business processes
4. Software development
5. Agile and scalable web presence
6. Transformation of computer grids and analytics

Today: Different Industry Verticals Share Common Adoption Dynamics

The study Read More »

Tags: adoption, analytics, Cisco, cloud, cloud implementation, cloud transformation, cloud-based architectures, grids, IBSG, Internet Business Solutions Group, next-generation workspace, Service Provider, SP, vertical cloud adoption, vertical cloud providers, web presence

Guest blog by Ntombozuko (Soso) Luningo

Soso Luningo is a trainer with the ICT Academy at CIDA City Campus in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she trains students on the Cisco Networking Academy curriculum

This is my first blog ever, long overdue since I am an expressive person. Everywhere I have ever spoken, the question has been: “Why don’t you have a blog?” Well there you go folks. I finally decided to write this blog because I am grateful to the Cisco Networking Academy for affording me the opportunity to have influence and make great contributions to the future of previously disadvantaged South African youth.

I have been involved in the Cisco Networking Academy programme from the “baby” (student) days of my career and I am now raising about 50 babies every single year as an instructor at the ICT Academy at CIDA City Campus in Johannesburg, South Africa.

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Tags: CIDA City Campus, education, ICT, netacad, networking academy, South Africa

We estimate there are approximately 1.4M potential mid-size and large customers globally. Reaching them with the right message and the right offerings at the right time is not trivial, nor is it something that just luckily happens. It takes a good understanding of the sales cycle and most importantly the knowledge of how to start the conversation around business planning and strategy. There is lots of new business to be won and Cisco is committed to your success with these customers.  Cisco’s new Partner Led Sales Excellence Training can set you on the right path.

Effective business planning is an important value that we bring to the customer.  A roadmap and a list of recommendations helps customers make strategic decisions across their organization without having to piece together all the offerings and connect all the dots themselves. That level of planning and consulting ultimately secures your place as a trusted advisor with the customer.

The new Partner Led Sales Excellence Training Modules help you get started.  Read More »

Tags: Cisco, cisco's winner circle, partner, partner led, training