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Cloud is already here—and thriving. Today, twenty-three percent of total IT spending is devoted to cloud, and the increase in cloud’s share of IT spending is expected to increase by 17 percent over the next three years. Yet as we transition into the next phase of IT evolution, Cisco and its partners will need to know how to adapt and seize opportunities in a rapidly changing ecosystem.

In our most recent “Winning in the Cloud” partner webcast, we discussed a groundbreaking new study, “Impact of Cloud on IT Consumption Models.” That study, conducted in collaboration between Cisco® Consulting Services (CCS) and Intel®, explores the forces transforming IT organizations, and determines just what skills our IT leaders and service providers will need to succeed.

The study is based on customer-focused surveys of more than 4,000 IT decision makers, from enterprise and midsized companies, spanning 18 industries and nine key economies in developed and emerging markets alike. It presents a detailed analysis of what IT organizations of the future will look like — and what their leaders need to do today to ensure their future success.

Some of the report’s key findings include: Continue reading “The Impact of Cloud Consumption Models”



Authors

Edison Peres

Senior Vice President, Worldwide Channels

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Have you ever put your car in for service and it came back with a ‘door-ding’, or some other damage? Now, to be clear you probably can’t be 100% sure it didn’t happen in a car parking lot, or was it kids being too rough with there toys?  And where did that scratch come from on your newly delivered car – was it already there? Who knows?

Well, if you were dealing with Mercedes-Benz Czech Republic (MBCR), you might find out!  Located in Prague, MBCR employs 400 people, and sells, services and supports Mercedes-Benz vehicles throughout the Czech Republic.

Mercedes Reference
Mercedes success story – click picture to view pdf on Cisco Case Studies  Slideshare site

The subsidiary was eager to maintain its excellent standard of service. One issue that was a constant source of customer complaints was vehicle damage. Customers were sometimes wrongly accused of damaging cars when the cars had been scratched or dented in transit. Damages could  also occur in the showroom or repair center and be wrongly ascribed to customers. MBCR had an analogue camera system in place to cover these incidents, but the pictures that it produced were of poor quality. In many cases, identification of number plates and faces was not possible. Administrators also could not easily locate the footage that they needed, and recordings only stretched back two days.

After investigating various offerings, MBCR decided to select a Cisco® closed-circuit TV (CCTV) over IP solution from its trusted service partner Clarystone.  Capable of monitoring multiple sites from a single location, the security solution allows administrators to:

  • Access live video anywhere over the Internet
  • Locate specific dates, times, or incidents in video archives in seconds
  • Cost-effectively add new cameras and video storage

Exterior cameras film cars being loaded into the showrooms and record details of every number plate. If a vehicleMercedes Quote is scratched in transit, the cameras record the incident. This arrangement helps ensure that customers are not wrongly blamed for the damage. Interior cameras film the reception, showroom, and repair center areas. Any accidents or incidents involving theft or vandalism are instantly captured. Customers who leave their vehicles for servicing or repair can rest assured that they are now covered for any loss or damage.

miklemenI asked Michael Klemen – Cisco Executive Automotive Manager in Europe (EMEAR) where video was going in the automotive industry and he said:

“New digital tactics are becoming more important to the auto industry in all areas,. As this matures the appetite for video content is growing at an insatiable rate: Show it, see it while being connected is important – digital dashboards, I-Services Kiosks, configuration & visualization from Car Design to Sales, After Sales services is what everyone builds into the value chain today !”

Continue reading “Mercedes Improves Customer Service Through Video”



Authors

Peter Granger

Senior Sales Transformation Manager

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Cisco continues to listen to our customers’ feedback, and make improvements that address your biggest pain points. In a previous post, Jim Fuller, Senior Director of Technical Services focused on entitlement, joined us to talk about improvements that simplified the overall Services Entitlement process, and hinted at future improvements that were underway.  Jim’s team recently completed changes to our Return Materials Authorization (RMA) process, and as promised, he returns to the blog to walk us through those changes, and what they will mean for your experience working with Cisco.

Read the full article: The We’re Listening Blog Series: Faster Contract Updates with New RMA Front-end Swap Process.



Authors

Curt Hill

Senior Vice President

Customer Assurance

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The “We’re Listening” blog keeps you in the loop about what Cisco is hearing from our customers and partners, and what we’re doing to address your top pain points. Teams across Cisco work together to fix these areas of concerns, and in this blog, you’ve heard from some of the experts who lead the improvement efforts. At the center of their efforts is Cisco’s Ease of Doing Business program, which looks at all the customer and partner feedback from surveys, individual meetings and conferences to determine the biggest pain points, and then pulls in the right people from across Cisco to make change happen.

The Ease of Doing Business team recently returned from Cisco Live, where they captured valuable feedback from our customer and partner attendees. I’ve asked Steve Morrisey, who leads the program, to summarize his top moments from Cisco Live, and to give us a hint at the changes we have in the works.

smorrise By Guest Contributor Steve Morrisey

A few weeks ago, my team and I attended Cisco Live 2013 in Orlando, Florida. Cisco Live is always a valuable opportunity for us to connect with customers and partners. Whether in formal sessions, hallway conversations or via social media, you give us great insight into your experience doing business with Cisco, telling us what’s working and what we need to fix.  Continue reading “The We’re Listening Blog Series: Learning from our Customers at Cisco Live”



Authors

Curt Hill

Senior Vice President

Customer Assurance

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Your Location Has Changed, Carry On!

Solving the Network Location Problem with LISP (Locator/Identifier Separation Protocol)

The first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions location is our GPS location. Our ability to roam around the earth with our mobile devices is something many of us take for granted. However, at the packet level on the Internet of Everything (IOE), trying to map the network location of a trillion new things may require some new thinking.

Wibbly Wobbly - by Andrew Heath
Wibbly Wobbly – by Andrew Heath

Continue reading “Solving the Network Location Problem with LISP”



Authors

John Spade

Technology Architect

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“Growth is inevitable and desirable, but destruction of community character is not. The question is not whether your part of the world is going to change. The question is how.”

– Edward T. McMahon

Does your housekeeping list look like mine? Turn on the lights. Take out the trash. Clean the living room. The list could go on.

Have you noticed that how we perform these simple, daily tasks is changing? Smart utilities are replacing our old ones. Home automation is on the rise. Smart appliances that make our lives easier are now for sale and coming home with us.

At first glance, this influx of new capabilities has a novel appeal. After all, who doesn’t want a refrigerator to make their grocery list? I know I do. However, a second look reveals deeper potential. Potential that allows us to achieve sustainability across an entire community.

Continue reading “Internet of Everything: Connecting your city, one home at a time”



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If you’ve been following my past blogs and presentations, you’ve heard me talk about “Data in Motion.” That’s the catch-all term used to describe the swelling flood of data that is at maximum value while still in motion (and often at that fleeting moment in which it is created). Data in Motion requires rapid, real-time response in order to provide actionable insights at the right place and at the right time. Done right, it can be evaluated in meaningful ways that lead to knowledge and wisdom. But even a slight delay in reacting to it can mean the data loses its value.

Data in Motion is a completely different animal than the persistent, static “data at rest” that is the subject of Big Data today. And, so far, Data in Motion has gone largely untapped. Retailers could tap Data in Motion to send targeted alerts and promotions in real time to shoppers. Healthcare providers could use it to remotely monitor patients in their homes. Manufacturers could harness it for process monitoring and control. My friend Rick Smolan and I recently shared some inspiring examples of how Data in Motion and data in general have changed people’s lives. If you haven’t already seen it, you can watch our conversation here.

Continue reading “Increasing the Value and Relevance of Data in Motion”



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Cisco recently released the latest version of our VNI Forecast, a 5-year look ahead at data traffic growth trends. I caught up with Kevin McElearney, SVP Network Engineering at Comcast, to talk about the implications this latest VNI Forecast has for Comcast’s planning. You can check out what Kevin has to say here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7t2V8ViSCM



Authors

Doug Webster

Vice President

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Have you seen this video?

For those of you who are not familiar with the technology, Bonjour is a multicast DNS(mDNS) based protocol used to advertise and connect to network services such as printers, file servers, TV’s. With the BYOD explosion and increased use of mobile devices for work in the office and classroom, Bonjour is applicable not only at home, but also in enterprise. Last Christmas with the 7.4 release, Cisco introduced the Bonjour Services Directory optimized for enabling enterprise campus environments to share Bonjour services across Layer 3 networks.  In this blog, I will share some details about how a K-12 school successfully deployed Cisco wireless solution to provide Bonjour Services. As a special treat, I will also discuss some details on Bonjour enhancements included with the upcoming 7.5 release.

St. Margaret’s Episcopal School (SMES) is a K-12 school based in Orange County California serving about 1200 students. The wireless deployment consisted of 30 Cisco 1140 Series Access Points , a Cisco 1260 Series Access Points and some Cisco 1130 Series Access Points managed by a Cisco 5508 Series Wireless LAN Controller. The wired access deployment included various Catalyst 3750, 2960 and 2950 Series Access Switches. Cisco Networking Assistant(CNA) allows them to keep a bird’s eye view on all the equipment.

bonjour 1 Continue reading “Success with Cisco Bonjour Services Directory”



Authors

Jeevan Patil

Director, Product Management

Wireless Network