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You wake up feeling rested thanks to systems that “know” the best temperatures and lighting for your personal sleep patterns. While brushing your teeth, a smart (very smart) mirror tracks your vital signs and pronounces all systems go. It then suggests a high-protein breakfast, since the intensive financial analysis on that day’s calendar will demand concentration. But first to the gym, where biometric sensors embedded in the fabric of your workout clothes track minute-by-minute progress.

A far-off future vision from Hollywood? Not at all. These technologies are on the horizon and may be impacting our daily lives in years to come. And they dovetail into a massive societal and technological shift that Cisco calls the Internet of Everything (IoE).

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Continue reading “In the Internet of Everything, “Everything” Includes YOU”



Authors

Rachael McBrearty

Chief Creative and Group Leader

Cisco Consulting Services

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Hyper V First SlideCisco and Microsoft have a developed a powerful alliance in the data center that extends the value of the Cisco Unified Fabric, Unified Computing System, and Unified Network Services through leading-edge integrated solutions with Microsoft Windows Server, Hyper-V and System Center. These integrations provide an opportunity for Channel Partners to deliver differentiated solutions that address their customer’s most pressing business and  IT challenges.

BOTE2013_Winner_ProdAwardsThe Nexus 1000V Switch for Microsoft Hyper-V stands out as an example of how Cisco and Microsoft are collaborating to offer integrated solutions to customers and partners. The Nexus 1000V extends Cisco networking benefits to Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V deployments and provides a consistent operational model across physical and virtual environments. Cisco was the first company to integrate with Hyper-V and the industry is taking notice. Nexus 1000V for Microsoft Hyper-V was recently recognized as Best of TechEd 2013 in the Virtualization category.

If you’d like to learn more about Nexus 1000V for Microsoft Hyper-V, you’re in luck. Redmond Channel Partner is hosting a webinar on Cisco Nexus 1000V: Virtual Networking for Hyper-V Environments on Thursday, July 25, 2013, at 11am PT / 2pm ET.

Continue reading “Channel Partner Webcast – Virtual Networking for Hyper-V Environments”



Authors

Gary Serda

Senior Strategic Partner Marketing Manager

Global Partner Marketing

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In part two of this three-part series detailing the “Evolution of Immersive Video in the Retail Bank Branch,” I looked at Cisco’s Remote Expert Solution more in-depth and discussed how the solution’s contact center enables virtual face-to-face meetings with high-definition video. By offering customers instant access to knowledgeable experts, even when customers are in remote areas, banks can provide personal service resulting in improved customer confidence in the relationship and greater loyalty. Now that we understand how the solution works, I’d like to take a deeper look at the solution in action and discuss how Remote Expert can meet customer needs in three key business areas.

Wealth Management Services

Remote Expert’s video sharing capability allows investment advisors to visually see the customers they are pitching new products and services to and helps them to gauge how to lead the conversation. In some cases, portfolios may be complex, especially when involving trusts, so video adds an additional medium in which to connect with the customer and explain the approach being presented by the wealth advisors. This is something that cannot be accomplished easily over the phone and traditionally has involved air travel to meet the customer in person. For ultra-high-net worth customers (> $2 MM), Remote Expert also provides a way for multiple advisors to join the conversation remotely to guide the client through the estate planning or wealth planning discussion.

Mortgage Sales

Today, there are many mortgage programs and products available. In addition, many state and federal regulations exist as it relates to quoting and working with customers on mortgage programs. Video has been shown to be an effective way to drive additional understanding of those various mortgage products and a way to work with the customer through the pre-approval process and up to the point of underwriting. We are finding that banks are still opting for the traditional in-person closing process, but more and more institutions are experimenting with completing the entire mortgage process using Remote Expert and the available video capabilities it provides. Continue reading “The Evolution of Immersive Video in the Retail Bank Branch Series (3): Remote experts in action”



Authors

Tom Caddoo

Practice Architect

Banking, Americas Business Transformation

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Cisco Live 2013 (Orlando) was bigger than ever this year. There was a record breaking 20,000 registered customers, partners, press and analysts. More than 200 of our top partners were in the World of Solutions, representing a year-over-year increase in partner participation. Our host was none other than Blair Christie. She informed and wooed the crowd, tying together the major themes and highlighting special details throughout the week. Along with showcasing the latest and greatest Cisco gear, services, and thought leadership, there was something new this year. There was something special—the Social Media Hub.

The Social Media Hub is ready for day 1.
The Social Media Hub is ready for day 1.

Continue reading “Raising the Bar at Cisco Live 2013 (Orlando) with the Social Media Hub”



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In December 2012, we introduced Application Visibility Control(AVC) for Wireless, with AireOS 7.4 which arms IT administrators with visibility into the applications running in their wireless network and the ability to prioritize the mission-critical ones.

In this blog, I would like to share how SuccessEHS, an Alabama based company focused on delivering Electronic Health Record(EHR) and Practice Management solutions has successfully deployed AVC to improve their wireless experience. I’ll also throw in a special sneak peek at some additional features we’re adding to AVC that you can expect in release 7.5.

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SuccessEHS houses some 200-300 employees in Birmingham Alabama. The wireless deployment consisted of Cisco Aironet 2600 series Access Points with industry-leading 3 spatial streams performance and CleanAir functionality managed by the Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller. At any point of time, there could be hundreds of clients simultaneously connected to the wireless network. Most employees may be simultaneously engaged in running usual office applications such as email, web-based tools and EHR applications. Continue reading “Success with Cisco Application Visibility and Control”



Authors

Jeevan Patil

Director, Product Management

Wireless Network

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[Webinar] 802.11ac in Higher Education | Wednesday July 24 at 3pm PST < REGISTER

It’s no secret that mobile devices are playing a larger part in today’s businesses. With the fast pace of mobility adoption by consumers, network usage has started to outrun the infrastructure of most enterprises’ mobile networks. Enterprise IT managers are struggling to keep up with mobility’s effects on workplace productivity and requirements.

Among the growing trends that weigh heavily on the minds of most network IT professionals is bring your own device (BYOD). The growth of bandwidth-intensive applications, like video streaming, and the user expectations of always-on network and application performance also place heavy demand on organizational infrastructure.

802.11ac is the next generation of Wi-Fi, designed to give enterprises the tools to meet the demands of BYOD, high-bandwidth applications, and the always-on connected user. This Wednesday we will be hosting a workshop to discuss the benefits of 802.11ac, and how to optimize it for high density and high bandwidth to benefit higher education. Students, typically early adopters of wireless technology, usually bring 802.11ac in the form of the latest laptop, smartphone, and tablet that support this new technology. Continue reading “Higher Education Races Towards 802.11ac”



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If you’ve been to a CiscoLive recently, you’ve likley seen the beautiful plexiglass NOC we set up.  These are wonderful to show off how all of our products and services come together to put on the show and conference you know and love.  However, have you, ever seen those little hidden rooms sprinkeld throughout the show?

These little rooms are where we hide the mini-NOC.  In these the tables are fold-up and the cables hang out, and I got to get a tour and interview with the crew.



Authors

Lauren Friedman

Marketing Manager

Enterprise Networks

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Virtualization, Private Cloud, Big Data, HPC, etc. have been steadily changing the landscape of data center architectures. Lower latency and higher performing server-to-server data traffic (East-West) have become key discussion points as customers look to modernize their infrastructures.  Cisco specifically designed UCS unified fabric for this type of traffic to create a highly-available infrastructure with reduced latency and unmatched consistency as the solution scales. Without providing any supporting data, HP and IBM have been incorrectly asserting that Cisco UCS unified fabric would increase latency and slow blade-to-blade traffic. Cisco ran the tests, and the results were simply amazing.

Cisco UCS Outperforms HP Blade Servers on East-West Latency
Cisco UCS Outperforms IBM Flex System Blades on East-West Latency
Continue reading “Cisco UCS Outperforms HP and IBM Blade Servers on East-West Latency”



Authors

Kevin Egan

Director, Compute Systems Group

Cisco’s Data Center Business Group

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Starting Friday, July 19, 2013 at 14:45 GMT, Cisco TRAC spotted a new spam campaign likely propagated by the Zeus botnet. The initial burst of spam was very short in duration and it’s possible this was intended to help hide the campaign, since it appears to be targeted towards users of a Trusteer product called Rapport. Within minutes of the campaign starting, we were seeing millions of messages.

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This spam impersonated a security update from Trusteer. Attached to this file was the “RaportUpdate” file, which contained a trojan. We’ve identified this specific trojan as Fareit. This file is designed to impersonate an update to the legitimate Rapport product, which, as described by Trusteer, “Protects end users against Man-in-the-Browser malware and phishing attacks. By preventing attacks, such as Man-in-the-Browser and Man-in-the-Middle, Trusteer Rapport secures credentials and personal information and stops online fraud and account takeover.”

It’s important to note that while this end-point solution is designed to protect against browser-based threats, this specific attack is email-based. If the user downloads and executes the attachment via their mail client, it could bypass their browser and the protections of a legitimate Rapport client, entirely. If an end user is tricked into running malicious software for an attack via an avenue the attacker can reasonably predict, it becomes much easier to bypass network security devices and software.

 

Continue reading “Zeus Botnet Impersonating Trusteer Rapport Update”



Authors

Craig Williams

Director

Talos Outreach