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“Give me the best servers you have”, they said.

“Give me the best computers you have”, they said.

“Give me more mobile devices”, they said.

“Give me the network required to use all these things”, they (almost) never said.

The enterprise network is still very much considered to be just that hole in the wall next to the electricity outlet. It used to be that you came to work and moved the mouse to wake the computer. Later you plugged your laptop into that other weird looking jack labeled Continue reading “The other side of the jack: Is your Enterprise Network enterprise ready?”



Authors

Magnus Påhlsson

Solution Architect (SCG)

Atea Sverige AB

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In the rapidly evolving technological landscape, Internet and wireless technologies have connected different sources of information such as sensors, mobile phones, and vehicles. This futuristic world of eyeglasses that can read email and tablets that can activate security systems has trickled its way from high-tech laboratories and into our everyday lives.

However, this world of hyper-connectivity and innovation is not just about fancy gadgets and tools. This technological advancement is delivering real solutions to public safety concerns around the country. In both the federal and state/local governments, organizations are employing emerging trends to tackle their most urgent security challenges.

For instance, the Napa State Hospital campus of the California Department of State Hospitals (DSH) faced serious safety challenges. After a tragic incident at this location, California DSH realized that its security procedure needed an overhaul. In response to concerns from staff, the hospital created the Safety Now Coalition to address the safety needs of its facilities. Continue reading “#CiscoPublicSafety Series: California Department of State Hospitals Enhances Security with IoE”



Authors

Daniel Stewart

Senior Justice Advisor

Connected Justic

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Connecting the Unconnected

“The Internet of Things is the next technology transition where devices will allow us to sense and control the physical world by making objects smarter and connecting them through an intelligent network”, Lindsay Hiebert, Senior Marketing Manager, Internet of Things, Cisco Systems

The Internet of Things in a Manufacturing Plant Environment
The Internet of Things in a Manufacturing Plant Environment

The Internet of Things is the network of physical objects accessed through the Internet.  These objects contain embedded technology to interact with internal states or the external environment.  This technology allows objects within such places as manufacturing floors, energy grids, healthcare facilities, and transportation systems to be controlled from virtually anywhere in the world.   This connectivity also means more data can be gathered from more places, with more ways to increase efficiency and improve safety and security.   The Internet of Things and the Internet of Everything (people, process, data and things) is about connecting the unconnected.

Continue reading “Connecting the Unconnected”



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Gartner has released their 2014 Magic Quadrant for Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure.  For the 3rd year in a row, Cisco is recognized as a leader in both vision and execution.  We believe this Gartner recognition is validation of Cisco strategy and investments for unified access, policy management and cloud managed solutions.

Cisco’s position in the Wired and Wireless Gartner MQs has been consistent over the past 3 years as the market landscape has shifted we believe validating our commitment to meeting shifting customer priorities and requirements.

Qartner Magic Quadrant 2014
This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The complimentary copy of the Gartner document is available to view here.

The 2014 Gartner Magic Quadrant for the Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure (Authors: Tim Zimmerman, Andrew Lerner, Bill Menezes; Published 26th June 2014) reflects the evolution from prior years and highlights what customers are looking for:

With limited growth in IT resources, administrators require one network management application, one access security solution, one guest access application or one policy enforcement solution with the flexibility to be deployed in a public cloud, private cloud or on-premises. This integration reduces the costs associated with the upfront capital expense of multiple network service applications each dedicated to either the wired infrastructure or the wireless or cloud components. This savings is also extended to the ongoing software maintenance costs of all access layer management, security and policy enforcement components.”

What Does Being a Leader Mean?  Read on for the full story Continue reading “Third Time’s A Charm: Cisco is a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastruc …”



Authors

Prashanth Shenoy

Vice President of Marketing

Enterprise Networking and Mobility

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The title seems like a simple enough concept, but when it comes to advanced threat protection, truer words were never written. This concept of visibility into your network, which in turn enables better protection and control of your network, is at the heart of Cisco’s Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention System (NGIPS). Visibility is what feeds critical capabilities in the solution and it’s also what sets our NGIPS apart from other IPS products.

In the coming weeks, we’ll focus on different aspects of our market-leading NGIPS solution, as recognized by third-party groups such as Gartner and NSS Labs, but since NGIPS is all about threat protection – and you can’t protect what you can’t see – let’s start with visibility.

Historically, IPS products have provided visibility into network packets to be able to identify and block network attacks. The last couple of years have seen next-generation firewalls get a lot of industry buzz by providing visibility (and subsequent control) into applications and users.

Continue reading “You Can’t Protect What You Can’t See”



Authors

Joseph O'Laughlin

Product Manager, Marketing

Sourcefire - Mktg – US

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Gartner has released their 2014 Magic Quadrant for Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure.  For the 3rd year in a row, Cisco is recognized as a leader in both vision and execution.  We believe this Gartner recognition is validation of Cisco strategy and investments for unified access, policy management and cloud managed solutions.

Cisco’s position in the Wired and Wireless Gartner MQs has been consistent over the past 3 years as the market landscape has shifted we believe validating our commitment to meeting shifting customer priorities and requirements.

Qartner Magic Quadrant 2014

This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The complimentary copy of the Gartner document is available to view here.

The 2014 Gartner Magic Quadrant for the Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure (Authors: Tim Zimmerman, Andrew Lerner, Bill Menezes; Published 26th June 2014) reflects the evolution from prior years and highlights what customers are looking for:

With limited growth in IT resources, administrators require one network management application, one access security solution, one guest access application or one policy enforcement solution with the flexibility to be deployed in a public cloud, private cloud or on-premises. This integration reduces the costs associated with the upfront capital expense of multiple network service applications each dedicated to either the wired infrastructure or the wireless or cloud components. This savings is also extended to the ongoing software maintenance costs of all access layer management, security and policy enforcement components.”

What Does Being a Leader Mean?

According to Gartner, ‘a vendor in the Leaders quadrant will have demonstrated an ability to fulfill a broad variety of customer requirements through the breadth of their access layer product family. Leaders will have the ability to shape the market and provide complete and differentiating access layer applications, as well as global service and support. Leaders should have demonstrated the ability to shape the market, maintain strong relationships with their channels and customers, and have no obvious gaps in their portfolios.’

Cisco’s Unified Access solution directly addresses today’s customer priorities with deployment options a variety of customer segments ranging from large enterprises to mid-size companies to organizations with broad IT expertise to organizations with lean IT staffs. In a recent press release Sujai Hajela, senior vice president of Cisco Enterprise Networking gives his thoughts on why Cisco has remained in the Gartner Magic Quadrant Leaders quadrant for three years.

Cisco has taken a customer-centric approach in order to meet the needs of enterprise organizations.  For those looking for a cloud-based approach, we offer the Cisco Meraki solutions.  For those who prefer the on-premise managed approach, Cisco continues to build on our traditional Unified Access Solution.

The Cisco Approach   

Cisco recognizes that not every IT organization is created equal, and we have developed solutions that align to whatever operation model those IT organizations feel will help them propel their business to the next level. Within both our cloud-managed and on-premise managed solutions the fundamental need to improve agility, simplify operations and deliver a high-quality user experience is inherent in both deployment models. I think this is what has helped Cisco stay in the Leaders Quadrant since the Gartner Wired and Wireless LAN Magic Quadrant has been introduced three years ago.
Overall, Gartner’s view is one that we feel Cisco shares with our ‘One Policy, One Management, One Network’ vision. First introduced in 2012, Cisco has delivered and expanded upon this vision for the last three years to help our customers achieve their business goals and simplify IT while addressing the rapid growth of BYOD, Mobility and the evolution toward the Internet of Everything.

To learn more:



Authors

Brian Robertson

Product Marketing Manager

CMO EMM Mobility Solutions

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IT organizations face several challenges: a globalizing economy, the increasing cost of IT ownership, business users directly going to public Cloud providers, the difficulty of operating complex environments, effectively enabling innovation as well as variety of risks around security and compliance.  Given these challenges, IT decision makers must innovate and conduct business differently in order to remain effective. Data shows that despite years of IT cost reduction programs, the industry on average has only managed to shift an additional 1% of IT spend towards growth and innovation.

Does transforming your IT mean moving from a cost center to a business enabler? Changing your architecture to include Cloud? Redesigning applications or selecting off-the-shelf application? Or moving from a centralized IT delivery to IT services broker? A majority of business leaders have said “yes” to all of the above. Continue reading “IT Transformation: Strategizing for Cost Saving and Investing for Business Enablement”



Authors

Parag Parekh

Data Center and Cloud Services

Advanced Services Product Management

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In the past few weeks, I’ve received two replacement credit cards. And, no, this does not indicate I’ve done too much shopping! It means that hackers are continuing to target retailers and the bank decided I needed to be protected by new credit card numbers.

I’m Carol Ferrara-Zarb, and as the leader of Cisco’s Security Solutions team, I’m joining the Cisco Retail blog today to talk to you about security and compliance in the store. While consumers certainly worry about security, the concerns of retailers are magnified because you are among the highest-profile targets right now for professional hacker attacks. Store owners and operators are just about lying awake at night wondering who is going to be next.

At the same time, change is continuing on the security front, particularly in the area of PCI compliance. At the end of this calendar year, the new 3.0 version of the PCI DSS mandate will come into force. Are you ready for the new requirements?

If you’re a Cisco customer, you very well may be. Join us on July 23 for a free, one-hour webcast called, “Straight Talk about Reducing Complexity and Maintaining Compliance in Retail.” Cisco Security Architect Christian Janoff, who sits on the PCI Security Standards Council Board of Advisors, and Aaron Reynolds, PCI Managing Principal for Cisco partner Verizon, will lead a candid discussion on retail security. The session covers:

  • The changes in the PCI DSS 3.0 mandate and their impact on your retail business
  • How to satisfy three standards—PCI, SOX, and HIPAA—by configuring one control
  • Implementing the latest, simplified strategies for PCI scope reduction, and how they can be superior to traditional methods for many retailers

You’ll come away with an overview of today’s threat landscape, and we’ll put it all into perspective to support your continued pursuit of compliance and retail success. Registrants will also receive the Simplifying Compliance Answer Kit, a set of documents and tools to help you understand compliance better.

The webcast takes place on July 23 at 10:00 am PT/1:00 pm ET. Please register today! Be sure to bring your questions to take part in the discussion.

We’ll see you there!



Authors

Carol Ferrara-Zarb

Compliance Solutions Manager

Security Technology Business Unit