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Response to our Cisco Intelligent WAN with Akamai Connect launch in April and at Cisco Live has been overwhelmingly positive.  Thank you to all who came by our demo in the World of Solution as well as all our sessions!  We met with numerous IT Managers, Directors and Architects who recognized the need for an intelligent branch infrastructure to prepare for the innovative initiatives the business owners want to roll out in the branch or store.  Continue reading “IWAN Wed: (Webinar) Is Your Branch Ready For Innovation?”



Authors

Allison Park

Product Marketing Manager

Enterprise Networks

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On Thursday and Friday of last week, I attended the Big Boulder data conference, which brings together vendor, academics, analysts and practitioners of social data.  The purposes were many: discuss emerging trends, acknowledge the issues and challenges around privacy and security, and make introductions to encourage discussion of how we all envisage social data technology and by extension social data maturing.

I spent two days fastened in on how vendors believed social data could be used and how companies and researchers were ultimately using it. At times, there was a wide gulf and not only because the rate at which technology is evolving is rapid but because we, as an industry, recognize the importance of this data and don’t want to compromise the trust our customers and clients have for us.

The people at GNIP/Twitter are well aware of this and have spearheaded the Big Boulder Initiative, a task force created to address critical issues around stewardship, enablement, availability and value. If you’re interested, you can learn more here.

Over the two-day conference, there were over 45 sessions with topics ranging from Sina Weibo to the challenges of analyzing unstructured data to user-generated content vs. brand-created content.  Despite the wide scope of topics discussed, there was an underlying recognition that we were all in this together, that we have an obligation to manage the growth of social data in a responsible and secure manner and that we still had some growing up to do.

I could probably write several pages of themes and insights that I noted during the two days but here are three I thought we’re particularly interesting.

Visualize Whirled Peas

This year there was a lot of discussion around visualization and the impact of Tumblr and Pinterest, respectively.  One of the panelist believed that visual channels were happy because people like to engage with images.  I’m not sure I entirely buy that and other members of the panel were quick to argue to the contrary. However, watching the world wake up and go to sleep with Twitter was very compelling and did make me smile (if not happy).

Some members of the panels wanted customers to more fully recognize the value in sharing their location via a social platform.  I can see the benefits to users of the data; it was amazing to see the outline of common maps reveal themselves not through traditional boundaries but rather through social activities—outlines of cities, airports, etc. emerged as people Tweeted.  The panelists didn’t seem to share some of the anxieties I had about sharing my whereabouts in real-time.  Issues of safety and cyber-bullying can and should influence what people share online.  However, I liked the idea of using imagery to guide discovery and finding someone on say, something like Tumblr, with a similar aesthetic to encourage that connection.

We Do Have Some Standards Around Here, You Know

This was the first year, where I heard the admission that social does not have the same standard of measurement as say TV advertising, print ads, etc.. This wasn’t the familiar beat of the ROI drum but rather a recognition that we need to, as an industry, better define the value of social.  To date, we don’t have a verifiably mature model that clearly defines what comprises that value.  We don’t have a clear idea of when engagement matters most and how to attribute that activity. But honest conversations are beginning and everyone seems to recognize the importance to sales, marketing, HR, etc. to answer these questions.

Millennials vs. Digital Behavior—Which One Truly Matters

I have to admit this topic really intrigued me and I was excited to learn the digital characteristics of this generation. I don’t know if the resulting information was meant to make us all feel better (read: younger) but some of the panelists felt that generations should be segmented along the lines of digital behavior over age.  Susan Etlinger  suggested that we’ve been using demographic behavior as a proxy for categorizing customers and it’s losing its value.  It’s certainly true that using the blunt instrument of age to determine a person’s online social persona may omit a lot of detail but with each succeeding generation the use and proliferation of online tools can’t be entirely overlooked. Susan certainly wasn’t minimizing the influence of social technology broadly across generations but that we should perhaps adjust our lens to include more than just demographics to segment an audience.

#InformationOverload

In the two days, I met some great people, discovered that everyone is facing very similar changes and that it’s never been more exciting to be involved with Social Data.  Learn more about the Boulder Initiative here and the Big Boulder conference here.



Authors

Jennifer Roberts

Social Media Marketing Manager

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Today, Cisco released the updated VNI Global IP Traffic and Service Adoption Forecasts, 2013 – 2018 (see media release). The key drivers of global IP traffic growth (network users, devices/connections, broadband speeds, and video consumption) continue to show increases that will create a greater global demand for IP network resources:

  • By 2018, there will be nearly four billion global Internet users (about 52% of the world’s population), up from 2.5 billion in 2013
  • By 2018, there will be 21 billion networked devices and connections globally, up from 12 billion in 2013
  • Globally, the average fixed broadband connection speed will increase 2.6-fold, from 16 Mbps in 2013 to 42 Mbps by 2018
  • Globally, IP video will represent 79% of all traffic by 2018, up from 66% in 2013

As a result of these fundamentals, we are projecting that global IP traffic will grow three-fold from 2013 to 2018 –reaching 1.6 Zettabytes annually by 2018 (a 21% CAGR over the forecast period).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0onAUxbhyg

While quantifying the projected growth Continue reading “2014 Cisco VNI Forecast: It’s not just about big numbers”



Authors

Thomas Barnett, Jr.

Director, SP Thought Leadership

Worldwide Service Provider Marketing Group

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#clus1A lot can change in 25 years. At the first Cisco Live (then known as Networkers conferences) in 1989, 200 geeks gathered for the inaugural event. Fast forward to three weeks ago, when we welcomed a whopping 25,000 attendees into the arms of our namesake, beautiful San Francisco.

We heard there was some interest in how the network performed at the show, so I wanted to share some of the interesting statistics about the network at Cisco Live! I shudder at the thought of the ancient network from 25 years ago. So here we go:

Wi-Fi Client Devices

This year we saw 30,705 unique devices, with 7000 in the theater for John Chambers’ keynote.

# of Unique Clients

# of Sessions

# of Unique Users

# of Unique APs

Avg Users per AP

30705

1396239

30705

859

33.64

Max. Concurrent Connected Wi-Fi Devices

There was a peak of 14216 concurrently connected device at SF this year.

clients2 Continue reading “The Network After 25 Years of Cisco Live!”



Authors

Chris Spain

VP Product Management

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Sooner or later we all feel like throwing up our hands and cursing the complexity of modern life. But while technology may seem the chief culprit in making things unmanageable, it is also the ultimate solution to complexity.

In the Internet of Everything (IoE) era, it is particularly important for business leaders to understand the power of technology to simplify our lives and support JBradleySAPinformed decision making. And this was a core theme at Sapphire Now 2014, an event in Orlando, Fla., that I was privileged to attend last week.

By using network technology to integrate people, process, data, and things, IoE counters complexity in unprecedented ways. In a city, this can involve something as simple as cutting the time it takes to find a (connected) parking space. Or IoE technologies can scale up to reroute traffic lights; for example, to head-off highway backups before, during, and after a large event.

In a brick-and-mortar retail setting (a key area of discussion at Sapphire Now), IoE can alleviate the complexity of managing customers, staffing, and products. With data from multiple sources comes heightened, real-time awareness, empowering managers to react faster than ever. For example, they can then stock shelves and reorganize staff in response to constantly changing levels of demand. With predictive analytics they can even respond before a customer rush begins.

The idea of hyper-aware, real-time decision-making resonated during a Sapphire Now panel discussion titled Thrive in the Digital Networks of the New Economy. I was honored to share the panel with such luminaries as Erik Brynjolfsson of MIT; Michael Chui of McKinsey Global Institute; and Jai Shekhawat, Deepak Krishnamurthy, and Vivek Bapat of SAP. And there was much discussion on the impact of bad decisions on failed organizations. Which is why we all take such an interest in technology that enables good ones.

Continue reading “The Digital Renaissance Is Here. Is Your Company’s Culture Ready?”



Authors

Joseph M. Bradley

Global Vice President

Digital & IoT Advanced Services

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There’s been some speculation about the performance of the AP2700–just how good could our latest AP fly under stress? We were talking with Blake Krone and Sam Clements from the No Strings Attached Show, where they produce independent discussion and commentary on a variety of wireless equipment and technology across vendors. The idea came up that they could do an independent performance test on the Cisco Aironet AP2700. The guys received no compensation for the testing with the exception of arranging their travel out to Richfield, OH facility for the testing. We also provided 2 AP’s per person just in case they wanted to do some further testing.  

Sam & Blake along with several Cisco TMEs loaded up an AP2700 with 100 real clients to see what happens.   The testing was meant to be as real world as possible, so they did things like setup the clients at varying distances and angles, use a mix of 11n and 11ac clients, tested with CCO code (7.6MR2), and even factory reset and configured the controller then in front of Blake and Sam to show there’s no funny business.  The idea being, if you had 100 clients, and wanted to do the testing yourself and repeat the results, you could. I don’t want to spoil the results, so head to https://nsashow.com/AP2700/ to check out the whitepaper. 

Here’s a sneak peek at the client setup:

test

For full details as well as the results, visit https://nsashow.com/AP2700/

 



Authors

Wes Purvis

Technical Marketing Engineer

Cisco’s Enterprise Networking Group

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Acute care in a hospital setting is no longer the norm.  The continuum of care focus has shifted to seamless, integrated care plans designed around the patient and their needs instead of the setting.  Sg2* recently caught up with Barbara Casey, Senior Director of Health Care Business Transformation at Cisco, to discuss trends in healthcare innovation and technology that can help provide the right care, anywhere, anytime.

In the following video snippets, Barbara Casey discusses the power of healthcare consumers to make informed decisions about care plans as well as the power of providers to use data to deliver personalized medicine and seamless care coordination.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KybbxTVL4kE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io5tlyAtstE

Cisco is in a great position to provide borderless collaboration interactions between providers and patients.  Cisco voice, video, and data solutions can help provide convenient access to care while ensuring the seamless handoff of secure and integrated information as patients move from one setting to another.  By supporting video on any endpoint, patients and caregivers can consult from their choice of devices which could be a mobile phone, a tablet, a laptop, a video phone or any other specialized devices, even in the privacy of their own home.

Learn more about Cisco Healthcare Solutions.

* Sg2 is an industry leader in healthcare information with over 1,200 organizations around the world relying on their analytics, intelligence, consulting and educational services.



Authors

Mike Haymaker

Healthcare Industry Marketing

No Longer with Cisco

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Congratulations to the Cisco Supply Chain Operations (CSCO) team. For seven consecutive years, Cisco has placed in the Top 10 of Gartner’s prestigious ranking!

Led by Cisco Senior VP John Kern, the supply chain operations team here at Cisco has undergone an extensive transformation and continues to be recognized globally as a best-in-class practitioner. With more than a thousand contract manufacturing and component suppliers, logistics (3PL) and other service partners, along with more than 25,000 orderable product IDs—which are broadly mixed amongst build cycles of engineer-to-order, configure-to-order, build-to-order and build-to-stock—the complexity and global scale of what our Cisco-resident supply chain gurus deal with on a daily basis could be staggering for some organizations but is managed with excellence by CSCO. Beyond the outstanding development and fulfillment supply chain and manufacturing management services rendered, CSCO has served as a tremendous expert asset and executive connection for our go-to-market expansion with manufacturing customers’ lines of business, particularly related to the Internet of Everything (IoE) market transition.

The splashy ad below illustrating a vision for the Internet of Things (IoT) has become much more of a reality and the technologies and products shown are in use within Cisco’s supply chain ecosystem today.

Recently, two Cisco colleagues — Edna Conway, VP CSCO and Chief Security Officer and Bob Dean, Director, Manufacturing and Energy Vertical, co-authored an excellent article for Manufacturing Leadership Journal entitled ‘The Fourth Dimension of Supply Chains’. The article highlights how new technologies are empowering supply chains as never before, and how they are also exposing enterprises and ecosystems to new risks.  Cisco’s comprehensive approach to mitigate risks and bolster confidence across the supply chain focuses on the four areas of malicious modification/substitution of technology, counterfeit products (both raw materials and finished goods), the security component of supply chain resiliency and misuse of intellectual property.

Discipline surrounding that fourth topic of securing intellectual property has become an even greater concern in the face of new business models and innovations with the application of IoE in manufacturing. Best-in-class manufacturers are, like Cisco, increasingly leveraging their supply chains and ecosystems to develop offering portfolios balanced between sustaining and disruptive innovations that are derived from scrutinized customer segmentation and guided by such principles as value-driven design discipline, cross-BU portfolio platform awareness and rationalization, differentiated solution-service bundling, and connected system-level lifecycle services (e.g., Product as a Service). All of these design and innovation processes require immersive and intimate collaboration with customers and across supply chains.

Cisco’s relevance to enable manufacturing supply chain and innovation strategies to achieve more transformative business outcomes has never been greater:

  • Virtualized and distributed compute with Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) and Supply Chain Collaboration accelerating time-to-market with value-oriented product and service offering innovation;
  • IoE-enabled ‘3D Value Chains’ with ubiquitous visibility accelerating portfolio rationalization decisions, improving throughput and enabling more sustainable supply chains;
  • Business video with IoE-enabled connectivity accelerating lifecycle service offerings throughout the supply chain, like remote access, monitoring and diagnostics with mobile expert/advisor.

What are some of the challenges, innovations and opportunities in your global supply chain today?  Join the conversation below and let me know.  Thanks for reading.



Authors

Chet Namboodri

Senior Director

Global Private Sector Industries Marketing

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TRAC logo
The rustic origins of the English language are evident in the words left to us by our agricultural ancestors. Many words developed to distinguish groups of different animals, presumably to indicate their relevant importance. A ‘flock’ of sheep was more valuable than a single sheep, a ‘pack’ of wolves posed more danger than a single wolf. With respect to security vulnerabilities, we have yet to develop such collective nouns to indicate what is important, and to indicate that which poses danger.

The world of Transport Layer Security has been rattled once again with the identification of a “swarm” of vulnerabilities in OpenSSL and GnuTLS. A total of seven new vulnerabilities ranging from a potential man in the middle attack, allowing an attacker to eavesdrop on an encrypted conversation, to vulnerabilities that could be used to allow attackers to remotely exploit code on a client have been identified in the popular open source libraries.
Continue reading “A Collection of Cryptographic Vulnerabilities.”



Authors

Martin Lee

EMEA Lead, Strategic Planning & Communications

Cisco Talos