Avatar

detmanWritten By Daniel Etman, Director, Product Management, Cable Access at Cisco

One of the taller trends protruding from the cable infrastructure side of life these days, along with Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), is the fiber optimization and convergence strategy known as “Remote PHY.

And if you’re into infrastructure trends, know that we expect the matter of Remote PHY to qualify as a genuine hot ticket at the upcoming ANGA show, in Cologne.

Why: Because as service providers with cable access assets roadmap the infrastructure portions of their strategies to provide Gigabit services (residential and enterprise), mobile backhaul, and headend virtualization, they’re finding it increasingly important to be able to use the same fiber(s) for multiple purposes.

Such desires lead directly to Remote PHY, which isn’t Continue reading “The Beauty of Remote PHY (And Other Infrastructure Trends at ANGA 2014)”



Authors

David Yates

as Director of Service Provider Video Marketing at Cisco

SP360

Avatar

This week we are celebrating with more than 25,000 attendees at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and many more viewers  on line the 25th anniversary of Cisco Live and it’s an exciting time for Cisco and our partners! As John Chambers described it so eloquently  in his Monday keynotes, customers are embracing the opportunities around the Internet of Everything and are looking for us to help them realize the benefits and manage the transition. And cloud deployment is certainly a critical component of this new IT world.

Since we announced our Intercloud strategy at Partner Summit, it continues to build momentum. This week, we are taking the next bold step and announcing new offers and new partnering models.   We are expanding beyond our hosted collaboration and SaaS offerings with a richer set of cloud services.

Cisco is Moving Fast with our Partners to deliver on the Promise of an Intercloud

Read Robert Lloyd bio.
Read Robert Lloyd bio.

Rob Lloyd President, Development and Sales  intends to demonstrate in his keynotes  how fast Cisco has been able to move by driving a partner-centric Cloud strategy.

You can watch on line Rob’s keynote  for a deeper dive into what is happening both at Cisco and with our customers as the Internet of Everything becomes a reality.  Find out what Cisco is doing today, what we’re planning in the future, and what others are doing to tap into the power of the Internet of Everything.

You may also want to read the press release and Rob’s companion blog.

Edison Peres, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Channels at Cisco. Read his bio.
Edison Peres, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Channels at Cisco.

A partner-centric approach differentiates Cisco and our partners

Innovation is required to meet the rapidly changing business requirements for cloud, mobile and the Internet of Everything. With that, new Intercloud reference architectures are being added to the Cloud and Managed Service Program for partners who deliver Cisco Powered services.

You can learn more in a new blog by Edison Peres, Senior Vice President of Cisco Cloud and Managed Service Organization (CMSO):  Cloud Evolution: A Journey Together.

Aligning Your Strategy and Business for Cloud Success

Dr. Gee Rittenhouse and Faiyaz Shahpurwala
Dr. Gee Rittenhouse and Faiyaz Shahpurwala

This afternoon , Cisco executives Dr. Gee Rittenhouse –CDO and Faiyaz Shahpurwala – Senior Vice President, Cloud Infrastructure and Managed Services share our hybrid cloud strategy with you, including solutions such as Cisco InterCloud and Intelligent Automation for Cloud. They also discuss in their keynotes  the role of applications and our partner ecosystem.

If you missed out on the Cloud Technology Trend Keynote – Aligning Your Strategy and Business for Cloud Success by Dr. Gee Rittenhouse and Faiyaz Shahpurwala, you’ll want to catch the on-demand replay.

In this session, Dr. Gee Rittenhouse and Faiyaz Shahpurwala provide use cases and insights to answer the following questions:

    • How do you evolve your strategy at the right time with the right model?
    • Which cloud is right for which workload?
    • What is “fact or fiction” amid all of the cloud discussions and options?
    • Is your strategy aligning you for success?
    • Are your investments today setting you up for future success?

https://youtu.be/IrCaSDLLA58

Watch CiscoLive sessions on-demand

Follow the CiscoLive on-demand conversation on Twitter #CL365 

Additional Cloud Information:

Imagine a new IT: A Bold Next Step for the World of Many Clouds
Imagine a new IT: A Bold Next Step for the World of Many Clouds via YouTube

Enterprise At-A-Glance (AAG) – PDF

Provider At-A-Glance (AAG) – PDF

Infographics:

Additional Resources 

 

 

Read the press release:Cisco and Dimension Data to Accelerate Global Hybrid Cloud Adoption.  Dimension Data Named Cisco’s First Global Intercloud Partner, Expanding on Successful 23-Year Relationship

 



Avatar

As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Cisco Live in San Francisco this week, it’s an exciting time for Cisco and our partners. Customers are embracing the opportunities around the Internet of Everything and looking for us to help them realize the benefits and manage the transition.

We announced our Intercloud strategy at Partner Summit and it continues to build momentum. Today we are taking the next step and announcing new offers and new partnering models.

Admittedly, this is a bold course and I believe this partner-centric approach differentiates Cisco and our partners. With this announcement, new Intercloud reference architectures will be added to the Cloud and Managed Service Program for partners who deliver Cisco Powered services. New Cisco Cloud solutions will enable Hybrid IT adoption while meeting today’s needs for SaaS solutions like Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft SQL Server. We are working through the complete go-to-market strategy and expect these offers will launch and be orderable in the next 90 days. Continue reading “Cloud Evolution : A Journey Together”



Authors

Edison Peres

Senior Vice President, Worldwide Channels

Avatar

Espionage2This blog will suggest a change of strategy in how we address the threat of cyber espionage. One which leverages traditional tactics of counter-intelligence and uses a new approach different than the Lockheed Martin Cyber Kill Chain approach to security, which seeks to disrupt the chain of attack as quickly as possible. Rather than simply cut off an attack, a method of intelligence gathering before stopping the event is proposed, without leaking sensitive information. Often these same approaches can discover yet unknown activities.

Continue reading “Cupcakes and Cyber Espionage”



Authors

Andre' Ara Karamanian

Security Consultant

Strategic Security Research Organization

Avatar

It’s hard to believe it was only eight weeks ago that I announced Cisco’s $1B investment in a bold Intercloud strategy to 10,000 partners and colleagues in Las Vegas..

Today, Cisco announced additional Intercloud partners and offerings, and on the main stage at our 25th anniversary Cisco Live! event in San Francisco this morning, I’ll demonstrate how fast we’ve been able to move by driving a partner-centric Cloud strategy.

FYI: You can watch my keynote on the Cisco Live web site.

Our customers have been asking Cisco to expand beyond our hosted collaboration and SaaS offerings (such as WebEx, Meraki and Cisco Cloud Web Security) with a richer set of cloud services. Today, in San Francisco, we are announcing a substantial expansion of those services with new infrastructure-as-a-service offerings and cloud disaster recovery applications that leverage the cloud platforms of new Intercloud partners Dimension Data and Sungard Availability Services. They join Telstra as our first Intercloud partners.

Continue reading “Cisco is Moving Fast with our Partners to deliver on the Promise of an Intercloud”



Authors

Rob Lloyd

President, Development and Sales

Avatar

Today’s guest post is written by Tanzima Islam, Post Doctoral Researcher at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, and Kathryn Mohror and Martin Schulz, Computer Scientists at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.

MPI_T logoThe latest version of the MPI Standard, MPI 3.0, includes a new interface for tools: the MPI Tools Information Interface, or “MPI_T”.

MPI_T complements the existing MPI profiling interface, PMPI, and offers access to both internal performance information as well as runtime settings. It is based on the concept of typed variables that can be queried, read, and set through the MPI_T API.

Continue reading “First public tools for the MPI_T interface in MPI-3.0”



Authors

Jeff Squyres

The MPI Guy

UCS Platform Software

Avatar

Cisco Prime Network Services Controller 3.2.2 is available for download, follow this link to download the software and documentation. The 3.2.2 release incorporates a number of new features on top of 3.2.1 release. Refer to an earlier blog for the features introduced in 3.2.1 release. Following video provides a brief introduction to Prime Network Services Controller.


http://youtu.be/erE9hqui8Kc

Following are some of the key capabilities introduced in Cisco Prime Network Services Controller 3.2.2 release:

  • Prime Network Services Controller operating in OpenStack environment supporting Edge Router and Load Balancer network services
  • License automation for CSR 1000V, Citrix NetScaler VPX and Citrix NetScaler 1000V
  • Automatic instantiation of Compute Firewall, Edge Router and Load Balancer network services with Dynamic Fabric Automation

OpenStack support

The Cisco Prime Network Services Controller 3.2.1 supports Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware vSphere environments. Prime Network Services Controller 3.2.2 extends multi-hypervisor capabilities by introducing the support for OpenStack (KVM) in addition to Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware vSphere.

Continue reading “Evolution of Cisco Prime Network Services Controller”



Authors

Ranga Maddipudi

Product Manager

Cloud and Systems Management Technology Group (CSMTG)

Avatar

Some claim the early television experiments in 1955 as the origin of TeleHealth, which means TeleHealth is more than half a century old. The adoption of TeleHealth has had multiple challenges including, but not limited to reimbursements, affordability and experience gaps.

However, of late, the stars are aligning for TeleHealth adoption to take off. According to BCC research, the global telemedicine market is expected to grow to 27.3 billion by 2016. According to the AHA (American Hospital Association) report, 42% of US acute care hospitals have TeleHealth capabilities. While healthcare reforms have given the adoption a significant boost, there are more trends that are fueling the adoption. We look at 10 such trends. On a broad level, these can be classified into three major categories:

  • Policies and New Business Models
  • Technology and Affordability
  • Experience and Efficiencies

Here are 10 trends that are influencing the adoption curve:10-Telehealth-Trends

1. Paradigm shift generated by the Healthcare Reforms

The US healthcare reforms have created a fundamental paradigm shift in focusing efforts on driving wellness and preventive care as compared to episodic care. The longer term relationship between the patients and provider has put patient engagement and care coordination at the center. This need has created a renewed interest in

TeleHealth as it can provide not only a convenient and cost effective way to interact, but also drive experience and efficiencies for the patients and providers by providing better collaboration capabilities from anywhere.

2. Policy Changes and Legislation for Reimbursements

In the early days, as we talked to customers, we have constantly had the wow moment driven by technology and experience of our solutions, but when it comes to the reimbursement topic, the conversation would come to a full stop. Today, with the new long term wellness focus as opposed to episodic care, cost avoidance models, Reimbursement is no more a definite full stop. States have been catching up recently on its policies to support telemedicine. About 40 states allow Medicaid to pay for telemedicine visits and about 20 states have required private payers in the state to pay for telemedicine.

3. New business models

While the transition from pay-for-service to value based model happens, new innovative business models are emerging that drives TeleHealth towards a sustainable business. For example, a fixed flat fee based anywhere consults, corporate clinic models, cost avoidance strategies, wellness have created a renewed interest in TeleHealth

4. Pervasive Video

In the past, the promise of TeleHealth use to be ‘don’t travel 200 miles to see your specialist, you can get the services at your rural clinic”, which might still be few miles away. With pervasive video, the patient don’t have to even leave their homes and can have consults from their choice of devices which could be a mobile phone, a tablet, a laptop, video phones or any other specialized devices. The cost of video has also significantly come down lately and has improved the affordability of TeleHealth programs. Leveraging software based video solutions in addition to hardware has expanded reach not just within the enterprise boundaries, but also outside to create a borderless collaboration experience between providers. The rise of WebRTC and other video standards have increased interoperability and will further expand the adoption.

5. Evolution of the Medical devices

In the early days of TeleHealth, if you look at a TeleHealth examination room table, it can be pretty scary for a patient. There can be way too many cables and too many bulky boxes to which the devices are connected. The complexity and the cost of medical devices has been a hindrance to adoption.

The cost and complexity of medical devices have also significantly improved lately. The evolution to smaller, cost effective, consumer focused devices with wireless connectivity has improved user experience and has expanded the range of users. Internet of things enabled device connectivity and the ability to automatically obtain data from sensors can be used to track vital signs and other activities to understand early signs. Continue reading “10 Trends why TeleHealth adoption will take off”



Authors

Rajesh Vargheese

CTO

Cisco Healthcare Solutions

Avatar

Digital innovations have upended many assumptions about the art of buying and selling. But the brick-and-mortar retail store is far from extinct. And while digital technologies continue to disrupt traditional business models, they also present retailers with exciting opportunities to make their stores more immersive, interactive, and, well, digital.

Recently, I had the privilege of discussing the future of the retail store with Doug Stephens, one of the world’s foremost retail industry experts and author of the book, The Retail Revival: Reimagining Business for the New Age of Consumerism. Listen to the full interview here.

As Doug describes it, “media is becoming the store and the store in essence is becoming media.” In short, he argues that the store itself has to embrace many of the capabilities and services that have made online retailers so successful, while retaining and enhancing some of the advantages of the physical retail experience. The store should become a “high-octane experience,” as Doug puts it.

Cisco_RetailStoreHighOctane_5.16.14

I wholeheartedly agree. In the Internet of Everything (IoE) era, an explosion of new connections is driving new sources of value. And the physical retail store can capture these new sources of value — just as their online counterparts have.

The key lies in blending the two experiences in a seamless manner.

As in-store consumers, we expect to interact with a product viscerally in a physical retail setting; online we enjoy access to rich product content. Combining the two will go far to engage and convert consumers while cementing brand loyalty.

Here are a few of the ways in which retailers are creating new digital in-store experiences:

  • Data analytics present a precise picture of an individual shopper, their online research and shopping history, and their real-time, in-store browsing, as tracked through their smart device and/or in-store video.
  • Wi-Fi and mobile technologies enable new connections during each step of the shopping journey, offering real-time prompts, expert advice, and incentives to “seal the deal.”
  • RFID tags and other sensors — combined with data analytics — provide precise tracking of products and inventory and enable such in-store experiences as “magic mirrors” and digital signage. These utilize detailed information on individual shopper behavior and buying history to transform the real-time experience.

Doug and I agree that, moving forward, it will be essential for retailers to gain the trust of consumers. If they are to be tracked in-store and engaged in real time, customers will need to feel confident that retailers are fully transparent throughout the shopping journey.

Surveys show that consumers have their doubts about sharing data. But when trust is established and clear benefits and value are established, they are willing to op-in. In effect, the nature of the exchange has to be clear, and education is crucial. Then, the full power of merging digital technology with the brick-and-mortar world will be evident.

The end result, I believe, is a win-win for retailers and customers alike.

But the key for retailers is to lead not follow. Waiting to see what other retailers are doing is not an option. Through data and analytics, they can get to know their customers better than ever. And by knowing their wants and desires, create a digital in-store experience that is more exciting than ever before.

For more on innovation in retailing check out our new BizWise video to learn how one mall owner has transformed relationships with shoppers using an omni-channel approach.

Additional Resources:



Authors

Rachael McBrearty

Chief Creative and Group Leader

Cisco Consulting Services