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The programming of network resources is not just a trend, but also a way to future-proof IT and business needs. This blog series examines how infrastructure programmability is providing a faster time to competitive advantage and highlights the differences between programmable infrastructure and traditional infrastructure, and what programmability means for your entire IT infrastructure.

To read the first post in this series that defines infrastructure programmability, click here.

To read the second post in this series that discusses benefits of network programmability, click here.

According to a recent Network Computing article, changes in network virtualization (overlaying virtual networks over a physical infrastructure) and network programmability (provisioning and controlling its behavior) are causing some to wonder what’s in store for the networking profession.

These changes mean that our skill sets will evolve and our jobs will get more interesting. As the need to build more agility into IT systems becomes more urgent, we are looking for ways to reduce complexity, drive simplification and reduce costs to invest in new initiatives that are critical to the business. We must free up resources so that IT can build new capabilities and provide faster time to new business competitiveness. How can we do this? A new model for IT – one that is simple, smart and secure.

 The programming of network resources is not just a trend, but also a way to future-proof IT and business needs.  View Executive Perspectives.
The programming of network resources is not just a trend, but also a way to future-proof IT and business needs. View Executive Perspectives.

Continue reading “How IT Leaders Can Embrace the Change that Comes with Network Programmability”



Authors

Jim Grubb

Chief Technology Evangelist

Cisco Customer Experience Center

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The long awaited Cisco Live in San Francisco is only four days away.  There is a lot in store for our customers including hundreds of technical sessions, keynotes from executives and industry guests, product and solutions demos at World of Solutions and more.

One of the most important topics, in my opinion, that I believe you should tune into is on Intelligent WAN.  As you come to Cisco Live and are exploring Cisco Intelligent WANvarious technologies that will help your organization scale and grow for the next 3-5 years, what element is most crucial?  How about the branches and stores throughout the city, country or world that is growing rapidly, not just in terms of sheer count but also by size?  The number of employees working there is growing; the number of customer engagements is increasing; and the number and type of users are exploding.  You need an intelligent WAN that can adjust to the demand, meet the high user expectations and be the foundation of innovation needed at the branch.

To learn more about Cisco Intelligent WAN, please join us for the following activities.  We would love to hear your feedback on how Intelligent WAN can help your business and IT organization. Continue reading “IWAN Wed: Intelligent WAN @ Cisco Live!”



Authors

Allison Park

Product Marketing Manager

Enterprise Networks

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#CiscoChampion Radio is a podcast series by Cisco Champions as technologists, hosted by Cisco’s Amy Lewis (@CommsNinja). This week Dominick Delfino, VP Systems Engineering at Cisco, joins Cisco Champion and Senior Pre-Sales Engineer Ahmad Manzoor. The topic is the Value of the Partner Eco-System.

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Listen to the Podcast

Cisco Subject Matter Expert:
Dominick Delfino, VP Systems Engineering Cisco (@domdelfino)

Cisco Champion:
Ahmad Manzoor, Senior Pre-Sales Engineer (@AhmadManzoor1)
Continue reading “#CiscoChampion Radio S1|Ep12 Value of the Partner Eco-System”



Authors

Rachel Bakker

Social Media Advocacy Manager

Digital and Social

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Today’s security challenges are real and significant.  We want governments to detect and disrupt terrorist networks before they inflict harm on our society, our citizens, and our systems of government.   We also want to live in countries that respect their citizens’ basic human rights.  The tension between security and freedom has become one the most pressing issues of our day.  Societies wracked by terror cannot be truly free, but an overreaching government can also undermine freedom.

It is in this context that I want to offer some thoughts on actions by the US Government that in Cisco’s eyes have overreached, undermining the goals of free communication, and steps that can be taken to right that balance, and I do so on behalf of all of Cisco’s leadership team.

Confidence in the open, global Internet has brought enormous economic benefits to the United States and to billions around the world.  This confidence has been eroded by revelations of government surveillance, by efforts of the US government to force US companies to provide access to communications of non-US citizens even when that violates the privacy laws of countries where US companies do business, and allegations that governments exploit rather than report security vulnerabilities in products.

As a matter of policy and practice, Cisco does not work with any government, including the United States Government, to weaken our products. When we learn of a security vulnerability, we respond by validating it, informing our customers, and fixing it.  We react the same when we find that a customer’s security has been impacted by external forces, regardless of what country or form of government or how that security breach occurred.  We offer customers robust tools to defend their environments against attack, and detect attacks when they are happening. By doing these things, we have built and maintained our customers’ trust.  We expect our government to value and respect this trust.

Continue reading “Internet Security Necessary for Global Technology Economy”



Authors

Mark Chandler

Retired | Executive Vice President

Chief Legal and Compliance Officer

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You may not realize this, but Cisco has a thriving business building and selling networking products specifically designed for Small Businesses. Unfortunately, we know dealing with Cisco can sometimes be challenging for some smaller customers, a good example of this is managing software. Sometimes, it can be quite challenging to finding out whether equipment is running the latest software, and if not, how to get the latest software.

We recently announced a new feature called Automatic Service Delivery (ASD) on the RV215W, a wireless-n VPN Router that is in the Cisco Small Business Routing Portfolio.

The Automated Software Delivery service allows network devices such as the Cisco RV215W router or management tools such as Cisco FindIT to automatically retrieve software release information and software images from the cisco.com software library. This means that the user can be notified when a new software image is available, and they can obtain that software at the click of a button, rather than having to find their way through the thousands of files in the software library. If the user so chooses, a device can even automatically update itself, thereby ensuring the network is always running the most current versions of software.

This work was completed by our Smart Web Technology Group (SWTG). The API they developed enables client applications to retrieve vital software release and image information including release note, field notices and PSIRT information.

In order to gain access to this new feature, simply download the latest RV215W firmware form the RV215W product page and enable automatic updates on the Administration > Firmware/Language Upgrade page.

Cisco RV Series_RV215W VPN Firewall

Look for more RV Series Models to get this free ASD Service.

So to wrap this up, we know Cisco’s Small Business customers face so many challenges and demands on their time, the Automated Software Delivery service is a great tool that helps make their job just that little bit easier.

Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to hang out with us.



Authors

Marc Nagao

Product Manager

Small Business RV Series Routers

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20140519-CISCO-spine-and-leafThere has been a lot of recent online discussion about automation of the datacenter network, how we all may (or may not) need to learn programming, the value of a CCIE, and similar topics. This blog tries to look beyond all that. Assume network configuration has been automated. How does that affect network design?

Automation can greatly change the network landscape, or it may change little. It depends on what you’re presently doing for design. Why? The reason is that the programmers probably assumed you’ve built your network in a certain way. As an example, Cisco DFA (Dynamic Fabric Automation) and ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure) are based on a Spine-Leaf CLOS tree topology.

Yes, some OpenFlow vendors have claimed to support arbitrary topologies. Arbitrary topologies are just not a great idea. Supporting them makes the programmers work harder to anticipate all the arbitrary things you might do. I want the programmers to focus on key functionality. Building the network in a well-defined way is a price I’m quite willing to pay. Yes, some backwards or migration compatibility is also desirable.

The programmers probably assumed you bought the right equipment and put it together in some rational way. The automated tool will have to tell you how to cable it up, or it  might check your compliance with the recommended design. Plan on this when you look to automation for sites, a datacenter, or a WAN network.

The good news here is the the Cisco automated tools are likely to align with Cisco Validated Designs. The CVD’s provide a great starting point for any network design, and they have recently been displaying some great graphics. They’re a useful resource if you don’t want to re-invent the wheel — especially a square wheel. While I disagree with a few aspects of some of them, over the years most of them have been great guidelines.

The more problematic part of this is that right now, many of us are (still!) operating in the era of hand-crafted networks. What does the machine era and the assembly line bring with it? We will have to give up one-off designs and some degree of customization. The focus will shift to repeated design elements and components. Namely, the type of design the automated tool can work with.

Some network designers are already operating in such a fashion. Their networks may not be automated, but they follow repeatable standards. Like an early factory working with inter-changeable parts. Such sites have likely created a small number of design templates and then used them repeatedly. Examples: “small remote office”, “medium remote office”, “MPLS-only office”, or “MPLS with DMVPN backup office”.

However you carve things up, there should only be a few standard models, including “datacenter” and perhaps “HQ” or “campus”. If you know the number of users (or size range) in each such site, you can then pre-size WAN links, approximate number of APs, licenses, whatever. You can also pre-plan your addressing, with, say, a large block of  /25’s for very small offices, /23’s for medium, etc.

On the equipment side, a small office might have one router with both MPLS and DMVPN links, one core switch, and some small number of access switches. A larger office might have one router each for MPLS and one for DMPVN, two core switches, and more access switches. Add APs, WAAS, and other finishing touches as appropriate. Degree of criticality is another dimension you can add to the mix: critical sites would have more redundancy, or be more self-contained. Whatever you do, standardize the equipment models as much as possible, updating every year or two (to keep the spares inventory simple).

It takes some time to think through and document such internal standards. But probably not as much as you think! And then you win when you go to deploy, because everything becomes repeatable.

Continue reading “Network Design for Automation”



Authors

Peter J Welcher

Networking Consultant

NetCraftsmen

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This is an exciting time in the history of datacenter infrastructure.  We are witnessing the collision of two major trends: the maturation of open source software and the redefinition of infrastructure policy.
The trend towards open source is self-evident.  Platforms such as OpenStack and OpenDaylight are gaining huge developer mindshare as well as support and investment from major vendors.  Even some newer technologies like Docker, which employs linux kernel containers, and Ceph, a software-based storage solution, offer promising paths in open source.  Given the fundamental requirements of interoperability in architecturally diverse infrastructure environments, its no surprise that open source is gaining momentum.

The second trend around policy is a bit earlier in its evolution but equally disruptive.  Today, there is a huge disconnect between how application developers think about their requirements and the languages and tools through which they are communicated to the infrastructure itself.  For example,  just to handle networking, a simple three tier app must be deconstructed into an array of VLANs, ACLs, and routes spread across a number of devices.  Storage and compute present similar challenges as well.   To simplify this interaction and create more scalable systems, we need to actually rethink how resources are requested and distributed between different components.  This really boils down to shifting the abstraction model away from configuring individual devices to focus on separately capturing user intent, operational, infrastructure, and compliance requirements.

At Cisco, we’ve really embraced both of these trends.  We are active contributors to over 100 open source projects and were founding members of OpenStack Neutron and OpenDaylight.  We’ve also made open source a successful business practice by incorporating and integrating popular projects with our products.  In parallel, Cisco has accumulated a lot of experience in describing policy through the work we’ve done with Cisco Unified Computing (UCS) and most recently with Cisco Application-Centric Infrastructure (ACI).

Building on this foundation, we see a unique opportunity to collaborate with the open source community to deliver a vision for policy-driven infrastructure.  This will enhance the usability, scale, and interoperability of open source software and benefit the entire infrastructure ecosystem.

This vision includes two initiatives in the open source community:

GroupBasedPolicy

  1. Group-Based Policy: An information model designed to express applications’ resource requirements from the network through a hardware-independent, declarative language and leave a simple control and dataplane in place.  This approach replaces traditional networking constructs like VLANs with new primitives such as “groups”, which model tiers or components of an application, and “contracts” describing relationships between them.  Group-Based Policy will be available in the context of OpenStack Neutron as well as OpenDaylight through a plug in model that can support any software or hardware infrastructure.
  2. OpFlex: A distributed framework of intelligent agents within each networking device designed to resolve policies.  These agents would translate an abstract, hardware-independent policy taken from a logically central repository into device-specific features and capabilities.

 

Let’s look a bit more closely at each of these initiatives.

Continue reading “Delivering Policy in the Age of Open Source”



Authors

Mike Cohen

No Longer with Cisco

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Renewable energy

The World energy demand will be 41% higher in 2035 with India and China accounting for half the growth.

The development of renewable energy sources ranks as a key responsibility for the top economies in the world. India, as one of the top 5 emitters of greenhouse gasses, has prioritized the development of renewable energy resources.

Read More on how this Indian agency deployed a network that promotes energy conservation below.

Continue reading “Midsize Renewable Energy agency in India optimizes network for efficiency”



Authors

Anand Jobanputra

Marketing Specialist

Mid-Market Mobility Solutions

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Cisco Sports & Entertainment is proud to be celebrating our seven-year anniversary this year as a specialized industry vertical business unit – and it’s simply incredible to look back and see how far we, and more importantly the industry, have come in such a short period of time.  The key to success has been working with our customers in defining their needs and tailoring, or engineering, a few solutions while always keeping in mind the “fan trends” and business models.  This infographic sums it up nicely – more than 200 venues, in more than 30 countries around the world flawlessly engaging hundreds of millions of fans, who were previously unconnected to the live action.

Continue reading “Seven Years – Hundreds of Millions of Fans Engaged”



Authors

Anabelle Pinto

Worldwide Director, Consumer Market Management