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Traveling can be stressful – for business or leisure – and hoteliers do their best to make sure that the hotel in which you choose to stay during your time away from home provides the best worry-free conveniences available.  High-tech hotels are taking steps in the right direction by offering in-room automation, loyalty perks, mobile check-ins and more to enhance the guest experience.

But even luxury, high-tech hotels need upgrades sometimes.  To validate this point, we look back at Boston in March 2012 at an event referred to as the ‘Back Bay blackout.” Unfortunately, an electrical fire in Boston left thousands without power. I imagine the scene was a little chaotic without lights, phones and Internet. The Mandarin Oriental, Boston and its guests were also left without access to phones or Internet during this power outage. Continue reading “High-Tech Hotel Receives Cisco Upgrade and “Powers Up” Guest Experience”



Authors

William Gustafson

Vertical Solutions Architect

Cisco Systems

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Security concerns surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT) is a topic that’s beginning to gain quite a head of steam lately, and for good reason. But it’s also important to note that IoT can dramatically improve the overall security posture of your organization.

Read the full Beyond Security Concerns: IoT Also Provides Security Benefits! blog post to learn more.



Authors

Jeff Aboud

IoT Security Manager

Internet of Things Technologies

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is a topic that’s beginning to gain quite a head of steam lately, particularly when it comes to security concerns that accompany it. Billions of new devices, most of which are in insecure locations. You don’t own them; oftentimes can’t see them; and you don’t control them in any way, shape, or form. Yet they’re sending petabytes of data through your network. It’s enough to make a security professional lose sleep for weeks at a time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOW7vndvzO0

But while many security professionals are focusing on these challenges, there’s also a huge security benefit that will come in the form of IoT enabled security! Remember, IoT isn’t about the devices themselves, it’s about the network of devices – the benefits from having all of those devices work together to produce actionable intelligence. In a similar vein, securing IoT networks can’t be about the individual security devices, but rather the network of security devices, so that they can work together to produce comprehensive, actionable security intelligence in near real-time – increasing the organization’s overall security posture with little or no human intervention required.

Continue reading “Beyond Security Concerns: IoT Also Provides Security Benefits!”



Authors

Jeff Aboud

IoT Security Manager

Internet of Things Technologies

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On Friday, March 14, the US Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced its intent to transition key Internet domain name functions to the global multi-stakeholder community.  As the first step, NTIA is requesting the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to convene global stakeholders and develop a proposal to transition the current role played by NTIA in the coordination of the Internet’s domain name system (DNS).

This is a significant milestone in the transition of Internet governance to a global multi-stakeholder model, and Cisco welcomes this development.  We applaud the NTIA for seeking to complete the final phase of the privatization of DNS management, as outlined by the U.S. Government in 1997. Cisco has long supported an open and innovative multi-stakeholder Internet governance process and this next step in its evolution.

NTIA has outlined a powerful process for the move towards full privatization and globalization of DNS management.  It is based upon the recognition that the ecosystem of organizations, groups and individuals which make up the multi-stakeholder Internet governance community is mature and robust and can stand on its own.

At the same time, NTIA has outlined a transition designed to ensure participation by the entire Internet community, and that will continue to support the open and multi-stakeholder nature of the Internet.  Key to this process will be the continued strong collaboration between ICANN, the Regional Internet Registries who allocate addresses, and the IETF that specifies Internet standards.

We look forward to working with the Internet community stakeholders to make this transition as successful as possible.

 



Authors

Robert Pepper

No Longer with Cisco

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Currently, WebEx Connect has no method of exporting contacts into Jabber or IM & Presence. I came up with this solution to help a couple of my users migrate their large contact lists, and thought I would share the solution with you. Let me know what you think.

This method relies on the use of a perl script and having the user log into pidgin XMPP client to WebEx Connect to populate the pidgin blist.xml file with the WebEx Connect contacts. Continue reading “Importing contacts from WebEx Connect to IM & Presence”



Authors

Erick Bergquist

Senior Engineer

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If you weren’t already aware, FlexPod is a huge success with desktop virtualization implementers.  This integrated infrastructure solution offers the scalability, performance and convenient infrastructure modularization that many look for when deploying virtual desktops.

Citrix XenDesktop with FlexPod Datacenter InfographicIt should be no surprise therefore that we’re doing a lot of design optimization, testing and validation work based on FlexPod, especially in support of XenDesktop environments.  Case in point: our latest FlexPod Cisco Validated Design (CVD) focused on 2,000 seat mixed workload.

This configuration speaks closely to very typical environments our customers are implementing, involving a mixed delivery model approach leveraging both traditional VDI (Hosted Virtual Desktops / HVD) along with Hosted Shared Desktops based on XenApp.

What’s exciting is the notable density and performance gains we’ve seen as this solution has evolved:

  • We’re now realizing a 25% increase in per blade desktop density (compared with previous generation processors)
  • An overall greatly compacted footprint resulting in 2,000 users served out of 32RU
  • The system is completely virtualized within ESXi 5.1: This includes Active Directory, Provisioning Servers, SQL Servers, XenDesktop Delivery Controllers,
    and XenDesktop RDS (XenApp) servers, all hosted as virtual machines

And maybe the biggest headline coming out of this effort: the boot-up and login performance:

  • The 2000-user mixed hosted virtual desktop and hosted shared desktop environment booted and registered with the XenDesktop 7.1 Delivery Controllers in under 15 minutes

I highly encourage you to check out Frank Anderson’s blog hereHe does an excellent job walking through the solution architecture, CVD methodology and key findings. You can also check out some great perspective from NetApp’s Rob McDonald, and Citrix’s Malathi Malla on the new CVD.

Want to hear first-hand how we put this solution together, and gain more insight into how it’s raised the performance bar?  Don’t miss our webcast with featured presenters from Citrix, Cisco and NetApp. Our panel of experts including Mike Brennan (Cisco), Marcelo Brosig (Citrix) andPanel of experts Cedric Courteix (NetApp) will guide you through our latest CVD, and you’ll have a great opportunity to engage them with questions pertaining to your VDI project.

Join us for our Webcast: Cisco Validated Design: Citrix XenDesktop with FlexPod Data Center

For more info, including the CVD, featured case study, and solution brief, see below:



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Security plays an important role in the success of mobility implementations worldwide. We assume security threats are always present; however, it’s not always apparent where threats may arise from. Being aware of these potential risk areas is crucial.

Since mobility solutions offer users the ability to use devices on a range of networks and in a wide array of places, threats may come in unsuspected ways, or be inadvertently introduced into your enterprises network. For example, one recent study reveals that 80 percent of corporate security professionals and IT leaders recognize that “end user carelessness” constitutes the biggest security threat to an organization.

In addition, information from the Cisco 2014 Annual Security Report sheds light on the persistent security attacks that enterprises face. From hackers to malicious malware, it’s clear that security threats arise from unsuspecting places.

Given this knowledge, business decision-makers must gain insight into where these breaches are occurring. They should also understand why it is important for them to care, and how they can be aided by technical decision-makers to solve these issues moving forward. In this post I’ll discuss the where, the why and the how of embracing a secure approach to enterprise mobility and what it means for business leaders.

Continue reading “Navigating Security Threats in a Mobile World”



Authors

Brett Belding

Senior Manager

Cisco IT Mobility Services

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As technology evolves, people who conduct business continue trying to keep up, implementing it in all facets of their industry to improve and increase efficiency. Whether these technologies have been around for some time and developed, or they were recently introduced and applied, there’s no doubt they’re revolutionizing commerce.

With that said, here are six tech trends that’ll change how people conduct business in 2014.  Continue reading “Tech Trends That Will Change How People Conduct Business in 2014”



Authors

JT Ripton

Business Consultant and Freelance Writer

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Since Henry Ford, the alchemy of turning raw materials into mass-produced products has been complicated and challenging. At best, it has been a delicate and precarious balancing act; at worst, something akin to herding cats.

The trick has always been to align ever-shifting patterns of customer demand with far-flung ecosystems of miners, designers, suppliers, engineers, factory workers, truck drivers, sellers, and so forth. Yet the process of orchestrating such intricate value chains has often been based on art (hunches) more than science (data).

Today, however, the Internet of Everything (IoE) — the ongoing explosion in networked connectivity among people, process, data, and things — is transforming manufacturing in startling ways, just as it is changing so many other industries.

IoE delivers seamless, intelligent connections to every corner of the manufacturing value chain, optimizing the flow of products, information, and payments in real time.

The Cisco IoE Value Index study found that in 2013, manufacturing had the largest potential share of IoE Value at Stake, at $224 billion. Yet, it was poised to realize only 46 percent of that potential bottom-line value.  The key to closing that gap lies in much-improved machine-to-machine and machine-to-people connections, resulting in smart factories, smart grids, and connected supply chains, among many other IoE-related innovations.

Continue reading “From the Mine Shaft to the Store Shelf — an IoE Revolution in Manufacturing”



Authors

Joseph M. Bradley

Global Vice President

Digital & IoT Advanced Services