Say you were on an advisory board for a city where population growth, traffic congestion, and demand for services (ambulances, police, & firefighters) presented major challenges, what actions would you suggest the city to take?  Similarly, say you were managing IT operations for your company, what actions would you put in place to respond to the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend and the potential impact on your network as users flood it with tons of iPads, Ultrabooks and other personal devices?

Before you rush out of the door to take action, you may want to ask yourself two questions:
- Is my action plan going to deliver a consistent and high quality user experience?
- Is my action plan sustainable, given the demand, available IT headcount and budgetary resources?

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Tags: access points, Aironet, Application Visibility and Control, AVC, byod, Catalyst switching, Cisco Unified Access, High Availability, mobility, network management, Network Resiliency, policy, Security Group Access, SGA, Smart Operations, switching, wireless

Twice a year, I get to experience a peculiar mix of stress and satisfaction that comes from participating in the design and operations of internal networks for the (US and European) CiscoLive – networks these events depend upon.

My role is vital to the efficiency of the whole system, but certainly not glamorous. If I were to compare the CiscoLive network with a dental office, I’d be the technician that only fixes the upper-right tooth – and ensures you continue to breathe well. More specifically, I’d be working on “the number 6 molar” – because I deal with the client-facing setup of IPv6, and the monitoring of all the related dependencies and results.

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Tags: CiscoLive Network, DHCPv6, IPv4 on IPv6-only SSID, IPv6, SSID, WLC

With today’s tough budgetary climate for schools, it’s gratifying to hear about a school district that applies smart technology to save millions on its energy bills so funds can be redirected to important educational programs. Council Rock School District in Pennsylvania embarked on such an energy savings program, Go Green, under which energy monies saved could be returned to other areas of the district’s operating budget, funding programs or staff that might otherwise be subject to cuts. It has taken its Go Green initiative further by using Cisco EnergyWise technology on Cisco 3750, 4500, and 6500 Series Switches to measure, monitor, and manage energy usage by network devices. Read More »

Tags: 3750, 4500, 6500, catalyst switch, Energywise

Despite all the rumblings in the media about the future of the Cisco and VMware relationship, the two companies announced at VMworld last week that they will expand their strategic partnership to deliver next generation cloud infrastructures.  Hear directly from Rahul Tripathi, Director of Product Marketing at Cisco and Nitin Brahmankar, Senior Director of Strategic Alliances at VMware, about latest joint product offerings at VMworld 2012 in San Francisco: Cisco UCS E-Series, which takes virtualization to branch offices and Cloud Services Router (CSR) 1000V, which seamlessly extends enterprise networks into external clouds.

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Tags: CSR1000v, UCSE, vblog, VMware, vmworld

Can you imagine life without your iPhone? Your Android?  Your tablet?  I get uncomfortable just thinking about having to use a phonebook to look up a number, or a map to get somewhere, or a desktop machine to read email.   Luckily, our employers are beginning to understand our dependence on personal devices.  As our dependence increases, the challenge for our employers is also increasing to implement simple, secure, effective BYOD solutions so we can productively use these devices in the work environment.   We have seen an uptake of organizations announcing their plans for a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy. To keep moving the dialogue forward on how to make sure organizations are prepared for BYOD,   Cisco will be launching a “BYOD Thursday’s” blog series and BYOD roadshows.

For the BYOD Solution Days Roadshow,  Cisco switching, wireless, security, desktop virtualization and collaboration subject matter experts will travel across the country to demonstrate, using real-life scenarios, how organizations can successfully address the BYOD challenge.  The link below provides complete information on dates, locations and registration.

BYOD Solution Days:  September 12 – November 14

Attendees will learn:

• How to effectively use the Cisco BYOD Smart Solution for mobile device freedom without compromising your network.
• Technical design considerations for successful implementation of secure mobility initiatives.

Spaces are filling up fast so be sure to click the links above to see when we’ll be in your city and register today. We hope to see you there!  And keep on the lookout for our “BYOD Thursday’s” posts moving forward.