The projected growth of Internet video is significant. Today, Internet video accounts for more than 50 percent of consumer Internet traffic. The explosion of video traffic across many devices, and the need to access content from anywhere at any time is driving the need for cloud-based networks and the popular applications and content they support.
Cloud-based networks can offer consumers greater mobility, wider accessibility and the robust performance needed for high quality video experiences. With an Internet connection, cloud computing makes it possible to experience video on many different devices, from virtually anywhere, anytime.
The strength and power of cloud computing makes the video transition to cloud-enabled networks a better option for not only Service Providers but consumers as well. Consumers can expect increased performance, higher capacity, better access and a seamless experience when their services are based in the cloud.
Cloud’s limitless accessibility for end users coupled with the advantages of cloud data centers for network operators and enterprises offer the technology and solutions to transform and accelerate Internet video delivery and consumption in the near future.
I recently participated in a session at the 6th annual Global Competitiveness Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The overall theme of the event focused on the positive impact of competition on economic and social development around the world. More specifically, I spoke on the emergence of the aerotropolis and the opportunities it presents for the development of cities. As a concept developed by John D. Kasarda and Greg Lindsay in their book “Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next“, an aerotropolis is an urban form whose layout, infrastructure, and economy is centered on an airport, offering its businesses speedy connectivity to suppliers, customers, and enterprise partners worldwide.
Globalization lies at the root of the aerotropolis. Beginning hundreds of years ago, globalization started with the basic premise of transporting physical goods between nations. As we moved into the 1980s, we saw the emergence of global manufacturing. The 1990s then ushered in the growth of global R&D. Over the last five years or so, we have transitioned into what I call the globalization of the corporate brain. We are beginning to think and act globally about our innovation, growth and talent in the corporate space – it’s all about co-creation and talent. As a global community, we have evolved from the pure transportation of physical goods to the transportation of goods and intellect.
Let’s talk a little about why the aerotropolis has gained momentum. Historically, cities have built their airports on the periphery of their borders. The land area, noise and other issues that come with airports have largely been the reasons behind this. However, times have changed, and in today’s (still) goods-based economy, planners are seeing that this layout is not conducive to developing the local economy.
As we all know, the world is changing at networked speeds and organizations need an IT partner that can help lead them through these challenges. Cisco is that partner.
To help further communicate this, we recently launched our new brand and advertising campaign. This campaign is to showcase that our true value is in what we make possible for customers with our innovative networking technology. Our company strategy starts and ends with customer success. As such, the ongoing campaign will highlight Cisco customers and the ways that Cisco’s intelligent network empowers their business with new, more effective ways to connect, exchange ideas and innovate.
IMHO, Cisco is uniquely positioned to help our customers solve their most important business challenges. Our strengths are many: beginning with engineering depth and expertise, an ecosystem of partners, a passion for networking, and culminating in our vast experience at building and delivering Intelligent Networks that unleash business potential. It’s our rich portfolio transformational business solutions that help CEOs and CIO/CTOs achieve greater innovation and momentum.
This week in No Jitter, Cisco Collaboration Vice President Murali Sitaram is featured in an extensive Q&A with editor Dave Michels. Entitled, “Cisco’s Quadragenarian,” Sitaram is working to take Cisco, a company with a strong networking core, and move it towards collaboration software that is both social and cloud-based.
Murali discusses his role, Cisco’s perspective on social business software, the post PC-era, collaboration in general, people-centric collaboration, email and more. In part he says:
“In today’s post-PC era, employees no longer are tied to their desk or required to sit in a conference room to do their jobs…Social collaboration adds a new layer to the communication experience, allowing companies to innovate, grow, expand into new markets and increase productivity.
Over the last two or three decades we have been living in the era of the “document” or…email…if you think about it, people don’t really collaborate or work in that way…We have conversations, we share in communities…previous generation of tools have outlived their utility and we must rethink how people work.”
Today, we made a significant announcement that transcends data center, campus and service provider and Cloud-based deployments, geared towards helping our customers embrace the winds of change that are buffeting the IT landscape. This announcement is precipitated by a number of mega-trends that were buzzwords even a couple of years ago but have become looming realities in the IT landscape. Think video, virtualization, 10G, Bring your own device (BYOD) and not to forget – the journey to cloud.
Layer in ongoing careabouts like security and Energy Efficiency – and boy, do we have the perfect storm brewing.
The three “Cs”:
For many customers, it is no longer sufficient to take a “band-aid approach”. A faster switch here or a new wireless LAN access point there just doesn’t cut it. They have to step back and evaluate their environment holistically, and minimize the chokepoints proactively. This is causing them to evaluate the three “Cs” of capacity, complexity and cost, while ensuring that they’re in a position to deliver the end-to-end IT experience.
In December, Cisco introduced Cisco CloudVerse, a framework and set of solutions that combines the foundational elements needed to enable organizations to build, manage, and connect public, private and hybrid clouds. Cisco CloudVerse combines these key cloud elements – Unified Data Center, Cloud Intelligent Network, and Cloud Applications and Services – enabling businesses to realize all of the benefits of clouds: improved agility, better economics, enhanced security, and a dynamic, assured experience.
As a leading technology company, Cisco pushes the envelope in our traditional industries with innovative business transformations, as we did by entering the server market in 2009 with our Unified Computing System paired with our Nexus data center switching family. Competition in the marketplace is good for customers as competition accelerates innovation, creates new opportunities as old problems are attacked from new angles, and creates incentives for the various players in the industry to work together–and separately–toward better solutions.
But achieving the promise of this progress and innovation comes with a necessary step that I feel is often overlooked, rushed, or ignored: Testing. At Cisco, we perform intense testing as we develop our solutions whether the testing is in-house, with partners and customers, or via third-parties.
Over 70 percent of leading cloud providers are using Cisco CloudVerse on their journey to the cloud, and–in the latest example of our commitment to testing–third-party testing firm EANTC has validated those cloud providers’ commitment by affirming “Cisco has all the components one would need to offer cloud services”. For coverage, Light Reading has published the first report of the Cloud Mega Test results done by EANTC.
But let’s talk more about what was behind the test.
This week we are celebrating a milestone by announcing that 10,000 customers worldwide have deployed our new Unified Computing System. In just over two years UCS has captured the attention of data center managers and CIOs alike, despite skepticism from industry observers that a new computing technology could take hold in this highly competitive market.
According to a recent Servers and Virtualization Study by TheInfoPro,™ Cisco took the lead among server vendors in vision, technical innovation, product performance, and sales force.
Many have asked “how did UCS become successful so rapidly?” The answer lies with our customers: they selected UCS because the architecture drove a transformation of their data centers, while delivering advantages for their business and lowering IT costs. And we see a growing number of these customers, including half the fortune 500 companies, using UCS as the foundational building block to move towards private and hybrid clouds.
Bottom Line
We hear from our customers on a daily basis that UCS is transforming their IT practice and significantly contributing to their business. Thanks to all our UCS customers– may you continue to grow your businesses in 2012!
Here’s a small sampling of the passionate testimonies we receive:
Steven Senecal, manager of Global Server Engineering for Travelport
“Although we were successfully meeting customer needs, the infrastructure needed to be much more scalable and resilient to handle the demand expected to occur in the next few years. For example, the Cisco Unified Computing System service profiles are a benefit to data center IT managers, allowing us to create and store a unique identity for every blade. Our team can query this information for asset management and it enables us to truly rip and replace a blade in minutes if necessary.” Travelport, a global leader in transaction processing for the travel industry supporting transaction services in 160 countries and over 60,000 travel agencies, deployed UCS to increase business agility, scalability and efficiency for its primary data center.
Dan Hein, director, Global Shared Services, Columbia Sportswear
“The integration of compute, network, and storage into a single stack is transforming the way we, as IT professionals, view these environments.” We anticipate a significant reduction in the overhead required to manage the Vblock platform environment, because we’ve taken three separate disciplines and combined them into one. Because Vblock is preconfigured and pretested by VCE, we can move forward with our SAP deployment quickly and with confidence that the infrastructure will deliver the robust performance and availability we need out of the gate.” Columbia Sportswear, a global leader in the manufacture and wholesaling of sports apparel and outdoor clothing with offices in 45 countries worldwide, selected VCE Vblock Infrastructure Platforms to support a new deployment of SAP to run its most critical business applications, including financial, product development, manufacturing, and shipping.
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Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012 is now less than two months away and the mobile industry is shifting into high gear! From now until the booths come down and the Fira Barcelona goes silent, it’s full speed ahead.
No one is more excited about Cisco’s mobility story—and our presence at MWC 2012—than Chairman and CEO John Chambers. As he often says, “mobility is the killer app” and the biggest of all the Read More »
This week I am delighted to once again be in the city that never sleeps: New York. In addition to enjoying the shopping and dining of New York, I am excited to be attending this year’s 101st National Retail Federation Convention & Expo (NRF). With over 22,000 retail professionals from 82 countries attending to discuss the industry’s most critical topics, this year’s NRF promises to be full of innovations that will seamlessly integrate technology into everyday shopping.
As a woman who loves fashion, I am particularly excited by the NRF demonstration of Cisco’s StyleMe, a virtual fashion mirror that would allow me to explore the store’s inventory database to find what I want, virtually try it on, and accessorize. While creating my outfit I can also capture images to send for approval by my personal fashionistas -- my daughters.
Cisco recently sat down with Richard Creegan of Itron, Gary Murphy of BC Hydro and Dave Geier of SDG&E to discuss the current state of the smart grid transition and to get their perspectives on the new set of offerings in Cisco’s Connected Grid portfoli0. Through a host of new solutions, services and partnerships for utilities, Cisco aims to provide a common communications and network platform to help utilities move forward with grid modernization efforts.
We began with Itron, which joined with Cisco in 2011 in an effort to combine expertise and offer a fully-compliant IPv6 Field Area Network (FAN) solution to the industry.
Cisco: The alliance between Cisco and Itron has produced its first solution for the utility industry. Can you talk a little about why you felt this union made sense?
Itron: Both Cisco and Itron have their own unique expertise. When it comes to Cisco, information technology is core to what they do and it elevates the value of what we offer to customers. Combined with Itron’s proven expertise in delivering operational technologies that utilities use to run their businesses, this partnership established a vision to create a smart grid platform that will help move both companies forward.
Next we turned to BC Hydro and SDG&E, two utility companies who are both utilizing Cisco’s new FAN solution.
In January 2011, Internet companies around the globe announced they would come together to perform the largest test of IPv6 deployment the world had ever seen. Cisco was among the first to proudly announce its official participation in World IPv6 Day, and after several months of preparation and an intense 24 hours in June, it was clear that we had witnessed a watershed moment in the move towards global deployment of IPv6.
So what next after this? As reports came in and logs were analyzed over the days and weeks after, it became increasingly clear that we didn’t need just another global test. Instead, we needed to enable IPv6 once and for all. So, on June 6, 2012, the industry will again unite but not just for single day. This time, we turn it on and leave it on. We’re calling this World IPv6 Launch, and it is now the largest commitment to full-scale production IPv6 deployment the world has ever seen.
For websites, the commitment is similar to last year in that reachability via IPv6 will be advertised within the global Domain Name System (DNS). This time, however, the DNS entry will remain indefinitely rather than disappear after a single day. In addition to websites, the Internet Society has setup requirements for participation by residential Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and makers of home networking equipment. The rationale for expanding to these two specific areas is that while IPv6 has been available in some models of consumer-grade networking equipment and from some ISPs for a number of years, it was very rarely enabled by default and as such very rarely in use despite the majority of internet devices being capable of IPv6.
In order to tackle these remaining barriers to deployment, new Internet subscriptions and consumer-grade home routers will begin to appear with IPv6 enabled by default as the normal course of doing business. Specifically, participating home networking equipment makers are committing to include IPv6 enabled by default through a wide range of their products (both “low end” and “high end” home routers) by June 6. For ISPs, websites will be measuring what percentage of users have IPv6 enabled, with a target of no less than 1% before the World IPv6 Launch deadline. The 1% is a “running start”, such that after June 6 we’ll be on a path of sustained growth in IPv6 deployment going forward.
Cisco is again pleased to announce its full participation and support, both by enabling IPv6 on www.cisco.com indefinitely and by enabling IPv6 by default in our new line of E-series home routers. In addition, we will be working with our customers, Cisco Services and development teams to ensure that as many companies as possible can participate and those that do are successful.
June 6, 2012. This is the year we Launch a new Internet Protocol.
Last week, I took my girls to their first Stanford Women’s Basketball game, a well played game against the University of Oregon. While there, I noticed that almost every person had a smartphone out at least once during the game—and for good reason. Stanford has upped the live sport experience for spectators.
By connecting to the pavilion’s Wi-Fi network with a smartphone, you can order and pay for concession-stand food from your seat. So, you don’t have to worry about missing anything. Plus, you’re able to view replays, participate in contests to win prizes and even play mini-games.
From connected stadiums like Poland’s new National Stadium, which will host the 2012 European Football Championship, to connected cities like Songdo South Korea, Cisco is helping to dramatically improve our experiences and quality of life by capitalizing on the power of the network.
This month, Cisco Chairman and CEO is attending his 12th World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. In this video he prepared for WEF, he answers the following questions.
What great transformation will the world see in the next decade?
What new models will drive change in your industry?
How can organizations build competitive innovation for the next generation?
How can your industry work with other stakeholders to improve the state of the world?
John states that the internet and business “innovation will drive GDP growth, job creation and productivity” in the next decade. He says that any device will be connected to any content and that video will be everywhere. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, he says, will be in the enterprise, in their current form or in a more business-friendly form (note: such as Cisco Quad). He says that mobility will continue to grow in importance and the proliferation of devices will make the network and its security and policies even more important.
Solving the worlds problems, he says, takes bringing diverse people together…both physically, but more and more through collaborative platforms.
Watch the video and let us know what you think technology’s impact will have on our lives in the next decade.
It’s a new year, the traditional time to resolve to lose weight (again), and to replace bad habits with good ones. But this year, I’m not going there. Did I overeat during the holidays? Yes. But forget my weight gain. What I want to focus on is why are so many of us overeating when so many others are going hungry. Why aren’t we using technology to fix this?
Dozens of businesses are sprouting up around food and technology—with a focus on capitalizing on our desire for fine dining. I won’t pretend that I’m a stranger to social media platforms that tip me off to the latest new restaurant opening, but what I’d love to see is some of this mindshare going toward helping to curb hunger. I’m not even talking about world hunger (yet) – I’m talking about in our own backyards. According to Feeding America, 48.8 million Americans lived in food insecure households during 2010. And according to a New York Timesarticle a couple months ago, the number of kids signing up to receive subsidized lunches is increasing, due to the economy.
Enid Borden, President and CEO of Meals on Wheels Association in America recently wrote about this very topic. In her article, she quite eloquently asks, “How do we harness the power of imagination and creativity and put them to work in the human services domain? How do we prevent the foolishness of hunger in a food-rich land?”
