This week we saw the largest solar storm in nearly a decade and such “solar weather” or cosmic radiation is what generates such phenomena as the “Northern Lights”. However, intense solar activity which creates electromagnetic storms can generate exceptionally strong power surges that damage electrical distribution systems, knock out satellites, and affect sensitive electronics. This has happened in the past, including grid failures in Quebec in 1989 which blacked out the entire province.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this video of the M3.2 solar flare on January 19, 2012. Credit: NASA/SDO/GOES-15.

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Tags: Adrian Evans, Allan Silburt, ASR9000, Cisco, cosmic radiation, CRS3, Dean Hogle, IEEE, Neutron beam, Service Provider, Shi-Jie Wen, Single Event Upset, SP360

As the industry leader in MPLS and Carrier Ethernet, Cisco will have a strong presence at MPLS and Ethernet World Congress in Paris, France from February 7-10, 2012.

With the spotlight in the industry around cloud services, this year’s conference will focus on how MPLS as a technology can help enable and deliver cloud Read More »

Tags: Cisco, Cloud Computing, cloud networking, data center, mobile backhaul, mpls, MPLS World Congress, MPLS-TP, packet transport, Service Provider, SP360, Unified MPLS, v6 world congress

Imagine a world where billions of objects have sensors to detect, measure, and assess their status, all interconnected over public or private IP (Internet Protocol) networks. This world of interconnected objects will have its data regularly collected, analyzed and used to initiate action, providing a wealth of intelligence for planning, management, policy and decision-making. Key information will be pushed out from machines to other machines, to individuals, and to public and private organizations, allowing them to take action appropriately.

This is the Internet of Things (IoT), and it is well on the way to Read More »

Tags: internet of things, Service Provider, web of things

In November last year, I blogged about why ICT for women and girls in engineering matters. This year, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Secretary-General is announcing the international “Girls in ICT Day.” He states:

“As the leading specialized agency of the United Nations for information and communication technologies (ICTs), ITU looks towards its Members to harness the catalytic role of ICTs in creating far-reaching opportunities for women and girls by eliminating gender disparities and empowering them to meet their goals and aspirations. I call upon all stakeholders (including policy makers, regulators, operators and industry) to adopt policies and strategies that will promote ICT opportunities for women and girls.

Women are the bedrock of our societies. Read More »

Tags: girls in ict day, ICT, international telecommunications union, ITU, Service Provider, women and girls in engineering

Although we released this some time ago, not long before the run out of IPv4 addresses we thought we’d repost it again given the announcement earlier in the week of the launch date for the IPv6 Internet. The great news is with the IPv6 Internet happening on June 6, 2012 there is no need to fight your colleagues for IP addresses or hide under your desk. Provided, of course, that your network architect or IT Read More »

Tags: 6rd, cgv6, IPv6, Service Provider, v6 world congress, World IPv6 Day

At Cisco, we’ve talked many times before about the exhaustion of IPv4 address space and the need for the industry to adopt IPv6 to support the explosion in the number of people, devices, and web services and enable the continuing growth of the Internet. As you can read in the announcement on our corporate blog, today Cisco joined with other leading industry participants such as AT&T, Google, Facebook, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable to be part of the World IPv6 Launch. This means that by June 6, 2012 all participants will permanently enable IPv6 on their networks and websites.

Since deployment of IPv6 requires an industry-wide response we recently teamed with Excentis to participate in Read More »

Tags: 6rd, cgv6, EuroDOCSIS, Excentis, interop, IPv6, Service Provider, v6 world congress, World IPv6 Day

On my flight home Friday after a full week at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), I was reflecting on how mobility is more important than ever before. This comes as no surprise considering the success of consumer devices and our need to be mobile in our day-to-day lives. Now, the real opportunity is how we bring mobility, video and cloud together to create the next generation internet.

At CES, Cisco showed up strong, sharing with customers, the analyst community and the media how we’re making the internet more visual by leveraging the power of Read More »

Tags: barcelona, CES, Cisco, kit beall, mobile broadband, mobility, mwc, next generation internet, Service Provider

By now, I have seen about a dozen CES wrap ups, the first of which, ironically, came after just the first day.  Ultrabooks, lack of iPad killer, and the iPhone5 rumor mill seemed to dominate the discussion.  My experience after the last week in Las Vegas was “beyond the devices” and admittedly beyond the hype.  Over four days, Cisco held nearly 500 customer, press and analyst meetings, and after very extensive research (read:  polling a few of my teammates in the ever lengthy elevator lines), here is my top takeaways from CES 2012:

• Show:  CES is now the single largest service provider show in North America.  There are a few others, but in terms of customer engagement, this is the biggest.  From Europe to Asia, South America and Australia, an incredible array of SPs are there.  Forget the show’s name Read More »

Tags: CES, Cisco, consumer electronic show, devices, mobility, video, videoscape

Marthin De Beer, Senior Vice President of Cisco’s Video and Collaboration Group takes time at CES to share his thoughts on the service provider video market. He highlights Cisco’s video experience demos at the show, and discusses how we are helping customers through our end-to-end architecture, with strategies to bridge legacy infrastructure to future IP-centric architectures, including the emergence of home gateways. Read More »

Tags: CES, Cisco, consumer electronic show, Service Provider, video, videoscape

Today we’re glad to shine the spotlight on our colleagues at Numericable, for taking such a comprehensive step forward in making multi-screen television available to its wide-reaching residential footprint in France.

Specifically, Numericable is deploying our  (3G60) Broadband Processing Engine, a high-density CMTS and uBR10k line card used for DOCSIS 3.0, wideband connectivity, as well as several components in our Videoscape TV family – meaning our CDS (Content Delivery System), for adapting multiple content types to different screen sizes; our Media Processor and Transcode Manager, for adaptive bit rate streaming; and our UCS and Nexus family of data center switches.

The plan augments Numericable’s existing work on its “fiber to the basement” initiative, which can offer up to 4 Gbps of capacity over fiber and coax. Read More »

Tags: 3G60, Cisco, docsis, Numericable, Service Provider, Video On Demand, videoscape

By Ken Morse, CTO, Cisco Service Provider Video Technology Group

And here we are, video-side friends, at the start of yet another year. As we move together into 2012, I hereby declare this to be the year of the gateway.

The natural sidekick to the gateway, of course, is the client — and by “client,” I mean virtual or “soft” set-tops. CPE, and CPE software. The suite of stuff that’s going to connect up all the tablets, laptops, and new video screens we keep purchasing, as consumers, to the screens we’re used to watching (meaning TVs) for premium, subscription video content.

Let’s look more closely at the gateway, since I just so boldly declared 2012 to be its breakthrough year. And in particular, allow me to hone in on the Multiscreen Video Gateway line we’ve been working on and trialing with customers over the last year. A quick look under the hood of the Cisco 9800 series gateway, Read More »

Tags: Cisco, cox communications, docsis, Lightreading, media gateway, multiscreen gateway, Service Provider, video

Previously I wrote about how we’d won the “Best Carrier Ethernet Aggregation Product” award with the Cisco ASR 9000 System at Carrier Ethernet World Congress in Amsterdam. This momentum continues on the other side of the globe where Alex Zinin, our Chief Technology Officer for Asia Pacific theatre recently accepted several awards at the annual Telecom Asia Readers Choice Awards 2011: Read More »

Tags: ASR9000, carrier ethernet, Cisco, core, edge, IIR, MEF, mpls, Telecom Asia, Zinin

Get your passports ready! Coming off the successful event last February and in preparation for the next World IPv6 Day, Cisco again is sponsoring the V6 World Congress 2012 in Paris February 7-10 2012. This is an opportunity to hear from a number of IPv6-related companies such as Google, Yahoo, Softbank, Comcast, and of course Cisco.  In addition to the keynotes and panels the event also provides a unique opportunity to actually meet one-on-one with Cisco’s technology leaders.

While previously this was a service provider focused event, this year includes a number of sessions targeted towards enterprise customers, so even if you aren’t a network provider it’s still a great venue to learn about the transition to the IPv6 Internet.

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Tags: cgv6, Cisco, Dan Wing, Eric Vyncke, France, IPv6, Mark Townsley, MPLS World Congress, Paris, Ralph Droms, Service Provider

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are leading the way to cloud services. In fact, SMBs represent two-thirds of the public cloud market, outpacing the growth of enterprise cloud adoption by about 10 points, according to a recent McKinsey report (“Outlook—Overcast and Bright: How the Cloud Is Transforming IT for SMEs,” McKinsey & Company, July 2011). Yet, many service providers (SPs) are wondering whether the rate of SMB cloud adoption makes it worthwhile to invest in cloud and managed services for SMBs. They are asking:

• Is now the time to invest in SMB-focused services?
• What do SMB customers want?
• How do SMBs want to consume cloud services?

SMB Cloud Watch is ongoing research from the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) designed to answer these questions. Here are some highlights of our most recent findings: Read More »

Tags: Cisco, cloud, Cloud Computing, cloud services, IaaS, IBSG, infrastructure as a service, managed services, research, SaaS, Service Provider, small and medium-sized businesses, small medium business, SMB Cloud Watch, SMBs, software as a service, SP

We are already well into the planning phase for Mobile World Congress 2012, which will be upon us sooner than we think – and here’s some advice: book your flights soon! And please do come by to visit Cisco in Hall 8, Stand A111 to learn how you can M.O.VE your mobile networks to meet the challenges of and profit from the still-rapid growth in mobile data consumption. We will demonstrate several innovative Mobile Internet solutions that can help you launch new services and business models while optimizing your mobile network to lower costs. We promise to make these demonstrations immersive and engaging, and even hands-on if you’re willing to try! Read More »

Tags: demo, mobile world congress, mwc, Service Provider