Yesterday the Cisco Live! Las Vegas show concluded and it’s been quite a week. As William Shatner brought in the hilarious yet inspiring closing keynote in the afternoon, I’m looking forward to absorbing all we have heard from customers, analysts, and the press back in San Francisco. Like space exploration, we have not yet seen or predicted all that will change with Cloud.
Staying with the theme this week, I additionally wanted to thank you for your answers to my request for more public references and emailing me with new Cisco Service Provider references built with Unified Service Delivery with Vblocks and FlexPods. Here’s a few:
Contributed by David Flesh, Sr Manager, Product Marketing, Cisco Network Management Technology Group
We’ve had a lot of interest in Network Registrar at Cisco Live. Both Service Provider and Enterprise customers are looking for solutions to help them manage the transition to IPv6. We’re also hearing more on the importance of reliable DNS and DHCP the keys to reliable connectivity and internet access. The internet is becoming increasingly critical to all types of businesses and outages can lead to revenue loss not just inconvenience.
To help Enterprises and Service Providers get fast time-to-value from highly reliable, scalable, and fast DNS and DHCP, Cisco is announcing a new appliance-based offering. Cisco® Network Registrar Jumpstart is a purpose-built, high performing hardware appliance for DNS, DHCP, and IP address management (IPAM) (DDI) services. The solution consists of Cisco Network Registrar (world-class DDI software from Cisco) preinstalled and preconfigured along with VMware virtualization technology on a Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) rack-mount server.
Cisco Network Registrar Jumpstart provides a streamlined, straightforward installation for network operators. The preconfigured server and the preinstalled software allow for a fast and easy deployment as well as low startup costs. For service providers and enterprises looking to reduce complexity and realize a fast time to value, Cisco Network Registrar is the answer…Plug it in and DDI services can be immediately turned on, configured, and integrated into the network.
The solution also offers full lifecycle management for IPv4 and IPv6, providing a single platform for consolidated IP addresses management. Full IPv6 support helps automate and manage the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 by using dual-stack deployment on a single server.
I can’t believe that we’re over halfway done with Cisco Live! Las Vegas this week. We’re fortunate to have such a great family of experts in one spot for a deep dive into what’s happening in technology now and upcoming. Between the customer meetings, the sessions, and analyst roundtables, it’s been busy, exciting, and fruitful.
As promised, here is the continuation of public Service Provider customers we have for Cisco’s data center solutions. I’m proud to say each has taken to heart the aspiration for delivering the best services and solutions to their customers via the Cloud. Please get a hold of me if you should be on this list and have an opportunity for us to tell your story.
Contributed by David Flesh, Sr Manager, Product Marketing, Cisco Network Management Technology Group
Cisco Live has a great turn-out this year with thousands of customers meeting in Las Vegas to share information on networking and learn about the latest and greatest from Cisco and Cisco partners. Within the service provider management applications group we have several exciting announcements around Cisco Prime™. The first is the availability of Cisco Prime Optical, the third release in the Cisco Prime for Service Providers portfolio (Cisco Prime Fulfillment and Cisco Prime Performance Manager are already available).
click to enlarge
Cisco Prime Optical is a carrier-class, multitechnology management system that integrates the end-to-end management of traditional transport networks and new carrier packet transport networks. It can help maintain the integrity of existing services, plus deliver interactive, content-based services and high-bandwidth applications.
Cisco Prime Optical is Cisco’s go-forward solution for service providers and other organizations that require carrier-grade capabilities for managing optical transport networks. Cisco Prime Optical is the evolution of Cisco Transport Manager and includes all of the powerful capabilities of that offering combined with significant enhancements.
Cisco Prime Optical manages the entire Cisco optical portfolio, including: Read More »
We’re already to Tuesday of Cisco Live Las Vegas and almost everyone has arrived. The show floor and sessions are packed! It’s going to be a memorable event when we close up on Thursday. Again, if you are not able to make it physically, please join us online.
After mentioning some of our partners and customers yesterday, I feel the there is more to that piece of story of why Cisco Live is so important. I’ve talked here before about the benefits of Cisco’s Unified Computing System blade and rack next-generation data center products and tying our compute solution to the intelligence in the delivery network gives SPs a level of control and efficiency that isn’t matched by OTT players for quality offerings; I still believe those advantages combined under our Cisco Unified Service Delivery solution and are what sets Cisco out from the rest of the Cloud solution equipment providers.
But of greater importance is the when a customer stands up and points to your infrastructure underlying their successful business. I would like to publically thank our other public Service Provider data center customers that over the last 2+ years have come out praising Cisco’s Unified Service Delivery solution and are on their way along the pathway to Cloud.
Contributed by David Flesh, Sr Manager, Product Marketing, Cisco Network Management Technology Group
With the growth in connected devices and the imminent transition from IPv4 to IPv6, managing IP address has become increasingly critical and complex. Organizations can no longer rely on spreadsheets to track IP address allocations. What is required is the ability to discover IP addresses and proactively manage their allocation, both to optimize IPv4 addresses and plan for the move to IPv6. Cisco Prime Network Registrar provides manageability, flexibility, control and visibility into the network – to simplify IP address management and ease the transition to IPv6.
We are showing a preview of Cisco Prime Network Registrar at Cisco Live. Please visit us in both the Enterprisebooth (Booth # 1349) and in Service Provider booth (Booth # 1183) to learn about the new capabilities of this new solution. Both booths will be running a limited demo of Cisco Prime Network Registrar to highlight some of the great new IPAM functionality.
Join us Wednesday for a session on Network Registrar including a customer case study from IBBS. IBBS have used Network Registrar to help build a managed services business that supports over 250 service providers.
Today Cisco Live! in North America kicks off in Las Vegas with about 14,000 attendees. This will be the first of a number of worldwide Cisco Live! events this year with others planned in Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Australia. All around the world, Cisco Live! has evolved to become an event where Cisco experts can interact with us and each other, learn technical skills, and stay up-to-date with what’s relevant in the industry. This year’s tag line, “Learn. Connect. Collaborate Together”, applies well to the Cloud market as we bring forward a smarter, stronger, and faster methodology for service delivery. Together.
If you’re going to be here in Las Vegas this week for Cisco Live!, here are some sessions I suggest you check out:
Exhibit Floor: Open all week, I hope you will swing by the World of Solutions. The World of Solutions has demonstrations from a number of innovative cloud partners. As an example, you can see our Service Provider Cloud pod with a demo showing our work with BMC on the Integrated Cloud Delivery Platform and my team will be glad to talk to you about where you stand today, opportunities for us to work together on, and answer any other questions.
Movie Theater at our Partner Pavilion: We have great videos to share with you, including a 3D movie called “Journey to the New Services Universe” and great videos from SAVVIS, NaviSite, Qwest, CSC, BT Global Services, and Terremark to name a few. While over at the theater, please check out what some of our other partners including PAETEC, SunGard, NEC, and Dimension Data are there to talk about regarding the Cloud and their specialties in improving your business.
Enabling the Service Provider Cloud Evolution (Wednesday, Noon-1:30 PM PST): A registration-required lunch event where Cisco invites you to join a distinguished panel of experts (including Jeff Spagnola, VP Sales – Cisco Cloud and Managed Services, Alex Rigaldo, Chief Operations – Orange Business Sytems Cloud Computing, Jesper Andersen, Senior VP – Cisco Network Management Technology Group, Dave Lively, Director – Cisco Systems Development for Cloud/DC, Sidney Morgan, Cisco Distinguished IT Engineer, Vikrant Karvir, VP, Cisco Global Cloud/DC Virtualization Services, and myself) to discuss the latest advances in Cisco’s Service Provider Cloud Architecture. Cisco’s approach to cloud opportunities includes helping to build out the data centers powering the cloud, as well as applying capabilities in the network to enable intelligent connectivity within and beyond the data center. Please use session identification GENSP-4743 to register for the event.
The Network’s Role in Cloud (Tuesday, 8-9:30 AM PST): A brand new session directed at the Service Provider crowd led by Pat Adamiak, Sr. Director, Cisco Service Provider Data Center/Cloud Marketing, on the pivotal role that the network plays for Service Providers in the creation and delivery of differentiated services. The session will cover innovations within the network that enable cloud services, discussing core features, instrumentation, and intelligent automation services to leverage the full capabilities of the SP network and capture the cloud opportunity. This session is listed under BRKSPG-1701 in the event agenda.
Much of the activity on this side over the past month has been around the introduction of the ASR 9000 System. As I highlighted in my earlier post, the System is Super & Simple, creating a new standard of performance -96 Tbps for the Edge (and a new standard for efficiency) - delivering up to 70% cost savings than competitive platforms, which translates to bottom line benefits for the providers.
In fact, the list of the customers which are taking advantage of the benefits delivered by the ASR 9000 is not only in excess of 500, but is continuing to expand. NTT Plala, Tata, Comcast, Cox, and Fastweb were announced last month, with more anticipated soon.
But in the midst all of the press activity around the news and momentum the platform is having with customers, we are also able to sit down with a range of industry and financial analysts to dive deeper about what the ASR 9000 System can do for a service provider’s network and business.
Brendan Gibbs, our Senior Director of Product Marketing for our SP Edge Routing Portfolio and an all-around great guy, had the chance to sit down in a “hot-seat” session with ACG Research’s co-founder Ray Mota (who, while also a nice guy, is pretty intimidating, too, since, as a former elite baseball player, his hands are so big he could palm my face…and because of the fact that he has a chair that in and of itself is called a “hot seat”) for a discussion into the details of the ASR 9000 System announcement.
Among the topics they cover in the video are: Read More »
We know that Communication Service Providers (CSPs) require more robust assurance capabilities to manage complex technology and services that span multiple domains. Operators need to have visibility of multiple network elements in order to enable them to manage the end-to-end quality of real-time services. Register now to learn how performance management can improve quality of service and increase operational efficiency.
The occasion was the launch of the Next Generation Hotspot trials. These trials will set the stage for the future of Wi-Fi, establishing it as a robust, secure technology that will augment and complement 3G and 4G networks for years to come.
Next Generation Hotspot is based on the concept that Wi-Fi networks should be as safe and easy to access as cellular networks. Some of the base specifications for network discovery (IEEE 802.11u), authentication (IEEE 802.1x), and security (IEEE 802.11i) were well underway. The cellular example of using SIM cards for user identification and using roaming hubs for inter-carrier negotiation and billing were then applied and the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) specification for Hotspot 2.0 was a result.
The trials also represent a historic cooperation between the WBA, WFA, and GSMA. The WFA will hold a series of test events that will allow vendors to test and certify against the specification, and the WBA will carry out the trials in operator networks. Twenty-seven operators, vendors and roaming hubs have signed up for the trials. The trial results will be provided to the GSMA for harmonization with 3GPP standards.
Summers tend to be a bit cool in San Francisco, but acceptance of Cisco’s Unified Service Delivery (USD) solution by Service Providers searching for the best path to cloud is heating up. We’re excited at the progress so far -- including recent records set by the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) which just placed 3rd globally in the x86 blades category in a recent IDC report. A little over two years ago people questioned Cisco’s entry into the compute segment of the data center. The large number of Cisco customers have proven that innovation that brings new levels of efficiency to the data center wins out every time. We’re proud of our customers and the services they’re bringing to market more quickly using the Cisco USD solution and its key foundation technologies like Cisco UCS.
Industry analysts are also seeing a need for an end-to-end solution like Cisco USD and noting the importance of resource optimization, management consolidation, service improvements, and cost reduction as fundamental tenets of efficient cloud service delivery.
Below is a short video commentary by IDC analyst, Courtney Munroe, VP, Worldwide Telecommunications. Courtney talks about the market challenges SPs face and how they can benefit from a transition to Cloud-delivered services. Pay special attention to the core things he believes SPs must address for Cloud: virtualized fabric for the computing platform in the data center, how the data center and the network work together and security across the entire delivery chain.
Cloud Services: Challenges and Opportunities for Service Providers
By Mark Palazzo, VP/GM, Cisco’s Cable Access business
As industry vendors, we go into every tradeshow mired in details. From the packed meeting schedules to the booth demos (things go much better when they work…!) to the evening events with customers and industry colleagues, it’s far less glamorous than our non-convention-going friends might think. Right? Then there’s struggle to get the suitcase zipped, with the new tonnage of stuff needing transit back to the office.
It’s only afterwards, with a weekend in between to parse the major themes, that the answers come. I’ve checked in with several Cisco colleagues who were on-site in Chicago for The Cable Show last week. We’re in agreement that if the question is “I saw the whole thing! What happened??” in terms of this year’s blur of a Cable Show, our short list goes like this:
Optimism reigns in cable. In years past, and especially last year, it seemed that a miasma of anxiousness blanketed the cable industry, led by fears of over-the-top video providers – and especially Netflix, as a contender for the industry’s own video-on-demand business. This year, we went into the show fresh with knowledge that Netflix traffic continues to gobble up broadband capacity — yet the sense of optimism amongst service providers was unmistakable. To me, it almost felt like the buoyant good will of the go-go-franchise years, in the late ‘70s. With continued evidence that DOCSIS can see the industry through even the heaviest of bandwidth-heavy times, coupled with significant advancements in both “cloud” and “client” – it’s gratifying, as a vendor company focused nearly entirely on network, client, and cloud! Read More »
IPv6 has been top of mind lately, with World IPv6 Day on June 8th that provided a global-scale test flight of IPv6 technology for the purpose of testing and data collection. Cisco also recently announced that French service provider SFR is using our Carrier Grade v6 solution to offer IPv6 services to their residential customers, while still preserving their existing infrastructure investments.
Many people still have questions on the issues and options associated with making the evolution to IPv6. Below, in part one of a four part series, Cisco’s Kelly Ahuja, SVP Service Provider Chief Architecture Office and ACG Research’s Managing Partner Dr. Ray Mota discuss the changed landscape which network operators face that is driving the adoption of IPv6 technology. Ray does make an interesting comment about 2011 being the year of the tablets - and not just for consumer use, but also for business applications. Another point that Ray makes with which we agree is the need for network operators make a near term plan which extends or preserves the use of existing IPv4 assets, and a longer term plan which can migrate services to IPv6 - seamlessly - when needed.
Contributed by David Flesh, Sr Manager, Product Marketing, Cisco Network Management Technology Group
A common theme we hear from service providers is the challenge of delivering high-quality services at the lowest possible price. IP Next-Generation Network architectures are increasingly complex to operate with the volume of services growing at an exponential rate. To sustain the cost of deployment and maintain average revenue per user, communication service providers need an efficient management system that provides visibility into network and service performance.
Cisco just introduced a new performance management solution that helps enable service providers to proactively manage their next-generation networks, including service assurance and capacity planning. Cisco Prime™ Performance Manager complements an existing set of network management tools or works completely as a standalone solution. Cisco Active Network Abstraction (ANA) customers like the easy integration and the ability to access service and element performance information from the topology views.
Cisco Prime Performance Manager provides more than 200 pre-generated reports on a wide range of technologies. These reports help operators and network planners answer those questions that keep you up at night; questions such as which devices are over-utilized, what backhaul links are congested, and which services have poor quality or response time. With dashboard views showing network-level availability and utilization reports, operators can quickly identify the most pressing issues impacting the network. Pre-generated reports provide deep visibility into such areas as application traffic, availability of services and devices, IP quality of service, IP protocols, IP service level agreements, resource utilization, and transport statistics.
By Bart Spreister, Sr. Director, IP Video Systems, Cisco
Today we announced our collaboration with Red Bee Media, an international media management company, to offer broadcasters and media companies the means to provide TV and other kinds of digital media through streaming video players and VOD portals.
That’s kind of a mouthful. Allow me break it down into my top three reasons why this is one of the more exciting deals I’ve had the good fortune to be involved with:
Red Bee is cool, --plain and simple. Those who hang out on the U.S. side of the Atlantic may not have heard much about Red Bee Media before, so let me explain it this way: Imagine going to another country to hang out with your new colleague, who knows everybody and is doing all the coolest stuff in video. Red Bee is that kind of partner. They’re a highly respected TV and media aggregator in Europe, and especially the U.K. For instance, of the five major broadcasters there, Red Bee provides the online portal and client. They’re creative and connected and fun, which is a great combination. Read More »
A common theme we hear from service providers is the challenge of delivering high-quality services at the lowest possible price. IP Next-Generation Network architectures are increasingly complex to operate with the volume of services growing at an exponential rate. To sustain the cost of deployment and maintain average revenue per user, communication service providers need an efficient management system that provides visibility into network and service performance.
