William Hurley knows his stuff. Not only is he CIO of the Westcon Group, but he is also CTO. So when Westcon made the decision to move to Cisco’s Unified Computing System for Westcon’s data center virtualization migration, it was something you can bet Hurley thought long and hard about.
Not only did Westcon become one of the first distributors to ship Cisco’s Unified Computing System, but last fall, the company decided to adopt the innovative platform as a customer, too.
“We had two data centers that were functioning, but their role as backups for each other has gone by the wayside,” said Hurley. He said that the investments the company made in one data center were not consistent with the other and the equipment was getting tired.
Rewind to April 2008, when Hurley was just starting out as CIO/CTO and Westcon had just sunk its teeth into virtualization. “The organizations had gone down the path of using virtualization as a method of letting IT people get sleep at night.” But that was it.
The company had an inconsistent data center recovery plan and the specialists quoted the company a couple million dollars (USD) in storage alone to keep the two data centers functioning. At the time, Westcon was an HP shop, and about one third of the equipment they had was too old to survive an upgrade.
You know how it goes: You’re in a meeting, one of many during your workday. Someone is droning on about something you should care about and pay attention to, but instead….you’re doodling. Maybe you’re looking at your Twitter feed. Or maybe you’re daydreaming. This scenario is familiar to just about anyone faced with meeting after meeting in which important matters are discussed, and few decisions are made.
Maya Design, a design consultancy and technology research lab, and a customer of Cisco Partner General Dynamics, faced this situation time and again, and decided to do something to step up productivity. The company started using TelePresence units during meetings, enabling participants to really engage with one another. Unlike web-based collaboration tools, TelePresence allows teams to interact, face-to-face, in high-definition.
But the company didn’t just employ TelePresence: They set out to customize it to suit their needs.
“Video will be the next voice and there’s a video solution for everyone — from the desktop all the way to HD TelePresence, and everything in between.”
During Cisco Live in Las Vegas, we caught up with partners from Dimension Data who talked to us about borderless networks, growth opportunities, and what Cisco can do to help partners be more profitable. We got some great responses, like the one above.
Raoul Tecala from Dimension Data told us that he’s taking discussions with clients to another level, talking about things like long-term video strategy, the impact of video on their network, and overall network readiness.
What else did partners have to say at Cisco Live? Find out…
For some, Las Vegas in June means drinks poolside, maybe a little gambling, perhaps a Cirque du Soleil show. But for attendees at Cisco Live in Las Vegas during the last week of June, the focus was on learning about new Cisco technologies, hearing from Cisco executives, and even getting a first look at the Cisco Cius. (OK, maybe a little bit of gambling was in order, too – it is Vegas, afterall.)
One of the premier events for partners at Cisco Live was the National Partner Technical Leadership Conference. The conference builds upon a strategic initiative, “The Technical Leadership Council,” which the US and Canada Partner Organization has been engaged in for the past 4 years. The initiative and conference is designed to build relationships with Partner Technical Leaders, sharing Cisco’s strategy, direction, and execution plans, while also getting insight into partner, market, and customer perspectives.
We sat down with Linda Masloske, Senior Director of Engineering and Technical Operations for the US and Canada Partner Organization, and she gave us insights into why this meeting plays such a key role with partners.
Here are some of the benefits that Linda sees in attending the Technical Leadership Conference:
The puzzled looks, the yawns, the distant stares -– these are pretty much your worst nightmare if you’re making a sales presentation to customers. You want customers to get excited about the products and solutions you’re bringing to them, right?
We hear you! Today is the global rollout of our new Architecture Partner Marketing kits. These kits offer everything you need to bring data center/virtualization, borderless networks, and collaboration solutions to your customers, helping you position the architectures and drive demand for your business.
