Cisco is proud to announce that five of its employees, with a penchant for cycling, took part in a gruelling 200 km timed relay race this weekend to raise money forThe Benevolent Society.

The Benevolent Society (TBS) aims to help people, families and communities achieve positive change. This year the charity turns 200, and to celebrate its birthday the charity arranged for 200 cyclists to race 200 kms in its first ever cycling challenge –Race for Change.

The group of brave cyclists from Cisco’s Sydney office trained hard over a 6-week period. The team, or Cisco Tumblers, as they’ve named themselves, put in around 400 kms of cycling between them each week – that’s a total of over 2,000 kms of cycling over the 6 weeks! The Cisco Tumblers didn’t just bond as a team on the streets and parks of Sydney but virtually as well, by using Webex meetings to keep everyone up-to-date on training plans, the event and individuals’ progress; all to make sure they were race-ready for the big event.

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OpenStack Summit Demonstration Provides Sneak Peek into Future of Networking and TV

Content will always be king.  But soon, with powerful cloud technology, Pay TV customers will be sitting on the throne, whether they are on their couch, the café, or on the bus.    

Late last month at the OpenStack Summit in Portland, Comcast drew back the curtain on the future of television, demonstrating how cloud infrastructures can power exciting new TV experiences.

Mark Muehl, senior vice president of NE&TO product engineering and technology at Comcast, demonstrated the company’s flagship X1 cloud-based user interface, powered by an OpenStack cloud, during his keynote presentation.  Comcast and Cisco are working closely together to implement next-generation video services, like the X1 guide, on an OpenStack foundation, which enables both agility and scale.  

At Cisco we are “all-in” on OpenStack. We are investing heavily to make it the reliable, scalable, agile & feature-rich platform service providers need to deploy exciting new cloud-based video services.  Last month’s demonstration provided a sneak peek into the ongoing strategic collaboration between Comcast and Cisco in programmable networking. But it also illustrated a larger theme: cloud technologies, networking and applications are coming together in new and exciting ways. 

Video: Comcast’s Mark Muehl describes how Comcast is using OpenStack and shows the audience a live demo of its Xfinity service running on OpenStack.

Through Cisco’s Open Network Environment (ONE) initiative, we have the widest range of solutions in the industry that deliver an open and programmable network. Cisco ONE, which embraces OpenStack, software defined networking (SDN), and network function virtualization (NFV), has dozens of active customers, including major service providers, massively scalable data centers, government organizations, and multiple Fortune-100 companies. 

Through our work with global service providers who see the potential of open, programmable networks, we are continuing to build the foundation for the next-generation Internet.  The new Internet will become a platform to enable new cloud-centered applications, such as cloud-based DVR, through which video subscribers can store their favorite content in the cloud and access it from any device, anywhere.

Cisco is very proud to be working with leading entertainment and technology leaders like Comcast, and we look forward to helping the Pay TV industry make the successful transition to standards-based cloud technology.

The past few weeks have revealed what a tough industry the IT industry can be. Many stalwarts, competitors among them, have struggled to meet their financial targets, citing a variety of factors from the macro-economic environment to more aggressive competition from rivals, including Cisco.

 It’s no secret that Cisco has performed consistently well during the same period, and I am proud to have played a part in driving us to another record revenue quarter. Moreover, I’m delighted with the progress in our wireless business, where we reported sequential and profitable growth of 27% year-over-year.

How did we do it? Not by any cut-throat measures, as some rivals have suggested (in fact, our pricing policies haven’t changed in recent months, and our customers have the choice to buy products in combination or individually), but by doing what matters most: listening to customers, and innovating with pace and focus. Here are my top five reasons why Cisco’s innovations and acquisitions are winning us market share in the wireless sector:   

• Customers want an architectural approach – 69% of the costs of running networks are incurred after the initial equipment purchase, with 47% coming in the form of labor costs. Think about how managing wireless and wired networks separately adds to those costs. By offering customers the choice to unify wired, wireless and virtual private networks (VPNs), into a single, highly secure network infrastructure, Cisco’s Unified Access architectural approach puts money back in our customers’ pockets. That’s a key reason we’re winning.

•  Relentless Innovation Will Always Win Out – The innovations behind our Unified Access architecture are built on an engineering capability few rivals can match. The Unified Access Data Plane (UADP) ASIC that is central to our Unified Access strategy is a great example of the outstanding results our $6Bn+ annual R&D investment buys us. Silicon engineering is expensive. Competitors can’t solve customers’ problems with as much specificity and focus as Cisco can. Our approximately 650 silicon engineers give Cisco a huge innovation advantage.

• Wireless is About Delivering Mobile Experiences, not just Connectivity – Getting connected is becoming table stakes. Our customers want solutions that enable them to use the information about how and where their customers are connected to provide them with better location-based services, and superior experiences. The acquisition of ThinkSmart gave us a big advantage in this area, one that we’re already putting to good use through our partnership with AT&T and others.

•  We’re Helping Service Providers Transform their Networks for Wi-Fi – Speaking of service providers, our SP Wi-Fi strategy has delivered Cisco a strong advantage in partnering with telecommunications operators. We offer an end-to-end SP mobility architecture from access layer to the mobile packet core that our rivals simply can’t match.

•  We’re embracing the Cloud to further simplify Wireless Network Management for Mid-Sized Companies – Let me return to where I began: the cost and complexity of managing networks. What if you don’t have any IT staff at all? That’s the challenge that Meraki solved for thousands of customers with its Cloud Managed Networking approach that we now offer through our Cloud Networking Group. Effectively addressing the needs of mid-sized business from retailers to event venues, coffee shops to medical centers has been another key driver of our success.

I’m delighted we’re making strong progress in mobility, but we won’t rest on our laurels. Innovation takes a lot of hard work, as does anticipating the ever-changing needs of our customers.

I believe if we keep those two principles in mind, we’ll continue to enjoy many more positive quarters and, yes, we’ll do it at the expense of our rivals!

Tags: Cisco, mobility, Rob Soderbery, wireless

A year ago, Manchester City captured its first English Premier League (EPL) title in 44 years with one of the most incredible comebacks ever seen in the history of the sport – scoring two goals in stoppage time, the last in the waning moments of the game.

Take a look at this video, which replays that final incredible goal from multiple angles, and embrace the bedlam, unbridled passion, emotion and joy that unfolded in the stands, on the field, and everywhere in Etihad Stadium.

Now imagine if every fan could watch a replay, from multiple camera angles, on their mobile device, to relive a special moment like this goal time and time again. That will be a reality next season, thanks to O2 and Cisco working with Man City to implement Cisco Connected Stadium Wi-Fi and StadiumVision Mobile. Blues fans will be the first in the EPL to have a more immersive, connected, visual, and engaged experience that places them at the center of the action, no matter where they are in the venue.

It’s another first for Cisco, building on recent wins such as Bayer Leverkusen, the first team in the German Bundesliga, and the Seibu Dome, home of the Seibu Lions Japanese Baseball League team. Add in facilities who implemented our solutions for recent major events, like the Mercedes-Benz Superdome (Super Bowl), and the Georgia Dome (NCAA Final Four), and we’re proud to be at the epicenter of helping our customers and partners deliver an unparalleled experience for fans.

Tags: Cisco Connected Stadium Wi-Fi, Cisco Sports & Entertaiment, Cisco StadiumVision Mobile, English Premier League, Etihad Stadium, Manchester City, O2

The Special Olympics is an organisation that strives to create a better world, using the power of sport to foster the inclusion of all people, especially those living with an intellectual disability. Cisco is proud to have partnered with this organisation recently to organise the NSW Special Olympics Community Disability Sports Day.

The event was held last month at Centrebet Stadium -- home of the National Rugby League’s Penrith Panthers -- and saw 65 intellectually disabled people from Sydney’s West participate. Arriving through the same tunnel that the Penrith Panthers run out of at the start of each game, the participants had the opportunity to play a range of sports and activities, honing their skills in rugby league, cricket, football, bocce and some modified Olympic events such as javelin and discus.

Of the 65 athletes who attended, 90% had never experienced the Special Olympics before. These athletes are now able to take advantage of Special Olympics programs that offer regular sport, competition pathways, healthy lifestyle solutions and leadership opportunities.

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