The Platform: The Official Cisco Blog

Sarah Lacy's Web 2.0 Book: "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good"

Thu, 15 May 2008 10:53:35 -0800

Cisco is all about Web 2.0., so with that in mind, I attended an "Book Club" interview yesterday at Outcast Communications between Michael Arrington of TechCrunch and Sarah Lacy. They were talking about Sarah's new book (to be released today), "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good" which grew out of Sarah's BusinessWeek cover story of Digg's Kevin Rose in August of 2006. The sub-head of the book is "The rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0." While I might argue that with Cisco, Intel, HP, Genentech, Sun, Google, eBay, Adobe, Apple, Oracle, Symantec, Verisign, Yahoo! and many others that a few start-ups don't define a Silicon Valley rebirthing, I look forward to reading the book and her point of view.

Her book "is the story of the entrepreneurs who learned their lesson from the bust and in recent years have created groundbreaking new Web companies. The second iteration of the dotcoms—dubbed Web 2.0—is all about bringing people together. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace unite friends online; YouTube lets anyone posts videos for the world to see; Digg.com allows Internet users to vote on the most relevant news of the day; Six Apart sells software that enables bloggers to post their viewpoints online; and Slide helps people customize their virtual selves."

I got a copy of the book last night (thanks for signing it, Sarah) and haven't read it yet, but will and will offer a review on this site asap.

Note: If you'd like to see (and kind of hear) the Arrington/Lacy interview, you can do so on TechCrunch site via Qik. Qik allows you to stream live videos from your phone, so the sound quality without external mics is a bit iffy, but still a pretty cool technology.

Mother's Day and Mother Earth

Wed, 14 May 2008 13:41:15 -0800

I would like to bring a blog entry from Alan Cohen to your attention on Mother's Day and Mother Earth. Alan is our peripatetic Vice President of Enterprise Solutions. One day you might find him commenting on the Sports Museum of America...the next, he might be interviewed by InformationWeek on Unified Communications, and on another, he might be be at the NBA All-Star game in New Orleans.

In his Mother's Day blog entry, he writes about Mother Earth, and states:

"Climate change is not a fashion issue: it is a boardroom issue. Increasingly we see environmental responsibility taken seriously. Businesses, consumers and service providers of all sizes are driving behavioral change to protect the environment. Tightening environmental regulations accelerate this trend."

I invite you to read his blog entry on climate change and Mother Earth and the part Cisco plays.

Paris 2018

Wed, 14 May 2008 12:07:40 -0800

Social networking sites are buzzing; the debut of Google Friend Connect promises to add to that buzz. And so, the race is on to make social networks much more open and portable, according to Kim Hart in her recent blog post, “The All-Things-Social Craze.” But as important is the power of the most global of social networks – the Internet, itself. The earth is flattening, and our sense of community now transcends geographic boundaries. History and environmental lessons on-demand, mash-ups…our modern-day trip diaries…the reach of the Internet has triggered a curiosity in us, a desire to share thoughts and experiences. Simple tools give us the ability to zoom in on a small town or bit of countryside we’ve always wondered about. Or, even more granularly, take us to a street-view, giving us the experience of being a virtual pedestrian. But let’s take it to the next level.

It’s 2018, and I’ve got a bit of shopping to do. Not at the local mall, though. I’ve heard of this chic new store, but it’s not in Los Gatos, where I live; it is in Paris. No worries. I zoom into the south bank from my laptop (or just as easily from my cellphone), and make my way along St. Germain. I find the store and enter. And I’m transported to an immersive web experience, a generation beyond what Second Life provides. As I’m browsing, someone from the store comes to my aid. Just as if I was there in person. Questions answered, purchase made.

Cisco Statement on Recent Network World Blog Post

Fri, 09 May 2008 15:38:47 -0800

On Thursday May 8 a blog entry posted on Network World accused Cisco of a practice known as “channel stuffing” based on the financial information we presented in our Q3 FY ’08 earnings call. Given this serious and inaccurate claim, Cisco felt it was important to present some detailed facts that refute these allegations.

First, Cisco employs conservative policies regarding revenue recognition. For example, in our distribution channel, Cisco does not recognize revenue until product leaves our channel partner, effectually removing any possibility of recognizing revenue before it’s sold to the end customer.

Second, as we said on our quarterly call, “…Q2 and Q3 include the effect of several large multi-year service agreements, which has increased the DSO (days sales outstanding) in each quarter by three to four days.” This would be sufficient to increase accounts receivable if recorded at the end of the quarter and is not related to inventory or channel partners.

Finally, it’s important to put the scope of the amount in question in proper context. From a financial perspective, $20 million represents 0.2% of our Q3 FY ‘08 sales, which were $9.8 billion.

Cisco has always acted openly and transparently in disclosing financial information, a fact consistently recognized by the investment community.

Post by Terry Alberstein, Director, Corporate Communications

Evolution of Cisco Data Center Leadership

Fri, 09 May 2008 15:31:23 -0800

You may have seen the news that Jayshree Ullal, senior vice president of our Data Center, Switching and Services Group (DSSG) is leaving Cisco to pursue new professional opportunities. With Jayshree’s departure, John McCool will assume leadership of DSSG reporting directly to John Chambers. McCool will also assume Jayshree’s position on Cisco’s Development Council.

Jayshree has been at Cisco for 15 years and has made many lasting contributions to the company. She has held numerous senior and strategic roles at Cisco and pioneered Cisco’s entry into many new markets, including Ethernet switching, unified communications, high-end routing, optical, security and data center innovation. Jayshree’s contributions to the networking industry and the respect she garners across the organization ensures that she will always remain part of the extended Cisco family.

We wish you the best of luck, Jayshree...you will be missed.

Post by Elizabeth McNichols, Director, Corporate Communications

Cisco Smart Call Home Wins SSPA Award for Best Embedded Product Support

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:01:26 -0800

Cisco is pleased to be recognized by the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) for its innovative Cisco Smart Call Home service capability which was awarded a 2008 SSPA STAR Award for Best Practices in the category of “Best Embedded Product Support”. See press release here.

Beyond helping customers with technology roll-outs, Cisco also helps customers operate their Cisco solutions throughout their lifecycle and this award recognizes the innovative approach we’ve taken with Cisco Smart Call Home.

Unique in the networking industry, Smart Call Home offers proactive diagnostics and real-time alerts on Cisco devices that can automatically engage TAC in potential issues and determine resolution steps by the time network administrators are even aware there is a problem. The Smart Call Home service capability is embedded today in the Catalyst 6500, MDS 9000 and 7600 with support for many other Cisco devices over the next 12 months.

SSPA is the largest and most influential industry trade group for technology service and support professionals with nearly 200 member companies globally (www.thesspa.com). Smart Call Home is a Cisco service capability available as part of Cisco's SMARTnet service.

Post by Linda Horiuchi, Cisco PR Manager

Cisco Statement on Counterfeit Goods

Fri, 09 May 2008 08:00:27 -0800

Statement by Bruce Klein, VP of Federal Sales, and Phil Wright, Director, Brand Protection

As you may have read, the FBI has identified a number of unauthorized companies that have sold products with the Cisco trademark to various government agencies and other organizations. This is of major concern to us, and we wanted to take a moment to share the efforts we are taking to ensure only legitimate Cisco products end up in the hands of our loyal customers.

Unfortunately, counterfeiting is not a new issue in the IT industry or indeed in any successful global enterprise. Because our customers expect and deserve the highest-level of satisfaction when purchasing Cisco products, we actively monitor the counterfeit market and have longstanding processes in place to address this challenge.

As part of our commitment to the integrity and quality of Cisco technology and services, our Brand Protection team leads an aggressive, concerted and company-wide effort to prevent potential damage to our brand and to our customers as a result of counterfeiting. Because counterfeiting is a criminal activity, we work closely with law enforcement agencies worldwide whenever those agencies decide to take action against those who would profit by this illegal conduct.

In this instance, Cisco has collaborated with the FBI and other Federal law enforcement, and we appreciate their hard work in this important area. We have participated in many aspects of the investigation, and have proactively briefed high-level individuals at multiple government agencies.

So what can you do? We can’t stress enough the importance to Cisco customers and channel partners of procuring equipment only from Cisco authorized channels. If you have any questions or concerns I would recommend calling your Cisco representative or authorized reseller immediately.

Again, we appreciate the hard work by the FBI in this case as well as the efforts by all law enforcement agencies in cracking down on the counterfeit market. This is a serious issue that we are diligently fighting every day to ensure our customers receive only genuine Cisco products.

Mayo Clinic, Mobility and Cisco

Wed, 07 May 2008 12:34:15 -0800

Anytime, anywhere access to the network is a requirement for efficiency and productivity. Randy Regimbal, Director of Network Services at Mayo Clinic, is maximizing the benefits of using mobile technologies to help contribute to healthcare leadership at the Mayo Clinic as "the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world" which treats over 500,000 people each year. He also offers insight into future applications of mobility within the healthcare industry.

"In the next few years, the most critical way mobility will be used in healthcare is to improve efficiency. It no longer makes sense for a worker to use fixed devices 50 times a day when we see an increasingly mobile workforce."

- Randy Regimbal, Director of Network Services, Mayo Clinic

You can also view a video of Randy talking about mobility in our sister Cisco mobility blog.

A Big Day for Cisco and a Big Day for Sports

Wed, 07 May 2008 10:09:23 -0800

Most of the attention on Cisco yesterday was naturally on our earnings announcement, but it was also a big day for us for another reason: we had the privilege to help open the new Sports Museum of America in New York City. Cisco’s technology is behind many of the interactive features of the new museum and in this video, our VP of Marketing, Alan Cohen explains what visitors can expect to see. Courtesy of my colleague, Chris Barker, we also catch a glimpse of the day’s opening events which featured a dedication by New York Giant’s quarterback, Eli Manning, and a pageant of sports legends including Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis and tennis legend, Billie Jean King. See if you can recognize your favorite among them....

Transforming Neo-Natal Care with Video and Cisco Catalyst Switches

Tue, 06 May 2008 11:12:43 -0800

Adena Health System's CIO, Marcus Bost, and Cisco's Rob Sloan discuss how video has dramatically increase care for newborns and how Cisco's Catalyst switching architecture made this possible. Through Telemedicine, Adena Health System was able decrease the number of children transferred to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, 70 miles away, in half. To lean more, read the case study and to learn more about Adena, visit: www.adena.org.

Post by Christine Pratt

Coming Soon: Translation Through the Network

Mon, 05 May 2008 11:36:48 -0800

¡Feliz cinqo de mayo! Desafortunadamente, yo no hablo español, pero con tiempo y unos más CD es mi hijo de 15 meses será optimistamente por lo menos bilingüe. En este momento, el "dadá" es fácilmente traducible en muchos idiomas, así que él ha conseguido eso yendo para él.

Comunicaciones son el negocio de Cisco y la capacidad de comunicar en múltiples idiomas es imprescindible a operar en el mercado global. Aunque muchas personas fuera de los EEUU hablen inglés a realizar el negocio, no que muchos norteamericanos hablan múltiples idiomas. Soy dicho que en algún punto en el futuro no demasiado lejano la red podrá hacer el traducir para nosotros tiempo real sobre la infraestructura inteligente de IP. Es decir, usted hablará, dirá Chino Mandarines en un fin de su teléfono y la persona en el otro fin, que es un orador español, oirá español en su fin del teléfono o sistema de TelePresence. Piense en las implicaciones para el comercio y para hacer el mundo un lugar más plano trabajar y vivir. Ciertamente será inmenso para el negocio del viaje y el turismo. Quizá para paz de mundo también. ¿Fui yo demasiado lejos? ¿La red nos traerá paz de mundo? Bueno, quizá un poco demasiado lejos.

Sin embargo, yo todavía espero el día de puede decir más que "La Cerveza, por favor" y para ser comprendido en español lugares parlantes.

La traducción en español es del FreeTranslation com.

Catch the buzz - Cisco, Avocent and Nemertes discuss branch application management trends at Interop

Thu, 01 May 2008 14:22:49 -0800

Cisco's Shashi Kiran and Rahul Tripathi discuss branch management trends and the ISR-based Application eXtension Platform (AXP) with Mark Harris, VP Marketing of Avocent, and Andreas Antonopoulos, SVP and Founding Partner of Nemertes Research. Learn how to lower Total cost of Ownership in a branch environment with remote management solutions.

Post by Tugba Goskel

Nexus 7000 Interop 2008 Winner Best of Award for Infrastructure

Thu, 01 May 2008 14:13:47 -0800

Becky Marques discusses the Cisco Nexus 7000 with Lynne Kingsbury on the Interop floor. The Nexus 7000 is the first Data Center class switch in the Nexus portfolio offering transport flexibility, operational continuity and infrastructure scalability.

Post by Tugba Goskel

Take a demo tour of new Empowered Branch Innovations at Interop 2008

Thu, 01 May 2008 11:33:04 -0800

Cisco's Shashi Kiran and Tugba Goksel do a walkthrough of the new innovations including the Cafe Cisco experience , Video Surveillance, Application Extension Platform (AXP), Unified Communications, Catalyst 2960 switches with Miercom Green certification and WAN optimization.

Post by Tugba Goskel

Interop: Cisco Switches First to Receive "Certified Green" Designation from Miercom

Thu, 01 May 2008 11:27:28 -0800

Cisco's Berna Devrim and Miercom's Robert Smithers discuss Miercom's new "Certified Green" product evaluation program, and review how switches from Cisco are the first products to receive the new certification.

Post by Tugba Goskel