May 07, 2008
The Crazy Eights of EDGE QUEST
Hi. A few days ago I was recording a podcast for Cisco EDGE QUEST Game Tournament with uber-gamer/podcaster extraordinaire, Randy JordanThe Instance who runs a World of Warcraft podcast. After the session, we continued our conversation on communities developing around massively multiplayer online games (or MMOGs for short… which I believe is also the name of an alien robotic race on Star Trek) and how actual and virtual world lines are blurring. I was explaining that as a marketeer in the Web 2.0 world, we didn’t want to make our customer communications “too virtual” and that through this game and $10K winner-take-all tournament, that we really wanted know what the players are thinking.
He said, “Ah, so it’s time for an EDGE QUEST Eight.” I replied in some educated way, saying “wha?” Randy responded (fortunately not referring to me as “Grasshopper”) that we should ping a select group with 8 questions and then have them distribute it to others, and so forth, effectively letting the Human Network itself disseminate it and compile feedback.
Posted by Doug Webster at 10:25 AM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
May 06, 2008
Cisco EDGE QUEST Tournament of Aces Design Bake Off – Artists on your Marks…
Hi. Cisco ASR Edge Master Webster here.
The Cisco EDGE QUEST Tournament of Aces is underway. And, many of you are tearing-it-up in as you work towards a top 100 score that will give you the opportunity to compete for US $10,000 and an ASR 1002 router (signed by the lead architect).
As I mentioned in my last post, throughout the qualifying round (May 5th through June 11th), we’re going to introduce tips-n-tricks, news and fun, creative ways to engage with us during the tournament. So…
A question for you….
Of all the questions that I’ve had on the EDGE QUEST game, I was expecting to get the most around what we did to make the Cisco ASR hypercraft fly (that would be a fun request to try to get past our engineers in a roadmap concept commit meeting…). Nope. Instead, I’ve had the most questions about the look of the Cisco ASR hypercraft. “Why not add stripes?” “Can you make it all black?” “How about teal with red stripes?”
Enough is enough.
Do you think you have a better design idea for the Cisco ASR craft? If so, bring your artistic vision and skills to the Cisco ASR EDGE QUEST Hypercraft Design Bake Off.
How does this work?
- Easy -- Simply, go to our Facebook page and choose one of the three Cisco ASR 1000 Series router models and start designing. Add new parts and color away!
- Submissions can be scanned or uploaded until 9 p.m. Pacific Time on May26 (5 a.m. UTC on May 27).
- The top two designs will be revealed on May 27, and then it will be up to YOU to pick narrow the field where one will be chosen.
- All can participate (and because it is about a router, see if you can’t apply the time to your “training” development goal for the year…
- For 'terms of submission', click here.
Why do it?
Bragging rights and a chance to see your design “in lights.” Your craft could very well be featured in the final EDGE QUEST Tournament of Aces winner take all "Money Round" that will take place on June 16, 2008.
Have fun, get creative, and submit your design today. Who knows.. may be with your design, the engineers will listen a bit longer to the “flying router” idea…
Live long and network!
Posted by Doug Webster at 10:25 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
May 05, 2008
Cisco Edge Quest Tournament of Aces – Can you handle it?
Hi. Cisco ASR Edge Master Webster here.
I’m pleased to be officially announcing the Cisco Edge Quest Tournament of Aces. Thousands have played Cisco Edge Quest, an online game we introduced when we launched the new Cisco ASR 1000 Series Routers, the world’s most powerful compact router. In the game, players maneuver a hypercraft modeled after the router through various levels and increasingly use its capabilities to defend the network edge. It’s fast, fun, and hey, since learning comes through playing, it may even be able to be applied toward your “training” development goal at work…
Now in this tournament, you can play, challenge a friend, and see if you score high enough during the qualifying round to be eligible to compete in the “money round” -- a 24 hour winner-take-all battle where the highest scorer receives US$10,000 and a Cisco ASR 1000 Series Router (signed by the Senior Vice Presidents aka Network Commanders Pankaj Patel and Tony Bates along with lead architects of the product… I mean when was the last time you had a “signature edition” router?!)
The Tournament of Aces will starts today, May 5 through June 11th, with top 100 qualifiers then going on to compete in a 24 hour battle on June 16th which will feature some brand new levels.
Posted by Doug Webster at 06:29 AM Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
May 02, 2008
Top 20 Reasons…You know you’re an Internet Addict
In advance of our recent Cisco ASR launch in which we embraced a whole range of Web 2.0 vehicles, we thought that creating a Facebook group to bring about a community of like-minded folks around technology was only appropriate. Our hope was that the group would gain traction not so much to market to but rather to learn from and frankly just as a forum where we can have some fun, too.
Fortunately, things turned out just that way – while the Cisco ASR launch happened two months ago, the Facebook group that we call “Support Group for Uber User Internet Addicts” is still going strong with over 700 members, and it’s starting to create a life of its own. Of the recent activities we’ve had on the group (another one kicks off on Monday), this particular survey really generated a lot of participation. We asked the group, “You know you are an internet addict when…” and true to form, they collaborated in Human Network fashion came through with quite an entertaining list, below, proving that Web 2.0 not is a great platform for collaboration, but also that those uber-users are quite fun, too. Enjoy!
Live long and network,
Doug
BTW, if you’re reading this blog, you’re an Internet Addict too, so you might as well fess up to it an join too… !
Posted by Doug Webster at 07:28 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
May 01, 2008
SofNet 2008: Soft-what?
I’m in London this week for a Next Generation Network conference that I’ve been attending each of the last four years. The first two times, the conference was very much around the transformation of service provider networks from TDM to IP with BT’s 21st Century Network being the shining example – and rightly so, considering their ground-breaking effort firmly puts them as one of the leaders of the industry.
Last year, the conference moved to Milan, where the topic was IMS, or IP Multimedia Subsystem. While many of the vendors were jumping on the IMS bandwagon with abandon, Cisco has what I believe to be a more balanced view of IMS. Rather, instead of looking at it as an end-all-be-all approach to deliver services over the IP network, a provider should look at it as one potential part of the solution but not the only one needed. Because IMS is based on SIP, it can’t support many high demand and important current and future services that are non-SIP, from web-browsing to IPTV – and many of the services to be delivered over IMS, such as VoIP, are already delivered over IP in a non-SIP fashion, making its value quite questionable. Add lengthy standards body procedures into the mix, and it makes sense not to bet everything that IMS is going to be an SP savior.
Posted by Doug Webster at 08:52 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
April 29, 2008
Insatiable Demand for Bandwidth Continues
So you've read about our IP traffic study in some past posts -- If you've been wondering whether traffic growth is really occurring and what's the impact of this growth to the networks, I can firmly attest that absolutely it is. Every major service provider I have interacted with over the past 6 months has talked about how their traffic is growing faster than before - but not necessarily at the same rate for all.
What's behind this traffic growth? Personally, all you have to do is look inside any of our homes to see the drivers. Let's take mine as an example. My 15 year old son has stopped watching television and lives his academic and social life in the virtual world through a laptop or through a game console. My 12 year old daughter is also spending more time online with her friends but with slightly different interests. What's most intriguing is that my 8 year old son is watching videos online continually. Even my wife prefers to occasionally catch snipets of her favorite shows from the www than on live television. As soon as a provider can deliver faster bandwidth to my house, they can count on me as a customer. Where am I going with this? I know that I am not an exception but more of the standard of homes with kids. It is clear that video is the big driver of this growth and will continue to be as we increase the number of creators of content and consumers of content and ways that it can be consumed.
Posted by Kelly Ahuja at 11:16 AM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
April 28, 2008
Welcome to the Exabyte Era, part 2
In a previous post, I wrote about our Cisco IP Traffic Study, entitled “The Exabyte Era.” It’s getting a lot of attention now as its topic is being featured as one of the drivers of the need for new platforms such as our recently launched Cisco ASR 1000 and because the adoption of web 2.0 and “all-things video” is getting increasing relevance to the industry, the market, and our daily Connected Life, whether it be at home, at work or on the move. It is well worth a read and was even was featured on the front page of the New York Times, a few weeks ago.
Here are a few of the takeaways for those who like the Cliffnotes versions:
At Home, the story is video, video, video. Here are some video’s effects as a driver of bandwidth growth.
• Three years from now, Internet video will be six times what it is today, and twenty times what it was in 2006.
• In 2011, online video will generate 1 billion DVDs worth of traffic each month.
• Online video will drive 30% of consumer Internet traffic by 2011.
At Work, new business services and applications will drive the growth:
• By 2010, telepresence will generate more traffic than the entire US Internet backbone in 2000.
On the Move: the coming ubiquity of Mobile Data
• Mobile data traffic in 2011 will be sixteen times what it is today.
The next few years should be quite exciting for the industry, and, because providers are actively investing in their networks to get ahead of the end customer demand for bandwidth and value-added service, the next three years will have quite a beneficial impact to all aspects of our own Connected Lives as well.
Posted by Doug Webster at 12:51 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
April 24, 2008
What is an Exabyte?
“What comes after Petabyte?” was my question to Arielle Sumits, our lead researcher on the IP Traffic Study a few years ago, when we started the effort a few years ago. Even with a wide variety of very regional and granular market forecasts on topics such as “VoIP subscription growth in Western Europe” and “IPTV subscriber forecasts for AsiaPacific,” we didn’t have visibility on what these all mean to the network as a whole. And having a global focus with a global customer base, we needed a global view. Since the market didn’t offer one, we set off to create one (and from Arielle’s standpoint, she likely did it to cease the never ending questioning from me along the lines of “But what does this all mean?” Depending on my level of caffeine consumption, my questioning can often be a far too fast and quite annoying… as my wife, Annie, can firmly attest).
Posted by Doug Webster at 07:20 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
April 22, 2008
Ideas, Musings, and Perspectives from the Blogosphere
Here are a few items that came across my reading queue this past week that I found of interest and thought that you may too…
Enjoy and thanks for reading,
Doug
Second Life is pretty intriguing and here’s a New York Times blog post about amping up the reality part of virtual reality even further.
At Cisco, our customers are often awe-struck when we conduct a presentation over or give a demonstration of Cisco TelePresence – with its high definition screens and spatial sound, the experience becomes so real that you have to resist the urge to shake hands with the participants on the other side of the table (who actually are thousands of miles away). As innovations such what is presented in the video on this post build upon virtual reality and “transposed reality” such as Cisco TelePresence, the holodeck and remote Holographic “presence” that was envisioned by NTT years ago and even demonstrated by Cisco the past fall, may very well enter the mainstream far sooner that many think.
Posted by Doug Webster at 06:55 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
April 21, 2008
TelePresence: A New Presence for Managed Services
I am thrilled and excited about today’s announcement that AT&T will offer the industry’s first (1) intercompany; (2) managed Cisco TelePresence service. The Human Network is realized when more people able to experience it and when the experiences we have at home, at work and on the move feel less like technology and more like life…, partners like AT&T certainly share this vision.
Intercompany: SizeMatters.
One of the key parts of this announcement is the “Intercompany” capability. An intercompany Cisco TelePresence network service, which enables customers to maintain close contact with their extended supply chain or community of interest, has the potential to transform business. Furthermore, as more people use a network service –Telephony, Internet, Web 2.0 social networking, or Intercompany TelePresence, the more valuable the service becomes. Greater value attracts more users, creating a positive feedback loop and continued usage growth – that’s the “Network Effect”. It is no wonder the NewAT&T shares this vision with Cisco;according to Wikipedia, network effect was presented in the 1908 annual report by then AT&T President Theodore Vail --- 100 years ago!.... and now IP DNA meets network DNA, fitting anniversary event ….
Posted by Al Safarikas at 06:33 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
April 17, 2008
Politics as a Visual Networking Case Study
“Internet’s pervasive political punch” read the front page headline of San Jose Mercury news, that one of our lead SP business analysts, Shruti Jain, showed me on a recent trip to Silicon Valley. While we have been talking of internet revolution for over a decade, the extent to which current presidential campaign in the U.S. is using Web 2.0, underlines importance of the network across all aspects of our daily lives, and across all aspects of the political spectrum for that matter In this case, the network transforms the campaigns from being largely national based on predominately paid placement and news coverage to having a trans-national reach using “grass-roots” methods being driven by individual voters. This approach can both shed light on the emotions associated with the democratic process while helping to bridge the gap between the traditional voters and the younger generation who are going to be defining the international political scenario of the future.
Posted by Doug Webster at 06:46 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
April 15, 2008
Open Sesame
With all the "open" talk at at CTIA recently, Ali Baba might have thought Las Vegas was home of the forty thieves (not to mention casino odds). The FCC was concluding the 700 MHz auction, which included rules for the C Block that require "a platform that is more open to devices and applications." Google had agitated for such a requirement, but Verizon Wireless won the auction, bidding $9.4 billion.
How will Verizon Wireless comply with the openness rules? They revealed some plans in New York city, on March 19, when they unveiled their Open Development initiative. I arrived at the event with some skepticism. I've written before about how the Internet business model challenges the culture of the mobile industry (see Where Worlds Collide). But after an enthusiastic welcome by Tony Lewis, the vice president of Open Development, the Verizon chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg gave a keynote that addressed these issues directly. He recognized the intersecting megatrends of mobility and the Internet as prompting a new wave of applications, which no single company can create by itself. Instead, Verizon embraces an ecosystem approach, which motivates this new Open Development activity.
Posted by Larry Lang at 01:57 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
April 14, 2008
Ring vs Mesh topology in Carrier Ethernet networks
Network architects have debated over the best way to interconnect network elements. The ring camp believes that the best way to recover from a failure is to have a simple topology where all nodes have a similar access to the bandwidth. The mesh camp believes that the most scalable and flexible way to interconnect network elements is in meshes.
Service Providers are familiar with SONET rings and they expect Ethernet based rings in Carrier Ethernet networks to perform similarly. However, Ethernet rings are expected to behave like Ethernet networks with oversubscription, redundant access, node protection, link aggregation and so on. Thus, Ethernet ring requirements can be more complicated than SONET ring requirements.
Do we have to mandate a ring topology in Carrier Ethernet networks?
It will be very attractive if a protocol can support both ring and mesh topologies in Carrier Ethernet networks.
Posted by Rajiv Kapoor at 06:53 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
April 07, 2008
Are today’s Service Provider SLAs good enough?
Managed services is always a top of mind subject for Service Providers (MSP). As we observe the trend of MSP’s, I continue to see them looking for ways to help Enterprise customers achieve there business goals. Conversations between MSP’s and Enterprises have more and more centered around the intelligent network services that enhance the networks ability to be business relevant. An example of this type of intelligence is: Application Aware Networks.
Essentially, with an Application Aware service, businesses identify their applications as critical, important and best-effort, classifications that align to the business goal for application availability. Creating an Application Aware service requires that dynamic QoS be deployed in the carriers IP NGN, along with, the ability to tune the QoS mechanisms as required. Customer satisfaction hinges on the carriers ability to successfully deliver application aware SLAs. This is an excellent opportunity for MSP’s, as, new applications are demanding new levels of QoS on the networks.
Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 09:04 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
April 04, 2008
The Impact of India Inc. on Telecommunications
I recently returned from my first ever trip to India, and experienced firsthand the juggernaut that this country has become across most of the major industries in the world. You almost can’t open a newspaper or an Internet browser these days without seeing the impact this world-changing nation continues to have. Experiencing an average of 9% GDP growth per year for the last 3 years alone, India’s quick rise to global prominence and economic influence has been fueled in large part by the phenomenon of “globalization”, or the outsourcing of well-defined business processes to fast-growing Indian IT and professional services companies.
In recent years, leading companies in India have begun re-defining globalization by turning the tide, expanding out and establishing leadership positions, or acquiring companies outright, in a variety of industries previously dominated by businesses from established nations. According to KPMG, Indian companies acquired 62 companies in the first 8 months of 2005, to the tune of $1.7B, and the pace just keeps accelerating. The world’s largest steel company, Arcelor-Mittal, was created less than two years ago by the successful pursuit by an emerging markets bellwether firm of an established Western counterpart, consisting of a small group of 100+-year-old companies. And if the purchase of a Jaguar or Land Rover is in your future, you will soon be making the check out to an Indian firm, Tata Motors.
Posted by Nick Adamo at 09:50 AM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
April 01, 2008
Mass Customizing Managed Services (Bringing the glass slipper to all…)
I submit that success by providers in managed business services will be due in large part to an ability to mass customize the experience. The impetus to get this thought out and into a post was prompted by a recent In-Stat research study covering end-users of all sizes was announced and concluded that, “customer feedback indicates that a one-size-fits-all approach to managed services needs to change -- by addressing specific vertical and horizontal market stakeholder needs and requirements.” Ahh, the wisdom of The Kinks.--- “Give The People What They Want”.
The conclusion to give the people what they want is not a radically new topic for managed business services. Providers of all sizes and focus have attempted to solve this either in word or in actual attempts. After all, it’s a mass-customized, on-demand world where end users are emboldened - at work, home and on the move.
Posted by Al Safarikas at 07:44 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
March 31, 2008
Taking Care of Business
Wait! Don’t worry -- I’m certainly not about to opine about a 1970’s Canadian-penned classic rock song. (I admit, though, that it was pretty catchy tune despite the fact that they don’t pronounce the “g” in the first word… as a Webster, I am bound by my ancestral tie to Noah to have pet peeves of inappropriate use of language…Needless to say, discussions with my two year old at the dinner table can be quite heated...)
Rather, “Taking care of business” in the service provider world means delivering highly available, scalable and reliable experiences – based on a solid foundation (Cisco IP NGN) and real market understanding. Running a great network is very much a provider’s business, and for many of them, offering managed services (or, an end customer business out-tasking the management of selected aspects of their network to a provider) is a very lucrative part of their services portfolio. For some, it is their sole focus.
Posted by Doug Webster at 02:21 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
March 26, 2008
Ideas, Musing, and Perspectives from the blogosphere…
Measuring the pulse of the industry and keeping up with trends is a necessary part of many jobs, including mine – here are a few though-provoking posts that I have come across this past week that I thought may be relevant to you as well. Thanks for reading.
Jon Arnold wrote an interesting post on Rethinking the Service Provider Business and discussed how revenues can be gained upstream (traditional subscriptions) and downstream (advertising, government services, etc.)
John Battelle covered the recent spectrum auction in the US and assessed that while Google may not have been declared the winner, they may have achieved their goal.
Posted by Doug Webster at 11:05 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
March 17, 2008
From Global Industry Leader Forum to the IETF-71
Last week was quite a busy one for myself, as I had participated in the first ever industry and international regulator forum on March 10, that was chaired by Sanjay Ahuja, CEO Orange, Global Leader industry Forum held at Pattaya, Thailand.
Posted by Monique Morrow at 07:23 AM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
March 12, 2008
Going Green - ICT & Climate Change - Energy Sustainability
Now that the importance of limiting greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming is well recognised, the role of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in combating climate change is being widely discussed. The ITU-T has initiated two symposia on ICT and Climate Change to be held in Kyoto in April and London in June 2008 indicating the importance being attached to energy sustainability. All groups in the ITU-T are being urged to take energy consumption into consideration.
Posted by Rajiv Kapoor at 11:49 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
