Managed Services Category Archives

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 ….

Speaking of IP DNA, this brings me to networking and Internet pioneer, Robert Metcalfe and his law. In this context it inspires:

“The value of intercompany TelePresence - and the network service that makes it possible - can be expected to increase not linearly, but in proportion to the square of the number of users.”

As more companies use intercompany TelePresence, its value for the user and for the provider multiplies. This is certainly true as the network approaches critical mass. A blog post by Bob Metcalfe is interesting and humorous reading on his law.

AT&T Managed TelePresence Solution will be available in the second half of 2008 with reach to 23 countries throughout the world. Additional country availability planned for 2009. Early trials of the solution are underway now.

Managed TelePresence: “Managed” Matters

Managed business services deliver reliability, high availability and confidence. With Cisco TelePresence, enterprise customers connect with each other, partners and suppliers through this highly scalable and secure solution across the world. Adding an ongoing managed service aspect to TelePresence brings confidence that the experience will be delivered.

The AT&T solution is an innovative turnkey bundle that integrates AT&T global MPLS VPN network, Cisco TelePresence application, and strategic application management for rapid turn-up and ease of use, assuring the customer experience.

AT&T Managed TelePresence will deliver...

• a bundled, fully-managed service that offers a turn-key solution for enterprises.


• a “meet-me” business-to-business connectivity feature that allows multiple companies in different locations to connect to one another


• Web-based application for scheduling, directory assistance and reporting


• Managed network service enabling converged network solution backed by Service Level Agreements to optimize TelePresence application

As company’s increasingly look to TelePresence in their workplace, the confidence that it can be fully managed should only help them adopt and scale it throughout their business...

In a CNN article last week (check out the video link), Ovum analyst David Molony said “There's no excuse for enterprises not to have [TelePresence] because it fits with global growth strategy, improved working practice, carbon reduction programs, etc -- and the business case is demonstrable."
What do you think? Will a managed TelePresence solution help speed market interest and adoption?

Posted by Al Safarikas at 06:33 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.

Do Service Providers need to adjust their SLAs and the underlying technologies to support the new Application Aware Networks? The answer is a resounding: ‘Yes’.

MSPs need to respond by enabling businesses to identify what applications are actually running on their networks, help identify application foot-print (behavior, network requirements including QoS, user interactions and such) and then, abstract the complexity of QoS required for applications.

Additionally, self-provisioning brings forward the dynamic QoS aspect and for that, IP NGNs would need to have Application Awareness throughout the network and not just in closed-loop systems. Application aware IP NGNs need to monitor and report application behavior at CPE, PE or infrastructure level. For this, we need embedded technologies (IOS NetFlow, IPSLA, FPM, NBAR, etc.) end-to-end on the IP NGN.

When businesses require application awareness, abstraction of QoS and dynamic tuning via self-provisioing, end-to-end embedded technologies on the IP NGN will help MSPs respond appropriately and help make their customers successful in their business objectives.

Therefore, the direction for the Application Aware Services would be for the Service Providers to:

1. Create capabilities to identify applications running on their customers’ Networks.
2. Understand or qualify applications into critical, important or best effort categories.
3. Develop ability to abstract QoS deployment, as well as, change QoS on the fly (Dynamic QOS)
4. Enable customers to log on to their service portals to effortlessly change their service requirements as per their changing business demands.

These would help applications resonate directly to the businesses charter and, reduce technical complexities when it comes to delivering a seamless application experience.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 09:04 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | 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.

I think we’re getting closer. Here’s why:

• Collaboration and complexity (and, years removed from the sour tastes of failed outsourcing) are softening the end-users (of all sizes) to look to an out-tasked solution.


• Web 2.0 is democratizing the experience – everywhere. And, these capabilities will adapt well to the personalized dialogue between managed service providers and their end user customers.


• SaaS is taking off and is further priming the market to accept hosted solutions and it’s going to be a model for SPs, VARs, SIs and other providers to find ways to work together – sharing monitoring tools, processes etc ---- but maybe not yet definitions.


• Market understanding around the drivers and opportunity areas for managed business services is becoming more refined. Currently, we’re conducting a “managed services benchmarking study” to determine how SPs intend to accommodate more granularity into their service offerings.


• IP NGN networks and their increased intelligence allow for more intelligent networks capable of scaling and adapting to business priorities.


• Market acceleration resources and programs such as our Cisco Powered Program initiative exist to help managed service providers better create, target, market and services.


• Designations as those we have in our Cisco Powered Program help codify the core set of requirements needed for a quality managed service experience. This takes much of the guesswork out and allows providers to spend less time defining their core processes, people and tools; allowing more time for customization and focus. They enable providers to focus more on service customization (for end-users) and service differentiation (for market distinction).

It makes sense. A network is not just a network. Managed service providers have an inherent need for differentiation. And, no two end-users or service providers are alike. As a result, we shouldn’t expect end-user needs to be the same or for service provider offerings to be the same.

What do you think? What managed services focused tools, trends or otherwise do you see shaping the ability of service providers to customize their offerings?

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.

One of those is, SAVVIS, a valuable Cisco Powered Service Provider partner, and a provider that is getting an increasing about of attention as innovator who is changing the way in the managed services are delivered to customers and, in the process, changing their orientation of being a service provider to a more comprehensive experience provider to their end customers.

In this video, SAVVIS executives outlines how managed services play an important role in their vision of being an “infrastructure as a service provider” and how the Cisco IP NGN platform best enables their ability to deliver on this vision to their end users.

So you’ve heard about the success SAVVIS has had and about their perspective on managed services -- what’s your take? How do you see business services evolving and what are the main benefits you see that make managed services compelling to end users?

Posted by Doug Webster at 02:21 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

February 08, 2008

Tapping into the world of a miscreant economy

I just found out the other day that two colleagues were recent victims of 'identity theft'. One had her credit card number stolen, not once but two times, amounting to fraudulent charges at Walmart and K-Mart, as well as an additional credit card balance transfer of $16,000. The other colleague had someone attempting to take out a huge bank loan using her credit credentials.

But as I am finding out, security issues are not limited to credit card fraud. Digging a little more into this topic, I came across recent headlines mentioning 'storm'----an ever-growing Botnet that is estimated to have infected between 1 million and 50 million computers. Botnets are becoming the foundation of elaborate extortion schemes including identity theft. Motivated by political or economic objectives, botnets can cost businesses as well as service providers millions of dollars each year. Such electronic schemes are underlining a fundamental paradigm shift in the miscreant economy---a community that engages in cyber crime-related activities for financial reward.

The costs of “loss” are staggering

Just last month, 337,000 voters in Davidson County (Nashville) had their identities compromised with a laptop theft; this loss was estimated to cost $1M which covers identity protection for those affected. And what is the going rate for stolen information these days? According to Trend Micro, the hacker black market can get you a credit card number with PIN for $490, a driver’s license can be bought for $147 and a PayPal account logon and password can be bought for a measly $6. There are still other ways where stolen identity and personal information can materialize in real money. I watched the Dateline program on NBC where Chris Hansen ran an interesting investigative report on have you been scammed?, foiling an elaborate crime ring of purchasing of goods online with illegal / stolen credit cards items. There were legitimate physical drop off points in the US for merchandise purchased with stolen credit cards, which in turn, were shipped off to an overseas non-traceable destination.

The role of the Service Provider

What it boils down to it this: service providers must enhance their value propositions and offer “better” managed security-enabled services to the end user. Providers must offer increased service and value guarantees to their customers in order to help protect both their networks and services.

Providers readily offer encrypted VPN services to businesses accepting VISA and Master cards to be compliant with PCI-DSS standards. However, protecting endpoints such as laptops and 3G phones from miscreants via NAC and content filtering technology with managed security services offer portfolio would go a long way to deploy “defense-in-depth” security philosophy. Providers can really help protect valuable and confidential information for businesses and residential customers and become their ‘trusted partner’.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 12:32 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 14, 2007

Seeing is Believing

One of the cool things about working for Cisco is being able to use all the technology. Aside from the IP phone on my desk that I use everyday, I often use TelePresence to conduct “in person” meetings with people from my team who are located around the globe. TelePresence was a hit from day one with customers, partners, and suppliers eager to get on board. According to a recent study we did, TelePresence will represent a $4B new service revenue opportunity for service providers by the year 2011. Do you have your order in yet?

Listen to a recent conversation about TelePresence (held over a TelePresence session) between myself and Al Safarikas of Cisco on the service provider opportunity with TelePresence - I'm the one on the other side of the screen.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 10:18 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

November 27, 2007

The Open Path to New Business Model Creation

In the past, the typical SP business model was built around the notion of vertical integration – with the assumption that all essential elements of a service were created within the SP organization.

However, many believe that the future will likely include a variety of new SP business models -- some requiring extensive open collaboration with business partners.

Cisco sponsored the recent Telco 2.0 Executive Brainstorm event in London, which was devoted to the topic of new business models for telecoms, media and technology. Cisco’s Ross Fowler was interviewed, during the event. He describes how Cisco’s open innovation strategy will help SPs make the transition to an IP NGN-based experience provider.

Why all the fuss about business model evolution? SPs must do more to differentiate themselves in what is becoming an increasingly commoditized market, or risk becoming simple utilities, according to a report released by Strategy Analytics. However, building new business models -- and even adapting old ones -- has proven to be very difficult.

Crafting compelling new business models will depend less on the access technology and more on quality-of-experience capabilities in provider networks. Because almost any IP device can be voice-, video- or data enabled, service providers are becoming "experience providers," delivering many services to many screens over converged fixed and wireless networks.

Finding highly-skilled partners with complementary capabilities is a proven way to accelerate SP go-to-market plans. However, the challenge is isolating the best-fit potential partners for any given service delivery-related requirement. Therefore, the ability to broker between diverse groups of third-parties is highly valued.

Active membership in the Cisco Powered Program is one approach that forward-looking SPs can use as a “marketplace” to connect with potential new service delivery partners. The program also incorporates access to a growing list of Cisco marketing and technical resources that can be applied to envision, build, market and sell services that deliver a truly unique customer experience.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 06:47 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

October 30, 2007

IMS or Web Services: is there a Debate? IMS in a World of Web-Based Applications

Although IMS has been around for the last 7 or so years and may not be the panacea originally proposed, it can’t be discounted in the world of IP. Several of our customers in US SP have announced plans to deploy IMS as it will be an important platform for voice as well as other SIP-based applications. At the same time, we see increasing development of new innovative applications that don’t use SIP, but would benefit from the capabilities of an IMS control infrastructure. We need a framework that enables a feasible coexistence of both types of applications.

There are the obvious market drivers driving the “IP Everywhere” mentality. These trends have caught IMS and are raising questions about the longevity of IMS:

1. ubiquitous high-speed access
2. handset evolution: screens and access
3. interesting, relevant content and applications (2.0 applications, MySpace, YouTube)
4. the prospect of a Google Phone and other disruptive innovations

Just a few years ago, we were upswept in the mantra “voice is the killer app.” After the telecom downturn and the many failed applications (e-wallet, MMS, etc.), how could we think any differently? Did anyone really want anything more from a mobile phone than voice and the occasional text message? IMS fulfilled the need of SIP-based voice services. It was the savior of an industry searching for ways to quickly and efficiently buildout networks and deploy applications. It allowed horizontal implementation rather than perpetuating dependence on a slow, vertical silo. Wow, IMS was it.

Enter Generation Y. Enter the generation who pushed the boundaries, who changed the way we think about mobile applications and breathed life into the stale telecom market. This generation demanded more services, multi-tasking devices and quick innovation. It is also a generation with a short attention span and a high demand for “me.”

And with that, web services seem to have usurped IMS. At once we rushed to create our Second Life avatar so we could extend ourselves into a virtual world. We voyeuristically peeped into You-Tube – and became addicted! We echo the diary of our lives on the pages MySpace. We blog; we Wiki. We communicate at an insatiable pace. Enter new players – the “over the top” providers (Yahoo!, Google, YouTube, etc.) and the world of Web 2.0 killer apps. And we wanted all these things now, seamlessly moving from device to device or environments.

With all the demand for the 2.0 services over IP, what happens to voice? What about quality of service? What about the investments made in IMS? We can’t expect service providers to systematically dismiss IMS networks—or voice services—while at the same time allowing the new over-the-top applications to consume all the available bandwidth. How can carriers deliver on the demand for mobile broadband without sacrificing quality of voice services or wallet share?

Take a carrier like Verizon that was (and remains) heavily invested in IMS and has gone one step further in developing A-IMS (Advances to IMS). Yet they need to embrace web services to remain competitive in a tight market constantly struggling for customer retention and profitability. Used concurrently with web services, A-IMS provides the control hooks so when voice is used simultaneously, quality is maintained (SIP and non-SIP applications). Now receiving PowerPoint, video or any other file is not going to interrupt your call. Plus, the proposed architecture would allow mobile operators to continue running circuit-switched voice indefinitely, rather than being forced to rip and replace and immediately switch to IP and VoIP (which of course will cut deep into the pockets of the mobile carriers who don’t charge the typical one-rate of the VoIP vendors). They can then offer services when they are absolutely ready or when the current revenue model is exhausted.

The A-IMS architecture provides a predictable experience and buys time to control the transition from current networks to the all-IP networks of the future. IMS will be a key ingredient in ensuring that fixed and mobile services of all kinds can work together. SIP and non-SIP-based applications will be treated equally. Additionally IMS provides end-to-end management for VoIP applications running over IP mobile networks, to ensure quality of service.

While IMS might not be the total telecom network of the future, its coexistence with web services certainly is. Developers will continue to leverage this network for real-time interactive multimedia services, such as IMS-enabled IPTV, gaming, video conferencing and click-to-call with a standards-based, open architecture.

Posted by Nick Adamo at 10:28 AM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

October 25, 2007

The End of the Summit - The Beginning of a Relationship

Al Safarikas signs off from the 2007 Cisco Powered Marketing Summit.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 05:03 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The End of the Summit - The Beginning of a Relationship

Al Safarikas signs off from the 2007 Cisco Powered Marketing Summit.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 05:03 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

How Managed Services Providers Can Stay Relevant and Valuable

Kunjal notes that managed services providers need to respond to their customers' changing needs -- and drive sales - by refreshing existing services to remain relevant and valuable.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 05:01 PM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

SecurView Speak out at the Cisco Powered Marketing Summit

Rajeev Khanolkar, president and CEO of SecurView Inc., shares his thoughts about Cisco managed security and the 2007 Cisco Powered Marketing Summit.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 04:17 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Guy Kawasaki's Take on Managed Services

Guy Kawasaki, technology guru and author of The Art of the Start reflects on the necessity -- and natural fit - for evangelism when launching new managed services.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 03:50 PM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Cisco Powered Marketing Summit is a Forum for Customer Feedback

First-time Summit attendees James and Martina appreciate services providers' impressive and growing knowledge of the technical aspects of delivering managed services.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 03:09 PM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Exciting New Services for Service Providers

TelePresence and digital signage are just two of the exciting emerging technologies discussed by Guido Jouret.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 02:40 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Managed Services in Demand in Botswana

Botswana Telecom's Pilot Yane discusses the state of in-demand managed services in Botswana plus his plans to use new-found Cisco Powered Marketing Summit knowledge upon his return to Africa.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 01:45 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Impressions of the Cisco Powered Marketing Summit

Dimension Data's Shaun Struckmann shares his impressions and experiences at the 2007 Cisco Powered Marketing Summit.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 12:56 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

ACBB-BITS Success with an IP-based Next Generation Network

Chuck Daniels describes how, since 2004, he's led managed services through the Envision, Build, and Market process, achieving success in building an IP-based Next Generation Network.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 12:51 PM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Cisco Powered Marketing Summit: Juile & Angela from EMBARQ

Julie and Angela talk about the greatest value of the 2007 Cisco Powered Marketing Summit -- connecting names to faces and strengthening relationships.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 12:11 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

How XO Communications Differentiates its Managed Services

XO Communications differentiates itself in the managed services market with Cisco marketing support. Watch as XO Communications' Marty Weiss describes how.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 11:35 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

October 24, 2007

Special Message to Customers & Associates in the Southern European Region

Giorgio offers a special message to customers and associates in the Southern European region.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 05:20 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The SMB Market is a Huge Opportunity for Managed Services

There's a tremendous opportunity for managed services in the small to medium-sized business (SMB) market -- Rick knows that SMB's want to do business, not Information Technology (IT)!

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 03:30 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Managed Service Providers are 'Rainmakers' for Unified Communications

Peter shares his ideas about managed services providers as "rainmakers" for Managed Unified Commnications in the small to medium-sized business (SMB) space.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 03:10 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Cisco Responds to Market Pressures

Vijay explains how Cisco is all about responding to market pressures faced by services providers by offering the solutions customers are demanding.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 03:00 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Cisco's Vertical Strategy

Paul describes Cisco's vertical strategy and the opportunities for managed services providers to engage a greater number of industry-specific customers.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 02:49 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Value of the Cisco Brand

Marilyn explains the value of the Cisco brand and, when combined with managed services providers' brands, presents a powerful, unbeatable combination.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 01:54 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Empowering Managed Services Providers

Watch as Tom Wallace of Cisco explains how attending the 2007 Cisco Powered Marketing Summit helps him create practical materials that empower managed services providers.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 01:48 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Extending the Reach of Managed Services

Cisco's Cecilia Hutt describes opportunities at the 2007 Cisco Powered Marketing Summit plus extending the reach of managed services, especially Unified Communications.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 01:42 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

October 23, 2007

Interview with Eric Goodness

Hardy Lipscomb interviews Eric Goodness of Gartner at 2007 Cisco Powered Marketing Summit in Monterey, CA.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 10:53 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Interview with Garry Davis and Rhonda Danielian

Hardy Lipscomb interviews Garry Davis and Rhonda Danielian at the 2007 Cisco Powered Marketing Summit in Monterey, CA.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 09:45 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Interview with Skip Tappen

Hardy Lipscomb interviews Skip Tappen, NWN Corp. at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 08:47 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Interview with Will Scott

Hardy Lipscomb interviews Will Scott at 2007 Cisco Powered Marketing Summit in Monterey, CA.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 07:20 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Interview with Paul Dippel

Hardy Lipscomb interviews Service Leadership CEO Paul Dippell at 2007 Cisco Powered Marketing Summit in Monterey CA.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 07:08 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Al Safarikas welcomes you to the 2007 Cisco Powered Marketing Summit

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 06:35 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Kicking off the Cisco Powered Marketing Summit

It's day one of the Cisco Powered Marketing Summit 2007 and I'm here in Monterey, CA. I'll be joined by 250 marketing executives from managed service providers from over 40 countries who are here for intensive marketing training, designed to help the service providers aggressively market managed services to their customers.

In an effort to capture the highlights of the event we've arranged to capture videos which we'll be posting to this blog. We have a great line up of speakers including Guy Kawasaki, author of The Art of the Start and founder of Garage.com, who we'll be talking to along with attendees of the summit.

So whether you're in Monterey or not I hope you'll get the most out of this year's summit.

Posted by Jeff Spagnola at 05:47 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

October 10, 2007

Software-as-a-Service offers Upside to SPs

As the global business climate drives the need for increased flexibility in IT services, it will become increasingly important for SPs to dynamically deliver services to their business clients. This Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model will provide business customers with the ability to purchase and pay for services on an as-needed basis.

To support the SaaS model, SPs will have to create a software layer which sits on top of the CPE and manages the applications and services which are currently being delivered by the SP. This layer will support dynamic, end-user provisioning and will monitor the hardware in the business customer's environment to ensure resources are available to support the end-user's processing needs. This will also provide the Service Provider with a source of business intelligence as their sales force will now be able to clearly identify when a customer's hardware must be upgraded to meet their business needs.

By delivering SaaS, the SPs will take a large step in meeting the needs of IT managers trying to stay in front of their company's constantly changing business needs. Ultimately, I believe it will drive business customers to view SPs as a true partner versus simply a provider of bandwidth.

Posted by Joe Wojtal at 09:21 PM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

September 25, 2007

What’s it going to take for the Yankees to get back to the World Series?

Thank goodness as we look at the opportunities for ourselves and our service provider partners -- where we need to invest -- the question is not as difficult to answer!

We are going through such an exciting time in the industry. The consolidation that has and continues to occur is driving all of us to work smarter and approach things in new and evolutionary ways. Our Service Provider partners are investing to provide yet another wave of industry impacting services and like no time in the past we are well positioned to partner with them to mutually grow. A key element of our strategy this year and a big bet for us is Managed Services.

Last week in our Executive Briefing Center in San Jose I had the opportunity to have an in depth conversation with one of our customers, an Emerging Service Provider. As I prepared for the meeting, I considered their rapidly changing environment yet the abundant opportunities. During the meeting I listened to them outline their challenges and looked for opportunities for us to partner and accelerate their business.

Unlike the incumbents, the Emerging Providers face additional limited resource challenges and tend to focus more on the quality of service (QoS), rather than the breadth of offerings. But all Service Providers, regardless of their size, want to accelerate the deployment of innovative services while reducing the cost of these deployments, increase revenue and subscriber retention, improve the return on capital expenditures, provide differentiated offerings, and ultimately improve the customer experience. Regardless of their size, they all search for new ways to monetize opportunities and increase wallet share.

Although “managed services” describes a wide variety of services, essentially a managed service exists when a partner such as AT&T, Verizon, or an emerging partner such as Savvis, provide a finished solution which allows the end customer to focus on their core business. As IT and communication organizations are forced to do more with fewer resources, managed services are increasingly attractive to enterprises and empower them to focus on cost control and new market opportunities for revenue growth as well as reallocate resources to strategic projects that address core business requirements resulting in greater productivity for employees across the organization.

At the end of the day managed services make sense for any business – SMB or Enterprise. It’s one way to increase revenue from existing customers while simultaneously securing the relationship with the client. At Cisco, managed services are a key element to long-term success for our partners and their customers.

Go Yankees!

Posted by Nick Adamo at 10:39 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

September 20, 2007

Virtualizing Managed Services

Although most service providers have turned their attention towards services for the consumer, Managed Services for both Commercial and Enterprise business customers will continue to be a major growth opportunity for the service provider community. This opportunity will drive the vendors of commercial and enterprise products to look to the SP channel to scale the sales of their products, but will also require them to accommodate the operational needs of the service providers. These basic needs include zero/low touch deployment capabilities and common interfaces using standard protocols to monitor and troubleshoot HW and SW once it's deployed.

Over the next several years, in order to greatly decrease the operational burden of managed services, there will also be a push to virtualize them. This will also allow service providers to easily add incremental capacity in order to meet increasing customer demand. It will also allow for much higher availability as services lost in one environment can quickly be reestablished by seamlessly moving the customers to another network resource that has the capacity to support them.

This layer of complexity in the service provider network will require an even greater focus on software as virtualized services are delivered on common hardware running LINUX and are interconnected via a "services bus." The creation and management of this services bus across networks with global diameters will be a huge challenge to traditional service providers who are comfortable with the paradigm of one interface/piece of hardware per customer. This is why the service provider vendor community must focus on building a common, scalable framework for rapid service enablement within the network infrastructure.

This framework must not only provide services that blindly ride the bandwidth provided by the network, but must also take advantage of unique network capabilities such as application awareness and optimization in order to ensure the services delivered by the service provider are of extremely high quality. The layering of these types of services - application awareness on top of VPNs, for example - will greatly reduce end user churn and increase the average revenue per user (ARPU).

Posted by Joe Wojtal at 02:50 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)