By reading this blog, perusing our web site, visiting with us at tradeshows or hearing our presentations, you’ve likely learned about our vision for the integrated branded experience for today’s end users. Cisco enables and experience providers deliver these experiences to their customers through all aspects of our daily lives, whether at work, at home or on the move. We call this the Connected Life and are actively innovating to provide the intelligent network technology that providers need to deliver it.While some may call this as visionary, we think it is self evident (likely happening sooner than you’d think). But to help make the point, we decided to show what things would be like from a contrarian’s point of view, so we created a video”sitcom” of sorts where you can watch the comic travails that lurk for the unenlightened and “dumb network” dependent. You see this as you watch how it directly affects the”disconnected lives” of Don and Rhonda DeLay -a married couple in need of a communications upgrade. First meet the characters, then check out the web sitcom episodes and see if they can repair their ‘disconnected life’.Social Marketing Guru, David Meerman Scott, says he has”high hopes” for these videos and is looking forward to future episodes. What do you think?Be sure to check them out and give us your thoughts. And if you’d prefer, here’s where they’re posted on YouTube.

So, back from my whirlwind travels and, I am now in China. In my discussions with Service Providers, the topic of”disruption” often occurs. Questions around emerging technologies and trends in business dynamics are quite common in these encounters. Whether one speaks about so called”cloud computing”, pervasive computing, impact of social networking on architectures, offline web applications, graphine transitors, open source and so on, the response is multi-faceted. There are considerations for macroeconomic, political, cultural and technological dynamics in scenario analysis, and continued innovation is at the heart of this topic. Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group for Service Providers work very closely with Service Provider customers on scenario analysis relevant to a customer business model. Additionally, Cisco participates in MIT’s Communications Future Communications Program that includes industry participants. Topics like Interprovider Quality of Service, Viral Communications, Value Chain Dynamics are amongst many that the program is addressing. Finally, Cisco Research, is part of the thought leadership team working with universities, and Service Provider customers to collaborate on areas of research pertinent to emerging business, In summary, keeping ahead of the curve, thinking in big picture mode and being cognizant of the external dynamics such as macroeconomics, cultural, political and technological, really do comprise the topic of disruption.

This week, at NXTcomm in Las Vegas, we introduced the Cisco Visual Networking Index, an ongoing Cisco initiative designed to provide quantitative and qualitative information regarding trends in IP network demand and usage. Part of a collaborative effort from throughout the global Cisco community, the first component of the index an updated forecast of IP traffic growth, called the Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast for 2007-2012. It is accompanied by a whitepaper, entitled”Approaching the Zettabyte Era” which refers to the new nomenclature required to encompass the full scope of the dramatic growth ahead. Both the forecast and the whitepaper offer detailed analysis on some of the important forecast findings and explores the implications of IP traffic growth. Additional information is in a press release and an associated article in the Wall Street Journal, but highlights from the current Cisco VNI Forecast include:

• Global IP traffic will increase by a factor of six from 2007 to 2012, reaching 44 exabytes per month in 2012, compared to fewer than 7 exabytes per month in 2007.
• Total IP traffic for 2012 will amount to more than half a zettabyte (or 522 exabytes).
• Monthly global IP traffic in December 2012 will be 11 exabytes higher than in December 2011, a single-year increase that will exceed the amount by which traffic increased in the eight years since 2000.

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Touching upon the theme of the Connected Home, throughout the show we have had industry level conversations around quality experience for consumer video and operationalizing next generation services.Dan Hession, Director SP MarketingGuest Blogger

We’re excited to talk to you about our Cisco Broadband Wireless Solution which integrates WiMax, WiFi, and PWLAN hot-spot technologies.Liza Garza, Marketing ManagerGuest Blogger