The constant need for more speed, mobility, and insatiable demands for access to information, continues to strain the capacity of service provider networks around the globe. In essence, whatever capacity made available will be consumed.

An open question on the minds of the operators -- how can they leverage SDN to not only keep up with these demands but maintaining a highly profitable network business? Such was the topic of conversation amongst operators and our CTO, David Ward, during a panel discussion at the recent Broadband World Forum (BBWF) in Amsterdam.

What lies in the balance for operators — a plethora of Read More »

Tags: broadband, Cisco, cloud, digital economy, innovation, ONE, Open Network Environment, SDN, Service Provider, virtualization

By Uwe Lambrette, Director, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group

Amsterdam may be the one place on earth where it rains more than it does in London. So, it was no surprise that I encountered stormy weather on my flight to Broadband World Forum (BBWF) 2012. As things turned out, the conference theme and the weather were clearly aligned, since the BBWF is fiercely embracing evolution to cloud. Here are some core themes that emerged as I shared some of Cisco IBSG’s findings at the conference:

Cloud 2.0: Most service providers (SPs) have already launched an initial cloud offering and are now beginning to measure scaling and growth. The initial offering is often a stand-alone cloud solution, typically focused on infrastructure as a service (IaaS). Once their original implementation goes live, SPs often need to focus on the following improvements: Read More »

Tags: BBWF, broadband, Broadband World Forum, Cisco, cloud, cloud 2.0, cloud economics, cloud go-to-market strategy, cloud service brokers, Hybrid Cloud, IaaS, IBSG, infrastructure as a service, network and cloud integration, SaaS, SDN, SDNs, Service Provider, software as a service, software defined networking

As we prepare to help host the upcoming Wireless Broadband Alliance Wi-Fi Global Congress in our own backyard in San Francisco, I’ve found myself reflecting on how far we’ve come with advancing the standards around Next Generation Hotspot.

In June 2011, Read More »

Tags: Hotspot, mobility, next generation hotspot, Service Provider, wi-fi, wifi

This is Fiber Tap?  Light Reading.com had an interesting article recently on the potential impact of coherent optical technology on submarine cable capacity, which in many cases was built for the old “10 Gbps Information Super Highway”.  Today, the Internet is much more than that, with mobile, video, and cloud services dominating growth.  The key point is that new technology is enabling existing systems to be easily upgraded from 10 Gbps to 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps simply by replacing the DWDM equipment, without the cost to deploy new cable and other costly fiber infrastructure. As a result, companies which specialize in undersea cable deployments face economic challenges because of the lack of needed new projects. Why buy new when you can supercharge existing assets, especially in this economy?

We’ve seen this trend to Read More »

Tags: BT, Cisco, coherent, elastic core, Farice, MegaFon, nLight, Service Provider

As we look forward to holding our Fall Packet Optical Networking Conference (PONC) in Monza Italy (November 14 and 15, 2012), our thoughts go back to the Spring event earlier this year.  Over 150 customers from more than 50 companies attended the PONC in Richardson Texas – a 50% increase over 2011, and we’re expecting another terrific turnout in Italy. The theme in Richardson was Convergence, referring to the elimination of layers (whether those are IP or optical layers), the elimination of interconnects between those layers, and simplifying operations. Our attendees therefore had an early view – a peek “behind the curtain” if you will -- on the concepts and technologies that were key components of the recent Cisco Elastic Core solution announcement which featured our new nLight technology.

Since our customers consistently ask us for Read More »

Tags: Bill Gartner, Cisco, Packet Optical Networking Conference, PONC, Service Provider