Cisco Blog > SP360: Service Provider

A Big Day for Small Cells

Yesterday was a whirlwind of activity for Cisco at Mobile World Congress 2012, and a big day for our smallest networking devices.

On the heels of the past week’s 4G/LTE announcements with Magyar Telekom, LG U+ , Vodafone Hungary, Telefonica Spain, and Bell Canada, yesterday we stood with business partners Orange, and Shaw to announce a new era in the evolution of the mobile Internet: the era of the small cell.

Cisco CEO  John Chambers declared “We are now entering the post-macrocell era, where small cells also will play a critical role in delivering the next-generation mobile Internet.”

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Double the Power: Industry’s First 60-Watt Power over Ethernet

July 18, 2011 at 8:50 am PST

If your customers are clamoring for a network with a smaller carbon footprint, one that’s more efficient, and more flexible, did you know the solution may be just an Ethernet cable away?

Today, Cisco is announcing the industry’s first 60-watt Power over Ethernet for the Cisco Catalyst 4500E. With Universal Power Over Ethernet (UPOE), you get twice the power per port than other switches – letting you power a greater range of devices through a single standard Ethernet cable. And, customers can use their existing network to power these devices.

What does the news mean for Cisco partners, customers, and the industry?

Keep reading for fun networking facts, details about today’s news, and links. Read More »

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It’s Hot in Las Vegas, But All About Cloud in the Cloud Partner Pavilion

July 13, 2011 at 10:15 am PST

It’s 100+ degrees (that’s almost 40 degrees Celcius) in Las Vegas without a cloud in the sky, so you might imagine that lounging in an air-conditioned casino would be ideal for most folks. But for the techies attending Cisco Live this week, the Cloud Partner Pavilion was the coolest place to hang out.

I walked through the Pavilion and chatted with a number of Cisco partners who were showing off cloud solutions, products, a variety of services for customers as well as some B2B and white label services for partners, too.

Many thanks to the many Cisco partners who chatted with us and we look forward to catching up with as many as we can this week.

Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers also dropped by to talk with partners. We’ve got photos from his visit and more about the partners in the Cloud Partner Pavilion.

There was also some cloud-related news that hit the wire this morning.

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BBC Radio 4 – Creating More Apprentices

As I was driving into work this morning, I was listening to the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4. An interesting discussion came up around the UK government’s plans to an extra 75,000 adult apprenticeships over the next four years. Karen Brady, former managing director of Birmingham City Football Club and one of the judges on Lord Sugar’s television series The Apprentice, was being interviewed on whether she thought this was a good idea and how this could be achieved.

As someone who didn’t go to university and went straight into the workforce, Karen thinks apprentices are a “brilliant idea” as they create opportunities for young people, who want to increase and develop their skill set, to enter the workplace. As anyone of any age can apply for apprentices, they also provide older people with the chance for a career-change and to learn new skills. Apprentices are clearly in high demand – last year over 33,000 people applied for 200 apprentices at BT.

Could increase the number of apprentices be a way for a company to demonstrate Inclusion and Diversity? Share your thoughts below.

To listen to the interview with Karen Brady click here

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Making TelePresence Even Better: Announcing the First Commercially Available Interexchange Cisco TelePresence Service

Metcalfe’s law, an iconic principle in networking, states that the value of a network is proportional by the square number of endpoints it has. In essence, the more people on the network, the more valuable it is. In part, that’s what made the PSTN so valuable…everybody used to have a fixed phone…and it’s what makes the mobile network so valuable now since every one over 14 definitely has one with many households sporting multiple ones…and it’s the driving force behind the momentum of Cisco TelePresence.

Today AT&T and BT announced the first commercially available interexchange Cisco TelePresence service . With Inter-Provider Cisco TelePresence, it’s possible to connect disparate enterprise networks over different SP networks for real-time Cisco TelePresence meetings in a highly secure, consistent, and transparent manner.

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