Hic Sunt Dracones

Centuries ago, medieval mapmakers used to draw dragons and other mythological creatures on maps to indicate areas that were uncharted, and therefore potentially dangerous. One particular map, the Hunt-Lenox Globe, contains the phrase: “HC SVNT DRACONES,” Latin for “here are dragons.”

When examining social media and the potential effect it can have on one’s professional and personal landscape, I sometimes feel that all social media such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. should, somewhere near the copyright, contain the phrase “here be dragons.”

The amateur Art Historian in me would also like to see a beautiful image like the one above accompany the warning, too, but that’s less important.

Potentially Dangerous

For all its wonders, Social Media can be a dangerous thing. Read More »

Tags: Cisco, Cisco blog, here be dragons, HP, Hunt-Lenox Globe, linkedin, social media listening

Some people with probably think that I drank the Kool aid- Well our CEO and Chairman did a fantastic job this morning as a key note speaker at Oracle OpenWorld! Not as controversial as other CEOs , but certainly a speech which makes employees very proud to work for Cisco.

John McAbel who has been involved in the preparation of this speech warned me couple of days ago

“We are very excited to have John Chambers at Oracle OpenWorld this year.  It’s the first year he is a key note speaker in four years at the conference  I think it’s a reflection of the growth of the UCS within the Oracle ecosystem  We have now hundreds of customers who are running UCS today , many of these customers are running large Oracle mission critical workload, such as EMC, Qualcom, University of Colarado, and others . So I think that John being here is a reflection of this growth, but also of the overall commitment of the partnership between the two companies Openworld in fact runs on Cisco networking gear and we  run a lot of Cisco on  Oracle eBusiness  Suite  and  Oracle data base . So there is a nice synergy between the two companies

I think you’ll find this  key notes unlike other key notes at Oracle OpenWorld , where we are going to have demonstration on stage of Cisco UCS running Oracle codes, we are also going to show how we can take that technology to help improve how customers will process words and some of the processes you will find them entertaining !”

- He was right !I saw this morning a constant flow of appreciative tweets on John’s speech Here are some of them starting with  Marc Benioff  from SalesForce.com  “John Chambers is delivering one of the best keynotes in our industry. Watching him is humbling. He is as good as they get.”( @benioff)

“Have to say, Cisco CEO John Chambers is an excellent speaker, nice mix of biz, tech and vision RT “(@mfauscette)
“That winds up John Chambers. Impressive talk! I learned a lot.”(@Oracleheretic)
“Keynotes focusing on substance, not style issues. Other keynoters should take note, emulate“(@carterlusher)
“Vendors that speak at industry conf’s should replay John Chambers #oow11 keynote. Very  good balance of Thought Leadership + Product Pitch” (@sameerpatel)
“John Chambers is the best speaker in our industry. #oow11 He sets the bar.”
“Bold & consistent if nothing else” (@ca_bshimmin)
“Great ideas! John Chambers, Cisco President, at Oracle OpenWorld”

I will not go through all the rich content of this entertaining and some times provocative speech  (“If you agree with everything I say today, I haven’t done my job”. John Chambers).  I hope to be very soon in a position to point to a the slide deck or even the recording of the speech -- So stay tuned
But here are some talking points (as perceived by the audience) , as well as the first reactions  on this speech about change from The Register and The New York Time

Read More »

Tags: Cisco, cloud, data center, john chambers, Oracle, twitter, virtualization

Service providers are recognizing the power of Cisco’s cloud solutions to deliver best-in-class services to their customers. Based in Chile, Entel has worked to integrate the power of data center computing with the intelligence of the network in a Unified Service Delivery approach. The combination of network and compute sets Entel apart as a leading provider in Chile.

Check out what Entel is saying about the quality of Cisco’s services and solutions, including UCS servers and Nexus data center switching.

Tags: Cisco, cloud, data center, Entel, nexus, UCS, usd

By Daniel Howard, CTO and SVP, Engineering of SCTE

As you know, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) continues to strive to provide new and unique ways to both train and challenge the cable workforce and our members.   Through our Chapters, we have been holding a very successful Olympic-style challenge for field-level employees that includes both hands-on skill assessments and knowledge-based contests, and this continues to be a big hit with our members and the industry.  But one thing I kept hearing in meetings with cable executives, managers and at SCTE chapters was the need for SCTE to provide resources and involvement opportunities for the IP engineers and computer scientists in our workforce who manage an increasingly larger portion of the overall network.

I’m therefore proud and excited to announce the new SCTE IP Challenge that we developed in partnership with Cisco as a response to this need.  This new interactive event was created to drive awareness of the importance of foundational IP knowledge among the cable workforce, and it is designed to promote the benefits of IP expertise in the cable industry, as well as leverage thought leadership around IPv6 in particular. Read More »

Tags: cable, Cisco, daniel howard, ip challenge, ipv4, IPv6, QoS, routing, scte, security, Service Provider, society of cable telecommunications engineers

The need for cities to balance social, economic, and environmental resources is becoming increasingly critical. Cities, however, now have an opportunity to use the network as the platform for visualizing and modeling urban infrastructure to provide innovative urban services and manage urban sustainability. Using the network as the fourth utility (in addition to electricity, water, and natural gas), cities can integrate multiple systems to deliver on-demand services over an Internet-enabled cloud infrastructure supported by open innovation.

Busan Metropolitan City is one example of a city poised for Smart City development. Busan is South Korea’s second-largest metropolis and home to the fifth-largest port in the world. It also boasts an established 10GB broadband infrastructure, Busan Information Highway. As the city continues to grow, it faces the same environmental, economic, and social issues as other metropolitan areas. Because of this, the Busan government is investing in expanding the existing broadband infrastructure to improve urban services and service quality. Read More »

Tags: Busan Metropolitan City, Cisco, cloud services, IBSG, infrastructure, meeting of the minds, network, S+CC, Smart City, Smart+Connected Communities, u-City, urban services, urban sustainability