Only a few years ago, the challenges facing mobile providers seemed well within the realm of their traditional expertise. Their vast and complex infrastructures, built around towers, antennas, core networks, and the like, focused on providing the bandwidth and signal quality necessary for providing clear voice signals. Early mobile Internet applications were limited to services like weather, news, and stock quotes. As video entered the picture, it was mostly limited to a quick, manageable snack here and there on YouTube. After all, on a tiny, phone-sized screen, the prospects for a sumptuous two-hour movie feast were limited.

The situation, however, is being radically transformed. And at this years’ Mobile World Congress, which I attended last week in Barcelona, a clear focus was on a prime disruptor: the tablet and vast, media-rich applications. For with the sudden and phenomenal growth of the iPad—along with its Android-based counterparts—end users who had been limited to quick bites on YouTube are ready to indulge in long-form video buffets, anytime and anywhere. And while those game-changing tablets don’t quite provide an IMAX experience, their larger screens nevertheless offer the perfect mix of visual quality, mobility, and convenience.

For mobile service carriers, however, this has created a certain amount of havoc. Read More »

Tags: applications, apps, Cisco, data, deluge, IBSG, mobile, mobile world congress, monetization, mwc, Networks, optimization, providers, Service Provider, Tablets, video, wi-fi

On Saturday, March 10, Jasmin Melvin published the story “Web Giants Face Battle Over ‘Do Not Track’, Other Consumer Privacy Legislation.” The U.S. government, and governments around the world, have their eyes set on Google, Apple, and Facebook and their current and future policies in regards to internet privacy laws. SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, was the legislature’s first major attempt at regulating the Internet, and web giants like Google and Wikipedia responded with a day of blackouts, generating “3.9 million tweets, 2,000 people a second trying to call their elected representatives, and more than 5,000 people a minute signing petitions opposing the legislation.” SOPA may have failed, but you can be sure it won’t be the last attempt at regulation. This week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), plans to issue new recommendations for Internet privacy and data management policy.

You might think, “What’s the big deal, sure I want my privacy protected from Google, Facebook and the like, this is the United States of America.” Well, it’s not quite that simple. I agree, Google and Facebook can’t afford to get this one wrong: they would risk losing massive numbers of users who opt out, or choose new options that don’t track data or new features such as a “do not track” button. But decisions like this have massive consequences that go beyond personal privacy and data management. Read More »

Tags: ad revenue, ads, Altimeter Group, data, facebook, FCC, Google, internet, internet privacy laws, jeremiah owyang, privacy, social media, sopa, stop online piracy act

Marketing is transforming. We’re aligning closer to sales, owning more of the revenue pipeline and being held more accountable. To be a successful marketer we need understand our customers’ and potential customers’ needs and behaviors so that we can respond effectively with appropriate messages about our products and services. CRM systems allow us to do this. The data housed inside a CRM system can help close sales faster, retain customers, find new customers, and offer superior customer service – all things that ultimately increase revenue. So why is it that  less than 50% of executives are fully satisfied with the business benefits of CRM? How can we ensure that at least for marketing that we are maximizing the investment in our CRM tools and leveraging them to drive the right kind of engagement with customers and prospects?

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Tags: b2b marketing, business goals, Cisco partner marketing, crm, data, marketing automation

Have you ever wondered how Cisco IT overcomes the challenges of deploying products and technologies in a large-scale, global enterprise – the same challenges that your customers face everyday?  Or how Cisco IT is transforming into a sharply competitive, services-centric organization? Cisco on Cisco: Inside Cisco IT shares our journey and lessons learned on these and many other fronts.

We’ve just redesigned our website from the ground up to make it easier and faster to find Cisco IT content relevant to you and your customers.  Head over to the Cisco on Cisco website to benefit from our IT Success Stories that include case studies, best practices, videos, and interactive content.

The new site focuses on content that YOU are looking for:

• How does Cisco build a highly secure network that connects anyone, anywhere, on any device, at any time? Check out our Borderless Networks page.
• How does Cisco enable collaboration, boosting productivity and enhancing myriad business processes?  Visit our Collaboration page.
• Want to know more about the cloud, virtualization, service-oriented infrastructure, and unified computing? Our Data Center page can help.
• How does Cisco IT achieve greater workplace efficiencies and help solve business process problems?  Learn more on our Business of IT page.
• Click on our Events page to see when and where you can engage with the Cisco on Cisco team at industry events.

Take a look Inside Cisco IT today at  http://www.cisco.com/go/ciscoit.

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Tags: aaron, aaron chiles, borderless, Borderless Networks, business of it, center, chiles, Cisco, Cisco IT, cisco on cisco, collaboration, data, data center, information, IT, Networks, technology

The New York Times’ Nicole Perlroth filed an alarming account of government and corporate network vulnerabilities that comes across like a briefing dossier read by James Bond aboard a Heathrow-Beijing flight. But it does the good work of putting a critical technology issue before a broad audience.

“Traveling Light in a Time of Digital Thievery” (NYT, Feb. 10) details extraordinary counter-espionage precautions taken in China by prudent travelers and their organizations. Many now leave their usual notebooks, smartphones and tablets safe at home. Some say a device taken into China is never again permitted to touch their corporate network.

Read More »

Tags: cyber security, cybercrime, cybersecurity, data, data deluge, government, security