Yesterday we reprinted the first part of Telecom Asia magazine’s interview with Brian Shoda, director of Cisco NGN architecture sales for Asia Pacific. Here is the second and final part of the story.

4. [Telecom Asia] How can telcos better optimize and simplify their network architectures?

[Brian Shoda] The traditional layered and hierarchical model of network architecture has served operators well for many years. Today, the demands on operator networks are vastly different to those of the past. Optimization and simplification of network architectures is a key focus for most operators. Long lead times for activating new capacity, idle link capacity, and 1:1 bandwidth reservation are all costly methodologies and are no longer feasible for the modern operator.

Cisco’s Elastic Core and nLight solutions address Read More »

Tags: Brian Shoda, Cisco, Cisco onePK, IP NGN, ONE, SDN, Telecom Asia magazine

Last month Brian Shoda, a 12 year veteran of Cisco and most recently the director of Cisco’s IP NGN architecture sales for the Asia Pacific theatre, sat for an interview with Telecom Asia magazine. During the interview he discussed the impact of programmability on the network and why dynamically configuring services is important for telecom operators. Since some of our global audience doesn’t read Telecom Asia magazine they’ve graciously allowed us to reprint the interview.

1. [Telecom Asia] What are the key trends driving the transition in SP networking?

[Brian Shoda] Over the past several years, service provider networking has primarily focused on cost reduction through network optimization and revenue generation and the development of new and innovative products. However, recently with the explosion of mobile data traffic growth many operators have struggled to control capital expenditures as they scale their networks to support demand, often diverting capital from product development to ensure the on-going scalability of the infrastructure. In many markets, this has led to the stagnation of innovation and the commoditization of network services, which, in turn has lowered revenues and reduced margins as operators compete on price to maintain and grow their customer bases.

Other factors such as Read More »

Tags: Brian Shoda, CEWA, Cisco, Cisco onePK, IP NGN, ONE, SDN, Telecom Asia magazine

Over the next several years, worldwide consumer Internet traffic is expected to increase fivefold, reaching a compound annual growth rate of 36 percent.

I’m no mathematician, but I’m guessing that amounts to a whole lot of traffic. It also means that your service provider customers will need to keep pace to ensure they have enough network capacity to support the accelerated demand.

You can help by taking advantage of the Advanced IP Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) Architecture Specialization. It’s available now to qualified partners.

Leverage this new specialization to help your service provider customers create, enable, and integrate a variety of high-quality video, mobility, and cloud solutions for businesses and consumers alike—all on a single IP-based network.

Want to find out how you can benefit from this architecture specialization, and how it can help you differentiate? Read More »

Tags: Cisco, IP NGN, partner, Service Provider

By David Flesh

Planning on attending TM Forum Management World Africa? We hope you’ll join us.Cisco is going to have a table top demonstration area, plus a discussion regarding service provider management offerings, and the opportunity to meet with key members of the Cisco executive team at TM Forum’s Management World Africa this September 20-21, 2011.  This event will take place at the Hilton Sandton in Johannesburg.

TM Forum’s Management World provides a unique opportunity for senior executives to network with peers to learn about the latest trends in the industry. Cisco is sponsoring executive meetings and has hospitality suites reserved at the event. Executives from the Cisco Network Management Technology Group and Advanced Services teams will be available to meet with customers to discuss the Cisco service provider offerings. Read More »

Tags: Cisco, cisco advanced services, Cisco Network Management, cisco prime, IP NGN, Management World Africa 2011, Service Provider

Following the announcement of the ASR 9000 System last month, it was not too surprising that one of the most popular demos at Cisco Live in Las Vegas was the Service Provider IP NGN pod. For this event we had a setup which included 100GE interfaces connected between an ASR 9000 (edge) and a CRS-3 (core). Ultimately over the course of the show we totaled over one thousand 100GE customer engagements, and nearly 200 ASR 9000 Test Drive (better known as “Robot Arm”) demonstrations.

Capability to support 100GE is something that we see consistently in customer RFPs, even if they intend to deploy 10GE initially. It’s all about investment protection while (in some cases) they wait for the cost of 100G to be more competitive with using multiple 10GE links. Given the cost of 100 Gbps pluggable optics, it’s amazing to hold in your hands something so small and plain that sells for the cost of a luxury car.

Also a hit was the award winning Cisco ASR 9000 Test Drive, about which I’ve blogged before. This of course was physically located in San Jose, and streamed to Cisco Live while being controlled on the show floor by the users. (A true, but little known fact – the inspiration for the Test Drive came from toy heat engine known as the “drinking bird”. We liked the idea that the IOS XR-enabled ASR 9000 keeps running much like a perpetual motion machine).

Read More »

Tags: 100GE, asr 9000, Cisco Live London, core, CRS-3, edge, IP NGN, robot arm demo, Service Provider, test drive