As many of you are aware, this week the Interop tradeshow is taking place in Las Vegas.

Did you know that Cisco is the primary sponsor of the show’s InteropNet?  InteropNet is a world-class, fully IPv6-enabled network powering the 15,000-attendee and 400-exhibitor tradeshow complete with dual-stack IPv6 capabilities to all capable endpoints. This is the first-ever show network to be “dual-stack” with IPv4 and IPv6 running side-by-side and it highlights Cisco’s IPv6 leadership.  For more info on our IPv6 activities, please click here.

In addition, those of you stopping by the Cisco booth (booth 1127) will notice demos of our latest solutions including the new Cisco ISR Cloud Web Security with Cisco ScanSafe solution announced today. This solution seamlessly extends ScanSafe Cloud Web Security to branch offices and provides scalable, centralized Web protection and malware detection on the Cisco ISR G2 branch router and requires no additional hardware.

With this solution, organizations can easily deploy cloud-based Web security and Web usage policies, enabling highly secure local Internet access for all branch offices and users while saving time, money, and resources associated with traditional hardware deployments. The cloud service delivery model and central user account administration also make Cisco ScanSafe easy to deploy, manage and maintain via remote IT staff.

For more information on this plus the rest of today’s news (including mobility updates), please click here.

Tags: g2, innovation, interop, IPv6, ISR, ISR G2

Furthering its leadership in networking, last week Cisco introduced new security,  management, and video solutions to its Borderless Networks portfolio to help information technology departments more efficiently manage the proliferation of mobile devices, ongoing changes in workforce habits, and the impact of video on the network.

The innovations include:

- Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) for policy management
- Cisco Prime for Enterprise to help organizations more effectively manage their network and network services
- Cisco Medianet and video conferencing to optimize video delivery.  Highlighting Cisco’s commitment to on-going innovation in its core technologies, this announcement included details of integrated video conferencing on the ISR G2.

To get an update on the full announcement, please watch this short video featuring Marie Hattar, VP of Borderless Networks Marketing and Ross Fowler, VP of Borderless Networks Sales here.

For the full press release, please click here.

Tags: Borderless Networks, ISE, ISR, ISR G2, management, policy, video

A common discussion I hear a lot is around how to ensure application performance when accessed remotely over WAN from a centralized data center. At the same time, efficiently utilizing the limited network bandwidth available is key to customers. Cisco WAAS solution can help achieve both these objectives in a cost efficient way.

WAAS (Wide Area Application Services) is Cisco’s WAN optimization solution that helps accelerate enterprise applications delivery and data transfer in cloud. The key benefits that Cisco WAAS solution provides for enterprise applications are:

• Improving end user experience for the global workforce accessing enterprise applications in private/virtual private clouds, resulting in enhanced productivity.
• Improving efficiency (reduced bandwidth requirements/time) for remote replication of the enterprise application data to the DR site are

The requirement for optimizing WAN traffic becomes even more critical as customers continue to adopt data center virtualization and private/hybrid cloud to run their most demanding applications.

Deployment flexibility/options with Cisco WAAS

Cisco WAAS offers multiple deployment options (both physical and virtualized), and can easily plug into different architectures across your datacenter/private cloud, virtual private cloud at service provider, remote/branch offices, Backup/DR site, and mobile workforce. The picture below shows the different deployment options available with Cisco WAAS.

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Tags: Application Velocity, Cisco, cloud, ISR G2, VMware, vWAAS, waas, WAN

“Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity.” - Michael Porter

There’s been some interesting coverage this week about President Obama’s State of the Union address. And while pundits on all sides debate the ideologies as well as the details, it’s easy to agree on one of his key points – that innovation is the key to getting the economy and the country back on track.

Given the importance of innovation, isn’t it worth taking a fresh look at innovation itself? Many “innovations” such as the Declaration of Independence, the Apollo Space Program, even clever ad campaigns, were all realized by having several smart people in one place to develop ideas together. But now that’s all changed.

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Tags: Borderless Networks, branch, ISR G2, routing, Unified Computing System Express

Today at CES, Cisco and Verizon Wireless announced the new Cisco 4G LTE Enhanced High-Speed WAN Interface Card (EHWIC) which integrates with the Cisco ISR G2.  This is part of Cisco’s next-generation mobile Internet architecture deployment at Verizon Wireless, which spans from the cell towers to the network core, to support a wide range of intelligent mobile devices and applications.

This 4G LTE EHWIC is the latest in a long line of ISR innovations from Cisco, the result of continued investment in our core technologies.

Cisco’s 4G LTE ISR G2 solution and Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network deliver a high-speed, reliable wireless WAN experience, enabling customers to create radically new business models at significantly lower costs.

For more information about today’s announcement, please see the press release here.

If you have any feedback or would like more information, please feel free to get in touch.

Tags: 4G LTE, CES, innovation, ISR, ISR G2, Verizon, Verizon Wireless