President Obama is taking the US government mobile.

Recently, the President issued an executive order memorandum to his department and agency heads calling on them to embrace mobile technology to deliver more data, more efficiently. The order requests agencies to follow a new technology strategy called the “Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People,” which includes the request for a road-map for responding to the technology transformations of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and mobile device proliferation.

Many organizations are already embracing mobile devices with over 95% of them allowing employee-owned mobile devices in some way, shape or form in the workplace according to recent research sponsored by Cisco. Not only do we expect our employers to allow us to use our personal devices, we want to gain access to new products and services—from the private and public sector organizations. So, yes Mr. President, “Americans deserve a government that works for them anytime, anywhere, and on any device,” And --nice timing on this order, welcome to Silicon Valley-high tech land—I saw you fly in two week ago from the Saratoga hills!

Cisco shares this same sentiment of allowing people to use any device their way without compromising the organization. Cisco announced their answer to the BYOD (bring your own device)—with BYOD Smart Solution which starts with Cisco validated designs and professional services that can guide you from planning and design through day-to-day operations. It combines array of products starting with the core tenants of access points, security, controllers and network management. To address a key concern of the mobile experience, security, Cisco uniquely offers unified policy for secure access -- Identity Services Engine (ISE) and next generation remote access, AnyConnect—for always on secure remote access. And most recently, Cisco also spoke to a “Your Way” mobile experience which includes the core components and then some –which allows for more efficiencies and collaboration resulting in more productivity. Mr. President and US citizens this is very achievable!

Citizens of US –I would like to hear your thoughts on gaining Federal services from your mobile device –which services would be a priority for you? Why? Do you have any concerns? What is your number one concern?

Tags: access, byod, government, mobile, mobile devices, Obama, President, security, White House

Three years ago I wrote a paper “Top Ten Considerations for a Successful Evolved Packet Core Deployment” (if you want a bit of history, check it out here). In that paper, I listed flexibility as the #2 consideration and control plane/signaling as the #3 consideration. Number 1 was an “Open Evolved Packet Core.”

I think I was wrong. Today I believe that Control Plane/Signaling and flexibility should have been and should be co-Number 1s. Not that an open EPC is not needed, it surely is, but it’s now taken for granted that the EPC is the common core for all access mechanisms moving forward. Don’t feel bad Open EPC, Number 3 still isn’t bad.

Three years is an eternity in the mobile market and the one thing for certain is that there is no certainty. The market is moving faster and in more directions than Read More »

Tags: 3G, 4G, asr, ASR 5000, asr 5500, asr5000, asr5500, mobile, mobility

By Bill Gerhardt, Director, IBSG Service Provider

As you’ve probably noticed, mobile computing is exploding. My home has close to 10 mobile devices, and my kids want even more! According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, this insatiable demand for smartphones, tablets, and other connected devices will double globally in 2012 and increase another 78 percent by 2014.

At the same time, Cisco IBSG is seeing a similar rise in the worldwide popularity of Wi-Fi. In fact, according to In-Stat, the number of Wi-Fi hotspots is expected to reach 2.7 million, with usage growing 200 percent, by 2014.

Given this, how can service providers—who must bear the burden of increased traffic—actually Read More »

Tags: broadband, business models, Cisco, Computing, hotspots, IBSG, mobile, service providers, Smartphones, SPs, Tablets, wi-fi

There are seismic shifts taking place in our increasingly connected society. Mobile phones and devices aren’t just for staying in touch—they’re instruments of commerce, learning and entertainment. Social networking sites are creating communities of interest around any topic you can imagine—and whatever you’re into, there’s an app for that. Video is everywhere. Not just in the board room and on the desktop but the office lobby, the medical center, the sports arena, even the bottom on the ocean. And perhaps most importantly, Read More »

Tags: carl, carl_wiese, carl_wiese_blog, cisco_unified_communications, collaboration, collaboration_architecture_blog, collaboration_imperative, collaboration_imperative_blog, Collaborative, contact_center, experience, IM, intercompany_collaboration_blog, mobile, mobility, ricci, ron_ricci, ron_ricci_blog, social, unified_communications, video, virtual, virtualization, wiese

The Network: Cisco’s Technology News Site is now mobile. Depending on your device, users will automatically be directed to the mobile or standard site. The mobile site is built on Liferay using HTML5 so it can be accessed on a variety of mobile phones although it was specifically designed with the iPhone and Android phones in mind.

What Now?

Visit The Network on your smartphone or scan the QR code and add our site to your home screen for easy, on the go, access to Cisco news and industry trends that only The Network can deliver.
Read More »

Tags: html5, mobile, Newsroom