Open up access to enhanced teaching and learning resources utilizing BYOD with Cisco BYOD Solutions for K12 Education.  Read the Education blog.

McAllen Independent School District (ISD) is a great example of a school district utilizing Cisco BYOD Solutions for K12 Education.  With nearly 3300 employees and over 25,000 students in 33 campuses, McAllen ISD was challenged with a slow server and an overtaxed network. The bandwidth limitations and made it extremely difficult for the school to embrace the BYOD trend, let alone creating an enriched learning environment leveraging mobile devices.  Read More »

Tags: bring your own device, byod, campus, Cisco, device, education, enrich, K-12, K12, LAN, learn, mobile, mobile device, mobility, network, networking, school, school district, server, solution, student, teach, technology, wi-fi, wifi, wireless, wireless network, wlan

Usually at shows like Interop Las Vegas 2013, attendees wander around the show floor looking at all the new products that are coming out from vendors. Now it is always exciting to see the latest and greatest technology coming out, but very often there is so much information to consume it is difficult to envision how these new products will solve problems that IT organizations are facing today.

Cisco is taking a different approach at Interop this year. In the Cisco booth there are a number of demo stations including the traditional new product demos, ask the experts stations, trivia games and many more, but in addition there are two unique demos the “Your NOC Your Way” Demo and the Unified Access Experience Demo that take a solution perspective to addressing top IT concerns.

1. The “Your NOC Your Way” Demo

This unique demo focuses on how Cisco solutions can aid in addressing the top concerns of network operations managers. Read More »

Tags: access, bring your own device, byod, challenge, Cisco, demo, Enterprise, experience, interop, las vegas, network, networking, NOC, problems, router, routing, solution, switching, unified, wi-fi, wifi, wireless

My colleague Norm Jacknis (former CIO of Westchester County, New York) passed along a list of CIO concerns for 2013 that was prepared by Alan Shark of Public Technology Institute, a nonprofit that provides technology guidance to local government. The list for cities and counties included:

1. Big Data (Smart City)

2. Consolidation

3. GIS as centerpiece for strategic decision making

4. Mobility and broadband deployment

5. Cyber and network security

6. Cloud-based solutions

7. Legacy/modernization, RFP

8. Unified citizen engagement (311, social media)

9. Consumerization of technology (BYOD)

10. Shared services (across all jurisdictions)

What would you add or subtract?

I’d want to expand on a few of these items to include another emerging issue for CIOs and other government leaders: getting cities to embrace cloud and networking tools – while moving their urban economies forward.

Well, there’s good news to report on that overarching concern. There are several opportunities to learn more about how cities can embrace technology for economic growth:

• An important book is coming soon to your bookstore (virtual and physical): The Metropolitan Revolution: Restoring America From the Ground Up, by Jennifer Bradley and Bruce Katz, two of the best and brightest in Washington, D.C. Their work discusses how economic development power is being restored to metropolitan areas as they focus on driving local innovation, progress, and sustainability.
• Additionally, the Brookings-Rockefeller Project on State and Metropolitan Innovation, a five-year collaboration, has unveiled some proactive state and metro-led policies and solutions that help bring public sector leaders all the benefits of the ICT revolution that has reshaped (and revved up) the private sector.
• The Global Cities Initiative: A Joint Project of Brookings and JPMorgan Chase is a five-year effort to help city and metropolitan leaders in the United States and throughout the world become more globally fluent and expand their economic reach. This initiative concluded its first year with a capstone São Paulo Forum.

These forums, and others, can provide essential context and information for governments looking to take charge of their economic development by harnessing technology and cloud capabilities – but as an enhancement to local wares (such as raw materials or railroads) that remain the backbone of cities and metropolitan areas. ICT has systematically increased productivity and supported economic growth across both developed and developing countries.

Connecting this railroad to a multisystem cloud network would allow it to transmit data to people and other machines, becoming observable, controllable, automated, and secure – and all achieved remotely, via cloud management.

Comprehensive digital network infrastructure can connect companies and people, increase productivity, and, perhaps most important, may be cheaper and more efficient than conventional, massive infrastructure, such as new roads. The great thing about ICT is that it breeds innovation. An investment in the network doesn’t just improve the public sector – the positive impacts spill over into education, healthcare, security, and so many other realms.

As the world becomes more connected, we are witnessing the emergence of “Big Data.” These are the mountains of data coming out of all these digital interactions, which can then be collected, sifted, mined, and analyzed to provide “raw” data material for new inventions across many industries.

The Internet of Things is already here. As more and more objects become connected to one another, they produce huge amounts of data. This information can be collected and analyzed to allow people to make better, more informed decisions. Sources: Cisco IBSG, 2006–2011; Cisco VNI, June 2011; Technorati; Radicati Group; IDC; The Economist; Apple; InformationWeek.

A transition to a more connected world is difficult. It profoundly affects everyone by challenging the status quo and creating exposure to new complex risks. But incorporating ICT into local governments and communities also offers the possibility of transforming the public sector, changing the role of government, and enabling citizens to be more actively involved in shaping their community. And ultimately, people need to be successful enough to generate taxes, create jobs, and generally contribute to a prosperous economy. I firmly believe that ICT and the cloud network can help accomplish this. What are your thoughts?

And stay tuned to the Cisco Government blog for the next installment of the cloud for local government blog series or click here to register and reserve your copy of the complete compilation of the blog series, including this blog as well as a variety of cloud resources, which will be available in May

Tags: #economic growth, Big Data, CIO, CIO concerns, Cisco, cloud, cloud infrastructure, Cloud Management, economy, government, IBSG, ICT, Information and Communications Technology, network, network infrastructure, Smart City, urban economy

Open up access to enhanced teaching and learning resources utilizing BYOD with Cisco BYOD Solutions for K12 Education.  

McAllen Independent School District (ISD) is a great example of a school district utilizing Cisco BYOD Solutions for K12 Education.  With nearly 3300 employees and over 25,000 students in 33 campuses, McAllen ISD was challenged with a slow server and an overtaxed network. The bandwidth limitations and made it extremely difficult for the school to embrace the BYOD trend, let alone creating an enriched learning environment leveraging mobile devices. 

McAllen ISD chose Cisco to help with the initial steps upgrading their network to enterprise-class with Cisco BYOD Solutions for K12 Education.

With a pervasive, scalable and reliable wireless network, the school can now provide affordable mobile devices for a 1:1 learning experience to their students.

See how, after selecting and deploying Cisco’s BYOD Solutions for K12, McAllen ISD achieved anytime access and a greatly improved, learner-centric environment. Students can now utilize mobile devices anywhere on campus with wired-network speeds and performance.    Educators have enrolled into the Teacher Cadre Advocates Initiative program to discuss several innovative new methods of educating their students going forward.  Learning continues well beyond the classroom and can be accessed anywhere, anytime on campus with Cisco BYOD Solutions for K12 Education.

Technology will continue to transform education as an experience for both students and educators alike.  Learn more about Cisco BYOD Solutions for K12 Education.

Tags: bring your own device, byod, campus, Cisco, device, education, enrich, K-12, K12, LAN, learn, mobile, mobile device, mobility, network, networking, school, school district, server, solution, student, teach, technology, wi-fi, wifi, wireless, wireless network, wlan

Activate the IT Transformation with Unified Access: Part 4 --  Centralized Policy, Control, and Enforcement 

Wednesday, May 15, 2013  10am-11am PDT     |       Register Now

With more users and devices being added to your network every day, unified access and central policy control have become critical needs. Your organization isn’t alone.

Attend our next live workshop  on May 15th to hear how organizations in education and healthcare rely on Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) to provide the identity enforcement and secure access control that allow employees, contractors, students, faculty, and guests (choose the user) to use their own devices on the network. Read More »

Tags: access, activate, authentication, central, centralize, Cisco, control, demo, device, enforcement, ISE, IT, management, MDM, mobile, mobility, network, organization, policy, security, technology, wi-fi, wifi, wireless