Interop was made more fun for us this year since we got to be on stage. Most of what we usually do is on camera of course…but presenting in front of people is the best.
Since we started TechWiseTV 7 years ago, we have tried to always get better at our on-camera skills. This has involved diligent effort not just improving our own skills but also how we can make it easier for others to shine with us. In other words, hosting.
It was Cisco’s Enterprise Networking team that asked if we would like to host a few stage spots during this years Interop show. Heck yeah we said. Mainly because it was a chance to ‘work an audience.’ You can certainly work a camera but what sucks is that the camera really never gives anything back.
Even the dullest audience will provide at least one nodding head or small smile. That alone can fuel an entire presentation. So we mixed it up this time. We had our A-Team for the camera crew so we were able to divide and conquer.
All of our stage appearances were quite free-form, but they did have a structure even if it was not apparent to those present. It was built around work pioneered by Marlowe Fenne. Marlowe is actually a day one veteran with TechWiseTV who has continued on his own path building bridges between customer problems and Cisco solutions. He had put together what I called a ‘MOC NOC’ for Interop. Customers were able to see first hand how their top challenges (as determined by multiple focus groups) were mapped to Cisco technologies and solutions. Easier than it sounds, let me assure you. Marlowe is such a good presenter, we were able to leave our crew with him while we did our song and dance on stage..then all Jimmy Ray and I had to do was record an intro and a close.
Challenges in the NOC: Wired and Wireless
Four ‘success factors’ were gleaned from these focus groups:
Don’t miss Bridging the App Gap where I will interview multiple Cisco customers and even Cisco itself. Fully understand all the Application Experience has to offer.
Funny Story
Our first day of presenting overlapped just a bit as Jimmy Ray was previously committed to one of his popular TechWiseTV workshops that he had to give from his Mandalay Bay hotel room. He did his usual pre-presentation technology checks to make sure all was working well. This was even more important this go-round as the hotel wireless was so bad it felt purposeful..as in…why are you on the Internet? Get down to the casino! Who knows. Well try as he might, he could not get a consistent connection wired or wireless in the hotel room.
Backup plan A was a higher powered wirelesss card that he tried to use and acces wireless from the adjacent Luxor hotel…but that was not holding steady either. So fallback plan B involved something I would never have guessed: An acoustic coupler. Fancy (but accurate) term for a modem.
If you don’t know what this is, go ask your parents…this is how we all used to get on the network. (I hesitate to say Internet). Plan B goes into action at a blazing 28.8 baud and another workshop goes off without a hitch..the audience was never even aware. Anyone else out there hosting Webex on a modem? I didn’t think so.
The original vision of a ‘borderless’ continues to play out this week at Interop and we have a TechWiseTV episode covering all the details. ’Simplified and Secure’ is how Inbar Lasser-Raab put it. The power of ONE: Network, Managment and Policy
Sachin Gupta is our first guest expert here to explain how Cisco’s Unified Access Network offers simplified IT operations, reduced operational costs, and better scaling to accommodate the proliferation of devices and applications now and in the future.
These just keep getting better! Reminiscent of Jack Bauer and Chloe O’Brian’s heroics on 24, check out the new animated mini-movie from Cisco in the continuing “Ike” series:
For those who may be unaware of the series, Ike Theodore (IT) Willis is the (mostly) silent IT guy who thwarts theft, fraud, and other calamities in a not-so-smooth fashion. He’s essentially James Bond’s awkward younger cousin who got an engineering degree instead of joining the British Secret Service. He’s a bit of an everyman, and especially relatable for those of us with a love for technology. Read More »
Contributed by David Flesh, Sr Manager, Product Marketing, Cisco Network Management Technology Group
A common theme we hear from service providers is the challenge of delivering high-quality services at the lowest possible price. IP Next-Generation Network architectures are increasingly complex to operate with the volume of services growing at an exponential rate. To sustain the cost of deployment and maintain average revenue per user, communication service providers need an efficient management system that provides visibility into network and service performance.
Cisco just introduced a new performance management solution that helps enable service providers to proactively manage their next-generation networks, including service assurance and capacity planning. Cisco Prime™ Performance Manager complements an existing set of network management tools or works completely as a standalone solution. Cisco Active Network Abstraction (ANA) customers like the easy integration and the ability to access service and element performance information from the topology views.
Cisco Prime Performance Manager provides more than 200 pre-generated reports on a wide range of technologies. These reports help operators and network planners answer those questions that keep you up at night; questions such as which devices are over-utilized, what backhaul links are congested, and which services have poor quality or response time. With dashboard views showing network-level availability and utilization reports, operators can quickly identify the most pressing issues impacting the network. Pre-generated reports provide deep visibility into such areas as application traffic, availability of services and devices, IP quality of service, IP protocols, IP service level agreements, resource utilization, and transport statistics.
Contributed by David Flesh, Sr Manager, Product Marketing, Cisco Network Management Technology Group
I’m excited to be attending TeleManagement Forum Management World Conference this week in Dublin, Ireland. Come meet me and Executives from the Cisco Network Management Technology Group, Cloud & Managed Services, and Advanced Services teams. We will be available to meet with customers to discuss the Cisco service provider offerings, service provider architectures, management solutions and Cloud offerings at Liffey Suites 3 & 4.
Cisco has recently made several announcements relevant to service providers and the management of their networks. Announcements include The Cisco Carrier Packet Transport System, the industry’s first standards-based transport solution to help service providers better deliver video, mobility and cloud computing services, and Cisco Prime for Next Generation Packet and Transport Networks. The Cisco Prime™ portfolio of enterprise and service provider management offerings supports integrated lifecycle management of Cisco architectures and technologies based on a business-centric framework. Built on an intuitive workflow-oriented user experience, Cisco Prime products dramatically increase IT productivity, network scalability, and control of the network infrastructure and endpoints.
Visit our Demo Suite at Campshire 3 to experience our integrated management suite, Cisco Prime.
Also, Come see Cisco Cloud and management offerings in action at our Catalyst at Forumville, top deck Booth 2.
This year’s Catalyst will focus on Enhanced Cloud Service Management. This builds on our previous Inter-Cloud Service Management catalyst and shows how Service Providers can differentiate themselves with “Cloud Services” that leverage some of their most important assets and the TM Forum Frameworx. BT is project champion for the Catalyst and partners Comptel, Progress Software, MetraTech, Amartus, and InfoVista are joining Cisco in the development and delivery of the demo.
The original vision of a ‘borderless’ continues to play out this week at Interop and we have a TechWiseTV episode covering all the details. ’Simplified and Secure’ is how Inbar Lasser-Raab put it. The power of ONE: Network, Managment and Policy
A common theme we hear from service providers is the challenge of delivering high-quality services at the lowest possible price. IP Next-Generation Network architectures are increasingly complex to operate with the volume of services growing at an exponential rate. To sustain the cost of deployment and maintain average revenue per user, communication service providers need an efficient management system that provides visibility into network and service performance.
