As someone who grew up riding the Boston MBTA, and later the New York City subway system, I have an affection for that gritty form of public transit. So I loved the New York Times article from some weeks ago that detailed the results of the city’s subway survey. My favorite quote:  “Please.  I’ve lived in New York for 20 years — I’ve seen more bizarre things on the trains than I can remember.  That’s why we live here.” 

When you zoom out from that passenger experience, though, there’s a lot that goes into building a subway system to carry all that humanity. Just look at this site dedicated to dreaming up a better MBTA for Boston. Clearly people rely on subway systems for different things and have very subjective needs when it comes to the design of the overall system. And that’s why Cisco’s new Smart Business Architecture (SBA) subway system is so cool. It’s designed to help you navigate easily from Point A to Point B as you move through the modules that help you turn a Borderless Network Architecture into a reality.

Each module—or subway stop—represents a prescriptive, step-by-step guide for a specific aspect of the Borderless Network Architecture. And when you zoom in to explore that guide, you find a clear point of orientation.

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Tags: architecture, Borderless Networks, Network design, SBA, Smart Business Architecture

I was chatting with a colleague recently who was recounting her experience as a first-year engineer just out of school. It was a role that required designing and troubleshooting complicated networks—MPLS or ATM with intricate VPI/VCIs. Not being a technical person, the acronyms alone seemed daunting to me. But what became painfully obvious was the time and resource drain that is inherent when supporting a vast number of customers with needs that change on an ongoing basis. Without a standardized reference or blueprint, they were forced each time to create—and re-create—the wheel, over and over. It was clearly a problem in need of a solution—and an architectural one at that.

At Cisco, we’ve been talking about how Borderless Networks can transform your business—from the IT management side of things, and from the end-user experience perspective. But what helps make that a reality is the underlying architectural blueprint.

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Tags: architecture, Borderless Networks, configuration, deployment, design, Networks, SBA, Smart Business Architecture