It’s that time of year:  take a break, reflect, maybe clean up the hard drive.

I had a chance to do the reflection part last week, and came up with what I hope is a pretty good weave of what Service Providers experienced over the last 12 months.

Here is my ‘take’ on the top five trends of the whirlwind year that is still, for a week or two, 2011:

1.    In the crawl-walk-run sequence as it relates to the global shift to all-IP, 2011 went from “crawl” to “jog” — skipping “walk” entirely.

Think about it. Think about all of it, which is a lot, when it comes to the global transition to all-IP: Fixed networks; mobile Internet, Video, Cloud.

Across the world, wherever there is IP, there was monumental change in 2011. While 2010 was a year of anticipation and preparation, 2011 teemed with news and trends about the burgeoning Internet: more Video, more emphasis on mobile broadband; more work on keeping the “big iron” routing and switching fabrics around the world plumbed to keep up with demand.

We continued to do our best to keep up with the enormity of all-IP, with our ongoing VNI (Visual Networking Index) and Cloud Index forecasts. We’re still anticipating a quadrupling of Internet traffic by 2015, mostly because of video usage by mobile and “connected” IP devices. Lots more data here.

2.    Video (still) trumps as the biggest driver in Internet / IP usage. Read More »

Tags: 2011, cloud index, ip, mobile broadband, reflection, Service Provider, video, videoscape, visual networking index, vni

Get your passports ready! Coming off the successful event last February and in preparation for the next World IPv6 Day, Cisco again is sponsoring the V6 World Congress 2012 in Paris February 7-10 2012. This is an opportunity to hear from a number of IPv6-related companies such as Google, Yahoo, Softbank, Comcast, and of course Cisco.  In addition to the keynotes and panels the event also provides a unique opportunity to actually meet one-on-one with Cisco’s technology leaders.

While previously this was a service provider focused event, this year includes a number of sessions targeted towards enterprise customers, so even if you aren’t a network provider it’s still a great venue to learn about the transition to the IPv6 Internet.

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Tags: cgv6, Cisco, Dan Wing, Eric Vyncke, France, IPv6, Mark Townsley, MPLS World Congress, Paris, Ralph Droms, Service Provider

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are leading the way to cloud services. In fact, SMBs represent two-thirds of the public cloud market, outpacing the growth of enterprise cloud adoption by about 10 points, according to a recent McKinsey report (“Outlook—Overcast and Bright: How the Cloud Is Transforming IT for SMEs,” McKinsey & Company, July 2011). Yet, many service providers (SPs) are wondering whether the rate of SMB cloud adoption makes it worthwhile to invest in cloud and managed services for SMBs. They are asking:

• Is now the time to invest in SMB-focused services?
• What do SMB customers want?
• How do SMBs want to consume cloud services?

SMB Cloud Watch is ongoing research from the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) designed to answer these questions. Here are some highlights of our most recent findings: Read More »

Tags: Cisco, cloud, Cloud Computing, cloud services, IaaS, IBSG, infrastructure as a service, managed services, research, SaaS, Service Provider, small and medium-sized businesses, small medium business, SMB Cloud Watch, SMBs, software as a service, SP

We are already well into the planning phase for Mobile World Congress 2012, which will be upon us sooner than we think – and here’s some advice: book your flights soon! And please do come by to visit Cisco in Hall 8, Stand A111 to learn how you can M.O.VE your mobile networks to meet the challenges of and profit from the still-rapid growth in mobile data consumption. We will demonstrate several innovative Mobile Internet solutions that can help you launch new services and business models while optimizing your mobile network to lower costs. We promise to make these demonstrations immersive and engaging, and even hands-on if you’re willing to try! Read More »

Tags: demo, mobile world congress, mwc, Service Provider

Mobility is, and continues to remain a top business priority for service providers around the globe and one of Cisco’s five company priorities.  There is an insatiable desire in the market for connectivity anytime, anywhere and on all the latest devices.

At Cisco, we are uniquely positioned with an architecture that spans from the client -- to the network -- to the cloud to meet these demands.  We are constantly innovating to further define mobility technology and solutions across all of these areas to address service provider challenges of network reach and network intelligence.   This unique position makes us attractive to both customers and prospective employees.
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Tags: Cisco, innovation, juniper, MITG, mobility, Paul Mankiewich, Service Provider