We’re already to Tuesday of Cisco Live Las Vegas and almost everyone has arrived. The show floor and sessions are packed! It’s going to be a memorable event when we close up on Thursday. Again, if you are not able to make it physically, please join us online.
After mentioning some of our partners and customers yesterday, I feel the there is more to that piece of story of why Cisco Live is so important. I’ve talked here before about the benefits of Cisco’s Unified Computing System blade and rack next-generation data center products and tying our compute solution to the intelligence in the delivery network gives SPs a level of control and efficiency that isn’t matched by OTT players for quality offerings; I still believe those advantages combined under our Cisco Unified Service Delivery solution and are what sets Cisco out from the rest of the Cloud solution equipment providers.
But of greater importance is the when a customer stands up and points to your infrastructure underlying their successful business. I would like to publically thank our other public Service Provider data center customers that over the last 2+ years have come out praising Cisco’s Unified Service Delivery solution and are on their way along the pathway to Cloud.
Contributed by David Flesh, Sr Manager, Product Marketing, Cisco Network Management Technology Group
With the growth in connected devices and the imminent transition from IPv4 to IPv6, managing IP address has become increasingly critical and complex. Organizations can no longer rely on spreadsheets to track IP address allocations. What is required is the ability to discover IP addresses and proactively manage their allocation, both to optimize IPv4 addresses and plan for the move to IPv6. Cisco Prime Network Registrar provides manageability, flexibility, control and visibility into the network – to simplify IP address management and ease the transition to IPv6.
We are showing a preview of Cisco Prime Network Registrar at Cisco Live. Please visit us in both the Enterprisebooth (Booth # 1349) and in Service Provider booth (Booth # 1183) to learn about the new capabilities of this new solution. Both booths will be running a limited demo of Cisco Prime Network Registrar to highlight some of the great new IPAM functionality.
Join us Wednesday for a session on Network Registrar including a customer case study from IBBS. IBBS have used Network Registrar to help build a managed services business that supports over 250 service providers.
Today Cisco Live! in North America kicks off in Las Vegas with about 14,000 attendees. This will be the first of a number of worldwide Cisco Live! events this year with others planned in Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Australia. All around the world, Cisco Live! has evolved to become an event where Cisco experts can interact with us and each other, learn technical skills, and stay up-to-date with what’s relevant in the industry. This year’s tag line, “Learn. Connect. Collaborate Together”, applies well to the Cloud market as we bring forward a smarter, stronger, and faster methodology for service delivery. Together.
If you’re going to be here in Las Vegas this week for Cisco Live!, here are some sessions I suggest you check out:
Exhibit Floor: Open all week, I hope you will swing by the World of Solutions. The World of Solutions has demonstrations from a number of innovative cloud partners. As an example, you can see our Service Provider Cloud pod with a demo showing our work with BMC on the Integrated Cloud Delivery Platform and my team will be glad to talk to you about where you stand today, opportunities for us to work together on, and answer any other questions.
Movie Theater at our Partner Pavilion: We have great videos to share with you, including a 3D movie called “Journey to the New Services Universe” and great videos from SAVVIS, NaviSite, Qwest, CSC, BT Global Services, and Terremark to name a few. While over at the theater, please check out what some of our other partners including PAETEC, SunGard, NEC, and Dimension Data are there to talk about regarding the Cloud and their specialties in improving your business.
Enabling the Service Provider Cloud Evolution (Wednesday, Noon-1:30 PM PST): A registration-required lunch event where Cisco invites you to join a distinguished panel of experts (including Jeff Spagnola, VP Sales – Cisco Cloud and Managed Services, Alex Rigaldo, Chief Operations – Orange Business Sytems Cloud Computing, Jesper Andersen, Senior VP – Cisco Network Management Technology Group, Dave Lively, Director – Cisco Systems Development for Cloud/DC, Sidney Morgan, Cisco Distinguished IT Engineer, Vikrant Karvir, VP, Cisco Global Cloud/DC Virtualization Services, and myself) to discuss the latest advances in Cisco’s Service Provider Cloud Architecture. Cisco’s approach to cloud opportunities includes helping to build out the data centers powering the cloud, as well as applying capabilities in the network to enable intelligent connectivity within and beyond the data center. Please use session identification GENSP-4743 to register for the event.
The Network’s Role in Cloud (Tuesday, 8-9:30 AM PST): A brand new session directed at the Service Provider crowd led by Pat Adamiak, Sr. Director, Cisco Service Provider Data Center/Cloud Marketing, on the pivotal role that the network plays for Service Providers in the creation and delivery of differentiated services. The session will cover innovations within the network that enable cloud services, discussing core features, instrumentation, and intelligent automation services to leverage the full capabilities of the SP network and capture the cloud opportunity. This session is listed under BRKSPG-1701 in the event agenda.
Much of the activity on this side over the past month has been around the introduction of the ASR 9000 System. As I highlighted in my earlier post, the System is Super & Simple, creating a new standard of performance -96 Tbps for the Edge (and a new standard for efficiency) - delivering up to 70% cost savings than competitive platforms, which translates to bottom line benefits for the providers.
In fact, the list of the customers which are taking advantage of the benefits delivered by the ASR 9000 is not only in excess of 500, but is continuing to expand. NTT Plala, Tata, Comcast, Cox, and Fastweb were announced last month, with more anticipated soon.
But in the midst all of the press activity around the news and momentum the platform is having with customers, we are also able to sit down with a range of industry and financial analysts to dive deeper about what the ASR 9000 System can do for a service provider’s network and business.
Brendan Gibbs, our Senior Director of Product Marketing for our SP Edge Routing Portfolio and an all-around great guy, had the chance to sit down in a “hot-seat” session with ACG Research’s co-founder Ray Mota (who, while also a nice guy, is pretty intimidating, too, since, as a former elite baseball player, his hands are so big he could palm my face…and because of the fact that he has a chair that in and of itself is called a “hot seat”) for a discussion into the details of the ASR 9000 System announcement.
Among the topics they cover in the video are: Read More »
The occasion was the launch of the Next Generation Hotspot trials. These trials will set the stage for the future of Wi-Fi, establishing it as a robust, secure technology that will augment and complement 3G and 4G networks for years to come.
Next Generation Hotspot is based on the concept that Wi-Fi networks should be as safe and easy to access as cellular networks. Some of the base specifications for network discovery (IEEE 802.11u), authentication (IEEE 802.1x), and security (IEEE 802.11i) were well underway. The cellular example of using SIM cards for user identification and using roaming hubs for inter-carrier negotiation and billing were then applied and the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) specification for Hotspot 2.0 was a result.
The trials also represent a historic cooperation between the WBA, WFA, and GSMA. The WFA will hold a series of test events that will allow vendors to test and certify against the specification, and the WBA will carry out the trials in operator networks. Twenty-seven operators, vendors and roaming hubs have signed up for the trials. The trial results will be provided to the GSMA for harmonization with 3GPP standards.
