Over the last six months, I’ve talked with numerous customers and partners. One thing is clear: People get it. Connecting employees, vendors, partners, and customers — so they can work together with no barriers — makes sense. It saves money and time, and builds relationships.

It seems like overnight we landed in a post-PC world — a place where working from anywhere, anytime is how it is every day. Two technology trends are driving this new work-style while embracing the existing IT landscape: cloud-based applications and smart mobile devices.

Cloud-based services are already familiar in the consumer world — with music, storage, and social media — and in the business world with customer relationship management (CRM) and other transactional applications. The software-as-a-service (SaaS) model offers well-known benefits to IT — such as rapid deployment, flexibility to meet changes in demand, and the ability to shift costs from capital to a predictable operating expenses — all while providing an “always on” service that is available anytime, anywhere.

I keep coming back to that: anytime, anywhere. It is the touchstone for this new work model. Smart mobile devices are the perfect complements to cloud-based services. We can have consistent access to information from different devices and locations throughout the working day. Check email, join a conference call, or participate in a video conference — all from your smartphone, notebook, tablet, or desktop. Whether you are on the road, in the office, or at home — place doesn’t matter. The Cisco WebEx cloud collaboration applications are hosted on the Cisco WebEx Cloud, a platform that supports nearly two billion Read More »

Tags: Cisco WebEx, Cisco WebEx Cloud, cloud, collaboration, crm, Post-PC Era, SaaS, software as a service

By Uwe Lambrette, Director, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group

Amsterdam may be the one place on earth where it rains more than it does in London. So, it was no surprise that I encountered stormy weather on my flight to Broadband World Forum (BBWF) 2012. As things turned out, the conference theme and the weather were clearly aligned, since the BBWF is fiercely embracing evolution to cloud. Here are some core themes that emerged as I shared some of Cisco IBSG’s findings at the conference:

Cloud 2.0: Most service providers (SPs) have already launched an initial cloud offering and are now beginning to measure scaling and growth. The initial offering is often a stand-alone cloud solution, typically focused on infrastructure as a service (IaaS). Once their original implementation goes live, SPs often need to focus on the following improvements: Read More »

Tags: BBWF, broadband, Broadband World Forum, Cisco, cloud, cloud 2.0, cloud economics, cloud go-to-market strategy, cloud service brokers, Hybrid Cloud, IaaS, IBSG, infrastructure as a service, network and cloud integration, SaaS, SDN, SDNs, Service Provider, software as a service, software defined networking

It is well understood that collaboration is helping companies execute business strategies. It improves productivity, enhances teamwork, improves decision making, and compresses time to market — whether employees and team members are in the same building or halfway around the world. Now, video and mobility solutions are taking collaboration to the next level. The business benefits of enabling people to communicate more naturally — anywhere and at any time — are clear and being realized by many.

Furthermore, the desire to consume collaboration services from the cloud is increasing as many of our customers discover the multiple benefits of extending the reach of collaboration services across their businesses in a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.  Customers are optimizing resources and gaining even more business and IT agility. They are enhancing business continuity and reducing risk of technology obsolescence while maintaining full visibility and control. End users are increasingly demanding  a consistent, rich user experience across the latest applications on their choice of devices.

Cloud collaboration is an integral part of Cisco’s Collaboration strategy, and Cisco’s focus is to provide customers with flexible choices on how they deploy collaboration so they can accelerate it across their business.  Cisco offers different deployment models to meet various customer use cases, including:  Read More »

Tags: Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution, cloud, cloud collaboration, collaboration, hosted collaboration, SaaS, software as a service

By Wouter Belmans and Uwe Lambrette, Directors, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group

As cloud computing matures and hype becomes reality, uptake among small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and large enterprises is increasing. And although the cloud is still in its infancy, the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) believes it is an appropriate time to ask: “How is the cloud value chain taking shape, and where are the battlefields I need to be concerned about?”

Cisco IBSG has found that major disruptions are taking place on six battlefields across the value chain:

1. SaaS Will Further Disrupt the Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Landscape Read More »

Tags: Cisco, cloud, cloud brokers, commercial, Computing, IaaS, IBSG, infrastructure as a service, ISVs, network service providers, NSPs, paas, platform as a service, Professional Services, SaaS, service providers, software as a service, SPs, Value Chain

Co-written by Bryan Mobley, Director, IBSG Service Provider

The business world’s rise to the cloud has been dramatic and increasingly rapid. From an initial attitude of vague interest mixed with trepidation, organizations have begun to embrace the transition in a big way. Some are already realizing the expansive benefits in costs, efficiency, and innovation that come with this game-changing technology.

To keep with the pulse of cloud migration, Cisco initiated a series of roundtable discussions two years ago. The philosophy of each meeting was to bring together 10 to 20 decision makers from a variety of enterprises, midsized businesses, and government agencies. So far, we’ve held 15 of these discussions across North America. In addition to providing a unique opportunity to share our thought leadership, these sessions provide an ideal forum for hearing our customers’ thoughts on cloud: the benefits, the inhibitors, and even a few war stories. In the end, however, it is the advantages of cloud that spark the most contagious conversations.

Here are some of the key trends that have emerged from two years of discussions:

Read More »

Tags: Cisco, cloud, Computing, enterprises, IBSG, infrastructure, migration, private cloud, Public Cloud, SaaS, Service Provider, services, SMBs, software as a service, vdi, virtual desktop, WebEX