This is the third in a series of blogs comparing and contrasting the Microsoft and Cisco approaches to providing enterprise collaboration in the post-PC world. The first blog from Cisco SVP and GM, Rowan Trollope, discussed the differences between a purpose-built architecture and a desktop-centric approach that needs third party extensions to make a working enterprise-class system. The second blog discussed how the two companies are approaching the trend towards “Bring your own device” (BYOD) to work. Today’s blog discusses how the two companies deliver voice and video.

Suitable For Everyone or Restricted to Some…

We’re seeing more and more advisory labels on products these days that inform us whether they are suitable for everyone to use, or should be restricted to certain groups.  I’m wondering whether Microsoft should apply such a label to Lync? Let me explain, starting with Cisco’s point of view.   Read More »

Tags: business video, collaboration, instant messaging (IM), Microsoft, Microsoft Lync, Post-PC Era, research, survey, video, voice over IP, voip

The way that enterprises connect to the outside world is changing. The transition to voice over IP (VoIP) that began with enterprise networks a decade ago, is now in full force in service provider networks. In a report issued on Monday, Infonetics Research reported that Cisco, the global market leader for unified communications and collaboration, is now the new market leader in global enterprise session border control (SBC) solutions for the first half of 2012, providing secure IP connectivity from the enterprise edge to the service provider session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking service.

Why is this so important? Service providers are now offering SIP trunking services instead of legacy dial tone (also known as time-division-multiplexing or TDM) to connect to enterprises of all sizes, including small businesses. In fact, according to their 2012 VoIP and UC Services Report, Infonetics forecasts SIP trunks to grow over 66 percent in 2012 alone.  Customers are quickly embracing the new technology, which offers substantial cost savings and the promise of extending real-time rich-media collaboration applications beyond the enterprise to customers, partners and suppliers.

To begin realizing the benefits of SIP trunking, businesses need to deploy a session border controller in order to efficiently and securely connect to service providers while preserving voice quality and features. Session border controllers connect IP networks and provide session control, security, demarcation for better troubleshooting and interworking to help overcome differences in the deployment of the SIP standard (such as CODEC or signaling).

Cisco reinvents the collaboration edge

Cisco’s session border controller, called, Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) is a software license add-on to the widely deployed Cisco Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) and Aggregation Services Routers (ASRs). CUBE provides significant benefits over competitors’ stand-alone session border controller offerings.  For example, CUBE enables customers to transition more smoothly to SIP trunking while reducing costs and operational complexity, often requiring no new hardware to be purchased or deployed. As a result, CUBE has been adopted by over 5,000 customers in 160 countries.

In their report, Infonetics credited Cisco’s differentiated model for delivering SIP trunking service, stating: “This is a natural extension of Cisco’s dominant market position in the router market—the majority of organizations have Cisco routers already installed and deployed at the important network border points.”

Other benefits of CUBE include: Read More »

Tags: collaboration, CUBE, Infonetics, SBC, Service Provider, Session Border Control, SIP, SIP trunk, UC, unified communications, voice over IP

Two of Cisco’s finest will be presenting a breakout session today, April 2 at the 2012 Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems (DoDIIS) Worldwide Conference in Denver, Colorado.

Mike Harttree, Technical Solutions Architect, and Gary Hall, Chief Technology Architect, will present “Survey of Wireless & Mobility Architectures for Communication and Collaboration,” from 3:20 p.m. to 4:05 p.m.

Mobile and wireless technologies are transforming the way the world works. Personal and corporate mobile applications enable individuals to collaborate in new ways to improve their productivity. One of the great myths in the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense is that security concerns prevent wireless technologies and mobile devices from being used in support of a mission. The reality is that the wireless infrastructure is already in place and is expanding rapidly throughout the DoD community. How this infrastructure is integrated into enterprise and mission architectures is the key to successfully deploying more wireless capabilities and protecting information such as classified data, when it is transmitted over a wireless medium.

Read More »

Tags: collaboration, dod, DoDIIS, Gary Hall, Mike Harttree, mobility, Secure Communications, TelePresence, vdi, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, voice over IP, voip, wireless

In this final installment of our four-part customer testimonial, we take a look at Valley Sleep Center’s relationship with Invision Technology Solutions. The Cisco certified partner took the time to educate Valley Sleep Center employees about the latest technological innovations while also understanding their needs to build the right network. To further optimize the buying experience, the partner helped Valley Sleep Center utilize advantageous Cisco financing options. As a result, the company was able to upgrade affordably. We hope you enjoyed this customer case study. What can the right network do for your business?

Part One of the Valley Sleep Center

Part Two of the Valley Sleep Center

Part Three of the Valley Sleep Center

Watch Part Four>>

Read More »

Tags: Cisco, Cisco certified partner, Cisco financing, Cisco Partner, Invision Technology Solutions, right network, sleep clinic, solution, Valley Sleep Center, voice over IP, voip

New media and collaboration technologies have the potential to transform higher education in terms of the classroom, the learning process, the relationship between students and instructors, and how institutions conduct academic research. While much of the industry discussion revolves around use of consumer tools and social network sites like Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn, Cisco’s educational customers also see tremendous opportunity to increase student engagement and drive their own institutional strategies with “enterprise class” social software as well.

Since Cisco first announced Quad, we have had conversations with dozens of colleges and universities regarding the role enterprise social software and Cisco Quad can play in transforming education. Cisco Quad is an enterprise collaboration platform that brings people together to share ideas and content, collaborate on projects, and interact using chat, voice or video, regardless of where people are located.

Below, we’ve outlined four ways in which educational institutions are telling us enterprise social software is helping, or can transform the way learning, research, and academic advisement is crafted, delivered and consumed:

1. The 24/7 interactive classroom: Instructors often struggle to deliver a collaborative environment for their students that is secure and supports multiple access methods such as mobile.  Technology like Quad can enable students to interact in a secure, policy-based manner that extends the classroom conversation beyond physical walls. Courses partially or wholly targeted at off-campus students can similarly benefit from enhancing the class-like experience for remote students. For example, at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, the cross country MBA students based in the US, England, India and other countries are using Quad to create virtual working groups, find people with common interests, share files or videos with other students working on similar projects and instantly start video conferences or chat sessions. Quad provides students with the ability to interact, ask questions and share ideas with professors/faculty/tutorial assistants anytime, as opposed to only during fixed faculty office hours. It can also drive improved accountability on team projects, as content and comments are tracked in activity feeds and in project communities by both participating students and faculty leads.

2. Serendipitous Research: Quad contains several features, such as an activity feed that compiles microblog posts from students and staff and allows a snapshot view of a person’s current activities. These dynamic updating functionalities can facilitate broader cross-departmental collaboration, for students and researchers alike. Security features ensure that research that needs to be confidential is shared in a secure and safe manner.  As researchers update their statuses with exciting discoveries or frustrating problems, or create posts, upload videos or otherwise document their work, this content becomes accessible to hundreds of fellow university researchers through activity feeds and searches, making it possible for providential inter-disciplinary connections to be made and new insights to be generated. Read More »

Tags: 2012, chat, Cisco collaboration, Cisco Education, Cisco Quad, Cisco Unified Communications., collaboration, college, consumer, Duke University, edtech, education, edutech, enterprise collaboration, facebook, Fuqua School of Business, happy holidays, happy new year, higher education, highered, IM, linkedin, MBA, microblog, quad, social, social media, social networking, twitter, video, Voice, voice over IP