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Just a few more hours until CiscoLive! London kicks off! We’ve got some great talks, challenges (competition where you can win a variety of prizes), and new solutions being launched.  In Lauren’s Borderless blog, she highlights a few of the activities and events that will be the most fun/cool/educational/tasty.

<SIDENOTE:> If you’re skipping CiscoLive then you’ll want to head right over to register for our live webcast, “Get Your Network Ready for BYOD with Cisco Unified Access” on January 29.  You’ll also want to start hanging out at the Cisco Borderless Networks community where we’ll have a Q&A and we have a bunch of upcoming events and fun. </SIDENOTE>

Here’re a few of the main bullets from the Borderless Blog that you don’t want to miss:

Continue reading “How to get the most out of CiscoLive! London”



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It’s that time of year again when we recognize and celebrate the work of so many unsung heroes, the Community Managers. Community Manager Appreciation Day is celebrated globally on the 4th Monday of January and was started back in 2010 by Jeremiah Owyang.

I joined the Cisco Global Social Media team in March of last year and have had the pleasure to work with many of our community managers. A common strength that shines through with all our community managers without a doubt is their dedication.

It’s dedication from Anna Sui, Partner Community Manager that allows 81,000 partners to tap into the Partner Community every month. Anna manages over 100 thriving topic areas and has built an extensive community and subject matter expert network where partners can receive and share latest news, product and program updates.

The Cisco Collaboration Community team, made up of Laura Douglas, Denise Brittin, Lisa Marcyes and Kelli Glass, empowers technical IT audiences in the Collaboration Community to learn about collaboration technologies for businesses through peer and Cisco interactions. Direct daily contact with Cisco Collaboration leaders, product managers, services consultants, technical marketing and Cisco engineers through the forums provides visitors with expert information and trusted relationships. The community also offers Cisco customers the opportunity to become more hands-on in shaping the direction of Cisco Collaboration solutions by joining the Cisco Collaboration User Group (CUG). Over 8000 (and growing) CUG members participate in betas, 1-on-1 feedback sessions with product managers, and “sneak peak” pre-announce product briefings.

The Collaboration and Partner communities above are just two examples, yet I know there are many more fantastic examples at Cisco. I’d like to ask all our community managers to take a couple of moments on Monday and reflect back on the dedication they have shown during the previous year and for them to recognize the amazing job they have done. And feel free to share successes by commenting on this blog post.

For our newer community managers and community managers to-be, I’d like to highlight our recently published Cisco Communities Playbook. Although the process of building an online community can be daunting, the Playbook provides guidance around defining, developing and driving engagement within communities. The Playbook still makes a great read for our veteran Community Managers providing ideas that may not have been considered previously.

As I wrap up, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank ALL of our Community Managers for the amazing dedication they have shown and wish them every success as they continue to drive their communities forward. Happy Community Manager Appreciation Day and please do share how you’ll be celebrating.

#CMAD



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The Education World Forum (EWF) is off to a cracking start.

Charles Clarke, former UK Secretary of State for Education and founder of the EWF, brought his huge experience of and commitment to turning political vision in to practical action, challenging the delegates to create the conditions that can transform education systems – forging consensus, building leadership, driving change. Education leaders everywhere have a huge responsibility for ensuring that they build opportunities for all, not just a few. Because that is both right and necessary to compete in the modern world.

Continue reading “Charles Clarke and Bob Geldof got the 2013 Education World Forum off to a Cracking Start”



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In a time when the manufacturing industry is in dire need of new employees as more and more baby boomers move to retire, I find it interesting that more than 50 percent of 2011 college graduates are either jobless or underemployed (AP Report). To me the numbers don’t add up. Sure, at first glance, it’s easy to blame the poor economy for the unemployment rate, but try considering reasons beyond that. What are the real reasons many college graduates are unemployed? I don’t necessarily think it’s because there aren’t jobs, because in the manufacturing industry, there are plenty. Some have estimated there are hundreds of thousands of jobs that are going unfilled in manufacturing in the US alone; jobs that are good-paying and that can be the foundation and means for someone to attain their “American Dream”.

As I reflect on this information, a couple of things come to mind. Kids growing up today are expected to go to college and graduate. This is great, but over the past few years, we have seen more and more students going to college without a well thought out career in mind. They all have aspirations to be “successful” and have a “dream job” once they graduate, but many students are never really able to untangle what that dream job looks like. This can lead to four or more years of education along with college debt without a clear career path.  Continue reading “Reshaping the Manufacturing Industry Perception to Attract the Next Generation”



Authors

Dan Kern

Lead Marketing Manager

Manufacturing & Energy Industry Sector

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Integrating Social Media Channels into Existing CRM Systems and Processes

The year is 2024, and you just walked into a department store to return a pair of jeans. As you enter the store, the near field communication (NFC) chip in your smartphone tells the store who you are because you have enabled the privacy settings to do so. The store knows you’re an active fan on Facebook. You’re even classified as one of their ambassadors. You’ve been identified as a frustrated customer after posting a comment on the company’s Wall about your brand new jeans being defective. One of the sales representatives receives an alert message that you’ve arrived, and she’s waiting for you in the jean section, holding a new pair of the same jeans, in your size, ready to make an exchange. The NFC chip in your phone has already confirmed your identity, reducing the need to show a receipt, credit card, or drivers license. You’re out the door with a new pair of jeans faster than you’re able to post a raving review on their Facebook wall, reclassifying you as an advocate in their CRM system.

“They replaced my busted jeans without even asking a question!”

OK, the year is not 2024, Cisco doesn’t sell jeans, and I’ve only been able to use NFC once in the year I’ve had it on my smartphone. But haven’t you wished that the company you just called already knew the past phone, email, even Facebook conversations you’ve had with them so that you didn’t need to explain yourself to them again and again? Isn’t your time valuable, shouldn’t all of their systems talk to each other to create a better, not worse experience for you? Continue reading “Connecting the Customer Experience Through Social #CiscoListens”



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Cisco Live Europe returns to London this year more precisely at the ICC Excel Conference Centre.

By focusing on “What You Make Possible”, attendees are invited to hear customer testimonials and see Cisco’s innovation solutions that showcase what is possible when partnering with Cisco.

WhatYouMake Possible

 

As usual the event is divided between a series of educational programs, starting on Monday January 28 with a full day of technical seminars , followed on the 29, 30, 31 and even Feb 1st by a large range of opportunities

  • Keynotes sessions with CTO Padmasree Warrior (1/29) and Data Center SVP/GM David Yen (1/30 )
  • Break out sessions
  • Panels
  • Labs
  • Meet the Engineers
  • Cisco Certifications

I will not detail all the activities. I encourage you to check the website. If you’re in London you want to attend directly – If not you may want to check www.ciscolive356.com to discover  a large  choice of sessions that you can attend on line .

This year we are honored to have NetApp as a Diamond Sponsor (Check John Rollason’s blog on NetApp activities a Cisco Live) . If Cisco, EMC and VMware have been collaborating intensively over the past years with the creation of VCE , and solutions such as VBlock and VSPEX , Cisco and NetApp have also reinforced the partnership moving it to a next level with a recent announcement around Flexpod (chek the blog from Todd Brannon More of a good thing: Cisco and NetApp open the next chapter for FlexPod)

 

Continue reading “Cisco Live Europe London Excel Centre Jan 28-Feb 1 : What You Make Possible”



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 This week at Cisco live! in London, Citrix is demonstrating the Citrix NetScaler VPX virtual application delivery controller (vADC) on the Nexus 1110 Cloud Services Platform . NetScaler VPX is the industry-leading vADC and is further testimony to the expanding ecosystem for the Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual networking portfolio and the Cloud Network Services platform. The integrated Cisco-Citrix solution follows on the heels of last year’s agreement by the two companies that Cisco would reference sell the Citrix NetScaler portfolio, and Cisco’s demonstration of its Nexus 1000V virtual networking portfolio on Citrix XenServer.

Citirx

 

The Nexus 1110 is the latest generation of appliances that started with the Nexus 1010. The Nexus 1110 helps customers that are virtualizing more of their application and security services and want to run them on a dedicated platform. For example, virtual firewalls, like our Virtual Security Gateway (VSG), complement physical firewall appliances to support virtual application deployments and VM mobility requirements. The Nexus 1110 appliance serves that need, running a range of virtual services on a platform that the networking and security teams can more directly control than the other application servers.

With Citrix NetScaler VPX integrated into the Nexus 1110 Cloud Services Platform, enterprise IT admins can scale-out deployments by enabling additional virtual NetScaler instances (VM’s) directly from the Nexus 1110. NetScaler VPX also provides feature and management consistency across physical and virtual ADC’s, as well as consistency across physical and virtual workloads that are being managed. The NetScaler portfolio includes two other physical appliances, MPX and SDX. The virtual VPX can also load balance across both physical and virtual servers, as well as multiple web servers, application servers and database servers.

N1110 Continue reading “Citrix NetScaler VPX gets going on the Cisco 1110 Virtual Network Services platform”



Authors

Shashi Kiran

Senior Director, Market Management

Data Center, Cloud and Open Networking

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If you haven’t heard about Unified Management, it refers to our portfolio of data center and cloud management software products. Cisco’s data center and cloud management software helps our customers to deliver IT services faster, more efficiently, and with lower total cost of ownership.

This year we’ve made it even easier for you to learn about these software solutions, with several demo stands on the expo floor and more than 17 breakout and theatre presentations.

We invite you to join us at Cisco Live London and learn more…

http://youtu.be/QkMXMe3pVQg

Continue reading “Learn about Unified Management in the Data Center and Cloud Booth at Cisco Live London 2013!”