Year: 2014

May 6, 2014 Leave a Comment
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Data Virtualization: Achieve Better Business Outcomes, Faster

Data, Data Everywhere!

The challenge of making business decisions in a networked world isn’t a lack of data. It’s having data residing in multiple systems, global locations, locked away in spreadsheets, and in people’s heads.

Almost every enterprise faces this data silos challenge to a greater or lesser degree. But how businesses address it makes the difference between becoming a market leader or an “also-ran.” The fact is, better information leads to better decisions and better business outcomes. The Harvard Business Review (Big Data’s Management Revolution, October 2012) stated that data-driven companies are 5 percent more productive and 6 percent more profitable than their competitors.

Being able to easily access and use vast data stores has always been difficult. But in just the past few years, the problem has become 10 times worse. If it was just more data, then more compute and database horsepower could fix it. The bigger issues for businesses are proliferating data silos and ever-expanding distribution.

Data Virtualization to the Rescue

Industry-leading businesses are addressing the challenge with data virtualization. Data virtualization is an agile data integration approach that organizations use to:

  • Gain more insight from their data
  • Respond faster to accelerating analytics and business intelligence requirements
  • Reduce costs by 50 to 75 percent compared to data replication and consolidation approaches
  • Data virtualization abstracts data from multiple sources and transparently brings it together to give users a unified, friendly view of the data that they need.

Data Virtualization Presents a Unified View

Armed with quick and easy access to critical data, users can analyze it with their favorite business intelligence and analytic tools to drive a wide range of business outcomes. For example, they can increase customer profitability. Bring products to market faster. Reduce costs. And lower risk.

To read more about what Data Virtualization might mean to your enterprise, check out our new white paper Data Virtualization: Achieve Better Business Outcomes, Faster.



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Bob Eve

No Longer with Cisco

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Cisco a “World’s Most Ethical Company” for 7th Straight Year

Jeremy_WilsonThis post was written by guest blogger Jeremy Wilson, Director, Ethics and Integrity

Do companies have good ethics any more? At least one hundred do.

Cisco was recently placed on Ethisphere’s World’s Most Ethical company list for the seventh year in a row. Ethisphere, an independent research center that promotes best practices in corporate ethics and compliance, issues an annual survey with a series of multiple-choice questions that are intended to “capture a company’s performance in an objective, consistent, and standardized way.” Scores are then generated in five categories:

  • Ethics and compliance programs
  • Reputation, leadership, and innovation
  • Governance
  • Corporate citizenship and responsibility
  • Culture of ethics

Only a handful of companies have remained on the list as long a Cisco. The Cisco Ethics Office works with our various compliance partners around the company and around the world to enable and ensure legal and regulatory compliance in the 100+ countries in which we do business. The Ethics Office specifically focuses its attention on responding to questions and concerns that come in through the various reporting avenues, counseling with the business, and working with leaders to promote and enhance Cisco’s culture of ethics and integrity.

Cisco is also one of the few companies in the world to repeatedly achieve 100% participation in its code of business conduct certification and related trainings. This is just another indicator of Cisco’s commitment to good business ethics. Kudos to the entire Cisco Family on this great achievement.

Read more about Cisco’s commitment to good corporate governance and ethics.



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Alexis Raymond

Senior Manager

Chief Sustainability Office

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Dimension Data Series #2 – Mobility Policy: The Mobile Endpoint is the New Perimeter

Mobile security is a top concern for IT and business leaders. This blog series with Dimension Data explores how organizational leaders can work together to mitigate concern and implement clearly defined policies and mobility goals.

Jason Harris co-authored this blog. Below we will address how the mobile endpoint is the new perimeter. The first blog in this series discussing how concerns outweigh actions when it comes to mobility security can be found here.

JasonHarris-150x150Co-authored by Jason Harris, Principal Consultant for Security and Enterprise Mobility for Dimension Data Americas

Jason comes from a technical and business risk and compliance background, with experience in conducting governance risk and compliance and technical security testing. He has expanded this into policy driven security architecture reviews including development of IT policy and procedures, technical system assessments, penetration testing, security and enterprise mobility architecture and information risk management. Over the last 3 years Jason has been leading the development of Dimension Data’s Enterprise Mobility Development Model (EMDM) and has delivered the EMDM to large enterprise clients.

Employees use their devices to access our systems on their own. It’s nearly impossible to stop.

If you agree with this statement, you’ll join the over 90% of IT decision makers that recently participated in Dimension Data’s Secure Mobility Global Survey. It’s no surprise that mobile security is a top concern for IT and business leaders; however as discussed in our first blog post in this series, concern often outweighs action when it comes to securing mobility.

For example, according to the Dimension Data survey, while over 90% of IT leaders agree that security is a top concern, only 27% feel that they have well-defined network policies in place for mobility.

Based on these figures, it’s clear that it isn’t enough to just talk about security policy; IT and business leaders need work together and focus on upholding and enforcing the policies set in place to close gaps. In this blog post, we’ll discuss why organizations need a policy that is clearly defined and how implementing the right policy will help fill gaps and establish a secure network.

In other words, how can a holistic and balanced approach to enterprise mobility – including BYOD programs – impact overall network security?

Mobility is the New Endpoint

In our recent conversations with CIOs, many are starting to understand that in today’s mobile and cloud landscape, the mobile endpoint is the new perimeter. This change in thinking is what’s going to be required of all of us as we embrace and deploy clearly defined roles and responsibilities for enterprise mobility policies. If it’s important for IT and business leaders to enable employees to work anywhere, wherever and however, they need to plan it properly to ensure the right amount of controls and mechanisms to support a mobile workforce.

A major part of this shift in thinking involves securing not only the user or the device, but the data the user or device has access to. This data-centric security model can help issue some control around the evolution in enterprise mobility that has basically extended an organization’s network into a thousand mini-networks that IT has little visibility over. This is why we need to change our thinking.  Mobile devices aren’t outside the perimeter; they are the new endpoint.

Continue reading “Dimension Data Series #2 – Mobility Policy: The Mobile Endpoint is the New Perimeter”



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Rory Duncan

Security Line of Business Manager, Dimension Data UK

May 5, 2014 Leave a Comment
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IE Zero Day – Managed Services Protection

As of May 1, 2014, we can confirm Cisco customers have been targets of this attack. For the latest coverage information and additional details see our new post on the VRT blog.

Protecting company critical assets is a continuing challenge under normal threat conditions. The disclosure of zero-day exploits only makes the job of IT security engineers that much harder. When a new zero-day vulnerability was announced on April 26, 2014 for Microsoft Internet Explorer, corporate security organizations sprang into action assessing the potential risk and exposure, drafting remediation plans, and launching change packages to protect corporate assets.

Some companies however, rely on Managed Security Services to protect those same IT assets. As a Cisco Managed Security services customer, the action was taken to deploy updated IPS signatures to detect and protect the companies critical IT assets. In more detail, the IPS Signature team, as a member of the Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP), developed and released Cisco IPS signature 4256/0 in update S791 and Snort rules 30794 & 30803 were available in the ruleset dated 4-28-2014. The Cisco Managed Security team, including Managed Threat Defense, received the update as soon as it became available April 28th. Generally, Cisco Managed Security customers have new IPS signature packs applied during regularly scheduled maintenance windows. In the event of a zero-day, the managed security team reached out to customers proactively to advise them of the exploit and immediately were able to apply signature pack updates to detect and protect customer networks.

While corporate security organizations must still assess ongoing risks and direct overall remediations to protect corporate data, Cisco can take the actions to provide security visibility into the targeted attacks, increase protection with fresh signatures, and reduce risk profile for the corporate InfoSec program.

For more detail on the vulnerability, please see Martin Lee’s blog post.

More details about this exploit and mitigation information can be found on the following links:

For additional information about Cisco Managed Security solutions please refer to the following links and contact your Cisco Services sales representative:



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David Phillips

Director

Cisco Security Solutions

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Cisco and Miami-Dade County Seek to Revamp Local Public Transportation Systems

Recently The Economist suggested Miami’s skyline could one day resemble Manhattan. And this could happen sooner than later due to the influx of Latin Americans, as well as Chinese, Europeans and Americans who are moving to Miami, not only to enjoy the weather, but the business opportunities. More than 50 new big towers are in construction right now at the center of Miami.

With the potential for growth in the current environment, transportation services have to be evaluated to ensure that they can serve the expected population, and won’t hinder a community’s expansion efforts.

While the Miami area’s public transportation ridership declined through the challenges of the recession, the accelerated growth that is being experienced now has to be considered as part of the community’s plans to build the Miami of tomorrow. This is why Miami-Dade County officials and Cisco have teamed up to define a strategy that will improve public transportation operations. Collaboratively, the two will begin exploring new operation models, technology and big data. Continue reading “Cisco and Miami-Dade County Seek to Revamp Local Public Transportation Systems”



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Tony Morelli

Vice President, SLED East

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Desktop Environments Go Virtual and Mobile in a Flash

Of course you’re aware that virtualization and mobility are taking over the traditional office workspace.

More and more, employees are using their own mobile devices and working from home or remote locations, meaning work is no longer a 9-5, at-the-office thing. So to enable efficient practices within this changing environment, your IT needs to change with it. Resources need to be accessible from anywhere, not just in the office. Moving desktops to a virtual environment addresses this concern—while increasing employee productivity and responsiveness, and decreasing costs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJs1ISUYL5M

Citrix Synergy 2014 is taking place this week in Los Angeles. And it’s no surprise that this year’s hot topic is enterprise mobility. Technologies such as Citrix XenApp, XenDesktop, and XenMobile, combined with Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS) and Cisco UCS Invicta™ Series Solid State Systems,  or Citrix NetScaler 1000v with Cisco Nexus vPath, and Cisco mobile workplace solutions, are tools that enable you to move your work environment to the cloud, enabling you to provide full-time, fast, and secure access to your applications and crucial information.

“It was sometimes taking 10 minutes for our clinicians to log on, open an application, and get the information they need,” says Hughes. “That time should be spent with a patient instead of a workstation. We wanted to make it easier and faster for our clinicians to access applications and information, so we started looking into VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure).”  says Jake Hughes, Chief Technical Architect for Infrastructure Systems at Seattle Children’s.

S12A8

With 800 attorneys spread across offices in the United States, London, Shanghai, Melbourne, and Sydney, prominent law firm Seyfarth Shaw relies on its Citrix XenDesktop virtualization platform to deliver Windows environments and in-house applications as an on-demand user service.
DaaS“When you’re sitting in an airport and you need to get something done for a client, you can’t wait for your application to boot up; you want it to be available as quickly as possible and that’s what flash technology provides,” says Andy Jurczyk, CIO, Seyfarth Shaw , experiencing the benefit of the new Cisco UCS Invicta™ features .

Go now to  Unleashing IT   to read  how Seattle Children’s Hospital  virtualized their environment using a combination of Citrix and Cisco solutions or how Seyfarth Shaw law firm is fueling up and serving clients with speed through their VDI implementation.

On Unleashing IT , our on line magazine and resource center you will discover through these examples and many others, how you can utilize Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) in combination with other technologies to speed up processes and give your workers flexibility by providing secure access to the information they need, as soon as they need it.
Visiting our resource center on Unleashing IT you will access to numerous documents , including a Forrester Study “The Total Economic Impact of Cisco Desktop Virtualization Solutions”

Additional resources: Read more on Citrix Synergy 2014

Cisco and Citrix Partnership will shine at Citrix Synergy 2014

Delivering Workplace Mobility – Built on Cisco Unified Computing System



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Adrian den Hartog

Senior Marketing Manager

Field Marketing US Commercial

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My #InternetofEverything Perspective: Transforming Property Management with IoE

Roger Vasquez, Director of Engineering of Transwestern, shares his perspective on the Internet of Everything

In order to compete in the commercial real estate market, we at Transwestern knew we had to differentiate ourselves with innovative new services to attract clients. We turned to Cisco and the Internet of Everything to make it happen. We knew there had to be a better way. When our consultant, Stephen Lurie with Zones, mentioned converged networks, we had our answer.

BLOGpost_cisco_transwestern_A

At Transwestern and with the support of our building owner Metropolis Investment Holdings, we started with a vision to transform property management by automating processes from temperature control to work-order management, which could help to increase tenant satisfaction, lower energy costs and make more efficient use of staff time by speeding up response time to tenant requests. When you install different systems, each of those systems relies on its own communication system. We actually integrated all of those systems through the same infrastructure, making it easier to monitor and manage. Most of the equipment that you see in our central plant is tied to our Cisco network.

As an example, our air conditioning units operate to reach the desired temperature by the time a tenant’s office opens. Starting those units even a few minutes later saves a significant amount of money over hundreds of pieces of equipment. To achieve all this, we began investing in the Internet of Everything (IoE), to connect all of our networks and give our tenants a better experience.

With the connections provided by IoE, building engineers can monitor and manage building systems remotely from tablets or laptops, adjusting building schedules for maximum energy efficiency anywhere in the world.  Tenants can now receive network services in days, instead of weeks, for a fraction of the price with unified communications and whole-building wireless. They also experience better physical security from strategically placed, connected security cameras.

Implementing these changes, we were able to decrease energy costs by 21 percent from 2011 to 2012, and by another 11 percent in the first eight months of 2013. Now, Transwestern is exploring new ways to capitalize on the potential of IoE. Efforts underway include hosting energy-saving competitions between tenants, increasing the efficiency of work-order management through digital orders and enabling tenants to advertise on unique digital signage that can simultaneously provide weather info and broadcast emergency instructions. Lower operating costs have allowed us to offer attractive leased space in a very competitive market.

Transwestern

Transwestern’s first IoE-enabled building, Pennzoil Place, exemplifies the potential of the Internet of Everything by connecting our people, process, data and things at an unprecedented scope and scale, and the company is already reaping the benefits.

Read more My #InternetofEverything Perspectives
Integrating Cities with IoE and City24/7 by Tom Touchet — CEO of City24/7

Driving Smarter with Technology and UPS by Dave Barnes — CIO of UPS



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Roger Vasquez

Director of Engineering

Property Management, Transwestern

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Portland State University rolls out 802.11n and 5760 Series Controller

Portland State University is Oregon’s largest and most diverse public university encompassing 50 city blocks, eight schools, 226 degree programs, 29,000 students, including 1,700 international students from 91 countries, and 126,000 alumni. For the second year in a row, the US News & World Report has named Portland State University a top 10 “up-and-coming” national university in its Best College rankings, released online Sept. 10.

In 2010 Portland was one of the first schools to adopt the Cisco CleanAir capable Access Points 3502 to address the frequent sources of interferences found in a typical school environment. In this blog, I will describe how the students adopt technology to learn as well as share some details about our conversation with Tamarack Birch-Wheeles, the manager of Network Team in charge of the WLAN deployment with the 5760 Series Wireless LAN Controller.

psu Continue reading “Portland State University rolls out 802.11n and 5760 Series Controller”



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Jeevan Patil

Director, Product Management

Wireless Network

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The Continuum Approach for Secure Mobility

A couple weeks ago, we spoke about the mobility journey and the phases that organizations take as they embrace the widely accepted mode of mobility—Beyond BYOD to Workspace Mobility (device-focus, application-focus and experience-focus). Whatever phase your organization is in, security is a top priority. These phases can help determine your secure mobility approach but your risk aversion level will also define it. Whatever your risk tolerance, the mobile threat landscape is extremely active and clever—do not underestimate it.

The dynamic nature of mobile threats does not stop by simply entering from your mobile device but it can further propagate and manifest across the network, wired devices, virtual, cloud and data center environments. So your secure mobility approach must be non-stop, continuous and pervasive—end to end. To hinder the chance of threat damage or inappropriate access whether intentional or not, one must offer comprehensive secure mobile access controls at the access layer across each phase of an attack, before, during and after.

Continue reading “The Continuum Approach for Secure Mobility”



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Kathy Trahan

Senior Security Solutions Marketing Manager

Global Marketing Corporate Communications