Year: 2014

August 5, 2014 Leave a Comment
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Behind the Network @ Mobile World Congress 2014: Hotspot 2.0

Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014 was the largest mobile industry exhibition in the world, where over 1800 companies showcased and launched their latest products and services. This event was visited by over 85,000 attendees from over 200 countries around the world, to learn, network, inspire and innovate. Providing them seamless and robust data network was the first priority. GSMA , Fira de Gran Via and Cisco took this challenge to provide them next generation Wi-Fi experience with seamless connectivity and onboarding using Hotspot 2.0 service on the top of baseline free Wi-Fi service.

Hassle and risk are the two key factors involved in connecting free public Wi-Fi. When you are traveling in the different countries, you get off the plane and turn on your cell phone… and within few seconds you get connected to the cellular network. There is no need to search for a suitable network manually (hoping it’s not rigged by a hacker), then enter long password or credit card details to pay for the service. But unfortunately connecting to Wi-Fi is not that simple. Hotspot 2.0 Service addresses these problems by automatic network discovery and selection, seamless network access and secured authentication for the Passpoint certified devices.

mwc1Fira Gran Via, Barcelona, the venue of MWC 2014 is a massive 280,000 meters2 (Three Million Square Feet) facility with 8 grand exhibition halls, conference rooms, multiple outdoor areas and restaurants. Continue reading “Behind the Network @ Mobile World Congress 2014: Hotspot 2.0”



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Kshitij Mahant

Technical Marketing Engineer

Enterprise Networking Group

August 4, 2014 Leave a Comment
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The Future of Cloud, Part 7: The Fabric Between the Clouds

(This is part 7 of a 7-part series sharing insights from Cisco partners about the Future of Cloud.)

During CiscoLive!, I had the chance to talk with Andy Bird, Executive Director, Product Management and Development at eLoyalty, a Cisco partner for more than 15 years.  “We’ve chosen to partner up with Cisco and have a Cisco Powered cloud that allows us to offer stable and scalable solutions.  We’ve built a front end around them that offers the simplicity that customers expect from a cloud-based service.”

To verify that eLoyalty would be able to deliver on the promises of Cisco Powered services, they had to achieve certifications and pass a third-party audit.  “It’s important that we’re enterprise-grade. That audit allowed us to get to that point.”

Bird described several of the complications involved in the integration of technology: multi-tenancy, permissions-based clouds, security, self-administration.  “These things become a big deal,” he said.  “Having Cisco on the back end enables us to not have to worry about the core.”

Bird also talked about the value of the Cisco Intercloud to eLoyalty.  “There are a lot of disparate clouds out there.  But imagine trying to take your data from one cloud and move it to the next.  It’s very difficult to do, because when you look at clouds, you end up getting hooked into them, just like if you were to buy premise gear.

“What Cisco has been starting to enable to happen is the idea of creating a fabric between the clouds that allows me to migrate data.  When somebody gets on my platform, they have the ability to go and leverage Cisco in other places.  So they have a different level of confidence.”

Cisco’s partner ecosystem also plays an important role to eLoyalty.  “Even though I’ve got Cisco at the core, I still have all of these peripheral, secondary, tertiary applications to make seamless and ubiquitous.  But I’m not going to build my own WFN and QM.  I’m not going to develop my own CTI integration.  I’m using that entire ecosystem that Cisco has paved the way for.

“My value is that I bring them all together.”

You can learn more about how providers are addressing the need for enterprise class services in the latest edition of Unleashing IT.



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Xander Uyleman

Senior Manager

Global Partner Marketing

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Breakaway Business Outcomes across the Manufacturing Value Chain

My colleague Kevin Davenport was quoted in a recent AutomationWorld article “Connecting Expertise along Supply Chain,” highlighting a number of use case scenarios where mobile advisor and remote expert solutions for manufacturing can and have enhanced business performance and outcomes across the supply chain. These improvements include:

  • Greater field service effectiveness and reduce warranty costs—by offering real-time, scheduled, or impromptu access to SMEs via a pervasive video platform;
  • Stronger supplier relationships— by establishing effective, immersive B2B TelePresence conferencing;
  • New products to market faster, with a improved product launch processes—by using video-immersive collaboration to foster dynamic cross-business unit and development supply chain integration; and
  • Higher velocity, more effective response to plant-floor issues through fast deployment of both internal and external technical and SME support.

Examples include Jabil, Coca Cola, Puma, and our most recently featured IoE customer case study example with Stanley Black & Decker (SB&D), which demonstrates how Cisco Connected Factory Wireless capabilities, in concert with AeroScout Industrial real-time location services, are used to pinpoint issues—alongside people-and-process context—for much quicker resolution, yielding double-digit throughput and productivity improvements. Check out this video, for more on the SB&D case and results:

Continue reading “Breakaway Business Outcomes across the Manufacturing Value Chain”



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Douglas Bellin

Global Lead, Industries

Manufacturing and Energy

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Why Shakespeare would rock an Ambassador Program

Shakespeare_Droeshout_1623If I were launching an Ambassador Program I’d hire William Shakespeare in a “Stratford-upon-Avon” minute. Not only is he highly productive, his communication skills are excellent, and at 450 he’s gained centuries of experience.

That’s not why I’d hire him though. What makes Bill my top pick is his people expertise. He pays laser-focused attention to what people say, don’t say, like, dislike, love, hate, crave, value, and fear. In short, he puts himself in other peoples’ shoes to understand who they are and what they want, which is critical for a successful Ambassador Program.

In this article we’ll learn how Shakespeare and his passion for people can help you understand your Ambassadors and give them what they want, not what you assume they want. Continue reading “Why Shakespeare would rock an Ambassador Program”



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Rachel Bakker

Social Media Advocacy Manager

Digital and Social

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The Key to Success in Tracking Mobile Devices: Symbiosis, Not Espionage

As a shopper enters a store, the retailer uses Wi-Fi to track her movements, interests, and shopping habits, providing a treasure trove of insight valuable to merchandising and product development alike.

And as advances in Wi-Fi promise increasing location precision and beacons promise pinpoint location based services, the future appears to be smooth sailing, right?

Well, not exactly.

Tracking the position of mobile devices accurately and correlating to personal data has been one of the most sought after Big Data objectives. And not just for retailers — the potential wealth of business value from data has drawn piqued interest across nearly all industries.

Yet in the real world, issues arise from both technology challenges and privacy concerns alike.

Technology challenges include:

  • Typical Wi-Fi accuracies in the 7-to-10 meter range (though Angle of Arrival and improved location analytics promise dramatic improvements)
  • Infrequent mobile device probing to conserve battery power
  • Interference from metal shelves & fixtures, water in products (and people!)

Privacy qualms speak to the heart of transformation in the Internet of Everything (IoE) age. IoE, after all, is the explosion of network connections among people, process, data, and things — and promises to be one of the most impactful periods of change in our history. And the people element is in some ways the whole point — to make our lives better, healthier, more efficient, and so forth. But the people issues will be just as challenging as those that arise around technology. Continue reading “The Key to Success in Tracking Mobile Devices: Symbiosis, Not Espionage”



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Shaun Kirby

Director and Chief Technology Officer

Cisco Consulting Services

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Balancing the MDS Scales in Your Favor

One of the main themes I’ve been running into a lot lately is the sense of scale. For a while the term actually lost much of its meaning because it has been used to describe any number of systems that happen to be large.

96588998_47Scale-up.

Scale-out.

At scale.

See what I mean? The term is predominantly used as a synonym for growth, and while that has merit it does tend to gloss over some of the nuances of what happens when systems “get big.”

I’ve talked about this before, both in terms of different storage architectures (such as Spine/Leaf with Dynamic FCoE as well as SDN and Programmability, but that doesn’t mean that native Fibre Channel systems are being left out.

In fact, there have been some major improvements in the way that the MDS 9700 series of switches have been able to accommodate bigger scale. And by bigger, I mean by the thousands. This is, of course, just one of the major announcements that the MDS group has made, and I encourage you to read the blogs by Tony Antony and Prashant Jain about their new developments as well. Continue reading “Balancing the MDS Scales in Your Favor”



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J Metz

Sr. Product Manager

Data Center Group

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Congratulations to the IoT Innovation Grand Challenge Semi-finalists!

IoT Innovation Grand ChallengeIn April 2014, Cisco announced the IoT Innovation Grand Challenge, a global, open competition aimed at recognizing, promoting and accelerating the adoption of breakthrough technologies that will contribute to the growth and evolution of the Internet of Things.  The response was overwhelming with fantastic submissions.

We received over 800 submissions from startups all over the world on a diverse set of topics – from agriculture to Wifi with ble, gps, m2m, rfid and many more things in between.   The top 5 submission categories were: Smart Cities with 166 entries, Healthcare with 123, Retail (98), Education (80) and Transportation (59).

Announcing the Nineteen Semi-Finalists!

Continue reading “Congratulations to the IoT Innovation Grand Challenge Semi-finalists!”



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Alex Goryachev

Senior Director, Innovation Strategy & Programs

Corporate Strategic Innovation Group

August 2, 2014 Leave a Comment
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Still more traffic

I periodically write about network traffic, and how general / datacenter network traffic analysis is related to MPI / HPC.

In my last entry, I mentioned how network traffic has many characteristics in common with distributed computing. Routing decisions, for example, are made independently at each network switch.

Consider if you were looking down at a city from above. Look at all the cars driving around the city streets. It’s chaos: each car/truck/bus/etc. makes its own routing decisions. Each one is a different size. Each one potentially goes in a different direction. Each one continually merges and splits from other traffic.

Yet somehow it all works.

Continue reading “Still more traffic”



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Jeff Squyres

The MPI Guy

UCS Platform Software

August 1, 2014 Leave a Comment
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Modernizing Public Safety Communications

Modernizing Public Safety Communications

Your existing radios and voice system do more, with Cisco IPICS 4.8

If your agency uses Cisco Unified Communications as well as PTT radio communications, you can make both more valuable by adding Cisco IP Interoperability and Collaboration System (IPICS).Communicate, Collaborate, Operate 3

Hundreds of public safety agencies around the world already use Cisco IPICS to make radio dispatch operations simpler. IPICS improves incident response because personnel can join PTT talk groups using just about any device. That includes land-mobile radios, smartphones, IP phones, PCs and laptops, and even traditional phones.

The newest release, IPICS 4.8, has new features that improve communications, collaboration, and operations. Continue reading “Modernizing Public Safety Communications”



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Lindsay Hiebert