Today we are seeing a step change in the applications and data infrastructure. No longer do we rely only on large centralized repositories. Instead, hyper-distributed infrastructure is hosting apps and data at any location, resulting in a growing network of “centers of data.” These centers of data are small computing hubs used by people and processes within an organization. As ecosystem dependencies increase, businesses are not only dependent on these centers of data inside their organization, but also on those outside their organizations. This paradigm unites information from sources that had never been connected before to produce new insights, new processes across value chains, new contextual experiences and people engagement. Continue reading “Cisco Software Accelerates the Journey to Digitization”
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With Richard Jacobick
Cisco and CommVault have teamed up on a solution aimed squarely at contemporary data protection challenges. Data is the lifeblood of the enterprise, yet the playbook for how you preserve, protect and provide access to data may have been assembled years ago… and a lot has changed in those years. Consider the transformations around compute, networking, storage virtualization and cloud that have occurred over the last decade.
A data protection policy is similar to auto, home and life insurance because the ultimate goal is to mitigate risk by investing in an instrument that keeps the things you value most protected and safe. What would happen to the business if an unplanned event triggered a loss of data access today because of an outdated plan? There is a very good reason why we review our insurance policies on an annual basis and your data protection policy should go through the same periodic review.
A recent survey conducted by market research firm Vanson Bourne outlines how data loss and downtime has cost enterprises nearly $1.7 trillion over the past 12 months. The lack of a well-defined data protection process and comprehensive Disaster Recovery (DR) plan is most often the root cause in cases where data loss or downtime had a significant financial cost to the business.
Continue reading “All about that BaaS: Cisco UCS and CommVault Simpana”
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It is that time of year again where we kick off another Cisco Live, our 26th show happening in San Diego this year. Much like the Cisco events of the past, the evolution of wireless technology and solutions have come a long way. In the late 1990’s, Wi-Fi was a novelty or a toy that we used infrequently, turning to Ethernet connectivity when we needed reliable bandwidth. The first 802.11 Wi-Fi standard, ratified in 1997, offered limited bandwidth support which was barely enough for basic connectivity and seldom reliable. Flash forward to last week, where we announced our first Access Point to support the latest Wi-Fi standard 802.11ac Wave 2, the Aironet 1850 Series Access Point.
The introduction of 802.11ac Wave 2 is significant from a technology standpoint because it marks the first time that Wi-Fi has the throughput ability to move beyond the 1Gps barrier. The significance in not only because this is a nice large number but as the adoption of Wave 2 devices grows, Wi-Fi bandwidth will exceed the capacity of the wired infrastructure. Continue reading “Preparing for the next wave of Mobility at Cisco Live”
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Last week, we were thrilled to receive the news that Infonetics scored Cisco Policy Suite as a Leader in the Policy Management Scorecard. Cisco was one of only two leaders recognized by Infonetics in this space and was recognized for building “… up its position in the market rapidly after its acquisition of BroadHop, demonstrating strong momentum around policy virtualization.”
As the Cisco Visual Networking Index reports, there will be Continue reading “Cisco Scores as Leader in the Infonetics Policy Management Scorecard”
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Cisco Intercloud Fabric simplifies the process of securely extending your data center networks from your private cloud to a public or provider-hosted cloud. One of its many applications is data life-cycle management especially in the emerging Big Data space. Cisco Intercloud Fabric and Cisco UCS can enable sustained application performance on your IT infrastructure while effectively managing the scale of data growth and retention requirements by moving data as it becomes cold to a public or provider-hosted cloud and maintaining complete transparent access to the entire dataset to applications. For more information see white paper: Expand Your Data Search and Analysis Capability Across a Hybrid Cloud.
If you plan on attending Cisco Live 2015 in San Diego, stop by for a live demo of a search analytics application using ElasticSearch over publicly available crime data – most recent dataset on Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data on the floor and historical dataset on a public cloud extended using Cisco Intercloud Fabric.
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Cities, states, and other communities continue to face an increasing variety of challenges: traffic congestion, parking, public safety and security, waste and water management, and access to education and healthcare. As such, government leaders are looking to technology to solve these challenges, while also finding more efficient ways to provide better services, reduce the carbon footprint, and enhance livability.
Solutions enabled by the Internet of Everything (IoE), such as the Cisco Smart+Connected City Operations Center, can successfully enable communities to become digital and to address these challenges.
This means improved operating models to drive efficiency, safety, and better citizen experiences overall.
Continue reading “Experience the Digital Community at Cisco Live”
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Many of you know about the Cisco Secure Ops Solution that was announced in 2014, and that it has already been adopted by Shell to secure the company’s critical infrastructure, but may not have seen a demonstration or talked with a Cisco subject matter expert about it.
Well, here’s your chance. We have arranged for a booth in the industrial vertical area at the World of Solutions at Cisco Live in San Diego to show just that. We’re pleased to be accompanied by one of Cisco’s security partners to show new features and functionality that takes Secure Ops even deeper into the cybersecurity protection and surveillance arenas.
The Cybersecurity space is getting more and more alarming every day. As my colleague Peter Granger notes, we have gone from the quaint world of Sherlock Holmes…
Sherlock Holmes: I didn’t really ask, Dr. Franklyn, but what exactly do you do here?
Dr. Franklyn: Oh, Mr. Holmes, I’d love to tell you. But then of course, I’d have to kill you.
Sherlock Holmes: That would be tremendously ambitious of you.
…past the pseudo-high-tech world of James bond and closer to a more modern world reminiscent of Kiefer Sutherland’s character Jack Bauer in the TV series ’24’. Today’s Cyber attacks are not just disgruntled employees or simple mischief makers (although that’s bad enough), but can be carried out by powerful crime syndicates and hostile governments.
Now more and more attacks are becoming visible and reported (e.g. Stuxnet like ‘Havex’ malware strikes European SCADA Systems – June 2014) and whether they are a terrorist attack such as the data destruction attacks on Saudi Aramco and on Qatar’s RasGas gas company in 2012 or unintentional (the vast majority of reported cyber incidents are ‘accidental in nature’ as reported by the Repository of Industrial security incidents, 2011), billions of dollars are lost every year because of them. Night Dragon, Shamoon, Flame, and Duqu have joined Stuxnet in the past few years and more will come.
A study by Fox-IT reported that 60 percent of oil and gas companies do not have a cybersecurity incident response plan. In addition, only 11 percent are fully confident that they can address a cybersecurity breach appropriately. Twenty-three percent admitted that they are not actively monitoring their network for potential intrusions.
How can Cisco help your energy organization? You can find out more by visiting our cisco.com website, and check out the Security for Industrial Networks Overview/White Paper (don’t worry, it’s less than 3 pages!).
And, of course, you can also visit us Cisco Live: there you’ll see how the Cisco Secure Ops Solution is relevant to many industries and is helping tackle our customers’ security challenges. A combination of technology, software and services expertise, Secure Ops Solution can help you increase your security response levels significantly – before, during and after an attack, across the entire attack continuum.
Don’t forget our other presence there around the Collaborative Operations Solution, which my colleague Suresh Venkat talks about here: What does a Cisco Live Demonstration have to do with droughts, floods and fossil fuels?
We look forward to seeing you in the Process Manufacturing Secure Industrial Networks booth at the World of Solutions next week.
As always – comments are always appreciated and we respond to questions!
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Next in our series of Why I Love Big Data is Bruce from MapR. Together, Cisco and MapR are working on a very cool solution for keeping data local, but accessing very quickly. Also, come by the Connected Banking stand in the Cisco Live World of Solutions and DevNet area to see a demo of the distributed system. You will see how Cisco and MapR can provide solutions for security and data theft prevention to prevent theft of customer’s personal data and financial information.
Bruce Penn, Principal Solution Architect, MapR Technologies
Bruce Penn, Principal Solution Architect, MapR TechnologiesBruce is a Principal Solution Architect with MapR Technologies. He has over 22 years of Information Technology experience that includes Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, Enterprise Architecture, Systems Design, Project Management and Application Programming. Prior to MapR, Bruce spent 8.5 years at Oracle and was instrumental in helping grow the Oracle Exadata Database Machine business through extensive collaboration with several large enterprise customers. Bruce was the first Solution Architect to join MapR’s Sales Engineering team and has been solely focused on the MapR Distribution for Hadoop and associated Apache Hadoop ecosystem technologies ever since. Bruce holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University.
Cisco and MapR have long been partners in the big data market, and with enterprises embracing the Internet of Everything (IoE) and moving towards a truly distributed data center environment, the combination of UCS and MapR provide unique capabilities to simplify this architecture.
Cisco UCS servers provide a powerful foundation for running distributed big data/Hadoop MapR clusters with unparalleled performance, availability, and manageability at the hardware level. The MapR Distribution including Apache Hadoop provides similar robustness at the software level, creating a rock-solid distributed platform for many flavors of IoE applications.
With the advent of IoE applications, data often originates at the “edge” of a system’s network, meaning that devices such as routers and switches in one data center will generate log data locally, while devices in other data centers will do the same creating silos of log data. In order for applications built around this log data to react in real time, they need to access that data as quickly as possible, and often those applications will want to aggregate the data across data centers in order to make decisions quickly, while keeping the data local to the originating data center. It may be important to keep the data local for legal and regulatory reasons, as well as for efficient local queries. With Cisco UCS Servers, MapR Data Placement Control, and Apache Drill, this becomes a simple task.
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By Yves Padrines, Vice President & General Manager Cable, Media and Video, Cisco EMEAR
The summer trade show cycle wheels into Cologne, Germany this week for ANGA COM, expected to draw around 17,000 attendees and 450 exhibitors from 34 countries. Cisco is excited to be there to spend time with customers and partners, and showcase our latest innovations.
With the exception of regulatory considerations, the scene is pretty much constant across North America and in Europe: The need for accelerated broadband speeds is sparking innovation in the Continue reading “Cisco at ANGA COM 2015”
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