Year: 2015

May 28, 2015 Leave a Comment
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Certifying for the Hyperconnected Plant Floor

The Internet of Everything (IoE)—bringing together previously unconnected people, processes, data and things—opens a world of possibilities in terms of creating new capabilities, richer experiences and unparalleled economic opportunity for organizations, individuals, and nations. Cisco predicts that 50+ billion devices will be connected by 2020. The ramifications are enormous and varied, including how manufacturing plants operate.

The exchange between information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) is increasing as the industrial plant floor and corporate enterprise become more connected. The convergence of IT and OT is expanding IP Networking and Ethernet connectivity on the industrial plant floor. Understandably, World Bank Studies estimate that 220,000 new engineers are required every year from 2014 to 2022 to connect the unconnected. In addition, there are 300,000 Control Engineers that need to be re-skilled in the industry.

As part of Cisco’s ongoing commitment to equip IT and networking professionals with the knowledge and skills essential to fulfill evolving industry job roles, we have launched the new CCNA Industrial certification. It’s an expansion, due to high demand, of the IT/OT track we began last year with the release of our Industrial Networking Specialist Certification.

Cisco collaborated closely with Rockwell Automation, a company with significant expertise in the industrial automation space, to develop a program to help control-system and traditional network engineers better understand the technologies needed to manage a hyperconnected industrial enterprise. This complements and extends our existing collaboration on products, services, validated architectures, and educational resources to jointly address IT and OT network convergence.

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Sudarshan Krishnamurthi

Head of Business Strategy, Cisco's education services

Cisco Services

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New Email Security Release Adds Graymail Protection, Web Interaction Tracking, AMP Threat Grid, and More

Each day more than 100 billion corporate email messages are exchanged1. Who doesn’t need to do a little housekeeping and eliminate unwanted emails? But you need to think twice before you click on “unsubscribe.”

As you likely read in the 2015 Cisco Annual Security Report, attackers are using applications users inherently trust or view as benign, like web browser add-ons, to distribute malware. One of the latest phishing techniques is graymail – directing the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of a seemingly innocuous marketing email to a malware infested website. Many of us click on these links without a second thought. But instead of ridding ourselves of unwanted emails, we’re actually opening ourselves up to an attack.

This is just one example of how attackers continue to innovate, and Cisco does as well. Our new AsyncOS release for Cisco Email Security Appliance (Cisco ESA) demonstrates how Cisco empowers you with a threat-centric approach to security and more comprehensive management control.

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Dan Stotts

Former Product Marketing Manager, Cisco

Security Product Marketing Organization

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ACG Research says “Cisco Continues to grow Market Share Leadership in Mobility” – #1 in Mobile IP Infrastructure, …

So here we are in the middle of Spring 2015 and the temperature is beginning to rise, yes finally here in New England the temperature is beginning to rise after such a harsh winter. What is also on the rise according to ACG Research is the Cisco IP Infrastructure Market-Share. ACG published today their 1st Quarter 2015 Mobile IP Infrastructure Report and it stated that Cisco led the mobile industry

  • Mobile IP Infrastructure at 44.7% up 5% QoQ
  • Mobile IP Backbone at 69.6% up 2.6% QoQ
  • Mobile IP Backhaul at 45.7% up 9.9% QoQ
  • Packet Core (EPC + MPC) at 30.1%

Market Shares of Leading Vendors

With the recent announcements of merger mania in the Video and Mobile market, we expect Continue reading “ACG Research says “Cisco Continues to grow Market Share Leadership in Mobility” – #1 in Mobile IP Infrastructure, …”

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Jim O'Leary

Sr. Manager Mobile Solutions Marketing

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Criteria for SDN/NFV Vendor Selection – Heads Up on Cisco Live

Cisco Live US 2015 is just around the corner, and will start in San Diego on June 7th, running through Thursday 11th June.  I’m surprised and honoured to be one of the folks wearing a “Cisco Live Speaker” shirt, and I’m looking forward to sharing some of what I’ve been working on over the past year or two.

I’ll be basing a lot of my presentation off of as yet unpublished, independent market research, into the challenges of SDN and NFV adoption, some of which are illustrated in the diagram below.  The final copy of this brand new market research report landed on my desk just last weekend – May 23rd 2015.  Hot off the press, it was funded by Cisco but conducted completely independently by a leading market research company.  The intent of this report is to guide our SDN and NFV professional services strategy. Some of the insights, however, are too useful not to share with you!  Covering a global audience, with separate questionnaires for service provider and enterprise businesses, we had set out to increase our understanding of the latest challenges of adoption of SDN and NFV as appopriate in (enterprise) businesses, including public sector, and service provider markets.

Some of the Topics in my Cisco Live Presentation
Questions I Will Discuss In My Cisco Live Presentation

 

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Stephen Speirs

No Longer at Cisco

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Innovation in Action: Exciting Catalyst Demonstrations at TM Forum Live in Nice

Last month, I encouraged you to come visit our booth at TMFLive! in Nice to see how Cisco’s unified service management solution helps Service Providers transform their networks into centers of excellence for building customer trust and loyalty by enhancing the customer experience. Now I am proud to announce that, once again, Cisco has partnered with other industry leaders in a number of exciting Catalyst projects that take the evolution of customer experience to the next level while driving operational transformation towards unprecedented agility and efficiency. I’d like to briefly introduce these Catalysts, and encourage you to visit their booths in Nice to learn more:

1) Big Data Driven OSS

Cisco is collaborating with Continue reading “Innovation in Action: Exciting Catalyst Demonstrations at TM Forum Live in Nice”

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JL Valente

Vice President, Product Management, Enterprise Routing and SD-WAN

Networking Experiences Team

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Mobile Growth is Key Focus at 2015 ICMI Contact Center Expo and Conference

The explosive growth of mobile offers the greatest opportunity for contact centers. If the consensus among those at ICMI’s Contact Center Expo and Conference is any sign, mobile is the place to focus.

But while there’s consensus about mobile, there isn’t consensus on a standard definition of mobile customer care. Many consider mobile to be just another device to support or another channel into the contact center. However, participants and speakers at ICMI did not have a standard definition of mobile customer care. Many consider mobile to be just another device to support or another channel into the contact center.

I talked to Nemertes Research Analyst Lisa Durant to get her perspective. She agrees there is a dramatic evolution in the industry as mobile interaction continues its explosive growth as a contact method. Durant takes a broader view of mobile customer care to include “any interaction using a mobile device.” Whether a customer makes a voice call to a contact center, completes a transaction online, or engages via social media, she points out that the user is most likely on a mobile device.

As a silver sponsor at ICMI, the Cisco team experienced that strong interest in mobile. Attendees kept the booth staff busy demonstrating Remote Expert Mobile. Armed with iPads and Cisco DX80 endpoints, Cisco engineers Brian Cole and Doug King demonstrated products in the Cisco Customer Collaboration portfolio, including Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express, Remote Expert Mobile, and Context Service.

The Evolving Mobile Customer Experience

Despite continued growth in mobile, Continue reading “Mobile Growth is Key Focus at 2015 ICMI Contact Center Expo and Conference”

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Ibrahim Malick

No Longer with Cisco

May 27, 2015 3 Comments
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The Mobile Response to Nepal

Wesley_KingThis post was written by guest blogger Wesley King, a business systems analyst at Cisco

The World is Flat, not a Flatscreen

I can’t deny it any longer. The apps on my mobile devices, and my social network living inside those apps, are influencing my behavior. In the case of disaster relief, at least, this influence is for the better.

While playing Words with Friends, I am asked to “Play to Help Nepal.” While paying my sister back for a Mother’s Day through Venmo, I notice my news feed has been taken over by @Possible (Possible Health).

“A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Kathmandu valley in Nepal. Donate $5 to Possible and help build back Nepal’s healthcare system relief efforts. http://bit.ly/possible4nepal“

Screen Shot 2015-05-27 at 7.23.49 PM

A few taps on the screen and I watch my money move, along with relief workers, aid, and social awareness.

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Alexis Raymond

Senior Manager

Chief Sustainability Office

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Summary: #DigitalTransformation Fueling the Need for Workforce Transformation

In case you missed it, here a summary of Karen Walker’s latest blog on the IoE Blog site that reaches out to all those in the Oil and Gas Industry:

“…we recently published a new report that shows a global oil and gas (O&G) industry awash with disruption, and primed for digital transformation. Low oil prices have upended the sector, spurring an urgent rethinking of strategy by oil and gas executives—and accelerating the adoption of IoE.”

kwalkerKaren Walker, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Cisco and interim CMO, highlights some of the key findings from the report:

“To become agile enough to compete in the IoE Era, the oil and gas workforce must possess a mix of technical skills, industry knowledge, and business acumen. With talent shortages due to massive numbers of professionals retiring over the next few years—and a lack of necessary digital skills among those who remain— O&G firms need to make bold moves to transform their workforce strategy:

  • Extend the reach of existing expertise –Video-based collaboration can help bridge the expected talent gap by making the most of professional expertise that is spread too thin, as well as providing ongoing training throughout the organization.
  • Attract digitally-savvy talent – As up to 50 percent of oil and gas workers prepare for retirement in the next five to 10 years, who will be the next generation of workers that replaces them? An earlier Cisco report showed the next wave of digital transformation will be all about capturing timely, actionable insights from the deluge of data being generated by the Internet of Things (IoT), a key enabler of IoE.
  • Bridge the silos – In addition to analytics expertise, O&G companies will need employees who can see and work across the boundaries between IT and operational technology (OT).
  • Create a culture of innovation – O&G companies don’t compete just with each other for top talent, they compete with the likes of Google and Facebook. The best and brightest data scientists and software engineers want to be on the leading edge of innovation, not mired in “the way we’ve always done it”.”

Read the full blog to find out further insights here:

#DigitalTransformation Fueling the Need for Workforce Transformation

…and, as always, let us know what you think!

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Peter Granger

Senior Sales Transformation Manager

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Innovative Benefits of Cisco’s Collaboration Core Infrastructure Approach

Many of the products that make up the Cisco collaboration core infrastructure are “best-in-class” solutions that deliver significant benefits in their own right. Used together, their benefits become amplified. Together, they create a comprehensive and powerful end-to-end collaboration solution.

Designed to work together, the components complement and extend the value of the other components, creating a “one plus one equals three” scenario. Some of these advantages include:

A consistent user experience, regardless of your location or device. This allows you to focus on what you’re doing instead of the technology you’re using. Focus on the discussion rather than how to join the meeting or view content and video. We’ve optimized the views and quality for each device so everyone has the best experience their device can support.

Tremendous flexibility for any-to-any collaboration. Connect from anywhere, with anyone, from the applications you use and the device of your choice. This removes barriers. Mobile and teleworkers can work as easily, effectively, and securely as if they were in the office. This flexibility extends to:

  • Business-to-business and business-to-consumer interaction
  • Secure connectivity to the cloud
  • Interoperability with third-party endpoints and systems
  • Public-switched-telephone-network (PSTN) connectivity options

Continue reading “Innovative Benefits of Cisco’s Collaboration Core Infrastructure Approach”

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Michael Murphy

No Longer with Cisco