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In his blog, “5 Traits to Look for in a Successful Cloud Reseller”, Carmen Sorice, SVP Channels at Sungard Availability Services offers valuable advice, both to resellers looking to move to cloud as well as to service providers. Specific traits such as executive leadership, relationship with customers, trust, give to get, and taking an integrated approach provide a useful way to measure the character of a reseller before any paperwork is signed.

Sorice also shares a subtle truth that is easy to miss among all the details of engaging with a reseller: that providers expend much time and investment on recruiting the right channel partners. It’s easy to see how a reseller might leverage a provider’s credibility to bolster its own. The very fact that a provider has a good relationship with a reseller is an endorsement of that reseller. According to Sorice, “As with any relationship, one wrong-doing can ruin the relationship and have devastating results. Therefore, we take precaution to protect our partner and customer interests, every day, in every deal.” In other words, a provider isn’t going to work with a reseller who doesn’t effectively represent its brand and values.

The power of endorsement carries through all levels of the cloud. Cisco Powered, for example, is a difficult endorsement to achieve. A partner has to become certified as well as pass a challenging third-party audit. This process assures that this partner’s cloud services meet the highest standards. Thus, Cisco Powered does not just mean that a partner is running your cloud services over Cisco equipment. It also means Cisco recognizes the expertise and capabilities of this partner.

There’s a reason we use the word “partner” at Cisco. No one vendor can meet every cloud need on the market. It takes an ecosystem of world-class companies working together to build out the technology behind things like the Intercloud and the Internet of Everything.

We continue to invest in and validate our partners. And we have created the Cisco Partner Ecosystem so you can know whom we trust to deliver your cloud.

5 Traits to Look for in a Successful Cloud Reseller blog post was originally published on February 2, 2014 on the Channel Focus Community website at channelfocuscommunity.net.

Authors

Xander Uyleman

Senior Manager

Global Partner Marketing

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Breaches happen.

It makes us cringe to say it, but it’s the obvious truth. A week doesn’t go by that we don’t hear about the latest breach in the news. All of us in the IT security industry would love to say, “our technology can prevent all breaches.” But it’s a pipedream. Being able to prevent 100 percent of breaches or detect all threats trying to infiltrate the network is simply not reality.

Of course, we prevent what we can. And we can get pretty close. In fact, Cisco Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) was shown to block 99 percent of incoming malware in a comparative test on Breach Detection Systems done by NSS Labs.  Ninety-nine percent is pretty darn good, and in fact, Cisco AMP emerged a leader in that test. But still, it only takes one percent to cause a breach.

When malware gets through your front-line defenses, you need continuous threat protection in place that can quickly detect it, contain it, and remediate it before damage can be done. Cisco AMP provides the visibility and control to do exactly that. Even after files are initially inspected, AMP’s continuous analysis engines constantly monitor activity on endpoints, mobile devices, and in the network to spot any signs of malicious behavior, and provide continuous detection of threats in your environment. As a result, you have protection before, during, and after an attack.

Today I am excited to announce that Cisco AMP just got even better.  We are announcing new features and new innovations that enhance Cisco AMP’s protection capabilities and continuous threat protection in the following areas:

Continuous Detection and Retrospective Security

  • AMP still provides continuous analysis of files after an attack so that you can see the complete ancestry of an attack, scope a compromise, and continuously detect and uncover evasive threats. You get deep visibility to see threats in your environment and the control to quickly stop them.
  • Endpoint Indications of Compromise (IoCs) in AMP for Endpoints lets users now submit their own IoCs using the open IoC standard to catch targeted attacks.
  • The Low Prevalence feature in AMP for Endpoints uncovers stealthy, targeted threats that were only seen by a small number of users and automatically sends them for sandbox analysis.

Threat Intelligence and Dynamic Malware Analysis

  • The recent integration of Threat Grid capabilities into AMP gives you context-rich threat intelligence feeds, over 350 unique behavioral indicators that analyze the actions of a file, easy to understand threat scores and analytics, and billions of malware artifacts at your disposal to improve your ability to detect and prevent future attacks. These capabilities and more are also available as a standalone threat intelligence and dynamic malware analysis solution via AMP Threat Grid.
  • The new Vulnerabilities feature in AMP for Endpoints identifies vulnerable software being targeted by malware, and the potential exploit, providing you with a prioritized list of hosts to patch.

Deployment Flexibility and Choice

  • Deploy the solution how and where you want it: on the endpoint, mobile devices, in the network on a Cisco FirePOWER Next-Generation IPS security appliance, on a Cisco ASA firewall, and on web and email gateways. You can also deploy AMP Threat Grid as a standalone threat intelligence and dynamic malware analysis solution.
  • No need to manage multiple security platforms or deploy multiple appliances. Cisco AMP is fully integrated with Cisco security products for ease-of-deployment, ease-of-use, and ease-of operation.

To learn more about these innovations, visit our Cisco Security Launch page to watch videos, product demos, customer testimonials, and more.

Authors

John Dominguez

Product Marketing

Cisco Security Business Group

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Over the past five years, we’ve seen an incredible shift in the way that organizations all over the world are using video every day. From an engineering team conducting their weekly meeting from multiple locations around the globe, to an employee being able to join an all-hands meeting from an iPad while on their balcony in Beijing, video has become a critical part of the workplace.

And it’s not just real-time video; more and more employees are demanding ways to keep that video content, to record and share it for later playback on any device. As a market leader in enterprise video, Cisco developed our Capture-Transform-Share portfolio to enable customers to get more out of their video collaboration investments and extend the life and the value of video with solutions for video recording, streaming and playback. Today, we’re excited to announce that as part of our Capture-Transform-Share strategy, we are working with VBrick to offer their enterprise webcasting solution, VBrick Rev, to our customers.

A Cloud-based offering for enterprise webcasting

First and foremost, VBrick supports some of the most popular use cases of video – from delivering live video streaming over Continue reading “Cisco and VBrick – Enhancing Enterprise Webcasting for Cisco Collaboration Customers”

Authors

Thomas Wyatt

Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer

AppDynamics

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Dan O’Malley talks about Cisco Systems offerings that are resonating in the Energy Industry and elsewhere. Cisco helps customers pre-plan for storms and to respond to disasters with sophisticated collaboration and device connectivity enabling technologies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCrwyJXRsDQ&index=8&list=PLC9B77E2CF83FB00D

Many new technologies enable worker safety and visibility using 2-way radios, smart devices, and mobile broadband “connecting people and devices and work crews together smartly over the internet”. In the video Dan talks about the challenges customers face and how Cisco is helping them get ‘positive business outcomes’.

Yes – I know what you mean – what does that really mean? Well, mother nature doesn’t always cooperate, so getting outages dealt with as quickly as possible is one positive outcome. Keeping in touch with workers, especially those in dangerous areas, and warning them if safety issues occur is another. And maybe even having ‘wearable’ biometric devices attached to workers to see how they’re doing physically, and monitoring their vitals in real time by operations centers. That’s another.

Just keeping track of field workers is a challenge – and making best use of a constrained ‘expert pool’ might be another. Some newer ‘millennial’ devices are, of course, part of the architectural approach, but so are traditional two-way radios and other devices – so that everyone can communicate and collaborate to get the job done. And it’s getting the job done that really gives good business outcomes – ask any customer!

So, in the words of Dan:

It’s about smartly connecting people, and devices and work-crews together smartly over the internet. That’s what we do.

…and providing the best business outcomes possible: Continue reading “Incidence Response – Safety, Reliability and Recovery for Industry and Workers”

Authors

Peter Granger

Senior Sales Transformation Manager

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Ken DumontGuest blog written by Ken Dumont, Business Development Manager, Cisco Service Provider Video Software & Solutions

Maybe you saw this, maybe not: Just before Christmas, LA Lakers fans were met with the unsettling news that their high-scoring hero, Kobe Bryant, would be benched, for tired legs. However, that same night something else earth shattering was going on. (It’s LA I had to throw in an earth quake reference) In the background, cable broadcast history was being made: The proof-of-concept transmission of the game, played against the Golden State Warriors, in UltraHD.

And not “just” UltraHD: the game was broadcast in 4K .60p.10-bit which translates to 4 times the resolution of normal HD, 60 frames per second with 10-bit color sampling. Here’s what happened: The scene was downtown LA, it was the night before Christmas Eve, 2014, Continue reading “4K Broadcast Trialed in End of Year Lakers Game- Come see it with Cisco at NAB!”

Authors

David Yates

as Director of Service Provider Video Marketing at Cisco

SP360

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Let’s step into the “way back machine.” It’s 1985, and my friends and I are waiting in a long line to purchase U2 concert tickets. We are beyond excited; they are coming to the Worcester Centrum and we are determined to score tickets for this momentous event! It’s a very, very long line at the local record store, the only one in town that sells concert tickets.

Remember those days? Not many choices and lots of in-person interactions that were time-consuming, but we didn’t know the difference back then.

It took a long time to make it to the front of that line, and you never knew if the tickets were going to be sold out before you got there. It was a wait-and-see game with very few choices.

EC Lenore blog

In 2015, most of us couldn’t imagine dealing with that. We have grown accustomed to having many choices on how and when we communicate. This has greatly changed the research and purchase process, which in turn has driven the need for the highly-responsive customer care companies are starting to provide.

How does this relate to Enterprise Connect 2015? Continue reading “Enterprise Connect 2015 – it’s about communication, not technology”

Authors

Lenore Files

Solutions Marketing Manager

Customer Collaboration

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On March 26, I gave a presentation on Cisco’s culture of innovation at the Unleashing Innovation Summit in New York City. This venue gave me the chance to discuss our belief that the next billion-dollar idea can come from anywhere and that our innovation strategy and culture reflect that philosophy.

Innovation is a core part of Cisco’s values and culture, and we don’t limit innovation to dramatic technological breakthroughs. Instead, we see innovation spanning the full range of all we do – from sustaining innovations, which enhance the capabilities of existing products and services; to disruptive innovations, which create new markets; to business process improvements, which fuel growth, competitive advantage, and customer satisfaction. Continue reading “Cisco’s Culture of Innovation: Thriving in the 21st Century”

Authors

Kip Compton

No longer with Cisco

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Over the past six weeks I participated in three Gartner BI and Analytic Summits in Sydney, London, and most recently Las Vegas.

I love going to these events, as they are a great opportunity to:

  • Stay abreast of the latest trends through the lenses of the Gartner analysts who cover BI, analytics, data management and integration, and big data.
  • Evaluate how Cisco’s Data and Connected Analytics Portfolio addresses market needs today and how we need to evolve our portfolio to meet tomorrow’s requirements.
  • Catch up with many friends including Gartner analysts, industry peers and most importantly, our customers.

Let me share my takeaways. Continue reading “Gartner’s Latest Point of View on BI, Analytics and Big Data”

Authors

Bob Eve

No Longer with Cisco

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ITIL is simply a set of best practices for IT service management (ITSM). Over many years, IT practitioners have followed ITIL to manage the lifecycle of traditional IT-services. However, with the rise of cloud services, it’s changing how we launch, support and retire services.

With it, comes the question about how relevant ITIL is: “Can ITIL still help to manage cloud services?”
Recently, I attended a training course: “Professional Cloud Service Manager” offered by the “Cloud Credential Council” to address this very topic.

Note: For those who cannot attend the 3-days training here is a 60min snapshot: “Controlling the cloud with service management

The course was attended by customers (Maersk – the shipping/oil-drilling company) and vendors (i.e. Cisco). The course material was developed and presented by Mark O´Loughlin who has extensive theoretical (ITIL-master) and practical expertise (Microsoft Azure partner) to explain the challenges of managing the cloud with ITIL.

hybrid cloud

Besides the question of “How does the cloud impact ITIL ?”, I had a particular question as a Cisco employee: “Where are the opportunities for Cisco to better serve cloud customers?” Continue reading “How Do You Manage the Cloud with ITIL?”

Authors

RolandRoth

Cloud Support Business Development Manager