“May you live in interesting times,” the old saying goes. With its explosion in intelligent connections, the Internet of Everything makes this one of the most exciting times to be alive — ever.
But you already knew that.
The real fun begins when we consider that as dynamic as technology change appears to be in 2015, this is only the beginning. Mobility, video, analytics, and other technologies have already transformed our jobs, our home lives, the ways we socialize, access entertainment, you name it. But now IoE is accelerating change at an even faster rate as people, culture, innovation, technology, get added to the mix.
With that in mind, let’s explore some key predictions to see where I believe IoE will take us in the next ten years or so.
The way I see it, IoE will drive an unparalleled level of social and business consciousness, as the Internet evolves far beyond its current state and limitations. This transformation will center on three core capabilities to be Hyperaware, Predictive, and Agile.
Big data and analytics are changing the competitive playing field. Winners will find ways to turn unprecedented growth and complexity of big data, cloud, IoT devices and more into competitive advantage.
The Value of Big Data Integration
Big data itself can provide significant insight, impact and advantage. These outcomes can be multiplied when big data is combined with existing enterprise data or even other big data. These insights can lead to enriched customer engagement, faster new product innovation, higher returns on capital and more. The possibilities are endless. And your competition has the same objectives.
As a result, integrating big data intelligently is a challenge on nearly everyone’s short list. Three patterns of integration have formed around big data integration.
Cisco Data Virtualization is proving a key enabler, delivering many of the capabilities required. With Cisco UCS and key partners including Appfluent, Cloudera, Hortonworks, Informatica and MapR providing additional value add.
Integration Pattern 1 – Hadoop to Hadoop Integration
The Cisco Hadoop-to-Hadoop Data Integration solution provides a more agile and faster way to access and query multiple Hadoop clusters. This solution enables even “bigger” big data analytics for greater insights and business impacts.
Integration Pattern 2 – Hadoop to Enterprise Integration
The Cisco Hadoop-to-Enterprise Data Integration solution provides a more agile and faster way to bring together traditional enterprise data with the new world of big data. Accessing and querying both Hadoop and enterprise data enriches the analytic opportunities and results in better business decisions.
Integration Pattern 3 – Data Warehouse Optimization Integration
With data warehouse data doubling every two years, data warehouse costs are skyrocketing. To reduce these ever-growing warehouse management costs Cisco and Informatica recently announced a joint Data Warehouse Optimization solution.
This offering combines the hardware, software and services required to successfully offload processing and storage from data warehouses to Hadoop. Not only does it significantly reduce costs, the solution also help organizations integrate and analyze more data and types of data, and thus drive greater business impacts.
At Strata + Hadoop World last week, I discussed this new solution with Jim McHugh, VP of UCS & Data Center Solutions Marketing at Cisco.
Learn More
To learn more about these solutions and how Cisco’s rich portfolio of big data and analytics solutions can help you unlock the value of your big data, check out these two on-demand seminars:
On March 2 at Mobile World Congress, Robert Franks, Managing Director, Digital Commerce at Telefónica UK and Cisco’s Kelly Ahuja, SVP, Service Provider Business, Products & Solutions, had a standing-room only crowd as part of the “Personalizing the Consumer Experience” keynote.
During their session, they emphasized how they could understand the consumer as a digital stream of information, not simply isolated pieces of information. That stream of information, combined with in-person location details, can help both service providers and enterprises improve the experience for their consumer customers. Both Kelly and Robert recognized that the data has always been available, but it wasn’t easily accessible. Now Telefónica and Cisco are working together to find ways to use that information to provide a better experience for consumers.
Kelly summarized it well by stating that “personalization is going to be the key to determine the consumer experience.” Audience members agreed with what was said in real-time tweets.
2014 was a terrible year for corporate data breaches. If there is to be any silver lining, information security professionals must draw lessons from the carnage. A good place to start is to identify common denominators.
Several of the most damaging incidents started with phishing emails into office (or contractor) networks. Social engineering has gotten so sophisticated and targeted, we can hardly blame the employees (sometimes high-level executives) for clicking on legitimate-looking links. Once an attacker establishes his credentials as the compromised employee, he potentially can gain access to whatever that employee uses. One attacker got in through a corporate software development network that was not sufficiently segregated from other critical networks. In other cases, disgruntled employees with access to valuable customer data were involved.
Clearly, employee access controls are critical. If we can improve these systems, we will go a long way toward securing our networks. This is not as easy as it sounds, however. When information security teams restrict access or revoke privileges, they get pushback. They become obstructionists, bad cops, bureaucrats. To be fair, we really do run the risk of strangling teamwork, erecting stovepipes, and throttling collaboration. How do we construct robust user access controls without being the bad guys?
Normally the site of rival match-ups, Cisco’s cloud-hosted, analytics solution Mobility IQ is turning stadium environments into the newest place to gain visibility into mobile traffic like never before.
With advanced insight into Wi-Fi, 3G and LTE network activity – all in real-time – service provider customers can reach attendees faster than you can yell “score!”
It is now March. It actually hailed here in Huntington Beach, but we’ll call it snow for the novelty. It’s always neat to see things like this happen here in Southern California mainly because things like snow rarely seems to happen. We freak out on rainbows. Get the picture?
Well to keep things sane here locally, I asked my brethren Wireless Product Manager, Nasser Tarazi to take a few minutes to talk about his new Cisco WAP131.
Here’s a few nuggets about the new WAP131:
The new WAP131
The WAP131 supports concurrent dual band radios for improved coverage and performance
Designed for Desktop/tabletop deployment
It can be powered by a PoE Switch using the WAP131’s PoE ethernet port, meaning less cabling demands for deployment
Works out of the box
Quick and easy deployment
Free feature upgrades
Limited Lifetime Warranty
A good product to replace the popular WAP4410N
Simply put, this new wireless access point is a perfect upgrade for those who were previously using a single wireless router (network-in-a box) for their small business networking needs. Nasser adds, “We are providing our customers with affordable yet highly reliable, secure wireless solutions. The new Cisco WAP131 is yet another example”.
Quick note, Nasser’s son used his GoPro to video this piece, pretty good for his first attempt. Maybe the next video we will show Nasser snowboarding!
That is all for now. Thank you for spending some time with us.
We’ve all been there. A grocery store, a department store or even a coffee shop, standing in a long checkout line that hasn’t moved for what seems like an eternity. You ask yourself, ‘Is this purchase worth it?’ For one third of customers, the answer is no, if they have to wait more than five minutes. (Source: Brickstream)
But imagine if we could eliminate checkout lines? Well at Cisco – we have! In our latest conversation about the Internet of Everything, we’ve imagined more possibilities with our “Museum of Lasts” campaign – the last traffic jam, the last blackout, the last missed meeting – and yes, the last checkout line.
Increasingly, retailers understand the importance of having both a physical and digital presence – and how the power of the Internet of Everything will digitize those experiences. Thanks to technologies like predictive analytics that sense foot traffic and notify stores when more cashier lanes should open, as well as sensors on shelves that can identify inventory and automatically place orders when low, customers and retailers are becoming closer than ever before.
But will these technologies help retailers improve the customer experience? Will the Last Checkout Line ever become a reality? I believe the answer is yes. Last month, I shared results from a recent Cisco study that highlighted unique insights about shopping behaviors among U.S. and U.K. consumers. In this digital age, it’s absolutely critical for retailers to provide “hyper-relevant” experiences. Shoppers don’t want to be sent coupons for diapers if they don’t have children; retailers need to understand the reason and context behind each consumer’s shopping experience and react accordingly.
Some of the key findings from the study emphasized that shoppers do not want to wait in a long line. Seventy-seven percent said that they would use checkout optimization to receive estimated wait times, while 60% would scan product bar codes using their smartphone and then pay at a self-service kiosk. These are the types of digital experiences that shoppers are looking for – and will help eliminate the checkout line!
When I started with my first Cisco router back in 1995, I never would have imagined I would someday be the technology lead for an ice arena of an NHL team. I also would never have predicted the impact that having a Cisco certification would have on being recruited to that position.
Most of my career up until now was spent working in the small and medium business space, primarily on ISP and telecom space working with voice and networks with some software and infrastructure design in the middle. Cisco was a large part of everything that I did from routing and switching to voice over frame relay followed by voice over IP, with a large emphasis on small bandwidth efficiency and signalling. I’m even the lead inventor on an issued patent relating to intelligent rerouting of fax traffic on VoIP systems.
I never thought much about certifications. I have a BA in Economics which has served me well as a business owner and largely found all my work via word of mouth. There were not a lot of people who understood VoIP payload and signalling tuning, starting from the MC3810 and up through the as5300/as5800 series. This was primarily in international carrier / wholesale VoIP traffic and engineering.
As VoIP became more of a commodity good and the cost of equipment came down, this market dried up. In hindsight, I should have paid more attention to Cisco exiting that market, which proved to be a good decision. As my clients and partners moved on to other ventures and I was forced to begin prospecting.
Suddenly, here I was with 30 years since I’d written my first program and roughly 20 years of internet and Cisco experience and I was struggling. I had a lot of experience, but didn’t have a portfolio of work that included any big names, mostly small businesses that no one had heard of. I needed a way to give new clients the confidence to call me. I knew that once I started the conversation, I could close the deal. Before that, however, I needed to actually get that call or email. Continue reading “How Cisco Certifications Landed Me the Coolest Job in South Florida; Literally”
As the U.S. Air Force’s first female airman to complete the grueling, 18-hour Army Cavalry Spur Ride, Courtney Beard is no stranger to overcoming obstacles. Even with her experience, Courtney faced a much greater challenge when she returned from her deployment — finding a job that aligned with her career goals.
Like Courtney, millions of military veterans across the United States struggle to translate their active-duty experience into achievements that will resonate with employers.
Courtney Beard, a United States Air Force Veteran, was hired by Cisco in 2012 as a Network Consulting Engineer
