2015 - Page 205 of 217

January 22, 2015 Leave a Comment

Cisco Live Milan 2015: Hi-Tech revisits City of Tradition and Fashion

When I first visited Milan last year in January, the occasion was Cisco Live and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Alpine city is known as much for its Hi-tech as it is for fashion and tradition. I am one of the lucky few in Cisco to be visiting this great city for a second year in row as Cisco Live Europe is all set to commence here next week. What is special this year? From a Cisco Data center standpoint ACI, Inter-Cloud, IOT and UCS continue to grab the headlines. Particularly, ACI has established itself as the dominant SDN technology with more than 1,000 plus N9K customers, 200 plus ACI customers and a growing eco-system of 34 partners in just one year. In this blog, I am going to present excerpts of what attendees can broadly expect to see and experience at the buzzing event, and I will take you on a tour of how ACI is ready to engage and enrich you.

At the outset, I’d recommend that you attend all keynotes to understand Cisco’s strategy for the emerging technology trends and market transitions. Cisco Execs Carlos Dominguez and Jeremy Bevan kick-start the proceedings with an opening keynote on Jan 27 as they review the amazing things we have achieved in building the internet over the last decade and look at what we must do to build an Internet fit for purpose for the next decade. Don’t miss several technology trends keynotes occurring on Jan27 and 28. Soni Jiandani’s session scheduled for Jan 28 on SDN/ACI topic is going to be a sell-out. Come and listen to Soni to understand how ACI enables business outcomes and IT automation through the creation of an agile infrastructure.

Now I want to segue to ACI specifics. The last year has been phenomenal from an ACI eco-system momentum standpoint. F5 and Citrix, leading ADC vendors, have developed joint solutions with ACI and we have experienced several customer wins and success stories. F5 is a platinum sponsor and has a big presence at Cisco Live Milan this year to delight the 8,000 plus attendees. At the world of solutions F5 has dedicated demo stations to showcase multiple Cisco ACI-F5 joint solutions (featuring both BIG IP and BIG IQ), and F5’s engineers will be happy to explain via whiteboard how these solutions are relevant to your needs. Vincent Ng from F5, an expert presenter, has a technical breakout session on Jan 27 featuring ACI-F5 joint solution. Vincent’s expertise spans hands-on demos alongside lucid architectural illustrations, so do not miss this session.

Citrix has been a regular platinum sponsor at Cisco Live events. This year at Cisco Live Milan, Citrix has a large booth presence in the partner area. The key activities at the booth include joint solution demos featuring UCS-XD/XA, ACI-NetScaler, Mobility and Cloud among other major ones. Besides, David Potter and Christian Hietzschold from Citrix are doing a presentation on topic, “Delivering the best in SDN and ACI integration solutions.” If you happen to be in the DevNet zone, you may want to check out Citrix’s short theater presentations to get a well-rounded view of our joint alliance.

A10 Networks and Radware both have a presence in the WOS, showcasing joint solutions with ACI, thereby providing further evidence for the fast growing ACI L4-L7 eco-system.

At the World of Solutions (WOS) this year, ACI and Cloud take center stage in the Data center category. There are 10 demos showcasing ACI innovations and 6 on the Data Center Networking front. We also have an “Ask the Expert- Solutions Design Center” where Cisco architects will help address your data center, cloud, ACI strategy and design questions to accelerate ROI and reduce TCO. The ACI demos cover broad customer interest areas such as Analytics/Telemetry/Visibility, popular Cloud Management Platforms such as Microsoft Azure and Open Stack, Support for Multi-Hypervisors, Secure Application deployment etc. Our ACI subject matter experts will be on site to give you a real-life demo and explain how these are relevant to your needs.

We also have Hands-on labs at the WOS that give you the opportunity to explore and evaluate a range of Cisco technologies, and our Meet the Engineer and Technical Solution Clinics give you access to the people who design Cisco’s solutions and give you the insight you need about your own environment and technical challenges. So stop by the WOS to explore new technologies and get answers to your unique questions.

In addition to the hands-on demos, we also have round the clock mini-presentations at the WOS Cisco Theater. This year we have three innovative ACI theater topics namely “Simplifying day-0, day-1, day-2 operations with ACI”, “Securing Applications with ACI” and “NX-OS Programmability and Automation”. The special draw at the WOS Theater is the topic of “Simplifying Operations with ACI”. This presentation will cover how application deployment can be accelerated and how easy it is to troubleshoot problems with ACI. To satisfy your broader interests we also have theater sessions on UCS, Cloud and Nexus switching portfolio. Check our WOS Theater roster in the agenda handout.

To your heart’s delight is how I’ll describe Cisco technical breakout sessions. Yes, we have more than 500 breakouts from industry recognized experts at the show. ACI breakouts feature prominently and ACI domain experts Carlos Pereira, Mike Cohen, Mike Herbert, Maurizio Portolani all co-present Jan 26 on topic ‘ACI-Policy Driven Data Center”. This session ranks at the top for me. If you are an Open Stack fan then you must look into the session “APIC Integration with Open Stack” presented by Sebastian Jeuk and Lijun Deng. Harry Petty is doing an ACI operations focused session PSODCT-2455. Data Center operators focused on tenant on-boarding, application monitoring and trouble-shooting will find this session very relevant, so mark this as a must-attend. There are many more breakouts and Lab sessions on ACI, and check out the session catalog for details. Another insightful breakout session PSODCT-1200 by Craig Huitema focuses on the Nexus switching portfolio and ACI and how together they enable a faster, responsive and flexible IT.

As a Cisco Live attendee you benefit from the opportunity to interact with your peers, Cisco staff and partner technical experts in both structured and informal settings. Our Welcome Reception and Customer Appreciation Event are the highlights of the week’s social calendar. Read more on the Social Events & Networking Onsite section. Our online communities on Facebook and Twitter provide year round access to like-minded individuals as well as valuable content, news and updates. We’d love it if you would join the conversation.

I can go on and on, but I’d never be able to cover all of the excitement in store. I’d leave some for you to explore on your own and our Meet and Greet ambassadors will be more than happy to assist you at the show. As for me, if time permits, I am planning on acquainting myself with some of the legendary artworks of MichelAngelo. Safe travels and a happy Cisco Live.

Authors

Ravi Balakrishnan

Senior Product Marketing Manager

Datacenter Solutions

January 21, 2015 1 Comment

#EngineersUnplugged S7|E3 The IOPS Don’t Lie!

Lauren Friedman

In this episode, Matt Brender (@mjbrender) and Rick Vanover (@RickVanover) give us an overview of why you should let your IOPS tell the truth! Ever wonder if your expectations for the modern Data Center match the reality? Matt and Rick go through the math and thinking for what your storage systems can and cannot do!

Special Note: For fun we’ve got a poll on your favorite unicorn… after the jump!

Continue reading “#EngineersUnplugged S7|E3 The IOPS Don’t Lie!”

Authors

Lauren Friedman

Marketing Manager

Enterprise Networks

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Everyday Heroes of Cisco Empowered Women’s Network: Denise Donohue

Priscila David

This post was written by Anuja Singh and Emily Griffin.

Carpe diem – Seize the day! Inspiration from everyday heroes of Cisco Empowered Women’s Network

What better way to start the New Year than with a monthly Cisco Empowered Women’s Network series about role models in the technology industry? We all make resolutions and set goals to improve ourselves– but somewhere along the way, life interrupts our plans, we find ourselves juggling different priorities and invariably things get dropped. What you will find in this segment is inspiration from ordinary people who have achieved extraordinary results. Everyone featured in this series has faced challenges and opportunities that the rest of us can identify with; let’s draw inspiration from the choices they made and aspire to the outcomes they created.

Welcome to ‘Carpe diem – Seize the day! Inspiration from everyday heroes of CiscoEWN’

To kick off our first post of the monthly series, we have an incredible guest – Denise Donohue.

Denise has worked with information systems since the mid-1990s and her expertise spans most technologies. She has authored numerous Cisco Press books and frequently shares her knowledge in webinars and seminars. Find out more about Denise.

Cisco Empowered Women’s Network (CiscoEWN): You started your career as an economist with government agencies and here you are now – a senior network architect with some of the most difficult industry certifications under your belt. What happened along the way?

Denise: Life and kids happened! I quit my full time job to be a full time mom to my three kids. But along the way I started tinkering a little with home computers and found it interesting. I also have a background in education so I started working from home and franchised a business that brought computers to daycares and schools. When my husband lost his job and I had to go back to full time work, I considered returning to my comfort zone of economics and government. But that wasn’t where my heart lay – by then, I had grown to love computers.

CiscoEWN: What were some of your headwinds and tailwinds during this difficult transition?

Denise: I’m not sure I would advise anyone to juggle that many balls at the same time (smiles)– but if you have to do something, the only way is to jump in with both feet and do it. My headwinds at the time were intense – I was very guilty about leaving the kids; I was the weird person among the neighborhood stay-at-home moms peer group; the field I had chosen was very difficult and drained me physically and mentally – there were many days that I cried because I was exhausted and I missed the kids so much. But what kept me going was that despite the challenges I really enjoyed what I was doing and felt deep down that this is where I was supposed to be. I loved the technology, the new learning and meeting new people. Following my passion and trusting my gut were my mantras during that phase.

CiscoEWN: Following your passion is a great advice – but don’t you need a support system or some motivation to actually do it?

Denise: Absolutely! My family understood that it was finally my time to do what I had to do – and they shared responsibilities around housework and cooking dinners etc. Of course, there was a fair share of whining also – especially when I came down on Christmas day just for the gift-opening and then went right back to studying. So, for all of us, despite some basic support, you have to continue to motivate yourself and keep in sight why are you are doing something. Competition also helps. I had a colleague who got his CCNA and CCIE (Cisco certifications) before I did and he was gloating about it. That really lit a fire under me and my goal was to get my own certifications within a year after his.

CiscoEWN: You are the author of not one, not two – but twelve books! How did you persevere?

“…if you have an interest, a goal that you want badly enough – you can get it. And sometimes not knowing exactly what it takes to get there helps. Then you can focus on each step.”-Denise Donohue

Denise: (Laughing) I suffer from total amnesia about how hard it is. I guess that’s why I keep going back and doing it. Some of the books took six months; some took as many as a couple of years. I considered dropping the effort many times, but then I knew I had things I wanted to say and felt this was my way to give back to my community. It was my labor of love. I find that if you have an interest, a goal that you want badly enough – you can get it. And sometimes not knowing exactly what it takes to get there helps. Then you can focus on each step.

CiscoEWN: What would you write in a letter to your younger self?

Denise: It took me a long time to understand that I should have faith in my judgment and myself. If I could speak to my younger self, I would tell her that she is good enough and smart enough and she should do what she needs to do with self-confidence. Also, I would tell her not to let resentment overcome her. At the time, I resented my husband’s job loss because it forced me out of my comfort zone. But time and my achievements have given me faith that there is a reason for the way things happen.

When CiscoEWN contacted me and asked if I was willing to be the first person featured in this series, I hesitated because I felt I didn’t have much to say that was out of the ordinary. I felt I was just doing what I do and it’s not all that special. But then my daughter said ‘Mom, you should do this. You have been my inspiration’. And that just meant so much to me – it gave me pause to look back and see how far I have come. I would tell my younger self that too.

CiscoEWN: Leave us with your favorite Carpe diem statement.

Denise: For people who are wondering what to do with their life, or are stuck, don’t be afraid to take a step. Chances are you can always step back if you need to. ‘You can only do what you can do – don’t feel bad about what you can’t do.’

Thank you Denise!

Authors

Priscila David

Systems Engineer Director US Commercial East Area

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Carrier Wi-Fi: Consider More Than Speed

Keith Day

By Vince Pandolfi, Consulting Systems Engineer, Service Provider The latest Wi-Fi physical layer standard 802.11ac, has been ratified and is enjoying widespread adpotion in the client device marketplace. The hype has been with us for a few years now proclaiming tremendous gains in throughput. The mechanisms 802.11ac uses to gain these speed improvements can also be used to improve client quality of experience and not necessarily just be used for higher data rates. The three key elements of a connect include distance, speed and reliability. These are in most cases mutually exclusive or at least have inverse relationships. You gain distance by trading throughput and reliabilty and gain Continue reading “Carrier Wi-Fi: Consider More Than Speed”

Authors

Keith Day

Marketing Director

Service Provider Mobility Business

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What’s Inside Your Cloud?

Xander Uyleman

One of the key benefits of moving to the cloud is that someone else–your service provider–takes care of the day-to-day management of your technology. You can focus on adding value at a higher level. Scale capacity and increase your company’s productivity by introducing new capabilities such as collaboration applications or desktop-as-a-service.

Unfortunately, not all clouds are created equal. The success of your business relies upon the quality of the services you choose. You might not experience the level of losses Best Buy did when their site went down on Black Friday, but unplanned downtime can still seriously hurt your business.

The technology inside the cloud services you use really does matter. When you buy commodity-class services, you have no guarantee of the performance, reliability, or even availability of your business-critical data and applications.

This is why Intel and Cisco are working together to deliver enterprise-class cloud services you can rely upon. These two leaders offer more than just promises. Both companies have a long history of proven quality and reliability. Services built upon their technology provide fast time-to-market, offer assured performance, and leverage ongoing innovation.

This assurance of quality is extended to your service provider as well. Cisco identifies cloud providers meeting its highest standards with the Cisco Powered logo. These partners must undergo a rigorous third-party audit to verify that they are able to deliver as promised. This means your services are also protected with end-to-end security. And, with the rise of the Intercloud, you’ll benefit from workload portability between clouds and the ability to comply with local data sovereignty regulations.

You trust Intel and Cisco inside your data center. Now you can trust them inside your cloud services. Intel and Cisco. Connect with confidence.

Learn more about how Intel and Cisco are working together in The Future is in the Clouds. To find a cloud provider who can offer you the reliability of Intel and Cisco together, visit the Intel Cloud Finder.

Authors

Xander Uyleman

Senior Manager

Global Partner Marketing

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Mobile in Milan – Cisco Live!

Jonathan Gilad

Whether you are among the 8,000 attendees participating at Cisco Live Milan in-person or among our many virtual attendees catching the live web broadcast, you’ll find lots to help you with your mobility-related projects.

Continue reading “Mobile in Milan – Cisco Live!”

Authors

Jonathan Gilad

Global Marketing Manager

Thought Leadership Marketing

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Protecting Innovation: International Trade Commission Commences Investigation

Mark Chandler

A short while ago, the International Trade Commission (ITC) took an important first step toward the speedy review and action we requested regarding Arista’s widespread infringement of Cisco’s patented networking technology. We welcome the ITC’s initial action in this case, and by voting to commence an investigation into our complaints regarding Arista’s use of Cisco’s patented technology in its products, the ITC has started down a road that should lead to resolution within a matter of months. Trials are generally completed within 9 to 12 months after an investigation is instituted. We are committed to driving fast action regarding Arista’s illicit copying. Our complaints to the ITC detail Arista’s inclusion in its products of a wide array of important Cisco features covered by 12 different U.S. patents. All of these patented technologies are core technologies being used in products we currently ship to our customers. And none of these Cisco proprietary implementations are part of industry standards. You can read our complaints here and here.

We look forward to the opening of the discovery process so that we can further document the widespread infringement, which Arista itself has advertised as a key selling point of their products (see my blog when we brought our lawsuits on December 5).

As the ITC’s decision to commence investigations was just confirmed, we will evaluate the documents that we expect to receive, and provide updates in the coming days.

Further Update: 22 January 2015

Interestingly, the ITC apparently did not elect to undertake further investigation into Arista’s request that the trial judge consider whether their products are so vital to the national interest that they should be allowed to continue to be sold, even if they infringe (See Arista’s Public Interest Statement). We were surprised that Arista even asked. We had expected them to simply deny infringement. Instead, they claimed, “Many others have used, and continue to use, technologies Cisco accuses Arista of using without any complaint from Cisco” as a justification for infringement, and claiming that “Arista’s products serve critical roles in U.S. commerce and security [and] [t]he issuance of any exclusion order would raise public health, safety, or welfare concerns.” As laid out in detail in the December 5 blog, Arista is unique in the scope of its copying of Cisco technology. That’s why this is the first patent lawsuit we’ve initiated in eleven years. Arista has many competitors who do not copy the Cisco technologies Arista chose to incorporate in their products.

Arista has it backwards. There is a strong public interest, long recognized by the ITC, in protecting innovation and excluding the importation and sale of infringing products. That’s why the ITC exists. So we are pleased it looks like the trials will focus on the merits of our claims, without spending resources on Arista’s argument that the public has an interest in letting it infringe Cisco’s patents.

Authors

Mark Chandler

Retired | Executive Vice President

Chief Legal and Compliance Officer

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Milan, Please Meet Open Network Architecture for Service Providers

Greg Smith

By Igor Dayen, SP Product and Solutions Marketing

When I look at the sky, I see an infinite number of stars. It is a moment of inspiration when I gaze at the sky in hope of spotting something miraculous. Looking at the Telecom industry and its new innovations, I feel the same. A new star is rising almost every day. Well … to find Cisco innovations and its stars look no further: the Service provider booth at Cisco Live Milan 2015 is bringing everything that you every wished to see under the stardom of the service provider. Please let me take you through the “starlog” of innovations and demos that will be available for you to engage in and learn about how they advance your business.

Stardate 2015. You may know that the Cisco NVI forecast predicts significant traffic growth and Moore’s Law has never failed us. Therefore Cisco’s service provider strategy is to stay ahead of the curve and deliver SP solutions to Continue reading “Milan, Please Meet Open Network Architecture for Service Providers”

Authors

Senior Product Marketing Manager

Datacenter Solutions

Authors

Marketing Manager

Enterprise Networks

Authors

Systems Engineer Director US Commercial East Area

Authors

Marketing Director

Service Provider Mobility Business

Authors

Senior Manager

Global Partner Marketing

Authors

Global Marketing Manager

Thought Leadership Marketing

Authors

Retired | Executive Vice President

Chief Legal and Compliance Officer

Authors

Sr. Manager, Marketing

Cisco Solutions Marketing

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Senior Manager

Chief Sustainability Office