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ACI, the SDN Purpose-Built for Data Center Operations and Automation

A couple of years ago we talked about our SDN vision and strategy, and a little over a year ago we started shipping the ACI solution. Since then over 1,000 customers have embraced ACI, and of those 150+ customers now have live production traffic running on ACI, with more coming on board at a steady pace. In this blog I want to give you a sense of ACI’s value to our customers who use it every day.

Looking back, when we started working on ACI, the industry had multiple definitions of SDN. Some confused it with APIs driving networking while other thought it’s related to software overlays. Our goal was clear – “automating the network and eliminating the gaps between application owners requirements vs. networking constructs.” This led us to architect the ACI from the ground up to meet these needs.

Continue reading “ACI, the SDN Purpose-Built for Data Center Operations and Automation”

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Praveen Jain

No Longer with Cisco

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As part of my job at Cisco, I get to spend time with Champions. Specifically, Cisco Champions.

As the Collaboration architecture lead for the Cisco Champions program, I get to interact directly with this select group of customers and partners on a regular basis. And it’s a chance for me to connect people on our technical teams directly with the people who use Cisco products every day.

Cisco Champions at CLUS
Cisco Champions at CLUS 2015, San Diego

I learn a lot from them. The technical level of conversations and threads in Spark sometimes threatens to melt my brain cells, but I get great perspective on where their interests are and how they use Cisco technology to do what they do. They’re always ready to tell me what works – and what doesn’t.

There’s an amazing amount of technical talent – and genuine camaraderie and humor – among this bunch. But don’t take it from me, see what a current Cisco Champion has to say about his experience.   Continue reading “Cisco Champions: Why They Rock”

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Kim Austin

No Longer with Cisco

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Data is the foundation of the digital business. You know it, I know it. We get it. Let’s move on… But now a new question arises: As a Leader in your organization are you fully maximizing and leveraging your data to discover from analysis new business insights? New operational efficiencies? New Customer trends and patterns?

We can help… Cisco and our Big Data partners capture, organize, prepare, and handle your available data, while providing the speed, consistency and repeatability necessary for deploying and managing a successful Big Data and Analytics infrastructure and service. Become a disruptor in your market by unlocking the value hidden in your data through data management, data preparation and data analytics to create tomorrow’s trends. Manage diverse sets of data and technologies cohesively, while delivering the analytics and data access control required by your business.

Make the transformative power of Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS) Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data your foundation.

Our Cisco UCS® Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data – a Cisco Validated Design – offers comprehensive infrastructure and management capabilities for Big Data. The Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure solution helps to improve performance and capacity. It also offers additional complete solutions with industry-leading partnerships such as Cloudera, Hortonworks, IBM, MapR, Platfora, and Splunk. Continue reading “Disruption = Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data + Efficiency + Speed”

Authors

Rex Backman

Senior Marketing Manager, Big Data Solutions

Data Center and Cloud

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How do you recognize a good network or datacenter design? What contributes to a good design? How do you learn to do network design well, and then continue improving?

Spotting design problems is key to the network assessments my employer, NetCraftsmen, does. There are other important aspects of assessments: network configuration (execution of the design and attention to details), and performance (network bottlenecks, poor choices of equipment, etc.). However, they are more often implementation flaws in the design. If the design itself is flawed, good implementation cannot do much to compensate. We generally require one of our Craftsmen Assessments so we can identify and fix important design problems before agreeing to provide support via our Craftsmen Assurance Managed Services program.

Continue reading “Recognizing a Good Network Design”

Authors

Peter J Welcher

Networking Consultant

NetCraftsmen

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As you remember, we launched Security Everywhere last June during Cisco Live, San Diego.  Since that time we have received tremendous response from our mutual customers and you, our partners.

To further decrease the risk of security threats, on November 3rd, we announced additional investments and enhancements to our Security Everywhere portfolio and strategy.

We have expanded our security solutions to reach further into the cloud, network and endpoints. In addition, we launched a new threat awareness service for businesses of all sizes. The new solutions provide value to our mutual customers as well as, provide you with additional revenue opportunities that will increase your profitability.

Here are a few of the solutions I’d like to highlight.

Cisco Cloud Access Security (CAS) provides visibility and data security for cloud-based applications. The exciting news for you is that with CAS you can assist your customers address the sprawl of Shadow IT.  It is reported that 90 percent of organizations are not “fully aware” of devices accessing their network.  There are 5-10 times MORE cloud services being used in enterprises than are known by IT.

New additions to CAS offering allow organizations to address this complexity as well as increase visibility and control over data in cloud applications. Four new applications – Audit, Detect, Protect and Investigate – are designed to assess and act on non-sanctioned cloud applications, aimed at preventing cloud data loss.

Partnering with Elastica, CAS delivers increased visibility into “hidden” applications, those that employees might bring onto the network; detection of malicious behavior; and the ability to set security policies that tailor application usage and user behavior to align with corporate policies. To protect cloud-based applications, such as Dropbox and Salesforce.com, CAS prevents the uploading of sensitive information and inappropriate sharing of data in the applications, to limit data exposure breaches.

New Identity Services Engine (ISE) enhancements extend visibility and control for network and endpoints with new hyper-location access controls. Cisco ISE 2.0 extends security further into the network with new capabilities that help you see and control what’s on your network like never before and accelerate threat mitigation. Now you can deploy ISE services such as Profiling, Posture, Guest, and BYOD with 802.1x Network Access Devices (NADs) manufactured by Cisco Ecosystem partners.

You also have a simplified AAA device management and administration capabilities with the new work center for TACACS+ protocol support. Lastly, ISE 2.0 enhances the user experience for ISE administrators by leveraging workflow-focused work centers for centralized management and administration.

Continue reading “Expanding Security Everywhere and Creating New Opportunities for Partners”

Authors

Al Jacobellis

Director, Security Solutions Strategy

Worldwide Partner Organization

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Cisco employees know all about working at Cisco, the fun we have while we work and the cool things we do. But sometimes they just want to tell other people about it.

So the team that brings you @WeAreCisco on Twitter and Instagram and @CiscoUniversity on Twitter (among other social media channels) just had our #FirstBlab where we talked about what the Cisco Life is all about!

Blab is a new social channel with livestreaming video, and it’s a place to watch, join, and interact with live conversations about interesting topics. You can find us on Blab here.

Everyone enjoyed the Blab so much that it ran a full hour (it was planned for a half hour). If you missed it, don’t worry. You can watch the replay, below, and catch our next Blab. Next time, we’re going to talk to a few Cisco recruiters about resume tips and applying at Cisco. Follow us on Twitter for more info on dates and times!

Authors

Carmen Shirkey Collins

Social Media Manager

Talent Brand and Enablement Team, HR

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For the past 15 years, Cisco’s helped raise more than $40 million and deliver nearly 160 million meals as part of its global hunger relief efforts. We’ve changed millions of lives, and now, we’re expanding our impact beyond the global hunger crisis. Every day, a lack of shelter, access to clean water, and malnutrition cripple underserved communities. Things we take for granted, like the roof over our heads or a simple bottle of water, are a luxury to millions of underserved people around the world. Fortunately, you and I can make a difference, starting today.

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As part of Cisco’s new Be the Bridge campaign, employees can support social issues that are important to them or their communities. The campaign, which launched earlier this week, empowers employees to “Be the Bridge” for those in need by providing direct aid to people with uncertain access to life’s necessities. Between now and December 18, Cisco will match employee donations of US$50 or more to over 400 eligible non-profit organizations in 15 different regions around the world.

To kick off the campaign, Cisco campuses in San Jose, India, Texas, and North Carolina hosted volunteer events, where hundreds of employees came together in a collective effort to “Be the Bridge” and create social change.

Continue reading “Cisco’s Be the Bridge Campaign Empowers Employees to Change the World”

Authors

Austin Belisle

No Longer with Cisco

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This post is authored by Jaime Filson and Dave Liebenberg.

Background

A mosaic made up of 1-800 tech support scam websites

The amount of fraudulent actors masquerading as legitimate tech support has been on the rise since 2008. According to David Finn, executive director at the Microsoft Cybercrime Center, tech support scammers have made nearly $1.5 billion off of 3.3 million unwitting victims just this year. These scammers typically convince the victim into allowing them access to his/her computer through remote control applications such as TeamViewer. They then present benign processes as malicious, or at times even spread malware themselves. Afterwards, they charge hundreds of dollars for the service.

There are several avenues through which these scammers reach their victims. One of the most insidious are pop-ups and websites asserting that the user’s computer is riddled with viruses, and that the only way to fix the problem is to call a provided tech support number.

Talos has been monitoring the incessant creation of these fake tech support websites in order to better understand the way in which these scams operate. We decided to call a company ourselves for some reverse social engineering. Our experiment provided some interesting insights into the methods these scammers use to fool their victims as well as the infrastructure supporting their operations. In addition, we discovered a broad New Delhi-based scamming network employing multiple websites and VOIP phone numbers to carry out their duplicitous activities.

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Authors

Talos Group

Talos Security Intelligence & Research Group