Year: 2017

May 18, 2017 2 Comments
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“Recalculating”… Service Providers Improve TCO with Programmable Networks

Written by Ola Mabadeje, Marketing Manager

“Recalculating”… “Recalculating”… was all I heard when I eventually turned on the GPS navigator with the latest navigation software. I had been stuck in traffic and then decided to take some backroads to my destination. I had initially tried to travel to my destination using the legacy navigation system that came with my car. Not updating to the latest mapping software had cost me valuable time and money.

Navigation technology today finds the best route in real time, even when an accident happens on the original path, as I experienced that day. My legacy navigation system increased my ETA by over 50%, cost me extra fuel, and added wear and tear on my car.

How does that scenario relate to service provider networks? Legacy network equipment with out-of-date software can carries unnecessary costs to maintain. One customer analysis shows that they spend $3.80 more per subscriber each month running on older infrastructure than they would with a programmable network. In addition, older generation networks do not make it easy to respond quickly to new market demands. This results in missed opportunities and more is spent to capture what is left of the opportunity.

The fast pace of change in today’s market makes it costly to keep up with customer demands and competitive pressures when you are using old network infrastructure to deliver services.

We have worked with many of our service provider customers to analyze their network infrastructures and costs with an eye toward the benefits of programmability. With a programmable network you can quickly respond to changes in the market and keep up with traffic demands. You can do this better and with significantly lower capital and operational expenses than you can with an older generation network.  Also, older networks lack scale and new functionality.

With a three-pronged approach, service providers can capture significant positive business outcomes like boosting cash flow and saving costs.

  1. Product migration
  2. Solution with professional services bundling
  3. Migration financing

With IP traffic growing at 30% annually on average, older generation infrastructure continues to be strained. Keeping up with this traffic demand might be costing service providers more than they know. We have performed some detailed financial analysis and have seen that some service providers are leaving a lot of money on the table.

As a case study we looked at one service provider with the following profile:

  • Hundreds of thousands of residential subscribers (broadband + video)
  • Thousands of enterprise L2 & L3 VPN customer circuits
  • Over 30% annual traffic growth
  • More than 100 legacy edge routers

A thorough 5-year business case shows the significant benefits of migrating to a programmable network. Taking advantage of all 3 components above, the highlights of the customer’s business case are quite good:

If the service provider only takes advantage of #1 (product migration) only, the results are good enough to consider migration. A product only approach resulted in an overall TCO drop of 36% and ROI of 55%. However, a solution approach which includes other software platforms like NSO and WAE as well as Cisco Advanced Services boosted CAPEX savings by 60% and also boosted OpEx savings by 37%. This architectural approach of combining #1 and #2 resulted in an ROI of 80% versus 55% of taking the product only approach.

  • 67% drop in average TCO/Gbps
  • 30% drop in equipment capital equipment
  • 62% drop in network planning and operations costs
  • 56% drop in power, cooling, and space costs

Lastly, financing your migration with Cisco Capital (#3 above) will give a further boost to your business outcomes. Cisco Capital’s Easy Pay and its other options increased ROI and grew cash flow. Upfront capital investment can drop below 1/3 the purchase price when you take advantage of the payment deferral and flexible consumption model options.

  • Return on investment (ROI) greater than 200%
  • 53% boost in cash flow

In summary, you can get significant financial benefits when you migrate away from older network infrastructure. Service providers can enjoy several other cost-related benefits that I did not cover. You can improve time to market. You can address larger markets because you will be able to offer new services and grow your ecosystem. We have quantified many of these opportunities.  They can offer even greater impact on your bottom line.  Learn more about programmable networks.

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Sidney Kriger

Senior Manager of Business & Technology Architectures

Worldwide Service Provider Marketing

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Checking in. Kicking Habits.

The statistics are staggering. Last year in America, opioid overdoses killed more people than car accidents. And more people died using heroin than in gun violence. It’s a tough habit to kick.

Meet our partner Netera. Their customer, Behavioral Health Group, is helping people get into recovery. With success rates that are growing so fast that they needed a new network and collaboration equipment to keep helping people.

Netera says…

It’s dangerously easy to become addicted to opioids. And tragically easy to overdose on them.

2.1 million US citizens are dependent on the drugs. When one of those people call for help, they need to talk to someone fast. And jump into straight into recovery.

Our client, Behavioral Health Group (BHG), makes that happen. They accept people right away, no need to wait. Then they wean them off opioids with low doses of methadone. Patients check in at a local clinic to get their next dose.

The program was so popular and successful that BHG needed a faster system to keep up. We set up them up with a network from Cisco – and collaboration technology, too. The network and collaboration systems have to function properly for patient’s success.

“BHG’s Call Center permits all 40 BHG sites to service intake appointments within 48 hours – meeting the patients at their time of need.”  — D. Walsh, BHG

BHG has found the right mix of in-person accountability and easy access to help, which promotes recovery. It’s already helped save lives: Demand for BHG services are increasing by 20% year over year, helping patients break free from their addictions.

Thanks, Netera!

There’s never been a better time to get people into recovery.

It’s great to see our stuff put to such good use, but the story doesn’t end there. Find more stories on the great things our customers and partners are doing all over the world.

 

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Julie Colwell

Marketing Manager

Global Partner Marketing

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How Learning Science Fuels Educational Innovation for the Digital Economy

As we embark on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it is clear that technology will play a central role in nearly all aspects of our lives. Research by the World Economic Forum estimates that 65% of children entering primary school will find themselves in occupations that today do not exist [1].

Additionally, by 2020, it is estimated there will be 1.5 million new digitization jobs across the globe [2]. At the same time, 90% of organizations currently have an IT skills shortage, while 75% of educators and students feel there is a gap in their ability to meet the skills needs of the IT workforce [3]. To prepare the talent needed for the digital economy, education must adapt as fast as the demand for IT skills is growing and evolving.

Recently, insights into the influence of psychological, social, cultural and environmental factors on how we learn are emerging from “the new science of learning” This approach to understanding education argues that in our complex and rapidly evolving world today, academic models based on interdisciplinary research are necessary to create effective teaching and learning environments.

Learning science’s expanded viewpoint is therefore uncovering new approaches to education. For example, research by professor and leading scientific expert on creativity and learning, R. Keith Sawyer, emphasizes the power of technology to influence and enhance academia by providing experiences that lead to deep learning, such as allowing students to learn collaboratively, test out and redesign models, and articulate their knowledge both visually and verbally [4].

Imagine a classroom infrastructure that includes wireless technologies, remotely accessible switches and routers, and collaboration tools to create an “intelligent” environment for the invention of real-world Internet of Things (IoT) products, services, and experiences by students.

Creation takes place in different venues, for example, in the classroom during project-based learning or alongside passionate technology peers via hackathons. Students model the networks they create in a simulator and prototype with cloud-based technology at home. Instructors are empowered with a customizable learning management platform while collaborating with peer instructors across the world.

Learning science’s interdisciplinary insights are uncovering new approaches to education. For example, the power of technology to influence and enhance academia by providing opportunities for students to learn collaboratively, test out and redesign models, and articulate their knowledge both visually and verbally. Learn more here.

The most exciting piece is, this is all achievable now. By applying learning science insights to IT education, we can create a dynamic, digital, and hands-on learning experience that is tailored, flexible, and relevant, developing the talent needed to power the digital economy.

Understanding Learning Science’s Impact on Education

To illustrate how the science of learning informs digitally enhanced education, we present three learning science concepts – distributed cognition (dCoG), the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), and formative assessment – all of which emphasize how humans learn through activity.

Distributed cognition (dCoG) is a theory introduced by Edwin Hutchins, who describes how people, their environment and artifacts (or tools) can be regarded as one cognitive system.  Educators can view human learning through the lens of dCoG to design digitally enhanced learning experiences that facilitate the interaction of people (e.g. students, teachers, mentors), their environment (e.g. classrooms, workplace learning, informal settings) and tools (e.g. hands-on activities, simulators, games).

For example, Cisco Networking Academy, a world-leading IT skills and career building program, applies dCog and learning via activity to develop deeper, transferrable problem-solving skills. Leveraging collaboration technology, students and teachers can interact face-to-face or virtually to strategize, create and test digital solutions. The learning environment is flexible and diverse, offering face-to-face instructor-led courses, online classes, in-person labs, and blended classroom experiences. The program utilizes various tools to support learning by doing such as Cisco’s Packet Tracer (PT), an innovative network simulation and visualization tool for the IoT era that offers a multitude of opportunities and applications for the teacher and learner. Packet Tracer is free to anyone in the world who registers and allows for student-directed, open-ended networking building and guided practice in designing, configuring, and troubleshooting networks.  Additionally, through hackathons, boot camps, and hands-on lab challenges Networking Academy students can collaborate, create, and problem solve in real time.

Distributed cognition (dCoG), a key science of learning theory, recognizes people, their environment and artifacts (or tools) as one cognitive system. Here an example of dGoG in action: an instructor from Cisco Networking Academy guides a student through Packet Tracer, an innovative simulation tool that provides guided practice in designing, configuring, and troubleshooting networks.

Another concept central to learning science is Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), and the related idea of scaffolding.  ZPD represents the skill level just outside a learner’s comfort and mastery, while scaffolding refers to any type of instructional support, such as quizzes, games, instructions, tutoring, that facilitate learning within the student’s ZPD. By building learning experiences that use scaffolding to adjust to a student’s ZPD, we can hone in on the activity that will optimize a student’s capability to learn new material, as well as the balance between their current ability and the challenge presented.

Adding digital tools expands the options and reach of personalized teaching and scaffolding. For example, complementing the power of in-person and online teachers, learning and assessment enhanced with networked digital tools can be very effective [5]. Applying frequent formative assessments (a formal and informal practice with continual and real-time feedback) the U.S. Navy’s Digital Tutor system demonstrates how digital solutions result in a scalable educational environment that has created IT experts in months rather than years. Through its Education Dominance pilot, the U.S. Navy developed an artificial intelligence based tutoring system to replicate the behaviors of exceptional tutors. Simulation technology and hands-on labs drive this system with student outcomes equivalent to, or surpassing, those using the human tutor. The platform is also scalable in a way not afforded by in-person tutors.

Additionally, digital-based assessments enable Cisco Networking Academy, and its global community of educators, to pursue an agile continuous improvement process that target a learner’s optimal pace and material. A spectrum of online quizzes, chapter and final exams, practice Certification experiences, and online skills exams, coupled with options for instructor customization, create a “digital ocean” of data on learning patterns and progress, for students, instructors, and the program. Cisco Packet Tracer also has a formative assessment mode with scaffolding enabled via instructions, timing, grading and feedback to allow student practice within their ZPD. To date, more than 170 million exams have been taken online through Networking Academy’s continuously refreshed assessment bank.

Applying learning science insights to IT education, educators can create a dynamic, digital, and hands-on learning experience that is tailored, flexible, and relevant, developing the talent needed to power the digital economy.

Fueling Educational Innovation Critical in the Digital Economy

While experts believe that the human psychology behind learning has not changed vastly over time, the external factors affecting how we comprehend, retain and receive new material are constantly evolving. As the digital revolution accelerates, technology provides us exciting opportunities to shape learning experiences and achieve learning goals.

For example, Networking Academy’s digital platform has enabled expansion into more countries than Cisco itself has operations. Additionally, the “learning science DNA” insights generated from Cisco’s design-based research, are being used to create a variety of learning tools, courses, bootcamps, and academic programs in IoT and big data.

At the same time, it is important to recognize the role that a human teacher will always play in the classroom. They have a unique and personal insight into each learner’s progress, serving as a role model and local expert, and providing inspiration in a way technology itself cannot.

Combining the learning sciences with digital innovation, we can leverage the best of what digitally enhanced and human-driven education have to offer, creating learning experiences that keep pace with the digital skills demanded by the market. In turn, affecting individual lives, supporting business and transforming global communities.

[1] The Future of Jobs – Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, World Economic Forum, 2016
[2] IoE / IoT Employment Opportunity Creation Analysis, Gartner, 2014
[3] Fast Track to the Future, IBM, 2012
[4] The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences, R. Keith Sawyer, Cambridge University Press, 2006
[5] Activity Theory and Assessment Theory in the Design and Understanding of the Packet Tracer Ecosystem, International Journal of Learning and Media, 2009

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Dennis C. Frezzo, PhD

No Longer at Cisco

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Two Cisco Tips These Employees Learned from Climbing Kilimanjaro

A Cisco account manager and a Cisco engineer walk into a bar… sounds like the start to a good punchline, no?

In this case, it was not a joke. It was the beginning of a journey – This adventure started when a pact was made to climb the highest mountain in Africa after some pizza and a beer or two at the legendary Trophy Brewing Co. in Raleigh, NC after work with some friends.

Our friends weren’t buying that this would ever become a reality. “Matt, you’re about to get married. No way this happens!” To be fair, we made a lot of big promises at Trophy Brewing.

However, this promise was different and schedules aligned when a good friend from high school was put on rotation for medical school in Moshi, Tanzania, right outside Kilimanjaro National Park. There wouldn’t be a better opportunity than this – we purchased flights almost immediately.

My name is Matt Shaver and I’m an Account Manager based out of Nashville, TN working in US Commercial Sales. Through the Cisco Sales Associates Program (CSAP) that I participated in at the Cisco campus in Raleigh, NC, I met Alex Thompson – what a day! Alex went west to San Diego, CA after our time together in RTP in CSAP and became a Sales Engineer. Some of our best friendships came out of the program and it makes traveling so much more fun when you have friends scattered all across the country.

To summarize, that’s one Cisco Account Manager and one Cisco Engineer – signed up to climb Kilimanjaro.

You could say Kilimanjaro was our Mt. Doom and we were like Frodo and Sam from The Lord of the Rings series – in a place far from home taking an unexpected Journey. I’d like to say Alex and I came up with a strategy to destroy our competitors while on this quest, but the only thing that was destroyed on that mountain top was our quads, glutes, and knees.

The Climb:

After 33 hours of travel, we were in Tanzania. We hadn’t even arrived at the foot of Kilimanjaro yet, and my knees were already hurting from being locked in position for the duration of that flight.

We began our six-day journey on a Saturday and had four other people in our group. To support this foursome, we had a team of 15 individuals to assist in setting up camp, transporting gear, and making sure the trip went smoothly. From start to finish the temperature ranged from 80 degrees at the base to subzero degrees at the summit.

Walking up the mountain and passing through five different ecosystems due to this temperature change was simply incredible. One day you are having a leisurely walk in the rainforest and the next you had gloves on as you trek through snowfall while playing 80’s & 90’s throwback tunes on the blue tooth speaker. The trip was not terribly difficult given the training we did until the last 36 hours.

On the final ascent day, that difficulty level changed dramatically. At this point, we had been hiking uphill for about 30 miles over the past few days so we were pretty sore but dealing well with the altitude. We started our last day early in the morning and hiked for about 5 hours, had lunch, then hiked 3 more hours before taking a nap from 7-11pm. At around 11pm, we woke to finish the final 6 hour hike to the ascent to see the sunrise from the roof of Africa. For me personally, the ascent was the most challenging thing I have done physically. My muscles were exhausted, my camelback was frozen, we had close to no rest, and my body would sporadically fall asleep on me as the altitude started to get to me. I was slowly falling apart but had friends to help get me to the top.

Reaching the Peak of Performance:

The metaphors and clichés involving a mountain that needs to be overcome are endless. However, I did derive some real value from my trip as it translates to the our jobs here at Cisco.

  • Team Dynamics: Just like our team to get us up the mountain carried different functions, the same holds true at Cisco. Engineers, PSS, Cisco Capital – the value comes in a detailed understanding of how each of these roles plays a part in our customer’s success. Each of these roles is different along with the people that hold them so pin pointing individual strengths to reach a common goal holds so much importance.
  • The View: Seeing the sunrise from the top was one of the most breathtaking things my eyes have ever seen. It was extremely difficult getting there so the reward was worth it. Often times it’s a challenge for us to show our customers the full view of the value our organization brings and it is our job to work as a team to help them get there.

One thing is for certain – climbing and reaching the peak of Kilimanjaro at 19,341 ft. would have been immensely more difficult had it not been for our large team. Accomplishments are dramatically limited when the only strategy is self-reliance. By teaming together and working in unison, only then, can the greatest object be accomplished. Everyone comes to the table with special skill sets that are unique and being successful relies on the understanding of this dynamic.

Challenge yourself, challenge your customers, and what we can accomplish as a team will be a great view.

Want to work for a company that challenges you? We’re hiring!

 

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Matt Shaver

Mid-Market Account Manager

Commercial Sales

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The Force is Strong With the Bold New Tech Buyer

The recent CNCF CloudNative 2017 conference in Berlin played host to the crème de la crème of IT, niche container-focused software vendors, and integrators. All of them came equipped with their most switched-on engineers and marketers (intentionally leaving the usual marketing glaze behind).

I was there with the Cisco team to help demo Cisco’s 2nd most important container-related work. The first one being this.

But within just 1 hour into the keynote, I had a great answer to a question that has been bugging me for the last few months:

…DevOps, developers, architects, infrastructure managers, platform managers, whatever you call them. These are the people who are changing the industry from one that’s infrastructure-led to one guided by applications.

Crucially, applications (or software) is where business outcomes, line-of-business users and customer interaction intersects.

People don’t interact directly with hardware (or at least, they shouldn’t).

A new kind of buyer is driving innovation

The event was well-organized, with a compact setup at a well-catered for and excellent venue. More importantly, there was consistency and focus. The open-source community was there for knowledge exchange, not festivities. The fact the event was sold out with 1,500 attendees that paid a fair sum to be there underlined their dedication.

Because with this specific audience there wasn’t really a need for selling or persuasion. Rather, it’s about having realistic conversations on what’s possible – what’s new, more efficient, more resilient, faster, more secure, and offers seamless integration. It was about sharing hands-on challenges from the end-user’s perspective on real, complex and forward-thinking projects happening NOW.

This generation instinctively will pick and mix from what’s readily available in the multi-cloud industry. Big brands and cool new start-ups are the same in their eyes. It’s all about optimizing outcomes.

What was fascinating, was that terms such as ‘cloud’ and ‘hybrid’ were rarely referenced. That was because there was no need. This new kind of tech buyer understands how the trends are being used and sometimes misused. They talk hands-on and specifics – i.e. developing software and scaling, launching efficient services, as well as the means (on-premise or provider-based Kubernetes infrastructure, or Kubernetes-as-a-Service etc.).

In a few words, combining the business and what we have been traditionally calling the ‘IT’ perspective.

During the two days, we heard from large European-based banks, as well as smaller organizations across different industries – telcos, verticalized SaaS vendors and, of course, vendors such as Cisco, Google and IBM sharing their progress with containers.

I highly recommend taking a look through the presentations available here.

 Contiv

 

 

 

 

The Cisco team focused on our contribution to the open-source community and specifically about our innovation in containers from a network perspective – a free module that replaces and adds to the Docker and Kubernetes default one, Contiv. Yes, there are some enhanced features when paired with ACI, but it will work with any infrastructure to make your network fabric more aware of what your containers are doing, how they communicate based on policies, and over which networks. One of the key benefits is its ability to extend networking across heterogeneous environments (bare metal, VMs and containers).

See here how you can get Contiv up and running in just minutes.

We also shared our experiences on how Cisco’s DevNet community uses containers.

Our continuous investment in this kind of innovation (as well as this kind by the way J) strongly aligns with our vision to make any part of the infrastructure more intelligent, application-aware and align better with business outcomes (without necessarily having to build or purchase more of it).

If you don’t have a team already looking into cloud-native development and trends, act now!

Those responsible for application development, platform or cloud infrastructure management in your organization may well already have a view on making your infrastructure and apps work better together.

Whatever your application requirement is (small or large), wherever it might be running (on-premise or with a cloud provider), significant benefits in efficiency, cost and control await.

 

 

Thanks to all those who took the time to stop by the Cisco booth and chat with us at CNCF CloudNative 2017. We hope to see you again soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Kostas Roungeris

Marketing Manager

Cloud Solutions, EMEAR

May 17, 2017 1 Comment
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Cisco at Citrix Synergy 2017: Powering Your Digital Future with Cisco VDI Solutions

Digital transformation is a concept that has been dominating the business headlines in recent years and rightfully so. By harnessing the game changing capabilities provided through the cloud, data center, mobility, analytics, security and the internet of things (IoT), businesses in every industry have proven they can now enable their employees to work and collaborate more effectively while also generating more revenue by delivering value to their customers in a faster and safer way.

But as any business and IT leader can attest, evolving one’s organization towards digital transformation is a complex process that requires far more than just simply purchasing the latest and greatest technologies. Rather, deciding what technology to purchase is the outcome of an extensive process that requires organizations to evaluate new business models, to fundamentally rethink their operating models, and to consider afresh how they measure the success of their business in light of becoming a digital organization.

Given that no two companies are alike in their path towards digital transformation, hearing diverse perspectives on how one can go about this change process can impart valuable insights and wisdom on what to consider when embarking on this organizational journey.

That is why if you are a business executive or IT leader who is starting (or in the midst of) the process towards digitally transforming your organization, then the Cisco team would like to invite you to meet us at Citrix Synergy and attend our breakout session:

SYN 152: Powering Your Digital Future with Cisco VDI

(Wed, 5/24, 9:30-10:15am, Room W311E)

Add this event to your calendar.

In this dynamic session, Robb Boyd (@robbboyd) and Lauren Malhoit (@malhoit) of the popular show, TechWiseTV, will host the IT heroes who were instrumental in the digital transformation of global companies, Lewis Brisbois and Hub International. This session will cover the following topics such as:

  • How Lewis Brisbois and Hub International defined what digital transformation meant for their business’ and what goals they wanted to achieve.
  • What challenges did the Lewis Brisbois and Hub International leadership teams have to address when preparing for their business’ digital futures.
  • Why Lewis Brisbois—the 20th largest law firm in the United States—chose Cisco hyperconverged infrastructure and Citrix VDI technology to digitally transform its business.
  • How Hub International—the 8th largest insurance broker in the world—was able to select the right infrastructure to deliver the best end-user experience to its 10,000+ employees across the world.

We are excited to attend this year’s Citrix Synergy in Orlando and we are looking forward to engaging with the business and IT leaders on this dynamic topic of digital transformation!

Attendees who RSVP to (edcho2@cisco.com) by Tuesday, May 23, 5pm EST will be eligible to win a free 13.3″ Macbook Air laptop

Click here to learn more about Cisco activities at Citrix Synergy

See you in Orlando!

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Ed Cho

Product Marketing Manager

Security Product Marketing Organization

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10 Cisco Leaders Recognized as CRN’s 2017 Women of the Channel

What an honor. Thank you CRN, and a hearty thank you to our partners for voting to recognize the efforts of the incredible women of Cisco.

This year 10, that’s right 10 Cisco leaders were named to CRN’s Women of the Channel in 2017! The list recognizes women leaders for their influence, extraordinary expertise and vision.

I could not be more proud to share this honor with so many of my colleagues, and friends.

Cisco Women of the Channel

I am also extremely honored to be placed on the Women of the Channel Power 100 list, alongside our partner channel leader Wendy Bahr.  While not new to Wendy, this distinction is a subset of the CRN Women of the Channel, awarding those based on their exemplary record of success and their level of influence in the channel.

I would also like to highlight the other nine Cisco women who were named this year and their accomplishments to our partner organization. A big shout-out to Jennifer Hewlette for being named to the Up and Comers list!

These awards would never be possible without our partners, and we want to celebrate the other leaders that are also recognized. Our leaders are extremely committed to our partner community and their success powers our team to work harder, innovate faster and drive meaningful business results.

Here is the full list of my nine amazing colleagues that I am proud to call CRN’s Women of the Channel 2017:

These women are the best of the best when it comes to thought-leadership in the channel and are committed to our partners’ success. I am so proud to call them my colleagues and friends.

With Cisco Live U.S. and even Partner Summit coming up on the horizon, we all look forward to meeting with our partners to see how we can continue to transform their business, capture new revenue opportunities and win together in 2017 and beyond.

Congrats again to our Cisco women of the channel leaders and some of the new awards they have received this year!

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Michelle Chiantera

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Beers with Talos Podcast Now Available

The first episodes of Beers with Talos are now available on iTunes and directly on talosintelligence.com/podcasts.

When Talos decided to make a threat intelligence podcast, we wanted to make it different than your typical buttoned down, subdued security podcast. The BWT crew: Craig, Joel, Nigel, and Mitch, decided to do that by making a podcast that is a lot like the discussions that you would have after work with colleagues – if your colleagues were both ridiculously opinionated and hyper-focused on security research. Occasionally we’ll even have some special guests join us.

Read More >>  Check out the full post on Talosintelligence.com to leave a comment.

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Mitch Neff

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Cisco and the iSchool Initiative Bring Technology to US Schools

The most difficult part of teaching students is making sure that they’re stimulated enough to learn. When anyone—not just a child—is bored, their mind wanders and the lesson is lost. The iSchool Initiative knows that keeping a brain active and present is no small feat and they’re able to do this, along with some help from Cisco.

The iSchool Initiative is a role-modeling concept that uses gamification and problem-based learning to educate both students and teachers about high tech solutions. This real-world education is done in schools throughout the country via the iSchool Initiative’s “Escape the Bus” program. Much like the popular Escape the Room games, participants go into the bus where it is “locked”. The people inside have to use their intellect to solve a series of clues to “escape” in a certain amount of time.

Since it’s a literal bus, the iSchool Initiative just needs to gas up and then they’re able to bring the learning to any school in the nation.

But how does Cisco fit in? The bus is stocked with Cisco devices that keeps it on the cutting edge of technology. The wireless connectivity is maintained by Cisco Aironet 3700 Series Access Points which are connected to Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers. The entirety of the bus’s infrastructure is made up Cisco products. From the aforementioned access points (AP) – which also include Cisco Meraki APs – to the Integrated Services Router to the Cisco Unified Communications Manager.

Last year Escape the Bus attracted more than 35,000 visitors and it’s a big hit wherever it goes.

“We use Escape the Bus for teachers, like a form of professional development,” said Margaret Scuteri, Supervisor of Science and Technology at Manalapn-Englishtown Regional Schools in New Jersey. “[It] shows them the value of technology.”

With two new Escape the Bus vehicles ready to roll out this year, there will also be new themes including one that simulates a rocket ship to Mars.

Your business might not be a rolling class room, but Cisco wireless network infrastructure can still help your company soar. To learn more about Wireless solutions from Cisco, click here.

To read more about this Cisco Case Study, click here.

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Byron Magrane

Product Manager, Marketing