Year: 2017

September 21, 2017 5 Comments
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Introducing Cisco Intersight for UCS and HyperFlex

Cisco Intersight brings a revolution in systems management, delivered as an easy evolution for UCS and HyperFlex customers.

Today, I’m very pleased to announce Cisco Intersight: an innovative, cloud-based management platform for Cisco UCS and HyperFlex, and the beginning of a new chapter in the evolution of systems management.

New Tools for a New Age

When Cisco introduced UCS in 2009, the world wasn’t clamoring for another commodity server – there were plenty already. What IT organizations were clamoring for was an easier way to power applications and serve the business. What I heard from customers then, and now, is that the complexity in the data center isn’t about the components, it’s about the connections and how everything is managed. Taking on the hard work of truly simplifying computing has been the north star of the evolution of UCS and the key to our success in the market. Yet, a lot has changed in the industry in the 8 years since the start of this journey. Things have only becoming more complex for our customers:

  • Applications and data are more distributed.
  • IoT and mobility demand computing beyond traditional data centers.
  • Developers are the new customers.
  • Things are simply moving much, much faster.

The scale, complexity and velocity of modern IT operations is simply outstripping human capability to manage it all. Computing has entered a new age. But, the tools that vendors provide to manage infrastructure haven’t kept up – even considering the advancements we’ve made with UCS. As an industry, we still ask customers to build and maintain stacks of software, hardware and appliances to manage their estate. We still ask customers to manage and optimize the environment in day-to-day operations – to constantly be at the controls making adjustments and scanning ahead to stay out of trouble. UCS has made life a lot easier for our customers, but we can do better. We can harness the power of the cloud to manage infrastructure. We can start using machine learning and analytics to take the pressure off of IT. It’s time to do these things and Cisco Intersight is where we begin.

One Small Step….

Today, we’re taking a tremendous leap forward in the evolution of systems management architecture. But crucially, we have an approach that our customers can adopt one small step at a time. Great innovation needs to be both revolutionary and easy to adopt. This was our goal as we engineered the Cisco Intersight management platform, which compliments, and is fully integrated with UCS management software. Ultimately, all of the functionality of our existing tools – including UCS Director – will be provided via Intersight. But, the pace of adoption and the transition to Cisco Intersight will be driven by our customers individually.

Software Makes Change Easier

Cisco UCS was designed from the beginning as programmable infrastructure. The system is entirely managed and controlled by software. The singular elegance of UCS arises from the way management functionality has been removed from the individual elements (servers, networking, storage) and centralized in the fabric. With Cisco Intersight, we now take this centralized management and policy control engine and move it to the cloud. In so doing, we’re opening up an entirely new range of possibilities.

The Transformative Benefits of Cloud-Based Management

By moving management software to the cloud, we relieve our customers of the burden of maintaining systems management software and hardware. It’s important to note that this approach can take the form of a public (Cisco managed) cloud service and also a private (customer-hosted) cloud model. We recognize many customers are restricted by business or other factors from connecting infrastructure to a vendor service – and that some, simply won’t want to. Our existing tools will continue to serve them. As we make this transition, we will ultimately deliver Cisco Intersight in a form that can be run privately by customers and by our solution provider partners.

“Cisco’s introduction of cloud based management technologies for data-centre provide new delivery models and insights. We believe that these services will allow Dimension Data to further accelerate our clients’ digital transformation. This programmable software service, integrated into the Dimension Data’s services platform, will add additional services faster for our large Cisco client base globally.”
— Steve Joubert, Group Executive, Data Centre, Dimension Data

Regardless of the consumption model, a management cloud delivers a tremendous range of capabilities and benefits that include:

  • Rapid delivery of new functionality and continuous improvement without the complexity of software upgrades across multiple utilities or products.
  • Seamless extensibility: customers will no longer need to consider how to securely extend the reach of their systems management environment to remote locations because a cloud platform can make that secure connection for them.
  • Consistency of deployment and continuous inspection of configurations to ensure compliance and policy enforcement.
  • Tight integration with Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) and the ability to scan for known issues to provide more proactive support and faster problem resolution.

We intend to leverage the data we collect from the devices connected to Cisco Intersight to develop actionable intelligence for users. This will be achieved through analytics and machine learning applied to the machine data (not customer or business data) generated by thousands of customer environments. As we develop the ability of Cisco Intersight to learn from, adapt to and combine machine data with policy-driven automation, it has the potential to truly transform operations.

Getting Started

  • Join us next week for a special edition of TechwiseTV where we’ll explore Cisco Intersight in more detail. You’ll find us streaming on the Cisco.com home page on September 26th at 10am Pacific Time.
  • If you’re a Cisco UCS or HyperFlex customer, join the tech preview. Learn how you can connect your systems and take Cisco Intersight for a spin.
  • Read our technology partners blogs about Cisco Intersight: IBM, Pure Storage
  • Cisco Intersight will be generally available in Q4 of this year.

 

Watch This Space! Our team will follow up this blog with additional posts detailing functionality and exploring the architecture… today is just the beginning!

Thanks, Satinder Sethi

 

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Satinder Sethi

No Longer with Cisco

September 20, 2017 Leave a Comment
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CCleaner Command and Control Causes Concern

This post was authored by Edmund Brumaghin, Earl Carter, Warren Mercer, Matthew Molyett, Matthew Olney, Paul Rascagneres and Craig Williams.

Note: This blog post discusses active research by Talos into a new threat. This information should be considered preliminary and will be updated as research continues.

Introduction

Talos recently published a technical analysis of a backdoor which was included with version 5.33 of the CCleaner application. During our investigation we were provided an archive containing files that were stored on the C2 server. Initially, we had concerns about the legitimacy of the files. However, we were able to quickly verify that the files were very likely genuine based upon the web server configuration files and the fact that our research activity was reflected in the contents of the MySQL database included in the archived files.

In analyzing the delivery code from the C2 server, what immediately stands out is a list of organizations, including Cisco, that were specifically targeted through delivery of a second-stage loader. Based on a review of the C2 tracking database, which only covers four days in September, we can confirm that at least 20 victim machines were served specialized secondary payloads. Below is a list of domains the attackers were attempting to target.

Interestingly the array specified contains Cisco’s domain (cisco.com) along with other high-profile technology companies. This would suggest a very focused actor after valuable intellectual property.

These new findings raise our level of concern about these events, as elements of our research point towards a possible unknown, sophisticated actor. These findings also support and reinforce our previous recommendation that those impacted by this supply chain attack should not simply remove the affected version of CCleaner or update to the latest version, but should restore from backups or reimage systems to ensure that they completely remove not only the backdoored version of CCleaner but also any other malware that may be resident on the system.

Read more »

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Talos Group

Talos Security Intelligence & Research Group

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SpiceWorld 2017

Hello all,

Our Marketing Friends wanted to post some information about we have planned for the upcoming SpiceWorld 2017 in Austin, Texas, October 9-11. Today we have guest Craig Smyth that will provide an update for our overall Cisco plan at this popular show.

Our Cisco Small Business team will be talking about some our new products including the Cisco RV340 Series VPN Router models, the new WAP150 and WAP581 Wireless Access Points and some of the new SG350X and SG550X Switches. Of course, of interest will be the Cisco FindIT Monitoring and Management Platform that has many Managed Service Providers looking at how they currently monitor and manage their customer’s networks. Look for Nasser and Nagaraja at the show!

Spoiler-Alert: We will have exciting news next month. Think RMM…(better look it up if this does not ring a bell)

Show registration is only $499!

So here is Craig, who is a Senior Systems Engineering Manager. Here is his update:

Come See Us at SpiceWorld and Take IT Easy!

Join us at SpiceWorld in Austin from October 9 – 11. SpiceWorld 2017 brings together thousands of IT pros for three days of how-to sessions, networking, happy hours, parties, and FUN.  If you are able to go, check us out at booth #17.  You’ll walk away learning how Cisco helps simplify IT, reduce costs and secures your business. You can interface with us in various ways in Austin. Stop by our hands-on demos that are sure to help you ‘Speak Easy’ with Cisco Spark (our Collaboration solution).  ‘Easy Does IT’ when you stop by our networking demos. And finally, at our Security (featuring Firepower Management Center and Advanced Malware Protection) demos, you can ‘Rest Easy’ knowing your business is secure.

If you are on the IT Pro track be sure to attend our breakout session, “Take IT Easy- Networking, Security, Collaboration and Data Center Made Simple with Cisco”.  I will be presenting on how Cisco delivers simplified solutions that offer improved IT speed and TCO in multi-technology environments. We will also be sponsoring two technical panel sessions on Security on Tuesday and Wednesday at the show.

Later, don’t forget to ‘pop’ on over to our popcorn bar in our booth and enter to win a cool prize!

We look forward to helping you Take IT Easy. Register today.

Thank you for the great post Craig.

In addition to the Cisco Small Business product including FindIT, the team will be talking about Mobility Express, the new Catalyst Switches, Integrated Services Routers (ISR), CMX, Meraki, Firepower Security, AMP for Endpoint Collaboration including Spark.

Thank you for your time.

Marc

 

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Marc Nagao

Product Manager

Small Business RV Series Routers

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Cisco Services Breaks the Record…Again!

Cisco Services is all about the customer. Our goal is to deliver exceptional, timely and effective service every time, while helping them succeed.

Cisco Systems, Inc. has been recognized by J.D. Power for providing an “Outstanding Customer Service Experience” for the 11th consecutive year. We are humbled to stand alone as the only company to achieve this milestone accomplishment for our Services business. This certification validates our commitment to delivering world-class service experiences to our customers using industry best practices.

What does this mean from a nuts-and-bolts perspective? It means our internal processes to support, operate, and deliver our services to customers were audited and found to be consistent, efficient, and effective. It means our customers agree that when they purchase a service agreement from Cisco, they will receive top-notch engineers, delivery managers, operation managers, and more who care about keeping their networks, solutions, hardware/software up and running and supporting their business demands. It means we are continuously improving our tools and service capabilities to take a more proactive approach to support and resolve problems.

With over 30 years of expertise in recognizing customer satisfaction, J.D. Power is synonymous with high quality and excellent service. The prestigious J.D. Power Certified Technology Service and Support (CTSS) certification honors companies that deliver outstanding technical support and signifies the highest level of customer satisfaction recognition in our industry. This certification distinguishes our support performance, brand, and value to our customers. We couldn’t achieve this without our outstanding people within Services who work relentlessly to ensure the right processes are in place – for both Cisco and our customers.

Finally, it means we listen to our customers and ensure we do everything we can to create an effortless, efficient experience so they can focus on what’s important, innovating. Want to see Cisco Services in action? Check out our Technical Services website for more information.

Disclaimer:  J.D. Power 2017 Certified Technology Service & Support ProgramSM, developed in conjunction with TSIA. For more information, visit www.jdpower.com or www.tsia.com.

 

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Joe Pinto

Senior Vice President

Cisco Technical Services Group (CTSG)

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When AI Joins Your Meeting

One of the best things about working at a company with Cisco’s resources is you get to blend fundamental technology research with macroeconomic trends. For example, the inevitable improvement of AI and collaboration technology, empowered by the global rise towards building distributed work teams, will lead to a revolution in how AI affects teamwork.

Over at Medium, I propose that there are 5 Levels of Meeting AI, starting with simple command-and-control bots that can perform the mechanics of joining meetings for us. The growth of machine intelligence and its capability to understand human and business intention will eventually lead to the development of smart AI team members who will be able to proactively advise teams and people on how to build powerful and robust new businesses opportunities.

I won’t sugar-coat the difficulties in moving AI from where we are now to where I think we’re going to get. Understanding humans in their native environment is the most difficult problem that AI researchers and engineers have to solve — much more difficult than understanding speech. But if you look at how far we’ve come in AI, how many brilliant people are working on it today, and the economic advantage of building smart team-mates… well, I think it makes the future incredibly interesting.

There’s more detail about the 5 Levels of Meeting AI at my post on Medium. Check it out.

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Rowan Trollope

Senior Vice President and General Manager

IoT and Collaboration Technology Group

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NEW #CiscoChat Podcast: Cisco ONE for Switching, Subscription Option, and a Relaxed YOU!

Welcome to the newest installment of the #CiscoChat podcast. In this episode, you’ll get to meet the latest, greatest addition to the Cisco ONE Software family: the Cisco ONE Subscription for Switching Software.

Why the subscription, and why now? In this new, complex era of networking, driven by advances in Internet of Things (IoT) technology, cloud computing, and mobility, there are more threats to —and possibilities to improve on — the network than ever before. But to minimize risk and maximize opportunity, networks need to be able to act fast.

That’s where the Cisco ONE Subscription for Switching Software comes in, delivering the extra intelligence and security required for your network to take on any challenge. Want to find out more? Tune in to our podcast! Download the episode on SoundCloud, or listen here now:

This podcast will be led by Marketing Communications Specialist Ameena Arsheen, Marketing Manager Nada MacKinney, as well as Product Marketing Manager Darshana Paithankar. In the talk, Ameena, Nada, and Darshana will walk through the details of the new plan and what it means for you, answering questions like:

  • Does this subscription licensing enhance user value — beyond the software itself? How?
  • What new use cases does this release enable?
  • What hardware does this release support, and how can you migrate to this model?

For answers, listen the full podcast above — and then contribute to the conversation yourself in the comments below, or by tweeting at  . Finally, once you’re finished with the podcast, dive deeper into your digital transformation by downloading IDC’s insightful white paper, “The Business Value of Creating Digital-Ready Networks with Cisco DNA Solutions.”

To learn more about Cisco One, visit cisco.com/go/onedna
For more on Cisco DNA, visit cs.co/90028awY6

 

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Darshana Paithankar

Product Marketing Manager

Cisco ONE Software Marketing

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End-to-end Security Management for the Next-generation Data Center with Cisco ACI and AlgoSec

Guest blogger: AlgoSec Exec Anner Kushnir, VP Technology, AlgoSec

This blog is authored by Anner Kushnir, AlgoSec. Anner Kushnir has over 20 years of experience in various research, development and executive management positions. Anner joined AlgoSec in 2006 as head of R&D, leading the research, design, architecture and software development of the AlgoSec product suite.

Introduction: The heart of the data center, today’s business applications are highly dynamic with connectivity between the various application components that are constantly changing to support business continuity and digital transformation initiatives. This constant state of flux increases the organization’s attack surface and creates gaps in the security infrastructure, which network and security operations teams are struggling to plug.

To address these challenges, we need a solution that supports visibility, agility, automation and extensibility, while not compromising on tight security and compliance requirements.

Solution: Cisco’s industry-leading software-defined networking (SDN) solution, ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure) makes the network agile by automating IT work flows and securing data centers through whitelist model, policy enforcement and micro-segmentation. It puts the business application in the center, providing a centralized platform to manage application policies across physical and virtual workloads, thereby enabling customers build agile and secure next generation data centers.

But if we take a step back – we realize that firewalls are often used within the data center to perform stateful inspection and provide an additional layer of security for east-west traffic. Also,  All these security policies, alongside the Cisco ACI contracts, must be consistent and in sync to enable an end-to-end automation process. In addition, today’s complex data centers require us to manage security in a hybrid cloud environment and ensure continuous compliance and adherence to organizational and regulatory standards.

So, when designing such an end-to-end automation process, there are some additional considerations:

  • Visibility must be end-to-end across the entire network –for troubleshooting and operational activities, as well as for risk and compliance.
  • Automation must cover all security devices and policies – in the data center, at its perimeter, across the rest of the network and in the cloud (if it’s not 100% automated, it’s not really automated).
  • Security and compliance must be baked into the process, or else agility will come at the expense of security.

Understanding these challenges, we, at AlgoSec, a long-time Cisco technology partner, decided to join forces and provide a joint solution that extends Cisco ACI’s rich capabilities build a secure, compliant and agile data center.

The partnership is natural – AlgoSec and Cisco ACI have a lot in common.

Both solutions share a similar approach of focusing on application policies; both solutions provide automation capabilities and support agile application delivery; and of course, they are built for the large enterprises and service providers.

With AlgoSec, Cisco ACI customers can extend visibility and policy change automation to the entire network – inside the data center, its perimeter, and outside. In addition to Cisco ACI, AlgoSec seamlessly integrates with Cisco firewalls (ASA, and now also Firepower!), routers (IOS and Nexus), as well as leading 3rd party firewalls and load balancers and cloud security groups. This creates a single source of truth for the application connectivity policy across the entire network, and eliminates inconsistencies and tedious troubleshooting.

AlgoSec also adds risk and compliance analysis – for Cisco ACI contracts, firewalls, as well as the perimeter and cloud. This includes risk and compliance reports – out-of-the-box reports for multiple regulatory compliance standards such as PCI, SOX, NERC, HIPAA and others, which saves hours in preparations for audits. It also includes a “what-if” risk check baked into the change workflow, and automatically escalates potentially risky changes to the security team – before they are actually implemented – to insure compliance is continuously maintained. And, of course, AlgoSec provides full documentation and an audit trail of every change.

AlgoSec firewall provisioning solution enables ACI customers to automate the configuration and management of security policies across their data center, including ACI contracts, firewalls on the ACI fabric that secure the east-west traffic as well as perimeter firewalls and cloud security groups. This allows customers to achieve a greater degree of automation, while giving them a flexibility to have tighter control over their security policies through approval based work-flow model.

And as part of the tight integration, AlgoSec also offers a unique ‘Connectivity and Compliance’ App available on  Cisco ACI App Center. This App allows easy access to the main AlgoSec capabilities from the comfort of your Cisco APIC UI.

How do these capabilities help you secure your ACI fabric?

  • Get visibility into the Cisco ACI security environment and extend Cisco ACI policy-based automation across the enterprise network
  • Proactively assess risk for the Cisco ACI fabric and recommend changes to eliminate misconfigurations and compliance violations
  • Automatically configure security devices on the ACI fabric
  • Automatically generate audit-ready regulatory compliance reports for the entire Cisco ACI fabric

Are you keen see about how AlgoSec for ACI can help you achieve continuous compliance and secure your data center?  Please visit AlgoSec portal to download the software and get an evaluation key to try AlgoSec’s ACI integration in your data center.

We live in exciting times. Applications are undergoing constant change due to Continuous Development and Integration models (CI/CD). Agile application delivery is becoming the norm. Cisco ACI is a foundation for this trend. AlgoSec is very excited about the new capabilities offered by Cisco ACI 3.0. We look forward to continue supporting Cisco ACI customers on their digital transformation journey, helping them ensure their data centers remain secure and compliant.

For more details:

ACI-AlgoSec Solution Overview

ACI-AlgoSec Video

AlgoSec Cisco ACI App Center – Demo – Youtube (6:25)

Cisco ACI

ACI App Center

AlgoSec & Cisco

www.cisco.com/go/aci

www.algosec.com

www.cisco.com/go/dcecosystem

 

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Ravi Balakrishnan

Senior Product Marketing Manager

Datacenter Solutions

2 Comments
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Get Your Digital Transformation Blueprint at Gartner ITxpo 2017

Join Cisco in Orlando for 30 Days of Strategy in 30 Minutes

Staying up-to-date on industry developments and best practices is critical for CIOs and IT leaders, whether through news sites, analyst reports, or in-person events. But, that task is often shuffled to the bottom of the to-do list, especially when considering everything else you juggle on a daily basis.

What if you could check all those items off your list in one fell swoop while learning about the latest technology trends in security, risk management IoT, artificial intelligence, cloud, and customer experience? It’s possible with the right event. And that event happens to be around the corner – Gartner Symposium & ITxpo October 1-5, in Orlando.

When it comes to strategic insights and the emerging trends shaping IT and business, few events rank higher than the Gartner Symposium & ITxpo.

When it comes to strategic insights and the emerging trends shaping IT and business, few events rank higher than the Gartner Symposium & ITxpo. It’s a one-stop event where CIOs can learn the latest from Gartner analysts, industry experts, peers, and solution providers.

Cisco will join Gartner in Orlando, showcasing how the next era in networking can work for you, as well as providing can’t-miss sessions and demonstrations – including The Network. Intuitive. and Cisco Spark Board.

The Cisco Blueprint Studio

Cisco will also offer a new experience for Gartner Symposium & ITxpo attendees – our Blueprint Studio. Join us for a one-on-one consultation with Cisco experts in a one-of-a-kind executive briefing center and receive a custom digitization blueprint for your organization’s digital transformation initiatives.

During the meeting, our experts across industries such as manufacturing, finance, and government, will use Cisco Spark Boards to work with you and sketch out solutions that address your unique challenges and provide guidance to help you create an actionable digital plan. This experience is designed specifically for CIOs who are short on time but want answers to pressing questions to help make better-informed decisions about their technology investments. Added bonus: Guillermo Diaz, our own CIO and Senior Vice President of IT, will be on-hand for a select number of meetings.

So, clear your calendars for October 1-5, and join us in Orlando. Book your appointment for our Blueprint Studio, and check out our speaking sessions and in-booth demonstrations.

Book your Blueprint Studio appointment now. We hope to see you in Orlando!

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Erin Hatfield

No Longer at Cisco

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Cisco Services Surveys: From Good to Great

As consumers, we’ve all likely experienced frustrating attempts from businesses to capture our feedback. Receiving surveys that are too long, unrelated to the transaction, or sent to us again and again is a big turn off. These are not effective surveys and not only do they annoy us, but they likely deliver poor quality insights.

So what makes a good survey? Good surveys use clear language to ask all the right questions shortly after a customer’s experience. Good surveys are timely, relevant, easy, and offer a convenient way for people to respond.

For a survey to go from good to great takes a few more steps. Great surveys target a specific audience and only invite them to participate a reasonable number of times. Also, simplicity is key, with clear survey fields that allow customers to offer specific feedback about their overall experience–how they feel, what they know, what worked or what didn’t work. Great surveys are mobile friendly and don’t use jargon or otherwise force respondents to interpret what the survey is actually trying to ask. Great surveys ensure quality feedback and allow room for customers to veer off into other areas not explicitly asked about in one of the questions.

In Cisco Services, we’re following this good-to-great survey advice. We truly value your input about your experience with Cisco, and we’re adapting our methods so you’ll want to share more with us.

Recently we streamlined and consolidated our surveys about Cisco’s Technical Services. I’ve asked Kurtis Yang, who heads up Customer Experience and Listening for Cisco Services, to share details about these improvements and how the changes will help us listen more and respond better.

Guest Author: Kurtis Yang, Senior Director, Customer Experience for Services

How are we doing? We count on you to tell us. Listening keeps us focused on what really matters to our customers and allows us to make improvements that put you first. As part of our journey to improve the customer experience, we recently introduced a new Cisco Technical Services survey.

Based on your feedback, we now have a new, simplified survey that streamlines several existing surveys into one. We’ve reduced the number of surveys you’ll receive by 50%, without compromising the quality. The new survey questions help us better understand your overall experience with Technical Services, including how effective we were in resolving your issue and how easy it was to work with us. This feedback, coupled with a system that ensures accountability in taking action, guarantees we stay focused on driving customer success. It also ensures we follow a new set of measures that are more aligned to what our customers care about.

You put your trust in us to support your business and we’re committed to doing just that. We must listen to understand when we have exceeded your expectations and, more importantly, when we have not. If you receive our survey, thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts and ideas that will help us enhance your experience with Cisco.

To make it even easier, you can access our survey anytime, anywhere from your mobile device. As an added bonus, we’re offering customers who provide more detailed feedback a chance to receive a Cisco gift – you might be next!

Also, since you’re helping us with your feedback, we want to help others by giving back. To show our appreciation to customers for taking the time to provide valuable input, Cisco Services will make a quarterly donation to JA Worldwide. In over 118 countries, Junior Achievement focuses on delivering experiential learning to over 10 million children and building an entrepreneurial spirit to prepare young people for the future. There has never been a better time to change the world by empowering our youth – thank you for participating with us to make this happen!

What matters to you, matters to us. That’s our focus. We look forward to your feedback and to sharing the improvements we make in the near future.

Thank you for being part of this journey and we look forward to hearing from you!

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Curt Hill

Senior Vice President

Customer Assurance