And when it comes to cloud there’s a lot to talk about.  According to a new IDC white paper, sponsored by Cisco, “Enabling Partner Value in the Cloud Economy”, 68 percent of companies with more than 1,000 employees are using some form of cloud or plan to implement cloud within the next 12 months.  In addition, companies adopting cloud expect to spend 54 percent of their IT budgets on cloud within the next two years.

For the white paper, IDC contacted 23 providers from among the more than 200 cloud providers offering Cisco Powered services. What makes the white paper unique is that these partners are sharing their perspective on the value of the Cloud and Managed Services Program and how CMSP has helped them expand their business.  These companies are investing substantial resources into building out their infrastructure to offer customers cloud services as they need them.  They are making their investments based on what they believe are customers’ primary needs and key concerns.

Specifically, the white paper explores which perceived factors are the most important to cloud providers in reaching their customer.  It also reveals how partners seek to differentiate themselves and where they see the best value in their cloud infrastructure investments. Read More »

Tags: Cisco Cloud and Managed Services, cloud, CMSP, IDC

A new whitepaper from IDC, “The Workspace-as-a-Service Opportunity: Why Now is the Time for Desktop as a Service” is a must-read for any organization facing the challenge of delivering applications and services to employees on mobile devices.  According to IDC, corporate-liable smartphone shipments will reach 110 million units in 2014.  In comparison, employee-liable smartphone shipments will exceed 220 million in 2014.

The increased productivity and collaboration that mobile technologies offer businesses is substantial.  The ability to access the full workspace experience anywhere, anytime, on any device gives organizations incredible flexibility and agility.  However, maximizing the benefits of mobile technology comes at the cost of adding significant complexity to IT operations.   Minimizing cost and risk is challenging as well, considering that many organizations simply don’t have the expertise to deploy, manage, and scale client virtualization in an efficient and effective manner.

For these reasons, IDC has determined that “it makes more sense than ever for IT leaders to consider a cloud-based client virtualization offering.”  This can be achieved through remote access of a centralized virtual desktop through the cloud, commonly known as Desktop as a Service (DaaS).

The whitepaper explores key topics relating to when desktop virtualization is an option, benefits organizations can gain from cloud-based DaaS, integration challenges IT will need to meet, and important considerations to keep in mind when selecting a cloud provider.

Read the IDC whitepaper for yourself.  You can also learn more about Desktop as a Service as well as locate providers offering enterprise-class DaaS tailored to meet your specific business needs.

Tags: dAAS, desktop as a Service, IDC

What’s new and trending for the industry? Well, predictions for the upcoming year as a motif is certainly not new but is definitely trending, considering the deluge of pundits concentrating their well-informed thoughts about which industry happenings will emerge through hyperbole and into reality. Amongst go-to industry resources I find myself perusing is LNS Research, who has chosen to break down their Top Three 2015 predictions by industry trend/topic: Industrial IoT; Industrial Energy Management; Environmental Health and Safety; and Asset Performance Management.

Another annual favorite that I’ve blogged about in the past—including commentary on Cisco relevance—is IDC Manufacturing Insights, who this year took on a refreshing, new format entitled IDC Futurescape: Worldwide Manufacturing 2015 Predictions. The team of IDC manufacturing practice analysts quantify and qualify their ten most critical imperatives to be addressed by global manufacturers in 2015 and beyond—based on the coalescence of technology and line of business interests—including a few that are very pertinent to Cisco’s Internet of Everything (IoE) initiatives:

• In 2015, customer centricity requires higher standards for customer service excellence, efficient innovation, and responsive manufacturing, which motivates 75% of manufacturers to invest in customer-facing technologies.
• By 2016, 70% of global discrete manufacturers will offer connected products, driving increased software content and the need for systems engineering and a product innovation platform.
• By 2018, 40% of Top 100 discrete manufacturers and 20% of Top 100 process manufacturers will provide Product-as-a-Service platforms.
• In 2015, 65% of companies with more than 10 plants will enable the factory floor to make better decisions through investments in operational intelligence.

Before the analyst predictions pushed their way onto my laptop screen, I was asked by Cisco’s press relations team to put forward my top 3 for the industry. So on All Saints Day, before heading out on weeks of travel to China, India, and several of the United States outside my home residence, I produced three ideas that didn’t make it to our PR megaphone. As part of this blog, I’ve decided to share these three predictions, with some relevant observations from my Nov-Dec travels and customer interactions …

Read More »

Tags: #MFG, Cisco Connected Factory, connected manufacturing, Energy Management, IDC, Internet of Everything, Internet of Things (IoT), LNS, manufacturer, Manufacturing

There’s a lot of talk about cloud, and for good reason.  According to a new white paper from IDC, 68% of companies with more than 1,000 employees are using some form of cloud or plan to implement cloud within the next 12 months.  In addition, these companies adopting cloud expect to spend 54% of their IT budgets on cloud in two years.

For the white paper, IDC contacted 20 providers from among the more than 200 cloud providers offering Cisco Powered services.  What makes the white paper unique is that these providers were asked to share their perspective on how their customers perceive value.  These are the companies who are investing substantial resources into building out their infrastructure to be able to offer your organization cloud services as you need them.  They make their investments based on what they believe are your primary needs and key concerns.

Specifically, the white paper explores which perceived factors are the most important to cloud providers in reaching you, their customer.  It also reveals how these providers seek to differentiate themselves and where they see the best value in their cloud infrastructure investments.

You can watch the video and read the full IDC white paper for yourself.  The white paper was also reported on by Computerworld.

Tags: Cisco Powered, cloud, computerworld, IDC

 Cisco’s First Trifecta

This week IDC released the calendar 1Q14 server market share tracker report, which is starting to generate press given the news that Cisco UCS has achieved the #1 x86 blade server revenue market share position in the US, in North America and in the Americas  – a “triple crown” right before the Belmont Stakes

We are understandably very proud of this achievement, and we’re taking time to celebrate. It was fun calling John Chambers to share the news, and to remind him that the team delivered on our commitment – to become #1 in blades in the US in 2014, and use that as the launchpad for our #1 world-wide campaign.

At the same time, it’s a humbling experience. We can argue about the meaning of market share numbers. They can be viewed as an indicator of momentum, they can be viewed as ephemeral, so what really is the meaning of being #1?

My interpretation is simple: Customers have a vote, and the market share numbers are an indication of the huge trust customers are placing on Cisco, not just on UCS. In 5 short years we’ve accumulated over 33,000 customers world-wide, including over 75% of Fortune 500 companies.  Contrary to competitors’ predictons, UCS is not a flash in the pan. It’s a reflection of Cisco’s ability to innovate in a way that drives tangible business outcomes for our customers. We struck a resonant cord when you consider innovations such as:

• Architectural: Cisco delivered the first new innovation in x86 servers in over 10 years by inventing a new category, Fabric Computing, that proved ideal for server virtualization and private clouds.
• Business Model: In addition to significant organic R&D investments, Cisco leveraged industry R&D much better than any of our peers. Whether they be infrastructure, operating system, applications, middleware or selling partners, we created an ecosystem that is fair, flexible and scalable. We created a business platform, not a technology platform.
• Customer experience: Beyond UCS technology advantages, customers choose Cisco because of our commitment to customer relationships: our sales team’s demonstrated capability to understand our customers’ business and proactively propose transformational opportunites, and our support teams’ utter commitment to protecting business operations when issues inevitably occur.

As we set our sights on being #1 WW, I’d like to surprise readers by actually congratulating HP on being #1 WW; they’ve had the longest run at this coveted spot in the industry. We aim to capture this spot, and to hold it for longer, which we believe is eminently achievable given  we’ve achieved #2 WW by focusing on a subset of all available use cases and market segments. We have many opportunities, all of them well-funded and in execution, to drive expansion – new products, new business capabilities, more market coveraged, enhanced manufacturing, delivery and support.

So in essence, rather than admiring our recent #1 win in the Americas, we choose to view this as a call to arms, a rallying cry to accelerate our drive to #1 WW. Velociraptors unbound!

Lastly, a big THANK YOU to our customers, our partners and our entire value chain teams to demonstrate Cisco is serious about setting the state of the art in   computing. And I say this deliberately, because we are not in the server business. We are in the computing business, which is the business of optimizing application environments for performance and total cost of ownership – what our customers want.

Tags: Cisco, data center, IDC, Invicta, UCS, ucs director