Cisco_Services_dynamics_magazine_issue_5-2012
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Cisco was named a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications due to its completeness of vision and ability to execute. Cisco supports multiple platforms for mobile devices, flexible deployment options including on-premise and cloud-based models, and open standards for interoperability. The document discusses Cisco being recognized as a leader and its support for trends like bring your own device and increased cloud usage.
![14 Cisco Services Dynamics © 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Tell us a bit about yourself, Yves.
I work as a client solutions executive
within the Data Centre and Virtualisation
(DCV) group, based in Switzerland, where
I have been at Cisco 11 years, 4 years in
areas close to DCV. I am passionate about
everything happening right now around
cloud and data centre transformation.
Cisco has made a significant impact within
this space [and is] now being recognised
as a serious player.
What role do you play?
My role is to advise customers on
their options around their new
challenges and needs within the data
centre. I am seeing a lot of our
customers demanding standardised
and consolidated environments, with
a big push to get over 90 percent of
their IT infrastructure virtualised by
the end of this year. Another driver is
that we are seeing businesses
wanting better application productivity
and availability, and for the business
to be more mobile so that it does not
matter anymore where your data
centre is located.
What are the challenges you see in
customer data centre environments?
There is a real convergence happening
now, with the business really driving
what IT delivers and a focus on the
business needs as a whole. Businesses
see IT as important, but sometimes
delivery on projects is either
underwhelming, has been oversold, or
does not match the set expectation.
With the advent of the cloud, it means
the business may be able to bypass
their own IT by consuming services
directly. In Cisco Services, we bring
these two disparate elements, private
cloud and public cloud, back together to
provide a holistic view of a data centre’s
capability.
The main question is: How can I leave
the past behind, without disrupting
current IT services being delivered to
the business?
What advice do you give customers?
In my role, I advise on what can be
achieved within the data centre — by
bringing both the business and IT
together, working towards a future state
as a blended IT service, with the
expectation set at the outset. I see a lot
of businesses who are not investing in
technology or their data centre — for
example a major car manufacturer who
did not invest, and they have paid the
price as they are now not able to
compete in a highly competitive market.
This hesitancy in infrastructure
investment is largely caused by the fear
behind the financial issues in Europe.
However, companies are now facing the
consequences, as they are not
innovating and ultimately they are late to
market, putting them at a major
disadvantage. In turn, this will have a
longer-term consequence. Putting your
head in the sand and hoping the
problems will go away is not a good
option in economically difficult times!
How do companies try to get the
most out of their budget?
Most companies I talk to are facing
some form of financial challenge. Fixed
budgets, especially those in IT, are not
increasing or are being reduced. At the
same time, markets are becoming
more competitive and businesses are
challenged to become more agile with
the need to get to market quicker. IT
has a duty to support these business
departments, but must do so within
these budget constraints, and
consequently there are newly emerging
models based on cloud-consumption
which provides more flexibility, can be
more cost effective, and is faster to
adopt.
The challenges
in the data centre
We talk to Yves Bron, Solutions Executive for Cisco Services](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/59ffe125-993a-491a-bc12-4d0630a62ac7-150731215922-lva1-app6892/85/Cisco_Services_dynamics_magazine_issue_5-2012-14-320.jpg)
Cisco_Services_dynamics_magazine_issue_5-2012
- 1. Cisco Services Dynamics Your connection to Cisco Services Issue 5 I November 2012 Cisco named leader in Unified Communications Completeness of vision and ability to execute leads to accolade Cisco executive perspective – facing forward Chris Dedicoat, President, Cisco EMEAR advises businesses to be agile and ready for anything An architectural approach to bring your own device Reducing the risks and pain involved for an effective BYOD deployment Does your team have the right knowledge? Introducing the Cisco Technical Knowledge Library Success stories Philips, Lufasona University, Ecobank and LOCOG For a richer experience, view our online edition at: www.cisco.com/go/servicesdynamics
- 2. 2 Cisco Services Dynamics © 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Feature articles Cisco executive perspective – facing forward Chris Dedicoat, President, Cisco EMEAR, looks at how organisations that remain overly attached to old business models are becoming increasingly vulnerable Deploying a private cloud How Cisco intelligent automation can get you started on your journey to the cloud With no signs of slowing, data just keeps growing We’re all creating more data than ever before. How does data shape the way we live, work, play, learn and interact? Taking an architectural approach to “bring your own device” Our exclusive Cisco Services paper explains how an architectural approach can give you a solid foundation on which to build and evolve IT Empower your business with the right knowledge To date, the Cisco Technical Knowledge Library has helped more than 500 organisations and more than 10,000 users across the world. Could it help you? The challenges in the data centre Real life insight into data centre talking points with Yves Bron Talking about my generation Nikki Walker, Managing Director, Inclusion, Diversity & Sustainability for Cisco EMEAR offers a candid look at the differences between the generations Case studies Philips advocates board-level global collaboration Cisco Services help Philips put TelePresence® system at the centre of strategic decision-making worldwide Ecobank benefits from borderless network and collaboration How the bank cut costs and improved time to market from a year to just two months Cisco Services assist Lufasona University bring together film students and industry Portuguese university leads EU project to create environment for creative and commercial success in cinema Making collaboration count The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) uses Cisco technology to communicate with distributed and rapidly growing organisation 04 07 08 10 12 14 20 16 17 18 19 Contents Cisco named market leader in Unified Communications Gartner’s Unified Communications Magic Quadrant reflects the rapidly changing needs of today’s knowledge worker. Recent research from a Cisco IBSG Horizons study showed that a striking 95% of businesses are allowing employee- owned devices in some way, shape or form in the workplace. This includes smartphones, tablets and other personal devices that run on a variety of platforms. Highlighting this trend, Gartner closely evaluated UC options that work across multiple mobile platforms, and that provide support for open standards and interoperability with other solutions. According to Gartner’s Bern Elliot and Steve Blood, “Enterprises wish to avoid ‘closed gardens’ and weak support for standards to ensure choice and control. Support for standards is a critical consideration, as enterprises wish to integrate their UC deployments with business partners, customers, business applications and third-party products.”
- 3. Welcome to the fifth edition of Cisco Services Dynamics, your connection to Cisco Services 2012 has been a device-rich year. I am seeing more and more of my colleagues, peers and customers choosing to use alternative devices in the workplace, the most popular by far being the tablet – and not just the iPad! With so many manufacturers producing tablet devices using different operating systems, this does raise valid concerns about support and access to corporate systems. You will see from the article opposite, 95% of businesses are allowing personal devices to be used in the workplace, and this trend is highlighted by Gartner in their most recent Magic Quadrant report that shows Cisco as the leader in Unified Communications, an accolade we are very proud of. So when you engage Cisco Services, you can be confident you are benefiting from our professional expertise, knowledge and experience from working with businesses across the world to deploy solutions that deliver real value and return. I hope you enjoy this edition. Paula Dowdy Senior Vice President, Services Sales, Cisco Systems, EMEAR Cisco Services Dynamics 3 Support for multiple platforms Cisco helps businesses address this growing need by providing a full suite of UC solutions for mobile devices across a variety of deployment options, including Apple, Android and other popular operating systems. For enterprises juggling a deluge of new employee devices and corporate platforms, the ability to provide full UC client support – including video, instant messaging (IM), presence and web collaboration – across a multi-vendor environment is critical. Flexible deployment options Gartner also emphasised the increasing role of the cloud in the enterprise. In fact, in a previous Gartner study entitled, “Predicts 2012: Successful UC Deployments Depend on Defining Organisational Objectives and Understanding the Challenges,” Gartner found that by 2016, 50% of organisations will source their UC on a utility subscription model, up from less than 5% today. This new trend reinforces a critical need for flexible deployment options. Cisco customers can choose to deploy Cisco’s UC solution onsite and can choose from several virtual desktop integration options to deliver full voice and video functionality to thin clients. Or, they can choose a fully or partially hosted model with Cisco’s subscription- based UC offering, the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution. And it’s fantastic that these reports are not just based on technology, but also customers’ success and a vision for the market direction. We’re excited to be on the leading edge of helping businesses with these fundamental market transitions and to be recognised by Gartner as a leader in unified communications. In a world that is more mobile, social, visual and virtual, Cisco is committed to helping business work the way want – on any device, from any location. View the Gartner Magic Quadrant for UC here: http://tiny.cc/gko7jw Resources Download a complimentary copy of Forrester’s TEI of Cisco Collaboration Optimisation Services for UC here: www.ciscoservicesdynamics.com/tei View the Cisco IBSG Horizons report on BYOD and Virtualisation here: http://tiny.cc/s03emw Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution web page: http://tiny.cc/q93emw
- 4. 4 Cisco Services Dynamics © 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco executive perspective Facing forward “Waiting for the recession to ease is no longer a prudent strategy for companies that want to maximise future growth opportunities. Economic cycles are shortening and now more than ever businesses need to be agile and ready for anything.” Chris Dedicoat President, Cisco Europe, Middle East, Africa, Russia Organisations that remain wedded to old business models are becoming increasingly vulnerable. They face threats not only from a difficult economy, but also from the emergence of unforeseen competitors in the form of new players – whether in their home markets, or further afield. Waiting for the economy to recover before bold moves are made is a dangerous strategy. It is becoming increasingly clear that we are moving towards shorter, more unpredictable economic cycles than have been experienced traditionally, making it harder for businesses to know what to expect. Meanwhile the pace of change has accelerated to unprecedented levels, compounding the situation for those trying to develop new company strategies. As economic uncertainty continues to linger, not helped by the current euro- zone crisis, many organisations across EMEAR now find themselves at a crossroads. Having now done much of the work needed to pare back their operations so that they are leaner and more efficient, they must now question their ability to flex and adapt, to innovate and develop new business models that exploit the way the market is moving. Now more than ever technology innovation is core to competitiveness. It affects how agile organisations are, and how innovative they can be in seizing new market opportunities and surprising customers. A strong base to build on Established markets in EMEAR have a strong history of IT innovation, with European countries dominating the top 10 positions for global IT competitiveness according to the World Economic Forum’s latest Global
- 5. Cisco Services Dynamics 5 Competitiveness Report. This gives companies in those countries a solid foundation to build on – provided they have not built themselves into a corner, and are able to stay on top of market changes. But emerging markets are making good headway too, particularly the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), which are catching up quickly. The World Economic Forum predicts that by as soon as 2013 these economies will overtake established economies in their share of world GDP. In emerging markets, high growth rates provide a propitious environment for enhancing competitiveness through structural reforms and growth enhancing investments in order to make economic development more sustainable. The fact that businesses in emerging markets are not encumbered by out-of- date technologies offers them a strategic advantage in a global market. A report published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in September 2011 highlights a direct correlation between a country’s IT competitiveness and its overall competitiveness. Worryingly, although it has maintained a competitive position to date, traditional European markets have a relatively low IT spend as a proportion of its GDP compared to the Americas and emerging economies – something that will need to change if businesses in these markets want to maintain and sharpen their edge. Preparing for the unpredictable As organisations across EMEAR contemplate the future then, alongside their strategies and budget considerations for the immediate period, they need to assess their readiness for the unforeseeable. All businesses should be asking themselves what the underlying technologies are that might affect them a year from now, two years from now, three years from now and so on – refreshing this perspective every six months. Winding the clock back just a matter of years, few could have predicted how smartphones, tablets and social networks would change the way companies do business. In years to come, new explosions of innovation will upset the status quo once more. Any organisation that pins itself to a particular way of working today risks not being relevant to or ready for what happens next. Innovation can be applied at a process level to enhance productivity, but it can and should also be applied at a higher level to enable the creation of new business models – changing an organisation’s very proposition, or the >> “Winding the clock back just a matter of years, few could have predicted how smartphones, tablets and social networks would change the way companies do business.”
- 6. 6 Cisco Services Dynamics © 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Read more executive perspectives: www.cisco.com/go/executiveUK “For every two companies that are holding back on investment in growth and innovation, there will be at least one that is forging ahead, determined to command their share of new market opportunities as they emerge.” >> Flexible foundations Intelligent networks facilitate all of this – allowing organisations to operate more fluidly, but without loss of control. A dynamic infrastructure with inherent, centrally managed security offers businesses the essential building blocks on which to base new business models, streamline processes, harness the cloud and deploy advanced remote and mobile capabilities. Without a consistent, integrated, yet infinitely malleable infrastructure to underpin any new business model, organisations could create more problems than they solve – by creating new silos, or new points of data vulnerability, for example. The next phase of internet advancement depends on dynamic, secure interconnections, allowing new levels of spontaneity in the flow of business, in the way knowledge and resources are shared, and the way that teams can form and disperse. Whether the challenge is to redraw the customer proposition; be more dynamic in the way knowledge is shared; or respond to users’ demands to choose the technologies they use for work, an intelligent infrastructure is the essential facilitator of this controlled freedom. Once this is in place, companies can start to make strategic choices about whether to harness cloud-based applications and services, the types of collaboration tools they employ, the optimal approach for facilitating remote and flexible working and new ways of adding value for customers. For every two companies that are holding back on investment in growth and innovation, there will be at least one that is forging ahead, determined to command their share of new market opportunities as they emerge. This is certainly true in emerging economies where companies’ ambitions know no bounds. As cautious as businesses in EMEAR feel they need to be financially at the moment, they should consider whether inertia might be the costlier risk if they are later unable to make up the ground lost. way it reaches customers. The more dynamic and flexible the underlying IT infrastructure, the more options companies have. Studies by the likes of PwC and market capitalisation rankings by Forbes show that the more ambitious industry sectors and individual players have been during the difficult economy between 2008 and 2011, the more they have bucked the trend and achieved real business growth. Specific examples can be seen in the cases of Allianz in the financial services sector, and John Lewis in retail. Both organisations have broken down organisational boundaries, creating more fluidity in their operations, to make them more customer-centric in their business models. By pooling resources internally and collaborating more dynamically, they have become more productive and responsive; a platform- rather than silo- centric approach to information management meanwhile has enabled closer channel integration, giving these companies’ customers more choice – and more opportunities to purchase. Customers are also being given more of a sense of control over the products they buy, as well as the channels through which they procure them. As a result of feeling they have more influence, these customers are more likely to stay loyal to the brands. Keeping one eye on what’s coming A global survey by McKinsey last year (A Rising Role for IT) suggests that, as technology becomes a more important factor in reshaping industries, companies’ boards of directors need to play a more active role in deciding how technology is incorporated into overall strategy – and that ideally discussions should address forward-looking assessments of technology trends as well as immediate priorities. Such discussions must transcend specific issues such as security or compliance with data-handling or reporting regulations. The agility required to support any decent level of innovation means drilling down to the infrastructure level, where any significant manoeuvrability by the business will be determined. With the right underlying architecture in place, organisations will be better able to get to a position, at least logistically, where they can achieve much of the innovation they envisage. Get the ground-level platform right, and specific issues such as security, rights control, borderless data analysis and collaboration, mobilisation and personalised user or customer self- service become a more viable proposition. Cisco executive perspective Facing forward
- 7. Cisco Services Dynamics 7 Cisco Intelligent Automation is here to help organisations with their own initial private cloud, with automation and orchestration capability that can be rapidly deployed for the Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS) platform. But why is this important? People, process, and policies frequently evolve more slowly than technology. In most IT organisations, the process for data centre application and infrastructure service request management is complex and expensive. Each request is often treated as a separate project, requiring approvals and exceptions. The result is a time-consuming and inefficient series of manual steps, involving requirements validation and architecture reviews, which slow down the entire process and frustrate end users and business stakeholders, who do not understand the source of the delays. These users expect internal IT resources to be as easily available and cost effective as the resources available from public cloud service providers. IT teams that take advantage of private cloud solutions with prebuilt portal content and automation workflows can overcome many of these concerns and establish IT as a credible and trusted business partner by rapidly deploying Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). As trust develops, it will be easier for business and IT decision makers to work together to define more comprehensive standards, templates, and workflows to extend the scope and value of the organisation’s private and hybrid cloud environments. Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud Starter Edition provides customers with an automated out-of-the-box self-service provisioning portal and process orchestration engine that includes extensive, prebuilt templates and workflows for provisioning physical and virtual Windows or Linux servers using a simple, intuitive web-based interface. Both end users and IT administrators can track the status of each request from inception to completion and can monitor the actual amount of resources consumed during the lifetime of the machine. End users can also use the portal to request extended use of resources or to decommission resources that are no longer needed. More sophisticated users and IT staff can use the portal to implement simple administrative tasks such as power on/power off, taking snapshots, or modifying CPU or RAM configurations. The built-in Cisco Process Orchestrator automates service delivery using predefined workflows to request the appropriate physical, virtual, network, and operating system resources. In most situations, a user request can be completed in 15 minutes or less. To find out the best direction your private cloud deployment should be moving, talk to Cisco Services. IDC analyst report on private cloud: http://tiny.cc/wf5blw Resources Cisco Intelligent Automation for cloud starter edition web page http://tiny.cc/v94blw Download the Cisco Intelligent Automation solution for cloud services datasheet http://tiny.cc/1slanw Video: Cisco Intelligent Automation for cloud starter edition - demonstration http://tiny.cc/ve5blw Want to deploy a private cloud, but not sure where to start? Cisco Intelligent Automation might be the answer
- 8. 8 Cisco Services Dynamics © 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Massive amounts of data are being created every day, and shaping the way we live, work, play, learn and interact. This “Big Data” can give a strategic advantage. Big Data can also create a richer experience for customers. TWITTER USERS send over 100,000 tweets SOURCES: http://news.investors.com/, royal.pingdom.com, blog.grovo.com, blog.hubspot.com, simplyzesty.com, pcworld.com, biztechmagazine.com, digby.com YOU TUBE USERS upload 48 hours of new video APPLE receives about 47,000 App downloads With no signs of slowing, data just keeps growing Didier Rombaut Media Strategist for Cisco Data Centre Solutions, considers the implications Did you know? Every minute of the day...
- 9. Cisco Services Dynamics 9 FACEBOOK USERS share 684,478 pieces of content EMAIL USERS send 204,166,667 messages CONSUMERS spend $272,070 on web shopping Scientists have speculated on the implications of the explosion of data. They described their vision for a future Internet of Things — when trillions of networked computers could free people to focus their energies on pressing issues like climate change or resource shortages. (Watch a video interview from David Evans, Cisco’s Chief Futurist and Chief Technologist as he talks about the Internet of Things and Tech Predictions). Today we definitely see the Internet as the next realm for Big Data to shine: From a video camera, a tyre pressure sensor to a smart meter, these devices are creating a constant flow of data. In fact, as Carlos Dominguez, Cisco SVP, Office of the Chairman of the Board and CEO explains in his blog “Finding Wisdom in Big Data”, the data generated by the devices will very soon make up the majority of all information available, with the caveat, that the real-time nature of these new sources of data requires that it is evaluated in motion and in a meaningful way. The value of data is often dictated by time, being at its highest value as it is created. It is less and less relevant to look at them later. Gathering data-in-motion from these sensors, mobile devices, and video cameras, the network can help companies and organisations to make decisions in real time. Cisco provides the intelligent infrastructure that supports this evolution. This future of data-in-motion is the focus of a recent project produced by famed photographer Rick Smolan and sponsored by Cisco. The Human Face of Big Data launched during October 2012 with a program featuring industry thought leaders, amongst them Carlos Dominguez discussing “data in motion.” You can watch a recording by checking out the links on this page. “Big Data is the new oil! It has the power to transform economies, make businesses more efficient, and improve our daily interactions as consumers. However, like oil, data is not truly valuable until it has been refined—until it is analysed and some valuable action is extracted from it.” Bill Gerhardt, Director, Cisco IBSG Resources Didier Rombaut blog http://tiny.cc/iawwlw Video interview with David Evans http://tiny.cc/ibwwlw Carlos Domniguez blog http://tiny.cc/acwwlw The Human Face of Big Data webcast: http://tiny.cc/scwwlw Follow Carlos Dominguez on Twitter @carlosdominguez and join the conversation at #DataInMotion
- 10. 10 Cisco Services Dynamics © 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. John Newman and Scott Sturgess from the Cisco Borderless Network Architecture Practice group present the merits of how taking an architectural approach can significantly reduce the risks and pain involved for a BYOD deployment. Taking the architectural approach to “bring your own device”
- 11. Cisco Services Dynamics 11 The bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend provokes many reactions from IT and businesspeople. BYOD is often seen as nice to have — as something that allows people to use the corporate network to tweet on their personal smartphone at lunchtime while also allowing them to check their work email over the weekend. The inevitable trend toward device consumerisation has given a lot of people personal computing devices far superior to those now provided by work. People would prefer to have these personal devices for both work and personal use and have the resulting freedom to work more flexibly. This, however, is not generally a justifiable reason to spend a lot of money upgrading corporate infrastructure. Let’s start by expanding the scope beyond BYOD to secure mobility. By “secure mobility,” I mean enabling employees with smart mobile devices so that they can transparently and securely connect to the corporate network to deliver business value. A real example of this would be an equities salesperson using an iPad when meeting with a high-value client to run through different investment scenarios in real time, when using a laptop would create a physical barrier with the client. For me, this started with multiple requests from customers who had given the senior team iPads, and they simply wanted to connect up reliably to the corporate wireless network. Next, security concerns and worries about allowing smart mobile devices onto the same network as sensitive corporate information and applications started to emerge. The security concerns were founded on the lack of corporate control over the devices and the likelihood of the leakage of information stored on SD cards or unencrypted internal storage or access to applications from unsecure devices that memorise passwords. These concerns can spread to governance and compliance and can rapidly spiral into a black hole. Some great technical solutions exist that allow you to transparently control access to individual applications and network resources based on a variety of attributes such as device, connection, and location. Hoorah, I hear you cry, and when you see a vendor demonstrate these systems to you, you will love the control, flexibility, and ease of implementing your new updated information security policies. By taking an architectural approach, combined with a deep understanding of the underlying technology, Cisco Services is uniquely positioned to assist customers in transitioning to a unified workspace environment in which BYOD is a primary component. With end-to-end service offerings and a comprehensive partner ecosystem, Cisco Services has unparalleled experience in transforming an organisation’s infrastructure to meet the very latest mobility requirements and demands, allowing enterprises to maximise the benefits that a well- architected network can bring. According to the 2012 Cisco IBSG Horizons Study of 600 U.S. IT and business leaders, “BYOD is here to stay, and managers are now acknowledging the need for a more holistic approach — one that is scalable and addresses mobility, security, virtualisation, and network policy management — in order to keep management costs in line while simultaneously providing optimal experiences where savings can be realised.” In its simplest form, an architectural approach is the methodology that contains each required phase that must be executed in a logical sequence in order to transform the infrastructure from its current state to its desired target state. A holistic, architectural approach provides an organising principle, a framework. It gives you a solid foundation on which to build and evolve IT. Mobile workspace challenges •Support rich collaboration services on a wide array of mobile devices •Rapidly scale virtual desktops without compromising quality of experience •Manage the increasing volume, variety, and velocity of data so that the right information can be accessed by the right people •Extend access not just to employees, but also to customers, partners, vendors, and suppliers •Determine which apps to mobilise •Effectively manage and secure both personal and business mobile apps while providing the consumer-like, self-service capabilities that users want Architectural approach benefits •Protects legacy investments •Improves quality of experience •Makes changes to business processes possible •Enhances security, so intellectual property is protected •Allows you to plan for growth and future scalability •Minimises risk Download a complimentary copy of this paper: www.ciscoservicesdynamics.com/byodpaper
- 12. 12 Cisco Services Dynamics © 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Knowledge is power Today, enabling business innovation and agility is about empowering your IT knowledge workers with the right kind of information. In order to accelerate the adoption of new network capabilities, your IT organisation must improve staff competency and confidence. The Cisco Technical Knowledge Library (TKL) service offers IT administrators, engineers, and network architects anytime, anywhere access to Cisco proprietary best practices that put a spotlight on technical innovation or demonstrate how to maximise existing investments in Cisco solutions. Cisco invests in your success Whether you are a Cisco customer or a partner, Cisco wants you to be successful. An important element of your success is whether your IT staff is knowledgeable and ready to fully utilise or optimise the capabilities of the network. For that to happen, your IT staff needs to go beyond product basics. It’s critical for your staff to understand how to apply best practices so that they can successfully plan, build, or manage network infrastructure. Get ready, better, and smarter To date, Cisco TKL has helped more than 500 organisations and more than 10,000 users across the world. With Cisco’s continuing focus on your success, the TKL portal provides a pipeline of updated knowledge from field-proven or lab- tested expertise. Cisco TKL offers a breadth of knowledge resources spanning all three Cisco architectures — Borderless Network, Data Centre, and Collaboration. These knowledge resources will help you to become better and smarter so that you can invest your time on what matters most. The majority of the best practices in TKL are proprietary in nature, and are not available publicly on Cisco.com. Are you driving the leading edge of technology in your organisation? Empower your business with the right knowledge
- 13. Cisco Services Dynamics 13 Return on investment Imagine your engineering team spending significant time, effort, and resources to develop and validate a single best practice. Now imagine having to scale this for 1000 or 2000 best practices — a huge undertaking that may not be budgeted or even practical. A small investment in Cisco Technical Knowledge Library service opens the door to our collection of best practices - an investment that will not only make your engineering staff more productive, but can also save you precious dollars and time. Business challenge •Improve time-to-competency •Improve confidence in adopting new solutions •Expose staff to expert knowledge •Enhance network stability Business benefits of TKL •Helps you drive the leading edge of technology •Minimises common errors and helps your IT organisation to successfully deploy Cisco solutions •Maximises your investment in Cisco products and technologies •Accelerates time-to-competency for new network capabilities •Increases long-term return on your human resources by facilitating their preparation and maintenance of Cisco certifications Get started today To start a conversation and learn how Cisco Technical Knowledge Library service can help your organisation, contact your local Cisco account representative or certified partner. www.cisco.com/go/knowledgeservices •Access to Cisco Security IntelliShield feeds which provide daily actionable threat and vulnerability information alerts Help on and off the job Cisco’s best practices, based on many years of experience in the field, help your technical staff to eliminate common errors while designing, deploying, or transitioning to new network capabilities. At the same time, they provide practical tips that can be valuable in achieving or maintaining Cisco certifications. By exposing your staff to the ways in which other experts are solving complex technical challenges, you elevate their confidence and support them in achieving results at the pace of leading-edge technology. What does TKL contain? The Cisco Technical Knowledge Library is accessible 24/7 via a web portal or mobile device app, and hosts the following: •Proprietary best practices authored by Cisco’s Advanced Services engineers. You’ll find design and implementation guides, technical tips, interoperability guides, video-on- demand presentations, and other self- study resources •Experiential learning from industry- leading, customer-facing labs that are aligned to the latest technologies and architectural designs •Test cases, benchmarking results, and recommendations from Cisco’s customer-centric solution test initiatives •A comprehensive collection of Cisco Press books in digital format
- 14. 14 Cisco Services Dynamics © 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Tell us a bit about yourself, Yves. I work as a client solutions executive within the Data Centre and Virtualisation (DCV) group, based in Switzerland, where I have been at Cisco 11 years, 4 years in areas close to DCV. I am passionate about everything happening right now around cloud and data centre transformation. Cisco has made a significant impact within this space [and is] now being recognised as a serious player. What role do you play? My role is to advise customers on their options around their new challenges and needs within the data centre. I am seeing a lot of our customers demanding standardised and consolidated environments, with a big push to get over 90 percent of their IT infrastructure virtualised by the end of this year. Another driver is that we are seeing businesses wanting better application productivity and availability, and for the business to be more mobile so that it does not matter anymore where your data centre is located. What are the challenges you see in customer data centre environments? There is a real convergence happening now, with the business really driving what IT delivers and a focus on the business needs as a whole. Businesses see IT as important, but sometimes delivery on projects is either underwhelming, has been oversold, or does not match the set expectation. With the advent of the cloud, it means the business may be able to bypass their own IT by consuming services directly. In Cisco Services, we bring these two disparate elements, private cloud and public cloud, back together to provide a holistic view of a data centre’s capability. The main question is: How can I leave the past behind, without disrupting current IT services being delivered to the business? What advice do you give customers? In my role, I advise on what can be achieved within the data centre — by bringing both the business and IT together, working towards a future state as a blended IT service, with the expectation set at the outset. I see a lot of businesses who are not investing in technology or their data centre — for example a major car manufacturer who did not invest, and they have paid the price as they are now not able to compete in a highly competitive market. This hesitancy in infrastructure investment is largely caused by the fear behind the financial issues in Europe. However, companies are now facing the consequences, as they are not innovating and ultimately they are late to market, putting them at a major disadvantage. In turn, this will have a longer-term consequence. Putting your head in the sand and hoping the problems will go away is not a good option in economically difficult times! How do companies try to get the most out of their budget? Most companies I talk to are facing some form of financial challenge. Fixed budgets, especially those in IT, are not increasing or are being reduced. At the same time, markets are becoming more competitive and businesses are challenged to become more agile with the need to get to market quicker. IT has a duty to support these business departments, but must do so within these budget constraints, and consequently there are newly emerging models based on cloud-consumption which provides more flexibility, can be more cost effective, and is faster to adopt. The challenges in the data centre We talk to Yves Bron, Solutions Executive for Cisco Services
- 15. What do you see as being the next “big thing”? Mobility and enabling employees to be more connected and agile is the big thing right now. You would think this would not affect the data centre, but in reality mobile devices still need the data centre to provide access to the applications, and also a new degree of flexible accessibility through firewalls and security protocols. As an example, one transportation company announced recently it is providing their employees with iPads, to enable a mobile workforce, but the company still need the data centre to enable this move. The data centre has to be enabled as part of this transition; otherwise the investment would prove worthless as devices would not be able to access corporate systems. The iPad could become an expensive toy, not a valuable work asset. The proliferation of devices in the workplace mean there is more emphasis on security, computing power and availability and rather than keep adding more and more computing power or increasing the size of the infrastructure, virtualisation is a key enabler. The interesting thing here is that IT has traditionally been siloed into storage, compute, backup, applications, power, and importantly the network, all as separate compartments and virtualisation affects all these areas, and this in turn drives complexity. It’s vital if a business wants to innovate like this, they need to engage a trusted expert advisor. Why Cisco Services? When a customer engages Cisco Services, we really want to understand the business objectives and work out a plan aligned to the customer’s business goals. We provide specialist advice and enable our customers to gain competitive advantage for their business through technology, with innovative ways to work and new offers for their respective clients. Cisco Advanced Services is privileged to have some of the industry’s leading experts with years of experience. In working with our customers, we can assist by building a strategy, producing a comprehensive plan, executing on that plan, and then providing comprehensive day 2, on-going support and management services. Cisco Services Dynamics 15
- 16. 16 Cisco Services Dynamics © 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Global manufacturing giant Royal Philips Electronics employs 116,000 people in more than 60 countries, offering a world-leading portfolio of healthcare, lifestyle, and lighting products. Fast-moving business conditions demand that the Philips executive committee in the Netherlands stays in close touch with managers elsewhere around the globe. To strengthen collaborative capabilities, an innovative boardroom enabled by Cisco TelePresence® technology was conceived in Breitner Tower, the company’s Amsterdam headquarters. Jap Jongedijk, deputy secretary of the Philips executive committee, says: “While executive committee members could already attend TelePresence meetings in separate rooms several floors away, what we envisaged was much more ambitious — a bespoke solution that would place collaborative tools right at their fingertips at any time of the day or night.” “Our vision was a state-of-the-art multifunctional boardroom,” says Jongedijk, “combining everything we needed to integrate videoconferencing and multimedia into our management meeting cycle.” Solution “When we said we wanted the new boardroom to be multifunctional, we meant just that,” says Nico Hofman, Network Solution Expert at Philips. “It needed to give us a higher return on the high-tech investment than just immersive videoconferencing, vital though that was. The unparalleled expertise and technical knowledge inherent in the Cisco Services team ensured we would meet that objective.” The Cisco Services team played a key role in moving the project forward carrying out a full assessment to calculate camera angles, setting all participants at equal distances from the lenses to equalise image size, working closely with other team members on multiple iterations of the design drawings to get the details just right. “Writing customised applications for the iPad and seamlessly integrating them into the technology was another area where Cisco Services made an invaluable contribution,” concluded Hofman. The new video-enabled boardroom is enhancing insight into global operations, accelerating decision-making, and eliminating travel. Philips advocates board-level global collaboration “The unparalleled expertise and technical knowledge inherent in the Cisco Services team ensured we would meet our objectives” Nico Hofman, Network Solution Expert, Philips IT Infrastructure & Platform Team >Fast facts Business challenge •Facilitate virtual global collaboration between top executives in person, instantly and at any time Collaboration solution •Cisco Services design and technical leadership to create custom-built video enabled multimedia boardroom based on Cisco TelePresence System 3210 Business results •Executive empowerment with top-level shift away from traveling for face-to-face meetings and toward instantaneous video collaboration •Faster decision-making, with sharper regional market insights and improved global business coordination •Multifunctional design maximises room occupancy and return on investment Cisco Services help Philips put TelePresence system at the centre of strategic decision-making worldwide Read the full case study here: www.ciscoservicesdynamics.com Cisco TelePresence: http://tiny.cc/csx7jw
- 17. Cisco Services Dynamics 17 Ecobank Transnational Incorporated is a leading pan-African bank with operations in 32 countries across the continent. Much of this geographic spread has come through rapid organic growth in a relatively short space of time; the bank has doubled in terms of the number of markets that it serves in just 5 years resulting in a best-effort patchwork of IT systems. Solution Cisco Services worked with Ecobank, initially using a Network Readiness Pre- Assessment survey, to create an infrastructure that could help drive efficiency, productivity, and growth. The heart of this engine is a Cisco Borderless Network architecture that underpins core banking applications, including those related to ATMs. “We engaged with quite a number of original equipment manufacturers,” says Tunji Alabi, Group Head for Technology Infrastructure at Ecobank. “Only Cisco could give us the reliability, convenience, and security that we required. It’s an end-to-end solution — taking in voice, collaboration, and data centre technology — complemented by the expertise of Cisco Services.” Throughout the bank’s IT transformation process, the support of Cisco Services has provided not only Network Readiness Pre-Assessments and the Network Optimisation Service, but also it is being entrusted with a network audit, using Cisco Network Asset Collector software. Results The use of Cisco technology has helped to change the role of IT in Ecobank. “Now there is a drive towards a more electronic and IT-driven business,” says Alabi. “Technology has taken pole position in our transformation.” The benefits are already becoming apparent. The company’s telephone bill has dropped by 60 percent and office- based staff use Cisco Unified MeetingPlace® Express to communicate across locations. Now the bank operates on a single standardised infrastructure it makes it much easier to deploy IT systems in new locations. “This has helped us to cut the time it takes to enter a new market from a year to just two months,” says Alabi. Read the full case study here: www.ciscoservicesdynamics.com >Fast facts Business challenge •Standardise provision of banking services across countries •Reduce operational expenditure •Support continued growth Network solution •Cisco Borderless Network foundation •Cisco Nexus-based data centre •Cisco Collaboration tools •Cisco Services Business results •Telephony costs reduced by 60 percent •First-time Payment Card Industry pass due to Borderless Network platform •Time-to-market reduction from one year to two months thanks to standard solution “The fact that I can sleep at night is due in no small part to the great support I get from Cisco Services” Tunji Alabi, Group Head for Technology Infrastructure, Ecobank Transnational Inc Ecobank benefits from borderless network and collaboration
- 18. 18 Cisco Services Dynamics © 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. The film and media industry is big business. For its part, this industry is concerned that academia does not always understand the skills it needs, a view not shared by Dr Manuel José Damásio, Head of Communication Arts and Information Technologies at the University of Lusofona in Lisbon, Portugal. “European universities have a long tradition of seeing themselves as beacons of knowledge and cultural excellence,” says Damásio. An opportunity came when the EU launched a new initiative, called Knowledge Alliances, aimed at improving university business cooperation to create new multidisciplinary curricula and to promote entrepreneurship within education. When the Knowledge Alliance invited proposals for projects, the University of Lusofona seized the opportunity. Its plans for a “Cinema and Industry Alliance for Knowledge and Learning” (CIAKL) project was one of only 3, out of over 90 submissions, to be accepted for partial funding by the EU. CIAKL will see the university lead a consortium of five other European universities, and partners from the cinema and digital media industry. “We wanted to create an infrastructure, a rich collaborative environment not just for this particular initiative, but for other projects, eventually across all disciplines throughout the university,” says Damásio. The Lusofona team looked at solutions from a number of vendors, but eventually decided on a campus based Cisco collaboration platform consisting of Cisco WebEx Social© and Cisco Show and Share®, as well as a Cisco Unified Computing System© , complementing an existing WebEx© deployment. “We trusted Cisco technology. They were the only supplier able to offer a complete set of tools and an end-to- end environment in which video was integrated throughout,” says Damásio. To help reduce risk in its investment, the university also drew on Cisco Services’ expertise. In addition to creating the high-level design, Cisco Services produced the detailed low-level design, helping ensure the solution integrated perfectly into the university’s existing systems. Using a “train the trainer” approach, Cisco Services also provided operational training to the university’s own staff and were on hand to help resolve any issues during the first month of operations. “Having Cisco Services overseeing everything provided extra confidence, both in terms of achieving a successful project outcome and also getting the maximum benefit from the new technology” Dr Manuel José Damásio, Head of Communication Arts and Information Technologies, University of Lusofona Cisco Services assist Lufasona University bring together film students and industry >Fast facts Business challenge •Help ensure effective knowledge transfer between academia and business •Better equip students with entrepreneurial skills •Establish learning platform, irrespective of geography Network solution •Cisco Collaboration environment •Cisco Unified Computing System for virtualised hosting and delivery •Cisco Services for design, implementation, and knowledge transfer Business results •Secure and scalable platform for collaboration and learning in film and media industry •Ability to share, manipulate, and manage video content among students •New student generation equipped with skills and mindsets for creative and commercial success Read the full case study here: www.ciscoservicesdynamics.com
- 19. Making collaboration count LOCOG uses Cisco technology to communicate with distributed and rapidly growing organisation Cisco Systems was the official network infrastructure supporter for the 2012 Games, and provided routing, switching, network and Wi-Fi. Cisco worked closely with BT Global Services, the official communications services partner, to create a mission critical network. To address the LOCOG communication challenge, a full suite of Cisco Collaboration solutions was brought into play. Running on the London 2012 network, Cisco Show and Share helped ensure that video content was stored, managed, and distributed in a secure and standardised manner. Maryam Ahmad, Technical Delivery Manager at LOCOG, says: “Cisco Services helped design, test, and deploy a Show and Share solution and, by tapping into their expertise, we managed to really improve the end user experience.” Along with Show and Share, the Cisco Media Experience Engine (MXE) allowed LOCOG to transcode videos quickly and effectively. Standardising the format and bit rate of the videos in this way limits the impact on the network, irrespective of which format the author uses. To complement the solution, Cisco WebEx and BT MeetMe provided a fully collaborative audio and web conferencing solution. Results “The Cisco collaboration services that we have, such as Show and Share, MXE, ECDS, and WebEx, have assisted us in becoming a more collaborative organisation,” says Ahmad. The LOCOG intranet is called The Knowledge, and it is the first point of call for all employees to access information. “When we implemented Show and Share, we straightaway integrated it with The Knowledge,” says Jo Simcox, Internal Communications Manager at LOCOG. “It’s proved a powerful way to enable the entire team to stay up-to-date.” The LOCOG HR organisation found Cisco WebEx invaluable in taking cost out of the recruitment process, while speeding up the identification and induction of new people. >Fast facts Business challenge •Keeping a rapidly-growing workforce involved and informed, both during the planning and decentralisation phases •Providing a productive means of interacting with geographically dispersed colleagues, partners, and stakeholders Collaboration solution •Cisco Show and Share •Cisco Media Experience Engine •Cisco Advanced Services Business results •Conferencing is more collaborative, productive, and cost effective •Improved agility of communications as teams disperse to venues •Video embedded as a mechanism to deliver executive briefings Read the full case study here: www.ciscoservicesdynamics.com “WebEx is a very powerful way of collaborating. We can work together around common plans and information, and that really deepens the relationship and makes it more effective” Gerry Pennell, CIO, LOCOG Cisco Services Dynamics 19
- 20. Cisco has more than 200 offices worldwide. Addresses, phone numbers, and fax numbers are listed on the Cisco Website at www.cisco.com/go/offices. Cisco and the Cisco Logo are trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco’s trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1005R) Americas Headquarters Cisco Systems, Inc. San Jose, CA Asia Pacific Headquarters Cisco Systems (USA) Pte. Ltd. Singapore Europe Headquarters Cisco Systems International BV Amsterdam, The Netherlands I recently read an article by Deloitte and something really caught my attention: voicemail. According to this article, if you were born any time after 1980, you probably don’t check your voicemail for messages from your boss and colleagues. Our younger colleagues are conditioned to tune out unsolicited communication. After all, these are the children raised on terms like spam and malware. Reading this made me feel strangely out of the loop. And it made me wonder about my own perspective towards younger colleagues. We are living – and working – longer than ever before. According to Forbes (link to the right) five generations in the workplace will soon become the norm. This means that it’s completely conceivable that you will at some point be working shoulder to shoulder with someone old or young enough to be your grandparent or grandchild. With this in mind I had a bit of a search around the Internet to see how we view each other as different generations and found data that surprised me: apparently a whopping 68% of my generation and “Baby Boomers” view younger colleagues as work-shy. We see their ability to multi-task, as lack of focus. They see us as out of touch. But how different are we really? Although it’s useful to be aware of generational differences and to bear them in mind, any generalisation about generation is just that: a generalisation. And although we can and do categorise each other in terms of age groups and general behaviour, it’s vital to remember that what distinguishes us as people is not our age, but our personality, skills set, and unique experience. Let’s put this to the test: which generation do you think you most closely connect with? Try a short questionnaire at the following link. You might be surprised by the results. Questionnaire link: http://tiny.cc/cmnjlw Join us on LinkedIn: http://tiny.cc/annjlw Link to Forbes article: http://tiny.cc/yxnjlw Talking about my generation Nikki Walker, Managing Director, Inclusion, Diversity & Sustainability for Cisco EMEAR offers a candid look at the differences between the generations. But how different are we actually? Do you have feedback on any of the articles in this edition? If so, please email the editor Jon Ashley: jonashle@cisco.com Ensure you never miss a copy of Services Dynamics by subscribing for future editions. Visit www.ciscoservicesdynamics.com to subscribe.