November 2009

November 2009
Business World: Creating an Integrated Infrastructure (780 KB)
The industrial revolution was built and sustained on infrastructure such as rail, roads, and telephone lines, paving the way for new cities and new connections for people and businesses around the globe. Today, much of it is being driven by the global network - everything is becoming connected. While designing urban infrastructure, for example, we put utilities and infrastructure at the heart of city planning, so much so we cannot imagine the blueprint of a city not including its roads.

09 November 2009
Express Computer: Gearing Up for the Cloud
Cloud computing is rapidly becoming the Holy Grail of enterprise computing, with most CIOs, network managers and IT departments investigating how they can develop and leverage  a cloud strategy. Although cloud computing means different things to different people, true cloud computing provides massively scalable IT capabilities as a service over the Internet, and can offer companies a single point of access to manage and meet their computing needs. When implemented correctly, cloud computing can help companies cut IT and personnel costs, produce a leaner IT environment and create a dynamically scalable infrastructure that lends itself to rapid growth. " On-demand services and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions have become the preferred mechanisms for organizations to better leverage the power of technology. Rather than contend with the endless hassles and escalating costs historically associated with traditional, on premise, hardware and software products, today's on demand services and SaaS solutions enable organizations to more quickly and cost effectively harness technology to achieve their business objective," said Kiran Datar, Managing Director, Cisco WebEx Technology Group.

05 November 2009
The Economic Times: Cisco Forecasts First Revenue Growth in a Year
Cisco Systems Inc. doesn't want Wall Street to interpret its forecast for its first quarterly revenue growth in a year as evidence that the US and other economies are roaring back. A slow improvement in orders is under way but the pace is still slow and the recovery is fragile, executives from the world's No. 1 maker of computer-networking equipment said. Cisco forecast that revenue would grow 1 percent to 4 percent in the current quarter, which ends in January. That would translate to revenue of $9.2 billion to $9.5 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting a decline from last year. Cisco's results are seen as a gauge of how large corporations and government agencies and Internet providers are managing their technology budgets. Rising sales suggests they are loosening the purse strings to buy Cisco mainstays such as routers and switches, which direct data traffic. Cisco's CEO, John Chambers, said orders are rising again after passing a "tipping point" in the downturn this summer.

05 November 2009
The Times of India: 10 Most Attractive IT Workplaces for Grads
Ever wondered which are the most coveted IT workplaces for graduates worldwide? The organisations they aspire to be a part of. Employer branding company Universum recently listed the world's Top 50 most attractive employers. The global rankings are based on the employer preferences of students from US, Japan, China, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Spain, Canada and India. Some 120,000 students from the world's top academic institutions were part of the survey to choose their ideal workplace. Here's over to the 10 most 'attractive' IT workplaces for engineering grads. Cisco Networking major Cisco bags the 13th spot on the list. The company has been one of the most aggressive companies on the technology M&A front. Founded in 1984 by a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University, Cisco's hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create Internet solutions. With more than 67,647 employees worldwide, the company's mantra is to motivate employees for innovation.

05 November 2009
DNA: Cisco to Ride Network to the Cloud
If Howard Charney, senior vice-president, Cisco Systems Inc, is to be believed, it should be a cakewalk to take on IBM and Hewlett-Packard in the cloud, given that it is more network-centric than the rival giants, which are server-centric. He should know. Charney's company, Grand Junction Networks, which was acquired by Cisco, had invented the Fast Ethernet and low-cost switching. The senior advisor to Cisco honcho John Chambers was also the co-founder of 3Com whose breakthrough technologies brought the Internet to the desktop. The comments gain significance in the backdrop of the announcement of the formation of Acadia, a three-way collaboration between Cisco, EMS and VMware on Tuesday for the virtual computing environment (VCE), that will develop integrated cloud computing products called Vblock Infrastrucutre Packages including servers, networking, storage and virtualisation software for data centres. The JV is targeted at a potential opportunity, which according to McKinsey & Co. is upwards of $350 billion annually, half of which goes on capital expenses and the rest on operating expenses. Charney said servers are commodity items and the network is now the factory where customers' strategic decision is being made. And given the fact that Cisco's architecture is network-centric ab initio, it will be much easier to take on companies like IBM and HP, which have been in the data centre and cloud business much earlier. "We believe the future is in the network where the data flow as opposed to compute-flow is the critical path with switching, which is Cisco's core competence, playing a crucial role," Charney said in an exclusive chat on the sidelines of a Business Technology Summit at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here.

04 November 2009
Telecom Tiger: Tata Communications Enters into Tie-Up with Business Travel Management Firm for Telepresence Services
Tata Group company, Tata Communications today entered into an alliance with Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), a global leader specializing in business travel management to jointly offer Tata Communications' Cisco Telepresence Suites across the globe. The services offered under the alliance will be known as CWT Telepresence Suite of services."CWT recognizes the intense pressure corporations are under to contain rising T&E costs and maximize return on investment," said Pauline Quéré, CWT vice president, Customer Product Marketing. "By incorporating telepresence into the full range of products and services in our demand management offering, CWT provides a compelling alternative and solidifies its role as a key partner in helping clients demonstrate measurable return on investment. To that end, we are very pleased to be moving forward with Tata Communications, an industry leader in the telepresence arena."

04 November 2009
Telecom Tiger: Cloud Computing Market Intensifies as Cisco, EMC & VMware Collaborate
Networking major, Cisco along with EMC and VMware joined hands to tap the rapidly growing Cloud Computing environment. The three now claim to be introducing a unique Virtual Computing Environment incorporating the expertise and competencies of the three firms. The forming of the alliance comes a year after the three worked closely on a shared vision related to private cloud computing. The alliance promises that the Virtual Computing Environment coalition will offer enterprises of all sizes an accelerated approach to data center transformation with dramatic efficiencies that promise significant reductions in both capital and operating expenses. As a result, organizations will no longer have to choose between best-of-breed technologies and end-to-end vendor accountability. "Today's announcement addresses our customers' greatest challenges and opportunities in the data center." said John Chambers, CEO of Cisco. "This coalition is about more than technology and partnership. It is about an entirely new and unique approach to the data center that improves utilization, power consumption and security of information, all in a way that lowers the total cost to the customer, not via a box, but with a network-based architectural approach for optimizing virtual resources."

03 November 2009
CXO Today:Retail Has Been a Big Adopter of Wireless Tech
In India, the adoption of wireless technologies is set to grow in a big way. In an interview with Sharon Lobo, Sridevi Koneru, Director/Head, Wireless and Networking Business Unit, Cisco India & SAARC, explains how Cisco plans to tap this market.
In India, how has the adoption of wireless technology been so far? How does Cisco plan to tap this market?
In India, the mobility penetration is at an all-time high. The reason being mobility is multimodality, as it is available through various networks such as GSM, Wi-Fi etc. I see a huge growth opportunity in rural areas if urban services are provided to the rural population. For instance, if a farmer can get access to the latest fair price for his product, he can avoid losses, a businessman can use online banking to carry out his daily financial transactions, a student can access information at his fingertips. One of Cisco's corporate responsibilities is to help build the infrastructure in rural India, which is also a priority for the major Indian telecom operators. Therefore we constantly engage with these telcos to find the right business model, such as a telco setting up kiosks in rural areas to provide Internet access to the villagers or a village entrepreneur running a kiosk and people use the services can pay on hourly basis.

03 November 2009
domain-b.com: Cisco Acquires Set-Top Box Business of DVN Holdings for $44.5 Million
The Silicon Valley networking giant Cisco, continuing with its rapid niche acquisitions, today disclosed plans to acquire the set-top box business of Hong Kong-based DVN Holdings Limited for $44.5 million, to strengthen its operations in China. The world's largest maker of networking and communication equipment, Cisco will pay $17.5 million up front with an additional maximum amount of $27 million over four years based on the achievement of specific sales milestones. Cisco's proposed new acquisition, its seventh this year, is expected to close in the first half of calendar year 2010 subject to standard closing conditions, DVN shareholder approval and regulatory approvals.

02 November 2009
DQ Channels:Cisco Acquires Starent Networks
Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay $35 per share in cash, in exchange for each share of Starent Networks, and assume outstanding equity awards for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $2.9 billion. The acquisition has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies. The acquisition is expected to close during the first half of calendar year 2010, however, the date is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory reviews. Cisco expects the acquisition to be dilutive to non-GAAP earnings in fiscal years 2010 and 2011.

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October 2009

31 October 2009
Retailer: Hi-Tech Retailing (1,809 KB)
Anil Bhasin is Senior Vice President of Cisco India and SAARC. An industry veteran with over 19 years experience in the IT industry, he speaks about Cisco's latest offerings for retail segment.
Retailer: What are the retail solutions Cisco has to offer the Indian consumers?
Anil Bhasin (AB): Cisco's intelligent retail network solutions are tuned to meet the specific needs of retailers and offer comprehensive and scalable networking solutions.

30 October 2009
The Financial Express: Cisco Sees Education link Vital to Digital Era in Bangladesh
Connectivity in education is key to Bangladesh stepping into the digital era, says a top regional official of Cisco Systems, a leading global supplier of networking equipment and network management, reports bdnews24.com. In an exclusive interview with the news agency, Amit Malik, vice president for Eastern India and the SAARC region, said the country needed an 'inclusive growth'-focused objective for going fully digital. It also needed to ensure that the rural areas have the same opportunity as their urban counterparts to access education, he added. Education would open up opportunities for growing in any and every aspect, according to the Cisco official. On the bottlenecks for a growing IT industry, Malik cited poor bandwidth situation of Bangladesh as the major hurdle along with the slow speed of execution of policies. "Also, customs clearance takes long time...it's the highest in this region actually." He also highlighted the need for a rethink of the regulatory framework to open up more spectrums. "Until last year, IP telephony was a strict no-no, but now it's at least open for closed user groups." Malik said that IP telephony was now in the centre of interest in the Bangladeshi market. "And the technology uses low bandwidth as well." Clients were asking for IP telephony with video facility to save time for the congested traffic situation of Dhaka, he added. "High-end video might not be possible for now, considering the bandwidth situation." The Bangladeshi market was, however, growing very fast, in fact "much faster than other parts of this region", according to Malik. He said that Cisco's business grew on an average 30 per cent year-on-year over the last decade. And potential was huge as the current government was committed towards building a 'digital Bangladesh' by 2021. Cisco considered the financial sector of Bangladesh as their key focus.

October 2009
Communications Today: Video Conferencing: Future Calls Abstract
The market is moving from vanilla video conferencing services to high end video collaboration solutions such as Telepresence since it creates a live, face-to-face meeting experience. The total market size for video conferencing in India is estimated at Rs. 190 crore for FY 09-10, registering a growth of 25 percent over the previous year. Endpoints constitute 80 percent of the market with the remaining 20 percent contributed by infrastructure. Polycom emerged as the clear leader with more than 50 percent market share. The second slot was occupied by Tandberg that was placed in the tier two. Cisco, Aethra, Lifesize, and Radvision occupied the third tier. Sony, Actis, Intellisys, Altera, Microsoft, among others made up the last tier. (This classification is based on ADI Media research.) Cisco Systems has agreed to buy Norway-based Tandberg ASA for about USD 3 billion (Rs. 14,400 crore), expanding its push into collaboration technologies that help people work together from different locations. Acquiring Tandberg will not only help Cisco expand its offerings for telepresence but for collaboration technologies generally. Together, they are the second largest player capable of giving significant competition to the leading player, Polycom

30 October 2009
Cisco Focuses On Technology Partners
Being one of the biggest IT infrastructure companies can be quite a task. To maintain such a business one needs a strong ecosystem of channel partners, and solution providers. And that is what Cisco Systems, one of the largest IT infrastructure companies in the world, is doing currently. In a bid to push its partners to do better in the post recession market, the company has created some focused channel strategy .To begin with Cisco is developing what it calls the Advanced Technology Partner segment. A new breed of channel partners, who are really solutions providers, to devise and sell new technology solutions rather than just products. Says B Raghavendran, Vice President, Channel Operations and Commercial Strategy, Cisco India&SAARC, The advance technology partners are niche players, with focused technical skill sets, and customer base. We wanted to develop this segment so that we can push technology solutions rather than simple products to the clients. In fact the client demands are changing. And to address that we decided on creating this partner segment.

30 October 2009
bdnews24.com: Cisco Sees Education Link Vital to Digital Era in Bangladesh
Connectivity in education is key for Bangladesh to step in to the digital era, says a top regional official of Cisco Systems, a leading global supplier of networking equipment and network management. In an exclusive interview with bdnews24.com, Amit Malik, vice president for Eastern India and the SAARC region, said the country needs an 'inclusive growth'-focused objective for going fully digital. It also needs to ensure that the rural areas have the same opportunity as their urban counterparts to access education, he added. Education will open up opportunities for growing in any and every aspect, according to the Cisco official. On the bottlenecks for a growing IT industry, Malik cited poor bandwidth situation of Bangladesh as the major hurdle along with the slow speed of execution of policies. "Also, customs clearance takes long time...it's the highest in this region actually." He also highlighted the need for a rethink of the regulatory framework to open up more spectrums. "Till last year, IP telephony was a strict no-no, but now it's at least open for closed user groups." Malik says that IP telephony is now in the centre of interest in the Bangladeshi market. "And the technology uses low bandwidth as well." Clients are asking for IP telephony with video facility to save time for the congested traffic situation of Dhaka, he added. "High-end video might not be possible for now, considering the bandwidth situation." The Bangladeshi market is, however, growing very fast, in fact "much faster than other parts of this region", according to Malik.

29 October 2009
DQ Channels : A Strategic Approach to Technology Financing
In these trying times, companies that wish to stay technologically advanced must strike a fine balance between acquiring latest technologies and simultaneously safeguarding their capital expenditure budgets. Financing wisely seems to be the key to stay in the competition and succeed. In contemporary business environment, success demands that companies recognize the need to be diligent in utilizing their resources. Regardless of size, businesses are now trying to preserve money, both cash and credit. This places scrutiny on their capital equipment purchases. Companies of considerably large sizes are generally able to raise required capital from financial institutions. They owe this to their strong clout. However, companies in the SMB sector have fewer options for accessing capital. Moreover, they often face resistance from traditional lenders. This sector has been struggling to keep up with market transitions. Options such as financing and leasing are alternatives available for acquiring technology. Financing allows spreading of costs over a period of time with monthly payments. The latter eases cash flow and ensures protection of capital and preservation of credit lines. What makes financing significant in recent times is the fact that businesses are looking out to be more strategic with budget and technology investments. Those in business realize that the decision to acquire technology and services is just as critical as the investment decision itself. In a recent Gartner report, it was revealed that through leasing, the total cost of ownership (TCO) is lowered. This is perhaps because IT hardware and software standards are introduced and companies begin to plan life-cycles for IT assets. This augurs well for SMBs. Gautam Munish, Country Manager, Cisco Capital, Cisco India & SAARC

28 October 2009
Dataquest: Airtel, Cisco Form Alliance
Bharti Airtel and Cisco have formed a strategic business alliance to help drive growth for Indian enterprises. The alliance will combine their strengths and expertise to work together to create and sell a set of products and services including managed data services, hosted unified communications, etc.

28 October 2009
Dataquest: Making Its Presence Felt
Ciscos acquisition of Tandberg would help it strengthen its telepresence strategy and pose a challenge to Polycom. In the midst of an expected recovery from the slowdown, the global IT scenario is undergoing major consolidation. This quarter is perhaps one of those which saw a sudden spurt of mergers and acquisitions globally. With consecutive news of Adobe acquiring Omniture, Dell acquiring Perot, and Xerox acquiring ACS, the unified communications space also sees a major breakthrough. This time it is Cisco that has made a recommended offer to acquire Norway based Tandberg for $3 bn. This acquisition will help Cisco expand its collaboration portfolio to offer more solutions to its customers. What made this alliance possible was the feedback from customers for both Ciscos and Tandbergs high-end collaborative systems and solutions. Reflecting on the offer, Fredrik Halvorsen, CEO, Tandberg believes that customers are adopting technologies across the board from high-end telepresence to desktop and PC applications. The combination of two organizations would even allow to innovate at a higher pace than the companies working independently.

23 October 2009
The Economic Times: Technoholik: Can Delhi Ever Be an Incheon?
When the folks at Cisco called up last month, inviting me to cover a conference on 'Sustainable Cities of the Future' in Incheon, South Korea, I was a bit confused. Firstly, why in the world was a company that mainly makes routers and switches hosting an urban issues conference mainly for Mayoral delegations from around the world? Secondly, why did they think Technoholik would be interested? Well, it seems that Cisco sees itself as an "infrastructure" company and they want to expand the definition of that word - which brings roads, bridges, buildings and electricity to mind - to include IT as a fundamental component. I was still skeptical, but when they assured me that there would actually be live demos, it seemed like it could make interesting viewing for our television show on ET NOW. Cisco had chosen Seoul's twin city as the showcase since Incheon was rebuilding itself for the 2014 Asian Games (it incidentally pipped Delhi in the final round of voting). On arriving at Incheon airport, which serves as Seoul's international airport as well, my mind began to race. How did the city that I had just arrived from, even think that it stood a chance?

22 October 2009
Biztech2.com: Telepresence Wins with Simplicity, Enhanced Ambience
In today's dynamic business environment, the most important benefit comes from having a good communication system. This has led to ongoing adoption of TelePresence solutions among enterprises to facilitate communication among their knowledge workers and increase collaboration with customers and partners across the globe. Rajesh K K, business development manager-TelePresence Systems, Cisco India and SAARC, sheds light on the telepresence industry in an interview with Biztech2.com
What are the recent developments in the telepresence industry?
As convergence brings voice, data, and video onto the same network, new technologies are redefining the rules of collaboration. Today, networks are becoming increasingly scalable and enterprises are realising the benefits of having all the applications on the same network. The real impact of conferencing technology can only be realised when the user's experience is close to a face-to-face meeting, and telepresence in this respect has already started revolutionising room-based videoconferencing services. Solution providers such as Tata Communications and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra have begun offering telepresence services on a pay-per-use basis.

21 October 2009
Biztech2: Cisco Offers Next Generation of Integrated Services Router
To address evolving IT needs around increasingly distributed, collaborative workforces, Cisco has introduced its Borderless Networks architecture and a five-phase plan designed to help deliver services and applications to anyone, anywhere, on any device, at anytime - seamlessly, reliably, and securely.  As the first proof point of its Borderless Networks architecture, Cisco has announced the second generation of its Integrated Services Router, the ISR G2. The Cisco ISR G2 helps businesses and service providers scale delivery of on-demand, networked business services like video and collaborative applications at branch offices. It serves as a natural part of the Cisco Borderless Networks Architecture, which combines the company's routing, switching, wireless, and security technologies into an integrated networking infrastructure. The Cisco ISR G2 offers as much as five times the performance of its predecessor, the Cisco ISR, as per company claims. It boasts of new video-ready architecture and new video digital signal processors, which will be key to delivering medianet capabilities essential to the Borderless Networks experience.

20 October 2009
ChannelTimes.com: Cisco to Focus on Partner Profitability in FY 2010
Nurturing and growing its relationship with its partner community and ensuring their profitability will be the key drivers of Cisco's channel strategy for FY 2010. Highlighting Cisco s priorities for the new year, B Raghavendran, vice president, channel operations and commercial strategy, Cisco India & Saarc, also reiterated several other initiatives such as building the collaborative channel, partner model transformation, and business simplification and optimization, amongst others. Commenting on Cisco's partner strategy for FY 2010, Raghavendran said, "As we enter FY10 and align with our goals for the country, Cisco will organize the channel team around key architectures, segments, new markets and business models in order to provide the thought leadership necessary to position Cisco and our partners for growth. Working closely with other teams within Cisco, we will evolve our partner programs and incentives to increase Cisco's relevance for all partner types - Resale, Technology and Service-led, and expand our offer types to meet the needs of our partners and customers. "

October 2009
Communications Today: Focus on Convergence and Consolidation
The network security market in India is coming of age, largely driven by the businesses recognizing that security should be a prime concern area for them. Organizations are therefore adopting a proactive approach towards embracing security measures as a business imperative. Security vendors and researchers are collaborating more closely on the disclosure of vulnerabilities, so that patches and workarounds can be created before the exploitable information is widely available. Security vendors are also working both together and separately to make it easier to report and discover current security incidents, and to assess threats accurately. Jatin Sachdeva, (CISSP, CISA), Information Security Specialist, Cisco

19 October 2009
The Financial Express: Innovation Knows No Boundaries
Globally, it is the Indian and Chinese governments that have got it right on how big will the scope of the broadband-based business models be, says Cisco CEO John Chambers. So India is high on his agenda as he confirms "20 percent of Cisco's top global talent" will be based here. Clearly bullish on the prospect of a fast recovery from the global downturn, he avers every government in the world (must) clearly understand that the best form of governance is to grow economy and create jobs. Practising that mantra, Chambers is steering the world's largest maker of networking gear with an acquisition drive. The $36-billion company has signed two acquisition deals in two weeks-wireless equipment maker Starent Networks for $2.9 billion and Norwegian video conferencing maker Tandberg for $3 billion. Cisco has spent about $56 billion in 174 deals in its 25 years of existence and enjoys $30-billion cash balance. In an exclusive interview at ITU Telecom World 2009 in Geneva, Chambers summarises his experience of managing through five downturns and narrates his plans of moving into new markets like healthcare and security.
Excerpts: Cisco seems to be aggressive on acquisitions and getting into new markets. What makes you so bullish?
I am optimistic about the economy. It might be early to call it a full-blown bounce-back, but the trends are towards an upturn. You are going to see acquisitions heat up. In the four earlier downturns too, we came out stronger in terms of marketcap and market share and used it to move into new markets. It is important to be realistic and take a look at how much of the downturn is due to economic environment and how much of it is self-inflicted. The second thing is to determine how deep is it going to be and how long will it last. Thirdly, you need to get ready for the upturn and communicate your strategy with your employees, shareholders and customers.

17 October 2009
DNA: Global Tech Sector Trumpets Signs
The calendar says we are well on our way to winter, but for many technology companies, orders are starting to bloom like flowers after a spring rain. Strong and steady improvement, economists say, would suggest that the United States is truly emerging from the Great Recession. Yet if tech spending fades, it would mean that recovery is further off. John T Chambers, chief executive of Cisco, was even more bullish recently, predicting a substantial increase in productivity at American companies driven by investments in Internet software and hardware. "I think we are entering a period very similar to 1997 to 2004, where you'll see a decade run of productivity increases," he said in an interview.

14 October 2009
The Economic Times: Cisco to Buy Wireless Gear Maker Starent for $2.9 Billion
Cisco Systems Inc plans to buy advanced wireless equipment maker Starent Networks Corp for $2.9 billion to boost its product offerings as phone carriers build out next-generation networks. In its second major acquisition this month, Cisco said it would pay $35 a share in cash for Starent, a nearly 21 percent premium on its Monday closing price. Starent shares jumped about 17 percent at mid-afternoon. Analysts said the deal was negative for Cisco's smaller competitor, Juniper Networks Inc, which sells network equipment mainly to telecommunications companies. Juniper shares fell 2.7 percent while Cisco rose 0.3 percent. "Snatching Starent out from under Juniper is an indication of how far Cisco will go to maintain its market share within core networking products," said Avian Securities analyst Catharine Trebnick. While Juniper and others like Alcatel-Lucent SA could put in a competing offer, most analysts said they did not expect this as Cisco's deal is in cash and appeared fair. UBS analyst Nikos Theodosopoulos said the price is almost 40 times Starent's 2010 earnings estimates, a multiple that Cisco has not paid since it bought Webex in 2007.

13 October 2009
The Hindu: Rs. 2,000-Cr. Taxes to Fund Flood Relief
Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa has said the State Government will introduce taxation measures to mobilise an additional Rs. 2,000 crore to help reconstruct villages, build houses, schools, hospitals and roads, and revive agricultural lands damaged in the floods. Addressing a meeting of ministers and senior officials here on Monday, he clarified that the common man would not be burdened with more taxes and that the departments concerned would work out the details in four days. The Government had decided to celebrate Rajyotsava Day on a low-key basis, and this year's State awards would be given away in 2010, he added. Mr. Yeddyurappa appealed to the people to avoid ostentatious celebration of Deepavali as a mark of solidarity with the flood-affected people. He said CISCO Systems Inc. had agreed to build 4,000 houses, a hospital and a school in a place identified by the Government, to help the displaced people.

12 October 2009
The Times of India: Cisco Tool to Uncover Dark Web
Cisco launched software that shines light on potentially troublesome websites hidden in what the US computer security firm dubbed the "Dark Web." Cisco IronPort Web Usage Controls promise to identify as much as 90 percent of "egregious" content that has escaped detection by business IT managers and security applications because of its stealthy nature on the Internet. "The Dark Web is about corporate users inability to see how workers are using the Web," Cisco product line manager Kevin Kennedy told AFP on Thursday.

11 October 2009
Mint: Widening Broadband Reach by 50% can Boost India's GDP: Cisco
India needs to bridge the urban-rural digital divide by deepening broadband penetration by 40-50% if it wants to increase GDP growth, Internet network management firm, Cisco Systems, said. "From a broadband point of view, India is extremely low on the list of technology penetration. You would need an average penetration of about 40-50% in broadband (to be at par with) leading countries like Sweden, Netherlands and Korea. that is the world-wide average," Cisco Systems Inc, Chief Globalization Officer and Cisco Services Executive Vice President, Wim Elfrink said. Elfrink said there was a correlation between broadband penetration and the productivity of a nation. "A ten percentage-point increase in broadband penetration for an average nation results in an acceleration of economic growth of 1.3 percentage point," he said citing a World Bank report. High-speed networks have become part of the basic infrastructure of any country enabling growth. "So, I think the new Government now having embraced the plan for broadband penetration, there would be more and more people connected over the next few years," Elfrink said. As part of the Government's National Broadband Penetration Program (NBPP), HCL Infosystems and BSNL have decided to provide personal computers to rural masses.

07 October 2009
Network Computing: Events: Keynote Speakers at Interop Mumbai: Thought Leadership from the Best Minds in the Industry
The internet of things transforming cities and countries. This keynote will focus on the emerging 'Internet of Things,' looking at how the internet will drive a new approach in addressing real world issues ranging from physical security to transportation, energy and education. Presented by Wim Elfrink, Executive VP, Cisco Services & Chief Globalization Officer, Cisco. Wim Elfrink has dual roles at Cisco. As Chief Globalization Officer (CGO). Elfrink is leading the next stage of the Cisco Globalization Strategy, and as Executive VP, Cisco Services, he is responsible for Cisco Services Worldwide.

October 2009
DQ Channels: Give Your Customers a High 5
When you last met your enterprise customer to learn about his procurement plans, did you come back disappointed when he told you that all purchase decisions are on old? If yes, then take heart. Most of your peers are going through the same phase. In addition, technology also enables an organization to achieve the desired goals. This development should not come as a surprise because enterprise customers across the board are looking at re-evaluating their IT budgets keeping in mind the company's strategies to meet their business goals with minimal fresh investment. ER Ashok Kumar, VP-Services, Cisco India and SAARC pointed out, "UC has the ability to connect organizations in real time using the existing network. Hence, organizations can connect with branches by adopting Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology, based on the pay per service model. In view of the downturn and even otherwise, UC technologies such as video and web conferencing/collaboration can help reduce travel expenses, and enable companies to become eco-friendly."

06 October 2009
Business Standard: SMEs Take to Tele-Conferencing
IT services company Solutions Enterprise Pvt Ltd's offices in Mumbai and Ahmedabad used to be connected with its partner companies in Britain over the Internet and a virtual private network (VPN). However, the quality of communication had always been poor. "The voice quality was unsatisfactory and the entire solution was not very reliable, as there used to be frequent problems in one of the components. Besides, the need for additional features grew over time," says Pratik Patel, director, Solutions Enterprise. To sort it out, the company deployed Cisco's SIP0-based IP phones and Analog phones. "We now operate with more flexibility and ease due to efficient pickup and incoming call features. Conferencing is being used effectively for group discussions and support calls, giving users better control over outgoing calls. Soft clients (Cisco's IP Communicator soft phone, which is a software integrated with Windows PC) are used by key executives, enabling them to attend their calls even while they are on the move," says a happy Patel. Reasons Rajesh K K, business development manager, Tele-presence Systems, Cisco India & SAARC: "SMEs are steadily increasing their exposure in global markets. Thus, we are expecting a lot of business from this sector in the coming year. Their investment in tele-presence and collaborative solutions is likely to take off soon and will continue to grow in the forthcoming years."

06 October 2009
The Economic Times: Bharti Airtel and Cisco Ink Pact to Cater to B2B Market
Bharti Airtel and Cisco today announced a strategic business alliance to create products and services for the small, medium and large enterprises. The alliance would combine the strengths of Airtel's network service and Cisco' Internet Protocol (IP) technologies and expertise to work together to create and sell in a phased manner a set of products and services-including managed data services, hosted unified communications, connected branch services and Cisco TelePresence. Wim Elfrink, Chief Globalisation Officer and Executive Vice-President, Cisco Services, said "building on Indian Government's commitment to rapid broadband deployment of 700 million broadband customers in next five years, we will together create and deliver transformational services for large enterprise and small and medium-sized businesses".

06 October 2009
DNA: Cisco Will Monetise Internet and Desktop Video in India (664 KB)
For Cisco, video is the next big thing. And the recent $3-billion acquisition of video gear provider Tandberg is the icing on the cake that will boost its telepresence strategy and help it sell more routers and switches. Its video drive is also fuelled by video-on-demand and peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P), which will account for over 91% of global consumer traffic by 2013, according to the company's Visual Networking Index. Elaborating on Cisco's strategy in India, the networking giant will monetise consumer video in the country, Rajesh Chainani, senior vice-president of service provider vertical, Cisco India and SAARC region said.  Excerpts:
How does Cisco plan to enhance its video strategy with the Internet growing fourfold by 2013?
Video is the most experiential medium that will change the way people live, work, play and learn. Video is one of Cisco's key areas of focus as the company believes that there will be a video explosion in homes and businesses. Organisations want to implement new video solutions easily, using expertise that streamlines processes, and ultimately maximises their returns on investment (RoIs). Cisco is extending WebEx beyond its web conferencing roots into a shared workplace' that will manage a user's realtime and time-shift communication and collaboration needs entirely- from text and graphics, through to audio and video. The other areas for business video include desktop-video conferencing and video surveillance among others. In the consumer segment, Cisco expects great demand for video-based services. For instance, Cisco is enabling consumers to watch internet videos on the TV and in the future, have a TelePresence chat with relatives and friends.

05 October 2009
Express Computer: Upgrading Network for Improving Efficiency
Through the deployment of Cisco solution, Irevna has been able to address the issues related to the availability of the internet, mail service, and VPN tunnels. Irevna is a high-end financial, research and analytics outsourcing division of Crisil, one of India's leading ratings, research and risk and policy advisory company. The company's clients include financial institutions with investment banking operations, insurance companies, asset management firms and the corporate sector. However, this made it difficult to ensure high internet and mail server availability as well as VPN tunnels uptime. In fact, Irevna already had a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)- based network architechture that used a Cisco solution to ensure high internet availability, nonetheless, it wanted to enable Performance Routing (PfR) across locations and this involved routing Internet traffic along the best performing ISP links across locations.

02 October 2009
The Financial Express: Managed Data Services: A Profitable Option
The small & medium business (SMB) sector in India is now more receptive to information technology than before. About 40% of the more than 7.6 million SMBs are seeking to leverage technology to reduce costs, make processes more efficient and improve employee productivity. This finding of the AMI Partners, in its latest quarterly study, corroborates earlier IDC forecasts that despite the current economic slowdown, SMB IT spending will continue to grow more rapidly than the IT spending of larger firms. This presents a huge opportunity for IT vendors and infrastructure service providers. However, the rapid growth of the SMB sector over the years presents several challenges that need to be addressed to maintain the growth momentum. Two primary challenges are upgrading IT/network infrastructure and finding skilled manpower at affordable cost. Here, simply adding a new application or technology in the organisation only adds to the cost and the need for trained IT staff and security specialists to manage the IT infrastructure.
The author is vice-president-service provider, Cisco India & Saarc

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September 2009

September 2009
Retail Biz: The Digital Dimension
In the last decade, the Indian retail industry has seen a significant shift towards organised retailing through large-format retail chains spread across the country. This trend has enhanced the need for technology solutions to meet the various challenges that arise owing to the massive scale of operations. A key challenge retailers face is developing new point-of-sale and inventory management systems to improve control over pricing and promotions and streamline execution across the chain of stores. Earlier, retailers relied on advertising in traditional media such as television, radio, or newspapers to promote their brands, their stores and their seasonal goods to consumers. However, in the current scenario, as organisations are constantly looking at ways to cut costs, retailers are also focusing on web as a cost-effective platform to reach out to a wider target audience.
The author is Senior VP, Cisco India & SAARC

September 2009
Communications Today: India Hungry for Broadband
Chandan Mendiratta, Vice-President, Service provider-System Engineering, Cisco India & SAARC: Broadband is a growing market. Technology is evolving quite fast. People have realized that once you have tasted broadband then you would want the speed to be as high as possible. ImageOn the current scenario: Currently, the total number of broadband subscribers is 6.62 million as per the latest figures released by TRAI. BB density in March was 0.54. Around 6.5 percent of households overall in the country have internet access, which includes dial-up connections, broadband and so on. Out of these, connections with speed 2mbps and above make up only 3.7 percent of the overall number of subscribers even out of the broadband figures. Compared to anywhere in the world these are very dismal numbers. We are lagging in terms of subscribers as well as speed. On growth drivers: Before we address this question, we have to look at what is actually holding us back. What are the challenges being faced by us? The biggest challenge is in terms of allocation of spectrum. If the allocation for 3G and WiMAX happens on time, then we can expect some spur in activity on the next generation networks roll-out front and therefore, in broadband connectivity. The other challenge we have is in terms of the number of wire line connections in the country, which is rapidly decreasing. From December 07 to December 08 we have lost 1.8 million wire line connections because people are moving on to wireless handsets as they don't see any value-add coming in. The other challenge is in terms of PC penetration. Only 3 percent households in India have a desktop or a PC. So you can't really have a broadband connection unless you have a device which can access that connection. PC literacy rate is also quite low. People have PCs but how many of them are literate in terms of using a PC?

September 2009
Communications Today: Shifting Toward IP
Johnson Varkey, Business Development Manager, Cisco India & SAARC: There is a strong trend toward moving to IP as a platform for deployment of contact center solutions for various business benefits. On current scenario: Strategic outsourcing has caught momentum in the ?Indian market and most organizations especially in the telecom and BFSI space are outsourcing IT operations which also in most cases are beginning to include contact center operations. The established players are into a consolidation and optimization phase in terms of contact center technology deployments to align with business needs of the enterprise. On key growth drivers: The various factors that drive growth in the contact center solutions market are:   Growth of the service industry. Replacement of ageing contact center deployments (TDM call centers). Limitations of existing contact centers. Lowering cost of operations, IP transport, and evolution of reliable IP networks.

24 September 2009
ChannelWorld.in: Cisco Outlines Channel Direction for FY10
Highlighting his priorities for FY 2010 such as growing Cisco's relationship with its partner community and ensuring partner profitability, B Raghavendran, VP- Channel Operations and Commercial Strategy, Cisco India & SAARC, reiterated the vendor's priorities such as building the collaborative channel, partner model transformation and business simplification. Raghavendran said, "As we enter FY10, Cisco will organize the channel around key architectures, segments and business models to provide the thought leadership necessary to position our partners for growth. Working with teams within Cisco, we will evolve our partner programs and incentives to increase Cisco's relevance for all partner types and expand our offer types to meet the needs of our partners." Cisco will adopt a 'Together We Lead' approach where the company is prioritizing resources around the needs of partners to help drive growth, engagement and loyalty, the vendor said. Further, the vendor will focus on orchestrating partner marketing campaigns, resources and enablement around go-to-market strategies and channel priorities, to build partnerships, it said.

24 September 2009
PC's Semiconductor Blog: Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, Government of Kenya and Usaid Launch Joint Project to Enable 21st-Century Education in Kenya Schools
At the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting, Cisco, Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., the government of Kenya and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a joint commitment to improve education in Kenya. Launched in collaboration with Kenya's Ministry of Education, the Accelerating 21st Century Education (ACE) project aims to improve the quality of primary and secondary education through the effective use of information and communications technology (ICT).

24 September 2009
The Economic Times: Urban-Rural Divide in Product Development Necessary
In the telecom sector, as in most service sectors, consumer behaviour and needs dictate development and define trends. Today's consumers expect the telecom industry to provide greater speeds, richer content, wider applications and, of course, ubiquity, propelling the development of mobile broadband. The urban consumer is becoming increasingly tech-savvy and demands more than mere voice services, while the rural user just needs to be connected. Here, a rural-urban divide in product development is necessary, as consumer needs are distinctly different in these segments. Catering to these demands, telecom is moving to the next stage of development in the urban and rural areas. Gartner forecasts that the mobile user base will increase to 737 million by 2012. Connectivity has been the mantra since the advent of globalisation. The evolution and adoption of mobile technology has been overwhelming in India and the present customer base stands at more than 470 million subscribers. The total wireless subscriber base, including GSM, CDMA and WLL (F) stood at 441.6 million in July 2009, while the wired connections totaled 37.4 million, clearly indicating the trend forward. WiMAX and 3G are often understood as competing technologies, but as Vish Iyer, Vice President, Cisco India and SAARC, explains, they are complementary. 3G, with its greater bandwidth over a larger area, is ideal for personal broadband on the move whereas WiMAX would be more suitable for a primary broadband connection as it delivers better speed. WiMAX is a less expensive option as compared to 3G. Given the sky-high 3G prices, the thrust to use broadband for more than just Internet access will gain impetus.

21 September 2009
Mid Day: Big Brother is Watching You in Mysore
Sophisticated cameras will provide live feeds to regulate traffic and control law and order in the royal city. The government is bringing the whole of Mysore city under surveillance using sophisticated day-night cameras. Situated at the control room of the Mysore police commissioner's office, the computer screens provide live feeds of the city's traffic. With a 1-km zoom and a 360-degree pan, these new cameras will be used to enforce traffic regulation and control law and order. "Mysore is an important tourist destination," said N Lakshminarayana, who heads the project, and "the city has also been chosen as a model city."
Features: Fully automated, the system can be given 99 instructions, is weatherproof and can store data for 30-45 days. It also has a "private masking system" that allows certain places to be blurred. But the most important aspect is its night vision, says Lakshminarayan. The system is being funded by the chief minister's Rs 100-crore grant for Mysore. Rs 2.42 crore is being spent on installing the cameras, says Dr N Ramesh, social activist and technical head, Mysore project. "It is good to have surveillance around the city," says Murlidhar N, an IT professional with CISCO who is working on the project. "We had clashes earlier in a communally sensitive area. With these cameras, people will be aware that somebody is watching and chances of getting caught are high."

21 September 2009
Businessworld: Inclusive Economic Development: The Way Ahead for India (657 KB)
The current global recession has affected business in nearly every industry and geographical region; it has also had a wide impact on societies around the world. Taking decisive action to reprioritize during any slowdown is a key focus for companies and countries, and we are all in the process of taking necessary measures that will enable us to adjust to today's reality. It is fundamental, however, that we do not allow short-term challenges to distract us from planning for longer-term opportunities to achieve sustainable growth. Over the last decade, India has emerged as a significant economic force, and with a projected growth of seven per cent for 2010 we are one of the fastest- growing economies globally. In keeping with this optimism, India's 2009-2010 budget focuses on moving towards a faster and more inclusive growth - a plan that seeks to lower poverty by 10%, generate 70 million new jobs, and reduce unemployment by 2.5%.
Naresh Wadhwa, President and Country Manager, Cisco-India & SAARC

17 September 2009
The Economic Times: Connectivity Anytime, Anywhere
In the telecom sector, as in most service sectors, consumer behaviour and needs dictate development and define trends. Today's consumers expect the telecom industry to provide greater speeds, richer content, wider applications and, of course, ubiquity, propelling the development of mobile broadband. The urban consumer is becoming increasingly tech-savvy and demands more than mere voice services, while the rural user just needs to be connected. WiMAX and 3G are often understood as competing technologies, but as Vish Iyer, Vice President, Cisco India and SAARC, explains, they are complementary. 3G, with its greater bandwidth over a larger area, is ideal for personal broadband on the move whereas WiMAX would be more suitable for a primary broadband connection as it delivers better speed. WiMAX is a less expensive option as compared to 3G. Given the sky-high 3G prices, the thrust to use broadband for more than just Internet access will gain impetus.

16 September 2009
Voice & Data Online: Sify Selects Cisco to Help Build Optical Network Across India
Cisco today announced that Sify (Nasdaq National Markets: SIFY) has selected the Cisco® ONS 15454 Multi Service Transport Platform (MSTP) as the foundation of Sify's optical network. The decision is part of Sify's strategy to enhance its existing core network to meet its customers' ever increasing demand for sophisticated network services and to address the rapidly evolving India market. The announcement highlights Cisco's expertise and leadership in optical networking and emphasizes the growing relevance of flexibility, manageability and scalability in service provider networks. Commenting on the announcement, Bill Gartner, vice president and general manager, Cisco Optical Transport Business Unit said, "We are pleased to extend our relationship with Sify to develop and deploy the technologies that would help enable them to provide advanced data network and Internet services to their customers. The ONS 15454 MSTP, the best in class DWDM platform, will let carriers seamlessly carry all of their existing communications infrastructures for voice, video, and data and storage onto a single infrastructure."

15 September 2009
The Financial Express Online: Cisco Expands Global TelePresence Services
Cisco announced major steps in the company's strategy to make Cisco TelePresence accessible to everyone with continued global momentum for intercompany Cisco TelePresence services and the introduction of a new one-screen, one-camera Cisco TelePresence system for multipurpose conference rooms. In less than two years, Cisco has enabled eight of the world's top service providers to deliver intercompany Cisco TelePresence services, extending availability of the technology to more than 150 countries. Intercompany Cisco TelePresence gives businesses the ability to use Cisco TelePresence to meet with key suppliers, customers and partners to improve their competitive advantage, speed the time to market, and foster better collaboration in their businesses. The service providers, AT&T, BT, Orange, NTT, Tata Communications, Telefonica, Telstra, and most recently Telmex, have announced commercial intercompany Cisco TelePresence services, enabling the more than 350 organizations that have already selected Cisco TelePresence to communicate reliably and with high levels of security and across different networks. Cisco has also expanded the Cisco TelePresence product portfolio with a new single-screen, single-camera endpoint for up to two people in a multipurpose conference room.

15 September 2009
CIOL: 3G : Opportunities, Challenges; Are We Ready?
The much awaited third generation or 3G mobile services will soon be a reality in one of the world's fastest growing telecom markets. The advent of this technology has different implications for different stakeholders. For operators and content developers, it means more bandwidth and new growth avenues through mobile value added services; for government it translates into more revenue from license auctions and bigger subscriber tax base; for consumers it allows access to fast data and video speeds, thus enhanced user experience.

14 September 2009
DQ Week: Cisco Looks into Future of Banks
In an attempt to maximize its presence across consumer verticals with the phase of economic recovery setting in, Cisco recently held a demo of their innovative 'Bank of the Future' solutions in Kolkata. Targeting the recuperating BFSI sector, the company is aggressively trying to promote their products and solutions across sectors through their channel sales strategy. Cisco's 'Innovative Branch' solution helps optimizing branch offices of all sizes, allowing companies to customize branch networks to meet their unique business needs across different regions. Speaking over the new product, Amit Malik, VP, Cisco said, "Today, many banks are offering similar financial solutions to its customers. We have come up with a holistic approach to change customer experience in the banks." The Innovative Branch solution intends to help banks increase customer confidence, increase the customer wallet share, increase cross-sell and up-sell success ratio, and increase employee's efficiency and productivity

13 September 2009
Financial Chronicle: We Expect More Business from Government, Public Sector
Cisco India managing director Naresh Wadhwa is a busier man these days with recessionary pressures tapering off. He tells Darlington Jose Hector that government and public sector units will prop up an otherwise lethargic market. Excerpts: A year ago, when you spoke to Financial Chronicle, the recession had just kicked in. How do you assess the situation now from a Cisco viewpoint? Cisco's financial year runs from August to July, and the recession fell right in between. From September the ripple effects of recession started showing, the SME segment started delaying decisions and the election phase slowed down the decision-making processes further. The IT services companies are still continuing to struggle, but it is also possible that they will be the first to come out of this slump. SMEs are continuing to adopt a wait-and watch policy. But the shift will happen from the government and public sector points of view. There will be more business coming from these two sectors. In fact, Cisco hopes to see double the business emerging from these two segments. What kind of business opportunities are you seeing with the government and public sectors? There is this drive to secure citizens, and that's a major initiative. Securing government installations, deploying sensors and indulging in smart analytics are key moves. With government spending increasing we expect that for the next 3-4 quarters, the government and public sectors will be our biggest clients, though I can't reveal the revenues generated from them due to competitive reasons. We are also trying to bring our best practices to this sector, but tailored to Indian conditions.

September 2009
Network computing: Banking on the Future
Ask your parents about their experience at a bank a couple of decades ago, and they're likely to frown upon that question. Serpentine queues, forms to be filled in triplicate, and rude bank staff made people dread visits to the local bank. Well, a lot has changed since then and one rarely visits the branch office. Customers are now more in control of their bank accounts thanks to ATM machines, the Internet and mobile banking services. But should you make that rare visit to your bank in the near future be prepared for an enjoyable and hi-tech experience. Banks are looking at technology to make the customer experience more personal, to increase customer wallet share; to increase cross-sell and up-sell success ratios; to minimize risks and maximize security; and to increase the bank employee's efficiency. To illustrate this, let's consider the example of Cisco's Innovative Branch Solution. The solution comprises discrete IP-based components that are tied together by a network and logically sequenced according to a certain workflow (see illustration). All customers are given a debit/ATM card with an embedded RFID chip. As the customer walks through the bank's doors, a sensor wirelessly picks up the customer's account number and transmits this to an RFID CRM application for analysis. At the same time Application Oriented Networking (AON) technology activates an IP camera that clicks a photo of the customer.

September 2009
Network Computing: How Unified Communications is Transforming India Inc
Forced into taking action by a recessionary environment, Indian businesses are using the transformative power of Unified Communications for multiple activities such as R&D, large deal pursuits, proposal management and even for customer interactions. "UC is a philosophy which unifies all means of communication, instead of working in silos. By breaking these silos, UC tools bring in a synergy that allows organizations to free the communication from the device," says Minhaj Zia, National Sales Manager, Unified Communications, Cisco India & SAARC. The growing acceptance of virtual or teleworkers has prompted vendors such as Cisco to launch a virtual office solution which allows organizations to provide  the same level of connectivity and features seen in a typical office network to home workers. Says V C Gopalratnam, VP (IT) and CIO, Cisco India, "As connectivity links get stable and more bandwidth becomes available, virtual office solutions can totally transform the efficiency and productivity of enterprises." To enable effective collaboration, Cisco has even provided its employees with soft phones installed on desktops and laptops, which can be used to initiate conversations with colleagues. 

10 September 2009
The Hindu Business Line: Connected Retail - Organising the Giant
A look at the role of technology in the development of organised retail in the country. Competitive advantage in the retail industry hinges on the relentless drive to increase productivity, make prudent investments to deliver customer value, and execute precisely to provide consistency and quality. Retail organisations, therefore, continually work to improve the productivity and efficiency of service delivery, while enhancing customer service and satisfaction. Delivering the right product - in the right quantity, at the right location, and at the right price - requires the ability to evaluate, conceptualise and execute. However, challenging economic conditions have led to a drop in customer spending, reduced footfalls and eroding bottom lines. Cost optimisation measures and caution about any additional expenditure is then only natural. But, the one investment that retail units cannot choose to ignore and which, in fact, has the potential to brighten this outlook, is technology infrastructure. Technology is proving to be a powerful resource that can help streamline operations, track merchandise, evaluate purchase history and ultimately delight customers. Anil Bhasin, Senior Vice-President, Western region, Cisco, India and SAARC

10 September 2009
The Times of India: Bangalore's IT Sector Sees Some Big Investments
In what is said to be one of the largest commercial space expansions in South/South-East Asia following the global financial collapse last year, Cisco India is adding two additional office blocks totaling a floor area of 700,000 sqft. This expansion will happen around its 1.2 million-sqft campus located at Cessna Business Park on the Outer Ring Road in Bangalore. While this deal has recently been finalised, sources said Cisco also plans to take an additional 2.2 million sqft of office space in Bangalore in the coming years. Some realty analysts say the 7 lakh sqft expansion is by far the biggest in the commercial space market in this region in the last one year. Cisco declined to say anything on the expansion, but issued a statement that reiterated past positions: "We have designated Bangalore as our Globalization Centre East and indicated that we will have 10,000-12,000 employees based here over the next three to five years. The idea is for 20% of the top talent in Cisco to be based here." Cisco has around 4,000 employees in India currently. The networking major has been amongst the most aggressive MNCs in trying to build a strong base of R&D and support staff in India. Wim Elfrink, Cisco's chief globalization officer, who relocated to India in 2006, was recently quoted by India Knowledge@Wharton as saying: "The Globalization Centre East was established as a second headquarters for Cisco - you can think about it as "Cisco East". We set up this centre to explore how to globalize talent, innovation and growth. The Globalisation Centre is much more than a sales centre or an R&D centre. Every function at Cisco is represented here, at every level, from individual contributor to executive vice president."

07 September 2009
CXO Today: Cisco's Solutions Improves Irevna's Efficiency
Irevna is the high-end financial research and analytics outsourcing division of CRISIL, India's leading ratings, research, and risk and policy advisory company. The company's clients include financial institutions with investment banking operations, insurance companies, asset management firms, and corporates. For clients, spread across the globe, Irevna is an ideal knowledge partner in cutting-edge financial analytics and thought leadership. Irevna's domain expertise, rapid execution and quality output help it maintain deep and engaging relationships with clients. Irevna's business requirements and challenges: Being a technology-savvy enterprise, Irevna uses sophisticated IT solutions. But to help meet its clients' distinct business needs, it required high Internet availability. Irevna has offices and delivery centers at multiple locations where Net connection is provided by different Internet Service Providers (ISPs). This made it difficult to ensure high Internet and mail server availability as well as VPN tunnels uptime. Irevna already had a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)-based network architecture that used a Cisco solution to ensure Internet availability. Nonetheless, it wanted to enable Performance Routing (PfR) across locations; this involved routing Internet traffic along the best performing ISP link across locations.

06 September 2009
Daily Star: National Cisco Skills Competition
Cisco the worldwide leader in networking along with American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) today organized the 2nd National Cisco Skills Competition in Dhaka. The day-long competition saw participation from 47 teams comprising 141 students from across 12 Cisco networking academies in Bangladesh. The three winning teams will represent Bangladesh at the SAARC Skills Competition scheduled for September 2009. At the occasion, Mr. Lokesh Mehra, Regional Manager, Corporate Responsibility, Cisco India & SAARC said, "After the success achieved at first National Cisco Skills Competition held last year, we are extremely delighted to see the overwhelming response from all academies this year. At Cisco, we are constantly working towards nurturing skilled professionals who can add value with their expertise and flawless technical experience in various roles in the IT industry. We believe that this will go a long way in helping to realize the government's vision of Digital Bangladesh."

04 September 2009
The Economic Times: Encouraging Experts
Companies can gain competitive advantage by creating an environment in which Deliberate Practice can flourish, says Professor Frank Shultz
We see many leading international companies implementing practices which allow their employees to engage in Deliberate Practice and thereby develop their level of expertise. For example Cisco has established procedures whereby its employees can actively seek feedback. Without frequent and ongoing feedback - not just annual performance reviews - employees do not know which of their skills are well developed and which skills should be the focus of their development efforts. John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, is widely recognised as one of the most talented speakers in the corporate world, but he did not develop his speaking expertise without the help of Cisco. Cisco has developed feedback systems so its executives can receive feedback on their presentations. Audience members are provided with both paper and online feedback forms that encourage them to evaluate the quality of the presentation they just heard. Cisco executives then work with coaches to review the feedback and improve their presentation skills. Cisco understands that the only way its employees - even its highest ranking executives - can continue to develop their expertise is by receiving frequent and ongoing feedback.

03 September 2009
The Financial Express - SME World: Cisco Has Invested, Globally, $3 Billion from 2004 Onwards, Till 2009 for SMBS (862 KB)
Networking major Cisco systems plans to tap the small and medium enterprises segment, and to help them generate business growth. With a complete range of customized Cisco networking solutions for SMBs across technologies such as routing, switching, security, wireless, voice and video Cisco plans to tap the small and medium enterprises segment. After having spent 10 years in the SMB segment, in an exclusive interview to Monalisa of FE, Kaushik Bellani, Vice-President, Sales - North, Cisco India shares his thoughts.
An overview of the SMB Market today in India
The small and medium market is driven by the levels of imagination of the entrepreneurs. Some of the main verticals driving the market are manufacturing, pharma, retail, finance and insurance

02 September 2009
PC's Semiconductor Blog: Freescale Technology Forum 2009 Re-Inforces Focus on Design Innovation
Freescale Semiconductor is hosting its fifth annual Freescale Technology Forum (FTF) at The Leela Palace in Bangalore. The two-day event, targeted at the design ecosystem, has evolved into a platform that provides attendees the opportunity to learn about the latest innovations in embedded design, engage with industry experts and attend in-depth technical sessions across a wide range of technologies. Over a 1000 people attended the opening session today. The keynote address by Rich Beyer, Chairman and CEO, Freescale Semiconductor was followed by the guest keynote addresses of Mr. Sanjay Nayak, CEO, Tejas Networks and Dr. Anil Menon, President, Globalisation and Connectivity, Cisco

02 September 2009
The Hindu Business Line: Cisco Services Eyes Market in Bangladesh
Cisco Services is eyeing the Bangladesh market to offer services support to e-governance and education projects in the country. Cisco Services provides technical service and consulting support to customers across verticals and is leading Cisco's transformation from being a products' company to being solutions-focused. It offers an integrated suite of IT services to suit the needs of businesses of different sizes and operations. The US-based Cisco's services business is present across locations where it has sales offices and channel partners. In Asia, it is present in India, Sri Lanka and Maldives. The company will soon set up a services depot in Bangladesh that will offer break-fix support. "There is increased action in e-governance and education projects in Bangladesh and we would like to target these areas to offer our services," said Kumar G.B., Senior Vice-President - Services, India and SAARC, Cisco.

02 September 2009
Times Ascent: Corporate Lessons
A teacher/mentor and a student/mentee begin their journey as strangers. But the lessons learnt out of this relationship go beyond just the level of the textbook or business manual, for both involved. After all, learning is a two-way process, right As we celebrate Teachers Day on September 5th, lets meet a few India Inc. mentors /mentees as they share their learnings derived out of their experience of donning both hats at some point of time in their careers. Balaji Kesavraj, head marketing-India , Cisco WebEx: My mentor. My mentor was Naren M P, executive director of Vaspar Concepts Pvt Ltd. Naren always kept saying that people feel like they have too much to do and not enough time and lack of time is blamed for everything from not getting enough exercise, unachieved goals, bad relationships and so on. Through him, I learnt ways to compartmentalise time and work and even honed the art of multi-tasking.

August 2009

August 2009
Network Computing: Emerging Companies Shine at 'Frost & Sullivan' ICT Awards Event
At the sixth annual edition of the Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT Awards, several emerging companies were honored for their outstanding performance in a period of recession. Said Nitin Bhat, Senior Vice President of ICT practice, Asia Pacific, Frost & Sullivan, "Delivery of value rather than a plain product and service offering was the ultimate goal for the award recipients. This value creation was driven by a combination of product and service innovation, business model flexibility, and unwavering focus on the customer." The awards seek to recognize companies and individuals that have pushed the boundaries of excellence-rising above the competition and demonstrating outstanding performance in the ICT industry across the region, for the year 2008. The first timers include Vietnam's incumbent telecom operator VietTel, Thailand's Total Access Communications, Hong Kong-based Tandberg Television and Sun Cellular from the Philippines. A total of 33 coveted titles were conferred to 27 companies in the ICT industry, representing the entire spectrum of enterprise solution vendors, telecom equipment vendors and service providers in Asia Pacific. The award recipients were selected from 85 shortlisted key ICT players, telecommunications companies, and regulatory bodies operating across Asia Pacific.

26 August 2009
The Times of India - Classifieds Section: IT Networking is One of the Hottest Growth Areas - Interview (591 KB)
Amy Christen, General Manager, Cisco Networking Academy, and Vice President -Corporate Affairs, Cisco Systems Inc
How has IT networking evolved as a promising career opportunity in the computer engineering domain in India? Computer engineering has become the buzzword among class XII science students in India owing to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution is sweeping through the country. Parents are keen on investing in a 'computer engineering' seat for their child at a reputed technical institute. So it is not surprising that as per AICTE data, in 2004-05, 31 percent of the engineering graduates in India were computer engineers.

25 August 2009
Mint: HP, Cisco Eyeing Consumer-Level Telepresence
After Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) made a splashy launch of its high-end video conferencing technology called Halo in 2005, and Cisco Systems Inc. swooped in with its own telepresence a year later, the two tech giants have competed intensely with each becoming a leader-one by revenue, the other by deployment. The competition is set to get stiffer now. HP is test-piloting a new video conferencing tool called SkyRoom targeted at middle-range customers, a segment which couldn't take to Halo's steep pricing and veered to other vendors, including Cisco and Polycom. Amid this melange of offerings, Cisco says it has 67% of the global telepresence market share, with 2,300 rooms in at least 350 customers worldwide. HP plans to launch SkyRoom before the year end, positioning it as a professional visual collaboration desktop tool "that's as good as live", says Ross Camp, HP Halo senior marketing communications manager. Even before it is rolled out, SkyRoom has stoked the fire even though it is believed to be not real-time or life-size like telepresence. Now Cisco says it is thinking of consumer telepresence too. " Within 12-18 months we will have presence in the consumer segment, where every high-definition television could become a TP (telepresence),"said Rajesh K.K., business development manager, telepresence, India-Saarc, at Cisco.

24 August 2009
Financial Chronicle: The Future of Banking Will Be Here Soon
Till a few years ago, it was difficult to believe that banking could be on your fingertips. Today, a mobile handset with a connection is all you need to make a banking transaction. Morever, ATMs, net banking and SMS banking has made sure that you don't need to visit a branch for your banking needs. So is that the end of innovation in banking? Not really. Cisco's future bank branch promises to make transactions even easier. Packed with a combination of technologies - including radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, application-oriented networking (AON) solutions, video telephony and digital signages, the bank of tomorrow promises to make interaction simpler and more secure. Headquartered in San Jose, California, Cisco designs and sells networking and communications technology and services. It is in the process of making the future happen. In the not so distant future, as soon as a customer walks into the bank, even before the customer identifies himself, the RFID enabled ATM card would identify the customer to customer service officer at the bank.

24 August 2009
Express Computer: Managed Services Gain Traction in India
Vikram Sharma, Vice President-Service Provider, Cisco India & SAARC talked to Varun Aggrawal about Cisco's Managed Services offering in India.
Can you give an overview of Cisco's managed services offerings?
Cisco works closely with its Service Provider customers to help monetize their investments in technology and enable them to create end-to-end managed services offerings for enterprises and SMBs in India. It helps Service Providers (SPs) through the entire life cycle of Managed Services i.e. envision a service, build the service and market it.

22 August 2009
The Economic Times: We are Growing Faster Than Cisco
From surviving the ups and downs of the HP-Compaq merger in 2002 to heading the new networking business for HP, the journey has been eventful for Marius Haas, Senior VP and worldwide GM at Hewlett Packard. After a fallout with Cisco, the world's largest technology company HP is now trying to compete with the global switching and routers giant. And Marius Haas, who is known for his instrumental role in the merger of Compaq with HP, has been given the role of heading HP Procurve globally from Palo Alto, California. On a recent visit to India, Haas, also a social networking fan (he's there on Linkedin, Facebook et al), talks to ET on HP Procurve's strategy to beat Cisco at its game, his strategy for India and the learnings from the days of the HP Compaq merger.
Excerpts: How is HP Procurve planning to beat Cisco, the world market leader in networking equipment? Earlier the two companies used to collaborate. Right?
Cisco is the largest player in this vertical at the worldwide level and there is no doubt about it. They have some 80 percent of the market. Yes, ex-HP CEO Carly Fiorina also served as a director on the board of Cisco once. But now times have changed. Cisco and HP have had a overlap in portfolio. And we saw them taking some actions, which were in direct competition to us. That dealt a blow to the relationship. We are now competitor to Cisco. We are quite actually bored of them now.

19 August 2009
Deccan Chronicle: 3G Services Are Costly, But Useful (1,992 KB)
Even though the much delayed 3G spectrum auction has been deferred yet again, mobile phone users are already experiencing the 'high' of third-generation (3G) mobile telephony services which have been rolled out by government-owned telecom companies MTNL and BSNL in major cities across the country. Networking giant Cisco says service providers can also deliver Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) that will bring services not yet delivered such as on-demand video content and network-based digital video recorders where the content is stored on the network and streamed to the device. "In addition, content which is typically available in streaming media format on the Internet will be available for viewing on television. IPTV will also bring the integration of video streaming with conferencing capability, and interactive TV applications which will provide users with a much richer experience than they have today," VP-Service Provider of Cisco India & SAARC Vish Iyer said.

19 August 2009
Cellular News: Cisco Systems and Avaya Sued for Visual Voicemail Patent Infringement
Klausner Technologies says that it has filed suit against Cisco Systems and Avaya, for alleged patent infringement. The lawsuit asserts that Cisco's and Avaya's Visual Voicemail services infringe Klausner Technologies' Visual Voicemail patents. Klausner Technologies currently has 24 Visual Voicemail patent licensees, including major U.S. and European wireless service providers, cell phone manufacturers, cable/VOIP providers as well as other providers of Visual Voicemail services. The suit has been filed in federal court in the eastern district of Texas by the California law firm of Dovel & Luner

16 August 2009
The DQ Week: Is IT Really on Lease?
Imagine a scenario where you have the option of choosing a rental solution from leading car maker Ford Motors to meet your travelling requirements. The company gives you the option of driving a Ford Icon on rent for a given period of time and then exchange it for a Ford Endeavour on grounds such as technology becoming obsolete. Gautam Munish, Country Manager, Cisco Capital said that technology has a weird life-cycle- it becomes cheaper and better as time goes by At times, SP's finances are limited. Hence, vendors like Cisco extend their support to partners by funding the entire project. "We look at the entire network infrastructure and if there are some non-competing and non-Cisco keys, that also impart functionality to the entire project then Cisco funds it," stated Munish.

14 August 2009
4Ps: Digital Ads! The Game of Changers (920 KB)
Advertising, the time tested yet not fully explored marketing communications medium has undergone a meteoric shift over the past few decades. From being a simplistic tool to create awareness, it has become one of the most creatively charged sought after media that marketers use to influence buying decisions of consumers. Burgeoning competition, consumerism and macro trends like globalization, have driven businesses to innovate this age old marketing tool to drive their brand strategy and core business objectives and also to out-do their closest market rivals.
The article is authored by Amit Sinha Roy, Head- Marketing, India & SAARC, Cisco

12 August 2009
Mint: Cisco Gets Set to Make Buildings Intelligent
It was a leap of faith for Cisco Systems Inc. to announce its first business unit outside the US in Bangalore in February when chief executive John Chambers visited the city. Now with the converged building systems, or CBS, unit ready to roll out products, Cisco says it has brought its technology closer to the market it intends to serve, which evidently is also the market where maximum urbanization is likely to happen. In July, Cisco announced its smart connected buildings initiative, which is about integrating information technology (IT) into buildings to optimize energy use. With 76% of all electricity used going towards running buildings anywhere in the world, multi-billion dollar business opportunities beckon technology providers, particularly the early starters. Both the commercial and residential building spaces are worth $12 billion (Rs 58,080 crore) each, says Sandeep Vij, vice-president and general manager of the CBS unit at Cisco Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd. In fact, he sees "smart+connected communities" as the "birth of a new industry".

12 August 2009
The Times of India: India's 15 Biggest IT Companies - II
HCL Technologies At no. 8 is HCL Technologies. The company grew by 41% to clock revenues of Rs 8,764 crore. The biggest highlight of the fiscal 2008-09 for the company was its acquisition of UK-based Axon for which it pipped rival Infosys technologies. The $658 million Axon buy was the biggest acquisition in the history of Indian IT. The company said that the acquisition was the part of its Blue Ocean strategy, which aims to expand in high-potential areas with low competition. Cisco Systems At no. 11 is Cisco Systems. In its 14-year history in the country, for the first time Cisco recorded single-digit growth. The company grew by mere 4% to record revenues of Rs 6,084 crore. During the year, the company increased focus on the SMB market by launching 0% finance schemes. It also entered into an agreement with EMC and RSA to build security solutions. The company also signed a deal with TCS to help customers build next-gen data centres. The company which claimed to have added some 850 people during the fiscal made India the launch pad for its Global talent Acceleration Program in Asia Pacific.

08 August 2009
Business Standard: The 108 Business Plan
No less aggressively than he had built Satyam, Ramalinga Raju built an emergency healthcare provider called EMRI, starting in his home state of Andhra Pradesh. In this extract from The Satyam Saga, Latha Jishnu looks into the origins of EMRI, the allies Raju assembled and the roots of his philanthropic works -as well as the problems that quickly grew to endanger his vision. Science, information technology, global best practices in management, ideas that had the potential to touch a very large number of people - all these had to be integral to the social enterprises that would interest Ramalinga Raju. An emergency medical service (EMS) along the lines of 911 in the United States and 112 in the European Union was one such idea, and he nurtured it carefully. He was impressed by the emergency services available in these countries and decided to set up a comparable facility in India. True, India had the semblance of an emergency response system - 100 for police, 101 for fire and 102 for ambulance- but these were government services that worked erratically and independently of each other. Ramalinga Raju wanted a coordinated service like 911 for Andhra Pradesh (population: 82 million) that would be free and accessible through a toll-free number that had instant recall among the people. It would be "a symbol of every citizen's Right to Safety", and he used a Peter Drucker quote to explain why he and his brothers had plumped for this project: "Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things." "EMRI was a business plan from the very start," says a hospital management expert who joined the institute immediately after it was launched and spent three years with it. "The idea was to develop systems that could be adapted and marketed to other developing countries as end-to-end solutions." As early as February 2007, EMRI had spent Rs 1 crore on TEMCON, an international convention on transforming emergency management that was intended to showcase the organisation's sophisticated operations. The turnout at the conference was disappointing, says the ex-employee, but the trajectory was clear. Then in October that year, John Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco, made a stunning announcement during his visit to India. Cisco and Satyam Computer Services, he said, are "collaborating to explore a new venture that will optimise, deploy and manage solutions for handling medical distress situations and health management solutions for global markets". A press note issued by Cisco said the combination of Cisco's technologies with Satyam's processes and software application would help to build "a model that can be replicated across even the neediest parts of the world. The elegance of this model lies in its modularity and the scalability that internet protocol supports, together with a robust process framework which will enable services to be rolled out in a phased manner globally."

08 August 2009
Expressbuzz.com: Is India Really Ready for IPTV?
For long, the good old television has been the focus of technology companies. Early efforts such as Microsoft's Web TV attempted to bring the Internet to the TV. But in recent years, the focus not only is on bringing television to the Internet, which is to say enabling telecasts via the Net, but also on marrying the two for enhanced user experience. In many countries, the so-called Internet Protocol Television, better known by its acronym IPTV, is already popular with millions of users. But it has yet to make a mark in India even though leading telecom providers took an early leap of faith in the technology. Reliance Infocomm, Bharti Tele Ventures and the state-owned BSNL have rolled out services in the last year or so but so far none has been able to build a significant base of subscribers. In the final analysis, as Cisco's Chandan Mendiratta says, "broadband penetration is important for the future of IPTV in India," and unless that makes rapid advances, success is far from guaranteed.

07 August 2009
CIOL: 100GbE: Cisco to Wait for Mkt to Be Ready
Not long ago did Juniper Networks and Alcatel Lucent announce their foray into 100Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) router interface space. Now when the networking industry is pepping up for 100GbE, how can Cisco, the one who tested the first router interface a year back, be left behind?! Let's us hear it from Chandan Mendiratta, VP, System Engineering, Service Provider, Cisco India & SAARC, on Cisco's plan with regard to 100GbE router interface card.
CIOL: When can the networking industry expect an announcement with regard to 100GbE router interface card from Cisco?
Chandan Mendiratta: Cisco does not comment on future products. That being said, we were the first to demonstrate 100GbE interface on a router more than a year back, in June 2008. We showed this interface on the CRS-1 on Comcast's production DWDM network over 300kms. Also, Cisco is committed to a standards-based 100GbE solution. Cisco has actively taken leadership roles in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) and Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) to define the future standards and continue to drive innovation and development through close collaboration within the community of vendors and service providers.

05 August 2009
OneIndia: Two Indian Teams Among Finalists of Cisco Developer Contest
Cisco has announced the 10 shortlisted teams from Phase 1 of Cisco's global Developer Contest - 'Think Inside the Box' - which includes two Indian teams. The shortlist of teams for the final phase was from nearly 110 teams and 900 registrants from 75 countries. These ten teams will vie for 3 winning positions at the end of the final phase. This global developer contest gives developers an opportunity to build exciting Linux-based applications on the Cisco Application Extension Platform (AXP), and win a share of the US $100,000 prize pool. Suresh Kumar, Gopinath Bailur and Gokila Sudarshan, members of Team Ideate, and among the 10, have created an Application Suite for IP Telephony (ASIT). This suite is designed to bring savings to organizations by blocking unauthorized voice calls and reducing network operational costs by automating the telephony installation and verification processes.

05 August 2009
Deccan Herald: Home Office - The New Reality
This is not only beneficial to employees, but also helps firms reduce over-head costs.
Working From Home: The advantage is time saving in commuting. Getty imagesWhen an old friend who had recently given birth to her second child remarked, "I plan to retire in this company (where she is working), I was a little taken aback. Considering her past history of not lasting beyond a year in her previous assignments, I probed to find out why. "Since they are offering me the option to work from home for a few more months now and at my choice later as well, I guess it makes sense to continue here," she explained. This is not the only case in point. Several working professionals are today discovering that the option of working from home works! DH Avenues delves deeper. Working from home needs that the necessary technology and tools like web conferencing are in place. Web conference is an easy way of virtually connecting with a lot of people at the same time. You can 'attend' meetings and even make PowerPoint presentations right from your home. "I work with colleagues based out of numerous countries in multiple time zones, so our meetings happen on a global clock and quite often very late in the night or early mornings. To connect with our offices worldwide using web collaboration solutions. This gives me the flexibility to sit at home and connect with my colleagues on a real-time basis. The biggest advantage this gives me is I am able to maintain my work-life balance although I have meetings on a regular basis well into the night. The advantage is I am at home and at work only for the duration of the meeting and do have to travel and get away from family for a single meeting," says Balaji Kesavaraj, Marketing Head, Cisco WebEx.

05 August 2009
4-Traders: Cisco Revenue Falls But Profit Higher Than Expected
Cisco Systems Inc reported an 18 percent fall in quarterly revenue as customers held back spending on network equipment, but the decline was mostly in line with Wall Street forecasts and its profit was better than expected. Chief Executive John Chambers also said the company saw "a number of positive signs" in its fiscal fourth quarter compared to the previous quarter. "If we continue to see these positive order trends for the next one to two quarters, we believe there is a good chance we will look back and see that the tipping point occurred in our business in Q4," he said in a statement.

04 August 2009
Network Computing: The Blueprint to A Virtualized Business
Ask any old-economy businessperson, and they will unanimously agree that deals are made and broken on nuances of expression, body language, and personal rapport and interaction. In these days of the global enterprise too, there is significant benefit in enabling a workforce with the tools and technologies that empower collaboration and more visual interaction between employees and customers, and within teams. The need to interact in this manner of connectivity is fast becoming a business requirement in today's corporate world where the network has become the lifeline on which a business is run.
Collaboration in the connected enterprise
The growing ecosystem of mobile devices, collaboration technologies, and rapidly increasing broadband speeds in India provides such a strong and seamless web of connectivity that geographically dispersed offices and people of the connected enterprise feel and behave like one cohesive entity. The challenge here, however, is that the applications, resources and the technology backbone that power this level of collaboration need to be replicated across offices and sites to create a truly connected global enterprise. This requires investments of a great magnitude, which would definitely affect the bottom line.
Sumit Mukhija is National Sales Manager - Data Centre, Cisco India & SAARC

04 August 2009
DQ Channels: Trained to Gain An Edge
Partners across India unanimously agree that certification and training programs help them enhance their business focus. Most importantly, it helps them compete for important projects and offer the correct solution. It is in this endeavor that major vendors are keen on enhancing their channel plans and business while providing quality training, certifications and support to channel partners. Arun Dharmalingam, Regional Manager-Channels, Cisco (India and SAARC) said, "To meet customer needs and help capture this dynamic growth opportunity, Cisco has evolved the 'Cisco Channel Partner Program' to help accelerate our partners' growth, differentiate their business, and increase their profitability. The enhanced program enables partners to extend capabilities in order to provide broad, integrated networking solutions, highly specialized solutions, or both."

03 August 2009
Voice & Data: Next Gen Wireless
In less than a decade, wireless LANs have evolved from an interesting idea to an indispensable technology for millions of businesses and consumers. This technology continues to evolve. The latest generation of high-speed wireless LAN solutions, based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Draft 802.11n standard, are now available. Cisco has taken great care to ensure a smooth migration from today's de facto standard and the version that will eventually be ratified, and we expect the differences to be minimal. New Cisco ClientLink technology offers performance improvements to 802.11a/g clients in mixed-mode environments. Cisco ClientLink technology addresses this problem by making sure that 802.11a/g clients operate at the best possible rates. Sridevi Koneru. The author is director and head, wireless networking business unit, Cisco Systems India.

03 August 2009
Express Computer: Taking Video Conferencing Beyond Boardrooms
Today, conferencing is limited to large boardroom set-ups- Delhi office boardroom talking to a boardroom meeting in Mumbai and so on. People have to rush to the room to participate. The market is full of great conferencing technologies that give a 360-degree view of the room, great sound effects, high quality experience, but these are prohibitively expensive for companies to provide to a large number of people in the organization. Then there are lower end web conferencing tools available but these limit the impact of the true conferencing experience.
This is where TelePresence and real presence exist from players like Cisco,Polycom etc.
Another way of using desktop conferencing is through video phones available from vendors such as Cisco, Tandberg and Polycom.
The Cisco Unified Video Advantage is a personal video telephony solution that allows users to place and receive video calls at their desktop. It consists of the Cisco Unified Video software and the Cisco VT camera II, a video telephony USB camera that connects to a PC. "Users can then make calls from their Cisco Unified IP phones using the familiar phone interface, and calls are displayed with video on the PC. With the Cisco Unified Video advantage, video calls are as easy to make as telephone calls, without the complications of room videoconferencing systems or click the mouse", explained Minhaj Zia, National Sales manager, Unified Communications, Cisco India & SAARC

03 August 2009
Express Computer: Webinars Through WebEx
MetricStream, started in 1999, is engaged in providing solutions allied to Governance, Risk and Compliance(GRC) and quality management to various industry verticals like banking and financial sector, IT, healthcare, manufacturing, government, etc.
To leverage the benefits like real time impact and lower costs, arising out of these solutions, the company decided to implement Cisco's WebEx enterprise-wide collaborations solutions.
Cisco's WebEx Enterprise Edition gives customer access to WebEx Meeting Center, WebEx Event Center, WebEx Training Center, WebEx Sales Center and WebEx Support Center.
Cisco WebEx applications are delivered on demand over the MediaTone Network which offers 99.99% reliability and high security

03 August 2009
Express Computer: Cyber Crime's Rampant
In an instance of a cyber crime investigation in India, a police officer was asked to seize the computer of the hacker. What he brought from the hacker's premise was his monitor. In another similar instance, the police officials seized the memory and the CD-ROM drive of a hacker's computer instead taking out his hard disk.
According to Jatin Sachdeva(CISSP, CISA), Information Security Specialist, Cisco India & SAARC, " As with any law, there is a constant need to evaluate relevance and context. Even with cyber crime laws in place in so many places around the world, it has not brought about the end of cyber crime. We believe that there is definitely more that can be done, and more importantly, more stakeholders to be brought into the ecosystem."

02 August 2009
Financial Express: Cisco Nurtures IT Networking Talent in Bangladesh
Cisco the worldwide leader in networking along with American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) today organized the 2nd National Cisco Skills Competition in Dhaka. The day-long competition saw participation from 47 teams comprising 141 students from across 12 Cisco networking academies in Bangladesh. The three winning teams will represent Bangladesh at the SAARC Skills Competition scheduled for September 2009. At the occasion, Mr. Lokesh Mehra, Regional Manager, Corporate Responsibility, Cisco India & SAARC said, "After the success achieved at first National Cisco Skills Competition held last year, we are extremely delighted to see the overwhelming response from all academies this year. At Cisco, we are constantly working towards nurturing skilled professionals who can add value with their expertise and flawless technical experience in various roles in the IT industry. We believe that this will go a long way in helping to realize the government's vision of Digital Bangladesh."

01 August 2009
The Economic Times: Free Flow of IT Parts Import on Cards, Makers Put Up Firewall
The illegal trade in IT hardware in India is a lucrative one. After the end of the shelf life of equipment such as PCs, printers and switches, they are sold the grey market, from where they find their way to consumers, generally first-time buyers. But there is conditional backing for the government's plan from Cisco, the world's top networking gearmaker. "Refurbished gear is a great option for customers seeking affordable high quality solutions if backed by warranty support from the manufacturer and stamp of authenticity," says Cisco India senior vice-president, south, Pramodh Menon.

01 August 2009
Voice & Data: New Network Drivers
Business is for profit. Ownership does not make any sense. That's why global telecom service providers' network and other areas are run by telecom infrastructure companies such as Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent. The managed service deals are creating a new breed of network drivers. Earlier, telecom infrastructure providers used to create their networks for SPs. Following the flood of large outsourcing deals in the past few years, the ownership of running the network is with the vendors. According to Vikram Sharma, head, managed services, Cisco India and SAARC, "In essence, service providers who are battling commoditization of their current offerings leading to declining customers loyalty and shrinking margins, evolve into experienced providers by offering sticky and differentiated services that add strategic value to end customers."

July 2009

30 July 2009
Tele.Net: Vish Iyer (731 KB)
The desire to learn has guided Vish Iyer, vice-president of Cisco India and SAARC's service provider business, throughout his career. He explains, "In the early days of its introduction, I wanted to learn more about the internet. In those days, Cisco was probably the leader in the internet space and telecom majors such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited used to purchase only Cisco gear, since we were the only prominent player in the field. My mindset was to learn all that I could from a company that was pioneering the internet revolution in India."
Vice-President, Service Provider Business, Cisco, India and SAARC

30 July 2009
The Economic Times: Cisco to Develop 6.6 Lakh Sq Ft More Space in Bangalore
This comes as a downpour in Bangalore's realty drought. Multinational networking giant Cisco has cleared the deck for developing an additional 6.6 lakh sq ft office space with a provision of scaling it up to 2.2 million sq ft in Bangalore, making this the largest development plan by an IT major in recent times. More than the realty expansion, the move perhaps signals the fact that the IT industry may be readying to invest on future growth, according to a realty consultant who works closely with many IT companies. Cisco currently occupies 1.2 million sq ft at Cessna Business Park, an operating SEZ developed by Bangalore-based Prestige Group and has a staff strength of around 4,000. The 6.6 lakh sq.ft facility is targeted to be completed by the second quarter of 2012. Once that happens, Cisco will be occupying 1.8 million sq ft, making the India centre its largest outside of the US. In the long term, Cisco's India centre could even touch 3.2 million sq ft. Subash Rao, director-HR, Cisco India, says, "Cisco has designated Bangalore as our globalisation centre East and indicated that we will have 10,000-12,000 employees based here over the next three to five years. The idea is for 20% of the top talent in Cisco to be based here."

29 July 2009
DQ Channels: In Focus Rental Solutions : IT on Lease
Imagine a scenario where you have the option of choosing a rental solution from leading car maker Ford Motors to meet your traveling requirements. The company gives you the option of driving a Ford Icon on rent for a given period of time (say three years) and then exchange it for a Ford Endeavor on grounds such as technology becoming obsolete and also, disposal issues will be taken care of by them. Wouldn't that be a good enough offer for you to grab? The above logic can also be applied to IT hardware/infrastructure/solutions. Given that technology has a short life cycle and keeps evolving, many customers love it when such a value proposition is offered to them. If a customer had the option of availing the benefits of the latest technology at an affordable price for a time period set aside by him, then he will not mind taking up the offer. On the other hand, the onset of the slowdown has forced many a cash rich company to look at their rent model for achieving their business goals. Gautam Munish, Country Manager, Cisco Capital said that technology has a weird life-cycle-it becomes cheaper and better as time goes by. "A Pentium 4 that was available at Rs 60,000 a while ago, is now available at one third of its cost," he opined.

29 July 2009
The CTO Forum: Revolutionising Armed Forces
Defence and Military is a country's national identity and receives significant attention. However, most investments from military forces are made on weapon systems rather than a platform for collaboration which will enable them to truly transform their capabilities. A non-collaborative outlook towards investing in weaponry caused many to be stuck in what can be called, "Modernisation groundhog day", that is, they are caught in a cycle of upgrading their weaponry without gaining much synergy. Some of the reasons as to why this happens include cultural and bureaucratic resistance, the lack of vision on the part of the senior leaders, budgetary constraints, pre-existing long-term procurement commitments, and institutional biases for legacy systems over transformational ones.  Overall, transformation is viewed as too disruptive, threatening to the status quo, expensive and even too extreme. As a result, most militaries are in fact merely modernising, not transforming their organisations. For example, many militaries often buy many new types of military equipment to acquire new capabilities and improve C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) in a general, evolutionary fashion. This does not require much change in doctrine and organisations processes.

July 2009
Communications Today: Integration is the Key
On the current scenario of the routers market
The network router is quickly evolving from a device dedicated to connecting disparate networks to an integrated services devices capable of multiple functions beyond routing. Cisco customers are increasingly deploying integrated services routers or sophisticated network routers that can deliver voice, video, data and internet access, wireless and other applications. By installing a complete solution and managing it centrally, companies are protecting valuable corporate data using multiple types of protection, such as encryption, firewall filtering, antivirus protection, and intrusion detection and prevention.

23 July 2009
The Financial Express: Cities That Run on Information
Earlier this year on March 28, 2009, millions of people across 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries came together to celebrate 'Earth Hour'. Millions of homes, corporate houses, businesses and even global landmarks switched off their lights for one hour, in a symbolic gesture to conserve energy and urge world leaders to fight global warming. Such events make it evident that environment awareness and the demand for eco-friendly action is no longer the preserve of a handful of activists, but is now a much larger concern. The common man is beginning to acknowledge that environment sustainability is imperative not only to improve the quality of life for this generation, but also to ensure that our future generations don't inherit urban spaces, bereft of clean air, water and fuel.
The author is senior vice-president, South & Sri Lanka, Cisco Systems

21 July 2009
Mint: India Becomes R&D Hot Spot as High-Tech Firms Cut Costs
At Microsoft Corp.'s research centre in a leafy lane in India's technology capital, a new generation of researchers is being groomed half a world away from the software giant's sprawling headquarters in Seattle. Complete with bean bags and coffee served in steel tumblers, the centre is helping change the perception that India is no place for top-end research and development (R&D). Staffed with around 60 full-time researchers, many of them Indians with PhDs from top universities in the US, the centre is at the cutting edge of Microsoft's R&D. It covers seven areas of research, including mobility and cryptography. Half of Cisco's core R&D work, including innovations in WiMAX and optical networks, and around 40% of business software firm SAP AG's ideas for processes and product development come from India. WiMAX, short for worldwide interoperability for microwave access, is a telecommunications technology that provides wireless data transmission. "The Indian units are more tuned to the needs of customers in emerging markets. Besides, Bangalore is only a five-hour flight away from three strategic regions: south-east Asia, east Asia and the Middle East," said Aravind Sitaraman, vice-president at Cisco.

20 July 2009
Businessworld: The Branch of the Future (2, 164 KB)
Businesses are reaching out to customers around the world, and many have opened offices in major cities to gain a worldwide presence. As a corollary, branch offices enjoy unprecedented productivity, decision-making authority and innovation, making them an integral part of achieving corporate success. This perception holds true especially in the banking sector, where branch offices are largely responsible for revenue generation and profit making.
Anil Bhasin, Senior Vice President, West, Cisco India & SAARC

19 July 2009
The Hindu: Tools to Help SMBs Stay Afloat and Compete
Dell, Cisco and IBM introduce products to save energy, cost. In the current economic situation, small and medium businesses (SMBs) are relying increasingly on productivity and collaboration solutions as a cost-effective alternative to business travel. Although the SMBs' individual budgets are comparatively small, they understand that IT is critical to their businesses in order to keep them competitive and efficient. IDC, a market intelligence service provider, predicts that by the end of this year, close to 35 per cent of the SMBs will be using some form of video-conferencing to run their businesses. The video-conferencing tools will be built specifically for small businesses, who are concerned about data safety and other aspects. Large organisations are already into state-of-the-art video-conferencing facilities as these are critical while interacting with overseas customers. Pramodh Menon, senior vice-president, South and Sri Lanka, Cisco, says that the company offers a number of products such as networking, collaboration, security, and communication technologies. All of them are targeted at the SMB customers.
Improve productivity : Recently, Cisco announced a suite of products and solutions specifically to address the networking and collaboration needs of the SMBs, which would help them improve productivity and gain a competitive advantage while minimising the time spent on managing technology. These products and solutions are under the umbrella solution-packs of Cisco Small Business Pro and Cisco Smart Business Communication System. These are backed by a host of service & support and financing offers.

18 July 2009
Currentitmarket.com: Cisco Focuses on Proliferation of ICT Educational Initiatives Across Orissa
Cisco, the worldwide leader in networking, today highlighted the progress made by the Cisco Networking Academy initiative in Orissa since its inception in 2001. In the past eight years, Cisco has tied up with nine institutions in Orissa including leading institutes such as Jaganath Institute for Technology & Management (part of the Centurion Group of Institutes), Paralakhemundi; National Institute of Science & Technology, Brahmapur and Orissa Computer Application Centre, Bhubaneswar to provide world class training on advanced networking technologies. Commenting on Cisco's initiatives, Mr. Lokesh Mehra, Regional Manager, Corporate Responsibility, Cisco - South Asia said, "Cisco believes that ICT plays a vital role in the development of any society. As a catalyst for this development, it is imperative to develop a local talent pool of knowledge professionals in Orissa. In the past few years, our efforts have been focused on penetrating into various districts of the state to ensure that our curriculum is available to students in districts outside Bhubaneswar. The new academies in Sambalpur and Cuttack reflect the success achieved in this direction."

16 July 2009
The Financial Express: Sify Tech Signs Up with Cisco to Launch Managed Services in India
Sify Technologies, a leader in consumer Internet and enterprise services in India with global delivery capabilities, announced today the launch of Managed Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) (a high performance telecommunications network) and Managed Internet Service as part of the Cisco Managed Services Channel Program (MSCP). This service is the first of a series of Managed Services that Sify Technologies plans to launch over the next two years. The Managed MPLS Service will provide world-class solutions with end-to-end service assurance to enterprises for their business critical networks. The services are a part of Sify's strategy to migrate from Time Division Multiplexing to Internet Prootcol based network services and introduce a full suite of Managed Services for Indian enterprises.

15 July 2009
The Financial Express: Cisco and Tata Communications Collaborate to Take Wireless Road in Gurgaon
Cisco and Tata Communications announce that the companies have teamed to promote the Digital Lifestyle for consumers at home and on the go. The two companies have decided that as a first step they will work together on a series of joint promotions to show the benefits of going wireless to consumers in the Gurgaon district. A specially-built mobile van, equipped with Linksys by Cisco home networking solutions and enabled by Tata Communications' wireless broadband services will travel to residential areas in the Gurgaon locale, and highlight the ease and freedom offered by going wireless and the benefits of a connected lifestyle.

15 July 2009
Dataquest: Conquering the Downturn
Leasing provides the option to reduce upfront investment allowing businesses to spread the cost of equipment and services over several years. The ongoing global economic crisis, which began from the financial markets, has spared no segment of the Indian economy, be it the biggest conglomerates and corporate establishments or the small and medium businesses (SMBs). While the large corporates have been very vocal about their liquidity concerns and are collectively pursuing their demands with financial institutions, it is our country's SMB sector which has had to bear the brunt silently. With a size of more than 7.6 mn businesses, it was this sector that was at one point taking the country's economic prowess to newer highs. It is indeed sad to see that today the sector is struggling to find its feet.

14 July 2009
The Times of India: Rise of IT MNCs in India
Over the years, India has emerged as the R&D hub of IT companies globally. There is no technology giant that does not have a R&D centre in the country. These R&D centres tap into the country's vast pool of skilled manpower and help their parent companies to churn out world class products and technologies. Over the years, India has taken several giant steps in becoming the hub for innovation. IT MNCs are increasingly delegating projects of strategic importance to their development centres in India. India's stature as R&D hub is further established by the fact that many of these global leaders have set up their largest R&D centres outside their country of origin in India
2006 : In 2006, networking giant Cisco established its Globalisation Centre East in Bangalore. According to Chief Globalization Officer Wim Elfrink, the focus was to tap intellectual talent, growth opportunities and innovation. So far, the company has filed more than 600 patents from India. In the same year IBM announced its plans to invest nearly $6 billion in India over the next three years. The announcement further underlined the country's growing importance as a global hub for information technology expertise.

13 July 2009
The Hindu Business Line: Small is Big Draw
Small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) find that differentiation is the key to business success, and creating efficiency is critical to their operational excellence. Hence, says US-based Cisco, a networking equipment and network management provider for the Internet, it has renewed its focus on SMBs. It is offering them technology solutions that are business-led and solutions-driven rather than just product-focused. Its combination of mobile van marketing campaign along with easy financial aid has worked well for the company in reaching out to SMBs in tier-II and III cities, says Cisco. Delivered largely through its partner network, this focus enables SMBs to stay abreast of technology, according to the company. (Cisco defines an SMB as a company with 200 or less personal computers.) N Raj, Vice-President, Sales-South, Cisco India, shares details with eWorld.
Technology adoption: The SMB is the fastest growing segment for Cisco in India. SMBs are maturing to the point of seeing inherent value in IT investments.

13 July 2009
Financial Chronicle: Cisco to Focus on Small Businesses
Communications and IT solutions provider, Cisco is eyeing the small and medium businesses (SMB) to boost the managed services offerings. The managed services space is witnessing a lot of competition with companies looking at outsourcing the network management to cut cost. Vikram Sharma, business lead-managed services, Cisco India said the company is strongly focusing in the SMB space. He said financial institutions and education sector are the other areas that are witnessing significant attraction. "SMB space is underserved. But we see a shift now, where SMBs are looking at outsourcing the services and we want to take this opportunity," he said. According to research firm Forrester, the total addressable managed services opportunity in India will be worth $8.27 billion by 2013, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19 percent. Managed services is expected to be a $190 billion market by 2013 worldwide.

12 July 2009
The Hindu: Go for green IT strategy
It needs wise design solutions to minimise energy consumption. Hardware can be tweaked by using higher quality silicon. On the software side, use single operating system. Thinking green is not a choice anymore, and technology is no exception to this rule. So can the large, wiry entangled server that holds the reins to your entire network help arrest global warming? Yes, certainly. When digitisation rendered the office paper-free, greens rejoiced, only to soon realise that mammoth servers and networks that run the show are but huge energy sinks. While a large amount of research has concentrated on mainframes and server data centres, what about the networks that connect our systems? Increasing energy use and related costs have left technologists scrambling for solutions that are energy-efficient, let's say "green." But how much difference can these micro readjustments really make? Quite a bit, it seems, and this goes much beyond the four walls of a data centre. Take networking firm CISCO's Connected Real Estate (CRE) that connects an entire estate through an inter-operable building management solution over an IP backbone. In simple words, the network running your elevator, alarm system and your water pump will possibly be integrated. 

09 July 2009
Reuters: Multinational Companies Expand Tech R&D in India
Global technology companies are stepping up their research and development work in India. Here are some of the things they have been doing:

• MICROSOFT: Microsoft employs 1,500 people at its Indian R&D center. It started off with 20 people about a decade ago. Some of the work for key Microsoft projects such as its search engine Bing and the upcoming Windows 7 operating system was done in India.
• CISCO SYSTEMS: Cisco has filed more than 600 patents from India.

09 July 2009
Reuters: Timeline-The Rise of Multinational IT in India
Multinational companies have been setting up information technology operations in India for more than 20 years. Following are some highlights of the move:

• 1988: Intel starts its Indian operations by setting up a sales office in Bangalore.
• 1989: Hewlett-Packard begins R&D work in India.
• 1993: Oracle, one of the first multinationals to set up an Indian back-office operation, launches a wholly owned subsidiary in India to develop its software programs.

2006:

• Cisco establishes Globalisation Centre East in Bangalore
• IBM announces plans to invest nearly $6 billion in India over three years, underscoring the country's growing importance as a global hub for information technology expertise.
• German software maker SAP says it will invest $1 billion over the next five years in India to expand operations and double its headcount.

09 July 2009
Reuters: Allure of R&D Draws Tech Giants to India
As the world prepared for the launch of Intel's server processor Xeon 7400 last September, engineers in Bangalore - dubbed the Silicon Valley of India- were putting the finishing touches on what would become the company's best-performing server chip yet. The chip was designed end-to-end by Intel Corp's digital enterprise group in Bangalore. Increasingly, the Indian arms of multinational tech giants are working on global brands such as Microsoft Corp's search engine Bing, its upcoming Windows 7 operating system and Google Inc's Map Maker. In 2006, Cisco established its Globalisation Centre East in Bangalore for, among other reasons, "its proximity to 70 percent of the world's population within a five-hour flight," said Chief Globalization Officer Wim Elfrink."The focus is to tap the intellectual talent, growth opportunities and innovation," said Elfrink, who is based in Bangalore and reports to CEO John Chambers. So far, the company has filed more than 600 patents from India, Elfrink said. India's R&D labs are second only to the United States for many of these technology firms.

09 July 2009
Business Standard : Cisco Eyes Bigger Pie in Edu, Manufacturing Sectors
Networking and information technology giant, Cisco, expects a bigger share of business from education and manufacturing sectors and is in the process of customising new solutions for its clients. So far, banking and financial services (BFSI) has been Cisco's main revenue driver. Kumar G B, senior vice-president - services of Cisco, said, "A large number of our clients going forward would be the new IITs and IIMs, and other technical universities especially in the North East. Their basic requirement is campus connectivity, building technology-savvy laboratories, and training products."
Note: Post Kolkata interaction

07 July 2009
The Hindu: Semiconductor Firms See Big Opportunities
Semiconductor companies in India, many of which have been adversely impacted by the economic crisis, see hope for the sector in the proposed Unique Identification Project. The allocation of Rs. 120 crore for this smart card-based project will not only benefit those directly involved in the project but also result in the wider use of smart card technologies. President of the Indian Semiconductor Industry Poornima Shenoy said that the project will boost the domestic chip design industry. "Depending on the type of chip used and extent of back-end automation, the total demand for chips for the semiconductor industry could be up by approximately $ 1 billion over the period of the project (five years)," she explained. Naresh Wadhwa, president and country manager, Cisco-India, points to the UID and the formation of a Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) in Bangalore to process electronically filed tax returns which will enable effective delivery of public services through public private partnerships. Jaswinder Ahuja, corporate vice-president and managing director, Cadence Design Systems, feels it will set the tone for future public-private partnerships as well. "Apart from establishing a foundation to deliver better governance it creates new opportunities for the semiconductor sector."

07 July 2009
IndiaTechOnline: Union Budget: Reactions to Actions
There is a story about a former Chief Minister of the state of Karnataka - whose capital, Bangalore was then, slowly morphing into the national's infotech capital.
Cisco: Naresh Wadhwa, President and Country Manager - India and SAARC
On the face of it, the budget put forth by the government is positive and focuses on inclusive development. It is encouraging, especially the fact that there is a thrust on infrastructure development, rural development, education and social welfare. The impetus to infrastructure development - both urban and rural - is a highly visible and much welcome component of this budget. Leveraging technology as a tool for accountability, better governance, in business and administration is a step in the right direction. The allocation of funds for e-governance investment schemes like the unique identity number for every Indian and the formation of a Centralized Processing Centre (CPC) in Bengaluru to process electronically filed tax returns will enable effective delivery of public services through public private partnerships. The increased budgetary provision for the scheme 'Mission in Education through ICT' will help take the benefits of IT to the grass roots in a critical sector like education. The 'Aam Aadmi' i.e. individual tax payer will definitely appreciate the abolition of Fringe Benefit Tax and raised exemption limit for income tax."

06 July 2009
The Financial Express: New Age Services to Citizens
In the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit, the Prime Minister expressed his desire to intensify reforms and development in the areas of energy, security, infrastructure development, agriculture, transportation, science and technology and education. The outlook provided by the Union government is positive and we seem to be heading in the right direction. The message is clear: the emphasis is on growth and development. The Indian economy has displayed robustness and has been one of the better performers in the world in recent years. However, driving growth in times of recession is a challenge for the government at the moment. For India to move ahead in the global economy, the need of the hour is incentives that will attract more investments and create a cascading effect resulting in growth and inclusion. Large corporates too have realised the need to appreciate and address the growing demands of the local market. According to the IDC India report, the share of the IT services and ITeS for the domestic market is expected to rise from 31.7% in 2008 to 41.9% in 2013, signaling the increasing focus of enterprises on local market needs. The new phase of growth will see IT vendors helping enterprises and government design and deliver 'new age' services to citizens by leveraging their existing IT infrastructure.
Naresh Wadhwa, President and Country Manager, Cisco India & SAARC

03 July 2009
VarIndia: Cisco Introduces Highest Level of Certification
With many existing certifications focused on point technologies, architect-level certifications bring together project management, business needs analysis. Responding to strong customer and market demand to recognize the architectural expertise of network designers, Cisco today introduced the Cisco Certified Architect, the highest level of accreditation achievable within Cisco Career Certifications. Advanced technologies such as Cisco Unified Communications, Cisco TelePresence and mobility are converging and increasing the opportunities for innovation and collaboration while adding to the complexity of enterprise networks. According to IDC," With many existing certifications focused on point technologies, architect-level certifications bring together project management, business needs analysis, and IT elements into a true solutions framework and validate a candidate's ability to address planning, design, interoperability, and connectivity issues."

02 July 2009
Businesswireindia: DFJ and Cisco Announce Husk Power Systems as Winner of Global Business Plan Competition
Team will Receive $250,000 Investment from DFJ and Cisco to take Alternative Power Technology to Next Level. Leading global venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and Cisco today announced Husk Power Systems as the winner of their first co-sponsored Global Business Plan Competition for university and business school students. Husk Power Systems designs and operates miniature power plants that convert rice husks into electricity, serving off-grid rural Indian villages. The team will receive a $250,000 investment from DFJ and Cisco to help take the company to the next stage. This is the first time the competition was aimed at a global market and hosted in six countries, a milestone made possible by both DFJ's Global Network and Cisco TelePresence^TM. Cisco TelePresence enables live, face-to-face collaboration through a set of advanced technologies and seamless network communications experience. Sixteen finalist teams across the globe presented business plans from their local TelePresence suite to a panel of San Jose-based judges composed of venture capitalists from DFJ and its Global Network Funds and executives from Cisco's Corporate Development team.

02 July 2009
The Financial Express: Budget Cues
It is going to be a tough balancing act for Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as he gets ready to present the Budget. He has not only to come up with policies to kickstart the demand, but also to make sure that the fiscal deficit of 6% of GDP does not increase further. For Corporate India, the forthcoming Budget raises higher expectations than the previous budgets. "The extension of the tax holiday beyond 2010 for at least three more years would enable the Indian IT sector to compete with other countries globally. These incentives should especially help the small and medium businesses, a key growth sector that accounts for 40% of the exports from software technology parks," says Naresh Wadhwa, president and country manager, Cisco India and SAARC.

02 July 2009
Express computer: Security Beyond Guns, Guards and Gates
Leveraging IT to secure the physical infrastructure will allow lives to be saved while bringing down the overall cost of securing the infrastructure. In recent years, terrorists have moved beyond targeting busy markets and cramped trains, to attacking luxury hotels, malls, hospitals, schools and office complexes. In the aftermath of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, both the government and private sector have increased their spending on surveillance. They are charting out new plans to tackle emergencies and deploying new disaster management initiatives. City surveillance has emerged as a key concern. The heightened security climate has led to the increased consumption of security products. The security market is growing at a 20-30% annually. As per an Assocham repot, the security industry should reach Rs 50, 000 crore by 2011; it was an Rs 22, 000 crore industry as of December 2008. Companies are likely to increase their security budgets by 35-40%. According to Frost & Sullivan, the CCTV cameras and systems market was worth Rs 525 crores in CY 2008. Suprabhat Chatterjee, VP Infrastructure & Physical Safety & Security, Cisco India & SAARC, said, "Cameras have been there for a while but the market is transitioning from analog to digital IP systems. The concept of network as a platform is driving IP technology deployments. People are shifting from just prevention to making the system disaster proof. You need the network as a platform to integrate all of your key assets and then tie them back to the various responding agencies like the fire fighting system, ambulance, emergency response vehicles etc."

June 2009

30 June 2009
Mid Day: Thinking Beyond IT
While IT czars are asking for sops to help revive the ailing industry, some experts believe IT will recover only when the rest of the manufacturing sector does. Even though the Prime Minister has asked the Finance Minister to come up with a budget for the aam aadmi, but still the IT industry hopes to get some benefits from the budget, which will be presented this Friday. Saiprasad Rao, CEO of Digant Technologies, feels that it is not possible for the IT industry to recover on its own. IT will need support from the manufacturing sector especially the auto industry to improve. "The government should provide a stimulus to make the whole industry grow. IT cannot stand on its own because it depends on other industries," he says. Will he swing IT? Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will present budget on Friday. Naresh Wadhwa, president and country manager (India and SAARC), Cisco, also echoes these thoughts. "A tax holiday incentive being introduced for the infrastructure sector at large, for power projects, and other large-scale development initiatives, would increase commitment from the industry leaders in these spaces to play more active roles," he says.

30 June 2009
CXOToday: Cisco Introduces Highest Level of Certification
With many existing certifications focused on point technologies, architect-level certifications bring together project management, business needs analysis. Responding to strong customer and market demand to recognize the architectural expertise of network designers, Cisco today introduced the Cisco Certified Architect, the highest level of accreditation achievable within Cisco Career Certifications. Advanced technologies such as Cisco Unified Communications, Cisco TelePresence and mobility are converging and increasing the opportunities for innovation and collaboration while adding to the complexity of enterprise networks. According to IDC, "With many existing certifications focused on point technologies, architect-level certifications bring together project management, business needs analysis, and IT elements into a true solutions framework and validate a candidate's ability to address planning, design, interoperability, and connectivity issues."

26 June 2009
The Financial Express: Mobile Advertising Market to See 55% Y-O-Y Growth
Analysts say 22% companies are expected to increase their mobile advertising spend in FY 2009 as compared to 15% companies that did so in FY2008. Telecom and FMCG sectors are investing around Rs 20 crore to Rs 35 crore on this medium to communicate their product messages in rural areas. Deval Parikh, chief officer, handsets, value added services and procurement, Virgin Mobile (India) said, "The year-on-year growth of mobile digital advertising market is expected to be 55%. Digital advertising is still in a nascent stage in India and brands are in the experimental stage with a focus to reach remote areas. " Digital advertising space grew by about 74% in 2008-09 to reach Rs 680 crore and is expected to be Rs 5,390 crore by 2011. Of Rs 680 crore, wireless application protocol based advertising was about 30% of the mobile ad market, while opt-in SMS contributed 10% of the market share. Chandan Mendiratta, VP, service provider-system engineering, Cisco India & SAARC said, "With increasing mobile penetration in India, mobile digital advertising will be critical in reaching rural audience. Cisco is developing a new network-centric approach that allows real-time market segmentation enabling mobile operators to gain new revenues in the mobile advertising space. "

23 June 2009
CXOtoday.com: India Needs More Incentives: Naresh Wadhwa
Talking on the lines of Pre-budget 2009, Naresh Wadhwa, president and country manager, Cisco had the following to comment. "The Indian economy has been one of the better performers in the world in recent years. However, driving growth in challenging times is the agenda of the government at the moment. For India to lead the global economy, the need of the hour is incentives that will attract more investments and create a cascading effect resulting in growth and inclusion. The extension of the tax holiday beyond 2010 for at least three more years would enable the Indian IT sector to compete with other countries globally. These incentives should especially help the small and medium businesses, a key growth sector that accounts for 40% of the exports from software technology parks"

22 June 2009
Express Computer: Integrated Services Routers and Gigabit Ethernet
Convergence is the mantra when it comes to networking equipment for SMBs. Like enterprises, SMBs are also focusing on using technology to improve efficiency, enable faster decision-making, enhance productivity and increase profitability. Since SMB networks are small without any legacy technology these organizations are on the threshold of adopting the latest technology such as VPN for remote connectivity, MPLS networks as their backbone etc.
Cabling: Cisco Catalyst Express 500 & 520 Series
Features: These switches are designed to meet the needs of growing businesses with up to 250 employees. This family of Layer 2-managed Fast Ethernet switches offers non-blocking, wire-speed performance and provides a secure network foundation optimized for data, wireless, and IP communications. The Cisco Catalyst Express 500 also offers options for Power over Ethernet (PoE) to help reduce the cost and complexity of IP communications and enable new uses for the Ethernet network.
Routers: Cisco 1800 Series Integrated Routers
Features: Products in this family of Integrated Services Routers combine data, security, and wireless services in a single device. This series supports WAN interfaces, integrated WAN backup, wireless networking, voice, security, and VPN. There are seven models with multiple networking options for local or remote connections, offering features that give businesses flexibility for expansion.
Wireless Routers: Cisco Aironet 1130AG Series
Features: it is designed for WLAN coverage in offices and similar RF environments. This access point features integrated antennas and dual IEEE.802.11a/g radios for robust and predictable coverage, delivering a combined capacity of 108 Mbps.

20 June 2009
Dataquest: Build the Building Blocks
Naresh Wadhwa, President & Country Manager, India & SAARC, Cisco
When it comes to IT, what are the most important tasks before the government?

• Acceleration of deployment of telecom infrastructure such as broadband and Wimax
• Deployment of IT in all governance areas including citizen services, security and inter governmental functions
• Extension of STPI scheme and other sops to boost recession-hit exports industry

What, according to you, are the three most important steps that you want from the new government that would help the cause of IT in India?

• Announce a MEGA project to increase broadband penetration for the current level of 6 mn to at least 150 mn by the year 2014 (China is already at 75 mn today)
• Monitor and execute the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) on a mission mode and time bound manner and spend the $10 bn allocated for NeGP without delays
• Use IT for improving delivery mechanism of government schemes and plug leaky pipes

20 June 2009
Dataquest: Cisco Gets Aggressive
During hard times, you run double fast; keeping this mantra in mind, in its three-day Partner Summit, Cisco unveiled one offering after another for various business segments.
Focus on Small Business: Elaborating on the importance of small businesses, Rick Moran, VP, small business networking, Cisco said, Small businesses are essential since 70% of all new jobs that are created worldwide are done in this segment. They are also able to capitalize on economic growth faster than any large company. Adding to that Ian Pennel, senior VP, small business technology, Cisco said, In the small business segment one size does not fit all. That is the reason why we have more than hundred products already available as our offering for the segment. And to add further value proposition for our partners, we are launching these new products under the Cisco SB Pro series and all the Linksys products are being rebranded as Cisco SB products.

20 June 2009
Dataquest: Environment Day Special: Good Enough, Green Enough?
Companies like Cisco offer some beans to count too. Ciscos environment sustainability target is to reduce its absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 and 25% of its emissions in 2007. It also talks about its 2006 Clinton Global Initiative Carbon-to-Collaboration commitment for reducing emissions from business air travel by 10% of the emissions in FY 06. It is using its own network-based collaboration products to cut down on business travel. Even though Ciscos headcount and revenue have increased by at least 40% since 2006, year-to-year GHG emissions from air travel have decreased from 4% in 2007 to less than 1% in 2008, claims the company. Cisco has 480 TelePresence rooms across the world. So far there have been 3,04,037 meetings, of which 56,896 meetings avoided travel, saving Cisco $224 mn. It also claims that its global supply chain management realized over $3 mn in annual cost savings through manufacturing efficiency.

20 June 2009
Dataquest: Tug of War
It is a time when companies are tightening their purse strings where IT purchases are concerned. In such a scenario, the government sector is one area that has not really taken a hit due to the global economic slowdown.
Speaking on the issue, R Dhamodaran, senior VP, channel operations and commercial strategy, India and SAARC, Cisco states, Cisco does its business full-fledged through its partners in India. Partners are the route to market for the company. Each partner, which Cisco has in its ecosystem, has a unique value proposition which it brings to the business not only for Cisco but also for the customer. We invest a lot on partner development in terms of designing programs, not only to enhance the partner profitability but also to help them move up the value chain and make them more focused towards solution selling.

19 June 2009
The Statesman: Outside the Box
Cisco India's Women Action Newtwork creates opportunities for career development, mentoring/ coaching, leadership development, work/life balance and community outreach. The theme of the third annual Cisco Connected Women Leadership Forum was to celebrate women as innovators across different fields and the key objectives were to establish and develop a network of professional women, share perspectives on topics such as women as leaders in technology and as entrepreneurs, expand professional relationships by networking with colleagues and customers and share common interests and collaborate with other women in business and technology. Pallavi Muralidhara, senior manager in IP Communications Business Unit at Cisco, is responsible for a large engineering team working on VoIP soft switch. And she has successfully started the Women Action Network, an ERG which addresses gender based diversity initiative at Cisco India. She has also initiated many career developments and students' focused initiatives and is passionate about training and mentoring. "The Cisco Connected Women Leadership Forum is an initiative of Cisco India's Women's Action Network, which is an internal Cisco employee network, " she says. Launched in November 2004 with the broad vision "to contribute to the strategic effort to enhance Cisco's success in attracting, developing and retaining talented women employees ", Wan's goal is to leverage the talent of Cisco's women employees and create opportunities for career development, mentoring/coaching, leadership development, work/life balance and community outreach. Wan has also focused on networking with the broader women's community. Wan India has more than 350 employees as members. Its activities are strategised and executed by a core team of volunteers spearheaded by Wan leads, with the guidance of executive sponsors and thought leaders. Volunteers develop programmes in line with business guidelines and employee-needs in the context of the local culture. The executive sponsors provide thought leadership, business direction and funding for such initiatives.

18 June 2009
India Knowledge@Wharton: Indian IT Plugs into a Growing Market of Small and Midsize Enterprises
Bharat Goenka, managing director of the Bangalore-based Tally Solutions, is fond of repeating his late father's vision for the organization. In that vision, S.S. Goenka acknowledged only two types of businesses in India: Those that used Tally software and those that one day would. With the recent launch of "Tally.ERP 9," the company's enterprise resource planning software for small and midsize enterprises (SMEs), Goenka believes he has moved a step closer to his father's vision. Only time will tell how many Indian SMEs will become Tally customers. But Goenka's confidence reflects the sector's enormous potential for the adoption of IT. "We estimate that there are eight million SMEs in India that can afford information technology," Goenka says. "Our target is that all eight million must become Tally customers over the next three years." Goenka expects Tally.ERP 9 to drive revenue growth at the company from around US$60 million in 2008-2009 to around US$200 million in 2009-2010. He eyes US$1 billion in the not-too-distant future IT vendors have their own definitions. Cisco Systems, the networking supply and management firm, defines an Indian SME as one with fewer than 200 personal computers. Dell defines it as an organization with fewer than 500 employees. Wipro defines it as an organization with annual revenues of less than US$200 million. The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) quotes the Zinnov numbers in its Strategic Review 2009.
A Vast Market by Any Definition: This ambiguity doesn't trouble anyone. As Ravi Bharadwaj, head of Dell India's SME division, says: "The numbers, whatever they may be, are huge. PC penetration in the country is itself abysmally low (2% to 3%) and so the potential the SMEs hold for IT adoption is simply enormous." According to Pramodh Menon, "Our interest is not so much in the size of the market but more in how we get even a small portion of that market."

17 June 2009
Biztech2.0: Cisco Launches Innovative Branch Solution
Cisco's Innovative Branch Solution aims to offer personalized services to banking customers.

15 June 2009
DQ Channels Online: Cisco Gets Aggressive About Small Businesses & UC
'During hard times, you run faster to keep pace,' keeping that mantra in mind, in its three-day Partner Summit, Cisco unveiled one offering after the other for various business segments. Whether it was unified communication or small business, a big solutions provider or a reseller they unveiled products, trainings and new partner programs. The partner summit had something for everyone. While elaborating about the importance of small business (SB), Rick Moran, VP-Small Business Networking, Cisco said, "Small businesses are essential since 70 percent of all new jobs that are created worldwide are done in this segment. Also SBs are able to capitalize on economic growth faster than any large company." Adding further Ian Pennel, Sr VP-SB Technology, Cisco said, "In the SB segment one size does not fit all. That is the reason why we have more than 100 products already available as our offering for the segment. And to add further value proposition for our partners, we are launching new products under Cisco SB Pro series and all the Linksys products are being rebranded as Cisco SB products." The new Small Business Pro line-up includes the ESW 500 Series switch and the SPA8800 IP Telephony gateway, which allows customers to connect their open source IP PBX to existing analogue phones and fax machines.

13 June 2009
Outlook Business: A Green Evolution
Indian companies are feeling the pressure to go green, as many of their Western counterparts are building environmental sustainability into their business practices. For example, Wal-Mart, which annually imports over $3 billion in goods from Indian suppliers, recently asked them to adopt green practices or risk losing the retail giant as a customer. For Indian companies, there are other compelling reasons to develop environmentally conscious practices. As leading companies know, going green, if done right, helps companies bolster their fortunes
Committing To Green: While going green can prove a critical source of competitive advantage, it's easier said than done. To achieve real fi nancial benefi ts, Indian companies, like those elsewhere, need to follow certain key practices. Above all, they must commit to a green philosophy and incorporate environmentally sustainable practices into their product lifecycle and supply chain operations. In order to go green, a company's senior management and employees must believe in the philosophy, and commit themselves to implementing it. For example, at Cisco, CEO John Chambers and team are pushing in various green initiatives such as 'let's talk Cisco green', bike-to-work day, preferred parking for hybrid cars, educational videos and green websites. These programmes have helped Cisco build a sustainable culture and formulate a strong green policy. Leading companies in India are also committing themselves to the green cause. For example, Wipro recently launched Eco Eye, an ecological sustainability initiative that, among other things, ensures that the firm does not do business at the cost of ecology. Wipro is increasingly focusing on energy efficiency and effective e-waste management.

12 June 2009
Deccan Herald: What Makes Women Innovative?
Their capability for multi-tasking and ability to work around a problem has perhaps made women more innovative than men at the workplace, says L Subramani after attending a women entrepreneurs' meet held recently. Women entrepreneurs held a discussion on innovation in business at the conference. Watching a group of women leaders discuss how they fashioned their careers and business opportunities, some of which were virtually non-existent a decade or two ago, you tend not to question the female sex's innovative qualities. Sure, there are stories galore of how homemakers would make sumptuous dishes fashioned out of limited stocks in the kitchen in a crisis. But put them in any challenging position, women are quite capable of repeating the magic. Hemu Ramaiah fancied doing her own business aged just 20, at a time when girls of her age would have felt contended with a job and a happy married life. What more, she had a 'template' of how her business should progress and when exactly she would press the exit button "In the mid 1980s (when the idea of starting Landmark was taking shape), 60 per cent of books you would see in the stores were textbooks," Hemu told her audience at the Cisco Women Action Network conference held recently. "That was something we wanted to change through Landmark. Indeed, in the most trying of economic circumstances (during the balance of payment crises) I was abroad searching for the most unusual of titles with the hope that it would fetch me the money when people start looking for it in my stores."

11 June 2009
The Financial Express: Cisco Adds to Media-Enabled Home with New Linksys
Cisco announced the Linksys by Cisco Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router (WRT320N), designed for consumers to create a media enabled network at home. Equipped with Cisco's media optimized networking technology, the WRT320N is a great choice for families that demand more from their wireless network. Streaming a movie wirelessly into your living room becomes reality with this latest addition to Cisco's consumer wireless networking portfolio. The router comes with Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) support. WPS is an optional certification program from the Wi-Fi Alliance that is designed to make devices on wireless local area networks more secure and to make the set up as easy as possible. The WRT320N features a button that enables consumers to add additional devices to their network by simply pushing it and the corresponding button on the other certified product.

11 June 2009
The Financial Express: Scaling the Mobile Internet
Over the years, we have witnessed how Internet, especially the advent of Web 2.0, has brought about a paradigm shift in the way we think, feel and go about our lives. Compelling applications like Blogspot, Facebook and Youtube have led to a dramatic increase in user-produced content, further magnifying the power of Internet. A recent research by JuxtConsult estimates that over 32 million people in India use the Internet daily to shop online, check prices of products, look for jobs or simply connect with their friends and family. This despite the fact that Internet penetration is largely restricted to urban areas! (Of the 47 million Internet users, 39 million are based in urban areas, while only 8 million reside in the rural.

10 June 2009
CIOL: Cisco 'Innovates' for Future Banking
Cisco, the global leader in networking, today announced its Innovative Branch solutions that aims to optimizes branch offices and customize branch networks to meet their unique business needs. Cisco's Innovative Branch Solution (CIBS) intends to help banks increase customer intimacy and wallet share, raise cross-sell and up-sell success ratio along with increase in staff's efficiency and productivity. Overall, it focuses on creating the next generation customer experience for the bank customers. CIBS comprises Self-service: Convenience Banking, Premium Banking, Personalized Multi-media Marketing and Remote Consultation and collaboration with the virtual banker for effective cross-selling. Either the bank can deploy the full solution or can pick the required module as per the requirement. Purely, the solution is designed for cash-less transactions in branches of banks and it works on IP-based networks. According to Anil Bhasin, senior vice president - West, Cisco India and SAARC, the relationship of Cisco with the BFSI sector has been as a networking vendor providing routers and switches, which is more on the back end from the technology perspective.

10 June 2009
Communications Today: Higher Profits through Unified Communication
On the current scenario of the voice solutions market
VoIP, in India is a unique market especially to services offering price advantages to users. The top Indian enterprises are bridging the gap of market understanding and capturing any possibility. VoIP is growing at a phenomenal rate globally and is picking up in the Indian market.
On the growth drivers of the Indian voice solutions market

• Increase in adoption of converged networks by corporate
• Fall in communications costs (local and international) through other devices (landlines, mobiles etc.)
  
• Increase of traffic minutes within and from India

Customers are looking at unified communications to improve their business processes which results in higher revenues and profits. Minhaj Zia, National Sales Manager, Cisco India & SAARC. "Although IP is being accepted as the next wave in communication across all enterprise segments, some of the key industries that are first movers include IT/ITeS, BFSI, government and manufacturing."

09 June 2009
CXO Today: Cisco Connects the Assam University
Established in 1994, Assam University provides higher education to students via a multidisciplinary approach. A teaching-cum-affiliating university, today the university has nine schools covering disciplines such as social sciences, humanities, languages, life sciences, physical sciences, technology, environmental sciences, information sciences, and management studies, with 29 departments under it. Additionally, it has 51 undergraduate colleges under five districts.
Plan: Due to the non-availability of technical expertise, Assam University constituted a technical committee comprising senior scientists at the university, solution vendors, and other experts who prepared a roadmap or a consulting bill of material. Since there was no existing infrastructure, the technical committee visualised a campus wide network that would enable students and faculty to access the Internet and Internet based resources. The LAN would offer secure, uninterrupted connectivity and security to department members. The aim of the deployment was to ensure better communication between the various departments as well as fast data transfers.

09 June 2009
The Financial Express: Draper Fisher, Cisco Plan Global Contest for Students
Early-stage venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and Cisco announced that each company will utilise its extensive global reach to jointly launch a global business plan competition for students aimed at fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. The competition will rely on Cisco TelePresence, which enables collaboration through a live, face-to-face network communications experience, to allow finalists from around the world to present their business plans in real time to a joint panel of DFJ and Cisco executives based in San Jose. For the past four years, DFJ has held only regional competitions.

08 June 2009
The Hindu Business Line: Recession Should Not Narrow Focus
During a downturn, it is common for top managers to narrow down their focus to what they think is essential to running the business. But it pays to do the opposite and do more, says Ron Ricci, Vice-President, Corporate Positioning, Cisco Inc. "In any organisation, operational efficiencies and innovation drive growth. In times like this (recession), many think that a focus on operational efficiencies should take precedence over innovation. But you need to do both," said Ricci while speaking on collaboration at a CEO round table organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry in Hyderabad.

08 June 2009
The Economic Times: India Inc Goes Green to Save More
Green is the new black as Indian companies step up their efforts to turn environment-friendly and cut costs thereof. Power savings, density computing, virtualisation, accurate air-conditioning and cheap printing are some of the measures being adopted by enterprises to save both on their costs and, of course, emission levels. Small is all the more beautiful it can help being cost-effective. Cisco is discovering that by reducing the font size in its product manuals. Cisco now saves $1 million in printing costs and 22 million sheets of paper annually by just reducing font size. Other big move by Cisco is converting paper manuals to CDs, thus saving 2.7 million sheets of paper a year

08 June 2009
The Times of India - Bangalore edition: Telepresence, New Corporate Cost Cutting Tool
The airline and hotel industries have been hit hard by the global economic slowdown as corporates cut travel budgets. But their proverbial loss has spelt gain for another sector: makers of video gear. Rather than getting executives to travel on work, companies are increasingly choosing the cheaper alternative: telepresence. Telepresence is the next-gen videoconferencing technology. Marketers claim that unlike the poor quality of image provided by an ordinary videoconferencing machine, telepresence provides far superior images. Companies like Polycom, Hewlett Packard (HP), Cisco, Tandberg and Tata Communications are cheering the healthy demand for their telepresence solutions, as it brings down travel costs by 30%. For instance, Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest private sector employer that has more than 1.4 lakh employees, notes in its annual report of 2008-09 that the cost of overseas travel have been reduced after it increased videoconferencing. What also makes the trend attractive is that it has a green side--the reduction of a company's carbon footprint. Executives of IT companies are responsible for high rates of carbon emission among corporates as they fly most frequently Cisco's Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior, on the screen, addresses the audience Telepresence technology at the launch of Connected Women Leadership Forum at the Cisco Globalization Center campus in Bangalore, India, Wednesday, May 27, 2009. Cisco is a supplier of networking equipment and network management for the Internet.ings are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to telepresence ROI. Today,the time saved by not travelling is more valuable than dollars saved."Polycom is the world's largest conferencing equipment maker.

06 June 2009
Voice & Data 100: Reason to Rejoice
TelePresence - With growing awareness came increased adoption, as seen in the 62% growth clocked by the segment. The audio video segment seemed to have escaped the wrath of the economic showdown. Total revenue stood at around Rs 230 crore in FY 2008 - 09 up 62% from Rs 142 crore in FY 2007-08. Polycom with the largest market share of 43.5% remained the top performer in the Indian AVC segment. The company saw most of its business coming from oil and gas sector. Tandberg followed Polycom with a market share of 15.2%. Cisco with 10.5% market share was the third leading performer in this segment. Cisco's revenue came from the TelePresence business, where it was the top performer. Cisco installed more than fifty TelePresence units in FY 2008-09. But with video being sensitive to bandwidth, there are a lot of issues which have surfaced in India. Even Cisco's TelePresence requires a minimum of 224 Mbps to run smoothly as against 512 Kbps for video conferencing. Cisco claims that AVC in the coming years will see three-dimensional holographic meetings replacing videoconferencing. Three - dimensional holographic conferencing will be first used at large expositions and conferences, and would later trickle down to enterprises.

06 June 2009
Voice & Data 100: Sustaining Tough Times
WLAN - The segment managed a 28.6% growth, which is attributed to cost advantage of wireless network access and security. The acceleration of enterprise adoption of WLAN technology is radically transforming, the network edge, datacenters and centralized data control. WLAN serves as a boon to organizations as it helps in saving wiring and maintenance costs by providing wireless mesh technology at the network distribution and access layer. According to VOICE&DATA estimates, the current WLAN market stands at Rs 270 crore in FY 209 - 09 as compared to Rs 210 crore in the FY 2007 - 08. Despite the economic downturn, revenue has managed a 28.6% growth, which is attributed to cost advantage of wireless network access and security. Though there is a negative growth of -2% in the revenue of Cisco for FY 2008-09, the company retained its leadership position in the WLAN segment. Cisco recorded revenue of Rs 90 crore in FY 2008-09 as against Rs 91.8 crore in FY 2007-08. And a market share of 33.3%. technology additions have dominated market trends during the last fiscal. Cisco has announced its new 802.11n access points, the Aironet 1140 Series, Wi-Fi certified 802.11n Draft 2.0 platform that expands Cisco's portfolio of next generation wireless solutions.

06 June 2009
The Hindu Business Line: IT Cos Increase Focus on Green Initiatives
For an increasing number of corporate organisations the world over, it is making sense to go green. India's IT sector is no exception. Not surprisingly, as a recent report by the United Nations Environment Programme observes, investment in green energy ($140 billion) in 2008 was higher than that in gas and coal-based power generation ($110 billion). More than 80 percent of electricity used by US-based computer networking equipment maker Cisco Systems Ltd's European operations is renewable. In the US, about 32.5 percent of their operations come from hydropower, wind and biomass projects, Cisco said. The company expects to reduce its absolute greenhouse gas emission by 25 percent by 2012 based on its 2007 baseline emissions.

05 June 2009
Mid Day: Environment: IT Should Do More
Too much talk backed by too little action means that many companies speak about the environment but do precious little about it, say researchers. The environment is a serious topic and so I thought I would start with something that, while not exactly a joke, is at least semi serious. While looking for cartoons on this topic, I came across an illustration that explained why the best efforts fail when we try to go green. This cartoon depicted two people looking at a lot of chopped trees, with one of them telling the other, 'they had to cut down all the trees to print all the bailout money needed to create green jobs to save the environment'
Holding that team meeting online would be the first step to saving our planet. Rich-media web collaboration tools (data, audio and video sharing) render this experience as interactively rich as a personal meeting - Kiran Datar, MD, Cisco WebEx Communications.

04 June 2009
DQ Channels: Cisco Unveils Partner Stimulus Package
Acknowledging the importance of channel in their scheme of things, at the annual Cisco Partner Summit in Boston, the company unveiled a slew of initiatives and made additions to some of its channel partner programs. Starting his keynote by summing up the events of last year Keith Goodwin, Senior VP-Worldwide Channels, Cisco said, "What a year it has been from the last partner summit to this one. The current economic scenario has made us shift all our priorities on to the partners and the result of which is the 'Navigate to Accelerate' initiative. As part of the initiative Cisco will focus on four key things-finance, customer base, future and changing needs." Among the slew on announcements that Goodwin made, the one that got most cheers was the financial stimulus package that Cisco announced under which not only will Cisco help its partners in managing their credit and cash flow but will also provide its select partners with enhanced credit period.

04 June 2009
The Hindu Business Line: Cisco to Invest $2 Billion in Modi's GIFT
Coming out of the shadows after almost a year, the contours of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious Rs 73,000-crore Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) project have started emerging in a big way. The state government has roped-in American networking and technology giant Cisco Systems as one of its strategic partners. "We have signed an MoU with Cisco to make an investment in GIFT today and help us evolve our technology platform. The American giant is likely to invest over $2 billion in the project," a top government official of GIFT said. Cisco is also expected to pick up some stake in the project. However, the details are still being worked and it will take about three-four months to finalise the deal, the official added. When contacted, a Cisco spokesperson declined to comment on any investment-related or stake-related matters.

04 June 2009
Mint: Women in Multinationals: 25% in India, 43% in China
The percentage of women in multinational companies in India is just 25% compared with 42.9% in China, a study has found. In the four countries where the Gender Diversity Benchmark for Asia study was done, the proportion of women in multinationals across junior, middle and senior management levels was the lowest in India. The proportion of women employees in Japan and Singapore is 33.8% and 43.8%, respectively. The study-conducted by Diversity and Inclusion in Asia Network, a part of the Hong Kong-based non-profit Community Business-had a small sample size of 11 multinational firms, including Microsoft Corp. Cisco Systems Inc. and Standard Chartered Plc. It was presented at a conference on Wednesday. Women's participation in the organized workforce in India is lower than in the other countries due to historic, traditional and cultural reasons, says Subash A.K. Rao, director of human resources at Cisco's India arm. "They (the other countries) have had their women participate in the organized workforce earlier than us (Indians). It is a journey... and we are only going up."

04 June 2009
The Economic Times: Different Cloud Computing Standards a Huge Challenge
The lack of agreement on standards may put the best technology bet to cut costs at the disposal of Indian companies in these tough times - cloud computing - under the cloud. Even as the technology, that moves applications on the Internet cloud - hence called cloud computing -has caught the imagination of enterprises, there are signs of thunderstorms brewing within competing cloud solution providers. Cloud computing helps save enterprises 30-60 percent of their technology spends. Savings occur as companies don't have to invest in hardware or software but buy services, like unified communications, which could cost as low as Rs 2,000 per user per month. In a bid to control their turf, the various companies offering cloud computing like Amazon, Salesforce, IBM, Google, Cisco and Microsoft have come up with their own standards for the cloud, making interoperability of applications from multiple vendors a challenge "Seamless transfer as in mobile communications is required for the cloud to work. With multiple developers, it's much like various tributaries, which will converge to form a river. Most of the effort is like tributaries now, without common standards convergence will be tough," says Kiran Datar, managing director, Cisco WebEx Technology Group.

03 June 2009
Channelworld.in: Cisco Revamps Services Channel Program
Cisco has revamped its managed services program and launched new financing and rebate offerings as part of efforts to better support global partners. Speaking at the Cisco partner Summit in Boston, senior vice-president of worldwide channels, Keith Goodwin, positioned services as the major area of growth for partner profitability, along with customer opportunity. The vendor has aligned its services program into three areas: Outsourcing, Managed Services and Resale. Goodwin said the overall structure, incentives and rebates will be consistent with Cisco's traditional product-based partner programs. The aim was to make it easier for partners to be rewarded around services, as well as to reassure them that Cisco would not compete for services dollars, he said.  

02 June 2009
Express Computer: The Convergence Mantra
Unified communications (UC) is enabling companies to change the way in which they communicate and collaborate both within the company and with their customers and partners. Along with collaboration, it promises to change the way people work, increase productivity, and foster greater collaboration. Having emerged from the convergence of several existing communications and IT markets including a range of telephony features and functions, e-mail and calendaring, instant messaging (IM), presence, audio, and video and Web-conferencing UC in India is transitioning from being an ill-defined buzzword to a business must-have. The scope is tremendous. "Cisco is tapping verticals such as banking, retail, healthcare, and manufacturing, apart from the IT sector, which has been one of the early adopters. We are combining UC solutions along with wireless and security for enhanced productivity and business benefits. Our technology vision is to make the network the platform for business collaboration and a rich end-user experience by embedding intelligent applications and information systems into the network itself." Said Minhaj Zia, National Sales Manager - Unified Communications, Cisco India & SAARC.

02 June 2009
Express Computer: Cisco Expands Security Offerings
Cisco has extended its product portfolio by adding new solutions, strengthening network security infrastructure and the delivery of cloud security services. Today's business applications, social media, software-as-a-service and wireless technologies are gaining widespread adoption and are leading to new interactive business models. These models are jeopardized by threats that are just as novel and agile. According to the company, the new Cisco security offerings will incorporate new threat defense products and services that will help customers protect against attacks, malware and botnets, no matter where they connect and communicate.

01 June 2009
Express Computer: Cisco Introduces Unified Service Delivery for Service Providers
Cisco Unified Service delivery is a solution that helps service providers build a foundation for cloud services, while they transform the delivery of consumer and business applications to any place and device Rajesh Chainani, Country Director-Service Provider at Cisco mentioned that in the past there had been no synergy between the network and data centre (backend) but now through this service Cisco was bringing about the synergy between these two.

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November 2009
Business World: Creating an Integrated Infrastructure (780 KB)
The industrial revolution was built and sustained on infrastructure such as rail, roads, and telephone lines, paving the way for new cities and new connections for people and businesses around the globe. Today, much of it is being driven by the global network - everything is becoming connected. While designing urban infrastructure, for example, we put utilities and infrastructure at the heart of city planning, so much so we cannot imagine the blueprint of a city not including its roads.

09 November 2009
Express Computer: Gearing Up for the Cloud
Cloud computing is rapidly becoming the Holy Grail of enterprise computing, with most CIOs, network managers and IT departments investigating how they can develop and leverage  a cloud strategy. Although cloud computing means different things to different people, true cloud computing provides massively scalable IT capabilities as a service over the Internet, and can offer companies a single point of access to manage and meet their computing needs. When implemented correctly, cloud computing can help companies cut IT and personnel costs, produce a leaner IT environment and create a dynamically scalable infrastructure that lends itself to rapid growth. " On-demand services and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions have become the preferred mechanisms for organizations to better leverage the power of technology. Rather than contend with the endless hassles and escalating costs historically associated with traditional, on premise, hardware and software products, today's on demand services and SaaS solutions enable organizations to more quickly and cost effectively harness technology to achieve their business objective," said Kiran Datar, Managing Director, Cisco WebEx Technology Group.

05 November 2009
The Economic Times: Cisco Forecasts First Revenue Growth in a Year
Cisco Systems Inc. doesn't want Wall Street to interpret its forecast for its first quarterly revenue growth in a year as evidence that the US and other economies are roaring back. A slow improvement in orders is under way but the pace is still slow and the recovery is fragile, executives from the world's No. 1 maker of computer-networking equipment said. Cisco forecast that revenue would grow 1 percent to 4 percent in the current quarter, which ends in January. That would translate to revenue of $9.2 billion to $9.5 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting a decline from last year. Cisco's results are seen as a gauge of how large corporations and government agencies and Internet providers are managing their technology budgets. Rising sales suggests they are loosening the purse strings to buy Cisco mainstays such as routers and switches, which direct data traffic. Cisco's CEO, John Chambers, said orders are rising again after passing a "tipping point" in the downturn this summer.

05 November 2009
The Times of India: 10 Most Attractive IT Workplaces for Grads
Ever wondered which are the most coveted IT workplaces for graduates worldwide? The organisations they aspire to be a part of. Employer branding company Universum recently listed the world's Top 50 most attractive employers. The global rankings are based on the employer preferences of students from US, Japan, China, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Spain, Canada and India. Some 120,000 students from the world's top academic institutions were part of the survey to choose their ideal workplace. Here's over to the 10 most 'attractive' IT workplaces for engineering grads. Cisco Networking major Cisco bags the 13th spot on the list. The company has been one of the most aggressive companies on the technology M&A front. Founded in 1984 by a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University, Cisco's hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create Internet solutions. With more than 67,647 employees worldwide, the company's mantra is to motivate employees for innovation.

05 November 2009
DNA: Cisco to Ride Network to the Cloud
If Howard Charney, senior vice-president, Cisco Systems Inc, is to be believed, it should be a cakewalk to take on IBM and Hewlett-Packard in the cloud, given that it is more network-centric than the rival giants, which are server-centric. He should know. Charney's company, Grand Junction Networks, which was acquired by Cisco, had invented the Fast Ethernet and low-cost switching. The senior advisor to Cisco honcho John Chambers was also the co-founder of 3Com whose breakthrough technologies brought the Internet to the desktop. The comments gain significance in the backdrop of the announcement of the formation of Acadia, a three-way collaboration between Cisco, EMS and VMware on Tuesday for the virtual computing environment (VCE), that will develop integrated cloud computing products called Vblock Infrastrucutre Packages including servers, networking, storage and virtualisation software for data centres. The JV is targeted at a potential opportunity, which according to McKinsey & Co. is upwards of $350 billion annually, half of which goes on capital expenses and the rest on operating expenses. Charney said servers are commodity items and the network is now the factory where customers' strategic decision is being made. And given the fact that Cisco's architecture is network-centric ab initio, it will be much easier to take on companies like IBM and HP, which have been in the data centre and cloud business much earlier. "We believe the future is in the network where the data flow as opposed to compute-flow is the critical path with switching, which is Cisco's core competence, playing a crucial role," Charney said in an exclusive chat on the sidelines of a Business Technology Summit at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here.

04 November 2009
Telecom Tiger: Tata Communications Enters into Tie-Up with Business Travel Management Firm for Telepresence Services
Tata Group company, Tata Communications today entered into an alliance with Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), a global leader specializing in business travel management to jointly offer Tata Communications' Cisco Telepresence Suites across the globe. The services offered under the alliance will be known as CWT Telepresence Suite of services."CWT recognizes the intense pressure corporations are under to contain rising T&E costs and maximize return on investment," said Pauline Quéré, CWT vice president, Customer Product Marketing. "By incorporating telepresence into the full range of products and services in our demand management offering, CWT provides a compelling alternative and solidifies its role as a key partner in helping clients demonstrate measurable return on investment. To that end, we are very pleased to be moving forward with Tata Communications, an industry leader in the telepresence arena."

04 November 2009
Telecom Tiger: Cloud Computing Market Intensifies as Cisco, EMC & VMware Collaborate
Networking major, Cisco along with EMC and VMware joined hands to tap the rapidly growing Cloud Computing environment. The three now claim to be introducing a unique Virtual Computing Environment incorporating the expertise and competencies of the three firms. The forming of the alliance comes a year after the three worked closely on a shared vision related to private cloud computing. The alliance promises that the Virtual Computing Environment coalition will offer enterprises of all sizes an accelerated approach to data center transformation with dramatic efficiencies that promise significant reductions in both capital and operating expenses. As a result, organizations will no longer have to choose between best-of-breed technologies and end-to-end vendor accountability. "Today's announcement addresses our customers' greatest challenges and opportunities in the data center." said John Chambers, CEO of Cisco. "This coalition is about more than technology and partnership. It is about an entirely new and unique approach to the data center that improves utilization, power consumption and security of information, all in a way that lowers the total cost to the customer, not via a box, but with a network-based architectural approach for optimizing virtual resources."

03 November 2009
CXO Today:Retail Has Been a Big Adopter of Wireless Tech
In India, the adoption of wireless technologies is set to grow in a big way. In an interview with Sharon Lobo, Sridevi Koneru, Director/Head, Wireless and Networking Business Unit, Cisco India & SAARC, explains how Cisco plans to tap this market.
In India, how has the adoption of wireless technology been so far? How does Cisco plan to tap this market?
In India, the mobility penetration is at an all-time high. The reason being mobility is multimodality, as it is available through various networks such as GSM, Wi-Fi etc. I see a huge growth opportunity in rural areas if urban services are provided to the rural population. For instance, if a farmer can get access to the latest fair price for his product, he can avoid losses, a businessman can use online banking to carry out his daily financial transactions, a student can access information at his fingertips. One of Cisco's corporate responsibilities is to help build the infrastructure in rural India, which is also a priority for the major Indian telecom operators. Therefore we constantly engage with these telcos to find the right business model, such as a telco setting up kiosks in rural areas to provide Internet access to the villagers or a village entrepreneur running a kiosk and people use the services can pay on hourly basis.

03 November 2009
domain-b.com: Cisco Acquires Set-Top Box Business of DVN Holdings for $44.5 Million
The Silicon Valley networking giant Cisco, continuing with its rapid niche acquisitions, today disclosed plans to acquire the set-top box business of Hong Kong-based DVN Holdings Limited for $44.5 million, to strengthen its operations in China. The world's largest maker of networking and communication equipment, Cisco will pay $17.5 million up front with an additional maximum amount of $27 million over four years based on the achievement of specific sales milestones. Cisco's proposed new acquisition, its seventh this year, is expected to close in the first half of calendar year 2010 subject to standard closing conditions, DVN shareholder approval and regulatory approvals.

02 November 2009
DQ Channels:Cisco Acquires Starent Networks
Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay $35 per share in cash, in exchange for each share of Starent Networks, and assume outstanding equity awards for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $2.9 billion. The acquisition has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies. The acquisition is expected to close during the first half of calendar year 2010, however, the date is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory reviews. Cisco expects the acquisition to be dilutive to non-GAAP earnings in fiscal years 2010 and 2011.

31 October 2009
Retailer: Hi-Tech Retailing (1,809 KB)
Anil Bhasin is Senior Vice President of Cisco India and SAARC. An industry veteran with over 19 years experience in the IT industry, he speaks about Cisco's latest offerings for retail segment.
Retailer: What are the retail solutions Cisco has to offer the Indian consumers?
Anil Bhasin (AB): Cisco's intelligent retail network solutions are tuned to meet the specific needs of retailers and offer comprehensive and scalable networking solutions.

30 October 2009
The Financial Express: Cisco Sees Education link Vital to Digital Era in Bangladesh
Connectivity in education is key to Bangladesh stepping into the digital era, says a top regional official of Cisco Systems, a leading global supplier of networking equipment and network management, reports bdnews24.com. In an exclusive interview with the news agency, Amit Malik, vice president for Eastern India and the SAARC region, said the country needed an 'inclusive growth'-focused objective for going fully digital. It also needed to ensure that the rural areas have the same opportunity as their urban counterparts to access education, he added. Education would open up opportunities for growing in any and every aspect, according to the Cisco official. On the bottlenecks for a growing IT industry, Malik cited poor bandwidth situation of Bangladesh as the major hurdle along with the slow speed of execution of policies. "Also, customs clearance takes long time...it's the highest in this region actually." He also highlighted the need for a rethink of the regulatory framework to open up more spectrums. "Until last year, IP telephony was a strict no-no, but now it's at least open for closed user groups." Malik said that IP telephony was now in the centre of interest in the Bangladeshi market. "And the technology uses low bandwidth as well." Clients were asking for IP telephony with video facility to save time for the congested traffic situation of Dhaka, he added. "High-end video might not be possible for now, considering the bandwidth situation." The Bangladeshi market was, however, growing very fast, in fact "much faster than other parts of this region", according to Malik. He said that Cisco's business grew on an average 30 per cent year-on-year over the last decade. And potential was huge as the current government was committed towards building a 'digital Bangladesh' by 2021. Cisco considered the financial sector of Bangladesh as their key focus.

October 2009
Communications Today: Video Conferencing: Future Calls Abstract
The market is moving from vanilla video conferencing services to high end video collaboration solutions such as Telepresence since it creates a live, face-to-face meeting experience. The total market size for video conferencing in India is estimated at Rs. 190 crore for FY 09-10, registering a growth of 25 percent over the previous year. Endpoints constitute 80 percent of the market with the remaining 20 percent contributed by infrastructure. Polycom emerged as the clear leader with more than 50 percent market share. The second slot was occupied by Tandberg that was placed in the tier two. Cisco, Aethra, Lifesize, and Radvision occupied the third tier. Sony, Actis, Intellisys, Altera, Microsoft, among others made up the last tier. (This classification is based on ADI Media research.) Cisco Systems has agreed to buy Norway-based Tandberg ASA for about USD 3 billion (Rs. 14,400 crore), expanding its push into collaboration technologies that help people work together from different locations. Acquiring Tandberg will not only help Cisco expand its offerings for telepresence but for collaboration technologies generally. Together, they are the second largest player capable of giving significant competition to the leading player, Polycom

30 October 2009
Cisco Focuses On Technology Partners
Being one of the biggest IT infrastructure companies can be quite a task. To maintain such a business one needs a strong ecosystem of channel partners, and solution providers. And that is what Cisco Systems, one of the largest IT infrastructure companies in the world, is doing currently. In a bid to push its partners to do better in the post recession market, the company has created some focused channel strategy .To begin with Cisco is developing what it calls the Advanced Technology Partner segment. A new breed of channel partners, who are really solutions providers, to devise and sell new technology solutions rather than just products. Says B Raghavendran, Vice President, Channel Operations and Commercial Strategy, Cisco India&SAARC, The advance technology partners are niche players, with focused technical skill sets, and customer base. We wanted to develop this segment so that we can push technology solutions rather than simple products to the clients. In fact the client demands are changing. And to address that we decided on creating this partner segment.

30 October 2009
bdnews24.com: Cisco Sees Education Link Vital to Digital Era in Bangladesh
Connectivity in education is key for Bangladesh to step in to the digital era, says a top regional official of Cisco Systems, a leading global supplier of networking equipment and network management. In an exclusive interview with bdnews24.com, Amit Malik, vice president for Eastern India and the SAARC region, said the country needs an 'inclusive growth'-focused objective for going fully digital. It also needs to ensure that the rural areas have the same opportunity as their urban counterparts to access education, he added. Education will open up opportunities for growing in any and every aspect, according to the Cisco official. On the bottlenecks for a growing IT industry, Malik cited poor bandwidth situation of Bangladesh as the major hurdle along with the slow speed of execution of policies. "Also, customs clearance takes long time...it's the highest in this region actually." He also highlighted the need for a rethink of the regulatory framework to open up more spectrums. "Till last year, IP telephony was a strict no-no, but now it's at least open for closed user groups." Malik says that IP telephony is now in the centre of interest in the Bangladeshi market. "And the technology uses low bandwidth as well." Clients are asking for IP telephony with video facility to save time for the congested traffic situation of Dhaka, he added. "High-end video might not be possible for now, considering the bandwidth situation." The Bangladeshi market is, however, growing very fast, in fact "much faster than other parts of this region", according to Malik.

29 October 2009
DQ Channels : A Strategic Approach to Technology Financing
In these trying times, companies that wish to stay technologically advanced must strike a fine balance between acquiring latest technologies and simultaneously safeguarding their capital expenditure budgets. Financing wisely seems to be the key to stay in the competition and succeed. In contemporary business environment, success demands that companies recognize the need to be diligent in utilizing their resources. Regardless of size, businesses are now trying to preserve money, both cash and credit. This places scrutiny on their capital equipment purchases. Companies of considerably large sizes are generally able to raise required capital from financial institutions. They owe this to their strong clout. However, companies in the SMB sector have fewer options for accessing capital. Moreover, they often face resistance from traditional lenders. This sector has been struggling to keep up with market transitions. Options such as financing and leasing are alternatives available for acquiring technology. Financing allows spreading of costs over a period of time with monthly payments. The latter eases cash flow and ensures protection of capital and preservation of credit lines. What makes financing significant in recent times is the fact that businesses are looking out to be more strategic with budget and technology investments. Those in business realize that the decision to acquire technology and services is just as critical as the investment decision itself. In a recent Gartner report, it was revealed that through leasing, the total cost of ownership (TCO) is lowered. This is perhaps because IT hardware and software standards are introduced and companies begin to plan life-cycles for IT assets. This augurs well for SMBs. Gautam Munish, Country Manager, Cisco Capital, Cisco India & SAARC

28 October 2009
Dataquest: Airtel, Cisco Form Alliance
Bharti Airtel and Cisco have formed a strategic business alliance to help drive growth for Indian enterprises. The alliance will combine their strengths and expertise to work together to create and sell a set of products and services including managed data services, hosted unified communications, etc.

28 October 2009
Dataquest: Making Its Presence Felt
Ciscos acquisition of Tandberg would help it strengthen its telepresence strategy and pose a challenge to Polycom. In the midst of an expected recovery from the slowdown, the global IT scenario is undergoing major consolidation. This quarter is perhaps one of those which saw a sudden spurt of mergers and acquisitions globally. With consecutive news of Adobe acquiring Omniture, Dell acquiring Perot, and Xerox acquiring ACS, the unified communications space also sees a major breakthrough. This time it is Cisco that has made a recommended offer to acquire Norway based Tandberg for $3 bn. This acquisition will help Cisco expand its collaboration portfolio to offer more solutions to its customers. What made this alliance possible was the feedback from customers for both Ciscos and Tandbergs high-end collaborative systems and solutions. Reflecting on the offer, Fredrik Halvorsen, CEO, Tandberg believes that customers are adopting technologies across the board from high-end telepresence to desktop and PC applications. The combination of two organizations would even allow to innovate at a higher pace than the companies working independently.

23 October 2009
The Economic Times: Technoholik: Can Delhi Ever Be an Incheon?
When the folks at Cisco called up last month, inviting me to cover a conference on 'Sustainable Cities of the Future' in Incheon, South Korea, I was a bit confused. Firstly, why in the world was a company that mainly makes routers and switches hosting an urban issues conference mainly for Mayoral delegations from around the world? Secondly, why did they think Technoholik would be interested? Well, it seems that Cisco sees itself as an "infrastructure" company and they want to expand the definition of that word - which brings roads, bridges, buildings and electricity to mind - to include IT as a fundamental component. I was still skeptical, but when they assured me that there would actually be live demos, it seemed like it could make interesting viewing for our television show on ET NOW. Cisco had chosen Seoul's twin city as the showcase since Incheon was rebuilding itself for the 2014 Asian Games (it incidentally pipped Delhi in the final round of voting). On arriving at Incheon airport, which serves as Seoul's international airport as well, my mind began to race. How did the city that I had just arrived from, even think that it stood a chance?

22 October 2009
Biztech2.com: Telepresence Wins with Simplicity, Enhanced Ambience
In today's dynamic business environment, the most important benefit comes from having a good communication system. This has led to ongoing adoption of TelePresence solutions among enterprises to facilitate communication among their knowledge workers and increase collaboration with customers and partners across the globe. Rajesh K K, business development manager-TelePresence Systems, Cisco India and SAARC, sheds light on the telepresence industry in an interview with Biztech2.com
What are the recent developments in the telepresence industry?
As convergence brings voice, data, and video onto the same network, new technologies are redefining the rules of collaboration. Today, networks are becoming increasingly scalable and enterprises are realising the benefits of having all the applications on the same network. The real impact of conferencing technology can only be realised when the user's experience is close to a face-to-face meeting, and telepresence in this respect has already started revolutionising room-based videoconferencing services. Solution providers such as Tata Communications and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra have begun offering telepresence services on a pay-per-use basis.

21 October 2009
Biztech2: Cisco Offers Next Generation of Integrated Services Router
To address evolving IT needs around increasingly distributed, collaborative workforces, Cisco has introduced its Borderless Networks architecture and a five-phase plan designed to help deliver services and applications to anyone, anywhere, on any device, at anytime - seamlessly, reliably, and securely.  As the first proof point of its Borderless Networks architecture, Cisco has announced the second generation of its Integrated Services Router, the ISR G2. The Cisco ISR G2 helps businesses and service providers scale delivery of on-demand, networked business services like video and collaborative applications at branch offices. It serves as a natural part of the Cisco Borderless Networks Architecture, which combines the company's routing, switching, wireless, and security technologies into an integrated networking infrastructure. The Cisco ISR G2 offers as much as five times the performance of its predecessor, the Cisco ISR, as per company claims. It boasts of new video-ready architecture and new video digital signal processors, which will be key to delivering medianet capabilities essential to the Borderless Networks experience.

20 October 2009
ChannelTimes.com: Cisco to Focus on Partner Profitability in FY 2010
Nurturing and growing its relationship with its partner community and ensuring their profitability will be the key drivers of Cisco's channel strategy for FY 2010. Highlighting Cisco s priorities for the new year, B Raghavendran, vice president, channel operations and commercial strategy, Cisco India & Saarc, also reiterated several other initiatives such as building the collaborative channel, partner model transformation, and business simplification and optimization, amongst others. Commenting on Cisco's partner strategy for FY 2010, Raghavendran said, "As we enter FY10 and align with our goals for the country, Cisco will organize the channel team around key architectures, segments, new markets and business models in order to provide the thought leadership necessary to position Cisco and our partners for growth. Working closely with other teams within Cisco, we will evolve our partner programs and incentives to increase Cisco's relevance for all partner types - Resale, Technology and Service-led, and expand our offer types to meet the needs of our partners and customers. "

October 2009
Communications Today: Focus on Convergence and Consolidation
The network security market in India is coming of age, largely driven by the businesses recognizing that security should be a prime concern area for them. Organizations are therefore adopting a proactive approach towards embracing security measures as a business imperative. Security vendors and researchers are collaborating more closely on the disclosure of vulnerabilities, so that patches and workarounds can be created before the exploitable information is widely available. Security vendors are also working both together and separately to make it easier to report and discover current security incidents, and to assess threats accurately. Jatin Sachdeva, (CISSP, CISA), Information Security Specialist, Cisco

19 October 2009
The Financial Express: Innovation Knows No Boundaries
Globally, it is the Indian and Chinese governments that have got it right on how big will the scope of the broadband-based business models be, says Cisco CEO John Chambers. So India is high on his agenda as he confirms "20 percent of Cisco's top global talent" will be based here. Clearly bullish on the prospect of a fast recovery from the global downturn, he avers every government in the world (must) clearly understand that the best form of governance is to grow economy and create jobs. Practising that mantra, Chambers is steering the world's largest maker of networking gear with an acquisition drive. The $36-billion company has signed two acquisition deals in two weeks-wireless equipment maker Starent Networks for $2.9 billion and Norwegian video conferencing maker Tandberg for $3 billion. Cisco has spent about $56 billion in 174 deals in its 25 years of existence and enjoys $30-billion cash balance. In an exclusive interview at ITU Telecom World 2009 in Geneva, Chambers summarises his experience of managing through five downturns and narrates his plans of moving into new markets like healthcare and security.
Excerpts: Cisco seems to be aggressive on acquisitions and getting into new markets. What makes you so bullish?
I am optimistic about the economy. It might be early to call it a full-blown bounce-back, but the trends are towards an upturn. You are going to see acquisitions heat up. In the four earlier downturns too, we came out stronger in terms of marketcap and market share and used it to move into new markets. It is important to be realistic and take a look at how much of the downturn is due to economic environment and how much of it is self-inflicted. The second thing is to determine how deep is it going to be and how long will it last. Thirdly, you need to get ready for the upturn and communicate your strategy with your employees, shareholders and customers.

17 October 2009
DNA: Global Tech Sector Trumpets Signs
The calendar says we are well on our way to winter, but for many technology companies, orders are starting to bloom like flowers after a spring rain. Strong and steady improvement, economists say, would suggest that the United States is truly emerging from the Great Recession. Yet if tech spending fades, it would mean that recovery is further off. John T Chambers, chief executive of Cisco, was even more bullish recently, predicting a substantial increase in productivity at American companies driven by investments in Internet software and hardware. "I think we are entering a period very similar to 1997 to 2004, where you'll see a decade run of productivity increases," he said in an interview.

14 October 2009
The Economic Times: Cisco to Buy Wireless Gear Maker Starent for $2.9 Billion
Cisco Systems Inc plans to buy advanced wireless equipment maker Starent Networks Corp for $2.9 billion to boost its product offerings as phone carriers build out next-generation networks. In its second major acquisition this month, Cisco said it would pay $35 a share in cash for Starent, a nearly 21 percent premium on its Monday closing price. Starent shares jumped about 17 percent at mid-afternoon. Analysts said the deal was negative for Cisco's smaller competitor, Juniper Networks Inc, which sells network equipment mainly to telecommunications companies. Juniper shares fell 2.7 percent while Cisco rose 0.3 percent. "Snatching Starent out from under Juniper is an indication of how far Cisco will go to maintain its market share within core networking products," said Avian Securities analyst Catharine Trebnick. While Juniper and others like Alcatel-Lucent SA could put in a competing offer, most analysts said they did not expect this as Cisco's deal is in cash and appeared fair. UBS analyst Nikos Theodosopoulos said the price is almost 40 times Starent's 2010 earnings estimates, a multiple that Cisco has not paid since it bought Webex in 2007.

13 October 2009
The Hindu: Rs. 2,000-Cr. Taxes to Fund Flood Relief
Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa has said the State Government will introduce taxation measures to mobilise an additional Rs. 2,000 crore to help reconstruct villages, build houses, schools, hospitals and roads, and revive agricultural lands damaged in the floods. Addressing a meeting of ministers and senior officials here on Monday, he clarified that the common man would not be burdened with more taxes and that the departments concerned would work out the details in four days. The Government had decided to celebrate Rajyotsava Day on a low-key basis, and this year's State awards would be given away in 2010, he added. Mr. Yeddyurappa appealed to the people to avoid ostentatious celebration of Deepavali as a mark of solidarity with the flood-affected people. He said CISCO Systems Inc. had agreed to build 4,000 houses, a hospital and a school in a place identified by the Government, to help the displaced people.

12 October 2009
The Times of India: Cisco Tool to Uncover Dark Web
Cisco launched software that shines light on potentially troublesome websites hidden in what the US computer security firm dubbed the "Dark Web." Cisco IronPort Web Usage Controls promise to identify as much as 90 percent of "egregious" content that has escaped detection by business IT managers and security applications because of its stealthy nature on the Internet. "The Dark Web is about corporate users inability to see how workers are using the Web," Cisco product line manager Kevin Kennedy told AFP on Thursday.

11 October 2009
Mint: Widening Broadband Reach by 50% can Boost India's GDP: Cisco
India needs to bridge the urban-rural digital divide by deepening broadband penetration by 40-50% if it wants to increase GDP growth, Internet network management firm, Cisco Systems, said. "From a broadband point of view, India is extremely low on the list of technology penetration. You would need an average penetration of about 40-50% in broadband (to be at par with) leading countries like Sweden, Netherlands and Korea. that is the world-wide average," Cisco Systems Inc, Chief Globalization Officer and Cisco Services Executive Vice President, Wim Elfrink said. Elfrink said there was a correlation between broadband penetration and the productivity of a nation. "A ten percentage-point increase in broadband penetration for an average nation results in an acceleration of economic growth of 1.3 percentage point," he said citing a World Bank report. High-speed networks have become part of the basic infrastructure of any country enabling growth. "So, I think the new Government now having embraced the plan for broadband penetration, there would be more and more people connected over the next few years," Elfrink said. As part of the Government's National Broadband Penetration Program (NBPP), HCL Infosystems and BSNL have decided to provide personal computers to rural masses.

07 October 2009
Network Computing: Events: Keynote Speakers at Interop Mumbai: Thought Leadership from the Best Minds in the Industry
The internet of things transforming cities and countries. This keynote will focus on the emerging 'Internet of Things,' looking at how the internet will drive a new approach in addressing real world issues ranging from physical security to transportation, energy and education. Presented by Wim Elfrink, Executive VP, Cisco Services & Chief Globalization Officer, Cisco. Wim Elfrink has dual roles at Cisco. As Chief Globalization Officer (CGO). Elfrink is leading the next stage of the Cisco Globalization Strategy, and as Executive VP, Cisco Services, he is responsible for Cisco Services Worldwide.

October 2009
DQ Channels: Give Your Customers a High 5
When you last met your enterprise customer to learn about his procurement plans, did you come back disappointed when he told you that all purchase decisions are on old? If yes, then take heart. Most of your peers are going through the same phase. In addition, technology also enables an organization to achieve the desired goals. This development should not come as a surprise because enterprise customers across the board are looking at re-evaluating their IT budgets keeping in mind the company's strategies to meet their business goals with minimal fresh investment. ER Ashok Kumar, VP-Services, Cisco India and SAARC pointed out, "UC has the ability to connect organizations in real time using the existing network. Hence, organizations can connect with branches by adopting Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology, based on the pay per service model. In view of the downturn and even otherwise, UC technologies such as video and web conferencing/collaboration can help reduce travel expenses, and enable companies to become eco-friendly."

06 October 2009
Business Standard: SMEs Take to Tele-Conferencing
IT services company Solutions Enterprise Pvt Ltd's offices in Mumbai and Ahmedabad used to be connected with its partner companies in Britain over the Internet and a virtual private network (VPN). However, the quality of communication had always been poor. "The voice quality was unsatisfactory and the entire solution was not very reliable, as there used to be frequent problems in one of the components. Besides, the need for additional features grew over time," says Pratik Patel, director, Solutions Enterprise. To sort it out, the company deployed Cisco's SIP0-based IP phones and Analog phones. "We now operate with more flexibility and ease due to efficient pickup and incoming call features. Conferencing is being used effectively for group discussions and support calls, giving users better control over outgoing calls. Soft clients (Cisco's IP Communicator soft phone, which is a software integrated with Windows PC) are used by key executives, enabling them to attend their calls even while they are on the move," says a happy Patel. Reasons Rajesh K K, business development manager, Tele-presence Systems, Cisco India & SAARC: "SMEs are steadily increasing their exposure in global markets. Thus, we are expecting a lot of business from this sector in the coming year. Their investment in tele-presence and collaborative solutions is likely to take off soon and will continue to grow in the forthcoming years."

06 October 2009
The Economic Times: Bharti Airtel and Cisco Ink Pact to Cater to B2B Market
Bharti Airtel and Cisco today announced a strategic business alliance to create products and services for the small, medium and large enterprises. The alliance would combine the strengths of Airtel's network service and Cisco' Internet Protocol (IP) technologies and expertise to work together to create and sell in a phased manner a set of products and services-including managed data services, hosted unified communications, connected branch services and Cisco TelePresence. Wim Elfrink, Chief Globalisation Officer and Executive Vice-President, Cisco Services, said "building on Indian Government's commitment to rapid broadband deployment of 700 million broadband customers in next five years, we will together create and deliver transformational services for large enterprise and small and medium-sized businesses".

06 October 2009
DNA: Cisco Will Monetise Internet and Desktop Video in India (664 KB)
For Cisco, video is the next big thing. And the recent $3-billion acquisition of video gear provider Tandberg is the icing on the cake that will boost its telepresence strategy and help it sell more routers and switches. Its video drive is also fuelled by video-on-demand and peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P), which will account for over 91% of global consumer traffic by 2013, according to the company's Visual Networking Index. Elaborating on Cisco's strategy in India, the networking giant will monetise consumer video in the country, Rajesh Chainani, senior vice-president of service provider vertical, Cisco India and SAARC region said.  Excerpts:
How does Cisco plan to enhance its video strategy with the Internet growing fourfold by 2013?
Video is the most experiential medium that will change the way people live, work, play and learn. Video is one of Cisco's key areas of focus as the company believes that there will be a video explosion in homes and businesses. Organisations want to implement new video solutions easily, using expertise that streamlines processes, and ultimately maximises their returns on investment (RoIs). Cisco is extending WebEx beyond its web conferencing roots into a shared workplace' that will manage a user's realtime and time-shift communication and collaboration needs entirely- from text and graphics, through to audio and video. The other areas for business video include desktop-video conferencing and video surveillance among others. In the consumer segment, Cisco expects great demand for video-based services. For instance, Cisco is enabling consumers to watch internet videos on the TV and in the future, have a TelePresence chat with relatives and friends.

05 October 2009
Express Computer: Upgrading Network for Improving Efficiency
Through the deployment of Cisco solution, Irevna has been able to address the issues related to the availability of the internet, mail service, and VPN tunnels. Irevna is a high-end financial, research and analytics outsourcing division of Crisil, one of India's leading ratings, research and risk and policy advisory company. The company's clients include financial institutions with investment banking operations, insurance companies, asset management firms and the corporate sector. However, this made it difficult to ensure high internet and mail server availability as well as VPN tunnels uptime. In fact, Irevna already had a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)- based network architechture that used a Cisco solution to ensure high internet availability, nonetheless, it wanted to enable Performance Routing (PfR) across locations and this involved routing Internet traffic along the best performing ISP links across locations.

02 October 2009
The Financial Express: Managed Data Services: A Profitable Option
The small & medium business (SMB) sector in India is now more receptive to information technology than before. About 40% of the more than 7.6 million SMBs are seeking to leverage technology to reduce costs, make processes more efficient and improve employee productivity. This finding of the AMI Partners, in its latest quarterly study, corroborates earlier IDC forecasts that despite the current economic slowdown, SMB IT spending will continue to grow more rapidly than the IT spending of larger firms. This presents a huge opportunity for IT vendors and infrastructure service providers. However, the rapid growth of the SMB sector over the years presents several challenges that need to be addressed to maintain the growth momentum. Two primary challenges are upgrading IT/network infrastructure and finding skilled manpower at affordable cost. Here, simply adding a new application or technology in the organisation only adds to the cost and the need for trained IT staff and security specialists to manage the IT infrastructure.
The author is vice-president-service provider, Cisco India & Saarc

September 2009
Retail Biz: The Digital Dimension
In the last decade, the Indian retail industry has seen a significant shift towards organised retailing through large-format retail chains spread across the country. This trend has enhanced the need for technology solutions to meet the various challenges that arise owing to the massive scale of operations. A key challenge retailers face is developing new point-of-sale and inventory management systems to improve control over pricing and promotions and streamline execution across the chain of stores. Earlier, retailers relied on advertising in traditional media such as television, radio, or newspapers to promote their brands, their stores and their seasonal goods to consumers. However, in the current scenario, as organisations are constantly looking at ways to cut costs, retailers are also focusing on web as a cost-effective platform to reach out to a wider target audience.
The author is Senior VP, Cisco India & SAARC

September 2009
Communications Today: India Hungry for Broadband
Chandan Mendiratta, Vice-President, Service provider-System Engineering, Cisco India & SAARC: Broadband is a growing market. Technology is evolving quite fast. People have realized that once you have tasted broadband then you would want the speed to be as high as possible. ImageOn the current scenario: Currently, the total number of broadband subscribers is 6.62 million as per the latest figures released by TRAI. BB density in March was 0.54. Around 6.5 percent of households overall in the country have internet access, which includes dial-up connections, broadband and so on. Out of these, connections with speed 2mbps and above make up only 3.7 percent of the overall number of subscribers even out of the broadband figures. Compared to anywhere in the world these are very dismal numbers. We are lagging in terms of subscribers as well as speed. On growth drivers: Before we address this question, we have to look at what is actually holding us back. What are the challenges being faced by us? The biggest challenge is in terms of allocation of spectrum. If the allocation for 3G and WiMAX happens on time, then we can expect some spur in activity on the next generation networks roll-out front and therefore, in broadband connectivity. The other challenge we have is in terms of the number of wire line connections in the country, which is rapidly decreasing. From December 07 to December 08 we have lost 1.8 million wire line connections because people are moving on to wireless handsets as they don't see any value-add coming in. The other challenge is in terms of PC penetration. Only 3 percent households in India have a desktop or a PC. So you can't really have a broadband connection unless you have a device which can access that connection. PC literacy rate is also quite low. People have PCs but how many of them are literate in terms of using a PC?

September 2009
Communications Today: Shifting Toward IP
Johnson Varkey, Business Development Manager, Cisco India & SAARC: There is a strong trend toward moving to IP as a platform for deployment of contact center solutions for various business benefits. On current scenario: Strategic outsourcing has caught momentum in the ?Indian market and most organizations especially in the telecom and BFSI space are outsourcing IT operations which also in most cases are beginning to include contact center operations. The established players are into a consolidation and optimization phase in terms of contact center technology deployments to align with business needs of the enterprise. On key growth drivers: The various factors that drive growth in the contact center solutions market are:   Growth of the service industry. Replacement of ageing contact center deployments (TDM call centers). Limitations of existing contact centers. Lowering cost of operations, IP transport, and evolution of reliable IP networks.

24 September 2009
ChannelWorld.in: Cisco Outlines Channel Direction for FY10
Highlighting his priorities for FY 2010 such as growing Cisco's relationship with its partner community and ensuring partner profitability, B Raghavendran, VP- Channel Operations and Commercial Strategy, Cisco India & SAARC, reiterated the vendor's priorities such as building the collaborative channel, partner model transformation and business simplification. Raghavendran said, "As we enter FY10, Cisco will organize the channel around key architectures, segments and business models to provide the thought leadership necessary to position our partners for growth. Working with teams within Cisco, we will evolve our partner programs and incentives to increase Cisco's relevance for all partner types and expand our offer types to meet the needs of our partners." Cisco will adopt a 'Together We Lead' approach where the company is prioritizing resources around the needs of partners to help drive growth, engagement and loyalty, the vendor said. Further, the vendor will focus on orchestrating partner marketing campaigns, resources and enablement around go-to-market strategies and channel priorities, to build partnerships, it said.

24 September 2009
PC's Semiconductor Blog: Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, Government of Kenya and Usaid Launch Joint Project to Enable 21st-Century Education in Kenya Schools
At the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting, Cisco, Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., the government of Kenya and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a joint commitment to improve education in Kenya. Launched in collaboration with Kenya's Ministry of Education, the Accelerating 21st Century Education (ACE) project aims to improve the quality of primary and secondary education through the effective use of information and communications technology (ICT).

24 September 2009
The Economic Times: Urban-Rural Divide in Product Development Necessary
In the telecom sector, as in most service sectors, consumer behaviour and needs dictate development and define trends. Today's consumers expect the telecom industry to provide greater speeds, richer content, wider applications and, of course, ubiquity, propelling the development of mobile broadband. The urban consumer is becoming increasingly tech-savvy and demands more than mere voice services, while the rural user just needs to be connected. Here, a rural-urban divide in product development is necessary, as consumer needs are distinctly different in these segments. Catering to these demands, telecom is moving to the next stage of development in the urban and rural areas. Gartner forecasts that the mobile user base will increase to 737 million by 2012. Connectivity has been the mantra since the advent of globalisation. The evolution and adoption of mobile technology has been overwhelming in India and the present customer base stands at more than 470 million subscribers. The total wireless subscriber base, including GSM, CDMA and WLL (F) stood at 441.6 million in July 2009, while the wired connections totaled 37.4 million, clearly indicating the trend forward. WiMAX and 3G are often understood as competing technologies, but as Vish Iyer, Vice President, Cisco India and SAARC, explains, they are complementary. 3G, with its greater bandwidth over a larger area, is ideal for personal broadband on the move whereas WiMAX would be more suitable for a primary broadband connection as it delivers better speed. WiMAX is a less expensive option as compared to 3G. Given the sky-high 3G prices, the thrust to use broadband for more than just Internet access will gain impetus.

21 September 2009
Mid Day: Big Brother is Watching You in Mysore
Sophisticated cameras will provide live feeds to regulate traffic and control law and order in the royal city. The government is bringing the whole of Mysore city under surveillance using sophisticated day-night cameras. Situated at the control room of the Mysore police commissioner's office, the computer screens provide live feeds of the city's traffic. With a 1-km zoom and a 360-degree pan, these new cameras will be used to enforce traffic regulation and control law and order. "Mysore is an important tourist destination," said N Lakshminarayana, who heads the project, and "the city has also been chosen as a model city."
Features: Fully automated, the system can be given 99 instructions, is weatherproof and can store data for 30-45 days. It also has a "private masking system" that allows certain places to be blurred. But the most important aspect is its night vision, says Lakshminarayan. The system is being funded by the chief minister's Rs 100-crore grant for Mysore. Rs 2.42 crore is being spent on installing the cameras, says Dr N Ramesh, social activist and technical head, Mysore project. "It is good to have surveillance around the city," says Murlidhar N, an IT professional with CISCO who is working on the project. "We had clashes earlier in a communally sensitive area. With these cameras, people will be aware that somebody is watching and chances of getting caught are high."

21 September 2009
Businessworld: Inclusive Economic Development: The Way Ahead for India (657 KB)
The current global recession has affected business in nearly every industry and geographical region; it has also had a wide impact on societies around the world. Taking decisive action to reprioritize during any slowdown is a key focus for companies and countries, and we are all in the process of taking necessary measures that will enable us to adjust to today's reality. It is fundamental, however, that we do not allow short-term challenges to distract us from planning for longer-term opportunities to achieve sustainable growth. Over the last decade, India has emerged as a significant economic force, and with a projected growth of seven per cent for 2010 we are one of the fastest- growing economies globally. In keeping with this optimism, India's 2009-2010 budget focuses on moving towards a faster and more inclusive growth - a plan that seeks to lower poverty by 10%, generate 70 million new jobs, and reduce unemployment by 2.5%.
Naresh Wadhwa, President and Country Manager, Cisco-India & SAARC

17 September 2009
The Economic Times: Connectivity Anytime, Anywhere
In the telecom sector, as in most service sectors, consumer behaviour and needs dictate development and define trends. Today's consumers expect the telecom industry to provide greater speeds, richer content, wider applications and, of course, ubiquity, propelling the development of mobile broadband. The urban consumer is becoming increasingly tech-savvy and demands more than mere voice services, while the rural user just needs to be connected. WiMAX and 3G are often understood as competing technologies, but as Vish Iyer, Vice President, Cisco India and SAARC, explains, they are complementary. 3G, with its greater bandwidth over a larger area, is ideal for personal broadband on the move whereas WiMAX would be more suitable for a primary broadband connection as it delivers better speed. WiMAX is a less expensive option as compared to 3G. Given the sky-high 3G prices, the thrust to use broadband for more than just Internet access will gain impetus.

16 September 2009
Voice & Data Online: Sify Selects Cisco to Help Build Optical Network Across India
Cisco today announced that Sify (Nasdaq National Markets: SIFY) has selected the Cisco® ONS 15454 Multi Service Transport Platform (MSTP) as the foundation of Sify's optical network. The decision is part of Sify's strategy to enhance its existing core network to meet its customers' ever increasing demand for sophisticated network services and to address the rapidly evolving India market. The announcement highlights Cisco's expertise and leadership in optical networking and emphasizes the growing relevance of flexibility, manageability and scalability in service provider networks. Commenting on the announcement, Bill Gartner, vice president and general manager, Cisco Optical Transport Business Unit said, "We are pleased to extend our relationship with Sify to develop and deploy the technologies that would help enable them to provide advanced data network and Internet services to their customers. The ONS 15454 MSTP, the best in class DWDM platform, will let carriers seamlessly carry all of their existing communications infrastructures for voice, video, and data and storage onto a single infrastructure."

15 September 2009
The Financial Express Online: Cisco Expands Global TelePresence Services
Cisco announced major steps in the company's strategy to make Cisco TelePresence accessible to everyone with continued global momentum for intercompany Cisco TelePresence services and the introduction of a new one-screen, one-camera Cisco TelePresence system for multipurpose conference rooms. In less than two years, Cisco has enabled eight of the world's top service providers to deliver intercompany Cisco TelePresence services, extending availability of the technology to more than 150 countries. Intercompany Cisco TelePresence gives businesses the ability to use Cisco TelePresence to meet with key suppliers, customers and partners to improve their competitive advantage, speed the time to market, and foster better collaboration in their businesses. The service providers, AT&T, BT, Orange, NTT, Tata Communications, Telefonica, Telstra, and most recently Telmex, have announced commercial intercompany Cisco TelePresence services, enabling the more than 350 organizations that have already selected Cisco TelePresence to communicate reliably and with high levels of security and across different networks. Cisco has also expanded the Cisco TelePresence product portfolio with a new single-screen, single-camera endpoint for up to two people in a multipurpose conference room.

15 September 2009
CIOL: 3G : Opportunities, Challenges; Are We Ready?
The much awaited third generation or 3G mobile services will soon be a reality in one of the world's fastest growing telecom markets. The advent of this technology has different implications for different stakeholders. For operators and content developers, it means more bandwidth and new growth avenues through mobile value added services; for government it translates into more revenue from license auctions and bigger subscriber tax base; for consumers it allows access to fast data and video speeds, thus enhanced user experience.

14 September 2009
DQ Week: Cisco Looks into Future of Banks
In an attempt to maximize its presence across consumer verticals with the phase of economic recovery setting in, Cisco recently held a demo of their innovative 'Bank of the Future' solutions in Kolkata. Targeting the recuperating BFSI sector, the company is aggressively trying to promote their products and solutions across sectors through their channel sales strategy. Cisco's 'Innovative Branch' solution helps optimizing branch offices of all sizes, allowing companies to customize branch networks to meet their unique business needs across different regions. Speaking over the new product, Amit Malik, VP, Cisco said, "Today, many banks are offering similar financial solutions to its customers. We have come up with a holistic approach to change customer experience in the banks." The Innovative Branch solution intends to help banks increase customer confidence, increase the customer wallet share, increase cross-sell and up-sell success ratio, and increase employee's efficiency and productivity

13 September 2009
Financial Chronicle: We Expect More Business from Government, Public Sector
Cisco India managing director Naresh Wadhwa is a busier man these days with recessionary pressures tapering off. He tells Darlington Jose Hector that government and public sector units will prop up an otherwise lethargic market. Excerpts: A year ago, when you spoke to Financial Chronicle, the recession had just kicked in. How do you assess the situation now from a Cisco viewpoint? Cisco's financial year runs from August to July, and the recession fell right in between. From September the ripple effects of recession started showing, the SME segment started delaying decisions and the election phase slowed down the decision-making processes further. The IT services companies are still continuing to struggle, but it is also possible that they will be the first to come out of this slump. SMEs are continuing to adopt a wait-and watch policy. But the shift will happen from the government and public sector points of view. There will be more business coming from these two sectors. In fact, Cisco hopes to see double the business emerging from these two segments. What kind of business opportunities are you seeing with the government and public sectors? There is this drive to secure citizens, and that's a major initiative. Securing government installations, deploying sensors and indulging in smart analytics are key moves. With government spending increasing we expect that for the next 3-4 quarters, the government and public sectors will be our biggest clients, though I can't reveal the revenues generated from them due to competitive reasons. We are also trying to bring our best practices to this sector, but tailored to Indian conditions.

September 2009
Network computing: Banking on the Future
Ask your parents about their experience at a bank a couple of decades ago, and they're likely to frown upon that question. Serpentine queues, forms to be filled in triplicate, and rude bank staff made people dread visits to the local bank. Well, a lot has changed since then and one rarely visits the branch office. Customers are now more in control of their bank accounts thanks to ATM machines, the Internet and mobile banking services. But should you make that rare visit to your bank in the near future be prepared for an enjoyable and hi-tech experience. Banks are looking at technology to make the customer experience more personal, to increase customer wallet share; to increase cross-sell and up-sell success ratios; to minimize risks and maximize security; and to increase the bank employee's efficiency. To illustrate this, let's consider the example of Cisco's Innovative Branch Solution. The solution comprises discrete IP-based components that are tied together by a network and logically sequenced according to a certain workflow (see illustration). All customers are given a debit/ATM card with an embedded RFID chip. As the customer walks through the bank's doors, a sensor wirelessly picks up the customer's account number and transmits this to an RFID CRM application for analysis. At the same time Application Oriented Networking (AON) technology activates an IP camera that clicks a photo of the customer.

September 2009
Network Computing: How Unified Communications is Transforming India Inc
Forced into taking action by a recessionary environment, Indian businesses are using the transformative power of Unified Communications for multiple activities such as R&D, large deal pursuits, proposal management and even for customer interactions. "UC is a philosophy which unifies all means of communication, instead of working in silos. By breaking these silos, UC tools bring in a synergy that allows organizations to free the communication from the device," says Minhaj Zia, National Sales Manager, Unified Communications, Cisco India & SAARC. The growing acceptance of virtual or teleworkers has prompted vendors such as Cisco to launch a virtual office solution which allows organizations to provide  the same level of connectivity and features seen in a typical office network to home workers. Says V C Gopalratnam, VP (IT) and CIO, Cisco India, "As connectivity links get stable and more bandwidth becomes available, virtual office solutions can totally transform the efficiency and productivity of enterprises." To enable effective collaboration, Cisco has even provided its employees with soft phones installed on desktops and laptops, which can be used to initiate conversations with colleagues. 

10 September 2009
The Hindu Business Line: Connected Retail - Organising the Giant
A look at the role of technology in the development of organised retail in the country. Competitive advantage in the retail industry hinges on the relentless drive to increase productivity, make prudent investments to deliver customer value, and execute precisely to provide consistency and quality. Retail organisations, therefore, continually work to improve the productivity and efficiency of service delivery, while enhancing customer service and satisfaction. Delivering the right product - in the right quantity, at the right location, and at the right price - requires the ability to evaluate, conceptualise and execute. However, challenging economic conditions have led to a drop in customer spending, reduced footfalls and eroding bottom lines. Cost optimisation measures and caution about any additional expenditure is then only natural. But, the one investment that retail units cannot choose to ignore and which, in fact, has the potential to brighten this outlook, is technology infrastructure. Technology is proving to be a powerful resource that can help streamline operations, track merchandise, evaluate purchase history and ultimately delight customers. Anil Bhasin, Senior Vice-President, Western region, Cisco, India and SAARC

10 September 2009
The Times of India: Bangalore's IT Sector Sees Some Big Investments
In what is said to be one of the largest commercial space expansions in South/South-East Asia following the global financial collapse last year, Cisco India is adding two additional office blocks totaling a floor area of 700,000 sqft. This expansion will happen around its 1.2 million-sqft campus located at Cessna Business Park on the Outer Ring Road in Bangalore. While this deal has recently been finalised, sources said Cisco also plans to take an additional 2.2 million sqft of office space in Bangalore in the coming years. Some realty analysts say the 7 lakh sqft expansion is by far the biggest in the commercial space market in this region in the last one year. Cisco declined to say anything on the expansion, but issued a statement that reiterated past positions: "We have designated Bangalore as our Globalization Centre East and indicated that we will have 10,000-12,000 employees based here over the next three to five years. The idea is for 20% of the top talent in Cisco to be based here." Cisco has around 4,000 employees in India currently. The networking major has been amongst the most aggressive MNCs in trying to build a strong base of R&D and support staff in India. Wim Elfrink, Cisco's chief globalization officer, who relocated to India in 2006, was recently quoted by India Knowledge@Wharton as saying: "The Globalization Centre East was established as a second headquarters for Cisco - you can think about it as "Cisco East". We set up this centre to explore how to globalize talent, innovation and growth. The Globalisation Centre is much more than a sales centre or an R&D centre. Every function at Cisco is represented here, at every level, from individual contributor to executive vice president."

07 September 2009
CXO Today: Cisco's Solutions Improves Irevna's Efficiency
Irevna is the high-end financial research and analytics outsourcing division of CRISIL, India's leading ratings, research, and risk and policy advisory company. The company's clients include financial institutions with investment banking operations, insurance companies, asset management firms, and corporates. For clients, spread across the globe, Irevna is an ideal knowledge partner in cutting-edge financial analytics and thought leadership. Irevna's domain expertise, rapid execution and quality output help it maintain deep and engaging relationships with clients. Irevna's business requirements and challenges: Being a technology-savvy enterprise, Irevna uses sophisticated IT solutions. But to help meet its clients' distinct business needs, it required high Internet availability. Irevna has offices and delivery centers at multiple locations where Net connection is provided by different Internet Service Providers (ISPs). This made it difficult to ensure high Internet and mail server availability as well as VPN tunnels uptime. Irevna already had a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)-based network architecture that used a Cisco solution to ensure Internet availability. Nonetheless, it wanted to enable Performance Routing (PfR) across locations; this involved routing Internet traffic along the best performing ISP link across locations.

06 September 2009
Daily Star: National Cisco Skills Competition
Cisco the worldwide leader in networking along with American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) today organized the 2nd National Cisco Skills Competition in Dhaka. The day-long competition saw participation from 47 teams comprising 141 students from across 12 Cisco networking academies in Bangladesh. The three winning teams will represent Bangladesh at the SAARC Skills Competition scheduled for September 2009. At the occasion, Mr. Lokesh Mehra, Regional Manager, Corporate Responsibility, Cisco India & SAARC said, "After the success achieved at first National Cisco Skills Competition held last year, we are extremely delighted to see the overwhelming response from all academies this year. At Cisco, we are constantly working towards nurturing skilled professionals who can add value with their expertise and flawless technical experience in various roles in the IT industry. We believe that this will go a long way in helping to realize the government's vision of Digital Bangladesh."

04 September 2009
The Economic Times: Encouraging Experts
Companies can gain competitive advantage by creating an environment in which Deliberate Practice can flourish, says Professor Frank Shultz
We see many leading international companies implementing practices which allow their employees to engage in Deliberate Practice and thereby develop their level of expertise. For example Cisco has established procedures whereby its employees can actively seek feedback. Without frequent and ongoing feedback - not just annual performance reviews - employees do not know which of their skills are well developed and which skills should be the focus of their development efforts. John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, is widely recognised as one of the most talented speakers in the corporate world, but he did not develop his speaking expertise without the help of Cisco. Cisco has developed feedback systems so its executives can receive feedback on their presentations. Audience members are provided with both paper and online feedback forms that encourage them to evaluate the quality of the presentation they just heard. Cisco executives then work with coaches to review the feedback and improve their presentation skills. Cisco understands that the only way its employees - even its highest ranking executives - can continue to develop their expertise is by receiving frequent and ongoing feedback.

03 September 2009
The Financial Express - SME World: Cisco Has Invested, Globally, $3 Billion from 2004 Onwards, Till 2009 for SMBS (862 KB)
Networking major Cisco systems plans to tap the small and medium enterprises segment, and to help them generate business growth. With a complete range of customized Cisco networking solutions for SMBs across technologies such as routing, switching, security, wireless, voice and video Cisco plans to tap the small and medium enterprises segment. After having spent 10 years in the SMB segment, in an exclusive interview to Monalisa of FE, Kaushik Bellani, Vice-President, Sales - North, Cisco India shares his thoughts.
An overview of the SMB Market today in India
The small and medium market is driven by the levels of imagination of the entrepreneurs. Some of the main verticals driving the market are manufacturing, pharma, retail, finance and insurance

2 September 2009
PC's Semiconductor Blog: Freescale Technology Forum 2009 Re-Inforces Focus on Design Innovation
Freescale Semiconductor is hosting its fifth annual Freescale Technology Forum (FTF) at The Leela Palace in Bangalore. The two-day event, targeted at the design ecosystem, has evolved into a platform that provides attendees the opportunity to learn about the latest innovations in embedded design, engage with industry experts and attend in-depth technical sessions across a wide range of technologies. Over a 1000 people attended the opening session today. The keynote address by Rich Beyer, Chairman and CEO, Freescale Semiconductor was followed by the guest keynote addresses of Mr. Sanjay Nayak, CEO, Tejas Networks and Dr. Anil Menon, President, Globalisation and Connectivity, Cisco

02 September 2009
The Hindu Business Line: Cisco Services Eyes Market in Bangladesh
Cisco Services is eyeing the Bangladesh market to offer services support to e-governance and education projects in the country. Cisco Services provides technical service and consulting support to customers across verticals and is leading Cisco's transformation from being a products' company to being solutions-focused. It offers an integrated suite of IT services to suit the needs of businesses of different sizes and operations. The US-based Cisco's services business is present across locations where it has sales offices and channel partners. In Asia, it is present in India, Sri Lanka and Maldives. The company will soon set up a services depot in Bangladesh that will offer break-fix support. "There is increased action in e-governance and education projects in Bangladesh and we would like to target these areas to offer our services," said Kumar G.B., Senior Vice-President - Services, India and SAARC, Cisco.

02 September 2009
Times Ascent: Corporate Lessons
A teacher/mentor and a student/mentee begin their journey as strangers. But the lessons learnt out of this relationship go beyond just the level of the textbook or business manual, for both involved. After all, learning is a two-way process, right As we celebrate Teachers Day on September 5th, lets meet a few India Inc. mentors /mentees as they share their learnings derived out of their experience of donning both hats at some point of time in their careers. Balaji Kesavraj, head marketing-India , Cisco WebEx: My mentor. My mentor was Naren M P, executive director of Vaspar Concepts Pvt Ltd. Naren always kept saying that people feel like they have too much to do and not enough time and lack of time is blamed for everything from not getting enough exercise, unachieved goals, bad relationships and so on. Through him, I learnt ways to compartmentalise time and work and even honed the art of multi-tasking.

August 2009
Network Computing: Emerging Companies Shine at 'Frost & Sullivan' ICT Awards Event
At the sixth annual edition of the Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT Awards, several emerging companies were honored for their outstanding performance in a period of recession. Said Nitin Bhat, Senior Vice President of ICT practice, Asia Pacific, Frost & Sullivan, "Delivery of value rather than a plain product and service offering was the ultimate goal for the award recipients. This value creation was driven by a combination of product and service innovation, business model flexibility, and unwavering focus on the customer." The awards seek to recognize companies and individuals that have pushed the boundaries of excellence-rising above the competition and demonstrating outstanding performance in the ICT industry across the region, for the year 2008. The first timers include Vietnam's incumbent telecom operator VietTel, Thailand's Total Access Communications, Hong Kong-based Tandberg Television and Sun Cellular from the Philippines. A total of 33 coveted titles were conferred to 27 companies in the ICT industry, representing the entire spectrum of enterprise solution vendors, telecom equipment vendors and service providers in Asia Pacific. The award recipients were selected from 85 shortlisted key ICT players, telecommunications companies, and regulatory bodies operating across Asia Pacific.

26 August 2009
The Times of India - Classifieds Section: IT Networking is One of the Hottest Growth Areas - Interview (591 KB)
Amy Christen, General Manager, Cisco Networking Academy, and Vice President -Corporate Affairs, Cisco Systems Inc
How has IT networking evolved as a promising career opportunity in the computer engineering domain in India? Computer engineering has become the buzzword among class XII science students in India owing to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution is sweeping through the country. Parents are keen on investing in a 'computer engineering' seat for their child at a reputed technical institute. So it is not surprising that as per AICTE data, in 2004-05, 31 percent of the engineering graduates in India were computer engineers.

25 August 2009
Mint: HP, Cisco Eyeing Consumer-Level Telepresence
After Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) made a splashy launch of its high-end video conferencing technology called Halo in 2005, and Cisco Systems Inc. swooped in with its own telepresence a year later, the two tech giants have competed intensely with each becoming a leader-one by revenue, the other by deployment. The competition is set to get stiffer now. HP is test-piloting a new video conferencing tool called SkyRoom targeted at middle-range customers, a segment which couldn't take to Halo's steep pricing and veered to other vendors, including Cisco and Polycom. Amid this melange of offerings, Cisco says it has 67% of the global telepresence market share, with 2,300 rooms in at least 350 customers worldwide. HP plans to launch SkyRoom before the year end, positioning it as a professional visual collaboration desktop tool "that's as good as live", says Ross Camp, HP Halo senior marketing communications manager. Even before it is rolled out, SkyRoom has stoked the fire even though it is believed to be not real-time or life-size like telepresence. Now Cisco says it is thinking of consumer telepresence too. " Within 12-18 months we will have presence in the consumer segment, where every high-definition television could become a TP (telepresence),"said Rajesh K.K., business development manager, telepresence, India-Saarc, at Cisco.

24 August 2009
Financial Chronicle: The Future of Banking Will Be Here Soon
Till a few years ago, it was difficult to believe that banking could be on your fingertips. Today, a mobile handset with a connection is all you need to make a banking transaction. Morever, ATMs, net banking and SMS banking has made sure that you don't need to visit a branch for your banking needs. So is that the end of innovation in banking? Not really. Cisco's future bank branch promises to make transactions even easier. Packed with a combination of technologies - including radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, application-oriented networking (AON) solutions, video telephony and digital signages, the bank of tomorrow promises to make interaction simpler and more secure. Headquartered in San Jose, California, Cisco designs and sells networking and communications technology and services. It is in the process of making the future happen. In the not so distant future, as soon as a customer walks into the bank, even before the customer identifies himself, the RFID enabled ATM card would identify the customer to customer service officer at the bank.

24 August 2009
Express Computer: Managed Services Gain Traction in India
Vikram Sharma, Vice President-Service Provider, Cisco India & SAARC talked to Varun Aggrawal about Cisco's Managed Services offering in India.
Can you give an overview of Cisco's managed services offerings?
Cisco works closely with its Service Provider customers to help monetize their investments in technology and enable them to create end-to-end managed services offerings for enterprises and SMBs in India. It helps Service Providers (SPs) through the entire life cycle of Managed Services i.e. envision a service, build the service and market it.

22 August 2009
The Economic Times: We are Growing Faster Than Cisco
From surviving the ups and downs of the HP-Compaq merger in 2002 to heading the new networking business for HP, the journey has been eventful for Marius Haas, Senior VP and worldwide GM at Hewlett Packard. After a fallout with Cisco, the world's largest technology company HP is now trying to compete with the global switching and routers giant. And Marius Haas, who is known for his instrumental role in the merger of Compaq with HP, has been given the role of heading HP Procurve globally from Palo Alto, California. On a recent visit to India, Haas, also a social networking fan (he's there on Linkedin, Facebook et al), talks to ET on HP Procurve's strategy to beat Cisco at its game, his strategy for India and the learnings from the days of the HP Compaq merger.
Excerpts: How is HP Procurve planning to beat Cisco, the world market leader in networking equipment? Earlier the two companies used to collaborate. Right?
Cisco is the largest player in this vertical at the worldwide level and there is no doubt about it. They have some 80 percent of the market. Yes, ex-HP CEO Carly Fiorina also served as a director on the board of Cisco once. But now times have changed. Cisco and HP have had a overlap in portfolio. And we saw them taking some actions, which were in direct competition to us. That dealt a blow to the relationship. We are now competitor to Cisco. We are quite actually bored of them now.

19 August 2009
Deccan Chronicle: 3G Services Are Costly, But Useful (1,992 KB)
Even though the much delayed 3G spectrum auction has been deferred yet again, mobile phone users are already experiencing the 'high' of third-generation (3G) mobile telephony services which have been rolled out by government-owned telecom companies MTNL and BSNL in major cities across the country. Networking giant Cisco says service providers can also deliver Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) that will bring services not yet delivered such as on-demand video content and network-based digital video recorders where the content is stored on the network and streamed to the device. "In addition, content which is typically available in streaming media format on the Internet will be available for viewing on television. IPTV will also bring the integration of video streaming with conferencing capability, and interactive TV applications which will provide users with a much richer experience than they have today," VP-Service Provider of Cisco India & SAARC Vish Iyer said.

19 August 2009
Cellular News: Cisco Systems and Avaya Sued for Visual Voicemail Patent Infringement
Klausner Technologies says that it has filed suit against Cisco Systems and Avaya, for alleged patent infringement. The lawsuit asserts that Cisco's and Avaya's Visual Voicemail services infringe Klausner Technologies' Visual Voicemail patents. Klausner Technologies currently has 24 Visual Voicemail patent licensees, including major U.S. and European wireless service providers, cell phone manufacturers, cable/VOIP providers as well as other providers of Visual Voicemail services. The suit has been filed in federal court in the eastern district of Texas by the California law firm of Dovel & Luner

16 August 2009
The DQ Week: Is IT Really on Lease?
Imagine a scenario where you have the option of choosing a rental solution from leading car maker Ford Motors to meet your travelling requirements. The company gives you the option of driving a Ford Icon on rent for a given period of time and then exchange it for a Ford Endeavour on grounds such as technology becoming obsolete. Gautam Munish, Country Manager, Cisco Capital said that technology has a weird life-cycle- it becomes cheaper and better as time goes by At times, SP's finances are limited. Hence, vendors like Cisco extend their support to partners by funding the entire project. "We look at the entire network infrastructure and if there are some non-competing and non-Cisco keys, that also impart functionality to the entire project then Cisco funds it," stated Munish.

14 August 2009
4Ps: Digital Ads! The Game of Changers (920 KB)
Advertising, the time tested yet not fully explored marketing communications medium has undergone a meteoric shift over the past few decades. From being a simplistic tool to create awareness, it has become one of the most creatively charged sought after media that marketers use to influence buying decisions of consumers. Burgeoning competition, consumerism and macro trends like globalization, have driven businesses to innovate this age old marketing tool to drive their brand strategy and core business objectives and also to out-do their closest market rivals.
The article is authored by Amit Sinha Roy, Head- Marketing, India & SAARC, Cisco

12 August 2009
Mint: Cisco Gets Set to Make Buildings Intelligent
It was a leap of faith for Cisco Systems Inc. to announce its first business unit outside the US in Bangalore in February when chief executive John Chambers visited the city. Now with the converged building systems, or CBS, unit ready to roll out products, Cisco says it has brought its technology closer to the market it intends to serve, which evidently is also the market where maximum urbanization is likely to happen. In July, Cisco announced its smart connected buildings initiative, which is about integrating information technology (IT) into buildings to optimize energy use. With 76% of all electricity used going towards running buildings anywhere in the world, multi-billion dollar business opportunities beckon technology providers, particularly the early starters. Both the commercial and residential building spaces are worth $12 billion (Rs 58,080 crore) each, says Sandeep Vij, vice-president and general manager of the CBS unit at Cisco Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd. In fact, he sees "smart+connected communities" as the "birth of a new industry".

12 August 2009
The Times of India: India's 15 Biggest IT Companies - II
HCL Technologies At no. 8 is HCL Technologies. The company grew by 41% to clock revenues of Rs 8,764 crore. The biggest highlight of the fiscal 2008-09 for the company was its acquisition of UK-based Axon for which it pipped rival Infosys technologies. The $658 million Axon buy was the biggest acquisition in the history of Indian IT. The company said that the acquisition was the part of its Blue Ocean strategy, which aims to expand in high-potential areas with low competition. Cisco Systems At no. 11 is Cisco Systems. In its 14-year history in the country, for the first time Cisco recorded single-digit growth. The company grew by mere 4% to record revenues of Rs 6,084 crore. During the year, the company increased focus on the SMB market by launching 0% finance schemes. It also entered into an agreement with EMC and RSA to build security solutions. The company also signed a deal with TCS to help customers build next-gen data centres. The company which claimed to have added some 850 people during the fiscal made India the launch pad for its Global talent Acceleration Program in Asia Pacific.

08 August 2009
Business Standard: The 108 Business Plan
No less aggressively than he had built Satyam, Ramalinga Raju built an emergency healthcare provider called EMRI, starting in his home state of Andhra Pradesh. In this extract from The Satyam Saga, Latha Jishnu looks into the origins of EMRI, the allies Raju assembled and the roots of his philanthropic works -as well as the problems that quickly grew to endanger his vision. Science, information technology, global best practices in management, ideas that had the potential to touch a very large number of people - all these had to be integral to the social enterprises that would interest Ramalinga Raju. An emergency medical service (EMS) along the lines of 911 in the United States and 112 in the European Union was one such idea, and he nurtured it carefully. He was impressed by the emergency services available in these countries and decided to set up a comparable facility in India. True, India had the semblance of an emergency response system - 100 for police, 101 for fire and 102 for ambulance- but these were government services that worked erratically and independently of each other. Ramalinga Raju wanted a coordinated service like 911 for Andhra Pradesh (population: 82 million) that would be free and accessible through a toll-free number that had instant recall among the people. It would be "a symbol of every citizen's Right to Safety", and he used a Peter Drucker quote to explain why he and his brothers had plumped for this project: "Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things." "EMRI was a business plan from the very start," says a hospital management expert who joined the institute immediately after it was launched and spent three years with it. "The idea was to develop systems that could be adapted and marketed to other developing countries as end-to-end solutions." As early as February 2007, EMRI had spent Rs 1 crore on TEMCON, an international convention on transforming emergency management that was intended to showcase the organisation's sophisticated operations. The turnout at the conference was disappointing, says the ex-employee, but the trajectory was clear. Then in October that year, John Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco, made a stunning announcement during his visit to India. Cisco and Satyam Computer Services, he said, are "collaborating to explore a new venture that will optimise, deploy and manage solutions for handling medical distress situations and health management solutions for global markets". A press note issued by Cisco said the combination of Cisco's technologies with Satyam's processes and software application would help to build "a model that can be replicated across even the neediest parts of the world. The elegance of this model lies in its modularity and the scalability that internet protocol supports, together with a robust process framework which will enable services to be rolled out in a phased manner globally."

08 August 2009
Expressbuzz.com: Is India Really Ready for IPTV?
For long, the good old television has been the focus of technology companies. Early efforts such as Microsoft's Web TV attempted to bring the Internet to the TV. But in recent years, the focus not only is on bringing television to the Internet, which is to say enabling telecasts via the Net, but also on marrying the two for enhanced user experience. In many countries, the so-called Internet Protocol Television, better known by its acronym IPTV, is already popular with millions of users. But it has yet to make a mark in India even though leading telecom providers took an early leap of faith in the technology. Reliance Infocomm, Bharti Tele Ventures and the state-owned BSNL have rolled out services in the last year or so but so far none has been able to build a significant base of subscribers. In the final analysis, as Cisco's Chandan Mendiratta says, "broadband penetration is important for the future of IPTV in India," and unless that makes rapid advances, success is far from guaranteed.

07 August 2009
CIOL: 100GbE: Cisco to Wait for Mkt to Be Ready
Not long ago did Juniper Networks and Alcatel Lucent announce their foray into 100Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) router interface space. Now when the networking industry is pepping up for 100GbE, how can Cisco, the one who tested the first router interface a year back, be left behind?! Let's us hear it from Chandan Mendiratta, VP, System Engineering, Service Provider, Cisco India & SAARC, on Cisco's plan with regard to 100GbE router interface card.
CIOL: When can the networking industry expect an announcement with regard to 100GbE router interface card from Cisco?
Chandan Mendiratta: Cisco does not comment on future products. That being said, we were the first to demonstrate 100GbE interface on a router more than a year back, in June 2008. We showed this interface on the CRS-1 on Comcast's production DWDM network over 300kms. Also, Cisco is committed to a standards-based 100GbE solution. Cisco has actively taken leadership roles in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) and Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) to define the future standards and continue to drive innovation and development through close collaboration within the community of vendors and service providers.

05 August 2009
OneIndia: Two Indian Teams Among Finalists of Cisco Developer Contest
Cisco has announced the 10 shortlisted teams from Phase 1 of Cisco's global Developer Contest - 'Think Inside the Box' - which includes two Indian teams. The shortlist of teams for the final phase was from nearly 110 teams and 900 registrants from 75 countries. These ten teams will vie for 3 winning positions at the end of the final phase. This global developer contest gives developers an opportunity to build exciting Linux-based applications on the Cisco Application Extension Platform (AXP), and win a share of the US $100,000 prize pool. Suresh Kumar, Gopinath Bailur and Gokila Sudarshan, members of Team Ideate, and among the 10, have created an Application Suite for IP Telephony (ASIT). This suite is designed to bring savings to organizations by blocking unauthorized voice calls and reducing network operational costs by automating the telephony installation and verification processes.

05 August 2009
Deccan Herald: Home Office - The New Reality
This is not only beneficial to employees, but also helps firms reduce over-head costs.
Working From Home: The advantage is time saving in commuting. Getty imagesWhen an old friend who had recently given birth to her second child remarked, "I plan to retire in this company (where she is working), I was a little taken aback. Considering her past history of not lasting beyond a year in her previous assignments, I probed to find out why. "Since they are offering me the option to work from home for a few more months now and at my choice later as well, I guess it makes sense to continue here," she explained. This is not the only case in point. Several working professionals are today discovering that the option of working from home works! DH Avenues delves deeper. Working from home needs that the necessary technology and tools like web conferencing are in place. Web conference is an easy way of virtually connecting with a lot of people at the same time. You can 'attend' meetings and even make PowerPoint presentations right from your home. "I work with colleagues based out of numerous countries in multiple time zones, so our meetings happen on a global clock and quite often very late in the night or early mornings. To connect with our offices worldwide using web collaboration solutions. This gives me the flexibility to sit at home and connect with my colleagues on a real-time basis. The biggest advantage this gives me is I am able to maintain my work-life balance although I have meetings on a regular basis well into the night. The advantage is I am at home and at work only for the duration of the meeting and do have to travel and get away from family for a single meeting," says Balaji Kesavaraj, Marketing Head, Cisco WebEx.

05 August 2009
4-Traders: Cisco Revenue Falls But Profit Higher Than Expected
Cisco Systems Inc reported an 18 percent fall in quarterly revenue as customers held back spending on network equipment, but the decline was mostly in line with Wall Street forecasts and its profit was better than expected. Chief Executive John Chambers also said the company saw "a number of positive signs" in its fiscal fourth quarter compared to the previous quarter. "If we continue to see these positive order trends for the next one to two quarters, we believe there is a good chance we will look back and see that the tipping point occurred in our business in Q4," he said in a statement.

04 August 2009
Network Computing: The Blueprint to A Virtualized Business
Ask any old-economy businessperson, and they will unanimously agree that deals are made and broken on nuances of expression, body language, and personal rapport and interaction. In these days of the global enterprise too, there is significant benefit in enabling a workforce with the tools and technologies that empower collaboration and more visual interaction between employees and customers, and within teams. The need to interact in this manner of connectivity is fast becoming a business requirement in today's corporate world where the network has become the lifeline on which a business is run.
Collaboration in the connected enterprise
The growing ecosystem of mobile devices, collaboration technologies, and rapidly increasing broadband speeds in India provides such a strong and seamless web of connectivity that geographically dispersed offices and people of the connected enterprise feel and behave like one cohesive entity. The challenge here, however, is that the applications, resources and the technology backbone that power this level of collaboration need to be replicated across offices and sites to create a truly connected global enterprise. This requires investments of a great magnitude, which would definitely affect the bottom line.
Sumit Mukhija is National Sales Manager - Data Centre, Cisco India & SAARC

04 August 2009
DQ Channels: Trained to Gain An Edge
Partners across India unanimously agree that certification and training programs help them enhance their business focus. Most importantly, it helps them compete for important projects and offer the correct solution. It is in this endeavor that major vendors are keen on enhancing their channel plans and business while providing quality training, certifications and support to channel partners. Arun Dharmalingam, Regional Manager-Channels, Cisco (India and SAARC) said, "To meet customer needs and help capture this dynamic growth opportunity, Cisco has evolved the 'Cisco Channel Partner Program' to help accelerate our partners' growth, differentiate their business, and increase their profitability. The enhanced program enables partners to extend capabilities in order to provide broad, integrated networking solutions, highly specialized solutions, or both."

03 August 2009
Voice & Data: Next Gen Wireless
In less than a decade, wireless LANs have evolved from an interesting idea to an indispensable technology for millions of businesses and consumers. This technology continues to evolve. The latest generation of high-speed wireless LAN solutions, based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Draft 802.11n standard, are now available. Cisco has taken great care to ensure a smooth migration from today's de facto standard and the version that will eventually be ratified, and we expect the differences to be minimal. New Cisco ClientLink technology offers performance improvements to 802.11a/g clients in mixed-mode environments. Cisco ClientLink technology addresses this problem by making sure that 802.11a/g clients operate at the best possible rates. Sridevi Koneru. The author is director and head, wireless networking business unit, Cisco Systems India.

03 August 2009
Express Computer: Taking Video Conferencing Beyond Boardrooms
Today, conferencing is limited to large boardroom set-ups- Delhi office boardroom talking to a boardroom meeting in Mumbai and so on. People have to rush to the room to participate. The market is full of great conferencing technologies that give a 360-degree view of the room, great sound effects, high quality experience, but these are prohibitively expensive for companies to provide to a large number of people in the organization. Then there are lower end web conferencing tools available but these limit the impact of the true conferencing experience.
This is where TelePresence and real presence exist from players like Cisco,Polycom etc.
Another way of using desktop conferencing is through video phones available from vendors such as Cisco, Tandberg and Polycom.
The Cisco Unified Video Advantage is a personal video telephony solution that allows users to place and receive video calls at their desktop. It consists of the Cisco Unified Video software and the Cisco VT camera II, a video telephony USB camera that connects to a PC. "Users can then make calls from their Cisco Unified IP phones using the familiar phone interface, and calls are displayed with video on the PC. With the Cisco Unified Video advantage, video calls are as easy to make as telephone calls, without the complications of room videoconferencing systems or click the mouse", explained Minhaj Zia, National Sales manager, Unified Communications, Cisco India & SAARC

03 August 2009
Express Computer: Webinars Through WebEx
MetricStream, started in 1999, is engaged in providing solutions allied to Governance, Risk and Compliance(GRC) and quality management to various industry verticals like banking and financial sector, IT, healthcare, manufacturing, government, etc.
To leverage the benefits like real time impact and lower costs, arising out of these solutions, the company decided to implement Cisco's WebEx enterprise-wide collaborations solutions.
Cisco's WebEx Enterprise Edition gives customer access to WebEx Meeting Center, WebEx Event Center, WebEx Training Center, WebEx Sales Center and WebEx Support Center.
Cisco WebEx applications are delivered on demand over the MediaTone Network which offers 99.99% reliability and high security

03 August 2009
Express Computer: Cyber Crime's Rampant
In an instance of a cyber crime investigation in India, a police officer was asked to seize the computer of the hacker. What he brought from the hacker's premise was his monitor. In another similar instance, the police officials seized the memory and the CD-ROM drive of a hacker's computer instead taking out his hard disk.
According to Jatin Sachdeva(CISSP, CISA), Information Security Specialist, Cisco India & SAARC, " As with any law, there is a constant need to evaluate relevance and context. Even with cyber crime laws in place in so many places around the world, it has not brought about the end of cyber crime. We believe that there is definitely more that can be done, and more importantly, more stakeholders to be brought into the ecosystem."

02 August 2009
Financial Express: Cisco Nurtures IT Networking Talent in Bangladesh
Cisco the worldwide leader in networking along with American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) today organized the 2nd National Cisco Skills Competition in Dhaka. The day-long competition saw participation from 47 teams comprising 141 students from across 12 Cisco networking academies in Bangladesh. The three winning teams will represent Bangladesh at the SAARC Skills Competition scheduled for September 2009. At the occasion, Mr. Lokesh Mehra, Regional Manager, Corporate Responsibility, Cisco India & SAARC said, "After the success achieved at first National Cisco Skills Competition held last year, we are extremely delighted to see the overwhelming response from all academies this year. At Cisco, we are constantly working towards nurturing skilled professionals who can add value with their expertise and flawless technical experience in various roles in the IT industry. We believe that this will go a long way in helping to realize the government's vision of Digital Bangladesh."

01 August 2009
The Economic Times: Free Flow of IT Parts Import on Cards, Makers Put Up Firewall
The illegal trade in IT hardware in India is a lucrative one. After the end of the shelf life of equipment such as PCs, printers and switches, they are sold the grey market, from where they find their way to consumers, generally first-time buyers. But there is conditional backing for the government's plan from Cisco, the world's top networking gearmaker. "Refurbished gear is a great option for customers seeking affordable high quality solutions if backed by warranty support from the manufacturer and stamp of authenticity," says Cisco India senior vice-president, south, Pramodh Menon.

01 August 2009
Voice & Data: New Network Drivers
Business is for profit. Ownership does not make any sense. That's why global telecom service providers' network and other areas are run by telecom infrastructure companies such as Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent. The managed service deals are creating a new breed of network drivers. Earlier, telecom infrastructure providers used to create their networks for SPs. Following the flood of large outsourcing deals in the past few years, the ownership of running the network is with the vendors. According to Vikram Sharma, head, managed services, Cisco India and SAARC, "In essence, service providers who are battling commoditization of their current offerings leading to declining customers loyalty and shrinking margins, evolve into experienced providers by offering sticky and differentiated services that add strategic value to end customers."

30 July 2009
Tele.Net: Vish Iyer (731 KB)
The desire to learn has guided Vish Iyer, vice-president of Cisco India and SAARC's service provider business, throughout his career. He explains, "In the early days of its introduction, I wanted to learn more about the internet. In those days, Cisco was probably the leader in the internet space and telecom majors such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited used to purchase only Cisco gear, since we were the only prominent player in the field. My mindset was to learn all that I could from a company that was pioneering the internet revolution in India."
Vice-President, Service Provider Business, Cisco, India and SAARC

30 July 2009
The Economic Times: Cisco to Develop 6.6 Lakh Sq Ft More Space in Bangalore
This comes as a downpour in Bangalore's realty drought. Multinational networking giant Cisco has cleared the deck for developing an additional 6.6 lakh sq ft office space with a provision of scaling it up to 2.2 million sq ft in Bangalore, making this the largest development plan by an IT major in recent times. More than the realty expansion, the move perhaps signals the fact that the IT industry may be readying to invest on future growth, according to a realty consultant who works closely with many IT companies. Cisco currently occupies 1.2 million sq ft at Cessna Business Park, an operating SEZ developed by Bangalore-based Prestige Group and has a staff strength of around 4,000. The 6.6 lakh sq.ft facility is targeted to be completed by the second quarter of 2012. Once that happens, Cisco will be occupying 1.8 million sq ft, making the India centre its largest outside of the US. In the long term, Cisco's India centre could even touch 3.2 million sq ft. Subash Rao, director-HR, Cisco India, says, "Cisco has designated Bangalore as our globalisation centre East and indicated that we will have 10,000-12,000 employees based here over the next three to five years. The idea is for 20% of the top talent in Cisco to be based here."

29 July 2009
DQ Channels: In Focus Rental Solutions : IT on Lease
Imagine a scenario where you have the option of choosing a rental solution from leading car maker Ford Motors to meet your traveling requirements. The company gives you the option of driving a Ford Icon on rent for a given period of time (say three years) and then exchange it for a Ford Endeavor on grounds such as technology becoming obsolete and also, disposal issues will be taken care of by them. Wouldn't that be a good enough offer for you to grab? The above logic can also be applied to IT hardware/infrastructure/solutions. Given that technology has a short life cycle and keeps evolving, many customers love it when such a value proposition is offered to them. If a customer had the option of availing the benefits of the latest technology at an affordable price for a time period set aside by him, then he will not mind taking up the offer. On the other hand, the onset of the slowdown has forced many a cash rich company to look at their rent model for achieving their business goals. Gautam Munish, Country Manager, Cisco Capital said that technology has a weird life-cycle-it becomes cheaper and better as time goes by. "A Pentium 4 that was available at Rs 60,000 a while ago, is now available at one third of its cost," he opined.

29 July 2009
The CTO Forum: Revolutionising Armed Forces
Defence and Military is a country's national identity and receives significant attention. However, most investments from military forces are made on weapon systems rather than a platform for collaboration which will enable them to truly transform their capabilities. A non-collaborative outlook towards investing in weaponry caused many to be stuck in what can be called, "Modernisation groundhog day", that is, they are caught in a cycle of upgrading their weaponry without gaining much synergy. Some of the reasons as to why this happens include cultural and bureaucratic resistance, the lack of vision on the part of the senior leaders, budgetary constraints, pre-existing long-term procurement commitments, and institutional biases for legacy systems over transformational ones.  Overall, transformation is viewed as too disruptive, threatening to the status quo, expensive and even too extreme. As a result, most militaries are in fact merely modernising, not transforming their organisations. For example, many militaries often buy many new types of military equipment to acquire new capabilities and improve C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) in a general, evolutionary fashion. This does not require much change in doctrine and organisations processes.

July 2009
Communications Today: Integration is the Key
On the current scenario of the routers market
The network router is quickly evolving from a device dedicated to connecting disparate networks to an integrated services devices capable of multiple functions beyond routing. Cisco customers are increasingly deploying integrated services routers or sophisticated network routers that can deliver voice, video, data and internet access, wireless and other applications. By installing a complete solution and managing it centrally, companies are protecting valuable corporate data using multiple types of protection, such as encryption, firewall filtering, antivirus protection, and intrusion detection and prevention.

23 July 2009
The Financial Express: Cities That Run on Information
Earlier this year on March 28, 2009, millions of people across 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries came together to celebrate 'Earth Hour'. Millions of homes, corporate houses, businesses and even global landmarks switched off their lights for one hour, in a symbolic gesture to conserve energy and urge world leaders to fight global warming. Such events make it evident that environment awareness and the demand for eco-friendly action is no longer the preserve of a handful of activists, but is now a much larger concern. The common man is beginning to acknowledge that environment sustainability is imperative not only to improve the quality of life for this generation, but also to ensure that our future generations don't inherit urban spaces, bereft of clean air, water and fuel.
The author is senior vice-president, South & Sri Lanka, Cisco Systems

21 July 2009
Mint: India Becomes R&D Hot Spot as High-Tech Firms Cut Costs
At Microsoft Corp.'s research centre in a leafy lane in India's technology capital, a new generation of researchers is being groomed half a world away from the software giant's sprawling headquarters in Seattle. Complete with bean bags and coffee served in steel tumblers, the centre is helping change the perception that India is no place for top-end research and development (R&D). Staffed with around 60 full-time researchers, many of them Indians with PhDs from top universities in the US, the centre is at the cutting edge of Microsoft's R&D. It covers seven areas of research, including mobility and cryptography. Half of Cisco's core R&D work, including innovations in WiMAX and optical networks, and around 40% of business software firm SAP AG's ideas for processes and product development come from India. WiMAX, short for worldwide interoperability for microwave access, is a telecommunications technology that provides wireless data transmission. "The Indian units are more tuned to the needs of customers in emerging markets. Besides, Bangalore is only a five-hour flight away from three strategic regions: south-east Asia, east Asia and the Middle East," said Aravind Sitaraman, vice-president at Cisco.

20 July 2009
Businessworld: The Branch of the Future (2, 164 KB)
Businesses are reaching out to customers around the world, and many have opened offices in major cities to gain a worldwide presence. As a corollary, branch offices enjoy unprecedented productivity, decision-making authority and innovation, making them an integral part of achieving corporate success. This perception holds true especially in the banking sector, where branch offices are largely responsible for revenue generation and profit making.
Anil Bhasin, Senior Vice President, West, Cisco India & SAARC

19 July 2009
The Hindu: Tools to Help SMBs Stay Afloat and Compete
Dell, Cisco and IBM introduce products to save energy, cost. In the current economic situation, small and medium businesses (SMBs) are relying increasingly on productivity and collaboration solutions as a cost-effective alternative to business travel. Although the SMBs' individual budgets are comparatively small, they understand that IT is critical to their businesses in order to keep them competitive and efficient. IDC, a market intelligence service provider, predicts that by the end of this year, close to 35 per cent of the SMBs will be using some form of video-conferencing to run their businesses. The video-conferencing tools will be built specifically for small businesses, who are concerned about data safety and other aspects. Large organisations are already into state-of-the-art video-conferencing facilities as these are critical while interacting with overseas customers. Pramodh Menon, senior vice-president, South and Sri Lanka, Cisco, says that the company offers a number of products such as networking, collaboration, security, and communication technologies. All of them are targeted at the SMB customers.
Improve productivity : Recently, Cisco announced a suite of products and solutions specifically to address the networking and collaboration needs of the SMBs, which would help them improve productivity and gain a competitive advantage while minimising the time spent on managing technology. These products and solutions are under the umbrella solution-packs of Cisco Small Business Pro and Cisco Smart Business Communication System. These are backed by a host of service & support and financing offers.

18 July 2009
Currentitmarket.com: Cisco Focuses on Proliferation of ICT Educational Initiatives Across Orissa
Cisco, the worldwide leader in networking, today highlighted the progress made by the Cisco Networking Academy initiative in Orissa since its inception in 2001. In the past eight years, Cisco has tied up with nine institutions in Orissa including leading institutes such as Jaganath Institute for Technology & Management (part of the Centurion Group of Institutes), Paralakhemundi; National Institute of Science & Technology, Brahmapur and Orissa Computer Application Centre, Bhubaneswar to provide world class training on advanced networking technologies. Commenting on Cisco's initiatives, Mr. Lokesh Mehra, Regional Manager, Corporate Responsibility, Cisco - South Asia said, "Cisco believes that ICT plays a vital role in the development of any society. As a catalyst for this development, it is imperative to develop a local talent pool of knowledge professionals in Orissa. In the past few years, our efforts have been focused on penetrating into various districts of the state to ensure that our curriculum is available to students in districts outside Bhubaneswar. The new academies in Sambalpur and Cuttack reflect the success achieved in this direction."

16 July 2009
The Financial Express: Sify Tech Signs Up with Cisco to Launch Managed Services in India
Sify Technologies, a leader in consumer Internet and enterprise services in India with global delivery capabilities, announced today the launch of Managed Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) (a high performance telecommunications network) and Managed Internet Service as part of the Cisco Managed Services Channel Program (MSCP). This service is the first of a series of Managed Services that Sify Technologies plans to launch over the next two years. The Managed MPLS Service will provide world-class solutions with end-to-end service assurance to enterprises for their business critical networks. The services are a part of Sify's strategy to migrate from Time Division Multiplexing to Internet Prootcol based network services and introduce a full suite of Managed Services for Indian enterprises.

15 July 2009
The Financial Express: Cisco and Tata Communications Collaborate to Take Wireless Road in Gurgaon
Cisco and Tata Communications announce that the companies have teamed to promote the Digital Lifestyle for consumers at home and on the go. The two companies have decided that as a first step they will work together on a series of joint promotions to show the benefits of going wireless to consumers in the Gurgaon district. A specially-built mobile van, equipped with Linksys by Cisco home networking solutions and enabled by Tata Communications' wireless broadband services will travel to residential areas in the Gurgaon locale, and highlight the ease and freedom offered by going wireless and the benefits of a connected lifestyle.

15 July 2009
Dataquest: Conquering the Downturn
Leasing provides the option to reduce upfront investment allowing businesses to spread the cost of equipment and services over several years. The ongoing global economic crisis, which began from the financial markets, has spared no segment of the Indian economy, be it the biggest conglomerates and corporate establishments or the small and medium businesses (SMBs). While the large corporates have been very vocal about their liquidity concerns and are collectively pursuing their demands with financial institutions, it is our country's SMB sector which has had to bear the brunt silently. With a size of more than 7.6 mn businesses, it was this sector that was at one point taking the country's economic prowess to newer highs. It is indeed sad to see that today the sector is struggling to find its feet.

14 July 2009
The Times of India: Rise of IT MNCs in India
Over the years, India has emerged as the R&D hub of IT companies globally. There is no technology giant that does not have a R&D centre in the country. These R&D centres tap into the country's vast pool of skilled manpower and help their parent companies to churn out world class products and technologies. Over the years, India has taken several giant steps in becoming the hub for innovation. IT MNCs are increasingly delegating projects of strategic importance to their development centres in India. India's stature as R&D hub is further established by the fact that many of these global leaders have set up their largest R&D centres outside their country of origin in India
2006 : In 2006, networking giant Cisco established its Globalisation Centre East in Bangalore. According to Chief Globalization Officer Wim Elfrink, the focus was to tap intellectual talent, growth opportunities and innovation. So far, the company has filed more than 600 patents from India. In the same year IBM announced its plans to invest nearly $6 billion in India over the next three years. The announcement further underlined the country's growing importance as a global hub for information technology expertise.

13 July 2009
The Hindu Business Line: Small is Big Draw
Small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) find that differentiation is the key to business success, and creating efficiency is critical to their operational excellence. Hence, says US-based Cisco, a networking equipment and network management provider for the Internet, it has renewed its focus on SMBs. It is offering them technology solutions that are business-led and solutions-driven rather than just product-focused. Its combination of mobile van marketing campaign along with easy financial aid has worked well for the company in reaching out to SMBs in tier-II and III cities, says Cisco. Delivered largely through its partner network, this focus enables SMBs to stay abreast of technology, according to the company. (Cisco defines an SMB as a company with 200 or less personal computers.) N Raj, Vice-President, Sales-South, Cisco India, shares details with eWorld.
Technology adoption: The SMB is the fastest growing segment for Cisco in India. SMBs are maturing to the point of seeing inherent value in IT investments.

13 July 2009
Financial Chronicle: Cisco to Focus on Small Businesses
Communications and IT solutions provider, Cisco is eyeing the small and medium businesses (SMB) to boost the managed services offerings. The managed services space is witnessing a lot of competition with companies looking at outsourcing the network management to cut cost. Vikram Sharma, business lead-managed services, Cisco India said the company is strongly focusing in the SMB space. He said financial institutions and education sector are the other areas that are witnessing significant attraction. "SMB space is underserved. But we see a shift now, where SMBs are looking at outsourcing the services and we want to take this opportunity," he said. According to research firm Forrester, the total addressable managed services opportunity in India will be worth $8.27 billion by 2013, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19 percent. Managed services is expected to be a $190 billion market by 2013 worldwide.

12 July 2009
The Hindu: Go for green IT strategy
It needs wise design solutions to minimise energy consumption. Hardware can be tweaked by using higher quality silicon. On the software side, use single operating system. Thinking green is not a choice anymore, and technology is no exception to this rule. So can the large, wiry entangled server that holds the reins to your entire network help arrest global warming? Yes, certainly. When digitisation rendered the office paper-free, greens rejoiced, only to soon realise that mammoth servers and networks that run the show are but huge energy sinks. While a large amount of research has concentrated on mainframes and server data centres, what about the networks that connect our systems? Increasing energy use and related costs have left technologists scrambling for solutions that are energy-efficient, let's say "green." But how much difference can these micro readjustments really make? Quite a bit, it seems, and this goes much beyond the four walls of a data centre. Take networking firm CISCO's Connected Real Estate (CRE) that connects an entire estate through an inter-operable building management solution over an IP backbone. In simple words, the network running your elevator, alarm system and your water pump will possibly be integrated. 

09 July 2009
Reuters: Multinational Companies Expand Tech R&D in India
Global technology companies are stepping up their research and development work in India. Here are some of the things they have been doing:

• MICROSOFT: Microsoft employs 1,500 people at its Indian R&D center. It started off with 20 people about a decade ago. Some of the work for key Microsoft projects such as its search engine Bing and the upcoming Windows 7 operating system was done in India.
• CISCO SYSTEMS: Cisco has filed more than 600 patents from India.

09 July 2009
Reuters: Timeline-The Rise of Multinational IT in India
Multinational companies have been setting up information technology operations in India for more than 20 years. Following are some highlights of the move:

• 1988: Intel starts its Indian operations by setting up a sales office in Bangalore.
• 1989: Hewlett-Packard begins R&D work in India.
• 1993: Oracle, one of the first multinationals to set up an Indian back-office operation, launches a wholly owned subsidiary in India to develop its software programs.

2006:

• Cisco establishes Globalisation Centre East in Bangalore
• IBM announces plans to invest nearly $6 billion in India over three years, underscoring the country's growing importance as a global hub for information technology expertise.
• German software maker SAP says it will invest $1 billion over the next five years in India to expand operations and double its headcount.

09 July 2009
Reuters: Allure of R&D Draws Tech Giants to India
As the world prepared for the launch of Intel's server processor Xeon 7400 last September, engineers in Bangalore - dubbed the Silicon Valley of India- were putting the finishing touches on what would become the company's best-performing server chip yet. The chip was designed end-to-end by Intel Corp's digital enterprise group in Bangalore. Increasingly, the Indian arms of multinational tech giants are working on global brands such as Microsoft Corp's search engine Bing, its upcoming Windows 7 operating system and Google Inc's Map Maker. In 2006, Cisco established its Globalisation Centre East in Bangalore for, among other reasons, "its proximity to 70 percent of the world's population within a five-hour flight," said Chief Globalization Officer Wim Elfrink."The focus is to tap the intellectual talent, growth opportunities and innovation," said Elfrink, who is based in Bangalore and reports to CEO John Chambers. So far, the company has filed more than 600 patents from India, Elfrink said. India's R&D labs are second only to the United States for many of these technology firms.

09 July 2009
Business Standard : Cisco Eyes Bigger Pie in Edu, Manufacturing Sectors
Networking and information technology giant, Cisco, expects a bigger share of business from education and manufacturing sectors and is in the process of customising new solutions for its clients. So far, banking and financial services (BFSI) has been Cisco's main revenue driver. Kumar G B, senior vice-president - services of Cisco, said, "A large number of our clients going forward would be the new IITs and IIMs, and other technical universities especially in the North East. Their basic requirement is campus connectivity, building technology-savvy laboratories, and training products."
Note: Post Kolkata interaction

07 July 2009
The Hindu: Semiconductor Firms See Big Opportunities
Semiconductor companies in India, many of which have been adversely impacted by the economic crisis, see hope for the sector in the proposed Unique Identification Project. The allocation of Rs. 120 crore for this smart card-based project will not only benefit those directly involved in the project but also result in the wider use of smart card technologies. President of the Indian Semiconductor Industry Poornima Shenoy said that the project will boost the domestic chip design industry. "Depending on the type of chip used and extent of back-end automation, the total demand for chips for the semiconductor industry could be up by approximately $ 1 billion over the period of the project (five years)," she explained. Naresh Wadhwa, president and country manager, Cisco-India, points to the UID and the formation of a Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) in Bangalore to process electronically filed tax returns which will enable effective delivery of public services through public private partnerships. Jaswinder Ahuja, corporate vice-president and managing director, Cadence Design Systems, feels it will set the tone for future public-private partnerships as well. "Apart from establishing a foundation to deliver better governance it creates new opportunities for the semiconductor sector."

07 July 2009
IndiaTechOnline: Union Budget: Reactions to Actions
There is a story about a former Chief Minister of the state of Karnataka - whose capital, Bangalore was then, slowly morphing into the national's infotech capital.
Cisco: Naresh Wadhwa, President and Country Manager - India and SAARC
On the face of it, the budget put forth by the government is positive and focuses on inclusive development. It is encouraging, especially the fact that there is a thrust on infrastructure development, rural development, education and social welfare. The impetus to infrastructure development - both urban and rural - is a highly visible and much welcome component of this budget. Leveraging technology as a tool for accountability, better governance, in business and administration is a step in the right direction. The allocation of funds for e-governance investment schemes like the unique identity number for every Indian and the formation of a Centralized Processing Centre (CPC) in Bengaluru to process electronically filed tax returns will enable effective delivery of public services through public private partnerships. The increased budgetary provision for the scheme 'Mission in Education through ICT' will help take the benefits of IT to the grass roots in a critical sector like education. The 'Aam Aadmi' i.e. individual tax payer will definitely appreciate the abolition of Fringe Benefit Tax and raised exemption limit for income tax."

06 July 2009
The Financial Express: New Age Services to Citizens
In the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit, the Prime Minister expressed his desire to intensify reforms and development in the areas of energy, security, infrastructure development, agriculture, transportation, science and technology and education. The outlook provided by the Union government is positive and we seem to be heading in the right direction. The message is clear: the emphasis is on growth and development. The Indian economy has displayed robustness and has been one of the better performers in the world in recent years. However, driving growth in times of recession is a challenge for the government at the moment. For India to move ahead in the global economy, the need of the hour is incentives that will attract more investments and create a cascading effect resulting in growth and inclusion. Large corporates too have realised the need to appreciate and address the growing demands of the local market. According to the IDC India report, the share of the IT services and ITeS for the domestic market is expected to rise from 31.7% in 2008 to 41.9% in 2013, signaling the increasing focus of enterprises on local market needs. The new phase of growth will see IT vendors helping enterprises and government design and deliver 'new age' services to citizens by leveraging their existing IT infrastructure.
Naresh Wadhwa, President and Country Manager, Cisco India & SAARC

03 July 2009
VarIndia: Cisco Introduces Highest Level of Certification
With many existing certifications focused on point technologies, architect-level certifications bring together project management, business needs analysis. Responding to strong customer and market demand to recognize the architectural expertise of network designers, Cisco today introduced the Cisco Certified Architect, the highest level of accreditation achievable within Cisco Career Certifications. Advanced technologies such as Cisco Unified Communications, Cisco TelePresence and mobility are converging and increasing the opportunities for innovation and collaboration while adding to the complexity of enterprise networks. According to IDC," With many existing certifications focused on point technologies, architect-level certifications bring together project management, business needs analysis, and IT elements into a true solutions framework and validate a candidate's ability to address planning, design, interoperability, and connectivity issues."

02 July 2009
Businesswireindia: DFJ and Cisco Announce Husk Power Systems as Winner of Global Business Plan Competition
Team will Receive $250,000 Investment from DFJ and Cisco to take Alternative Power Technology to Next Level. Leading global venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and Cisco today announced Husk Power Systems as the winner of their first co-sponsored Global Business Plan Competition for university and business school students. Husk Power Systems designs and operates miniature power plants that convert rice husks into electricity, serving off-grid rural Indian villages. The team will receive a $250,000 investment from DFJ and Cisco to help take the company to the next stage. This is the first time the competition was aimed at a global market and hosted in six countries, a milestone made possible by both DFJ's Global Network and Cisco TelePresence^TM. Cisco TelePresence enables live, face-to-face collaboration through a set of advanced technologies and seamless network communications experience. Sixteen finalist teams across the globe presented business plans from their local TelePresence suite to a panel of San Jose-based judges composed of venture capitalists from DFJ and its Global Network Funds and executives from Cisco's Corporate Development team.

02 July 2009
The Financial Express: Budget Cues
It is going to be a tough balancing act for Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as he gets ready to present the Budget. He has not only to come up with policies to kickstart the demand, but also to make sure that the fiscal deficit of 6% of GDP does not increase further. For Corporate India, the forthcoming Budget raises higher expectations than the previous budgets. "The extension of the tax holiday beyond 2010 for at least three more years would enable the Indian IT sector to compete with other countries globally. These incentives should especially help the small and medium businesses, a key growth sector that accounts for 40% of the exports from software technology parks," says Naresh Wadhwa, president and country manager, Cisco India and SAARC.

02 July 2009
Express computer: Security Beyond Guns, Guards and Gates
Leveraging IT to secure the physical infrastructure will allow lives to be saved while bringing down the overall cost of securing the infrastructure. In recent years, terrorists have moved beyond targeting busy markets and cramped trains, to attacking luxury hotels, malls, hospitals, schools and office complexes. In the aftermath of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, both the government and private sector have increased their spending on surveillance. They are charting out new plans to tackle emergencies and deploying new disaster management initiatives. City surveillance has emerged as a key concern. The heightened security climate has led to the increased consumption of security products. The security market is growing at a 20-30% annually. As per an Assocham repot, the security industry should reach Rs 50, 000 crore by 2011; it was an Rs 22, 000 crore industry as of December 2008. Companies are likely to increase their security budgets by 35-40%. According to Frost & Sullivan, the CCTV cameras and systems market was worth Rs 525 crores in CY 2008. Suprabhat Chatterjee, VP Infrastructure & Physical Safety & Security, Cisco India & SAARC, said, "Cameras have been there for a while but the market is transitioning from analog to digital IP systems. The concept of network as a platform is driving IP technology deployments. People are shifting from just prevention to making the system disaster proof. You need the network as a platform to integrate all of your key assets and then tie them back to the various responding agencies like the fire fighting system, ambulance, emergency response vehicles etc."

30 June 2009
Mid Day: Thinking Beyond IT
While IT czars are asking for sops to help revive the ailing industry, some experts believe IT will recover only when the rest of the manufacturing sector does. Even though the Prime Minister has asked the Finance Minister to come up with a budget for the aam aadmi, but still the IT industry hopes to get some benefits from the budget, which will be presented this Friday. Saiprasad Rao, CEO of Digant Technologies, feels that it is not possible for the IT industry to recover on its own. IT will need support from the manufacturing sector especially the auto industry to improve. "The government should provide a stimulus to make the whole industry grow. IT cannot stand on its own because it depends on other industries," he says. Will he swing IT? Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will present budget on Friday. Naresh Wadhwa, president and country manager (India and SAARC), Cisco, also echoes these thoughts. "A tax holiday incentive being introduced for the infrastructure sector at large, for power projects, and other large-scale development initiatives, would increase commitment from the industry leaders in these spaces to play more active roles," he says.

30 June 2009
CXOToday: Cisco Introduces Highest Level of Certification
With many existing certifications focused on point technologies, architect-level certifications bring together project management, business needs analysis. Responding to strong customer and market demand to recognize the architectural expertise of network designers, Cisco today introduced the Cisco Certified Architect, the highest level of accreditation achievable within Cisco Career Certifications. Advanced technologies such as Cisco Unified Communications, Cisco TelePresence and mobility are converging and increasing the opportunities for innovation and collaboration while adding to the complexity of enterprise networks. According to IDC, "With many existing certifications focused on point technologies, architect-level certifications bring together project management, business needs analysis, and IT elements into a true solutions framework and validate a candidate's ability to address planning, design, interoperability, and connectivity issues."

26 June 2009
The Financial Express: Mobile Advertising Market to See 55% Y-O-Y Growth
Analysts say 22% companies are expected to increase their mobile advertising spend in FY 2009 as compared to 15% companies that did so in FY2008. Telecom and FMCG sectors are investing around Rs 20 crore to Rs 35 crore on this medium to communicate their product messages in rural areas. Deval Parikh, chief officer, handsets, value added services and procurement, Virgin Mobile (India) said, "The year-on-year growth of mobile digital advertising market is expected to be 55%. Digital advertising is still in a nascent stage in India and brands are in the experimental stage with a focus to reach remote areas. " Digital advertising space grew by about 74% in 2008-09 to reach Rs 680 crore and is expected to be Rs 5,390 crore by 2011. Of Rs 680 crore, wireless application protocol based advertising was about 30% of the mobile ad market, while opt-in SMS contributed 10% of the market share. Chandan Mendiratta, VP, service provider-system engineering, Cisco India & SAARC said, "With increasing mobile penetration in India, mobile digital advertising will be critical in reaching rural audience. Cisco is developing a new network-centric approach that allows real-time market segmentation enabling mobile operators to gain new revenues in the mobile advertising space. "

23 June 2009
CXOtoday.com: India Needs More Incentives: Naresh Wadhwa
Talking on the lines of Pre-budget 2009, Naresh Wadhwa, president and country manager, Cisco had the following to comment. "The Indian economy has been one of the better performers in the world in recent years. However, driving growth in challenging times is the agenda of the government at the moment. For India to lead the global economy, the need of the hour is incentives that will attract more investments and create a cascading effect resulting in growth and inclusion. The extension of the tax holiday beyond 2010 for at least three more years would enable the Indian IT sector to compete with other countries globally. These incentives should especially help the small and medium businesses, a key growth sector that accounts for 40% of the exports from software technology parks"

22 June 2009
Express Computer: Integrated Services Routers and Gigabit Ethernet
Convergence is the mantra when it comes to networking equipment for SMBs. Like enterprises, SMBs are also focusing on using technology to improve efficiency, enable faster decision-making, enhance productivity and increase profitability. Since SMB networks are small without any legacy technology these organizations are on the threshold of adopting the latest technology such as VPN for remote connectivity, MPLS networks as their backbone etc.
Cabling: Cisco Catalyst Express 500 & 520 Series
Features: These switches are designed to meet the needs of growing businesses with up to 250 employees. This family of Layer 2-managed Fast Ethernet switches offers non-blocking, wire-speed performance and provides a secure network foundation optimized for data, wireless, and IP communications. The Cisco Catalyst Express 500 also offers options for Power over Ethernet (PoE) to help reduce the cost and complexity of IP communications and enable new uses for the Ethernet network.
Routers: Cisco 1800 Series Integrated Routers
Features: Products in this family of Integrated Services Routers combine data, security, and wireless services in a single device. This series supports WAN interfaces, integrated WAN backup, wireless networking, voice, security, and VPN. There are seven models with multiple networking options for local or remote connections, offering features that give businesses flexibility for expansion.
Wireless Routers: Cisco Aironet 1130AG Series
Features: it is designed for WLAN coverage in offices and similar RF environments. This access point features integrated antennas and dual IEEE.802.11a/g radios for robust and predictable coverage, delivering a combined capacity of 108 Mbps.

20 June 2009
Dataquest: Build the Building Blocks
Naresh Wadhwa, President & Country Manager, India & SAARC, Cisco
When it comes to IT, what are the most important tasks before the government?

• Acceleration of deployment of telecom infrastructure such as broadband and Wimax
• Deployment of IT in all governance areas including citizen services, security and inter governmental functions
• Extension of STPI scheme and other sops to boost recession-hit exports industry

What, according to you, are the three most important steps that you want from the new government that would help the cause of IT in India?

• Announce a MEGA project to increase broadband penetration for the current level of 6 mn to at least 150 mn by the year 2014 (China is already at 75 mn today)
• Monitor and execute the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) on a mission mode and time bound manner and spend the $10 bn allocated for NeGP without delays
• Use IT for improving delivery mechanism of government schemes and plug leaky pipes

20 June 2009
Dataquest: Cisco Gets Aggressive
During hard times, you run double fast; keeping this mantra in mind, in its three-day Partner Summit, Cisco unveiled one offering after another for various business segments.
Focus on Small Business: Elaborating on the importance of small businesses, Rick Moran, VP, small business networking, Cisco said, Small businesses are essential since 70% of all new jobs that are created worldwide are done in this segment. They are also able to capitalize on economic growth faster than any large company. Adding to that Ian Pennel, senior VP, small business technology, Cisco said, In the small business segment one size does not fit all. That is the reason why we have more than hundred products already available as our offering for the segment. And to add further value proposition for our partners, we are launching these new products under the Cisco SB Pro series and all the Linksys products are being rebranded as Cisco SB products.

20 June 2009
Dataquest: Environment Day Special: Good Enough, Green Enough?
Companies like Cisco offer some beans to count too. Ciscos environment sustainability target is to reduce its absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 and 25% of its emissions in 2007. It also talks about its 2006 Clinton Global Initiative Carbon-to-Collaboration commitment for reducing emissions from business air travel by 10% of the emissions in FY 06. It is using its own network-based collaboration products to cut down on business travel. Even though Ciscos headcount and revenue have increased by at least 40% since 2006, year-to-year GHG emissions from air travel have decreased from 4% in 2007 to less than 1% in 2008, claims the company. Cisco has 480 TelePresence rooms across the world. So far there have been 3,04,037 meetings, of which 56,896 meetings avoided travel, saving Cisco $224 mn. It also claims that its global supply chain management realized over $3 mn in annual cost savings through manufacturing efficiency.

20 June 2009
Dataquest: Tug of War
It is a time when companies are tightening their purse strings where IT purchases are concerned. In such a scenario, the government sector is one area that has not really taken a hit due to the global economic slowdown.
Speaking on the issue, R Dhamodaran, senior VP, channel operations and commercial strategy, India and SAARC, Cisco states, Cisco does its business full-fledged through its partners in India. Partners are the route to market for the company. Each partner, which Cisco has in its ecosystem, has a unique value proposition which it brings to the business not only for Cisco but also for the customer. We invest a lot on partner development in terms of designing programs, not only to enhance the partner profitability but also to help them move up the value chain and make them more focused towards solution selling.

19 June 2009
The Statesman: Outside the Box
Cisco India's Women Action Newtwork creates opportunities for career development, mentoring/ coaching, leadership development, work/life balance and community outreach. The theme of the third annual Cisco Connected Women Leadership Forum was to celebrate women as innovators across different fields and the key objectives were to establish and develop a network of professional women, share perspectives on topics such as women as leaders in technology and as entrepreneurs, expand professional relationships by networking with colleagues and customers and share common interests and collaborate with other women in business and technology. Pallavi Muralidhara, senior manager in IP Communications Business Unit at Cisco, is responsible for a large engineering team working on VoIP soft switch. And she has successfully started the Women Action Network, an ERG which addresses gender based diversity initiative at Cisco India. She has also initiated many career developments and students' focused initiatives and is passionate about training and mentoring. "The Cisco Connected Women Leadership Forum is an initiative of Cisco India's Women's Action Network, which is an internal Cisco employee network, " she says. Launched in November 2004 with the broad vision "to contribute to the strategic effort to enhance Cisco's success in attracting, developing and retaining talented women employees ", Wan's goal is to leverage the talent of Cisco's women employees and create opportunities for career development, mentoring/coaching, leadership development, work/life balance and community outreach. Wan has also focused on networking with the broader women's community. Wan India has more than 350 employees as members. Its activities are strategised and executed by a core team of volunteers spearheaded by Wan leads, with the guidance of executive sponsors and thought leaders. Volunteers develop programmes in line with business guidelines and employee-needs in the context of the local culture. The executive sponsors provide thought leadership, business direction and funding for such initiatives.

18 June 2009
India Knowledge@Wharton: Indian IT Plugs into a Growing Market of Small and Midsize Enterprises
Bharat Goenka, managing director of the Bangalore-based Tally Solutions, is fond of repeating his late father's vision for the organization. In that vision, S.S. Goenka acknowledged only two types of businesses in India: Those that used Tally software and those that one day would. With the recent launch of "Tally.ERP 9," the company's enterprise resource planning software for small and midsize enterprises (SMEs), Goenka believes he has moved a step closer to his father's vision. Only time will tell how many Indian SMEs will become Tally customers. But Goenka's confidence reflects the sector's enormous potential for the adoption of IT. "We estimate that there are eight million SMEs in India that can afford information technology," Goenka says. "Our target is that all eight million must become Tally customers over the next three years." Goenka expects Tally.ERP 9 to drive revenue growth at the company from around US$60 million in 2008-2009 to around US$200 million in 2009-2010. He eyes US$1 billion in the not-too-distant future IT vendors have their own definitions. Cisco Systems, the networking supply and management firm, defines an Indian SME as one with fewer than 200 personal computers. Dell defines it as an organization with fewer than 500 employees. Wipro defines it as an organization with annual revenues of less than US$200 million. The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) quotes the Zinnov numbers in its Strategic Review 2009.
A Vast Market by Any Definition: This ambiguity doesn't trouble anyone. As Ravi Bharadwaj, head of Dell India's SME division, says: "The numbers, whatever they may be, are huge. PC penetration in the country is itself abysmally low (2% to 3%) and so the potential the SMEs hold for IT adoption is simply enormous." According to Pramodh Menon, "Our interest is not so much in the size of the market but more in how we get even a small portion of that market."

17 June 2009
Biztech2.0: Cisco Launches Innovative Branch Solution
Cisco's Innovative Branch Solution aims to offer personalized services to banking customers.

15 June 2009
DQ Channels Online: Cisco Gets Aggressive About Small Businesses & UC
'During hard times, you run faster to keep pace,' keeping that mantra in mind, in its three-day Partner Summit, Cisco unveiled one offering after the other for various business segments. Whether it was unified communication or small business, a big solutions provider or a reseller they unveiled products, trainings and new partner programs. The partner summit had something for everyone. While elaborating about the importance of small business (SB), Rick Moran, VP-Small Business Networking, Cisco said, "Small businesses are essential since 70 percent of all new jobs that are created worldwide are done in this segment. Also SBs are able to capitalize on economic growth faster than any large company." Adding further Ian Pennel, Sr VP-SB Technology, Cisco said, "In the SB segment one size does not fit all. That is the reason why we have more than 100 products already available as our offering for the segment. And to add further value proposition for our partners, we are launching new products under Cisco SB Pro series and all the Linksys products are being rebranded as Cisco SB products." The new Small Business Pro line-up includes the ESW 500 Series switch and the SPA8800 IP Telephony gateway, which allows customers to connect their open source IP PBX to existing analogue phones and fax machines.

13 June 2009
Outlook Business: A Green Evolution
Indian companies are feeling the pressure to go green, as many of their Western counterparts are building environmental sustainability into their business practices. For example, Wal-Mart, which annually imports over $3 billion in goods from Indian suppliers, recently asked them to adopt green practices or risk losing the retail giant as a customer. For Indian companies, there are other compelling reasons to develop environmentally conscious practices. As leading companies know, going green, if done right, helps companies bolster their fortunes
Committing To Green: While going green can prove a critical source of competitive advantage, it's easier said than done. To achieve real fi nancial benefi ts, Indian companies, like those elsewhere, need to follow certain key practices. Above all, they must commit to a green philosophy and incorporate environmentally sustainable practices into their product lifecycle and supply chain operations. In order to go green, a company's senior management and employees must believe in the philosophy, and commit themselves to implementing it. For example, at Cisco, CEO John Chambers and team are pushing in various green initiatives such as 'let's talk Cisco green', bike-to-work day, preferred parking for hybrid cars, educational videos and green websites. These programmes have helped Cisco build a sustainable culture and formulate a strong green policy. Leading companies in India are also committing themselves to the green cause. For example, Wipro recently launched Eco Eye, an ecological sustainability initiative that, among other things, ensures that the firm does not do business at the cost of ecology. Wipro is increasingly focusing on energy efficiency and effective e-waste management.

12 June 2009
Deccan Herald: What Makes Women Innovative?
Their capability for multi-tasking and ability to work around a problem has perhaps made women more innovative than men at the workplace, says L Subramani after attending a women entrepreneurs' meet held recently. Women entrepreneurs held a discussion on innovation in business at the conference. Watching a group of women leaders discuss how they fashioned their careers and business opportunities, some of which were virtually non-existent a decade or two ago, you tend not to question the female sex's innovative qualities. Sure, there are stories galore of how homemakers would make sumptuous dishes fashioned out of limited stocks in the kitchen in a crisis. But put them in any challenging position, women are quite capable of repeating the magic. Hemu Ramaiah fancied doing her own business aged just 20, at a time when girls of her age would have felt contended with a job and a happy married life. What more, she had a 'template' of how her business should progress and when exactly she would press the exit button "In the mid 1980s (when the idea of starting Landmark was taking shape), 60 per cent of books you would see in the stores were textbooks," Hemu told her audience at the Cisco Women Action Network conference held recently. "That was something we wanted to change through Landmark. Indeed, in the most trying of economic circumstances (during the balance of payment crises) I was abroad searching for the most unusual of titles with the hope that it would fetch me the money when people start looking for it in my stores."

11 June 2009
The Financial Express: Cisco Adds to Media-Enabled Home with New Linksys
Cisco announced the Linksys by Cisco Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router (WRT320N), designed for consumers to create a media enabled network at home. Equipped with Cisco's media optimized networking technology, the WRT320N is a great choice for families that demand more from their wireless network. Streaming a movie wirelessly into your living room becomes reality with this latest addition to Cisco's consumer wireless networking portfolio. The router comes with Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) support. WPS is an optional certification program from the Wi-Fi Alliance that is designed to make devices on wireless local area networks more secure and to make the set up as easy as possible. The WRT320N features a button that enables consumers to add additional devices to their network by simply pushing it and the corresponding button on the other certified product.

11 June 2009
The Financial Express: Scaling the Mobile Internet
Over the years, we have witnessed how Internet, especially the advent of Web 2.0, has brought about a paradigm shift in the way we think, feel and go about our lives. Compelling applications like Blogspot, Facebook and Youtube have led to a dramatic increase in user-produced content, further magnifying the power of Internet. A recent research by JuxtConsult estimates that over 32 million people in India use the Internet daily to shop online, check prices of products, look for jobs or simply connect with their friends and family. This despite the fact that Internet penetration is largely restricted to urban areas! (Of the 47 million Internet users, 39 million are based in urban areas, while only 8 million reside in the rural.

10 June 2009
CIOL: Cisco 'Innovates' for Future Banking
Cisco, the global leader in networking, today announced its Innovative Branch solutions that aims to optimizes branch offices and customize branch networks to meet their unique business needs. Cisco's Innovative Branch Solution (CIBS) intends to help banks increase customer intimacy and wallet share, raise cross-sell and up-sell success ratio along with increase in staff's efficiency and productivity. Overall, it focuses on creating the next generation customer experience for the bank customers. CIBS comprises Self-service: Convenience Banking, Premium Banking, Personalized Multi-media Marketing and Remote Consultation and collaboration with the virtual banker for effective cross-selling. Either the bank can deploy the full solution or can pick the required module as per the requirement. Purely, the solution is designed for cash-less transactions in branches of banks and it works on IP-based networks. According to Anil Bhasin, senior vice president - West, Cisco India and SAARC, the relationship of Cisco with the BFSI sector has been as a networking vendor providing routers and switches, which is more on the back end from the technology perspective.

10 June 2009
Communications Today: Higher Profits through Unified Communication
On the current scenario of the voice solutions market
VoIP, in India is a unique market especially to services offering price advantages to users. The top Indian enterprises are bridging the gap of market understanding and capturing any possibility. VoIP is growing at a phenomenal rate globally and is picking up in the Indian market.
On the growth drivers of the Indian voice solutions market

• Increase in adoption of converged networks by corporate
• Fall in communications costs (local and international) through other devices (landlines, mobiles etc.)
  
• Increase of traffic minutes within and from India

Customers are looking at unified communications to improve their business processes which results in higher revenues and profits. Minhaj Zia, National Sales Manager, Cisco India & SAARC. "Although IP is being accepted as the next wave in communication across all enterprise segments, some of the key industries that are first movers include IT/ITeS, BFSI, government and manufacturing."

09 June 2009
CXO Today: Cisco Connects the Assam University
Established in 1994, Assam University provides higher education to students via a multidisciplinary approach. A teaching-cum-affiliating university, today the university has nine schools covering disciplines such as social sciences, humanities, languages, life sciences, physical sciences, technology, environmental sciences, information sciences, and management studies, with 29 departments under it. Additionally, it has 51 undergraduate colleges under five districts.
Plan: Due to the non-availability of technical expertise, Assam University constituted a technical committee comprising senior scientists at the university, solution vendors, and other experts who prepared a roadmap or a consulting bill of material. Since there was no existing infrastructure, the technical committee visualised a campus wide network that would enable students and faculty to access the Internet and Internet based resources. The LAN would offer secure, uninterrupted connectivity and security to department members. The aim of the deployment was to ensure better communication between the various departments as well as fast data transfers.

09 June 2009
The Financial Express: Draper Fisher, Cisco Plan Global Contest for Students
Early-stage venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and Cisco announced that each company will utilise its extensive global reach to jointly launch a global business plan competition for students aimed at fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. The competition will rely on Cisco TelePresence, which enables collaboration through a live, face-to-face network communications experience, to allow finalists from around the world to present their business plans in real time to a joint panel of DFJ and Cisco executives based in San Jose. For the past four years, DFJ has held only regional competitions.

08 June 2009
The Hindu Business Line: Recession Should Not Narrow Focus
During a downturn, it is common for top managers to narrow down their focus to what they think is essential to running the business. But it pays to do the opposite and do more, says Ron Ricci, Vice-President, Corporate Positioning, Cisco Inc. "In any organisation, operational efficiencies and innovation drive growth. In times like this (recession), many think that a focus on operational efficiencies should take precedence over innovation. But you need to do both," said Ricci while speaking on collaboration at a CEO round table organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry in Hyderabad.

08 June 2009
The Economic Times: India Inc Goes Green to Save More
Green is the new black as Indian companies step up their efforts to turn environment-friendly and cut costs thereof. Power savings, density computing, virtualisation, accurate air-conditioning and cheap printing are some of the measures being adopted by enterprises to save both on their costs and, of course, emission levels. Small is all the more beautiful it can help being cost-effective. Cisco is discovering that by reducing the font size in its product manuals. Cisco now saves $1 million in printing costs and 22 million sheets of paper annually by just reducing font size. Other big move by Cisco is converting paper manuals to CDs, thus saving 2.7 million sheets of paper a year

08 June 2009
The Times of India - Bangalore edition: Telepresence, New Corporate Cost Cutting Tool
The airline and hotel industries have been hit hard by the global economic slowdown as corporates cut travel budgets. But their proverbial loss has spelt gain for another sector: makers of video gear. Rather than getting executives to travel on work, companies are increasingly choosing the cheaper alternative: telepresence. Telepresence is the next-gen videoconferencing technology. Marketers claim that unlike the poor quality of image provided by an ordinary videoconferencing machine, telepresence provides far superior images. Companies like Polycom, Hewlett Packard (HP), Cisco, Tandberg and Tata Communications are cheering the healthy demand for their telepresence solutions, as it brings down travel costs by 30%. For instance, Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest private sector employer that has more than 1.4 lakh employees, notes in its annual report of 2008-09 that the cost of overseas travel have been reduced after it increased videoconferencing. What also makes the trend attractive is that it has a green side--the reduction of a company's carbon footprint. Executives of IT companies are responsible for high rates of carbon emission among corporates as they fly most frequently Cisco's Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior, on the screen, addresses the audience Telepresence technology at the launch of Connected Women Leadership Forum at the Cisco Globalization Center campus in Bangalore, India, Wednesday, May 27, 2009. Cisco is a supplier of networking equipment and network management for the Internet.ings are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to telepresence ROI. Today,the time saved by not travelling is more valuable than dollars saved."Polycom is the world's largest conferencing equipment maker.

06 June 2009
Voice & Data 100: Reason to Rejoice
TelePresence - With growing awareness came increased adoption, as seen in the 62% growth clocked by the segment. The audio video segment seemed to have escaped the wrath of the economic showdown. Total revenue stood at around Rs 230 crore in FY 2008 - 09 up 62% from Rs 142 crore in FY 2007-08. Polycom with the largest market share of 43.5% remained the top performer in the Indian AVC segment. The company saw most of its business coming from oil and gas sector. Tandberg followed Polycom with a market share of 15.2%. Cisco with 10.5% market share was the third leading performer in this segment. Cisco's revenue came from the TelePresence business, where it was the top performer. Cisco installed more than fifty TelePresence units in FY 2008-09. But with video being sensitive to bandwidth, there are a lot of issues which have surfaced in India. Even Cisco's TelePresence requires a minimum of 224 Mbps to run smoothly as against 512 Kbps for video conferencing. Cisco claims that AVC in the coming years will see three-dimensional holographic meetings replacing videoconferencing. Three - dimensional holographic conferencing will be first used at large expositions and conferences, and would later trickle down to enterprises.

06 June 2009
Voice & Data 100: Sustaining Tough Times
WLAN - The segment managed a 28.6% growth, which is attributed to cost advantage of wireless network access and security. The acceleration of enterprise adoption of WLAN technology is radically transforming, the network edge, datacenters and centralized data control. WLAN serves as a boon to organizations as it helps in saving wiring and maintenance costs by providing wireless mesh technology at the network distribution and access layer. According to VOICE&DATA estimates, the current WLAN market stands at Rs 270 crore in FY 209 - 09 as compared to Rs 210 crore in the FY 2007 - 08. Despite the economic downturn, revenue has managed a 28.6% growth, which is attributed to cost advantage of wireless network access and security. Though there is a negative growth of -2% in the revenue of Cisco for FY 2008-09, the company retained its leadership position in the WLAN segment. Cisco recorded revenue of Rs 90 crore in FY 2008-09 as against Rs 91.8 crore in FY 2007-08. And a market share of 33.3%. technology additions have dominated market trends during the last fiscal. Cisco has announced its new 802.11n access points, the Aironet 1140 Series, Wi-Fi certified 802.11n Draft 2.0 platform that expands Cisco's portfolio of next generation wireless solutions.

06 June 2009
The Hindu Business Line: IT Cos Increase Focus on Green Initiatives
For an increasing number of corporate organisations the world over, it is making sense to go green. India's IT sector is no exception. Not surprisingly, as a recent report by the United Nations Environment Programme observes, investment in green energy ($140 billion) in 2008 was higher than that in gas and coal-based power generation ($110 billion). More than 80 percent of electricity used by US-based computer networking equipment maker Cisco Systems Ltd's European operations is renewable. In the US, about 32.5 percent of their operations come from hydropower, wind and biomass projects, Cisco said. The company expects to reduce its absolute greenhouse gas emission by 25 percent by 2012 based on its 2007 baseline emissions.

05 June 2009
Mid Day: Environment: IT Should Do More
Too much talk backed by too little action means that many companies speak about the environment but do precious little about it, say researchers. The environment is a serious topic and so I thought I would start with something that, while not exactly a joke, is at least semi serious. While looking for cartoons on this topic, I came across an illustration that explained why the best efforts fail when we try to go green. This cartoon depicted two people looking at a lot of chopped trees, with one of them telling the other, 'they had to cut down all the trees to print all the bailout money needed to create green jobs to save the environment'
Holding that team meeting online would be the first step to saving our planet. Rich-media web collaboration tools (data, audio and video sharing) render this experience as interactively rich as a personal meeting - Kiran Datar, MD, Cisco WebEx Communications.

04 June 2009
DQ Channels: Cisco Unveils Partner Stimulus Package
Acknowledging the importance of channel in their scheme of things, at the annual Cisco Partner Summit in Boston, the company unveiled a slew of initiatives and made additions to some of its channel partner programs. Starting his keynote by summing up the events of last year Keith Goodwin, Senior VP-Worldwide Channels, Cisco said, "What a year it has been from the last partner summit to this one. The current economic scenario has made us shift all our priorities on to the partners and the result of which is the 'Navigate to Accelerate' initiative. As part of the initiative Cisco will focus on four key things-finance, customer base, future and changing needs." Among the slew on announcements that Goodwin made, the one that got most cheers was the financial stimulus package that Cisco announced under which not only will Cisco help its partners in managing their credit and cash flow but will also provide its select partners with enhanced credit period.

04 June 2009
The Hindu Business Line: Cisco to Invest $2 Billion in Modi's GIFT
Coming out of the shadows after almost a year, the contours of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious Rs 73,000-crore Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) project have started emerging in a big way. The state government has roped-in American networking and technology giant Cisco Systems as one of its strategic partners. "We have signed an MoU with Cisco to make an investment in GIFT today and help us evolve our technology platform. The American giant is likely to invest over $2 billion in the project," a top government official of GIFT said. Cisco is also expected to pick up some stake in the project. However, the details are still being worked and it will take about three-four months to finalise the deal, the official added. When contacted, a Cisco spokesperson declined to comment on any investment-related or stake-related matters.

04 June 2009
Mint: Women in Multinationals: 25% in India, 43% in China
The percentage of women in multinational companies in India is just 25% compared with 42.9% in China, a study has found. In the four countries where the Gender Diversity Benchmark for Asia study was done, the proportion of women in multinationals across junior, middle and senior management levels was the lowest in India. The proportion of women employees in Japan and Singapore is 33.8% and 43.8%, respectively. The study-conducted by Diversity and Inclusion in Asia Network, a part of the Hong Kong-based non-profit Community Business-had a small sample size of 11 multinational firms, including Microsoft Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. and Standard Chartered Plc. It was presented at a conference on Wednesday. Women's participation in the organized workforce in India is lower than in the other countries due to historic, traditional and cultural reasons, says Subash A.K. Rao, director of human resources at Cisco's India arm. "They (the other countries) have had their women participate in the organized workforce earlier than us (Indians). It is a journey... and we are only going up."

04 June 2009
The Economic Times: Different Cloud Computing Standards a Huge Challenge
The lack of agreement on standards may put the best technology bet to cut costs at the disposal of Indian companies in these tough times - cloud computing - under the cloud. Even as the technology, that moves applications on the Internet cloud - hence called cloud computing -has caught the imagination of enterprises, there are signs of thunderstorms brewing within competing cloud solution providers. Cloud computing helps save enterprises 30-60 percent of their technology spends. Savings occur as companies don't have to invest in hardware or software but buy services, like unified communications, which could cost as low as Rs 2,000 per user per month. In a bid to control their turf, the various companies offering cloud computing like Amazon, Salesforce, IBM, Google, Cisco and Microsoft have come up with their own standards for the cloud, making interoperability of applications from multiple vendors a challenge "Seamless transfer as in mobile communications is required for the cloud to work. With multiple developers, it's much like various tributaries, which will converge to form a river. Most of the effort is like tributaries now, without common standards convergence will be tough," says Kiran Datar, managing director, Cisco WebEx Technology Group.

03 June 2009
Channelworld.in: Cisco Revamps Services Channel Program
Cisco has revamped its managed services program and launched new financing and rebate offerings as part of efforts to better support global partners. Speaking at the Cisco partner Summit in Boston, senior vice-president of worldwide channels, Keith Goodwin, positioned services as the major area of growth for partner profitability, along with customer opportunity. The vendor has aligned its services program into three areas: Outsourcing, Managed Services and Resale. Goodwin said the overall structure, incentives and rebates will be consistent with Cisco's traditional product-based partner programs. The aim was to make it easier for partners to be rewarded around services, as well as to reassure them that Cisco would not compete for services dollars, he said.  

02 June 2009
Express Computer: The Convergence Mantra
Unified communications (UC) is enabling companies to change the way in which they communicate and collaborate both within the company and with their customers and partners. Along with collaboration, it promises to change the way people work, increase productivity, and foster greater collaboration. Having emerged from the convergence of several existing communications and IT markets including a range of telephony features and functions, e-mail and calendaring, instant messaging (IM), presence, audio, and video and Web-conferencing UC in India is transitioning from being an ill-defined buzzword to a business must-have. The scope is tremendous. "Cisco is tapping verticals such as banking, retail, healthcare, and manufacturing, apart from the IT sector, which has been one of the early adopters. We are combining UC solutions along with wireless and security for enhanced productivity and business benefits. Our technology vision is to make the network the platform for business collaboration and a rich end-user experience by embedding intelligent applications and information systems into the network itself." Said Minhaj Zia, National Sales Manager - Unified Communications, Cisco India & SAARC.

02 June 2009
Express Computer: Cisco Expands Security Offerings
Cisco has extended its product portfolio by adding new solutions, strengthening network security infrastructure and the delivery of cloud security services. Today's business applications, social media, software-as-a-service and wireless technologies are gaining widespread adoption and are leading to new interactive business models. These models are jeopardized by threats that are just as novel and agile. According to the company, the new Cisco security offerings will incorporate new threat defense products and services that will help customers protect against attacks, malware and botnets, no matter where they connect and communicate.

01 June 2009
Express Computer: Cisco Introduces Unified Service Delivery for Service Providers
Cisco Unified Service delivery is a solution that helps service providers build a foundation for cloud services, while they transform the delivery of consumer and business applications to any place and device Rajesh Chainani, Country Director-Service Provider at Cisco mentioned that in the past there had been no synergy between the network and data centre (backend) but now through this service Cisco was bringing about the synergy between these two.

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