03 OCT 2008
VARIndia: Cisco Research Reveals Common Data Loss Mistakes The study identifies common data leakage mistakes among workforces around the world and is based on surveys of more than 2,000 employees and information technology professionals in 10 countries. The findings show that behavioral risks of employees can vary by country and culture, creating opportunities for businesses to tailor risk management plans that prevent incidents locally while remaining global in scope. Conducted by InsightExpress, a U.S.-based market research firm, the study was commissioned by Cisco to examine security and data leakage (www.cisco.com/go/dlp) implications for businesses at a time when employee lifestyles and work environments are changing dramatically. As the reliance on centralized offices shifts to distributed business models and remote workforces, lines are blurring between work life and personal life.
01 OCT 2008
DNA: Colleges, Offices Gear Up for D-day
One day before public places turn smoke-free there is still apprehension about its implementation, especially in educational institutions and workplaces. Organisations in Kolkata, which easily has the largest concentration of diehard smokers among the metros, employers are relying more on persuasion rather than penalty to do the trick. M Aich, section officer with Food Corporation of India in Kolkata, has arrived at an understanding with his juniors. Every half hour they will be alternatively allowed a five-minute break to step outside the office to smoke. "My colleagues have promised to respect the law," he said. Varghese M Thomas, vice-president (corporate communications) Cisco, Bangalore, said, "Smoking within the office premises is banned. Moreover, we have designated ‘smoking’ spaces. We will abide by the law and employees will have to follow the rules." Infosys CFO Balakrishnan, added, "We already have a no-smoking rule within the campus and most of our campuses have designated smoking zones. We will have to see what the new law says and fine tune our rules accordingly."
30 SEP 2008
Ciol.com: Cisco's Intros 'Human Network Effect'
Cisco unveiled the second phase of its 'Welcome to the Human Network' brand campaign called 'The Human Network Effect' in India. The corporate brand campaign is targeted at customers, partners and employees. Supported with a week of interactive events, marketing activities and product launches to introduce the next phase of the campaign, this is Cisco's first-ever marketing campaign in India to coincide with the global launch. Nupur Sharma, Head-Brand Strategy and Advertising, Cisco India and SAARC said, "The Internet is evolving into a network of people, changing how we consume media, communicate, collaborate and innovate. With this campaign, Cisco is redefining its branding efforts in India to highlight how its technologies are changing the way we work, live, play and learn. Ultimately, our target audiences care about the effects of technology, and that's what Cisco will highlight in the phase of this campaign."
30 SEP 2008
Dataquest: We are Excited About Visual Networking and Collaboration
As CTO, she is responsible for helping drive Cisco’s technology innovations and strategies. She works closely with its senior executive team and board of directors to align their efforts with the company’s corporate goals. Warrior joined Cisco in 2007, prior to which she was the CTO at Motorola, and headed Motorola Labs, the R&D wing of the company, with a budget of $3.7 bn. Over the course of 23 years with the company, she has undertaken various roles. Under Warrior’s leadership, the President of United States awarded the National Medal of Technology to Motorola in 2004. Warrior is a Masters in Science in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and has a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. In an exclusive interview with Dataquest, Padmashree Warrior shares her thoughts on Cisco’s technology directions and more.
How smooth was your transition from Motorola to Cisco?
I have been at Cisco for roughly four months now, and I have to say that the transition has been extremely smooth, probably better than I expected in terms of culture and understanding of Cisco. I spent my first three months learning about Cisco, its product portfolio, technology strengths, gaps and meeting our customers and teams all over the world.
SEP 2008
Dataquest: Business Resiliency Through Effective Risk Management
The ability to operate in a 24x7 paradigm is a business necessity today. However, parallely they are faced with the business realty of a threat spectrum that is not just growing wider but also becoming increasingly more complex. Therefore, one of biggest challenges today is managing the entire risk scenario while ensuring that their business doesn’t come to a standstill. The key to this lies in building resilient business infrastructure, as expounded during the brainstorming session at "CSO Perspectives - Strategies for Building Effective Business Resiliency" presented by Cisco. Driving home the point were a gamut of CIOs and CSOs along with some eminent security experts. The discussions led by the core panel consisting of Sandeep Raina, senior vice president, Cisco India North; Phaneesh Murthy, CEO, iGate; Dr Kamlesh Bajaj, CEO, Data Security Council of India; Harish Agarwal, associate director of the risk advisory practices at E&Y; and Sushila Venkataraman, who heads the strategy consulting service at Cisco, centered around the building business resilience through effective risk management.
29 SEP 2008
Biztech2: Cisco Launches Second Leg of 'The Human Network Effect'
Cisco today unveiled the second phase of its "Welcome to the Human Network" brand campaign called "The Human Network Effect" in India.
The corporate brand campaign targeted at customers, partners and employees, and a wider audience, through a 360 degee media buying strategy focused on multi-platform media such as television, out-of-home and digital media. Supported with a week of interactive events, marketing activities and product launches to introduce the next phase of the human network story, this is Cisco's first-ever marketing campaign in India to coincide with the global launch. Nupur Sharma, Head - Brand Strategy and Advertising, Cisco India and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), said, "The internet is evolving into a network of people, changing how we consume media, communicate, collaborate and innovate. With the human network campaign, Cisco is redefining its branding efforts in India to highlight how its technologies are changing the way we work, live, play and learn. Ultimately, our target audiences care about the effects of technology, and that's what Cisco will highlight in this next phase of the human network campaign."
26 SEP 2008
The Economic Times: Cisco Brings All Communication Tools Together
Looking to provide a wider variety of choice at the marketplace, Cisco, the $39.5-billion networking giant, has brought its entire communication products and services under one platform called open collaboration. The collaboration suite of services and products of Cisco would include unified communication, telepresence and web 2.0 application platform. It has pegged the market opportunity from this segment at $34 billion globally. The networking giant is expecting that enterprises would use these products to cut down costs as well as improve productivity. For starters, it is expecting the sector of financial services, IT, retail to be the early adopters of these solutions. Addressing media persons here on Thursday, Manjula Talreja, VP, strategy, software group, Cisco said their collaboration suite would be able to connect any kind of communication devices be it the mobile handset or computers on the Internet. In India, Cisco is expecting the retail, IT, government and telecom service providers to adopt this product and it also comes under the software as a service model. To popularise the products, Cisco Capital has announced the launch of its zero percent progress payments programme.
25 SEP 2008
businesswireindia.com: Cisco Capital Launches Financing Program for Cisco Unified Communications Deployments in Asia Pacific Cisco Capital, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco, on Thursday announced the launch of its zero percent progress payments programme for the Cisco Unified Communications system in the Asia Pacific region. Designed to improve the affordability of unified communications solutions for Cisco partners and customers, the programme is available until July 25, 2009. Under the programme, customers can defer payments for up to 120 days, without interest and channel partners receive progress payments from Cisco Capital when installation milestones are reached. The programme is designed to help customers when they are required to make deposits prior to full deployment of unified communications projects, and to help Cisco channel partners manage their cash flow on projects with long implementation cycles. Cisco channel partners must hold a Cisco Unified Communications Specialisation to qualify for this program. The minimum transaction size is $50,000. This program is not available in Vietnam, Indonesia or the Philippines.
25 SEP 2008
Mint: Cisco Systems Reinvents, Tries To Break Out Of Data Centre Role
Forget the switches and routers that built Cisco Systems Inc. into a giant, albeit somewhat boring, company at the core of the Internet. These days, the company is peddling email software, video conferencing systems, cable television boxes-even furniture-as it tries to break out of the data centre and get its products in front of ordinary office workers. "Cisco is kind of like the Madonna of networking," said Mark Sue, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets. "It is continuously trying to reinvent itself."
The unified communications initiative is still a small part of Cisco’s $40 billion annual revenue. Cisco hopes it becomes significant in its own right, but more important, executives hope to drive more network usage and related sales of the company’s Internet hardware and software.
The flashiest part of Cisco’s effort is TelePresence, an elaborate videoconferencing set-up that includes video cameras, huge displays and even the surrounding desk and leather chairs. For about $299,000 a room, a company can smoothly conduct a virtual meeting across the world.
The effort directly challenges a main area of growth for some of Cisco’s big customers, including International Business Machines Corp., Oracle Corp. and most pointedly, Microsoft Corp. "You could TelePresence into a bank where you might have a loan officer shared between multiple branches," said Donald R. Proctor, the senior vice-president of Cisco’s software group. "This allows that one loan officer to meet with people in various locations, or for someone to punch ‘home loans’, or ‘auto loans’ and be directed to the right person."
25 SEP 2008
Deccan Herald: Cisco Unveils New Portfolio
Global communication giant Cisco, on Thursday, announced a new collaboration portfolio designed to help companies accelerate their business processes, increase productivity and speed innovation. It consists of Cisco Unified Communications, Cisco TelePresence and new Web 2.0 application platform, which use the network as platform to help people connect, communicate and collaborate from any application, device and workspace.
"Collaboration is the next phase of Internet, a phase that analysts see as $34 billion market opportunity. At the centre of this phase is network," said Cisco Vice President Strategy & Business Operations Manjula Talreja, briefing reporters. With the network as platform, Cisco collaboration portfolio is designed to interoperate with business applications, communications devices and Web-based tools. The open architecture allows Cisco collaboration capabilities to be delivered to a range of devices including Windows and Mac OS desktops, and mobile phones running Symbian, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile operating system.
24 SEP 2008
thestandard.com: Cisco looks at Visual Media as a Big Market
In a presentation at Cisco's annual financial analyst conference, Cisco introduced MediaNet, a network platform designed to carry high-quality video and other rich media to and from multiple systems, including TVs, PCs and mobile devices. Talking about the launch in India, Rajesh Chainani, Senior Vice President, Service Provider, Cisco India & SAARC, said "India is very much a part of the plan. Today, peer-to-peer networking has overtaken the web. An aggregation of market estimates by various analysts suggests that the addressable video market is expected to cross US$50 billion by 2013 and overtake the market for peer-to-peer technologies.
"As part of the MediaNet vision, Cisco sees video being reformatted for a variety of clients within the network and giving users an easy way to find and redistribute clips. Cisco's long-term aim is to help carriers earn a return on investment in infrastructure. MediaNet, including Cisco's set-top boxes, can capture and utilize data pertaining to each subscriber's interests with their consent, which can help carriers sell value-added services."
22 SEP 2008
Mint: Home In On Health
Achieving work-life balance is the biggest worry for Indians, the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey found in April. Long commutes and less time with family were among the main causes of stress, says the Nimhans report. "A person spending more than two-and-a-half hours on the road trying to get to work often exhibits anger management issues," says A. Jagadish, psychiatrist, Abhaya Hospital, Bangalore, co-author of the report.
Last month, when a series of bomb blasts shook downtown Bangalore, Rajesh Shetty was among the first few parents to fetch their children from school, avoiding much of the chaos that ensued. This, despite it being mid-afternoon on a weekday, when most fathers are immersed in the frenetic world of work. But Shetty follows a somewhat atypical routine. He works out of his home for an average of three days a week. A career choice he made four years ago when he says he realized that due to incessant travel he was missing out on his child’s early years.
"Emerging technologies are making location irrelevant, which makes remote working feasible," says Subash A.K. Rao, director, human resources, Cisco India, Bangalore, where all employees can opt to work from home.
22 SEP 2008
Express Computer: The Exabyte Era Vish Iyer argues that an expansion of technological change and a rising wave of new forms of data are working a deep change in the Internet's capabilities and uses. According to our global IP traffic forecast, consumer video will be responsible for much of the traffic growth between 2006 and 2011. The overall IP traffic is expected to grow to 29 Exabytes per month by 2011, and over 21 Exabytes of those are due to consumer traffic. Consumer traffic, in turn, is driven by IP transport of VoD, Internet video streams, downloads and other files through P2P. Just to give you an idea, an Exabyte is equal to one billion gigabytes.
17 SEP 2008
Business Standard: Cisco and VMware Accelerate Innovation in Data Center Virtualization
Industry leaders in virtualization Cisco and VMware announced that they are collaborating to deliver joint data center solutions designed to improve the scalability and operational control of virtual environments. The Cisco Nexus 1000V distributed virtual software switch is expected to be an integrated option in VMware Infrastructure. Cisco and VMware will also combine their expertise in networking and virtualization to introduce a new set of multidisciplinary professional services and reseller certification training in support of customers’ data center virtualization strategies. In parallel, Cisco and VMware are collaborating on integrating VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions with Cisco Application Delivery Networking solutions to improve the performance of virtual desktops delivered across wide-area networks (WANs).
The Cisco Nexus 1000V distributed virtual software switch will simplify the operations of both physical and virtual networking infrastructures to help server, virtualization and networking administration managers accelerate data center virtualization. The Nexus 1000V will extend Cisco’s security, policy enforcement, automated provisioning and diagnostics features into dynamic VMware environments that will be able to scale to thousands of live virtual machines. In this highly agile environment, the new Cisco Virtual Network Link (VN-Link) technology on the Nexus 1000V will integrate with VMware’s vNetwork Distributed Switch framework to create a logical network infrastructure that will provide full visibility, control and consistency of the network. The solution will help network, virtualization and server teams to gain efficiency in virtual environments and obtain accurate, real-time data for stronger collaboration in troubleshooting.
17 SEP 2008
Indiaoutsourcewatch.com: Cisco and VMware Accelerate Innovation in Data Center Virtualization
Industry leaders in virtualization Cisco and VMware® today announced that they are collaborating to deliver joint data center solutions designed to improve the scalability and operational control of virtual environments. The Cisco Nexus® 1000V distributed virtual software switch is expected to be an integrated option in VMware Infrastructure. Cisco and VMware will also combine their expertise in networking and virtualization to introduce a new set of multidisciplinary professional services and reseller certification training in support of customers’ data center virtualization strategies. In parallel, Cisco and VMware are collaborating on integrating VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions with Cisco® Application Delivery Networking solutions to improve the performance of virtual desktops delivered across wide-area networks (WANs).
17 SEP 2008
Business Standard: Cisco Delivers New Data Center 3.0 Technology for SAN
New 8-Gigabit-per-second Fibre Channel Switch Modules and NX-OS Operating System; High Performance and Investment Protection Combined with Cisco SAN Services for Virtual Machine Environments. Expanding on its Data Center 3.0 product portfolio, Cisco is delivering new storage area network (SAN) technology designed specifically to help customers improve performance and scalability, simplify SAN management, increase data security, and enhance SAN services in Virtual Machine (VM) environments. Together, these new technologies support Cisco’s vision to help its customers to design and build next generation data centers. The Cisco vision for Data Center 3.0 entails the real-time, dynamic orchestration of infrastructure services from shared pools of virtualized server, storage and network resources, while optimizing application performance, service levels, efficiency and collaboration.
The new Cisco SAN technology includes three Cisco MDS 9000 Family 8-Gigabit-per-second (8-Gbps) Fibre Channel switching modules and new capabilities in Cisco’s SAN operating system, which has been re-branded NX-OS. These new SAN capabilities, combined with Cisco’s data center-class MDS and Nexus platforms, will help IT managers evolve towards a single operating system and a unified data center fabric, simplifying data center management and reducing costs.
15 SEP 2008
The Hindu Business Line: Watt’s the good word!
Quick, how much power do you save by switching off all those unrequired systems? Enough to keep the computer plus two servers running for the next two hours? This is the kind of computation companies, particularly technology companies, are doing extensively as they seek to wring out more work from electrical/electronic systems with less use of power, and thus lower their costs of keeping systems and devices ‘cool’. And if what is good for your bills is good for the environment too, by way of reduced emissions, so much the better. ‘Green IT’ means different things to different people. Companies are approaching this from many angles - from simple moves to save power and water to complex issues such as consolidating server space. More importantly, clients have started exerting pressure on vendors to adopt green initiatives. In IDC’s latest Green Poll in Asia-Pacific, 81 percent of participating organisations said the ‘Green-ness’ of IT technology will become increasingly important when it comes to selecting suppliers. Some 18 percent of organisations said they already took this factor into consideration in selecting suppliers and another 30 percent said they were putting systems in place to start doing so in the near future, says Sumit Mukhija, National Sales Manager, Data Centre, Cisco India and Saarc.
11 SEP 2008
cxotoday.com: Telepresence: Pragmatism Prevails Over Enthusiasm
In a world where travel entails ever-increasing costs, financially and environmentally, telepresence has come as a refreshing option for enterprises to enable better collaboration without necessitating expensive and environmentally degrading air travel. Telepresence is a form of videoconferencing that gives you an almost real-life experience through life-size images, duplication of facial expressions, gestures and sounds in real-time. So the person that you interact with on a TV screen seems as if she were physically present with you! Well not quite, but almost. But are Indian enterprises warming up to telepresence the way the proponents of this innovative technology would like to see them do? As per a recent Frost & Sullivan report, in 2007, the Asia-Pacific market for telepresence solutions was reported at $1.7 million. India accounted for 9.4% of this market, ranking fifth. India is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 42.6 percent, further increasing its share from 9.4 percent in 2007 to 13.9 percent in 2014, as per Frost & Sullivan estimates. According to Ranajoy Punja, vice president, advanced technologies division of Cisco, India & SAARC, apart from the IT & ITes segment, banking and financial institutions are also adopting telepresence solutions. "The driving factor for IT/ITES companies to adopt telepresence is the need for better collaboration between geographically dispersed work force and customers. Financial companies have also been using telepresence solutions to expedite their decision making processes in an industry that is highly competitive," he says.
10 SEP 2008
Deccan Herald: Cisco Launches Virtual Office
Cisco Systems India on Tuesday announced Cisco Virtual Office (CVO), a solution that helps professionals work from home. The solution packages routing, switching, security, wireless and IP telephony that provides video, voice and data. This would enable employees to have seamless connectivity at 750 kbps, helping them beat the traffic while staying connected with colleagues and customers. Installation of the solution will cost $750 per end user. Cisco officials said CVO addressed the growing trend among mid-sized and large enterprises, which need access to business applications outside corporate offices. Robert Berlin, director of product management of Cisco said, "This agility helps maintain business continuity such as during inclement weather, help cost savings on real estate by eliminating needs for additional office space." The company's business development manager Mahesh Gupta said one of the solution's most-valued features is its ‘zero-touch' set up. The automated, pre-configured set up offload installation responsibilities from employees. Once the Cisco Internet services router is connected to the Internet, it "calls home" and downloads a configuration that syncs with headquarters in San Jose.
08 SEP 2008
The Economic Times: Cisco Joins Goldman's Technology Growth List
Goldman Sachs added Cisco Systems Inc to its list of favorite technology names and said a recent survey suggested business improvement, helping Cisco shares rise 2 percent by mid-morning on Monday. Goldman analyst Simona Jankowski said a survey found that the percentage of companies that expect their network equipment spending to increase jumped to 54 percent from 42 percent. Jankowski said Cisco could exceed its own estimates and the company's financial analyst conference on September16 could provide a "positive catalyst."
05 SEP 2008
RFID: hype or reality?: Express Computer
Radio frequency Identification or RFID has revolutionized the way many industries work in other countries. Despite the hype and hoopla with which the technology was tom-tommed, two years after its arrival it has yet to be widely adopted and many projects remain at the pilot stage. RFID remains a promising technology not just for retail but even for sectors like Oil and Gas, Animal Husbandry, vehicle tracking, e-Passport etc. According to Paramjit Puri, Business Development Manager - Advanced Technologies Cisco Systems, India & SAARC, "Actual RFID deployments in the country are few as compatred to the hype that was created. There are still apprehensions about its visibility primarily due to the associsted costs."
04 SEP 2008
Business Today: Stay with the Customer
For a business to be successful, half the challenge is won if it is able to fathom its customer's mind and decode his tastes and preferences. The rest of the challenge lies in servicing and sustaining those preferences. But this is usually easier said than done. Four experts from IT and financial services sectors converged at Boardroom Breakfast, a panel discussion organised by Business Today at Le Meridien hotel in Bangalore on August 20, and provided insights on "Creating the Total Customer Experience", the topic of discussion, which was moderated by Arnab Mitra, Deputy Editor, Business Today. Cisco's Senior Vice President, Services (India & SAARC), Kumar G.B., kick-started the discussion by narrating a personal experience. He said the Golden Quadrilateral connecting all major cities of India was a superb idea. When he drove down to Karwar in coastal Karnataka three years ago, the journey gave him "an almost developed country experience". But driving on the same road on August 15 this year, his experience was painful; the roads were in a bad shape. The point Kumar was trying to make was that it's not enough to successfully commission a project. It's more important to sustain customer experience through the life cycle of that project. Delhi Metro, he noted, has ensured that customers get a wholesome experience… Cisco's Kumar said he believed that businesses have not been able to tap technology fully. "We are still scratching the surface when it comes to the use of technology. We are at the tip of the iceberg as to what technology can really make possible." Paul added that technology is just an enabler and can help categorise customer trends and preferences and save them for the future. "As technology evolves, you add more to that information. Technology follows marketing and not the other way around."
03 SEP 2008
Financialexpress.com: Sify Selects Cisco to Pioneer IP - NGN Adoption in India
Sify, a pioneer and leader in data telecom and Internet services in India, has selected the Cisco(R) CRS-1 Carrier Routing System as the foundation of Sify's Internet Protocol Next Generation Network (IP NGN). The decision is part of Sify's strategy to enhance its existing core network to meet customers' ever increasing demand for sophisticated network services and to address the rapidly evolving India market. The announcement further underscores Cisco's expertise and leadership in IP NGN technology and emphasises the growing relevance of video, in the Connected Life of individual consumers. "Indian Service Providers are working towards greater control of their network and overall operations to succeed against competitive and market forces. IP NGN brings about a broad network transformation that encompasses not just the Service Provider's network but their entire business. We believe this is one of the first steps for a Service Provider to move towards becoming an 'Experience Provider,' and we're pleased to work with Sify on this evolutionary path," said Rajesh Chainani, Vice President of Service Provider for Cisco India & SAARC.
02 SEP 2008
enterpriser.in: We Offer 0% Financing for SMBs In an interview, R. Dhamodaran, Sr. VP (Channel Operations & Commercial Strategy) of Cisco India & SAARC speaks about the company's offerings for the SMB segment and its future prospects in the region.
Cisco plans to launch 30 new products for SMBs in the coming months, what are the reasons for this aggressive SMB push?
SMB is the fastest growing segment for Cisco in India and worldwide. Cisco has spent over USD 3 billion on R&D to develop customized SMB products and solutions that are affordable and easy to use. Our SMB market strategy involves helping customers create a sustainable competitive advantage, improve their operational efficiencies, increase their employees' productivity and ultimately boost their returns and profitability. We recently unveiled a multi-pronged strategic roadmap to tap the rapidly growing market for IT and networking of SMBs in India. The strategy combines all crucial elements of Cisco solutions and services, including intelligent services, growth technologies, strategic partner assistance and world-class service and support. These solutions and services are developed specifically for the SMB market, making it easier for these organizations to deploy and manage their networks to achieve maximum business value. Some of the initiatives undertaken include: Network on Wheels (NOW), SMB Class road show and special class products for the SMB space.
02 SEP 2008
Businesswire.com: Sify Selects Cisco to Pioneer IP - NGN Adoption in India
Sify, a pioneer and leader in data telecom and Internet services in India, has selected the Cisco(R) CRS-1 Carrier Routing System as the foundation of Sify's Internet Protocol Next Generation Network (IP NGN). The decision is part of Sify's strategy to enhance its existing core network to meet customers' ever increasing demand for sophisticated network services and to address the rapidly evolving India market. The announcement further underscores Cisco's expertise and leadership in IP NGN technology and emphasises the growing relevance of video, in the Connected Life of individual consumers. "Indian Service Providers are working towards greater control of their network and overall operations to succeed against competitive and market forces. IP NGN brings about a broad network transformation that encompasses not just the Service Provider's network but their entire business. We believe this is one of the first steps for a Service Provider to move towards becoming an 'Experience Provider,' and we're pleased to work with Sify on this evolutionary path," said Rajesh Chainani, Vice President of Service Provider for Cisco India & SAARC.
01 SEP 2008
itvoir.com: Cisco Takes on Microsoft Exchange With PostPath Buy Cisco Systems (NSDQ:CSCO) Wednesday said it plans to acquire PostPath, a vendor that targets Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) in the e-mail and calendaring software market.Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $215 million for all shares of PostPath, Mountain View, Calif., in a deal expected to close during Cisco's current fiscal quarter, according to a Cisco statement.
01 SEP 2008
The Times of India: Intelligent Buildings
Emerging IP network based building management systems can help to increase energy efficiency, improve security and reduce operational costs, find Shivani Mody and Sujit John
The Forum Mall on Hosur Road has a built-in automated and intelligent building management system (BMS) to take care of its lighting, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning. The lighting changes as per the amount of natural light available. If there's more natural light, the bulbs and tube lights dim or switch off.
The BMS measures the AC, light and water usage separately for each area. The details are measured and recorded after which each shop gets its own bill (pay per use) through mail.
Duggal may be interested in more safety at the moment, but if he puts in place an IP network, it may enable him to provide a whole host of applications over it that not only could improve the mall's revenues, but also reduce its costs, increase energy efficiencies and improve customer experience. In fact, IP networks for building management looks to be the future.
"Any building will have 30-35 sub-systems, from heating and lighting to CCTVs, access card readers. An IP system will allow all them to talk to each other, which will substantially increase the capabilities of the system," says Suprabhat Chatterjee, VP of networking major Cisco Systems India.
01 SEP 2008
Business Standard: Cisco sees 17% rise in India sales
Networking solutions provider Cisco, which started its services business in India two years back, is working on ways to take its services revenue from the region to over 17 per cent in the next couple of years. "When we started our services division in India two years back, we were in no way comparable with our global services revenue share. But, now our services revenue in India is the fastest-growing in the Asia Pacific region with the market maturing and people identifying the role of services and paying for it," says G B Kumar, senior vice-president, Customer Advocacy, Cisco India & SAARC. Cisco works with a number of IT vendors such as Wipro, HCL, IBM and Datacraft as its tier-I partners in India who provide a lot of value-added services on the top of Cisco's solutions and services. Besides, Cisco has over 100 partners in tier-II cities, who provide network level services to the company's SME customers. With an aim of enhancing its services delivery capabilities, the company has recently established a repair centre in Bangalore, the second one of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region. Cisco has a repair centre in China. The India centre, which is co-located with Aricent (earlier Flextronics), focuses on repairing Cisco's Catalyst 600 range of routers, the main product from its routers family.
SEP 2008
PC Quest: F1 for Enterprise Security
Important data and information that lie at the heart of any enterprise needs to be secured to ensure smooth running of the business. With connectivity reaching new heights, threats to nodes of information on network are increasing exponentially.
2. Device based control: Cisco's Network Admission Control
This solution from Cisco is to en-orce security policy compliance on users and devices in organizations. Access to the enterprise network is controlled by giving access to only those users having proper credentials and devices that are compliant. These devices include printers, servers, IP phones, and wireless devices. Cisco's NAC helps in securing both managed and unmanaged assets of an organization.
SEP 2008
PC Quest: Enterprise Security
Security is of course on top of every CIO's mind, thanks to the ever growing security threats. In fact, the requirement of security solutions has increased considerably. Last year, only 39% of the respondents were likely to purchase a security solution. This year, that number has risen to 61%. Given the sheer number of security threats, there's a need for different types of security solutions from different vendors. However, only a few vendors have really captured the users' mind share in the enterprise space. These are brands that offer a boquet of security solutions.. Symantec, which was the most future ready brand till last year has slipped to the runner-up's position this year, and the winning spot has been taken over by Cisco.. The brand persuasion situation for Cisco is not very healthy, just like last year, and the same goes for all other brands. Cisco has improved its brand pull situation though. It's gaining pull this year, as against the opposite situation last year. Finally, Cisco has really strengthened its brand loyalty, from 50% last year to 61% this time. Only 8% of its existing users said they're likely to switch to another brand.
29 AUG 2008
The Financial Express: Cisco tops enterprise telephony chart
The latest report by Frost & Sullivan on the ‘Indian Enterprise Telephony Markets Quarter1 (Jan-March) 2008', reveals that Cisco has emerged as the market leader for the first time. Of the $106.2 business done in India, Cisco accounts for a market share of 22.4%, while Avaya has garnered 19% and Nortel, about 17%. Avaya has been a leader in the segment in for the past six years. Minhaj Zia, national sales manager, unified communications, Cisco, India and SAARC, said, "We have been focusing on banking, financial services & insurance (BFSI), retail and manufacturing as well. The market growth for IP telephony is about 30-32% and at Cisco, we expect a growth higher than the market; about 40% in India."
AUG 2008
Communications Today: Migration to next generation architectures through infrastructure upgrade
The Indian broadband equipment market witnessed more than 60 percent year-on-year growth and recorded estimated market sales of Rs. 1500 crore in 2007-08. The ever-changing facet of the Indian information and communication technology has been attracting a lot of investment from around the world. Intel Corp has plans to invest more than one billion dollars in India over the next three years for enabling easy availability of PCs and broadband internet and AT&T had shown interest to invest for the forthcoming 3G technology in India. The availability of Internet and the considerable reduction in the cost of handsets, mobile services, the telecom equipment and ease of installation, operation and maintenance for service providers has brought about a tremendous change in the industry. "Blend of entertainment, communications, and Internet services" - Vish Iyer, Vice President, Service Provider, West, Cisco India and SAARC.
28 AUG 2008
Indiatimes: Cisco eyes Indian SMBs
Cisco, the US networking giant, has charted a new strategy to target Indian SMBs this year, as emerging businesses have become the fastest-growing segment for company in India. "We have made them a focus now," says Cisco India senior vice-president Pramodh Menon. They have come up with an interest-free financing scheme for emerging businesses, and are targeted more at the smaller towns and cities. In this multi-pronged strategy, Cisco, that has a market cap of $142 billion in the US, is going to look at the services for the most part, and customised products as well. For example, it is launching an Integrated Services Router (ISR) which combines the benefits of voice, data and video and does away with diverse sets of hardware and literally is a office out of a small box, explains Menon.
28 AUG 2008
Times Ascent: Employ the employee as your customer
When FMCG company Marico decided to enter the services business by entering the skincare vertical, it chose to do so in a unique manner. For almost a year before Marico management set up the first Kaya Clinic in late 2002, it set up an incubation team to work on its services model. A 'learning lab' was set up in one part of the office and Marico staffers were invited as customers to sample some of the services that the clinics would offer. The team tried out multiple experiments and chalk its value proposition and delivery network. Today, Kaya has 65 clinics across India and the Middle East with a turnover of over INR 100 Cr.... While companies in the FMCG, retail vertical have had test beds internally for quite some time, few innovative IT players are not far behind. Cisco is one such example which has tested many niche products like TelePresence, IPCC (IP Contact Centre) and CRE (Connected Real Estate). "Internal product introduction is a critical step in the NPI (New Product Introduction) process. The feedback is always incorporated in the next generation version," asserts VC Gopalratnam, VP, information technology, Cisco India. The logic behind this as Gopalratnam puts it is risk management and technical feasibility. Interestingly, twist in the tale comes when firms get a mixed feedback from their employees on a specific product/service. Different firms adopt different approach to the same challenge. "We adopt a multi-generation product plan methodology. If the review identified drastic changes, then we go back to the drawing board," says Gopalratnam. Fem on the other hand takes it to a larger platform. This could include other stake holders may it be end customers, retailers or distributors.
25 AUG 2008
Business Standard: Global IT firms adopt FMCG strategy to tap SMEs Global IT firms are taking a cue from consumer firms, which revolutionised marketing tactics in the FMCG segment with the shampoo-in-a-sachet concept by appealing to semi-urban as well as rural consumers. IT firms, in the same vein, are looking to cater to small-and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India, most of which are located in semi-urban areas and can't afford expensive software. Networking solutions provider Cisco has taken the lead in breaking the tech lingo by taking its solutions on its ‘network on wheels' to semi-urban and even rural areas. Concurs G B Kumar, senior vice-president, customer advocacy, Cisco India & Saarc: "There is a view that catering to the SME segment needs a high-risk appetite. So, from the services perspective, there is definitely a need for us to go deeper and wider
22 AUG 2008
topnews.in: Yes Bank, Cisco jointly introduce ‘speech-enable voice recognition facility'
New-age private lender Yes Bank and networking giant Cisco have introduced ‘Yes touch phone-banking services', a speech-enabled voice recognition facility for the first time in the Indian financial services sector. With the latest facility, the bank's customers will now be able to access their accounts 24X7 that will support business-related queries and transactions. Further, customers can also perform routine enquiries or transactions through speech-enabled voice recognition service, by just speaking pre-defined aided keywords. The service will also provide integrated access through email, web-chat, IVR, and voice to customers. Currently, the customer will have a customer ID and PIN to access his/her account, but the bank plans to launch a new telephonic voice identification system christened ‘voice biometric' for identity, in partnership with a US company in the coming fiscal.
AUG 2008
Financial Chronicle: Will 50 percent of Indian CEOs be women by 2020?
When Prameela Kalive decided to give up her government job after a six-year stint at the DRDO and enter the corporate world, she walked in for an interview at Zensar Technologies. Everyone was surprised to see that Prameela had brought her one-month-old baby to the interview, along with her credentials. From the challenges of bringing up a young kid and coping with the transition from the snug environment of the government job to the rigorous demands of corporate life, Prameela faced them all. Today she is the Global Head, Human Resource, at Zensar.
A decade ago, when it was not common for women to walk into crowded places like restaurants alone, Sharada Satrasala decided to march into a food joint alone and learn to handle the discomforts of being in a new environment. This attitude to embrace new and challenging situations helped her to climb the corporate ladder and today she is the Director, Strategic Supplier Management, at Texas Instruments.
21 AUG 2008
CIOL: Cisco outlines channel direction for FY‘09
The company plans to transform how channel partners attract, develop and retain talent. In his first briefing with the media as Senior VP-Channel Operations and Commercial Strategy, Cisco, R Dhamodaran discussed the company's key channel initiatives and plans with media across Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore via Cisco's TelePresence. As the head of Cisco's channels business in India, Dhamodaran highlighted his primary focus of strengthening Cisco's relationships with its partner community. The partner community, which includes systems integrators, distributors, value-added resellers and others, account for 100 percent of Cisco's revenue in this region. Through Cisco's vision of the 'collaborative channel', the company sees a unique platform for channel partners to grow and become integral to their end-customers. Over the past few months, Cisco has launched a number of initiatives such as MSCP and ISPN and investments that underlines its commitment towards its partners.
21 AUG 2008
Business Standard: Yes Bank, Cisco launch hi-tech phone banking services
New-age private lender Yes Bank and networking giant Cisco today announced the launch of a facility that would provide new communication technologies for banking services. The Yes Bank-Cisco Interactive Experience Centre at Gurgaon would provide communication over voice, chat and email. The bank's customers will now be able to access their accounts 24X7 via 'Yes touch' phone-banking services that will support business-related queries and transactions. "We are introducing Yes touch phone-banking services, using speech-enabled voice recognition for the first time in the Indian financial services sector for our customers," Yes Bank Country Head, Direct Banking, Ravishankar, told reporters here.
21 AUG 2008
Moneycontrol: Tulip Telecom gets Gold Certification from Cisco in India
TULIP Telecom Ltd (Formerly Tulip IT Services Ltd.) announced today it has achieved Gold Certification from Cisco®. To earn Gold Certification, TULIP Telecom had to meet rigorous standards for networking competency, service, support and customer satisfaction set forth by Cisco. Speaking on the occasion Lt Col H.S. Bedi, CMD TULIP Telecom said "As a major player in the business of data connectivity, Tulip will endeavour to be the lead player in the in sale and support of networking equipment from Cisco. Recognition from Cisco for our technical ability to sell and support their products will help Tulip to ensure that it meets the high standards laid down by Cisco globally for high quality of support." "We are committed to providing the tools, training and programs that help drive partner growth, differentiation and profitability," said R. Dhamodharan, sr. vice president, channel operations and commercial strategy, Cisco India & SAARC. "With specializations in Unified Communications, Routing and Switching, Security, and Wireless LAN, TULIP Telecom Ltd has made an investment in developing the capability to deliver the integrated and customized technology solutions today's customers demand."
18 AUG 2008
Indian Channel World: Localizing for global growth Naresh Wadhwa, President & Country Manager, Cisco India
Companies need to examine the market more closely, identify customer needs and understand the patterns of innovation. A few weeks ago, I read an interesting excerpt of a book titled 'Value Creation Selling'. The crux was that purchasing decision today depends greatly on the value a seller/ service provider offered the customer. Value in this case refers to business value - an improvement in business performance customers expected from the purchase. What struck me was this concept encapsulated what I believe the Indian customer wants. Typically, customers would rate sellers on the quality of product offering, price, after-sales service, ease of use and TCO. As the Indian market evolves, the customer is looking beyond these factors and is demanding business value.
As Senior VP Channels, what are your roles and responsibilities?
Dhamodaran: As the Senior VP, Channel Operations and Commercial Strategy for India and SAARC, my key responsibilities include strengthening Cisco's relationships with its partner community as well as driving the effort towards entrenching Cisco's presence in the commercial market, which is among the fastest growing segments for us in the region.
18 AUG 2008
Financial Chronicle: Indian operations have yielded more than 100 patents
Cisco Systems has made India its second globalisation hub in the world, and for good reason. The company had invested $1.16 billion to set up the globalisation hub in Bangalore in 2006. Naresh Wadhwa, president and country manager - India & SAARC, Cisco Systems, to discuss the company's India plans.
Excerpts: What makes India such an attractive destination for Cisco Systems, that you have placed so many eggs in the India sub-continental basket?
India, for us, is not an R&D (research and development) backoffice. This country represents innovation for Cisco, and the company is trying to create innovative solutions and business models out of our Indian operations. India is a kind of sweetspot for us, as there is the right kind of talent in this country. We will continue to invest here. Innovations that happen out of here, will be deployed for the larger emerging economy. The intention is to drive innovation with local intelligence.
Cisco has played up the India story often in the past. Which sectors are you betting on?
We are expecting to catch some 'big waves' in this market. Retail, rural banking, healthcare and connected real estate are areas that Cisco bets on in India. Providing network-centric architecture in retail and laying infrastructure connectivity for rural banking really excite us.
18 AUG 2008
The Financial Express: Watch out for new threats Virtually, every company seems to be in a rush to merge email, fax and voice communications. IT, BPO, media, telecom, banking and retail enterprises are embracing unified communications (UC) in a bid to increase productivity, improve customer satisfaction and reduce operational costs. However, the risks associated with UC security are now beginning to surface as companies start merging their various channels of communications.
Minhaj Zia, national sales manager (unified communications), Cisco India & Saarc says, "Some of the threats that UC faces are-open architecture on voice over internet protocol (VoIP) software can be exploited for eavesdropping, packet spoofing, and replay attacks; instant messaging, a highly vulnerable service, has gained popularity not only on business desktops but also on handhelds and smartphones; access to emails via UC solutions carrying voice or mail attachments is also highly susceptible to attacks."
13 AUG 2008
Enterpriser.in: Reaching Out with Technology India has become a key player in the modern global economy, serving as a significant global hub for knowledge-based economic activities, both as an offshoring destination and through the growth of indigenous firms.
Driving this explosive expansion is the growing Small and Medium Business (SMB) sector, which is experiencing double digit growth. According to an AMI Partners report, there are more than 7.6 million SMBs in India and they form a sector that is taking the country's economy to new pinnacles. SMBs are set to increase their IT spends by 22% in 2008 to a whopping USD 9.7 billion, primarily increasing their servers and networking technology.
Constant technology innovation - and the resulting benefits in terms of enhanced operational efficiency and business communications - has played a role in the development of both the challenges and opportunities faced today by SMBs. Rapidly evolving market transitions, consolidation, competition and increase in customers' expectations have dramatically shaped businesses of all sizes.
There is great growth potential for the SMB market (defined as 100-249 employees) as well as the Small Business (SB; 5-99 employees) and mid market (more than 250 employees) segments. Large IT companies have been known to focus on the larger enterprise segment and they are now also looking eagerly to the growing SMB and mid market segments and their unique needs.
07 AUG 2008
The Economic Times: US stocks end higher on oil drop
Wall Street logged another winning day Wednesday as a drop in oil prices and a better-than-expected profit report from technology bellwether Cisco Systems Inc. helped corral the market's worries about the financial sector. Oil extended its slide into a third day. Light, sweet crude settled down 59 cents at $118.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the government reported a jump in domestic inventories; oil is now down about $30 from its record high of $147.27 reached on July 11. Cisco rose more 5 percent after the networking equipment company late Tuesday posted earnings that narrowly topped Wall Street's forecast. The report helped buoy sentiment and lifted the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index. The buying came a day after Wall Street had a huge rally, an advance that in early trading Wednesday looked like it might not hold. Investors began the day fearing more industry wide write-downs of bad home loans after mortgage financier Freddie Mac reported a larger-than-expected second-quarter loss. But a reversal in oil prices, continuing a decline that propelled stocks sharply higher Tuesday, helped calm investors about the forces tugging at the economy. The well-being of Freddie Mac and sister company Fannie Mae is a big concern on Wall Street as the government-chartered companies hold or back nearly half of all US mortgage debt. The companies have lost billions of dollars due to failed loans over the past year; the federal government has pledged to help both companies with larger lines of credit or stock purchases if necessary.
06 AUG 2008
The Economic Times: Cisco earnings up 4 per cent, beating estimates
Cisco Systems Inc reported a 4 percent increase in quarterly profit on Tuesday, beating analysts' expectations by a penny per share. The world's largest maker of computer networking gear said it earned $2.01 billion, or 33 cents per share, in the three months ended July 25, its fiscal fourth quarter. In the same period last year, Cisco earned $1.93 billion, or 31 cents per share. Sales rose 10 percent to $10.4 billion. Excluding one-time items, earnings were 40 cents per share. Analysts had expected Cisco to report earnings of 39 cents per share on $10.3 billion in revenue, according to a Thomson Financial poll. Analysts and investors had been expecting that Cisco's results would show signs of the weak U.S. economy, but there was little evidence of that ahead of a conference call in which executives were scheduled to discuss prospects in the new fiscal year. Chief Financial Officer Frank Calderoni said the results, coming in ``a quarter of somewhat uncertain macroeconomic conditions,'' demonstrated the strength of the company's business model. In the full fiscal year, Cisco's earnings were $8.1 billion, or $1.31 per share, on sales of $39.5 billion. In the previous fiscal year, net income was $7.3 billion on revenue of $34.9 billion.
04 AUG 2008
The Times of India: Virtually together
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, as the fear of flying pushed many airlines around the world to ground their planes, the term video conferencing became a popular part of business vocabulary. But the economic boom that followed later, restored flying and personal contact once again as the preferred mode of business interaction. Last week, Tata Communications announced an initiative under which it will provide Cisco's telepresence solution within hotels of the Taj Group, as also in the offices of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). This involves setting up of private and public rooms with high-definition video-conferencing facilities, available to use on an hourly basis. The plan is to extend it even to overseas locations of their offices/hotels in Boston (US) and London by September 2008, and later New York... In short, telepresence is not only likely soon to become an integral part of the way big corporates conduct their communications, it is also expected to become accessible to smaller enterprises and individuals, given the public rooms and pay-per-use models that are emerging. And that explains why one can today even see Cisco ads on TV, showing family members gathering in a room to watch a relative getting married in a distant place... Cisco, which has deployed the technology in many of its own offices, found that the maximum usage of telepresence took place between an office in London city and an office located 60 km away from the city. "On further inquiry we found that it took over two hours to get to the London city office and the easiest transport mode was a crowded train ride. So people preferred telepresence," says Ajay Goel, senior VP in Cisco India. Goel says that Cisco has had 1,00,000 meetings with its customers, as also internally, using the telepresence solution. "Only in our travel costs we have saved $70 million annually," he says.
04 AUG 2008
The Financial Express: Campus connections
The Assam University came into existence in 1994 to provide higher education to students, delivered through a multidisciplinary approach. The university has nine schools and 24 departments under its belt, covering major disciplines like social sciences, technology, and management studies among others. In addition, the university has five districts under its jurisdiction, with as many as 51 undergraduate colleges...Asoke K Sen, dean of School of Technology, Assam University, says, "Although other products were competitive and cost-effective, we chose Cisco because of its reliability, reference and brand name. Since we are located in a remote corner of the country, we did not want to take any chances. Once the vendors were finalised, the technical committee, solution vendors (HCL Comet), and other experts got together and devised a roadmap or a consulting bill for sourcing material." Amit Malik, vice-president, East, Cisco India and Saarc, says, "Our vision for Assam University is to enable them to create value for their academic community and offer high-quality education in the region. An always available, stable and secure network allow teachers and students to enhance their knowledge and share information that creates ‘knowledge societies'."
04 AUG 2008
The Hindu Business Line: Have idea, seal deal
Venture Capital (VC) investment in India during the first half of 2008 has not been affected by the turmoil in the global financial markets. There is no significant squeeze on valuations witnessed in the VC segment, says Arun Natarajan, CEO, Venture Intelligence, a research firm on VC. VC firms invested $200 million in 30 IT companies during the first half of 2008, compared with $258 million across 39 investments during the corresponding period last year. While IT companies continue to account for a majority of investments, it is quite significant that the proportion of non-IT investments - both by activity and value - has now climbed up to 40 per cent...As always, during every downturn, the quality of deals becomes better and better. Good ideas and good teams stand the test of time and become visible in the venture industry, says Joydeep Bose, Director, Corporate Business Development, Investments and Acquisitions, Cisco Globalisation Centre East. One positive effect of the downturn is that valuations are becoming more reasonable. As too much money was following too few deals earlier there was an irrational exuberance demonstrated in the market primarily driven by several new non-VC/PE style funds. Now there are several mezzanine rounds coming up for fund raising by good companies - with solid fundamentals, product IP and revenue - who are looking at strategic partners. As for valuation, there is a (much needed) correction in the market.
03 AUG 2008
Mint: Companies heed the online message
Indian companies are increasingly using online social platforms to connect a dispersed workforce as well as to reach out to elusive customers in multiple markets. While information technology (IT) firms are in the lead, mainly to foster internal communications, consumer product makers are discovering the potential of social networking sites as brand promotion tools. Fastrack-Titan Industries Ltd's line of watches and eyewear targeted at youth-supports a host of fan communities on social networking sites such as Facebook and Orkut. Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) promotes its Sunsilk range of haircare products through its interactive website www.sunsilkgangofgirls.com, hosted by Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra. "It is fast moving consumer goods companies such as HUL that have done substantial work with social media in India," says Rajnish, India head of digital advertising solutions at Microsoft India Pvt. Ltd, who uses only one name...It is technology firms, however, that are ahead of the curve in adopting social media tools. According to technology and market research firm Forrester Research, demand for Web 2.0 tools such as wikis is expected to grow strongly in 2008, with the IT sector among the first to embrace them. Web 2.0 tools are Internet tools that allow multiple users to share data using the Internet as a platform. "Wikis are proving to be one of the most popular, business-relevant Web 2.0 tools within Cisco," says Varghese Thomas, head of corporate communications at Cisco Systems India Pvt. Ltd.
01 AUG 2008
Business World: Across The Table, Almost California-based Cisco Systems, the $35-billion networking technology company, rarely wastes an opportunity to showcase its telepresence technology. This was one reason why Marthin De Beer, vice-president of emerging technologies group in the company, decided to conduct the interview with this correspondent through telepresence, although his office was in the next building.
Telepresence is the fastest ramping emerging business in the history of Cisco, but it is part of a larger strategy based on the business of collaboration in the enterprise and, sometime in the near future, in the home. The strategy began a decade ago when Cisco was no more than a company that sold routers. Over the past 10 years, it went on to develop voice-over-IP (internet protocol), IP telephony and then Unified Communications (UC). In 2006, it went from UC to telepresence, and now is intent on becoming a one-stop shop for both hardware and software for the enterprise, and not just in networking. Video is at the front end of this strategy, which stems from a belief that people would always need to meet each other to conduct serious business. "Business is based on trust," says De Beer. "You have to see people to trust them."
Cisco believes, as do some of its competitors, that video will predominate in the future world. It will be the basis of entertainment and collaboration. It will be the dominant theme in all social and business networking, and is already one of the main drivers of the expansion of the internet. In the future, probably not near enough for us to imagine now, almost all corporate and home applications will have a video component to it. Telepresence now provides a glimpse of what could become routine one day. Says De Beer, "Social networking is only one step away from getting video-enabled." Cisco is its own largest customer of telepresence, having installed over 220 units in its offices worldwide. The company is also sending a not-so-subtle message about the future of communications. "We refer to video as visual communication," says Cisco's Chief Technology Officer Padmashree Warrior.
DT (Deepak Thakur): Recently there has been news on some restructuring in Cisco, and as a part of the move, you have been heading the Industry Business Council (IBC). Could you please provide some insight on IBC and your plans to drive Cisco's vision through this model?
AG (Ajay Goel): Cisco's newly-formed Industry Business Council (IBC) is an expert body of industry leaders who focus on different large or emerging verticals in the Indian market and look into how Cisco's experience and expertise can be put to work in creating customized solutions for these sectors. The primary focus areas of IBC are TREC (Tourism, Real Estate, Construction and Infrastructure), Manufacturing, Healthcare, Retail, ITS, (IT Services) and BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance).
30 JUL 2008
The Economic Times: TCOM rolls out telepresence service in tie-up with Cisco, CII
Eyeing revenues from corporate and retail users, Tata Communications (TCOM, earlier known as VSNL) has rolled out public telepresence service in collaboration with Indian Hotels (the owner of Taj Hotels), business chamber CII and Cisco Systems. Telepresence provides high-definition conferencing facilities, providing a viable alternative to traditional face-to-face meetings. This helps enterprises to bring down travel costs, improve productivity and reduce time-to-market. Depending on the location, users will have to pay between Rs 12,000 to Rs 14,000 per hour for the service. While public rooms have been set up in Taj Hotels, corporates are opting for private telepresence rooms in their offices for quick communication. "They are concentrated in metros, but include some tier II towns also," Cisco Systems India senior VP, industry business strategy, Ajay Goel said. Cisco has saved $70 million on travel costs in the last one year by using telepresence, he added. TCOM will be able to reach out to SMEs easily and in the retail segment, it is largely targeted at non-resident Indians.
28 JUL 2008
The Hindu: Every industry needs you
A career in networking is not entirely about monitoring a system or being a system administrator. It is a common misconception that it entails the more tedious part of a software job, and involves very little on the innovation front. Yet, the ongoing Information and Communication Technology revolution in India is already changing all of that.
With the dynamics of this industry constantly changing, experts say that networking, which connects several disciplines, is one of the hottest growth areas in this field. In a recent interview with The Hindu, Milind Gurjar, director, learning @Cisco, said that he believes that the top three skill-sets needs in India are in security, wireless networking and network designing. Though there are several courses, those by Cisco have been very popular. Cisco Networking Academy provides online courses, interactive tools and lab activities to help individuals develop the skills needed to fill ICT positions in virtually every type of industry, says Jagan Jothivel, area academy manager for India and SAARC countries.
26 JUL 2008
Deccan Herald: Vanishing glass ceiling
In their careers, project deadlines may often have gone hand-in-hand with pregnancies and children would have wrestled for priority with team building. But these women leaders have shown that they can handle it all, says L Subramani. When Prameela Kalive walked into her interview at Zensar Technologies, she carried something more than her testimonials: a one-month-old baby. Hailing from a small town in Andhra Pradesh and married to a naval officer after her education, Pramila's six-year stint at Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was spent with Dr Abdul Kalam in the Agni Missile project. While many would have thought transitioning from a cosy government establishment to a more demanding corporate firm is a tough enough thing, doing it with the rigours of bringing up a baby would have persuaded them to give up the idea altogether. But Pramila has managed both with admirable success, an accomplishment that has made her one of the women leaders in Indian IT industry; she is now Global Head - Human Resource, Zensar Technologies... As Cisco Women's Action Network's (WAN) Connected Women's Network Forum' spoke of piercing the ‘glass ceiling' - an imagery they used to indicate the roadblock women often encounter on their way to becoming CEOs and heads of their companies - the success stories of Pramila and others set a positive tone for the discussions. Challenging projects Some like Lea King, Senior Director, Cisco Global Centre (Bangalore), found courage and confidence from their own life experiences. Aged 13, Lea had to leave her native Taiwan for the US. "Without knowing a single word in English," she recalls. But, when she started to pick up a few words in Spanish from the Mexicans who worked at her mother's kitchen in Virginia and help them communicate with the Chinese, little did she realise that she would qualify as a computer engineer and put her language skills to the best use in her career.
24 JUL 2008
CIOL: Cisco's SMB class solutions Cisco, being the prominent player in this segment, has plans to add 600 more partners to its certification program and has also come up with various incentive programs for partner.
Q. what can your SMB partners expect from Cisco Select Certification Program?
The Select Certification Program (SCP) is part of our Cisco Channel Partner Program. This rewards our partners, who have a focused business practice selling into this market. We plan to add 600 new partners specifically certified to cater to SMB customers, especially in tier-2 and 3 markets shortly. The program has been designed to focus on training and skill development, and offers certification to indicated partners competence in selling and deploying these solutions. Partners registered under this program gain eligibility to earn opportunity incentive program (OIP) rewards and to sell Cisco Smart Care Services, in addition to being branded as a Cisco Select Certified Partner. Amit Malik, Head - SMB, India & SAARC, Cisco Systems
23 JUL 2008
in.reuters.com: Cisco to buy Pure Networks Cisco Systems Inc said on Wednesday it would acquire Pure Networks, a privately held provider of home networking-management software and tools, for $120 million.Cisco said Seattle-based Pure Networks' home networking-management solution allows users to set up and manage a home network and connect a range of devices, applications and services within the home.The acquisition is expected to be completed in Cisco's first quarter of fiscal year 2009.
21 JUL 2008
prdomain.com: Cisco Survey Identifies Key Factors Redefining Global Exchanges and Billions of Trades Daily Study First to Identify Strategies and Technologies That Can Help Exchanges Thrive in Rapidly Evolving Landscape
A confluence of factors is reshaping the global securities industry and the traditional exchange trading business, a new Cisco study reveals. The company's global strategic consulting arm, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), conducted the first survey that examines and ranks key factors impacting the way trillions of dollars in cash and securities are traded on global exchanges. The study also reveals that in order for exchanges to meet rising user expectations, develop new revenue streams and remain competitive, they must seek a deeper understanding of these factors and exercise influence when appropriate. To gain insight into this shifting landscape, the Cisco IBSG Financial Services practice conducted a research study, the Cisco Exchanges Survey. Through interviews with dozens of senior buy-side, sell-side and exchange executives, Cisco IBSG identified more than 50 capabilities against which to measure an exchange's performance. The study also revealed that exchanges do not currently influence many of these capabilities."At a time when we have seen so much change, only those organizations savvy enough to recognize the key capabilities, and to what extent they can control these factors, will remain competitive in tomorrow's market," said Joe Rosen, president, RKA Inc., and formerly the managing director of trading technology and head of technology marketing at the New York Stock Exchange.
21 JUL 2008
Express Computer: Going the rural way
It is said that there are two drastically different segments of population residing in India—one comprising the urban, elite, working-class of people, and the other, the rural masses, who constitute the majority. It is also said that the true judge of globalization and economic development is when it makes an impact on people at the grassroot level. With the dearth of the IT talent pool growing by the day and the shortfall rising to an alarming rate, companies are now looking beyond the metros to tap the requisite talent and bridge the rural-urban divide. Lokesh Mehra, Regional Manager Corporate Responsibility, Cisco South Asia, stated, "Majority of the students in rural areas go by hearsay and trends and are not aware of the opportunities in the networking industry or sector. Software is still a buzz while other sectors like networking and animation which are growing faster are ignored. As information slowly percolates to the rural areas, people would realize the benefits of aligning with these growing fields as well as the lower hierarchy chains required to get promoted in such industries."
21 JUL 2008
Express Computer: Assam University's campus area network
Assam University came into existence in 1994 to provide higher education to students, delivered through a multidisciplinary approach. The university has nine schools, covering major disciplines like social sciences, technology, management studies, amongst others, with 24 departments under it. In addition, the university has five districts under its jurisdiction with as many as 51 undergraduate colleges. Amit Malik, Vice-president, East, Cisco India and SAARC, said, "Our vision for Assam University is to enable them to create value for their academic community and offer high-quality education in the region. A network that is always available, stable, and secure allows teachers and students to use the network to enhance their knowledge and share information that creates ‘knowledge societies'. It also motivates students to explore and collaborate a wide universe of subjects and topics that are available online."
21 JUL 2008
The Hindu Business Line: It's all on lease
Businesses need to constantly upgrade the technology they invest in even while keeping costs down. What is the way out? Networking technology major Cisco says it helps out small and medium businesses (SMBs) with financing options, through its arm Cisco Capital. According to the Vice-President of Cisco Capital, Gautam Munish, flexibility in financing, such as leasing, will become a decisive factor for small and medium businesses in choosing a technology solution. Cisco has launched this service in India and plans to take it to other markets in the region. Through Cisco Capital, an SMB can finance not only Cisco equipment, but also third party solutions and the soft costs associated with integration and support services, according to the company. The leasing plans are designed such that they include incentives that make it easy for a company to upgrade its existing Cisco equipment and to afford the very latest advances in technology networking, it says. With most SMBs looking at the next phase of growth integrating their businesses with global players, they need to be extremely competitive. This is possible only with the best technology infrastructure, feels Munish.
18 JUL 2008
The Smart Techie: Cisco India launches women leadership forum
The Cisco Women's Action Network (WAN) India chapter today launched the 'Connected Women Leadership Forum' with the hope of providing a platform to connect women professionals - engineers, scientists, sociologists, teacher - across the ecosystem. Talking on the occasion, Dr. Ganesh Natarajan, CEO, Zensar Technologies and Chairman, NASSCOM discussed the current scenario of women professionals in the top echelons of the various technology companies and the need to increase this ratio. "Currently women constitute 23 percent of the two million IT populace in India. Out of this only three percent women are in the top management positions," he said. "Though women have a natural flair for leadership, in professional lives they often face the ‘glass ceiling'. Hence, through various initiatives, by 2020, NASSCOM hopes to see women constitute about 50 percent of leadership positions."
17 JUL 2008
varindia.com: Cisco Expands Virtualization Across Data Centre Portfolio
In order to introduce virtualization across its data centers, Cisco has announced new products and professional services under its Data Center 3.0 portfolio that will help the enterprises to offer services all over the world from a single centralized data centre. The new products include Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS), Cisco Application Control Engine (ACE), Cisco VFrame Data Center, New Cisco Data Center 3.0 professional programs and services. Sumit Mukhija, national sales manager, data centre, Cisco India and SAARC said, "By virtualising the resources of a data centre, an enterprise can offer services across the globe from a single centralised data centre, thereby reducing operational cost and increasing asset effectiveness." These new offerings will enable data centers to accelerate, provide security and direct application delivery networks, servers, virtualized computing, and storage and will further result in reducing operational costs and enhancing asset efficiency, said the company. The upgraded version of the WAAS software will have WAAS Live Video Streaming and WAAS Virtualization as two separate licensing features, each priced at $2500 per device. Existing Cisco WAAS Enterprise License customers with Cisco SmartNet Software and Support with Upgrades (SASU) Contracts will have free access to the new version. The ACE Appliance software release is available for free to SmartNet users. The throughput license of upgraded ACE Appliance 2Gbps to 4Gbps is available for $15,000 while the compression license of ACE Appliance is available for $20,000 for a 2Gbps compression license, $10,000 for a 500 Mbps to 2Gbps compression upgrade license and $ 5000 for a 1 Gbps to 2 Gbps compression upgrade license. The VFrame license will be available for a list price of $59,995. All the new products and solutions are scheduled to be available in this quarter.
17 JUL 2008
domain-b.com: Sprint, Cisco and Ciena to implement 40-Gbps circuits on the Global Sprint Tier 1 IP Network
American firms, Sprint, Cisco and Ciena today announced that they are implementing 40-gigabits-per-second (Gbps) network capabilities on the Global Sprint Tier 1 IP Network using a technology called Internet Protocol over dense wavelength-division multiplexing, or IPoDWDM for short. The implementation supports the needs of Sprint customers who are looking to adopt next-generation services, grow their businesses and enable their employees to conduct day-to-day tasks, simply and immediately.Today's announcement builds upon Sprint's existing deployment of the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System, which the two had used to conduct the first 40-Gbps technology trial with live-production traffic in 2004. "Sprint's network capabilities support the growing use of the Internet, as well as the growth we are seeing with Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) services - and our efforts to effectively migrate customers from legacy technologies to SprintLink IP and Global MPLS platforms," said Kathy Walker, chief information and network officer for Sprint. "Deployment of 40-Gbps circuits throughout our IP core enables next-generation data, voice and video applications and allows Sprint to scale its IP network to address customer needs, as IP increasingly becomes the basis of communications services." As a long-standing customer of multiple Ciena platforms, Sprint began deploying CoreStream, with its 100G-ready scalable capacity and flexible design, in its Tier 1 IP backbone in 2000 and has more than 1,000 nodes deployed across its network today. "Cisco pioneered IP over DWDM by introducing it to the industry in December 2005," said Kelly Ahuja, Cisco vice president and general manager of the service provider routing technology group. "Sprint was an early adopter of both it and our IP NGN architecture to combine and distribute video, voice and data content rapidly to the benefit of its customers' network experiences and to do it efficiently to benefit its business."
13 JUL 2008
The Financial Express: Are you being served?
In today's complex market, the proliferation of customer touch points has meant that it is actually getting harder - not easier - to consistently and profitably deliver the right kind of high-quality experience to all customers all the time. Early in 2006, Forrester Research put forward this question to businesses everywhere: "In this competitive new world, how will leaders rise above the fray and differentiate their wares?" Considering that this question remains pertinent year after year, Forrester went on to conclude that business leaders will differentiate their products and services by creating compelling, valuable, usable customer experiences. This dilemma, faced by all businesses for decades has given rise to the new era in industry; the era of Transforming Customer Service. Businesses that have gained ground with a differentiated product or service would do well to not rest on their laurels, but identify and implement an array of channels for their customers to interact with them, whether for maintenance or service, or simply feedback from the user perspective on how the product or service can be enhanced. A recent survey by management consultants Accenture (‘Service in the Customers' Eyes: What Works, What Doesn't and How it Contributes to High Performance, September 2005) brings up the alarming fact that nearly 50% of the respondents had changed service or product providers in the past year due to poor customer service.
11 JUL 2008
Ciol.com: Cisco intros Datacenter 3.0
Cisco has recently introduced Datacenter 3.0, with a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 25 percent in the coming four years.Offering a complete solution package with a validity design approach, the company is keen in introducing Data Center Assurance Program facilitating a clear understanding of the operational mode of the datacenter. Commenting on Cisco's pledge to reduce GHG by the year 2012, Amit Malik, VP-Eastern Zone, Cisco said, "As greenhouse gas comprises of the bulk of the polluting materials, we are focusing on bringing down these emissions and focus on saving more power."Combining a unified double interface fabric, which reduces eight percent of the total data center cost with self defending network, the data center is expected to conserve about 55 percent of total required energy to drive the data center. Also, the use of recyclable and high-quality material ensures that there is an extended lifecycle of the data center bringing down the scope of repetition of environmental hazards."Datacenter 3.0 is built on the utility based model with a philosophy of pay as you grow, which means, that the fixed cost incurred by the client is minimal and there is scope of upgrading the database with the expansion of growing needs," said Sumit Mukhija, National Business Development Manager, Cisco. Evolving around the process from transactions to interactions, the trend is now leading to the emergence of data centers built on network-based service-oriented infrastructures (SOI).
09 JUL 2008
Business Gyan: Cisco Launches Innovative Financing
Cisco Systems launches '0% Financing for Cisco Multi-year Services Program' in India to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) meet the rising demand for technology to succeed in business. This innovative financing program testifies to Cisco's continued commitment to helping SMBs transform their businesses with technology, while lowering total cost of ownership (TCO) and enhancing the value of technology investments with flexible payment options. It is offered by Cisco Services and Cisco CapitalTM. It provides an interest-free financing package for multi-year contracts for Technical Services, SMARTnet and Advanced Services programs, to address the budget concerns SMBs face. The program provides SMBs with immediate return on investment (ROI) by allowing them to align their expenses with monthly revenue. It also helps lower TCO for a company, enabling effective management of cash flow and resources. With multi-year service contracts, SMBs can lock in current services pricing for years and eliminate the hassle of contract renewal. Cisco Services finance offerings are available for SMBs purchasing Technical services, SMARTnet and the Advanced Services Program with a minimum deal size of US$50,000 net per annum in India.
08 JUL 2008
Business Standard: Cisco woos datacenter clients
Cisco India has chalked out a series of awareness programmes for educating regional businesses on the benefits of its recently launched Nexus 5000 datacentre. According to Amit Malik, VP-Cisco India (East), "About 76 percent of corporates believe cost-effective datacenters as their priority. We have created a regional focus for all our businesses. We are therefore hosting seminars and meetings to educate regional businesses in the usefulness of 3.0 datacentres. We are also targeting the small and medium enterprises which have a turnover of around Rs 200-300 crore, or organizations with 200-250 computers." Datacentres will find a growing opportunity in India as companies look at energy-saving datacenters. Also, rapid expansion of companies is expected to push up the need for more cost-effective, power-saving datacenters, Malik pointed out.
08 JUL 2008
Business Today: Cisco's heavy lifting Doing the seemingly impossible is nothing new to Wim Elfrink, the 56-year-old Chief Globalisation Officer and Executive Vice President of the $34.5-billion ($29.2 billion for the first nine months of the current fiscal) networking giant Cisco Systems. Over the last two decades and more, he has run 42 marathons, become proficient in snowboarding and skiing and even found the time to become fluent in German and Italian, besides picking up a smattering of Hindi in the last 19 months he has spent in India. All these tasks, however, pale compared to the one Elfrink has set himself at work. More than a decade after he joined Cisco and worked across the US and Europe, he has chosen to relocate to Bangalore and spearhead Cisco's ambitious plans to make the city its second global headquarters and move up to 20 per cent of its top talent to India.
07 JUL 2008
The Hindu Business Line: Talent development for India
In a speech at Harvard University in 1943, Winston Churchill observed: "The empires of the future will be empires of the mind." As The Economist recently put it, Churchill might have added that the battles of the future will be battles for talent.
Globalisation and market forces are creating opportunities across countries on a scale never seen before. Unfortunately, there is also a widening skills gap. The resulting battle for talent is not just between companies, but also between countries; notice how today ‘reverse brain drain' is helping India's and China's economies.
With 900 million ‘globalised' workers in the world, sheer numbers are not the problem in the current talent shortage. Rather, the gap is shaped by geography, migration, demographics and education, with all the signs pointing towards an even bigger problem in the coming years. Demographics is a case in point; its most dramatic effect will be in Europe and Japan. By 2025, the number of people aged 15-64 is projected to fall by 7 per cent in Germany, 9 per cent in Italy and 14 per cent in Japan. It will have an effect on China and also in the US where the retirement of the baby-boomers means that companies will lose large numbers of experienced workers over a short period.
07 JUL 2008
Network Computing: Cisco Offers Smart Care Service to SMBs
Cisco recently introduced Cisco Smart Care service to the Indian market. The service is designed to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and mid-market customers simplify network maintenance through regular, proactive network assessments, remote software repairs, and technical support. The networking major, however, is also planning to introduce similar network management services for enterprise customers. As the network becomes the platform for business success in companies of all sizes, the service and support needs of SMB and mid-market customers are becoming more sophisticated. "As a result, the demands placed on technology partners have increased and have been a key driver for us in developing a collaborative approach for delivering services," said David Rubio, Vice President, Cisco Services Asia Pacific.
07 JUL 2008 Times Of India: Calling Networking Engineers
Twenty-two years old Manish couldn't be happier. A BSc - IT degree holder from K.C. College, Mumbai, Manish is just a year old in the IT industry and can't stop gushing about his job. "A Networking engineer's job is so interesting and challenging. Of course, like most others I faced the dilemma of choosing between software development and this. But I am glad I chose to become a networking engineer," says Manish, a resident engineer with Datacraft who got promoted within 9 months of his joining the firm.
Though there is an increasing trend of many including engineering, non-engineering graduates and diploma-holders entering this domain, generating enough talent is still a challenge. "The resource demand is a direct consequence of the projected growth of the networking industry," reasons Milind Gurjar, director - Global Market Development, Cisco.
According to a study commissioned by networking giant Cisco, conducted by Forrester Consulting, there would be a demand for 7, 45,000 network engineers in India. Companies are already scouting for huge networking talent with the right skills and qualifications. Conversely, individuals with those skills and qualifications are finding good jobs and career opportunities. "Demand for trained resources for this industry is arising not only due to BPO, KPO but also due to large scale IT deployment in other sectors like BFSI," reasons G Raghavan, president, individual learning solutions, NIIT.
It is estimated that there would be a need of 1.1 million professionals in IT infrastructure management by 2012. The obvious question that arises is - where and how are firms going to get this talent from? "The industry is partnering with academic institutions and training providers to create a steady supply of talent," says Gurjar. Moreover, most IT companies are conducting intensive boot-camps to bridge the skill gap between the required skills and the skills that fresh graduates come in with.
07 JUL 2008
VARIndia: Cisco launches Innovative Financing Offerings
Cisco has launched "0% Financing for Cisco Multi-Year Services Program" in India to help small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) meet the rising demand for technology to succeed in business. This innovative financing program testifies to Cisco's continued commitment to helping SMBs transform their businesses with technology, while lowering total cost of ownership (TCO) and enhancing the value of technology investments with flexible payment options. The "0% Financing for Cisco Multi-Year Services Program" is offered by Cisco Services and Cisco Capital. It provides an interest-free financing package for multi-year contracts for Technical Services, SMARTnet and Advanced Services programs, to address the budget concerns SMBs face.
05 JUL 2008
Tech2.com: Cisco To Enhance SMB Tech Investments With Flexi-Pay Options
Cisco, networking technology and products company, has announced a zero percent financing facility for small and medium businesses for its multi-layer services programme, that will seek to tackle the challenges of the sector through cost control and investment in technologies and infrastructure.
The scheme, launched here this week, will be extended to China, Korea and Hong Kong and other APAC countries. It will initially be in force till 2009 and cover Cisco's lifecycle approach of planning, designing and implementation for the SMBs. Cisco offers the products at a concessional interest rate of seven percent to the SMBs.
The scheme devised by its finance arm Cisco Capital, a fully owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, extends assistance to larger enterprises at market rate, said Gautam Manish, Vice-President, Cisco Capital India. Cisco had invested $150 million in the arm set up in India in 2005, which is part of the $1-billion investment promise announced by Cisco Systems' Chairman and CEO, John Chambers.
04 JUL 2008
The Economic Times: Consumers will be the tech king in future Second Life, the 3-D virtual world, started as a phenomenon where users could get a new avatar and live a life that they always wanted in the real world. A news agency's employee, for instance, bought land in Second Life and created an office of the agency within it. The employee made himself the editor-in-chief and disseminated news from there to users of the portal. When the news agency got to know of it, they bought the building and made their own news agency in the virtual world. "The concept of web 3.0 is fast kicking in with consumers, driving a change that enterprises need to consider. Nowadays it is becoming common for companies to have their own video blogs, wikis, podcasts and even have webinars which are used by many employees" says Ajay Goel, senior VP, industry business strategy in Cisco Systems India.
04 JUL 2008
Business Standard: Cisco plans interest-free financing to SMBs
Networking solutions provider Cisco has announced to offer interest-free financing options to small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India for its service offerings. The financing will be provided through Cisco Capital which has been providing finance to SMB and large enterprises in India from 2005. After the launch of $150 million Cisco Capital as part of Cisco chairman John Chambers $1.1 billion investment plan for India.
As part of its financial offerings for the SMBs Cisco had so far financed about 170 companies in India, for both networking products as well as services at an interest rate of 7 per cent per annum. The company has now decided to offer zero per cent financing options for companies who for its professional and technological services. "Most SMBs have realised that technology is critical to enhancing their competitiveness. On the other hand many of them see technology as an expense that puts pressure on the company's cash flow. The ‘zero per cent Financing for Cisco Multi-Year Services Programme' has been specially designed and introduced for SMBs to help them deal with this dilemma," said Gautam Munish, VP, Cisco Capital, India & Saarc.
Cisco has launched the scheme simultaneously in Hong Kong, South Korea and China. According to a study by AMI Partners, the SMBs in India face a three-pronged challenge today including difficulties in raising financing for growth, rising operation costs and insufficient cash flow. "This trend has been pronounced more during the last couple of years. We are bringing to SMBs sophisticated services that have long been affordable to the larger enterprises," said G B Kumar, senior VP, Customer Advocacy, Cisco India & SAARC.
04 JUL 2008
Thedailystar.net: Fostering Bangladeshi skills the Cisco way
Information technology (IT), networking technology in particular, is providing high-growth career opportunities fo
