13 March 2012 Online TV Enhances Viewing Experience
In shops, homes, streets, and cafes scores of Indians watched what was one of the most important events in the country's history the Cricket World Cup 2011. While thousands watched the event on television, millions watched the matches online. According to a report from comScore, online video viewing in India experienced a sharp increase in February and March 2011 when more than 37 million video streams were viewed on sports sites. This means technology is changing the way we experience sports whether in the stadium or outside of it. Live broadcasts from Social media, online streaming, and HDTV are playing an important role in giving fans the ability to view, share, replay and relive mega sports events. Increasing broadband penetration in India is fuelling this ability further. Use of smartphones and other mobile devices is raising user demand and prompting organisers to seek solutions that enhance viewing experience. The author is President and Country Manager, Cisco India
12 March 2012 When Small Becomes Big and Big Becomes Global
The rising prominence of small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India is a sign that the segment is a key growth driver across all industry verticals. As they continue to grow and expand, SMBs are increasingly becoming part of a global ecosystem and leveraging technology as a means to achieving scale. However, most SMBs looking to expand globally pay more attention to the cost of acquisition compared to the return on the investment over the lifecycle of the solution. Many SMBs also find the perceived complexity associated with implementing technology very daunting. The issue gets further complicated due to the dearth of relevant industry specific solutions. Most IT solutions are not customized to address specific problem of SMBs but are offered as scaled-down versions of the ones offered to large enterprises. This adds to the increased reluctance on the part of the SMBs to adapt to the technology. Although serving international markets can add significant costs and complexities to an SMB's operations profile, technologies like unified communications (UC)-voice, video, and data all running over an internet protocol (IP) network-can help to overcome these limitations. The writer is President, Partner Business Group, Cisco India & Saarc
05 March 2012
Voice&Data: Cisco Tops Network Vendor List in 2011: Frost & Sullivan
Cisco gained the maximum revenue share of $44.82 billion, increasing 6 percent in the first nine months of the year 2011, says research firm Frost & Sullivan. Chinese vendor ZTE gained the highest revenue growth of 33.4 percent, with its revenue reaching $9.17 billion, compared to $6.87 in the nine months of the year 2010. The whole network infrastructure equipment industry grew at an average rate of 10 percent in the year 2011, in which Cisco contributed with 6 percent growth, with its revenue reaching $44.82 billion; Ericsson's revenue grew 10 percent, reaching $32.89 billion; Huawei increased 14 percent with its revenue hovering at $31.76 billion; and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) growing 8 percent, and generating a revenue of $18.18 billion.
05 March 2012
ITVARnews: Cisco Leaving No Stone Unturned for Partners' Growth Manu Bansal, Vice President, Advanced Technology, Channels, Cisco India shares with ITVar News about the Channel Policies and Strategies of the Company. ITVar News: What is your current channel strength? Are you planning to augment your channel base? Manu Bansal: We have more than 2000 channel partners in India currently. Since our go-to-market strategy relies primarily on the channel, we are always in the process of expanding our partner base. We are continuously onboarding partners who bring specific domain knowledge or vertical industry knowledge. ITVN: What are the criteria followed by your company to select partners? MB: A Cisco partner has to have the right combination of technical expertise and skills as well as needs to be driven intrinsically to explore more avenues for growth and revenue. Basis their experience and skill sets, we divide our partners into different groups. As such we have partners in the Gold, Silver, Premier, Service Provider (SP), Managed Services (MS), Architecture, and Distributor-led categories
02 March 2012
The Economic Times: Cisco's Seeker
False steps don't go unpunished in the unforgiving technology sector. And the burden of constantly scanning the technology landscape, mapping the future course of action, and then creating a relevant product portfolio at Cisco falls on the shoulders of company's Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior. Having cut her teeth at Motorola, Warrior joined Cisco in 2007 and has since then helped CEO John Chambers take networking giant into its next phase. In Mumbai recently for the NASSCOM Summit, she spoke about IT megatrends, cloud computing and the future of the Internet
02 March 2012
CIO NexT: The banking infrastructure in India is world class
BFSI organizations are very effectively building and growing the private cloud infrastructure and using it to deliver various applications and services for their internal organizations. CIO NexT: What is the current technology adoption/investment scenario in the BFSI sector? Purwar: The technology adoption within the banking and the financial sector in India is on par with the global players of this sector. The kind of banking infrastructure which has been created in India and the IT adoption which enables the BFSI sector to do business in India is world class. Investments towards better technology infrastructure are largely being done so banks and financial institutes can undertake the necessary innovations which are required by them to meet their customer requirements. The interviewee Avinash Purwar is Senior Vice President - Sales, Cisco
02 March 2012
The Times of India: Social Media, Cloud Will Be the Driving Trends: Cisco
False steps don't go unpunished in the unforgiving technology sector. And the burden of constantly scanning the technology landscape, mapping the future course of action, and then creating a relevant product portfolio at Cisco falls on the shoulders of company's Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior. Having cut her teeth at Motorola, Warrior joined Cisco in 2007 and has since then helped CEO John Chambers take networking giant into its next phase. In Mumbai recently for the NASSCOM Summit, she spoke about IT megatrends, cloud computing and the future of the Internet
02 March 2012
EFYTimes: AGC Networks Achieves Advanced Unified Communication Specialization from Cisco in India
AGC Networks Ltd, India's leading Solutions Integrator today announced enhancement of its portfolio through Collaboration and Virtualization business offerings from Cisco. With an Advanced Unified Communications Specialization, AGC Networks is also an Authorised Technology Provider for Unified Contact Center, Cisco Voice Portal solutions and Cisco TelePresence Video Express. Through this relationship with Cisco, AGC intends to expand their offerings by addressing Virtualization and Borderless Network opportunities and as part of its growth strategy, will continue to invest and grow its business through Cisco's UC & Business Video solutions. "As we move into new markets and emerging technologies, our Authorized Technology Provider Partners are instrumental in helping our customers turn innovative technology into a competitive advantage," said B Raghavendran, Head-India Partner Organisation Cisco, India & SAARC. "As a Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise and Customer Voice Portal and TelePresence Video ATP Partner, AGC Networks has invested in the skills necessary to bring advanced networking technologies that deliver operational improvements and help drive customer success."
01 March 2012
TelecomLead: Cisco Tops Cable Modem Termination System Revenue Market Share in 2011, Says Infonetics
Cisco is the only of the four cable modem termination system (CMTS) equipment leaders that gained CMTS revenue market share in 2011, growing from 51 percent to 59 percent of the global market, just one point shy of its all-time high, reveals market research firm Infonetics Research. The firm says the combined CMTS and edge QAM revenue grew 5 percent in the final quarter of 2011, ending the year on a high note, up 17 percent from the year-ago quarter. For the full year, CMTS and edge QAM manufacturer revenue increased by 6 percent to $1.7 billion.
01 March 2012
Financial Chronicle: Cisco & Riverbed Focus on Low-Cost Solutions
Information technology (IT) firms such as Cisco and Riverbed that provide application networking services to various companies worldwide are focusing in Indian market with new solutions that can save 20-50 percent costs on infrastructure and operations depending on size of a company. Both firms have launched solutions to accelerate performance of applications for its customers over wide area network (WAN) as well as cloud computing. Depending on the requirement, the cost of such solutions range between Rs 50,000 and a few crores of rupees, the firms said. Cisco and Riverbed are based out of California and listed in Nasdaq. Riverbed has customers such as HCL Technologies, Wipro Technologies, IBM, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, British Telecom, AT & T and others. However, Cisco said the company does not share names of its customers… With multiple devices in use by a single user, mobility has become a challenge and to rectify such problems we enable more applications that satisfy employees. Applications such as video is on rise and to give real time access to such videos in multiple devices, we are providing solutions," VP, Borderless Networks, Cisco India and SAARC, Mahesh Gupta told Financial Chronicle here.
February 2012
VAR INDIA : Cisco Propels Cloud-Ready Switching Portfolio
According to the Cisco Cloud Index, more than 50 per cent of computing workloads in data centers will be cloud-based by 2014, and global cloud traffic will grow more than 12 times by 2015, to 1.6 zettabytes per year. Based on these trends, Cisco announced it has updated its switching portfolio with 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) and 40 GE capabilities. These new capabilities provide a holistic architectural approach across campus, data center and service provider environments, and give customers a significant advantage while addressing emerging trends like cloud, video, mobility, and the proliferation of 10 GE.
29 February 2012
Deccan Herald : Internet, the Next Phase Cisco, commonly described as the Plumber of the Internet, recently released a report on the growth of data traffic from mobile devices such as laptops, smart phones and tablets. Key conclusion: The mobile network Internet is growing the way 'fixed network' Internet did 10 years ago. If you are in any industry that is likely to feel the impact of mobile internet, the list may include businesses as disparate as media, medicine, transport and retail, be prepared for the coming mobile disruption"
29 February 2012
Express Computer : Cisco Accelerates Partner-Led Investments to Tap Growing SMB Opportunity Cisco has reiterated its commitment to the partner-led strategy, a scalable go-to-market model designed to address the growing small business and mid-market segments in India. Cisco's Partner-Led strategy will focus on increasing geographical reach, building partner capability and drive business for products, solutions and services specifically for the India market. Pramodh Menon, President of the Partner Business Group, Cisco India & South Asia, said, "Over the past few years, we have experienced remarkable growth in the partner led segment. Today, this segment is a major contributor to Cisco's revenue in the country; with significant headroom for market development and expansion, particularly in tier II and upcountry markets. With the right mix of solutions and strategy, we are focused on opportunities to grow the business for our partners and will make the investments needed to accelerate growth and effectively address this market."
27 February 2012
CRN : IT Distribution Faces Newer Challenges
IT distribution in India has seen tremendous transformation over the past decade and half. From being largely unorganized, semi-anarchic and immature, technology distribution today is very mature and organized. The challenges organized distribution faces have also changed over the years. The gray market, once the bane of most authorized distributors, is now a mere distraction. While government policies continue to be unpredictable, they are fairly manageable. "If we ally with large cloud service providers such as Amazon, Google or Microsoft and start offering their services, the relationships with distributors will change. That is because these companies encourage a direct relationship between the vendor and the partners as the cloud services are offered over the wire. There is no role for intermediary play," comments Durganadh Venkata, Vice President, Locuz Enterprise, Hyderabad. "Even in the case of Cisco or TCS, there is very little role for an intermediary." Deeper coverage: As IT vendors start looking beyond Class A and B cities, distributors are expected to play a bigger role. "We want distributors to provide us the reach as new customers and new partners are evolving in smaller towns," says Arun Dharmalingam. VP, Distribution Channels, Cisco India and Saarc.
25 February 2012
The Times of India : Cisco to Buy Lightwire for $271m Cisco Systems Inc., the world’s largest networking-equipment maker, agreed to buy Lightwire Inc. for $271 million to add optical connectivity technology used in high-speed networks. Cisco will pay the sum in cash and retention-based incentives, according to a statement from the company today. The purchase of the Allentown, Pennsylvania-based company will probably be completed in the fiscal third quarter, Cisco said
25 February 2012
Businessworld : Enterprise 2.0 Demystified
Asian Paints is trying to solve a problem that plagues all companies once they reach a certain size and have multiple offices-employees in one location know nothing about those in another, even if they are working on the same projects. After its spate of acquisitions and expansion over the past decade, Asian Paints has over a hundred offices in India and abroad. It has become too big for its staff to communicate and share information or even know each other by name, especially if they happen to be functionally and geographically distant. With Asian Paints, the software has been such a hit that it has got dealers learning and using best practices. And more stakeholders now want to be part of the Huddle system. Cisco Systems says that one of its banking clients, who was earlier sceptical, is now becoming a convert to the cause. Cisco demonstrated to its client the benefit of ease of information capture and retrieval using its Quad software. "In the coming few years, 25 per cent of their experienced workforce is due to retire," says Minhaj Zia, Director (Collaboration) of Cisco India & Saarc. "Capturing on-the-job non-formal information is critical for such organisations, specially as they prepare to recruit new employees." Cisco uses its software, Quad, to capture knowledge so that later, users' questions can be answered. "This more informal, friendly way of communicating makes people more willing to share information and employees even prefer asking one another than calling on experts outside the system," says Zia
24 February 2012
Business Wire India : Cisco ASR 901 Wins the NASSCOM Innovation Award 2012 for New Technology Advancement
Cisco today announced that the Cisco ASR 901 Router has received the NASSCOM Innovation Award 2012 in the New Technology Advancement Category. The award was presented to Cisco at the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum, held in Mumbai recently. The ASR 901, developed by Cisco's engineering team in India, received the award for its innovation in creating a unified platform to serve the needs of 2G/3G/4G mobile backhaul and Carrier Ethernet applications. The Cisco ASR 901 Router Series is an environmentally hardened, extremely low-power Router, designed to meet the unique needs of Service Providers in Emerging Markets. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Partho Mishra, Vice President and General Manager for the Provider Access Business Unit, said, "We are proud to receive this award for the ASR 901; it is a great testament to Cisco's investment in developing innovative products for both emerging and developed markets and the fast growing capabilities of our India engineering teams. He added, "The last decade in the IT industry in India saw tremendous growth from engineering services and cost arbitrage. But we see that the next decade is going to be all about innovation, product development and thought leadership."Congratulating Cisco on winning the Innovation Award, Mr. Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM, said, "Technology organizations grow by advancing technology, disrupting markets and developing new business models; all aimed by making information even more accessible and actionable with every new cycle of innovation. The Innovation Awards are aimed to promote innovation within Indian IT-BPO organizations by way of recognizing companies that have made innovation a part of their organizational DNA. I congratulate Cisco and wish them all the best for the future"…
23 February 2012
CRN : New Cisco Specialization Highlights Partner Sales To Service Providers Cisco is rolling out a new advanced specialization to address a hugely lucrative market segments most solution providers don't play in but could: sales to second-,third-and fourth-tier service providers. The specialization, known as the Advanced IP Next-Generation Network (IPNGN) Architecture Specialization, went live recently. Cisco solution providers have been selling Cisco products to service provider customers for years, but Cisco wants to formalize how it rewards partners who have had success in that market segment, as well as grow that number of partners. "This is a business we've been in for quite some time, but we've had a boutique practice in place in each of the theaters," said Bob Gault, Vice President, Worldwide Service Provider Channels, in an interview with CRN. "This is a tremendous opportunity for Cisco. We can introduce partners into the service provider segment and it's a brand new vertical to them. And that's not just IPNGN. It can bleed into opportunities in service-provider Wi-Fi, mobile Internet and the video-connected home."
February 2012 Technology Can Make Learning More Efficient
For students of classes seven and eight in the remote villages of Bichali, Talmari and Tungabhadra in Raichur district, learning English is no longer a daunting task as they do not have to leave their villages to learn the language. They instead connect virtually with their teachers in the near-by cities employing collab-oration tools - interactive audio, video, web collabo-ration, and instant messaging or IM-to learn English using the local ver-nacular language (Kannada) as the medium of instruction. Thrice a week, teachers from the city use the Internet to deliver high quality supplementary courses remotely to these students.
22 February 2012
CRN : Unified Communications Gaining Ground
According to Frost & Sullivan, the size of the market for unified communication (UC) in India was $465 million in 2010, a growth of 30 percent from the $357 million in 2009. Conferencing and collaboration contributed $89 million with a growth of 33 percent over 2009, messaging saw tremendous growth of 52 percent at $7.5 million, mobility grew by 16 percent to $2.8 million, and unified client, presence and integrated applications grew by 19.1 percent over 2009. The market is expected to grow at 11.8 percent CAGR from 2010 to 2017. In our organization, we were able to bring down travel expenses from approximately $750 million a year to $200 million, adds Manu Bansal, Regional Manager, Advanced Technology Channels, Cisco.
21 February 2012
Mint: Writing Off that Virtual Letter
Are companies moving away from email in favour of the cloud? A lot of tech writing is filled with premature obituaries, whenever something new arrives on the horizon. Twitter launched? Facebook is dead! Instagram launched? Flickr is dead! Tumblr launched? Blogs are dead! No technology has been written off more often than email. It doesn’t help that the Union government wants access to encrypted emails across all telcos and handset makers in the country for security reasons. Research in Motion (the makers of BlackBerry) complied with this on Monday, by allowing the government access to encrypted messages on BlackBerry messenger. Email though still remains a very important tool for businesses, but today, we are also seeing a number of enterprise social networks that make collaboration and information sharing on the cloud easier. Such services could be a real alternative to email, or could at least change the way it is used by businesses. The following four senior executives give us their take on the future of email: Minhaj Zia, Director, collaboration, Cisco Systems India and Saarc Pvt Ltd, Sachin Dev Duggal, CEO and co-founder, nivio, Mumbai, Asheesh Raina, Principal research analyst, Gartner Inc. (India), Mumbai and Sunil Lalwani, Director, enterprise sales (India), Research In Motion, New Delhi.
21 February 2012
TelecomTiger: Cisco Systems Plans to Increase Workforce in India by 60%-Report
Cisco Systems will increase its workforce in India by about 60% over the next four years as part of its strategy for emerging markets, a senior executive of the network equipment. This will be the first big-scale recruitment by Cisco in India after it announced a 15% cut in global workforce in mid 2011. Most of the hiring will be for the company's research and development centre in Bangalore, which is its largest outside the US. The IT giant is increasingly using the Bangalore centre for innovating products for emerging markets such as India, China and Brazil. "By 2015, we will be ramping up from 7,500 people to about 12,000 people, increasing workforce out of Bangalore," senior vice-president Sanjay Rohatgi said, adding, "We want to innovate faster and at the right price point for emerging countries because the growth will happen in this part of the world now."
20 February 2012
The Financial Express: Indian IT Has a Creative Bunch of People
Some interesting factoids have emerged over the forthcoming IPO of Facebook, billed to be a mega event in an otherwise dull year for global stock markets. A valuation of $100 billion, which is many times the GDP of smaller countries, can only be justified by the rather interesting fact that less than 10 percent of the world’s population has a Facebook account. With competitors like Google hot on their heels, it will need a brave investor to buy shares at this astronomical valuation but knowing the hype that surrounds everything to do with social media these days, here is one issue that is destined to happen! Earlier this month, I had the privilege of playing host on behalf of Nasscom to Gary Moore, executive vice-president and chief operating officer of Cisco. For a company that was poised on the brink of a precipice less than a year ago, the transformation led by John Chambers and Gary Moore has been nothing short of miraculous and speaks volumes of the capabilities of management teams in multinationals once they are confronted with a burning platform.
17 February 2012
ITPortal: Cisco Buys Stake in Indian Social Network Start-up 'Qyuki'
Cisco has invested Rs 27 crore ($5.5 million) for 17% stake in the AR Rahman & Shekhar Kapur’s media startup 'Qyuki', reports Economic Times, although a report from The New York Times’s India Ink quotes Kapur stating that the number was incorrect. Kapur refused to disclose any financial details to the site. This is the same venture that Medianama had reported about in November 2010, and a little over a year and a half later, it appears to be ready for launch. We had heard about Cisco's investment then, but had been unable to confirm it.
17 February 2012
InformationWeek: Global Mobile Internet Data Traffic to Grow 18-fold by 2016: Cisco
Worldwide mobile data traffic will increase 18-fold over the next five years, reaching 10.8 exabytes per month or an annual run rate of 130 exabytes--by 2016, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for2011 to 2016. The expected sharp increase in mobile traffic is due, in part, to a projected surge in the number of mobile Internet-connected devices, which will exceed the number of people on earth (2016 world population estimate of 7.3 billion; source: United Nations). During 2011-2016 Cisco anticipates that global mobile data traffic will outgrow global fixed data traffic by three times.
16 February 2012
The Economic Times: Cisco challenges Microsoft, Skype Merger in EU
Networking company Cisco said on Wednesday it is challenging Microsoft's $8.5 billion takeover of Skype at the European union's top court to ensure Microsoft won't block other video conferencing services. The European Commission, the EU's competition regulator, cleared the takeover in July and the merger was completed in October. Microsoft Corp. hopes that owning Skype will allow it to better compete across platforms with other tech giants like Apple Inc. or Google Inc
16 February 2012
The Financial Express: My Office is My Home and on My Tablet
With multiple benefits that include large screens, absence of bulky keyboards, software to maximise battery life and the ability to connect to the internet easily, devices like the iPad have taken mobility to an entirely new level. Across the world tablet sales and adoption are being driven by the demands of today's consumers and enterprises for real-time access to information, while on the go, from anywhere and through any device irrespective of physical location. Whether it is on the personal or professional front, the need to be mobile has become supreme and the communications revolution has created an incredibly interconnected market place. Statistics indicate that by 2015, tablet computers could well account for around 6% of all Web traffic. Infinite Research expects that 147.2 million tablet computers will ship in 2015.The writer is director, Collaboration, Cisco India & Saarc.
15 February 2012
InformationWeek: Cisco CTO: Networks Are Becoming More Intelligent
Delivering a keynote titled 'Zero to Zetta' at Nasscom India Leadership Forum 2012, Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior said networks will need to evolve as the explosion of connected devices on the Internet will lead to Zettabyte level traffic by 2020. The volume of traffic on the Internet will cross one Zettabyte (10 raised to 21 bytes) by 2020 and a large part of this will be unstructured data and video traffic. There will be new applications and services and hence more content on the Internet. That will put a huge load on public networks, which will need to evolve and become more intelligent. This was the basis of a technology keynote titled 'Zero to Zetta' delivered by Padmasree Warrior, CTO, SVP Engineering and GM Enterprise Segment, Cisco systems at the Nasscom India Leadership Forum on 14 Feb in Mumbai
15 February 2012
The Hindu Business Line: Chidambaram to IT Sector: Look at India's Problems Too
Look at India too and solve the problems here. "This is my humble request to you," said Mr P. Chidrambaram, Union Minister for Home Affairs, to the leaders of the Indian information technology sector present at the Nasscom Leadership Award function. Mr. Chidrambaram said, "please address the problems of India as you had addressed the problems of global companies and countries. I humbly request you to do to India what you did for other countries."Nasscom Global CTO: Ms Padmasree Warrior, Senior VP, Engineering, Chief Technology Officer, Cisco.
14 February 2012
Business Today: IT Budgets to Stay Flat This Year: Cisco VC Gopalratnam is the Chief Information Officer of Cisco's globalization initiatives and works on creating replicable models for the firm's IT projects across the world. He spoke to BT on IT trends and budgets for 2012. On technology trends to look forward to: We made huge progress in 'bring your own technology'. This is one of the key changes in technology drivers across the world. Many companies are exploring this. While in Cisco IT still provides devices to the employees, we have also allowed employees to bring in their own devices to work. The other big trend is cloud. So information security will be a key theme this year. Clearly, virtualization is here to stay. Compute virtualization is moving faster than storage and network virtualization. But virtualization needs to be extended throughout the technology stack to the end device. That is happening. Virtualization will become even more important with cloud technologies picking up.
14 February 2012
Business Standard: Cisco Eyes $400 mn IT Opportunity Outside Top 6 Metros
Networking major Cisco said on Tuesday that it aims to tap the $400 million IT market outside the top six metros and the company would focus on the partner-led business model to increase its geographical reach. "We believe there is a significant addressable market outside the top six metros...about $400 million, "Cisco India president, Pramodh Menon said here. Cisco will develop joint business plans along with partners and allocate funding and resources to tap the market. "Over the past few years, we have experienced remarkable growth in the partner-led segment. Today, this segment is a major contributor to Cisco's revenue in the country; with significant room for market development and expansion, particularly in tier II and upcountry markets, "Menon said
14 February 2012
Voice & Data: Fastway Selects Cisco for Cable Digitization
Fastway has selected Cisco for deploying more than two million digital set-top boxes, over the next two years in the states of Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh.With this Fastway will enable services like residential TV, HDTV, gaming, digital video recording, video on demand and future 'connected home' services to retail customers. The company also plans to provide broadband services and is currently working with universities and institutes in the states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to offer educational services.'Digitization opens a huge opportunity for cable service providers to monetize investments, and evolve as 'experience providers'. I am happy that Fastway has taken a pioneering role in ushering digitization and I look forward to a long standing relationship with them,' said Sanjay Rohatgi, senior VP, service providers, Cisco India & SAARC
13 February 2012
The Financial Express: India is Critical to Us for Innovation Cisco Systems, which designs and sells networks and communications technology, undertook a business rejig a year ago, shutting down underperforming units including its Flip video camera business, trimming its structure of internal boards and councils, and aiming to remove $1 billion in expenses. The company has now sharpened its focus on five core areas-border-less networks and services, collaboration, visualisation and datacentre, business architecture, and video. Edzard Overbeek, Cisco's Asia Pacific and Japan president, spoke on the restructuring, and India's contributions as a major innovation hub for the company. Excerpts:What has been the progress of the restructuring exercise at Cisco so far?Close to a year ago, we took a decision to restructure the company, a hard decision for the top management, but for the better. In around 20 days, we had a clear plan of what we needed to do and where we should focus on. We are now focusing on our five core areas-border-less networks and services, collaboration, visualisation and datacentre, business architecture, and video. We have now started to move from independent development cycles to one platform, that will comprise the operating system and network software. What we also did is to let go of some of the businesses like our Flip cameras unit
10 February 2012
The Hindu Business Line: 'Bring Your Own Device' Concept Gaining Ground with Corporates
The concept of BYOD (bring your own device), which gives employees the flexibility of using their personal devices at work, is slowly gaining ground in India, driven by the youth. According to the Cisco Connected World Technology Report, which surveyed more than 2,800 college students and young professionals in 14 countries, including India, found that 81 per cent of the people queried wanted to get money from the company to buy the device of their choice or bring their own. Mr Arun Gupta, Group Chief Information Officer, Shoppers Stop, would probably agree with the report. "We are encouraging BYOD and people are thrilled," he said. Mr Gupta said that thanks to BYOD, the company has not spent much on tablets and most of the tablets connecting to the corporate network belong to employees themselves. As Mr Brian Dal Bello, Director Product Marketing, Cisco, said, "Facial expression accounts for 70 per cent of visual communication and has nothing to do with the spoken word." Traditional TelePresence is no longer the only option for executives on the move, and Cisco wants to cash in on the BYOD trend and enable video conferencing on the go. One reason why Cisco is doing this is because corporates are cutting spending due to the slowdown. Another reason is because of the young generation, which prefers to BYOD. "Over the next five to eight years, around 40 per cent of employees will be retiring, and they will be replaced by the current set of graduates for whom things like BYOD and Facebook are extremely important," said Mr Peter Bocquet, Regional Director Collaboration and Virtualization Technologies Asia Pacific/Japan, Cisco. And youngsters are not the only ones to adopt BYOD
06 February 2012
ChannelTimes: Small is Big in the Cloud B Raghavendran, Head, Partner Organization, Cisco India and SAARC writes that as the cloud computing market for SMBs proliferates with the backing of right government incentives, partners have an opportunity to derive business value. While the cloud revolution is fast making IT costs evaporate, another silent transformation is taking place closer home, and that is the rise of the Indian SME. Going by statistics, SMEs contribute about 45 percent of the industrial output, 40 percent of exports and employ 42 million people according to the SME Chamber of India. According to IDC, over the past five years, the adoption of personal computers has grown by 25 percent in the SME segment, and this is expected to double by 2015
01 February 2012
Sify.com: GTPL Introduces High-Definition (HD) Cable TV in Kolkata Metropolitan Area with HD Digital Set Top Boxes from Cisco
Gujarat Telelink Private Ltd. (GTPL) today announced that it is rolling out high definition (HD) digital cable set top boxes from Cisco in Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA). Being one of the first HD digital cable set top box deployment in the country, this move will revolutionize consumer entertainment in the state and enable subscribers to experience superior HD TV along with other services such as DVR (digital video recording), HD gaming, VoD (Video on demand) and future Connected Home services to consumers. This announcement was made on the sidelines of Cable TV Show 2012, SAARC region’s largest cable TV show, at Nehru Indoor stadium, Kolkata.
28 January 2012
SME Channels: Small Businesses Now View IT Investment as Strategic Decision
SMBs are becoming a strong support to the Indian economy and Cisco being a major enabler of IT is focusing on this segment very aggressively. SME Channels spoke to Arun Dharmalingam, Vice-President, Partner Led, Velocity Sales, Cisco:
What is so special about Cisco "Advantage Now" programme?
The Cisco Advantage Now Road show is designed to help our partners across the country to build a stronger small and medium business (SMB) practice. SMBs are a key focus area for Cisco and Advantage Now reaffirms our commitment to this market. This program will enable our partners to provide a structured, prioritized evolution path for small and medium sized businesses, which can address the business challenges of today while maximizing the future potential of their technology investments
28 January 2012
The Financial Express: Cisco Plans Products for Emerging Markets
Cisco Systems (USA), which designs and sells networks and communications technology, will develop new low-cost products and services for emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, India and China. The company plans to use skills from its innovation centre in India, joining multinational technology firms Dell and IBM. "We are starting to look at innovation which will be done in this part of the world to meet the demand growth in emerging countries," Naresh B Wadhwa, the president and country manager for India at Cisco Systems, said. At its Bangalore facility, Cisco is working on an entry-level communications solution named BE 3000 for small and mid-sized businesses, and a router or networking device named ASR 901 that would aid smartphones and tablets. The company is also modifying a set-top box made by Chinese firm DVN to be marketed in India and later other markets at affordable prices
24 January 2012
DNA: Cisco's India Operations Have Led to 396 Patents: Naresh Wadhwa
Bangalore is the "second" global headquarters of Cisco Systems after San Jose, with a fifth of its leadership parked. Naresh Wadhwa, president and country manager, Cisco India & Saarc, spoke to DNA about the importance of local manufacturing and also the network equipment giant's new investments in cable digitization and 4G.What are some of the innovations to come out of this centre that have helped Cisco in India and worldwide? Some of the products that we have developed here include the BE 3000, a new unified communications solution for small-and mid-sized businesses and the ASR 901, a router aimed at helping operators reduce backhaul operating costs and supporting a variety of mobile network technologies such as GSM, CDMA, UMTS and WiMax. Cisco has also been chosen for a cable digitization project across Gujarat, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, for which we have tied up with Gujarat Telelinks. As part of this digitization programme, Gujarat Telelinks will deploy more than 300,000 next-generation digital set-top boxes from Cisco over the next 12 months in these markets. We are seeing good demand for these products both in India and across other developed markets
24 January 2012
The Times of India: Cisco Plans Development Centre in Hyderabad
Hyderabad's T-troubles notwithstanding, global IT giant Cisco Systems is exploring the possibility of setting up a development centre in the city as part of its India expansion plans. Cisco, which currently has a marketing office with a total headcount of around 200 people, is looking at a development centre manned by 6,000 people over the next couple of years if it does decide in favour of Hyderabad, IT department sources said. If sources are to be believed, the company, which has been considering Pune as the destination for this big-ticket expansion has not yet ruled out Hyderabad with top level Cisco officials meeting state IT and Communications minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah on Monday. Cisco has a presence in Bangalore, Pune and Chennai apart from Hyderabad. The Cisco team, headed by senior vice president, emerging solutions and advanced services, Faiyaz Shahpurwala not only met Lakshmaiah but is also understood to have checked out available space options for the company's proposed expansion.
23 January 2012
Voice & Data Online: Cisco's Cius Implemented by Petrobras Distribuidora
Cisco's Cius, an enterprise mobile collaboration device in a tablet form has been implemented by Petrobras Distribuidora in its gas station in Brazil. Cisco has customized a number of applications for the project, allowing gas station visitors to benefit from a much greater level of engagement with the station, and to understand and purchase services available to them.
20 January 2012
Hindustan Times: Get Ready for a New Era of Digital Services on Cable TV
In order to digitise cable operators across the city, Cisco Systems has partnered with Gujarat Telelink Private limited (GTPL), a Gujarat-based MSO and broadband company. As per the guidelines set by the government, by June 30, Cisco aims to digitise at least 29 lakh subscribers across Kolkata. "The deadline for phase 1 cities (all four metro cities) is June 30. The networks have started getting upgraded and by June 30 the entire system will be digitised. This will revolutionise cable TV experience," said Sandeep Arora, vice president sales, Cisco. With the digitisation of cable services, cable will have to provide an STB to every subscriber, resulting in an upfront cost to the customer.
20 January 2012
CIOL: Cisco Tops 10,000 Uinfied Computing System Customers ; Captures 53 Industry Benchmark World Records
Cisco announced that in just over two years its new Cisco Unified Computing System™, (Cisco UCS™) which integrates compute, networking, management and virtualization, has captured the attention of data center managers and CIOs alike–over 10,000 customers worldwide, including 3,000 in Europe, have deployed UCS. Many industry observers were skeptical that a new computing technology could take hold in this highly competitive market, but the cost and business benefits proved compelling across all industries and all workloads. Since it began shipping in July 2009, UCS has captured 53 industry benchmark performance world records, and garnered a dozen industry awards for innovation. According to a recent Servers and Virtualization Study by TheInfoPro,™Cisco took the lead among server vendors in vision, technical innovation, product performance, and sales force. Cisco was named by 33 percent as "the most exciting server vendor", eight percentage points ahead of the second placed vendor. *The 2011 Cisco Cloud Index forecasts that cloud computing is transforming business: over 50 percent of computing workloads in data centers are predicted to be cloud-based by 2014, and global cloud traffic will grow over 12 times by 2015, to 1.6 zettabytes per year-the equivalent of over four days of business-class video for every person on earth. This explosive cloud growth requires the advanced data center capabilities provided by UCS to support end-to-end cloud application delivery
17 January 2012
Business Standard: Collaboration: What's next?
Globally, the 'workplace' is evolving. Productivity at work today has less to do with the individual's physical proximity to his/her workplace and more to do with access to the network and to collaborative tools. According to a recent report commissioned by Cisco, 60% of the employees surveyed felt that it was unnecessary to be in the office to be productive. Major technological and demographic transitions are fundamentally changing the way we communicate, work and collaborate. Taken individually, each one of these trends by itself is very powerful. Taken together, what we see is a tremendous transformational force. According to a recent report commissioned by Cisco, 60 percent of the employees surveyed felt that it was unnecessary to be in the office to be productive. (The author is Managing Director, Collaboration Sales, Asia Pacific & Japan, Cisco)
17 January 2012
Hindustan Times: Banned from Networking
Several companies are beginning to restrict the access their employees have to the Internet. While many do so out of fear of data leaks, security and compliance issues, others fear loss of productivity and virus attacks. Interestingly, however, there is a school of thought that believes that such policies can alienate employees and even stifle innovation at the workplace. Efforts directed at building employee engagement and trust could be thwarted. Many say social networks help companies recruit better, identify competitive intelligence, source subject-related expertise online, help showcase the company better, build brand recognition etc, then what's the hype and hoopla all about? According to the Cisco Connected World Technology Report, the new generation is not willing to compromise on anything.
15 January 2012
Dataquest: APAC Going Beyond Revenue
Investment by the government, a favorable regulatory environment, and an effective broadband/ IT infrastructure are critical for cloud development. Weakness in any of these factors will materially curtail development. Which is the hottest cloud-computing market in APAC? Where is the most revenue being generated? These are the two questions that run high on the minds of many CIOs, CFOs, CTOs and cloud vendors. The implication is that the answer to the second question will answer the first...In early 2011, Cisco set out to examine the cloud market in the region and enlisted The 451 group, an independent firm to assist in identifying the key traits/ factors for cloud-computing success, quantifying them and establishing the framework to rank countries across APAC on the basis of their relative standing on these fonts. Rajesh Rege, the author is senior VP, data center and cloud business, Cisco India and SAARC
14 January 2012
Communications Today: Rising Alternative Architecture of Video Delivery
Organisations will focus on efficient use of space, energy, and resources in 2012, as the economic climate and marketplace are pushing companies to increase productivity while minimizing expenses in order to remain competitive. "As video becomes pervasive in an organization, new demands are placed on the network. Traditional IP networks are not well equipped to deal with interactive and real-time requirements, making delivery and quality of media unpredictable and increasing complexity for network operators and managers. Traditional IP networks need to evolve to accommodate these changes and customers need to take a comprehensive, architectural approach to video strategy. Technologies such as medianet help address these challenges by accelerating deployment of applications, minimizing complexity and ongoing operating costs, and helping to scale the infrastructure for the best user quality of experience (QoE). With the increasing adoption of video and rich-media applications, media-optimized networks address challenges associated with the transmission of video and rich media over the network, including ensuring predictability, performance, quality, security, and mobility."-Minhaj Zia, Director - Collaboration, Cisco India & SAARC
13 January 2012
IndiaEducationReview: Cisco Networking Academy Bags eIndia 2011 Award
Cisco announced that its Networking Academy has won the prestigious eINDIA 2011 jury choice award for the 'Best ICT Enabled Skills Development Initiative'. The award was conferred on Cisco Networking Academy in recognition of its efforts toward enabling students to develop valuable information, communications and technology skills for increased access to opportunities in the global economy, a release from the networking major said. Speaking on the occasion, Bina Raj-Debur, regional head, Social Innovation Group, India and South Asia, said: "We are proud to receive this prestigious award. It is testimony to the continued efforts of the Networking Academy programme to make a positive difference to the skills-building efforts of the nation and the communities in which we live and operate. At Cisco, we aim to enhance the employability of youth through technology, enabling them to harness the enormous opportunities in the ICT domain. We are very pleased that our efforts have been recognized by industry and society alike."
13 January 2012
The Wall Street Journal: Career Journal: How to Make Networking Work for You
To boost your career this year, resolve to step up your networking game. In our hectic work lives, it's easy to relegate professional networking to the bottom of our to-do list. That could be a big mistake. Haphazard networking could cause you to miss out on important business and professional growth opportunities. "One has to be focused to nurture long-lasting relationships," says Gaurav Mishra, director of digital and social media at MSLGROUP Asia, a public relations firm. "It's all about prioritization," says Prem Velayudan, head of human resources at Cisco Systems India Pvt. Set a goal, such as an hour every week when you will follow-up with your contacts. You can also utilize traveling time and weekends to keep in touch. "Once you see the returns, you will yourself make time for networking," says Mr. Velayudan.
11 January 2012
The Economic Times: Made-for-India Cisco Router Finds Fans in Developed Markets
About four years after Cisco Systems named India as the location of its second global headquarters, the networking major has launched a product, innovated for India and other emerging markets and designed ground up from the country. The product, a router used in mobile towers, was tailored to meet the constraints - poor power supply, high real estate costs and huge growth in fresh subscriber numbers- with which operators functioned. But surprisingly, the product, which Cisco's president and country manager for India, Naresh B Wadhwa, calls 'more than just engineering' because of the innovation that went into designing it, has also generated considerable interest from outside emerging markets, in markets such as Europe, North America and Japan.
10 January 2012
The Financial Express: And the Winners of 2011's Guff Awards Are ...
There is an economic law that says that all markets are cyclical save one: the bullshit market, which knows only the bull phase. In 2011 everything else was in retreat but there were so many entries for my annual jargon awards that sifting through them all has been a long and painful process. But the runaway winner is Cisco's John Chambers, who managed to be even emptier - and much uglier - in fewer words: "We will accelerate our leadership across our five priorities and compete to win in the core."
10 January 2012
CRN: Interview: Stanimira Koleva, MD, APJC, Partner Business Group, Cisco
Stanimira Koleva, MD, APJC, Partner Business Group, Cisco, spoke to Sonal Desai, about the objectives and features of Partner Led, the company's new partner engagement model First of all, what is Partner Led? Till last year Cisco was focused on Customer Led, although 100 percent of our business came through partners. But in sync with our vision of Next Cisco, we decided to focus our entire energy and resources on partners to enable and empower them to sell to customers. We created a group within Cisco called Partner Led to drive this new partner engagement framework. Cisco's entire commercial business-which consists of mid-market and SMB customers-will be completely driven by partners. Since the launch of the program in August we have mapped 16,000 mid-market customers globally to our partners' sales teams. 100 percent of our commercial business sales force, as well as technical and service teams, have been aligned to the new Partner Led unit. The incentives of Cisco executives are now aligned with partner performance. They will share their goals with the partners, and in turn the partners will align their business with us. We have earmarked $15 million (of the $75 million globally) for Partner Led for the APJC region. This investment will show up in the form of more partner-centric marketing resources, incentive programs for mid-market- and SMB-focused Cisco solution providers, a partner relationship management system, and access to a team of Cisco engineers put in place to help partners close deals more effectively. In addition, we have simplified pricing and leveraged distribution support. We are now investing in building end-to-end solution capabilities, and partners are transitioning to the new model.
02 January 2012
Expresstravelworld: Danger Lurks in the Workplace
Ten years ago, employees were assigned laptops and told not to lose them. They were given logins to the company network, and told not to tell anyone their password. End of security training. Alarm bells are ringing in corporate circles as seven out of 10 young employees frequently ignore IT policies, and one in four is a victim of identity theft before the age of 30, according to a global study from US network equipment maker Cisco. The report reveals startling attitudes toward IT policies and growing security threats posed by the next generation of employees entering the workforce - a demographic that grew up with the internet and has an increasingly on-demand lifestyle that mixes personal and business activity in the workplace. Rebecca Jacoby, CIO, Cisco says, "As workforces become increasingly mobile, security and risk management concerns inevitably grow. The findings indicate the real need for better corporate policies, end-user education, and stronger, trusted relationships between employees and IT departments."
02 January 2012
Financial Chronicle: Banking 2012
These days those who walk into banks are extremely tech savvy. These young customers, often referred to as 'Gen Y' or Millenials, want advice about how to manage their day-to-day finances and trust their banks to be the primary providers of information. Gen Y is changing the rules of banking because they want their bank to be available to them anytime, anywhere and on any device. A retail banking study conducted by the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) in 2010 suggests that banks have an opportunity to increase revenues up to 10 percent by embracing Gen Y customers. Gen Y holds a large portion of financial wealth and will need a safe place to keep their assets, borrow for homes, and save for their children's education. This group will use the Internet and mobile devices as their main banking conduit. (The writer is senior vice president (financial services industry) of Cisco India & SAARC)
02 January 2012
Deccan Herald: ICT Innovations that Will Dominate 2012
In the world of ICT (information and communications technology) industry, things change fast as companies and researchers all over the world are constantly working on making life easier and more exciting for consumers without adding to the cost. Video communication revisited: Communicating with people using video will continue to be a priority, says Cisco, over the next few years. Cisco Chairman John Chambers predicted that four years from now, video is going to be the leading way in which we communicate and the primary form of information technology (IT). He stated that in 2010, video accounted for 51 per cent of internet traffic and by 2014; the number will skyrocket to 91 per cent.
28 January 2012
SME Channels: Small Businesses Now View IT Investment as Strategic Decision
SMBs are becoming a strong support to the Indian economy and Cisco being a major enabler of IT is focusing on this segment very aggressively. SME Channels spoke to Arun Dharmalingam, Vice-President, Partner Led, Velocity Sales, Cisco:
What is so special about Cisco "Advantage Now" programme?
The Cisco Advantage Now Road show is designed to help our partners across the country to build a stronger small and medium business (SMB) practice. SMBs are a key focus area for Cisco and Advantage Now reaffirms our commitment to this market. This program will enable our partners to provide a structured, prioritized evolution path for small and medium sized businesses, which can address the business challenges of today while maximizing the future potential of their technology investments
28 January 2012
The Financial Express: Cisco Plans Products for Emerging Markets
Cisco Systems (USA), which designs and sells networks and communications technology, will develop new low-cost products and services for emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, India and China. The company plans to use skills from its innovation centre in India, joining multinational technology firms Dell and IBM. "We are starting to look at innovation which will be done in this part of the world to meet the demand growth in emerging countries," Naresh B Wadhwa, the president and country manager for India at Cisco Systems, said. At its Bangalore facility, Cisco is working on an entry-level communications solution named BE 3000 for small and mid-sized businesses, and a router or networking device named ASR 901 that would aid smartphones and tablets. The company is also modifying a set-top box made by Chinese firm DVN to be marketed in India and later other markets at affordable prices
24 January 2012
DNA: Cisco's India Operations Have Led to 396 Patents: Naresh Wadhwa
Bangalore is the "second" global headquarters of Cisco Systems after San Jose, with a fifth of its leadership parked. Naresh Wadhwa, president and country manager, Cisco India & Saarc, spoke to DNA about the importance of local manufacturing and also the network equipment giant's new investments in cable digitization and 4G.What are some of the innovations to come out of this centre that have helped Cisco in India and worldwide? Some of the products that we have developed here include the BE 3000, a new unified communications solution for small-and mid-sized businesses and the ASR 901, a router aimed at helping operators reduce backhaul operating costs and supporting a variety of mobile network technologies such as GSM, CDMA, UMTS and WiMax. Cisco has also been chosen for a cable digitization project across Gujarat, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, for which we have tied up with Gujarat Telelinks. As part of this digitization programme, Gujarat Telelinks will deploy more than 300,000 next-generation digital set-top boxes from Cisco over the next 12 months in these markets. We are seeing good demand for these products both in India and across other developed markets
24 January 2012
The Times of India: Cisco Plans Development Centre in Hyderabad
Hyderabad's T-troubles notwithstanding, global IT giant Cisco Systems is exploring the possibility of setting up a development centre in the city as part of its India expansion plans. Cisco, which currently has a marketing office with a total headcount of around 200 people, is looking at a development centre manned by 6,000 people over the next couple of years if it does decide in favour of Hyderabad, IT department sources said. If sources are to be believed, the company, which has been considering Pune as the destination for this big-ticket expansion has not yet ruled out Hyderabad with top level Cisco officials meeting state IT and Communications minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah on Monday. Cisco has a presence in Bangalore, Pune and Chennai apart from Hyderabad. The Cisco team, headed by senior vice president, emerging solutions and advanced services, Faiyaz Shahpurwala not only met Lakshmaiah but is also understood to have checked out available space options for the company's proposed expansion.
23 January 2012
Voice & Data Online: Cisco's Cius Implemented by Petrobras Distribuidora
Cisco's Cius, an enterprise mobile collaboration device in a tablet form has been implemented by Petrobras Distribuidora in its gas station in Brazil. Cisco has customized a number of applications for the project, allowing gas station visitors to benefit from a much greater level of engagement with the station, and to understand and purchase services available to them.
20 January 2012
Hindustan Times: Get Ready for a New Era of Digital Services on Cable TV
In order to digitise cable operators across the city, Cisco Systems has partnered with Gujarat Telelink Private limited (GTPL), a Gujarat-based MSO and broadband company. As per the guidelines set by the government, by June 30, Cisco aims to digitise at least 29 lakh subscribers across Kolkata. "The deadline for phase 1 cities (all four metro cities) is June 30. The networks have started getting upgraded and by June 30 the entire system will be digitised. This will revolutionise cable TV experience," said Sandeep Arora, vice president sales, Cisco. With the digitisation of cable services, cable will have to provide an STB to every subscriber, resulting in an upfront cost to the customer.
20 January 2012
CIOL: Cisco Tops 10,000 Uinfied Computing System Customers ; Captures 53 Industry Benchmark World Records
Cisco announced that in just over two years its new Cisco Unified Computing System™, (Cisco UCS™) which integrates compute, networking, management and virtualization, has captured the attention of data center managers and CIOs alike–over 10,000 customers worldwide, including 3,000 in Europe, have deployed UCS. Many industry observers were skeptical that a new computing technology could take hold in this highly competitive market, but the cost and business benefits proved compelling across all industries and all workloads. Since it began shipping in July 2009, UCS has captured 53 industry benchmark performance world records, and garnered a dozen industry awards for innovation. According to a recent Servers and Virtualization Study by TheInfoPro,™Cisco took the lead among server vendors in vision, technical innovation, product performance, and sales force. Cisco was named by 33 percent as "the most exciting server vendor", eight percentage points ahead of the second placed vendor. *The 2011 Cisco Cloud Index forecasts that cloud computing is transforming business: over 50 percent of computing workloads in data centers are predicted to be cloud-based by 2014, and global cloud traffic will grow over 12 times by 2015, to 1.6 zettabytes per year-the equivalent of over four days of business-class video for every person on earth. This explosive cloud growth requires the advanced data center capabilities provided by UCS to support end-to-end cloud application delivery
17 January 2012
Business Standard: Collaboration: What's next?
Globally, the 'workplace' is evolving. Productivity at work today has less to do with the individual's physical proximity to his/her workplace and more to do with access to the network and to collaborative tools. According to a recent report commissioned by Cisco, 60% of the employees surveyed felt that it was unnecessary to be in the office to be productive. Major technological and demographic transitions are fundamentally changing the way we communicate, work and collaborate. Taken individually, each one of these trends by itself is very powerful. Taken together, what we see is a tremendous transformational force. According to a recent report commissioned by Cisco, 60 percent of the employees surveyed felt that it was unnecessary to be in the office to be productive. (The author is Managing Director, Collaboration Sales, Asia Pacific & Japan, Cisco)
17 January 2012
Hindustan Times: Banned from Networking
Several companies are beginning to restrict the access their employees have to the Internet. While many do so out of fear of data leaks, security and compliance issues, others fear loss of productivity and virus attacks. Interestingly, however, there is a school of thought that believes that such policies can alienate employees and even stifle innovation at the workplace. Efforts directed at building employee engagement and trust could be thwarted. Many say social networks help companies recruit better, identify competitive intelligence, source subject-related expertise online, help showcase the company better, build brand recognition etc, then what's the hype and hoopla all about? According to the Cisco Connected World Technology Report, the new generation is not willing to compromise on anything.
15 January 2012
Dataquest: APAC Going Beyond Revenue
Investment by the government, a favorable regulatory environment, and an effective broadband/ IT infrastructure are critical for cloud development. Weakness in any of these factors will materially curtail development. Which is the hottest cloud-computing market in APAC? Where is the most revenue being generated? These are the two questions that run high on the minds of many CIOs, CFOs, CTOs and cloud vendors. The implication is that the answer to the second question will answer the first...In early 2011, Cisco set out to examine the cloud market in the region and enlisted The 451 group, an independent firm to assist in identifying the key traits/ factors for cloud-computing success, quantifying them and establishing the framework to rank countries across APAC on the basis of their relative standing on these fonts. Rajesh Rege, the author is senior VP, data center and cloud business, Cisco India and SAARC
14 January 2012
Communications Today: Rising Alternative Architecture of Video Delivery
Organisations will focus on efficient use of space, energy, and resources in 2012, as the economic climate and marketplace are pushing companies to increase productivity while minimizing expenses in order to remain competitive. "As video becomes pervasive in an organization, new demands are placed on the network. Traditional IP networks are not well equipped to deal with interactive and real-time requirements, making delivery and quality of media unpredictable and increasing complexity for network operators and managers. Traditional IP networks need to evolve to accommodate these changes and customers need to take a comprehensive, architectural approach to video strategy. Technologies such as medianet help address these challenges by accelerating deployment of applications, minimizing complexity and ongoing operating costs, and helping to scale the infrastructure for the best user quality of experience (QoE). With the increasing adoption of video and rich-media applications, media-optimized networks address challenges associated with the transmission of video and rich media over the network, including ensuring predictability, performance, quality, security, and mobility."-Minhaj Zia, Director - Collaboration, Cisco India & SAARC
13 January 2012
IndiaEducationReview: Cisco Networking Academy Bags eIndia 2011 Award
Cisco announced that its Networking Academy has won the prestigious eINDIA 2011 jury choice award for the 'Best ICT Enabled Skills Development Initiative'. The award was conferred on Cisco Networking Academy in recognition of its efforts toward enabling students to develop valuable information, communications and technology skills for increased access to opportunities in the global economy, a release from the networking major said. Speaking on the occasion, Bina Raj-Debur, regional head, Social Innovation Group, India and South Asia, said: "We are proud to receive this prestigious award. It is testimony to the continued efforts of the Networking Academy programme to make a positive difference to the skills-building efforts of the nation and the communities in which we live and operate. At Cisco, we aim to enhance the employability of youth through technology, enabling them to harness the enormous opportunities in the ICT domain. We are very pleased that our efforts have been recognized by industry and society alike."
13 January 2012
The Wall Street Journal: Career Journal: How to Make Networking Work for You
To boost your career this year, resolve to step up your networking game. In our hectic work lives, it's easy to relegate professional networking to the bottom of our to-do list. That could be a big mistake. Haphazard networking could cause you to miss out on important business and professional growth opportunities. "One has to be focused to nurture long-lasting relationships," says Gaurav Mishra, director of digital and social media at MSLGROUP Asia, a public relations firm. "It's all about prioritization," says Prem Velayudan, head of human resources at Cisco Systems India Pvt. Set a goal, such as an hour every week when you will follow-up with your contacts. You can also utilize traveling time and weekends to keep in touch. "Once you see the returns, you will yourself make time for networking," says Mr. Velayudan.
11 January 2012
The Economic Times: Made-for-India Cisco Router Finds Fans in Developed Markets
About four years after Cisco Systems named India as the location of its second global headquarters, the networking major has launched a product, innovated for India and other emerging markets and designed ground up from the country. The product, a router used in mobile towers, was tailored to meet the constraints - poor power supply, high real estate costs and huge growth in fresh subscriber numbers- with which operators functioned. But surprisingly, the product, which Cisco's president and country manager for India, Naresh B Wadhwa, calls 'more than just engineering' because of the innovation that went into designing it, has also generated considerable interest from outside emerging markets, in markets such as Europe, North America and Japan.
10 January 2012
The Financial Express: And the Winners of 2011's Guff Awards Are ...
There is an economic law that says that all markets are cyclical save one: the bullshit market, which knows only the bull phase. In 2011 everything else was in retreat but there were so many entries for my annual jargon awards that sifting through them all has been a long and painful process. But the runaway winner is Cisco's John Chambers, who managed to be even emptier - and much uglier - in fewer words: "We will accelerate our leadership across our five priorities and compete to win in the core."
10 January 2012
CRN: Interview: Stanimira Koleva, MD, APJC, Partner Business Group, Cisco
Stanimira Koleva, MD, APJC, Partner Business Group, Cisco, spoke to Sonal Desai, about the objectives and features of Partner Led, the company's new partner engagement model First of all, what is Partner Led? Till last year Cisco was focused on Customer Led, although 100 percent of our business came through partners. But in sync with our vision of Next Cisco, we decided to focus our entire energy and resources on partners to enable and empower them to sell to customers. We created a group within Cisco called Partner Led to drive this new partner engagement framework. Cisco's entire commercial business-which consists of mid-market and SMB customers-will be completely driven by partners. Since the launch of the program in August we have mapped 16,000 mid-market customers globally to our partners' sales teams. 100 percent of our commercial business sales force, as well as technical and service teams, have been aligned to the new Partner Led unit. The incentives of Cisco executives are now aligned with partner performance. They will share their goals with the partners, and in turn the partners will align their business with us. We have earmarked $15 million (of the $75 million globally) for Partner Led for the APJC region. This investment will show up in the form of more partner-centric marketing resources, incentive programs for mid-market- and SMB-focused Cisco solution providers, a partner relationship management system, and access to a team of Cisco engineers put in place to help partners close deals more effectively. In addition, we have simplified pricing and leveraged distribution support. We are now investing in building end-to-end solution capabilities, and partners are transitioning to the new model.
02 January 2012
Expresstravelworld: Danger Lurks in the Workplace
Ten years ago, employees were assigned laptops and told not to lose them. They were given logins to the company network, and told not to tell anyone their password. End of security training. Alarm bells are ringing in corporate circles as seven out of 10 young employees frequently ignore IT policies, and one in four is a victim of identity theft before the age of 30, according to a global study from US network equipment maker Cisco. The report reveals startling attitudes toward IT policies and growing security threats posed by the next generation of employees entering the workforce - a demographic that grew up with the internet and has an increasingly on-demand lifestyle that mixes personal and business activity in the workplace. Rebecca Jacoby, CIO, Cisco says, "As workforces become increasingly mobile, security and risk management concerns inevitably grow. The findings indicate the real need for better corporate policies, end-user education, and stronger, trusted relationships between employees and IT departments."
02 January 2012
Financial Chronicle: Banking 2012
These days those who walk into banks are extremely tech savvy. These young customers, often referred to as 'Gen Y' or Millenials, want advice about how to manage their day-to-day finances and trust their banks to be the primary providers of information. Gen Y is changing the rules of banking because they want their bank to be available to them anytime, anywhere and on any device. A retail banking study conducted by the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) in 2010 suggests that banks have an opportunity to increase revenues up to 10 percent by embracing Gen Y customers. Gen Y holds a large portion of financial wealth and will need a safe place to keep their assets, borrow for homes, and save for their children's education. This group will use the Internet and mobile devices as their main banking conduit. (The writer is senior vice president (financial services industry) of Cisco India & SAARC)
02 January 2012
Deccan Herald: ICT Innovations that Will Dominate 2012
In the world of ICT (information and communications technology) industry, things change fast as companies and researchers all over the world are constantly working on making life easier and more exciting for consumers without adding to the cost. Video communication revisited: Communicating with people using video will continue to be a priority, says Cisco, over the next few years. Cisco Chairman John Chambers predicted that four years from now, video is going to be the leading way in which we communicate and the primary form of information technology (IT). He stated that in 2010, video accounted for 51 per cent of internet traffic and by 2014; the number will skyrocket to 91 per cent.
February 2012
VAR INDIA : Cisco Propels Cloud-Ready Switching Portfolio
According to the Cisco Cloud Index, more than 50 per cent of computing workloads in data centers will be cloud-based by 2014, and global cloud traffic will grow more than 12 times by 2015, to 1.6 zettabytes per year. Based on these trends, Cisco announced it has updated its switching portfolio with 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) and 40 GE capabilities. These new capabilities provide a holistic architectural approach across campus, data center and service provider environments, and give customers a significant advantage while addressing emerging trends like cloud, video, mobility, and the proliferation of 10 GE.
29 February 2012
Deccan Herald : Internet, the Next Phase Cisco, commonly described as the Plumber of the Internet, recently released a report on the growth of data traffic from mobile devices such as laptops, smart phones and tablets. Key conclusion: The mobile network Internet is growing the way 'fixed network' Internet did 10 years ago. If you are in any industry that is likely to feel the impact of mobile internet, the list may include businesses as disparate as media, medicine, transport and retail, be prepared for the coming mobile disruption"
29 February 2012
Express Computer : Cisco Accelerates Partner-Led Investments to Tap Growing SMB Opportunity Cisco has reiterated its commitment to the partner-led strategy, a scalable go-to-market model designed to address the growing small business and mid-market segments in India. Cisco's Partner-Led strategy will focus on increasing geographical reach, building partner capability and drive business for products, solutions and services specifically for the India market. Pramodh Menon, President of the Partner Business Group, Cisco India & South Asia, said, "Over the past few years, we have experienced remarkable growth in the partner led segment. Today, this segment is a major contributor to Cisco's revenue in the country; with significant headroom for market development and expansion, particularly in tier II and upcountry markets. With the right mix of solutions and strategy, we are focused on opportunities to grow the business for our partners and will make the investments needed to accelerate growth and effectively address this market."
27 February 2012
CRN : IT Distribution Faces Newer Challenges
IT distribution in India has seen tremendous transformation over the past decade and half. From being largely unorganized, semi-anarchic and immature, technology distribution today is very mature and organized. The challenges organized distribution faces have also changed over the years. The gray market, once the bane of most authorized distributors, is now a mere distraction. While government policies continue to be unpredictable, they are fairly manageable. "If we ally with large cloud service providers such as Amazon, Google or Microsoft and start offering their services, the relationships with distributors will change. That is because these companies encourage a direct relationship between the vendor and the partners as the cloud services are offered over the wire. There is no role for intermediary play," comments Durganadh Venkata, Vice President, Locuz Enterprise, Hyderabad. "Even in the case of Cisco or TCS, there is very little role for an intermediary." Deeper coverage: As IT vendors start looking beyond Class A and B cities, distributors are expected to play a bigger role. "We want distributors to provide us the reach as new customers and new partners are evolving in smaller towns," says Arun Dharmalingam. VP, Distribution Channels, Cisco India and Saarc.
25 February 2012
The Times of India : Cisco to Buy Lightwire for $271m Cisco Systems Inc., the world’s largest networking-equipment maker, agreed to buy Lightwire Inc. for $271 million to add optical connectivity technology used in high-speed networks. Cisco will pay the sum in cash and retention-based incentives, according to a statement from the company today. The purchase of the Allentown, Pennsylvania-based company will probably be completed in the fiscal third quarter, Cisco said
25 February 2012
Businessworld : Enterprise 2.0 Demystified
Asian Paints is trying to solve a problem that plagues all companies once they reach a certain size and have multiple offices-employees in one location know nothing about those in another, even if they are working on the same projects. After its spate of acquisitions and expansion over the past decade, Asian Paints has over a hundred offices in India and abroad. It has become too big for its staff to communicate and share information or even know each other by name, especially if they happen to be functionally and geographically distant. With Asian Paints, the software has been such a hit that it has got dealers learning and using best practices. And more stakeholders now want to be part of the Huddle system. Cisco Systems says that one of its banking clients, who was earlier sceptical, is now becoming a convert to the cause. Cisco demonstrated to its client the benefit of ease of information capture and retrieval using its Quad software. "In the coming few years, 25 per cent of their experienced workforce is due to retire," says Minhaj Zia, Director (Collaboration) of Cisco India & Saarc. "Capturing on-the-job non-formal information is critical for such organisations, specially as they prepare to recruit new employees." Cisco uses its software, Quad, to capture knowledge so that later, users' questions can be answered. "This more informal, friendly way of communicating makes people more willing to share information and employees even prefer asking one another than calling on experts outside the system," says Zia
24 February 2012
Business Wire India : Cisco ASR 901 Wins the NASSCOM Innovation Award 2012 for New Technology Advancement
Cisco today announced that the Cisco ASR 901 Router has received the NASSCOM Innovation Award 2012 in the New Technology Advancement Category. The award was presented to Cisco at the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum, held in Mumbai recently. The ASR 901, developed by Cisco's engineering team in India, received the award for its innovation in creating a unified platform to serve the needs of 2G/3G/4G mobile backhaul and Carrier Ethernet applications. The Cisco ASR 901 Router Series is an environmentally hardened, extremely low-power Router, designed to meet the unique needs of Service Providers in Emerging Markets. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Partho Mishra, Vice President and General Manager for the Provider Access Business Unit, said, "We are proud to receive this award for the ASR 901; it is a great testament to Cisco's investment in developing innovative products for both emerging and developed markets and the fast growing capabilities of our India engineering teams. He added, "The last decade in the IT industry in India saw tremendous growth from engineering services and cost arbitrage. But we see that the next decade is going to be all about innovation, product development and thought leadership."Congratulating Cisco on winning the Innovation Award, Mr. Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM, said, "Technology organizations grow by advancing technology, disrupting markets and developing new business models; all aimed by making information even more accessible and actionable with every new cycle of innovation. The Innovation Awards are aimed to promote innovation within Indian IT-BPO organizations by way of recognizing companies that have made innovation a part of their organizational DNA. I congratulate Cisco and wish them all the best for the future"…
23 February 2012
CRN : New Cisco Specialization Highlights Partner Sales To Service Providers Cisco is rolling out a new advanced specialization to address a hugely lucrative market segments most solution providers don't play in but could: sales to second-,third-and fourth-tier service providers. The specialization, known as the Advanced IP Next-Generation Network (IPNGN) Architecture Specialization, went live recently. Cisco solution providers have been selling Cisco products to service provider customers for years, but Cisco wants to formalize how it rewards partners who have had success in that market segment, as well as grow that number of partners. "This is a business we've been in for quite some time, but we've had a boutique practice in place in each of the theaters," said Bob Gault, Vice President, Worldwide Service Provider Channels, in an interview with CRN. "This is a tremendous opportunity for Cisco. We can introduce partners into the service provider segment and it's a brand new vertical to them. And that's not just IPNGN. It can bleed into opportunities in service-provider Wi-Fi, mobile Internet and the video-connected home."
February 2012 Technology Can Make Learning More Efficient
For students of classes seven and eight in the remote villages of Bichali, Talmari and Tungabhadra in Raichur district, learning English is no longer a daunting task as they do not have to leave their villages to learn the language. They instead connect virtually with their teachers in the near-by cities employing collab-oration tools - interactive audio, video, web collabo-ration, and instant messaging or IM-to learn English using the local ver-nacular language (Kannada) as the medium of instruction. Thrice a week, teachers from the city use the Internet to deliver high quality supplementary courses remotely to these students.
22 February 2012
CRN : Unified Communications Gaining Ground
According to Frost & Sullivan, the size of the market for unified communication (UC) in India was $465 million in 2010, a growth of 30 percent from the $357 million in 2009. Conferencing and collaboration contributed $89 million with a growth of 33 percent over 2009, messaging saw tremendous growth of 52 percent at $7.5 million, mobility grew by 16 percent to $2.8 million, and unified client, presence and integrated applications grew by 19.1 percent over 2009. The market is expected to grow at 11.8 percent CAGR from 2010 to 2017. In our organization, we were able to bring down travel expenses from approximately $750 million a year to $200 million, adds Manu Bansal, Regional Manager, Advanced Technology Channels, Cisco.
21 February 2012
Mint: Writing Off that Virtual Letter
Are companies moving away from email in favour of the cloud? A lot of tech writing is filled with premature obituaries, whenever something new arrives on the horizon. Twitter launched? Facebook is dead! Instagram launched? Flickr is dead! Tumblr launched? Blogs are dead! No technology has been written off more often than email. It doesn’t help that the Union government wants access to encrypted emails across all telcos and handset makers in the country for security reasons. Research in Motion (the makers of BlackBerry) complied with this on Monday, by allowing the government access to encrypted messages on BlackBerry messenger. Email though still remains a very important tool for businesses, but today, we are also seeing a number of enterprise social networks that make collaboration and information sharing on the cloud easier. Such services could be a real alternative to email, or could at least change the way it is used by businesses. The following four senior executives give us their take on the future of email: Minhaj Zia, Director, collaboration, Cisco Systems India and Saarc Pvt Ltd, Sachin Dev Duggal, CEO and co-founder, nivio, Mumbai, Asheesh Raina, Principal research analyst, Gartner Inc. (India), Mumbai and Sunil Lalwani, Director, enterprise sales (India), Research In Motion, New Delhi.
21 February 2012
TelecomTiger: Cisco Systems Plans to Increase Workforce in India by 60%-Report
Cisco Systems will increase its workforce in India by about 60% over the next four years as part of its strategy for emerging markets, a senior executive of the network equipment. This will be the first big-scale recruitment by Cisco in India after it announced a 15% cut in global workforce in mid 2011. Most of the hiring will be for the company's research and development centre in Bangalore, which is its largest outside the US. The IT giant is increasingly using the Bangalore centre for innovating products for emerging markets such as India, China and Brazil. "By 2015, we will be ramping up from 7,500 people to about 12,000 people, increasing workforce out of Bangalore," senior vice-president Sanjay Rohatgi said, adding, "We want to innovate faster and at the right price point for emerging countries because the growth will happen in this part of the world now."
20 February 2012
The Financial Express: Indian IT Has a Creative Bunch of People
Some interesting factoids have emerged over the forthcoming IPO of Facebook, billed to be a mega event in an otherwise dull year for global stock markets. A valuation of $100 billion, which is many times the GDP of smaller countries, can only be justified by the rather interesting fact that less than 10 percent of the world’s population has a Facebook account. With competitors like Google hot on their heels, it will need a brave investor to buy shares at this astronomical valuation but knowing the hype that surrounds everything to do with social media these days, here is one issue that is destined to happen! Earlier this month, I had the privilege of playing host on behalf of Nasscom to Gary Moore, executive vice-president and chief operating officer of Cisco. For a company that was poised on the brink of a precipice less than a year ago, the transformation led by John Chambers and Gary Moore has been nothing short of miraculous and speaks volumes of the capabilities of management teams in multinationals once they are confronted with a burning platform.
17 February 2012
ITPortal: Cisco Buys Stake in Indian Social Network Start-up 'Qyuki'
Cisco has invested Rs 27 crore ($5.5 million) for 17% stake in the AR Rahman & Shekhar Kapur’s media startup 'Qyuki', reports Economic Times, although a report from The New York Times’s India Ink quotes Kapur stating that the number was incorrect. Kapur refused to disclose any financial details to the site. This is the same venture that Medianama had reported about in November 2010, and a little over a year and a half later, it appears to be ready for launch. We had heard about Cisco's investment then, but had been unable to confirm it.
17 February 2012
InformationWeek: Global Mobile Internet Data Traffic to Grow 18-fold by 2016: Cisco
Worldwide mobile data traffic will increase 18-fold over the next five years, reaching 10.8 exabytes per month or an annual run rate of 130 exabytes--by 2016, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for2011 to 2016. The expected sharp increase in mobile traffic is due, in part, to a projected surge in the number of mobile Internet-connected devices, which will exceed the number of people on earth (2016 world population estimate of 7.3 billion; source: United Nations). During 2011-2016 Cisco anticipates that global mobile data traffic will outgrow global fixed data traffic by three times.
16 February 2012
The Economic Times: Cisco challenges Microsoft, Skype Merger in EU
Networking company Cisco said on Wednesday it is challenging Microsoft's $8.5 billion takeover of Skype at the European union's top court to ensure Microsoft won't block other video conferencing services. The European Commission, the EU's competition regulator, cleared the takeover in July and the merger was completed in October. Microsoft Corp. hopes that owning Skype will allow it to better compete across platforms with other tech giants like Apple Inc. or Google Inc
16 February 2012
The Financial Express: My Office is My Home and on My Tablet
With multiple benefits that include large screens, absence of bulky keyboards, software to maximise battery life and the ability to connect to the internet easily, devices like the iPad have taken mobility to an entirely new level. Across the world tablet sales and adoption are being driven by the demands of today's consumers and enterprises for real-time access to information, while on the go, from anywhere and through any device irrespective of physical location. Whether it is on the personal or professional front, the need to be mobile has become supreme and the communications revolution has created an incredibly interconnected market place. Statistics indicate that by 2015, tablet computers could well account for around 6% of all Web traffic. Infinite Research expects that 147.2 million tablet computers will ship in 2015.The writer is director, Collaboration, Cisco India & Saarc.
15 February 2012
InformationWeek: Cisco CTO: Networks Are Becoming More Intelligent
Delivering a keynote titled 'Zero to Zetta' at Nasscom India Leadership Forum 2012, Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior said networks will need to evolve as the explosion of connected devices on the Internet will lead to Zettabyte level traffic by 2020. The volume of traffic on the Internet will cross one Zettabyte (10 raised to 21 bytes) by 2020 and a large part of this will be unstructured data and video traffic. There will be new applications and services and hence more content on the Internet. That will put a huge load on public networks, which will need to evolve and become more intelligent. This was the basis of a technology keynote titled 'Zero to Zetta' delivered by Padmasree Warrior, CTO, SVP Engineering and GM Enterprise Segment, Cisco systems at the Nasscom India Leadership Forum on 14 Feb in Mumbai
15 February 2012
The Hindu Business Line: Chidambaram to IT Sector: Look at India's Problems Too
Look at India too and solve the problems here. "This is my humble request to you," said Mr P. Chidrambaram, Union Minister for Home Affairs, to the leaders of the Indian information technology sector present at the Nasscom Leadership Award function. Mr. Chidrambaram said, "please address the problems of India as you had addressed the problems of global companies and countries. I humbly request you to do to India what you did for other countries."Nasscom Global CTO: Ms Padmasree Warrior, Senior VP, Engineering, Chief Technology Officer, Cisco.
14 February 2012
Business Today: IT Budgets to Stay Flat This Year: Cisco VC Gopalratnam is the Chief Information Officer of Cisco's globalization initiatives and works on creating replicable models for the firm's IT projects across the world. He spoke to BT on IT trends and budgets for 2012. On technology trends to look forward to: We made huge progress in 'bring your own technology'. This is one of the key changes in technology drivers across the world. Many companies are exploring this. While in Cisco IT still provides devices to the employees, we have also allowed employees to bring in their own devices to work. The other big trend is cloud. So information security will be a key theme this year. Clearly, virtualization is here to stay. Compute virtualization is moving faster than storage and network virtualization. But virtualization needs to be extended throughout the technology stack to the end device. That is happening. Virtualization will become even more important with cloud technologies picking up.
14 February 2012
Business Standard: Cisco Eyes $400 mn IT Opportunity Outside Top 6 Metros
Networking major Cisco said on Tuesday that it aims to tap the $400 million IT market outside the top six metros and the company would focus on the partner-led business model to increase its geographical reach. "We believe there is a significant addressable market outside the top six metros...about $400 million, "Cisco India president, Pramodh Menon said here. Cisco will develop joint business plans along with partners and allocate funding and resources to tap the market. "Over the past few years, we have experienced remarkable growth in the partner-led segment. Today, this segment is a major contributor to Cisco's revenue in the country; with significant room for market development and expansion, particularly in tier II and upcountry markets, "Menon said
14 February 2012
Voice & Data: Fastway Selects Cisco for Cable Digitization
Fastway has selected Cisco for deploying more than two million digital set-top boxes, over the next two years in the states of Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh.With this Fastway will enable services like residential TV, HDTV, gaming, digital video recording, video on demand and future 'connected home' services to retail customers. The company also plans to provide broadband services and is currently working with universities and institutes in the states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to offer educational services.'Digitization opens a huge opportunity for cable service providers to monetize investments, and evolve as 'experience providers'. I am happy that Fastway has taken a pioneering role in ushering digitization and I look forward to a long standing relationship with them,' said Sanjay Rohatgi, senior VP, service providers, Cisco India & SAARC
13 February 2012
The Financial Express: India is Critical to Us for Innovation Cisco Systems, which designs and sells networks and communications technology, undertook a business rejig a year ago, shutting down underperforming units including its Flip video camera business, trimming its structure of internal boards and councils, and aiming to remove $1 billion in expenses. The company has now sharpened its focus on five core areas-border-less networks and services, collaboration, visualisation and datacentre, business architecture, and video. Edzard Overbeek, Cisco's Asia Pacific and Japan president, spoke on the restructuring, and India's contributions as a major innovation hub for the company. Excerpts:What has been the progress of the restructuring exercise at Cisco so far?Close to a year ago, we took a decision to restructure the company, a hard decision for the top management, but for the better. In around 20 days, we had a clear plan of what we needed to do and where we should focus on. We are now focusing on our five core areas-border-less networks and services, collaboration, visualisation and datacentre, business architecture, and video. We have now started to move from independent development cycles to one platform, that will comprise the operating system and network software. What we also did is to let go of some of the businesses like our Flip cameras unit
10 February 2012
The Hindu Business Line: 'Bring Your Own Device' Concept Gaining Ground with Corporates
The concept of BYOD (bring your own device), which gives employees the flexibility of using their personal devices at work, is slowly gaining ground in India, driven by the youth. According to the Cisco Connected World Technology Report, which surveyed more than 2,800 college students and young professionals in 14 countries, including India, found that 81 per cent of the people queried wanted to get money from the company to buy the device of their choice or bring their own. Mr Arun Gupta, Group Chief Information Officer, Shoppers Stop, would probably agree with the report. "We are encouraging BYOD and people are thrilled," he said. Mr Gupta said that thanks to BYOD, the company has not spent much on tablets and most of the tablets connecting to the corporate network belong to employees themselves. As Mr Brian Dal Bello, Director Product Marketing, Cisco, said, "Facial expression accounts for 70 per cent of visual communication and has nothing to do with the spoken word." Traditional TelePresence is no longer the only option for executives on the move, and Cisco wants to cash in on the BYOD trend and enable video conferencing on the go. One reason why Cisco is doing this is because corporates are cutting spending due to the slowdown. Another reason is because of the young generation, which prefers to BYOD. "Over the next five to eight years, around 40 per cent of employees will be retiring, and they will be replaced by the current set of graduates for whom things like BYOD and Facebook are extremely important," said Mr Peter Bocquet, Regional Director Collaboration and Virtualization Technologies Asia Pacific/Japan, Cisco. And youngsters are not the only ones to adopt BYOD
06 February 2012
ChannelTimes: Small is Big in the Cloud B Raghavendran, Head, Partner Organization, Cisco India and SAARC writes that as the cloud computing market for SMBs proliferates with the backing of right government incentives, partners have an opportunity to derive business value. While the cloud revolution is fast making IT costs evaporate, another silent transformation is taking place closer home, and that is the rise of the Indian SME. Going by statistics, SMEs contribute about 45 percent of the industrial output, 40 percent of exports and employ 42 million people according to the SME Chamber of India. According to IDC, over the past five years, the adoption of personal computers has grown by 25 percent in the SME segment, and this is expected to double by 2015
01 February 2012
Sify.com: GTPL Introduces High-Definition (HD) Cable TV in Kolkata Metropolitan Area with HD Digital Set Top Boxes from Cisco
Gujarat Telelink Private Ltd. (GTPL) today announced that it is rolling out high definition (HD) digital cable set top boxes from Cisco in Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA). Being one of the first HD digital cable set top box deployment in the country, this move will revolutionize consumer entertainment in the state and enable subscribers to experience superior HD TV along with other services such as DVR (digital video recording), HD gaming, VoD (Video on demand) and future Connected Home services to consumers. This announcement was made on the sidelines of Cable TV Show 2012, SAARC region’s largest cable TV show, at Nehru Indoor stadium, Kolkata.
12 March 2012 When Small Becomes Big and Big Becomes Global
The rising prominence of small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India is a sign that the segment is a key growth driver across all industry verticals. As they continue to grow and expand, SMBs are increasingly becoming part of a global ecosystem and leveraging technology as a means to achieving scale. However, most SMBs looking to expand globally pay more attention to the cost of acquisition compared to the return on the investment over the lifecycle of the solution. Many SMBs also find the perceived complexity associated with implementing technology very daunting. The issue gets further complicated due to the dearth of relevant industry specific solutions. Most IT solutions are not customized to address specific problem of SMBs but are offered as scaled-down versions of the ones offered to large enterprises. This adds to the increased reluctance on the part of the SMBs to adapt to the technology. Although serving international markets can add significant costs and complexities to an SMB's operations profile, technologies like unified communications (UC)-voice, video, and data all running over an internet protocol (IP) network-can help to overcome these limitations. The writer is President, Partner Business Group, Cisco India & Saarc
05 March 2012
Voice&Data: Cisco Tops Network Vendor List in 2011: Frost & Sullivan
Cisco gained the maximum revenue share of $44.82 billion, increasing 6 percent in the first nine months of the year 2011, says research firm Frost & Sullivan. Chinese vendor ZTE gained the highest revenue growth of 33.4 percent, with its revenue reaching $9.17 billion, compared to $6.87 in the nine months of the year 2010. The whole network infrastructure equipment industry grew at an average rate of 10 percent in the year 2011, in which Cisco contributed with 6 percent growth, with its revenue reaching $44.82 billion; Ericsson's revenue grew 10 percent, reaching $32.89 billion; Huawei increased 14 percent with its revenue hovering at $31.76 billion; and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) growing 8 percent, and generating a revenue of $18.18 billion.
05 March 2012
ITVARnews: Cisco Leaving No Stone Unturned for Partners' Growth Manu Bansal, Vice President, Advanced Technology, Channels, Cisco India shares with ITVar News about the Channel Policies and Strategies of the Company. ITVar News: What is your current channel strength? Are you planning to augment your channel base? Manu Bansal: We have more than 2000 channel partners in India currently. Since our go-to-market strategy relies primarily on the channel, we are always in the process of expanding our partner base. We are continuously onboarding partners who bring specific domain knowledge or vertical industry knowledge. ITVN: What are the criteria followed by your company to select partners? MB: A Cisco partner has to have the right combination of technical expertise and skills as well as needs to be driven intrinsically to explore more avenues for growth and revenue. Basis their experience and skill sets, we divide our partners into different groups. As such we have partners in the Gold, Silver, Premier, Service Provider (SP), Managed Services (MS), Architecture, and Distributor-led categories
02 March 2012
The Economic Times: Cisco's Seeker
False steps don't go unpunished in the unforgiving technology sector. And the burden of constantly scanning the technology landscape, mapping the future course of action, and then creating a relevant product portfolio at Cisco falls on the shoulders of company's Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior. Having cut her teeth at Motorola, Warrior joined Cisco in 2007 and has since then helped CEO John Chambers take networking giant into its next phase. In Mumbai recently for the NASSCOM Summit, she spoke about IT megatrends, cloud computing and the future of the Internet
02 March 2012
CIO NexT: The banking infrastructure in India is world class
BFSI organizations are very effectively building and growing the private cloud infrastructure and using it to deliver various applications and services for their internal organizations. CIO NexT: What is the current technology adoption/investment scenario in the BFSI sector? Purwar: The technology adoption within the banking and the financial sector in India is on par with the global players of this sector. The kind of banking infrastructure which has been created in India and the IT adoption which enables the BFSI sector to do business in India is world class. Investments towards better technology infrastructure are largely being done so banks and financial institutes can undertake the necessary innovations which are required by them to meet their customer requirements. The interviewee Avinash Purwar is Senior Vice President - Sales, Cisco
02 March 2012
The Times of India: Social Media, Cloud Will Be the Driving Trends: Cisco
False steps don't go unpunished in the unforgiving technology sector. And the burden of constantly scanning the technology landscape, mapping the future course of action, and then creating a relevant product portfolio at Cisco falls on the shoulders of company's Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior. Having cut her teeth at Motorola, Warrior joined Cisco in 2007 and has since then helped CEO John Chambers take networking giant into its next phase. In Mumbai recently for the NASSCOM Summit, she spoke about IT megatrends, cloud computing and the future of the Internet
02 March 2012
EFYTimes: AGC Networks Achieves Advanced Unified Communication Specialization from Cisco in India
AGC Networks Ltd, India's leading Solutions Integrator today announced enhancement of its portfolio through Collaboration and Virtualization business offerings from Cisco. With an Advanced Unified Communications Specialization, AGC Networks is also an Authorised Technology Provider for Unified Contact Center, Cisco Voice Portal solutions and Cisco TelePresence Video Express. Through this relationship with Cisco, AGC intends to expand their offerings by addressing Virtualization and Borderless Network opportunities and as part of its growth strategy, will continue to invest and grow its business through Cisco's UC & Business Video solutions. "As we move into new markets and emerging technologies, our Authorized Technology Provider Partners are instrumental in helping our customers turn innovative technology into a competitive advantage," said B Raghavendran, Head-India Partner Organisation Cisco, India & SAARC. "As a Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise and Customer Voice Portal and TelePresence Video ATP Partner, AGC Networks has invested in the skills necessary to bring advanced networking technologies that deliver operational improvements and help drive customer success."
01 March 2012
TelecomLead: Cisco Tops Cable Modem Termination System Revenue Market Share in 2011, Says Infonetics
Cisco is the only of the four cable modem termination system (CMTS) equipment leaders that gained CMTS revenue market share in 2011, growing from 51 percent to 59 percent of the global market, just one point shy of its all-time high, reveals market research firm Infonetics Research. The firm says the combined CMTS and edge QAM revenue grew 5 percent in the final quarter of 2011, ending the year on a high note, up 17 percent from the year-ago quarter. For the full year, CMTS and edge QAM manufacturer revenue increased by 6 percent to $1.7 billion.
01 March 2012
Financial Chronicle: Cisco & Riverbed Focus on Low-Cost Solutions
Information technology (IT) firms such as Cisco and Riverbed that provide application networking services to various companies worldwide are focusing in Indian market with new solutions that can save 20-50 percent costs on infrastructure and operations depending on size of a company. Both firms have launched solutions to accelerate performance of applications for its customers over wide area network (WAN) as well as cloud computing. Depending on the requirement, the cost of such solutions range between Rs 50,000 and a few crores of rupees, the firms said. Cisco and Riverbed are based out of California and listed in Nasdaq. Riverbed has customers such as HCL Technologies, Wipro Technologies, IBM, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, British Telecom, AT & T and others. However, Cisco said the company does not share names of its customers… With multiple devices in use by a single user, mobility has become a challenge and to rectify such problems we enable more applications that satisfy employees. Applications such as video is on rise and to give real time access to such videos in multiple devices, we are providing solutions," VP, Borderless Networks, Cisco India and SAARC, Mahesh Gupta told Financial Chronicle here.
