06 June 2013
The Financial Express: Collaboration Gets Better with Video
Today, we live in a globally connected environment. Greater business demands and a more competitive marketplace mean that organizations must continually find new ways to be agile and increase speed to market while reducing costs. Effective communication and collaboration are critical. The ability to engage instantly across geographies and time zones with employees, suppliers, and customers is a must.Capturing knowledge and expertise is crucial as generational or location shifts occur in the workplace. At the same time, demand for greater work-life balance means freeing workers from specific physical locations..... According to the Cisco VNI report, by 2017, two-thirds of the world's mobile data traffic will be video. Over the next couple of years 90 percent of content traveling on the Internet is likely to be video. New-age technologies such as 3G, 4G and computing devices such as tablets and personalized mobile devices are expected to spur the use of video among enterprises leading to greater collaboration........ Media intelligence has to be embedded into the network infrastructure, distribution mechanisms, applications, endpoints, and the overall solution fabric.To deliver an immersive video experience, greater collaboration is required between service providers, content providers and network infrastructure providers. Success will come from a holistic approach. By being aware of the potential synergy between assets, applications, and the needs of different groups of users, the full potential of video can be realized. The writer is Minhaj Zia, Director, Collaboration Sales, Cisco India and SAARC

04 June 2013
The Economic Times: India to Have 348 Million Internet Users by 2017: Cisco
India has the fastest Internet traffic growth globally and is expected to have 348 million users by 2017, a study by networking giant Cisco said. According to Cisco's Visuals Networking Index (VNI) forecast (2012-17), Internet traffic in India will reach 2.5 exabytes per month in 2017, up from 393 petabytes per month in 2012. One exabyte equals 1 million terabytes. "In India, there will be 348 million Internet users in 2017, up from 138 million in 2012," the VNI forecast said. Globally, by 2017, Internet users will swell to 3.6 billion, which will be more than 48 percent of the world's projected population of 7.6 billion. In 2012, worldwide Internet users stood at 2.3 billion against a population of 7.2 billion, it added. "The good news is that Internet traffic growth in India is the fastest globally," Cisco VP (Global Technology Policy) Robert Pepper said here. On Internet traffic in India, VNI said, IP (Internet Protocol) traffic will grow 6-fold from 2012 to 2017 in India, a compound annual growth rate of 44 percent. "In India, IP traffic will reach 2.8 exabytes per month in 2017, up from 454 petabytes per month in 2012," it added.

05 June 2013
The Hindu Business Line: Unweave the Hype Around Fabric Computing
Networking giant Cisco Systems, bringing its mid-market strategy into focus, plans to double its investments in partner-led resources to $150 million in the financial year 2014. The San Jose-headquartered company defines mid-market as companies with 100-1,000 employees and estimates to spend $25 billion on technology and $30 billion on services by 2016. "That's a great opportunity. There are a lot of mid-size customers who would not have big budgets to acquire legacy applications. Someone has to help them," said Andrew Sage, Vice-President (Worldwide Partner Led) at Cisco.

05 June 2013
Computer Dealer News: Cisco Aims to Be the No. 1 IT Company in the World
According to Cisco CEO John Chambers, the dream started in the early 90s when he was just a lowly vice-president at the San Jose, Calif.-based networking company. While the goal internally was to become the No. 1 IT company in the world, Chambers has never vocalized it until today at the annual Partner Summit. And, the goal maybe within the company's reach just as veteran CEO is planning his exit from the corner office. Chambers said that he is serving a two to four year role and that there will be no updates on his career until six months before the CEO transition happens. "I have to earn my job each day and it's obvious we have two world-class executives in Rob Lloyd (President, Development and Sales) and Gary Moore (COO), but we also have a deep bench," he said.

03 June 2013
CRN: Cisco Continues to invest in Energy Management and Buys Joulex. The Purchase Price is 107 Million US-Dollars
Cisco is expanding its activities in the energy management of more and buy »JouLex" for 107 million dollars. The company was founded in 2009 in Munich with current headquarters in Atlanta and a development department in Kassel specializes in the development of software that can be controlled in data centers and business with energy management. Here are no sensors or Messinstrumentebenotigt. A similar energy management, Cisco has for its switch products already on offer. With the combination of the two techniques Cisco wants to complete its portfolio of Smart Services. "Our customers demand it, since the number of network-connected devices is increasing exponentially - and these are to be managed energy and cost efficient," says Faiyaz Shahpurwala, Senior Vice President of Industry Solutions at Cisco. After the acquisition, to be completed by the end of the current fiscal year, Cisco plans to integrate the company into its "Industry Solutions Group."The solutions of Youlex are distributed via various trade partners, including Damovo or MKW Trading

02 June 2013
Financial Chronicle: The Big Shift: IPv6 Bug Haunts Firms
TRANSITION to the newest internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the latest bugbear for IT managers: several companies may find that their hardware may not be IPv6 compatible. Every device connected to the internet has a unique IP address, which enables it to communicate with other devices. The current system of distribution of IP addresses, IPv4, assigns a 32-bit numeric address. However, the massive growth in the number of devices accessing the internet has nearly exhausted the available IP addresses. The move to IPv6 may be expensive and complex but inevitable. E R Ashok Kumar, sales manager of Cisco Services India, said, "On an average, most organisations refresh their hardware every five to seven years. However, technology advances during these change periods can be quite radical. When looked at from this perspective, the IPv6 transition provides a good opportunity to refresh hardware and legacy systems to stay ahead in the game. Transition costs are not high but the cost of not transitioning will be higher in the longer run."

02 June 2013
The Economic Times: 9 Out of 10 Suffering from 'Nomophobia' - Fear of No Cellphone
NINE OUT OF every 10 people aged under 30 admit to suffering the new age phenomenon of "nomophobia", the fear of having no mobile phone, a survey says. Telecom giant Cisco, in a survey conducted on 3800 people in Australia, found nine out of 10 in the group aged under 30 were addicted to their smartphones and became anxious when their phone went missing, the Courier Mail reported. "It's happening subconsciously, and one out of five people are texting while driving," Cisco chief technology officer Kevin Bloch said.

02 June 2013
Deccan Herald: Patriarch's Comeback is a Reality Check for Infy
Calling back N R Narayana Murthy, a happily retired and, by his own admission, a man "pursuing his own joys as a private citizen", has brought back questions over the emphasis which the Infosys co-founders have all along placed on their policy of letting the next line of leadership take over the reigns. When Murthy quit in 2002 as CEO of Infosys, the plan of a next-in-line leader taking over the company and steering it to a higher level seemed to work. "When (Kris) Gopalakrishnan made his exit, the company was still growing at 25 per cent," Murthy said on Saturday, defending the earlier, oft stated policy of moving forward with future leadership instead of falling back on the founders for guidance. Not all the idealism is lost though. Most of the executive leadership of the company on Saturday decided to follow the John Chambers (the CEO of networking major Cisco who was the first to take a $1 annual salary) model by drawing Re 1 per annum as their annual remuneration. This was to send out the message that the founders are serious about reviving Infosys and taking it to the dizzying heights of the past.

29 May 2013
The Economic Times: Cisco Seeks to Annul MS-Skype Deal
Cisco Systems, the world's leading network equipment maker, asked an EU court on Wednesday to annul the approval of Microsoft's purchase of Skype, saying EU regulators were wrong to allow the creation of a monopoly. Cisco's challenge at the Luxembourg-based General Court follows the European Commission's approval of the $8.5-bil-lion deal in 2011. Microsoft was not re-quired to make any concessions for buying the Internet video and voice messaging company, which Cisco argues has given Microsoft/Skype an unfair advantage. A third of the world's voice calls are now on Skype, while over 280 million people use the service more than 100 minutes every month, Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner said in March. Skype had 170 million users at the time of the deal. The case is important as Inter-net-based voice and video has become a vast market, with many consumers and corporates abandoning traditional fixed-line and mobile as a result, and is an area in which Cisco had hoped to expand its presence.

27 May 2013
The Financial Express: Staying Secure in a Digital World
Bring your own device (BYOD), mobility, cloud computing and virtualisation might hold the promise to bring in increased enterprise productivity gains, but they are also identified as majors areas of concern for data security. With the recent security breach at the two card process-ing firms based out of Pune and Bangalore still fresh in the minds of people, a recent study by Cisco and the Data Security Council of India reveals that existing security solutions may not withstand challenges of the above mentioned trends in the IT landscape. First, a look at some of the key findings from the study. Enterprises as well as employees are embracing mobility because of improved employee productivity and enhanced user experience. An overwhelming 66% of security leaders in India encourage employees to bring in their devices to work and 44% allow employees to select and use a specific set of personal devices...The internet has become a dangerous place in which to do business. The key is to maintain a strong defence on several fronts in order to stay secure online.

24 May 2013
CXO Today: Unweave the Hype Around Fabric Computing
The tech sector loves a new buzz word. Company slogans or hyped-up products also come and go. I believe it's good to stay sceptical of what gets thrown around because when a truly powerful shift happens, you can see it more clearly. We are dead-centre in one of the greatest recent shifts in tech-infrastructure in recent times: unified data centre fabrics. Imagine you wanted to get a coffee in the morning but to get the coffee you had to cross the street to buy it. Once you got there and paid, you had to go over the street to get your change, leaving your coffee at the shop. By the time you got back it was cold and they had to make you another. Instead imagine you pulled out your smartphone, opened a coffee-app, selected your order, the app automatically charged you; then your coffee was delivered quickly and hot. This is the shift to unified data centre fabrics.

24 May 2013
The Times of India: India Not Equipped to Handle Global Hackers, Say Experts
A recent security breach at two payment card processing companies in India that led to heists at ATMs around the world has spawned uncomfortable questions about security risks here. The $45 million heist has brought into focus the vulnerability of India's IT sector. On May 23, TOI reported that a Norwegian cyber security firm had named an Indian company, Appin Security Group, behind possible cyber attacks. Appin rubbished the claims, saying it was "totally false and very imaginative". Instead, its CEO, Rajat Khare, says, "Indian enterprises are in a state of denial about attacks for way too long. This fraud case is likely to change the way we perceive information security"...Arindam Mukherjee, manager, regional sales, Cisco India & SAARC, which offers security solutions, says there is increasing sophistication and targeting of network attacks, and there is a need to deploy comprehensive security solutions to protect against external and internal threats. "The recent ATM heist incident shows how end-to-end network intelligence and control is critical to thwart such attempts".Mukherjee adds that the typical bank software may not have the ability to check applications that are on the network.

16 May 2013
The Economic Times: GE, Cisco, Dell, HCL Helping Women Employees Professionally
Who understands women better than women? Four companies are taking that thought and moulding an internal women's grouping that is a win-win. In the last four years, GE has hired 30 'restart' women. And while the network also looks to cultivate leadership competencies among its female employees, position women in technology and even address their health issues, bringing talented women back into its fold is top-of-the-list, says Leena Sahijwani, regional head of the women's network. CCW (Cisco Connected Women) founder-member Pallavi Arora says much thought went into just how Cisco would construct its women's network for India. In 2002, when it was started, there were just 14 members, who moved in step with the parent network in San Jose, US. Today, more than 350 women comprise the Indian chapter, which is run by a four-member leadership team. The best thing Jessie Paul, managing director of the Bangalore-based marketing advisory firm PaulWriter, likes about the Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network (DWEN), is that it provides a safe and non-judgmental space for women entrepreneurs to get together. Shortly after Srimathi Shivashankar, the diversity lead at HCL Technologies, joined the company, she came across a newsletter (published by the women's network at the time) that was supposedly for women employees. "The company was trying to bring some 'feminine' aspects to the workplace," says Shivashankar, "but perhaps this should have been more in the nature of gender-neutral policies and promoting compassionate relationships." So, in 2011, when HCL Tech formed Women Connect (WC), an affinity group for its women employees, these things were high on the agenda. WC works closely with the diversity team.

14 May 2013
Mint: Should 5G Excite Us? And Where's the Spectrum?
The news that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd has successfully tested a so-called fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology, which will allow users to download an entire movie in just one second, should excite consumers. After all, who does not want to surf the Internet or download videos faster? According to Cisco Inc.'s 'Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2012-2017', 2G supported 76% of global mobile devices/M2M (machine-to-machine) connections in 2012; 3G supported 23%, and 4G supported 1%. By 2017, 2G networks will support 33% of global mobile devices/M2M connections; 3G networks will support 57% while 4G networks will support 10%.

13 May 2013
The Engineer: Brilliant Design: Intelligent Lighting and Sensors in Smart Cities
The idea of 'Smart Cities' is one that's becoming familiar to engineers. Partly an adaptation to more diverse sources of electricity, including small-scale renewables, partly a development of the so-called 'Internet of Things', allowing household appliances to adjust their electricity consumption to take account of fluctuations in prices, the concept is being trialled in many cities around the world and is of particular interest to countries building new cities, such as those in the Middle East and China. James Crowther, Christopher Herzig and Gordon Feller of Cisco explain in a report, The time is right for connected public lighting in smart cities, that adding intelligence to LED street-lighting systems can not only reduce energy consumption, thereby saving money, but can also make cities safer and easier to navigate at night.

12 May 2013
NBC: Earnings Preview: Cisco to Report 3Q Earnings
Cisco Systems Inc. is set to report financial results after the market closes on Wednesday for a quarter marked by weak results from competitors and a pullback in federal government spending. WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Orders for computer networking equipment have slumped this year, judging by reports from smaller companies in the sector. Analysts expect that Cisco was affected as well and have been trimming their estimates recently, but they say the company's size probably shielded it from the worst effects of the macroeconomic "soft patch." As usual, analysts will be listening keenly to the often wide-ranging post-report commentary from CEO John Chambers. Cisco's fiscal third quarter closed in April, a month after most other companies, which means its report provides a window into more recent developments.

10 May 2013
The Hindu Business Line: Unlocking Value from Data Deluge
Sanjay Rohatgi, Managing Director, Service Provider, Cisco India and SAARC Internet users today access data and generate it online multiple times in a day, such as updating status on Facebook, Twitter and uploading videos on YouTube by connecting to the internet through mobile devices. This is corroborated by the Cisco Connected World Technology Report 2012 according to which 94 percent of GenY likes to upload photos online, 73 percent upload videos to share or store in internet sites and 75 percent have Twitter accounts. Undoubtedly, tremendous amount of data is being generated by the escalating consumer demand for connectivity and real time access to content through smartphones and other personal devices which aid connectivity. Service Providers (SPs) play a crucial role in studying, analysing and sieving this seemingly arbitrary data to make sense of it and benefit from the business opportunity that it offers. To cite an example, consider Facebook which reports that its users register 2.7 billion likes and comments per day. This magnitude of data can be intimidating to keep up with, sort, analyze, and extract value from. Service providers who can view far and wide across the network can collect this data, analyze it and convert it to meaningful useful information. When such "crude" data is extracted, refined, and piped to where it can impact decisions in real time, its value will soar. Referred to as Big Data Analytics, this is a new monetization opportunity that SPs can bank on.

09 May 2013
InformationWeek: Workforce 2020: What to Expect
Mahesh Gupta, National Manager, Borderless Networks Sales, Cisco India & SAARC The definition of work and the workforce has changed drastically over the last few years. Mahesh Gupta of Cisco discusses key factors driving this transformation and takes a look at how the workplace and workforce of future will look like. Elroy D'Souza from Goa works for a retail firm as distribution and marketing manager for the region. Elroy begins his day by first checking his go-with-me communications device (he wears on his forearm) for messages, both personal and business (text, voice and videos) that have accumulated overnight. He then checks his personal homepage and switches to his professional dashboard, which gives him secure access to company resources ranging from a concierge function with GPS follow-me capabilities to a satellite uplink available through the IP connection. Elroy has a choice. He can work from his company's local office, work from home, or walk to a nearby DigiCenter, which offers amenities like an air-conditioned work area and high-resolution video conferencing (tele-presence) capsules that provide a wraparound communications experience.

07 May 2013
Telecom Lead: Airtel 3G Gets a Boost as it Launches Video Downloads at Rs 1
Bharti Airtel has launched video downloads at Rs 1. Airtel offers video downloads across 8 genres including movies, lifestyle, music, comedy etc. Users with GPRS/2G/3G connections in over 500 mobile devices, including feature phones can download 30,000+ videos. The new video tariff is expected to boost 2G and 3G customer base. Bharti Airtel's 3G subscribers reached 6.4 million in the fourth quarter of FY 2013. Airtel recently said its data continues to lead the mobile segment growth in India, through deeper penetration and consumption...Cisco recently predicted that India is expected to have the highest IP traffic growth rate with a 62 percent CAGR from 2011 to 2016. In a second-place tie, Brazil and South Africa both have 53 percent CAGRs over the forecast period. By 2016, the Asia Pacific region is forecast to generate the most IP traffic (40.5 exabytes per month), maintaining the top spot over North America (27.5 exabytes per month), which generated the second most amount of traffic.

06 May 2013
Information Week: Airtel 3G Gets a Boost as it Launches Video Downloads at Rs 1
The Indian telecom industry is recovering and preparing for a new beginning. In an ongoing cutthroat business environment, where traditional voice revenues are declining and data revenues are yet to capture a significant proportion of telcos, everyone has realized that it's time to reconstruct the edifice albeit with some new rules. There have been a lot of expectations on the growth from data. The proliferation of mobile internet and digital devices has given a new ray of hope to the industry. This has resulted into the surfacing of many new startups comprising of digital service companies, mobile advertising solution providers, apps developers, smartphone manufacturers amongst others..."Video will be the next voice in the Indian telecom industry helped by the mobile broadband growth. Video Delivery is poor in India presently, and we are also lacking in service innovation - these aspects combined together are hampering the Indian 4G dream," says Sanjay Rohtagi, Senior VP, India & SAARC: Service Provider at Cisco India at a recently held 4G World India Event.

02 May 2013
Mint: India Trails at No. 20 in Mobile Data Speeds Ranking
TMobile data speed is one of the critical determinants of success in a wired world. A Top 20 ranking of countries by data speed is headed by Canada, the US and Australia while India brings up the rear. Based on a ranking by Cisco Systems, Bloomberg has compiled a list of the world's top 20 countries in terms of data speeds along with a forecast for 2017. The results are an eye-opener for India which is ranked 20th, behind Indonesia and all the other BRIC nations. The leader of the pack is Canada where average speeds at 4.5 mbps put India's 0.99 mbps average speed in perspective. In real terms, this means that while it takes 59 minutes to download 50 MB of music in India, it takes just about 2 minutes for the same download in Canada. The loss in productivity terms for India is clear. What's worse, there's little to suggest that anything is going to change too soon in India. While the leader in 2017 is forecast to be South Korea where projected average speed by then will be 17.3 mbps, in India it is expected to scale up to a limp 2.46 mbps.

18 April 2013
Dataquest: John Chambers Wants Cisco to be World's No. 1 IT Company
John Chambers, chairman and CEO, Cisco Systems was in India on a two-day visit to promote his company's stake in the country as a technology supplier and to hobnob with the government to ensure Cisco's involvement in key ICT projects in the country. John met with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and IT Minister Kapil Sibal and other government leaders in IT. His pitch to them was to use technology as an agent to promote inclusivity across many areas in the country. Said John, "We are very much aligned to what your government is aiming to do towards promoting inclusion."

18 April 2013
Halabol Voices: CSR ICON: Aravind Sitaraman, President - Inclusive Growth, Cisco Systems
As the Managing Director of the Cisco Development Organization in India, Aravind Sitaraman has set high standards of commitment to CSR activities. He played an instrumental role in executing several successful programs including 'Feed-a-Child' and 'Adopt-a-School.' He indeed inspires many to walk this tough road with a responsible and dedicated mind. Aravind Sitaraman is a Computer Scientist with over 27 years of work experience. After pioneering work in several startup & high-tech companies, he became one of the leading inventors in Cisco Systems with 57 patents. He served on the Board of Studies of Anna University and has led & been part of several international standards bodies. Leveraging his experience rehabilitating tsunami victims in South India, he championed flood relief efforts in Karnataka in 2009. Aravind created Project Samudaya, a volunteer-led program, to enable villages through technology & build 3323 homes, 1 hospital, & 2 schools. Aravind morphed this project into a vehicle to deliver inclusive growth worldwide.

18 April 2013
The Economic Times: An Indian May Take My Position: Cisco Systems Chief John Chambers
Cisco Systems Chairman & CEO John Chambers said two Indians - Padmasree Warrior, 51, its CTO & chief strategy officer, and Pankaj Patel, 58, its executive vice-president & chief development officer - are in contention to succeed him as CEO when he steps down sometime in the next two-to-four years. Sixty-three-year-old Chamber, the longest-serving chief of the $46-billion Internet networking giant, has guided Cisco, once the world's most valuable company, through its rise, fall and rebirth after the dotcom bust of 2000. He took over as CEO in January 1995, when the company earned just $1.3 billion in revenues. Asked if an Indian could succeed him, Chambers told ET: "Absolutely. I have two superstars who are from India - Warrior and Patel. Warrior is among the sharpest technology persons in the world. She has led Cisco through 15 acquisitions in the past 15 months, and Patel has emerged a leader across all our engineering teams. He is the best engineer I have ever seen." This is the first time Chambers has mentioned the possibility of Indian-origin professionals as possible successors. He sees a future where India and Indians will play a key role in the company. "I bet my future on India," Chambers said.

17 April 2013
The Hindu Business Line: Cisco CEO Meets Sharma, Discusses IT Set Up for DMIC Project
Networking giant Cisco's chief John Chambers today met Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and discussed the blue-print of information technology set up for the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project. The company is preparing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) master plan for four smart cities proposed under the DMIC project. Cisco is preparing plans for Shendra Industrial Park in Maharashtra, Dholera Special Investment Region in Gujarat, Manesar Bawal Investment Region in Haryana and Khushkhera Bhiwadi Neemrana Investment Region in Rajasthan. "Chambers discussed about the DMIC project," an official said

16 April 2013
Telecom Lead: Cisco Leads STB Market in 2012, Ahead of Motorola and Pace
Cisco is leading the STB market in 2012, ahead of Motorola and Pace. Cisco reported 28 percent increase in STB revenue in 2012. Motorola's sales declined by double digits in 2012, mainly due to the entry of new companies - especially Pace and Samsung - in the North American market. The STB market, including IP, cable, satellite, and DTT STBs, totaled $4.6 billion in 4Q12, up 3 percent sequentially. Sales of over-the-top (OTT) media servers spiked 25 percent in 2012, with much of the growth coming from Apple TV.

16 April 2013
CIO: Cisco Extends Microsoft Support in Datacenter Portfolio
Cisco last week extended its data center product line to support Microsoft's Windows Server 2012 hypervisor and VM management features to more tightly align their respective data center and cloud architectures for joint customers. The integrated products are intended to help enable simplified deployment and operations of data centers utilizing products adherent to Cisco's Unified Data Center and Microsoft's Fast Track 3.0 architectures. By giving Microsoft customers programmatic access to the Cisco Unified Computing System, Cisco is looking to give customers more insight and control over how Cisco Unified Data Center elements work with Windows Server and application software.

15 April 2013
Business Standard: A Possible Answer to India's Bandwidth Woes
An inspiring speech by former president A P J Abdul Kalam in 2005 gave birth to VMukti Solutions, a video communications start-up. In the education and skill development sectors, institutions can use the company's video-conferencing tool to hold smart classes and reach out to students in remote locations. "Government spending in the area of skill development is quite high--- Rs 3,000-4,000 crore a year --- about 35 per cent of the total market size in the country. About 25 per cent of this goes into technology," Kushal says. According to Cisco estimates, the web-conferencing market in emerging markets alone is worth about $3-4 billion, say Hardik and Kushal

10 April 2013
Telecom Tiger: Big Data Holds Great Potential But Laced with Security Challenges-Cisco
Despite the flood of date that holds a great a potential for businesses, the IT professionals and businesses in India and in other countries confront several obstacles to extract strategic value from their data, according to a study by Cisco. According to the report, IT managers are confronted with several challenges to adopting Big Data solutions with security being on top their list. Then come budget and staffing. "More than one in four respondents globally (27 percent) said data security and risk management is a major concern. They cited the sheer volume of data, the number of ways to access data, and lack of budget for security as the top reasons why securing data in Big Data projects is such a challenge", the report observes.

01 April 2013
The Hindu: Virtual BITS Lectures
If all goes as planned, BITS Pilani will be offering lectures delivered by its professors to the public by next year. Speaking at a press conference on the BITSConnect 2.0 project that will enable the institute to share lectures live and on-demand through a new technology initiative, Rahul Banerjee, Professor, BITS Pilani said, "We are working on a model to offer our courses as part of our outreach programme to the public. We are in talks with consortiums such as Coursera and Edex to workout a hybrid model that will be partly closed (for credit-based courses) and partly open. This is estimated to be a Rs. 100 crore project and the details will be worked out in the next couple of months." Elaborating on the BITSConnect 2.0 which will make 14 specialised courses available to students across the four campuses of BITS (Pilani, Goa, Hyderabad and Dubai), Prem Jain, Senior Vice-President, Server Access Virtualisation Business Unit, Cisco India and Saarc, added that using the MPLS Network, four virtual classrooms with a capacity of 250 students, seven desktop clients (offered to all directors) and a few more 18-seater telepresence rooms, BITS will be able to reach out to its 11,000 students and 700-odd teachers. BITSConnect 2.0 has been developed through a collaboration between Cisco Systems and the BITS Alumni Association - BITSAA International. The technology, which was implemented in January 2013, has already saved BITS about Rs. 40 lakh by way of travel expenses.

30 March 2013
India CSR: We Have Provided 3223 Houses to Flood Victims in Karnataka: Aravind Sitaraman, President - Inclusive Growth, Cisco Systems
Aravind Sitaraman is the President - Inclusive Growth at Cisco Systems. Aravind is a Computer Scientist with over 27 years of work experience. After pioneering work in several startup & high-tech companies, he became one of the leading inventors in Cisco Systems with 57 patents. He served on the Board of Studies of Anna University and has led & been part of several international standards bodies. He led Cisco India's CSR efforts and launched several successful programs including 'Feed-a-Child' and 'Adopt-a-School.' Leveraging his experience rehabilitating tsunami victims in South India, he championed flood relief efforts in Karnataka in 2009. Aravind created Project Samudaya, a volunteer-led program, to enable villages through technology & build 3323 homes, 1 hospital, & 2 schools. Aravind morphed this project into a vehicle to deliver inclusive growth worldwide. In October 2010, he was appointed President, Inclusive Growth..

29 March 2013
NDTV Profit: Cisco Systems Raises Dividend 21 Percent
Cisco Systems Inc. is increasing its dividend 21 percent, its second boost in less than a year. The San Jose, California-based technology giant will pay a 17 cent quarterly dividend on April 24 to shareholders of record April 8. That's up 3 cents from the last quarter. Cisco raised its quarterly payout to 14 cents from 8 cents last summer. The company, which supplies routers, switches, software and services to corporate customers and government agencies worldwide, is considered a bellwether of the technology industry. Last month it forecast a slow, steady upturn in its sales pipeline. Cisco shares ended trading Thursday at $20.89, up 7 cents. The stock is up about 6 percent in the year to date, underperforming the broader market.

13 March 2013
The Times of India: Unsafe to Conduct Professional Work on Personal Devices
With proliferation of smartphones and digital devices the preference for using them for professional work has caught momentum with the youth, but information security experts say such uses are still fraught with data risk. Studies have found that the youth, especially those in information technology services, has been showing scant respect t to security guidelines set up by their employers, taking more risk online for the sake of personal benefits. Studies also suggest that, contrary to common belief that porn sites are the entry points for malware; advertisements are more likely to deliver malicious content. Findings in the Annual Security Report and Connected World Technology Report recently released by networking major Cisco suggest that mobile devices in the hands of young workers, who often do not know or acknowledge IT restrictions, may pose an increased security risk for businesses. "The so called Generation Y takes more risk online for the sake of personal benefits, affecting businesses more and more as workers continue blending work and personal lifestyles throughout their waking hours," the report says. Four out of five of them say they are aware of their employer's IT's policies, but do not obey them. The reports say by 2020, with internet open to an estimated 50 billion things, the number of connections will balloon to gigantic proportion. Mahesh Gupta, vice-president (Borderless Networks), Cisco India and SAARC, said cybercriminals have evolved steadily over the last few years and are increasingly exploiting systems for financial gains. Changed methods, lack of live intelligence and global knowledge to prevent them have made system exploits even harder to detect and mitigate.

12 March 2013
EFY Times: Reinventing the TV Experience
As India's leading provider of digital pay- TV solutions, Cisco has a vast range of technology offerings for the Indian market and was showcased at the CABLE TV SHOW 2013. Cisco understands operator's fundamental need for rapid and cost-effective digitalization and demonstrated market-leading, easy-to-deploy solutions that will enable both small and medium-sized pay - TV operators to provide an improved user experience and generate additional revenues. Digital Pay-TV Solutions - Cable and DTH. Cisco is a pioneer in developing digital TV solutions for some of the most successful cable TV and satellite broadcasters around the world.

11 March 2013
The Hindu: Cisco Certifications Have an Edge Over Others
Networking is a promising domain for Science, Engineering and Technology graduates, looking forward to a career in IT field. When it comes to choosing candidates for networking jobs, professionals with international certifications like the Cisco Certifications have an edge over others. Most business organisations, worldwide, use Cisco technologies for their computer networks. Cisco certifications are valued for the quality of professionals they produce. So, once you acquire a Cisco certification, your career prospects improve significantly, both in India and abroad.

10 March 2013
The Hindu: Tech News
Cisco Technologies announced the launch of the Cisco Education Enabled Development (CEED), a collaborative, cloud-based video interaction solution that will enable efficient delivery of education and skills development courses. Named Dwara, after the Sanskrit word for portal to signify a doorway to a new future, this is Cisco's first foray into the 'Internet of everythin solutions. Dwara will allow educators in rural areas to connect with experts and trainers from urban centres. According to a release from Cisco, CEED hardware is designed for harsh environments where temperature and dust can be high. It is energy efficient and uses 40 per cent less power, and thus ideal for rural environments. "With a built-in router that also acts as a Wi-Fi access point, a computer and a projection device, this solution allows multiple students using devices like the Akash tablet that the [Union government] is trying to develop, to share a single Internet connection. It can also facilitate connections to well-known education portals such as the one produced by the National Information Centre," the release said. Aravind Sitaraman, president, Inclusive Growth, Cisco, said: "CEED is Cisco's first step towards bringing inclusive growth to rural areas using the latest technology at extremely affordable prices. It has the potential to revolutionise learning and skills development in this country. We are very proud to have developed this product from our site in India and simultaneously realise our vision to bring cost of technology in education down to a very affordable $1 per child per month."

04 March 2013
CXO Today: Software Defined Networking will Boost Business Intelligence
Software defined networking (SDN) is getting a lot of talk lately because it is said to be one of the game changers in the area of networking and virtualization. While vendors are giving it a nod, enterprises are still hesitant to adopt it owing to legacy architecture and ROI. But the big guns in the industry like Cisco, Juniper and VMWare are very gung ho about the new technology and have set up architecture that is aligned to SDN, if not fully compliant. "At Cisco, we believe that a more pragmatic view needs to prevail, before an accurate market sizing number can be projected. Also, one should take into consideration both product and services revenue opportunity. On the business front, its early days, and most customers are still exploring. A few may look at making a multi-year transition and in a phased manner which will open up new opportunities for the few top-tier partners and ISVs, as several proof-of-concepts get fleshed out," said Mahesh Gupta, Vice President for Borderless Networks at Cisco India and SAARC, on the adoption of SDN in India.

28 February 2013
Business and Economy: Cyber Attacks Will Get Stronger and More Frequent
Mahesh Gupta - Vice President, Business Development-Borderless Networks, Cisco, India & SAARC, on how today's networks are facing up to the increasingly complex challenges of cyber security. B&E: With the evolution of cyber crime how vulnerable are toda's data systems and what can be done to keep them secure? Mahesh Gupta (MG): Cybercriminals have evolved steadily over the last few years and are increasingly exploiting systems for financial gains. New and changing methods, lack of up-to-date intelligence and global knowledge to prevent such crimes have made system exploits even harder to detect and mitigate. In addition, the problem has compounded with the rapid proliferation of end-user points connected to the network for data access and increased mobility initiatives (use of personal devices) in the workspace.

February 2013
The Hindu Business Line: Cisco's Future Revenues to Come from Services, Says Jeff White
Networking giant Cisco is undergoing a transition of sorts. The company that made the router, a device that forms the backbone of Internet, is now transforming itself into a company where the bulk of its future revenues would come from services. Jeff White, the newly appointed President for India and SAARC, spoke on the company's India strategy at Nasscom. Edited excerpts: With the new management, would the India strategy change? We have always seen India from a long-term perspective. Right from the time we started out to a 10,000-strong team in India, over a decade, we have made investments that show our commitment. India would be looked at from a different prism from what we looked in the past. By that I mean, we are increasing our business process innovation-related work from the country.

11 February 2013
Forbes: India and Technology Multinationals - Part 2
"There is a difference in a company being a multinational, and being global. Technology companies may be incredibly multinational by operating in more than a hundred countries, but that doesn't mean they operate with a global mindset," says Ravi Venkatesan. Given that during 2004 and 2011 Venkatesan was the chairman of Microsoft India, arguably one of the best-known and largest technology multinationals in the world, the statement sounds a bit confusing, doesn't it? But first, a bit of context. Cisco: Jeff White, Cisco's new President for India and SAARC reports to Jaime Valles, President, Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China who reports to Chuck Robbins, EVP, Worldwide Operations who reports to Rob Lloyd, President, Development & Sales who reports to John Chambers, CEO. Naresh Wadhwa, Cisco's outgoing President, resigned from the company.

07 February 2013
CXO Today: Indian Smartphone Users on an Average Consumed 174MB of Mobile Data Per Month in 2012: Report
Many global mobile carriers are deploying 4G technologies to address consumer and business users' demands for wireless services. In many emerging markets, carriers are creating new mobile networks with 4G solutions. In mature markets, carriers are supplementing or replacing legacy (2G/3G) networks with 4G technologies. As per Cisco's Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2012 to 2017, while in 2012, 2G supported 76 per cent of global mobile devices/M2M connections; 3G supported 23 per cent; and 4G supported 1 per cent, by 2017, 2G networks will support 33 per cent of global mobile devices/M2M connections; 3G networks will support 57 per cent; and 4G networks will support 10 per cent.

07 February 2013
The Financial Express: Search Engines, Social Media More Prone to Cyber Attacks: Cisco
Users are more likely to fall prey to cyber crime through search engines, online ads and social networking websites than pornographic or gambling sites, according to a report by technology giant Cisco. "Common belief holds that one increases their individual risk to security threats when they seek out illicit content like counterfeit software, online deals, hacking sites or even view pornography," Cisco Vice President (Borderless Networks), India and SAARC, Mahesh Gupta said. The places users believe are secure are just the opposite -- the modern attacker compromises mainstream online destination that serve mass audiences, he added. According to Cisco's annual security report, 91 percent of monitored hits to web pages were split between search engines (36 percent) like Google, online video sites (22 percent) like Youtube, advertising networks (13 percent) or social networks (20 percent) like Facebook or Twitter. "Viewing online advertisements are 182 times more likely to deliver malicious content than pornographic sites. Similarly, online shopping sites are 21 times as likely, and search engines 27 times more likely, to deliver malicious content than a counterfeit software site," he said.

06 February 2013
CRN: Cisco Refreshes Open Networking Fabric for Data Center, Cloud
Cisco has unveiled a refresh of its networking equipment line with a new focus on 40-Gigabit Ethernet, cloud-to-cloud management, open source networking and software-defined networking (SDN). The new Cisco line-up comes as customers are looking at the promise of cloud computing and rapid access to expandable IT resources, said Craig Huitema, Director, Marketing, Data Center and Cloud, Cisco. "What customers are really looking at is a world of many clouds: private, public and hybrid," Huitema said. "The problem is there are challenges."

06 February 2013
CXO Today: Cisco Study : Smartphones, Laptops, Tablets Will Drive 93 Percent of Global Mobile Data Traffic By 2017
Smartphones, laptops, and tablets will have great impact on the growth of global mobile data traffic in the next four years, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2012 to 2017. The study says that these devices will drive 93 percent of global mobile data traffic by 2017. M2M traffic (such as GPS systems in cars, asset tracking systems, medical applications, etc.) will represent 5 percent of 2017 global mobile data traffic. Doug Webster, Vice President of Service Provider Networking Marketing, Cisco said, "By 2017, global mobile data traffic will continue its truly remarkable growth, increasing 13-fold over the next five years, to reach an amount more than 46 times the total amount of mobile IP traffic just a few years ago in 2010. With such dramatic adoption, we are rapidly approaching the time when nearly every network experience will be a mobile one and, more often than not, a visual one as well. This trend is a result of the seemingly insatiable demand by consumers and businesses alike to achieve the benefits gained when connecting people, data, and things in an Internet of Everything."

05 February 2013
Times Ascent: Threats Step Out of the Shadows
Research reveals mainstream threats that are magnified by the world's next generation of workers' online behaviour. Cisco released findings from two global studies that provide a vivid picture of the rising security challenges that businesses, IT departments and individuals face, particularly as employees become more mobile in blending work and personal lifestyles throughout their waking hours. Despite popular assumptions that security risks increase as a person's online activity becomes shadier, findings from Cisco's 2013 Annual Security Report (ASR) reveal that the highest concentration of online security threats do not target pornography, pharmaceutical or gambling sites as much as they do legitimate destinations visited by mass audiences, such as major search engines, retail sites and social media outlets. In fact, Cisco found that online shopping sites are 21 times as likely, and search engines are 27 times as likely, to deliver malicious content than a counterfeit software site. Viewing online advertisements? Advertisements are 182 as times likely to deliver malicious content than pornography.

31 January 2013
Business Standard: India Top Source of Spam Worldwide: Cisco Report
India is the top source of spam worldwide, with the US moving from sixth position in 2011 to second in 2012.Korea, China and Vietnam round out the top five, according to the Cisco Annual Security Report. Cisco today released findings from two global studies that provide details of the rising security challenges that businesses, IT departments and individuals face. Despite popular assumptions that security risks increase as a person's online activity becomes shadier, findings from Cisco's 2013 Annual Security Report (ASR) reveal that the highest concentration of online security threats do not target pornography, pharmaceutical or gambling sites as much as they do legitimate destinations visited by mass audiences, such as major search engines, retail sites and social media outlets. Cisco says it found that online shopping sites are 21 times as likely, and search engines are 27 times as likely, to deliver malicious content than a counterfeit software site. Viewing online advertisements are 182 as times likely to deliver malicious content than pornography.

30 January 2013
Channel World : Cisco to Buy Czech Vendor Cognitive Security for Real-Time Analytics
Cisco plans to acquire Cognitive Security, a security software company that uses real-time behavioral analysis to detect security threats. Cisco wants to combine Cognitive's technology with its own global, cloud-based threat intelligence system. Together, the technologies will work with a common policy engine built into networks, with distributed enforcement, according to a Cisco blog post. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in Cisco's third fiscal quarter, were not disclosed. Cognitive is privately held and based in Prague, Czech Republic, where it collaborates with researchers at Czech Technical University in a joint security research program. Cisco said it plans to continue and expand on that collaboration.

28 January 2013
The Financial Express: Video is the Game Changer for SMBs
Competing in today's competitive market that tends to be dominated by larger companies, small and medium businesses (SMBs) often struggle to make it big. Expected to perform at par with large companies SMBs need to provide high levels of quality in products and services with fewer resources, lesser staff, and limited budgets to very astute customers. So it is critical for them to use technology and make the right investments to create a sustainable business model that would help achieve scale. The SMB sector in India contributes to about 45 percent of the industrial output and employs 42 million people. Adopting an enhanced collaborative framework can help this sector improve business efficiency by ensuring that customers, employees, and suppliers get secure access to real-time data. This in turn improves decision making and customer loyalty. Many small companies worldwide are transforming themselves into global players by effectively using technology to grow, expand and among other things, manage costs. Unified communications technologies are ideal for such organisations because they help weave together phone, email, instant messaging, and video conferencing, which in turn increase productivity and organisational agility.
Dahnesh Dilkhush- The writer is director, collaboration business - ITES & BFSI at Cisco India and SAARC.

25 January 2013
The Economic Times: Belkin to Acquire Cisco's Home Networking Business Unit
Electronics major Belkin today said it has entered into an agreement to acquire Cisco's home networking business unit. The agreement is to acquire the unit including its products, technology, Linksys brand and employees, Belkin said in a statement. However, specific financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to close in March 2013, it said.

25 January 2013
Express Computer: Cisco Partners with NetAPP
Cisco and NetApp has announced an expanded partnership to deliver new converged infrastructure innovation to unify branch office, data center and public cloud infrastructures under the FlexPod architecture. The partnership expansion includes efforts in technology integration, solution development, and continued go-to-market collaboration - all designed to make it easier for customers to deploy and access next-generation cloud infrastructure solutions. Padmasree Warrior, chief technology and strategy officer, Cisco said, "The past 10 years of partnering with NetApp have proven to be successful in bringing a Cisco validated, FlexPod architecture to our customers. Building on that success, we're now expanding our partnership to deliver deeper technology integration and broader solution development across the unified data center for an open, scalable, multicloud infrastructure. Together we can help our customers use their current data center investment to address the challenges of a mobile-cloud era."

23 January 2013
CIOL: What 2013 Has in Store: Cisco
Network has become the platform for delivering a wide array of services to businesses, consumers and government and the recent years have witnessed a big jump in Internet traffic. The network will be at the centre of the megatrends in 2013 and beyond. These trends are: 1. Internet of Everything: About 2.5 billion people world over and 37 billion things are expected to connect to the Internet by 2020. Ninety nine per cent of physical objects are currently unconnected and once they join the network we expect a whole new connected world to be formed. Cisco terms this transition as the 'Internet of Everything', and believes it will drive the next wave of business innovation, productivity and customer engagement for years to come. 2. Mobile device battle and mobile applications: Mobile devices will overtake PCs as the most common web access device worldwide. With an increasing number of smart, tech savvy employees, BYOD as a trend will see greater acceptability among organizations. Author is Janesh Moorjani, president- Enterprise and Public Sector, Cisco India.

23 January 2013
CRN: Cisco Plans Geo Expansion into 18 New Cities
Cisco is planning an aggressive geo-expansion strategy in India by expanding its active reach to 18 new tier-2 and tier-3 cities. "Over the past 2-3 years we have expanded our geographical reach in India to 20 cities compared to 6 metros earlier. Now we have planned a strategy to expand to the next level of cities. We have identified 18 such cities where we will expand our partner and market coverage," said Stanimira Koleva, Managing Director, Partner Business Group, Cisco Systems, Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China (APJC) region.

21 January 2013
CXO Today: There Will Be an Increased Focus on Cloud Datacenter
There's a lot of changes happening in the data center environment in the recent past. In an exclusive interaction with Sohini Bagchi of CXOtoday, Ashok Shenoy, VP, Data Centre and Visualization, Cisco India and SAARC, elucidates the trends that will transform datacenter in the future and how CIOs can effectively migrate their datacenter environment to the cloud. Excerpt:

What according to you are the trends that will transform datacenter in the coming days?

The datacenter in 2013 and beyond is set to undergo a massive transformation. In the past couple of years, the datacenter has moved from traditional and virtualized infrastructure into a service-oriented and cost-efficient environment. Availability of datacenter space is the most critical issue today.

20 January 2013
Melodika.net: Ready for Takeoff: Cisco's Cloud Strategy
One of NASDAQ's best performers, Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is considering the development of a personal cloud storage to offer in the global market. With new companies competing with Cisco in various areas of the communication network business, Cisco recently introduced "Videoscape Unity," a video services delivery platform that is designed to redefine video entertainment. This new platform boasts of an intuitive and synchronized multiscreen video screening that allows the consumers to play back their favorite shows and programs. Through a multiscreen cloud digital video recorder (DVR), consumers can access their records on any screen - no matter where they are. In a study conducted by Forrester Research, the number of Americans who are subscribed to personal cloud is expected to increase by 400%, equating to 196 million people over the next five years.

18 January 2013
Hindustan Times: Cisco Acquires Minority Stake in Russia's Parallels
Networking equipment company Cisco Systems Inc has acquired a small stake in Russian software developer Parallels, Parallels said on Thursday. Parallels said in a statement that Cisco has bought about 1 percent of the company and added that the stake sale does not rule out a possible initial public offering of the Russian firm. "We are looking at all possible ways to ensure liquidity options: dividend payouts, IPO, mergers and acquisitions," Parallel's press service said. The price of the deal with Cisco has not been revealed, but Cisco will get a seat on Parallels board of directors, the press service said.

18 January 2013
Business Standard: Cisco Announces New Leadership in India
Cisco introduced Jeff White as President of India & SAARC, assuming leadership for Cisco's sales and operations in the region. White will also take on the role of leader of a new India Board, which comprises senior executives from Cisco's headquarters as well as India and will chart Cisco's continued engagement with one of the largest emerging economies in the world. Reporting to Jaime Valles, President of Cisco in Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China, White will partner with Faiyaz Shahpurwala, Senior Vice President , Industry solutions and India Site Leader, to drive innovation and talent in alignment with the national agenda to transform the economy through technology. White will also be working closely with Wim Elfrink, Executive Vice President, industry solutions and Chief Globalization Officer, who is also Cisco's Executive Sponsor for India. Elfrink was one of the primary drivers for Cisco's investments in the Globalisation Centre East in 2007 and was based out of Bangalore until 2011.

17 January 2013
EFY Times: Cisco, NXP Invest in Cohda Wireless to Enable the Connected Car
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) and NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI) today announced that they have each made an investment in Cohda Wireless to advance intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and car-to-X communications. Cohda Wireless is a leading specialist in wireless communication for automotive safety applications. Today's announcement brings together the expertise of the three organizations to make the Internet of Everything a reality for the automotive industry, creating a safer and more enjoyable driving experience while improving traffic flow.

16 January 2013
Indiainfoline: CES: Cisco Talks Personal TV; Updates its Videoscape Platform
At the 21st Convergence India, Cisco will demonstrate how its solutions are enabling service providers to lead the way with convergence. Cisco works closely with service providers to transition them to experience providers; enabling them to build unique and compelling experience around content, and monetize it in new ways. As India's leading provider of digital TV solutions, Cisco has a wealth of technologies and business models to benefit all sizes of service provider looking to launch a digital TV service for today, and provide the flexibility and framework for future TV innovation. A selection of these technologies and solutions will be showcased as part of the newly launched Videoscape Unity platform at Convergence India on stand C-62, Hall 18 between 16th - 18th January. About Videoscape Unity Cisco created Videoscape Unity to empower service providers to accelerate the delivery of leading edge, immersive video experiences that bring to life their unique brand visions with innovative services and features.

16 January 2013
Information Week: Our Success in the Industry Clearly Points to an Industry Transition: Cisco Data Center SVP, David Yen
Data center virtualization is one of the fastest growing business units for Cisco, globally. Cisco entered the data center market in 2009 and in just three years, has achieved phenomenal growth. In a detailed interview with InformationWeek, David Yen, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Data Center Technology Group, Cisco, shares his views on Cisco's data center strategy, emerging technologies such as SDN and the new technologies that will define the data center of tomorrow. For a company that has been traditionally known for its networking expertise, how has Cisco fared in the data center market with UCS? Cisco prides itself on identifying market transitions before they take place. Our entry into the data center through UCS is also an example of this.

09 January 2013
CIOL: Cisco Expands Linksys Wi-Fi Portfolio
Cisco announced the expansion of its Linksys Wi-Fi portfolio with three new 802.11ac powered routers, a new 802.11ac USB adapter, new features and new Wi-Fi apps. Apart from Wi-Fi connectivity and in-house Wi-Fi coverage, the new routers, AC1200, AC1600 and AC1750, will also offer new tools for home network monitoring and control, and new mobile apps. Linksys AC 1750 HD video Pro, EA6700 - The most powerful Smart Wi-Fi Router in the Linksys portfolio, the AC1750 is designed for 10 or more connected devices and streaming HD in the home. The dual-band AC1750 delivers Wi-Fi speeds up to 1300 Mbps on the 5 GHz band and up to 450 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band.

09 January 2013
Silicon India: 10 Unimaginable Facts on How the Internet Really Works
Internet has grown into another world where everything is as easy as clicking few buttons or just gliding tip of your finger on smooth screens- be it calls, messages, social connections, information, movies, music, millions of apps, or shopping. As Cisco predicts, by 2016 the data centers will be sending 1.3 zettabytes over internet every year. That's the equivalent of sending all movies ever made across the Internet every 3 minutes.

08 January 2013
ComputerWorld.in: Cisco Working to Fix Broken Patch for VoIP Phones
Cisco Systems plans to release a new patch for a vulnerability in its VoIP phones after the first patch did not fix the problem, which could allow an attacker to eavesdrop on conversations. The vulnerability is one of several discovered by Ang Cui, a doctoral candidate, and computer science professor Salvatore Stolfo, both of Columbia University's engineering department. Cisco issued a patch, but it did not fix the problem. A spokesman said Tuesday that Cisco has its A-Team working on mitigations and a permanent patch. The company plans to issue a security advisory and a detailed mitigation document later this week, he said.

07 January 2013
Information Week: Leading Tech Analyst Publishes Full 2013 Outlook, Including Special Updates on Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, Qualcomm, Cisco Systems, and TriQuint Semiconductor
Next Inning Technology Research, an online investment newsletter focused on technology stocks, has published updated outlooks on Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM), Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), and TriQuint Semiconductor (Nasdaq: TQNT)… Cisco: McWilliams was quick to advise Next Inning readers that Wall Street was wrong when it pushed Cisco's price under $15 in July and that it should be viewed as a buying opportunity. With Cisco shares well off those lows, does McWilliams believe the stock is still trading at an attractive price? Is Cisco poised for above-trend growth in 2013?

07 January 2013
CRN: Partners and Priorities: Cisco's Channel Chief Talks to CRN
As Bruce Klein succeeded Keith Goodwin atop Worldwide Partner Organization (WWPO), Cisco, a few months ago, partners told CRN they wanted continuity and consistency: two hallmarks of what remains one of the industry's most highly regarded channel programs. To hear Klein tell it, that's exactly what partners are going to get, along with a continued evolution that aligns Cisco's tens of thousands of solution providers and integrators with priorities in cloud, data center, video and software-defined networking.

07 January 2013
CRN: Partners and Priorities: Cisco's Channel Chief Talks to CRN
As Bruce Klein succeeded Keith Goodwin atop Worldwide Partner Organization (WWPO), Cisco, a few months ago, partners told CRN they wanted continuity and consistency: two hallmarks of what remains one of the industry's most highly regarded channel programs. To hear Klein tell it, that's exactly what partners are going to get, along with a continued evolution that aligns Cisco's tens of thousands of solution providers and integrators with priorities in cloud, data center, video and software-defined networking.

04 January 2013
The Financial Express: Cisco Likely to Name Jeff White as New Head for India Ops
Globalnet-working giant Cisco is expected to name Jeff White as its new head for the India operations replacing Naresh Wadhwa who has left the company, sources told FE. White, currently vice-president of Cisco's service provider business for Asia Pacific, Japan and China will take over as president and country manager, India and Saarc. The likely change will actually see Cisco bringing back an expatriate to head the India operations after a long period of time. White has held varied roles within the technology company in areas such as sales & channels and strategic accounts. When contacted by FS, a spokesperson from Cisco confirmed Wadhwa's exit from the company but did not comment on who will succeed him. Wadhwa, who joined Cisco, India in January 1998, has served in several roles. Prior to his leadership position as the India and Saarc head in 2007, he was based in Hong Kong for four years as part of an APAC leadership team. During that period he took on various key positions includ-ing the company's foray into new markets.

03 January 2013
Biztech 2: Security Appliance Mkt Growth Continues to Slow in 3Q12: IDC
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Security Appliance Tracker, both factory revenue and unit shipments grew in the third quarter of 2012 (3Q12) compared to the previous year. Worldwide factory revenue was up 5.7 percent year over year to just over $2.0 billion, as shipments increased 1.0 percent to 499,022 units. In the previous quarter, factory revenue growth was 6.6 percent and unit growth was 5.8 percent compared to the second quarter of 2011. Cisco continues to lead the overall security appliance market with 16.2 percent share in factory revenue for the third quarter, but this was down from 17.3 percent in the prior year period. Check Point held the number 2 spot with 12.8 percent share for the quarter as revenue increased 12.8 percent compared to the third quarter of 2011. Fortinet saw the largest growth among the top five vendors at 17.2 percent. The share of Others increased primarily due to strong quarters from Palo Alto Networks and Sourcefire.

03 January 2013
CIO: Technologies to Watch 2013: Cisco products, More Maturity for SDNs in 2013
There was a lot of news and hype swirling around Software-Defined Networking in 2012, so what's on tap for 2013? Plenty. Significant advances are in store for SDNs this year, leading to even more in 2014…"2013 is going to be huge for deployments,& says David Ward, chief architect and CTO of Cisco's Service Provider division. "We have a lot in the pipeline that's going to come out" across our enterprise, data center, cloud, mobility and WAN service provider product lines. Besides working to implement onePK across its operating systems, Cisco has been bulking up the orchestration capabilities of a programmable onePK environment, making a few acquisitions in 2012 to support that effort. The goal, Ward says, is to simplify IT operations for Cisco's varied customer sets.

02 January 2013
The Economic Times: Anti-Virus Products Not Good Enough to Beat Computer Viruses
The anti-virus industry has a dirty little secret: Its products are often not very good at stopping viruses. Consumers and businesses spend billions of dollars every year on anti-virus software. But these programmes rarely, if ever, block freshly-minted computer viruses, experts say, because the virus creators move too quickly. That is prompting start-ups and other companies to get creative about new approaches to computer security. &The bad guys are always trying to be a step ahead,& said Matthew D Howard, a venture capitalist at Norwest Venture Partners who previously set up the security strategy at Cisco Systems. "And it doesn't take a lot to be a step ahead." Computer viruses used to be the domain of digital mischief-makers. But in the mid-2000s, when criminals discovered that malicious software could be profitable, the number of new viruses began to grow exponentially. In 2000, there were fewer than one million new strains of malware, most of them the work of amateurs. By 2010, there were 49 million new strains, according to AV-Test, a German research institute that tests anti-virus products. The anti-virus industry has grown as well, but experts say it is falling behind. By the time its products are able to block new viruses, it is often too late. The bad guys have had their fun, siphoning out a company's trade secrets, erasing data or emptying a consumer's bank account.

02 January 2013
The Hindu Business Line: Top Tech Trends in 2012
Big Data - Every IT event, seminar and conference had Big Data as the buzzword. With the amount of data generated by various systems reaching huge proportions, everyone is looking into how best to store this data and analyse it to create more efficiencies. From Silicon Valley to Davos to New Delhi, Big Data is being talked about as the next big thing in IT. Device Size- When it comes to smartphones and tablets, device makers are still grappling with the perfect size. While Apple moved from a 3.5 inch screen to a 4 inch screen for its iPhone5, it launched a smaller version of its iPad tablet - Mini. Samsung on the other hand increased stretched the screen size of Galaxy Note 2 to 5.5 inches… Smartphone Addiction- Mobile users are increasingly getting addicted to their phones. A surevy done by Cisco found out that in India, 70 percent of respondents compulsively check their smartphones for updates. Of those, 42 percent said they would feel anxious if they couldn't check their smartphones and 71 percent wish they didn't feel so compelled, but they like to stay connected.

02 January 2013
VAR India: Cisco's Priority is its Partners!!!
The Networking giant Cisco, has once again taken a step ahead in showing its commitment towards its Partners by making the Partners the centre of attraction in its second edition of Cisco Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China (APJC) Partner Led Network 2012 event in Bangkok, Thailand. From all over the region around 300 Partners participated in the event… Cisco believes that mobility and cloud will see the shift in the market to services and this will drive demand for services… Cisco has recently announced Partner Plus in India. A new global channel program targeting mid-sized customers, partners who are participants in the program receives increased preference, investment and support in the form of business accelerators. VARINDIA talked to Andrew Sage, to know the latest from Cisco. Excerpts from the interview.

31 January 2013
Business Standard: India Top Source of Spam Worldwide: Cisco Report
India is the top source of spam worldwide, with the US moving from sixth position in 2011 to second in 2012.Korea, China and Vietnam round out the top five, according to the Cisco Annual Security Report. Cisco today released findings from two global studies that provide details of the rising security challenges that businesses, IT departments and individuals face. Despite popular assumptions that security risks increase as a person's online activity becomes shadier, findings from Cisco's 2013 Annual Security Report (ASR) reveal that the highest concentration of online security threats do not target pornography, pharmaceutical or gambling sites as much as they do legitimate destinations visited by mass audiences, such as major search engines, retail sites and social media outlets. Cisco says it found that online shopping sites are 21 times as likely, and search engines are 27 times as likely, to deliver malicious content than a counterfeit software site. Viewing online advertisements are 182 as times likely to deliver malicious content than pornography.

30 January 2013
Channel World : Cisco to Buy Czech Vendor Cognitive Security for Real-Time Analytics
Cisco plans to acquire Cognitive Security, a security software company that uses real-time behavioral analysis to detect security threats. Cisco wants to combine Cognitive's technology with its own global, cloud-based threat intelligence system. Together, the technologies will work with a common policy engine built into networks, with distributed enforcement, according to a Cisco blog post. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in Cisco's third fiscal quarter, were not disclosed. Cognitive is privately held and based in Prague, Czech Republic, where it collaborates with researchers at Czech Technical University in a joint security research program. Cisco said it plans to continue and expand on that collaboration.

28 January 2013
The Financial Express: Video is the Game Changer for SMBs
Competing in today's competitive market that tends to be dominated by larger companies, small and medium businesses (SMBs) often struggle to make it big. Expected to perform at par with large companies SMBs need to provide high levels of quality in products and services with fewer resources, lesser staff, and limited budgets to very astute customers. So it is critical for them to use technology and make the right investments to create a sustainable business model that would help achieve scale. The SMB sector in India contributes to about 45 percent of the industrial output and employs 42 million people. Adopting an enhanced collaborative framework can help this sector improve business efficiency by ensuring that customers, employees, and suppliers get secure access to real-time data. This in turn improves decision making and customer loyalty. Many small companies worldwide are transforming themselves into global players by effectively using technology to grow, expand and among other things, manage costs. Unified communications technologies are ideal for such organisations because they help weave together phone, email, instant messaging, and video conferencing, which in turn increase productivity and organisational agility.
Dahnesh Dilkhush- The writer is director, collaboration business - ITES & BFSI at Cisco India and SAARC.

25 January 2013
The Economic Times: Belkin to Acquire Cisco's Home Networking Business Unit
Electronics major Belkin today said it has entered into an agreement to acquire Cisco's home networking business unit. The agreement is to acquire the unit including its products, technology, Linksys brand and employees, Belkin said in a statement. However, specific financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to close in March 2013, it said.

25 January 2013
Express Computer: Cisco Partners with NetAPP
Cisco and NetApp has announced an expanded partnership to deliver new converged infrastructure innovation to unify branch office, data center and public cloud infrastructures under the FlexPod architecture. The partnership expansion includes efforts in technology integration, solution development, and continued go-to-market collaboration - all designed to make it easier for customers to deploy and access next-generation cloud infrastructure solutions. Padmasree Warrior, chief technology and strategy officer, Cisco said, "The past 10 years of partnering with NetApp have proven to be successful in bringing a Cisco validated, FlexPod architecture to our customers. Building on that success, we're now expanding our partnership to deliver deeper technology integration and broader solution development across the unified data center for an open, scalable, multicloud infrastructure. Together we can help our customers use their current data center investment to address the challenges of a mobile-cloud era."

23 January 2013
CIOL: What 2013 Has in Store: Cisco
Network has become the platform for delivering a wide array of services to businesses, consumers and government and the recent years have witnessed a big jump in Internet traffic. The network will be at the centre of the megatrends in 2013 and beyond. These trends are: 1. Internet of Everything: About 2.5 billion people world over and 37 billion things are expected to connect to the Internet by 2020. Ninety nine per cent of physical objects are currently unconnected and once they join the network we expect a whole new connected world to be formed. Cisco terms this transition as the 'Internet of Everything', and believes it will drive the next wave of business innovation, productivity and customer engagement for years to come. 2. Mobile device battle and mobile applications: Mobile devices will overtake PCs as the most common web access device worldwide. With an increasing number of smart, tech savvy employees, BYOD as a trend will see greater acceptability among organizations. Author is Janesh Moorjani, president- Enterprise and Public Sector, Cisco India.

23 January 2013
CRN: Cisco Plans Geo Expansion into 18 New Cities
Cisco is planning an aggressive geo-expansion strategy in India by expanding its active reach to 18 new tier-2 and tier-3 cities. "Over the past 2-3 years we have expanded our geographical reach in India to 20 cities compared to 6 metros earlier. Now we have planned a strategy to expand to the next level of cities. We have identified 18 such cities where we will expand our partner and market coverage," said Stanimira Koleva, Managing Director, Partner Business Group, Cisco Systems, Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China (APJC) region.

21 January 2013
CXO Today: There Will Be an Increased Focus on Cloud Datacenter
There's a lot of changes happening in the data center environment in the recent past. In an exclusive interaction with Sohini Bagchi of CXOtoday, Ashok Shenoy, VP, Data Centre and Visualization, Cisco India and SAARC, elucidates the trends that will transform datacenter in the future and how CIOs can effectively migrate their datacenter environment to the cloud. Excerpt:

What according to you are the trends that will transform datacenter in the coming days?

The datacenter in 2013 and beyond is set to undergo a massive transformation. In the past couple of years, the datacenter has moved from traditional and virtualized infrastructure into a service-oriented and cost-efficient environment. Availability of datacenter space is the most critical issue today.

20 January 2013
Melodika.net: Ready for Takeoff: Cisco's Cloud Strategy
One of NASDAQ's best performers, Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is considering the development of a personal cloud storage to offer in the global market. With new companies competing with Cisco in various areas of the communication network business, Cisco recently introduced "Videoscape Unity," a video services delivery platform that is designed to redefine video entertainment. This new platform boasts of an intuitive and synchronized multiscreen video screening that allows the consumers to play back their favorite shows and programs. Through a multiscreen cloud digital video recorder (DVR), consumers can access their records on any screen - no matter where they are. In a study conducted by Forrester Research, the number of Americans who are subscribed to personal cloud is expected to increase by 400%, equating to 196 million people over the next five years.

18 January 2013
Hindustan Times: Cisco Acquires Minority Stake in Russia's Parallels
Networking equipment company Cisco Systems Inc has acquired a small stake in Russian software developer Parallels, Parallels said on Thursday. Parallels said in a statement that Cisco has bought about 1 percent of the company and added that the stake sale does not rule out a possible initial public offering of the Russian firm. "We are looking at all possible ways to ensure liquidity options: dividend payouts, IPO, mergers and acquisitions," Parallel's press service said. The price of the deal with Cisco has not been revealed, but Cisco will get a seat on Parallels board of directors, the press service said.

18 January 2013
Business Standard: Cisco Announces New Leadership in India
Cisco introduced Jeff White as President of India & SAARC, assuming leadership for Cisco's sales and operations in the region. White will also take on the role of leader of a new India Board, which comprises senior executives from Cisco's headquarters as well as India and will chart Cisco's continued engagement with one of the largest emerging economies in the world. Reporting to Jaime Valles, President of Cisco in Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China, White will partner with Faiyaz Shahpurwala, Senior Vice President , Industry solutions and India Site Leader, to drive innovation and talent in alignment with the national agenda to transform the economy through technology. White will also be working closely with Wim Elfrink, Executive Vice President, industry solutions and Chief Globalization Officer, who is also Cisco's Executive Sponsor for India. Elfrink was one of the primary drivers for Cisco's investments in the Globalisation Centre East in 2007 and was based out of Bangalore until 2011.

17 January 2013
EFY Times: Cisco, NXP Invest in Cohda Wireless to Enable the Connected Car
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) and NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI) today announced that they have each made an investment in Cohda Wireless to advance intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and car-to-X communications. Cohda Wireless is a leading specialist in wireless communication for automotive safety applications. Today's announcement brings together the expertise of the three organizations to make the Internet of Everything a reality for the automotive industry, creating a safer and more enjoyable driving experience while improving traffic flow.

16 January 2013
Indiainfoline: CES: Cisco Talks Personal TV; Updates its Videoscape Platform
At the 21st Convergence India, Cisco will demonstrate how its solutions are enabling service providers to lead the way with convergence. Cisco works closely with service providers to transition them to experience providers; enabling them to build unique and compelling experience around content, and monetize it in new ways. As India's leading provider of digital TV solutions, Cisco has a wealth of technologies and business models to benefit all sizes of service provider looking to launch a digital TV service for today, and provide the flexibility and framework for future TV innovation. A selection of these technologies and solutions will be showcased as part of the newly launched Videoscape Unity platform at Convergence India on stand C-62, Hall 18 between 16th - 18th January. About Videoscape Unity Cisco created Videoscape Unity to empower service providers to accelerate the delivery of leading edge, immersive video experiences that bring to life their unique brand visions with innovative services and features.

16 January 2013
Information Week: Our Success in the Industry Clearly Points to an Industry Transition: Cisco Data Center SVP, David Yen
Data center virtualization is one of the fastest growing business units for Cisco, globally. Cisco entered the data center market in 2009 and in just three years, has achieved phenomenal growth. In a detailed interview with InformationWeek, David Yen, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Data Center Technology Group, Cisco, shares his views on Cisco's data center strategy, emerging technologies such as SDN and the new technologies that will define the data center of tomorrow. For a company that has been traditionally known for its networking expertise, how has Cisco fared in the data center market with UCS? Cisco prides itself on identifying market transitions before they take place. Our entry into the data center through UCS is also an example of this.

09 January 2013
CIOL: Cisco Expands Linksys Wi-Fi Portfolio
Cisco announced the expansion of its Linksys Wi-Fi portfolio with three new 802.11ac powered routers, a new 802.11ac USB adapter, new features and new Wi-Fi apps. Apart from Wi-Fi connectivity and in-house Wi-Fi coverage, the new routers, AC1200, AC1600 and AC1750, will also offer new tools for home network monitoring and control, and new mobile apps. Linksys AC 1750 HD video Pro, EA6700 - The most powerful Smart Wi-Fi Router in the Linksys portfolio, the AC1750 is designed for 10 or more connected devices and streaming HD in the home. The dual-band AC1750 delivers Wi-Fi speeds up to 1300 Mbps on the 5 GHz band and up to 450 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band.

09 January 2013
Silicon India: 10 Unimaginable Facts on How the Internet Really Works
Internet has grown into another world where everything is as easy as clicking few buttons or just gliding tip of your finger on smooth screens- be it calls, messages, social connections, information, movies, music, millions of apps, or shopping. As Cisco predicts, by 2016 the data centers will be sending 1.3 zettabytes over internet every year. That's the equivalent of sending all movies ever made across the Internet every 3 minutes.

08 January 2013
ComputerWorld.in: Cisco Working to Fix Broken Patch for VoIP Phones
Cisco Systems plans to release a new patch for a vulnerability in its VoIP phones after the first patch did not fix the problem, which could allow an attacker to eavesdrop on conversations. The vulnerability is one of several discovered by Ang Cui, a doctoral candidate, and computer science professor Salvatore Stolfo, both of Columbia University's engineering department. Cisco issued a patch, but it did not fix the problem. A spokesman said Tuesday that Cisco has its A-Team working on mitigations and a permanent patch. The company plans to issue a security advisory and a detailed mitigation document later this week, he said.

07 January 2013
Information Week: Leading Tech Analyst Publishes Full 2013 Outlook, Including Special Updates on Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, Qualcomm, Cisco Systems, and TriQuint Semiconductor
Next Inning Technology Research, an online investment newsletter focused on technology stocks, has published updated outlooks on Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM), Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), and TriQuint Semiconductor (Nasdaq: TQNT)… Cisco: McWilliams was quick to advise Next Inning readers that Wall Street was wrong when it pushed Cisco's price under $15 in July and that it should be viewed as a buying opportunity. With Cisco shares well off those lows, does McWilliams believe the stock is still trading at an attractive price? Is Cisco poised for above-trend growth in 2013?

07 January 2013
CRN: Partners and Priorities: Cisco's Channel Chief Talks to CRN
As Bruce Klein succeeded Keith Goodwin atop Worldwide Partner Organization (WWPO), Cisco, a few months ago, partners told CRN they wanted continuity and consistency: two hallmarks of what remains one of the industry's most highly regarded channel programs. To hear Klein tell it, that's exactly what partners are going to get, along with a continued evolution that aligns Cisco's tens of thousands of solution providers and integrators with priorities in cloud, data center, video and software-defined networking.

07 January 2013
CRN: Partners and Priorities: Cisco's Channel Chief Talks to CRN
As Bruce Klein succeeded Keith Goodwin atop Worldwide Partner Organization (WWPO), Cisco, a few months ago, partners told CRN they wanted continuity and consistency: two hallmarks of what remains one of the industry's most highly regarded channel programs. To hear Klein tell it, that's exactly what partners are going to get, along with a continued evolution that aligns Cisco's tens of thousands of solution providers and integrators with priorities in cloud, data center, video and software-defined networking.

04 January 2013
The Financial Express: Cisco Likely to Name Jeff White as New Head for India Ops
Globalnet-working giant Cisco is expected to name Jeff White as its new head for the India operations replacing Naresh Wadhwa who has left the company, sources told FE. White, currently vice-president of Cisco's service provider business for Asia Pacific, Japan and China will take over as president and country manager, India and Saarc. The likely change will actually see Cisco bringing back an expatriate to head the India operations after a long period of time. White has held varied roles within the technology company in areas such as sales & channels and strategic accounts. When contacted by FS, a spokesperson from Cisco confirmed Wadhwa's exit from the company but did not comment on who will succeed him. Wadhwa, who joined Cisco, India in January 1998, has served in several roles. Prior to his leadership position as the India and Saarc head in 2007, he was based in Hong Kong for four years as part of an APAC leadership team. During that period he took on various key positions includ-ing the company's foray into new markets.

03 January 2013
Biztech 2: Security Appliance Mkt Growth Continues to Slow in 3Q12: IDC
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Security Appliance Tracker, both factory revenue and unit shipments grew in the third quarter of 2012 (3Q12) compared to the previous year. Worldwide factory revenue was up 5.7 percent year over year to just over $2.0 billion, as shipments increased 1.0 percent to 499,022 units. In the previous quarter, factory revenue growth was 6.6 percent and unit growth was 5.8 percent compared to the second quarter of 2011. Cisco continues to lead the overall security appliance market with 16.2 percent share in factory revenue for the third quarter, but this was down from 17.3 percent in the prior year period. Check Point held the number 2 spot with 12.8 percent share for the quarter as revenue increased 12.8 percent compared to the third quarter of 2011. Fortinet saw the largest growth among the top five vendors at 17.2 percent. The share of Others increased primarily due to strong quarters from Palo Alto Networks and Sourcefire.

03 January 2013
CIO: Technologies to Watch 2013: Cisco products, More Maturity for SDNs in 2013
There was a lot of news and hype swirling around Software-Defined Networking in 2012, so what's on tap for 2013? Plenty. Significant advances are in store for SDNs this year, leading to even more in 2014…"2013 is going to be huge for deployments,& says David Ward, chief architect and CTO of Cisco's Service Provider division. "We have a lot in the pipeline that's going to come out" across our enterprise, data center, cloud, mobility and WAN service provider product lines. Besides working to implement onePK across its operating systems, Cisco has been bulking up the orchestration capabilities of a programmable onePK environment, making a few acquisitions in 2012 to support that effort. The goal, Ward says, is to simplify IT operations for Cisco's varied customer sets.

02 January 2013
The Economic Times: Anti-Virus Products Not Good Enough to Beat Computer Viruses
The anti-virus industry has a dirty little secret: Its products are often not very good at stopping viruses. Consumers and businesses spend billions of dollars every year on anti-virus software. But these programmes rarely, if ever, block freshly-minted computer viruses, experts say, because the virus creators move too quickly. That is prompting start-ups and other companies to get creative about new approaches to computer security. &The bad guys are always trying to be a step ahead,& said Matthew D Howard, a venture capitalist at Norwest Venture Partners who previously set up the security strategy at Cisco Systems. "And it doesn't take a lot to be a step ahead." Computer viruses used to be the domain of digital mischief-makers. But in the mid-2000s, when criminals discovered that malicious software could be profitable, the number of new viruses began to grow exponentially. In 2000, there were fewer than one million new strains of malware, most of them the work of amateurs. By 2010, there were 49 million new strains, according to AV-Test, a German research institute that tests anti-virus products. The anti-virus industry has grown as well, but experts say it is falling behind. By the time its products are able to block new viruses, it is often too late. The bad guys have had their fun, siphoning out a company's trade secrets, erasing data or emptying a consumer's bank account.

02 January 2013
The Hindu Business Line: Top Tech Trends in 2012
Big Data - Every IT event, seminar and conference had Big Data as the buzzword. With the amount of data generated by various systems reaching huge proportions, everyone is looking into how best to store this data and analyse it to create more efficiencies. From Silicon Valley to Davos to New Delhi, Big Data is being talked about as the next big thing in IT. Device Size- When it comes to smartphones and tablets, device makers are still grappling with the perfect size. While Apple moved from a 3.5 inch screen to a 4 inch screen for its iPhone5, it launched a smaller version of its iPad tablet - Mini. Samsung on the other hand increased stretched the screen size of Galaxy Note 2 to 5.5 inches… Smartphone Addiction- Mobile users are increasingly getting addicted to their phones. A surevy done by Cisco found out that in India, 70 percent of respondents compulsively check their smartphones for updates. Of those, 42 percent said they would feel anxious if they couldn't check their smartphones and 71 percent wish they didn't feel so compelled, but they like to stay connected.

02 January 2013
VAR India: Cisco's Priority is its Partners!!!
The Networking giant Cisco, has once again taken a step ahead in showing its commitment towards its Partners by making the Partners the centre of attraction in its second edition of Cisco Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China (APJC) Partner Led Network 2012 event in Bangkok, Thailand. From all over the region around 300 Partners participated in the event… Cisco believes that mobility and cloud will see the shift in the market to services and this will drive demand for services… Cisco has recently announced Partner Plus in India. A new global channel program targeting mid-sized customers, partners who are participants in the program receives increased preference, investment and support in the form of business accelerators. VARINDIA talked to Andrew Sage, to know the latest from Cisco. Excerpts from the interview.

28 February 2013
Business and Economy: Cyber Attacks Will Get Stronger and More Frequent
Mahesh Gupta - Vice President, Business Development-Borderless Networks, Cisco, India & SAARC, on how today's networks are facing up to the increasingly complex challenges of cyber security. B&E: With the evolution of cyber crime how vulnerable are toda's data systems and what can be done to keep them secure? Mahesh Gupta (MG): Cybercriminals have evolved steadily over the last few years and are increasingly exploiting systems for financial gains. New and changing methods, lack of up-to-date intelligence and global knowledge to prevent such crimes have made system exploits even harder to detect and mitigate. In addition, the problem has compounded with the rapid proliferation of end-user points connected to the network for data access and increased mobility initiatives (use of personal devices) in the workspace.

February 2013
The Hindu Business Line: Cisco's Future Revenues to Come from Services, Says Jeff White
Networking giant Cisco is undergoing a transition of sorts. The company that made the router, a device that forms the backbone of Internet, is now transforming itself into a company where the bulk of its future revenues would come from services. Jeff White, the newly appointed President for India and SAARC, spoke on the company's India strategy at Nasscom. Edited excerpts: With the new management, would the India strategy change? We have always seen India from a long-term perspective. Right from the time we started out to a 10,000-strong team in India, over a decade, we have made investments that show our commitment. India would be looked at from a different prism from what we looked in the past. By that I mean, we are increasing our business process innovation-related work from the country.

11 February 2013
Forbes: India and Technology Multinationals - Part 2
"There is a difference in a company being a multinational, and being global. Technology companies may be incredibly multinational by operating in more than a hundred countries, but that doesn't mean they operate with a global mindset," says Ravi Venkatesan. Given that during 2004 and 2011 Venkatesan was the chairman of Microsoft India, arguably one of the best-known and largest technology multinationals in the world, the statement sounds a bit confusing, doesn't it? But first, a bit of context. Cisco: Jeff White, Cisco's new President for India and SAARC reports to Jaime Valles, President, Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China who reports to Chuck Robbins, EVP, Worldwide Operations who reports to Rob Lloyd, President, Development & Sales who reports to John Chambers, CEO. Naresh Wadhwa, Cisco's outgoing President, resigned from the company.

07 February 2013
CXO Today: Indian Smartphone Users on an Average Consumed 174MB of Mobile Data Per Month in 2012: Report
Many global mobile carriers are deploying 4G technologies to address consumer and business users' demands for wireless services. In many emerging markets, carriers are creating new mobile networks with 4G solutions. In mature markets, carriers are supplementing or replacing legacy (2G/3G) networks with 4G technologies. As per Cisco's Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2012 to 2017, while in 2012, 2G supported 76 per cent of global mobile devices/M2M connections; 3G supported 23 per cent; and 4G supported 1 per cent, by 2017, 2G networks will support 33 per cent of global mobile devices/M2M connections; 3G networks will support 57 per cent; and 4G networks will support 10 per cent.

07 February 2013
The Financial Express: Search Engines, Social Media More Prone to Cyber Attacks: Cisco
Users are more likely to fall prey to cyber crime through search engines, online ads and social networking websites than pornographic or gambling sites, according to a report by technology giant Cisco. "Common belief holds that one increases their individual risk to security threats when they seek out illicit content like counterfeit software, online deals, hacking sites or even view pornography," Cisco Vice President (Borderless Networks), India and SAARC, Mahesh Gupta said. The places users believe are secure are just the opposite -- the modern attacker compromises mainstream online destination that serve mass audiences, he added. According to Cisco's annual security report, 91 percent of monitored hits to web pages were split between search engines (36 percent) like Google, online video sites (22 percent) like Youtube, advertising networks (13 percent) or social networks (20 percent) like Facebook or Twitter. "Viewing online advertisements are 182 times more likely to deliver malicious content than pornographic sites. Similarly, online shopping sites are 21 times as likely, and search engines 27 times more likely, to deliver malicious content than a counterfeit software site," he said.

06 February 2013
CRN: Cisco Refreshes Open Networking Fabric for Data Center, Cloud
Cisco has unveiled a refresh of its networking equipment line with a new focus on 40-Gigabit Ethernet, cloud-to-cloud management, open source networking and software-defined networking (SDN). The new Cisco line-up comes as customers are looking at the promise of cloud computing and rapid access to expandable IT resources, said Craig Huitema, Director, Marketing, Data Center and Cloud, Cisco. "What customers are really looking at is a world of many clouds: private, public and hybrid," Huitema said. "The problem is there are challenges."

06 February 2013
CXO Today: Cisco Study : Smartphones, Laptops, Tablets Will Drive 93 Percent of Global Mobile Data Traffic By 2017
Smartphones, laptops, and tablets will have great impact on the growth of global mobile data traffic in the next four years, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2012 to 2017. The study says that these devices will drive 93 percent of global mobile data traffic by 2017. M2M traffic (such as GPS systems in cars, asset tracking systems, medical applications, etc.) will represent 5 percent of 2017 global mobile data traffic. Doug Webster, Vice President of Service Provider Networking Marketing, Cisco said, "By 2017, global mobile data traffic will continue its truly remarkable growth, increasing 13-fold over the next five years, to reach an amount more than 46 times the total amount of mobile IP traffic just a few years ago in 2010. With such dramatic adoption, we are rapidly approaching the time when nearly every network experience will be a mobile one and, more often than not, a visual one as well. This trend is a result of the seemingly insatiable demand by consumers and businesses alike to achieve the benefits gained when connecting people, data, and things in an Internet of Everything."

05 February 2013
Times Ascent: Threats Step Out of the Shadows
Research reveals mainstream threats that are magnified by the world's next generation of workers' online behaviour. Cisco released findings from two global studies that provide a vivid picture of the rising security challenges that businesses, IT departments and individuals face, particularly as employees become more mobile in blending work and personal lifestyles throughout their waking hours. Despite popular assumptions that security risks increase as a person's online activity becomes shadier, findings from Cisco's 2013 Annual Security Report (ASR) reveal that the highest concentration of online security threats do not target pornography, pharmaceutical or gambling sites as much as they do legitimate destinations visited by mass audiences, such as major search engines, retail sites and social media outlets. In fact, Cisco found that online shopping sites are 21 times as likely, and search engines are 27 times as likely, to deliver malicious content than a counterfeit software site. Viewing online advertisements? Advertisements are 182 as times likely to deliver malicious content than pornography.

30 March 2013
India CSR: We Have Provided 3223 Houses to Flood Victims in Karnataka: Aravind Sitaraman, President - Inclusive Growth, Cisco Systems
Aravind Sitaraman is the President - Inclusive Growth at Cisco Systems. Aravind is a Computer Scientist with over 27 years of work experience. After pioneering work in several startup & high-tech companies, he became one of the leading inventors in Cisco Systems with 57 patents. He served on the Board of Studies of Anna University and has led & been part of several international standards bodies. He led Cisco India’s CSR efforts and launched several successful programs including 'Feed-a-Child' and 'Adopt-a-School.' Leveraging his experience rehabilitating tsunami victims in South India, he championed flood relief efforts in Karnataka in 2009. Aravind created Project Samudaya, a volunteer-led program, to enable villages through technology & build 3323 homes, 1 hospital, & 2 schools. Aravind morphed this project into a vehicle to deliver inclusive growth worldwide. In October 2010, he was appointed President, Inclusive Growth..

29 March 2013
NDTV Profit: Cisco Systems Raises Dividend 21 Percent
Cisco Systems Inc. is increasing its dividend 21 percent, its second boost in less than a year. The San Jose, California-based technology giant will pay a 17 cent quarterly dividend on April 24 to shareholders of record April 8. That's up 3 cents from the last quarter. Cisco raised its quarterly payout to 14 cents from 8 cents last summer. The company, which supplies routers, switches, software and services to corporate customers and government agencies worldwide, is considered a bellwether of the technology industry. Last month it forecast a slow, steady upturn in its sales pipeline. Cisco shares ended trading Thursday at $20.89, up 7 cents. The stock is up about 6 percent in the year to date, underperforming the broader market.

13 March 2013
The Times of India: Unsafe to Conduct Professional Work on Personal Devices
With proliferation of smartphones and digital devices the preference for using them for professional work has caught momentum with the youth, but information security experts say such uses are still fraught with data risk. Studies have found that the youth, especially those in information technology services, has been showing scant respect t to security guidelines set up by their employers, taking more risk online for the sake of personal benefits. Studies also suggest that, contrary to common belief that porn sites are the entry points for malware; advertisements are more likely to deliver malicious content. Findings in the Annual Security Report and Connected World Technology Report recently released by networking major Cisco suggest that mobile devices in the hands of young workers, who often do not know or acknowledge IT restrictions, may pose an increased security risk for businesses. "The so called Generation Y takes more risk online for the sake of personal benefits, affecting businesses more and more as workers continue blending work and personal lifestyles throughout their waking hours," the report says. Four out of five of them say they are aware of their employer's IT's policies, but do not obey them. The reports say by 2020, with internet open to an estimated 50 billion things, the number of connections will balloon to gigantic proportion. Mahesh Gupta, vice-president (Borderless Networks), Cisco India and SAARC, said cybercriminals have evolved steadily over the last few years and are increasingly exploiting systems for financial gains. Changed methods, lack of live intelligence and global knowledge to prevent them have made system exploits even harder to detect and mitigate.

12 March 2013
EFY Times: Reinventing the TV Experience
As India's leading provider of digital pay- TV solutions, Cisco has a vast range of technology offerings for the Indian market and was showcased at the CABLE TV SHOW 2013. Cisco understands operator's fundamental need for rapid and cost-effective digitalization and demonstrated market-leading, easy-to-deploy solutions that will enable both small and medium-sized pay - TV operators to provide an improved user experience and generate additional revenues. Digital Pay-TV Solutions - Cable and DTH. Cisco is a pioneer in developing digital TV solutions for some of the most successful cable TV and satellite broadcasters around the world.

11 March 2013
The Hindu: Cisco Certifications Have an Edge Over Others
Networking is a promising domain for Science, Engineering and Technology graduates, looking forward to a career in IT field. When it comes to choosing candidates for networking jobs, professionals with international certifications like the Cisco Certifications have an edge over others. Most business organisations, worldwide, use Cisco technologies for their computer networks. Cisco certifications are valued for the quality of professionals they produce. So, once you acquire a Cisco certification, your career prospects improve significantly, both in India and abroad.

10 March 2013
The Hindu: Tech News
Cisco Technologies announced the launch of the Cisco Education Enabled Development (CEED), a collaborative, cloud-based video interaction solution that will enable efficient delivery of education and skills development courses. Named Dwara, after the Sanskrit word for portal to signify a doorway to a new future, this is Cisco's first foray into the 'Internet of everythin solutions. Dwara will allow educators in rural areas to connect with experts and trainers from urban centres. According to a release from Cisco, CEED hardware is designed for harsh environments where temperature and dust can be high. It is energy efficient and uses 40 per cent less power, and thus ideal for rural environments. "With a built-in router that also acts as a Wi-Fi access point, a computer and a projection device, this solution allows multiple students using devices like the Akash tablet that the [Union government] is trying to develop, to share a single Internet connection. It can also facilitate connections to well-known education portals such as the one produced by the National Information Centre," the release said. Aravind Sitaraman, president, Inclusive Growth, Cisco, said: "CEED is Cisco's first step towards bringing inclusive growth to rural areas using the latest technology at extremely affordable prices. It has the potential to revolutionise learning and skills development in this country. We are very proud to have developed this product from our site in India and simultaneously realise our vision to bring cost of technology in education down to a very affordable $1 per child per month."

04 March 2013
CXO Today: Software Defined Networking will Boost Business Intelligence
Software defined networking (SDN) is getting a lot of talk lately because it is said to be one of the game changers in the area of networking and virtualization. While vendors are giving it a nod, enterprises are still hesitant to adopt it owing to legacy architecture and ROI. But the big guns in the industry like Cisco, Juniper and VMWare are very gung ho about the new technology and have set up architecture that is aligned to SDN, if not fully compliant. “At Cisco, we believe that a more pragmatic view needs to prevail, before an accurate market sizing number can be projected. Also, one should take into consideration both product and services revenue opportunity. On the business front, its early days, and most customers are still exploring. A few may look at making a multi-year transition and in a phased manner which will open up new opportunities for the few top-tier partners and ISVs, as several proof-of-concepts get fleshed out,” said Mahesh Gupta, Vice President for Borderless Networks at Cisco India and SAARC, on the adoption of SDN in India.

18 April 2013
Dataquest: John Chambers Wants Cisco to be World's No. 1 IT Company
John Chambers, chairman and CEO, Cisco Systems was in India on a two-day visit to promote his company's stake in the country as a technology supplier and to hobnob with the government to ensure Cisco's involvement in key ICT projects in the country. John met with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and IT Minister Kapil Sibal and other government leaders in IT. His pitch to them was to use technology as an agent to promote inclusivity across many areas in the country. Said John, "We are very much aligned to what your government is aiming to do towards promoting inclusion."

18 April 2013
Halabol Voices: CSR ICON: Aravind Sitaraman, President - Inclusive Growth, Cisco Systems
As the Managing Director of the Cisco Development Organization in India, Aravind Sitaraman has set high standards of commitment to CSR activities. He played an instrumental role in executing several successful programs including 'Feed-a-Child' and 'Adopt-a-School.' He indeed inspires many to walk this tough road with a responsible and dedicated mind. Aravind Sitaraman is a Computer Scientist with over 27 years of work experience. After pioneering work in several startup & high-tech companies, he became one of the leading inventors in Cisco Systems with 57 patents. He served on the Board of Studies of Anna University and has led & been part of several international standards bodies. Leveraging his experience rehabilitating tsunami victims in South India, he championed flood relief efforts in Karnataka in 2009. Aravind created Project Samudaya, a volunteer-led program, to enable villages through technology & build 3323 homes, 1 hospital, & 2 schools. Aravind morphed this project into a vehicle to deliver inclusive growth worldwide.

18 April 2013
The Economic Times: An Indian May Take My Position: Cisco Systems Chief John Chambers
Cisco Systems Chairman & CEO John Chambers said two Indians - Padmasree Warrior, 51, its CTO & chief strategy officer, and Pankaj Patel, 58, its executive vice-president & chief development officer - are in contention to succeed him as CEO when he steps down sometime in the next two-to-four years. Sixty-three-year-old Chamber, the longest-serving chief of the $46-billion Internet networking giant, has guided Cisco, once the world's most valuable company, through its rise, fall and rebirth after the dotcom bust of 2000. He took over as CEO in January 1995, when the company earned just $1.3 billion in revenues. Asked if an Indian could succeed him, Chambers told ET: "Absolutely. I have two superstars who are from India - Warrior and Patel. Warrior is among the sharpest technology persons in the world. She has led Cisco through 15 acquisitions in the past 15 months, and Patel has emerged a leader across all our engineering teams. He is the best engineer I have ever seen." This is the first time Chambers has mentioned the possibility of Indian-origin professionals as possible successors. He sees a future where India and Indians will play a key role in the company. "I bet my future on India," Chambers said.

17 April 2013
The Hindu Business Line: Cisco CEO Meets Sharma, Discusses IT Set Up for DMIC Project
Networking giant Cisco's chief John Chambers today met Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and discussed the blue-print of information technology set up for the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project. The company is preparing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) master plan for four smart cities proposed under the DMIC project. Cisco is preparing plans for Shendra Industrial Park in Maharashtra, Dholera Special Investment Region in Gujarat, Manesar Bawal Investment Region in Haryana and Khushkhera Bhiwadi Neemrana Investment Region in Rajasthan. "Chambers discussed about the DMIC project," an official said

16 April 2013
Telecom Lead: Cisco Leads STB Market in 2012, Ahead of Motorola and Pace
Cisco is leading the STB market in 2012, ahead of Motorola and Pace. Cisco reported 28 percent increase in STB revenue in 2012. Motorola's sales declined by double digits in 2012, mainly due to the entry of new companies - especially Pace and Samsung - in the North American market. The STB market, including IP, cable, satellite, and DTT STBs, totaled $4.6 billion in 4Q12, up 3 percent sequentially. Sales of over-the-top (OTT) media servers spiked 25 percent in 2012, with much of the growth coming from Apple TV.

16 April 2013
CIO: Cisco Extends Microsoft Support in Datacenter Portfolio
Cisco last week extended its data center product line to support Microsoft's Windows Server 2012 hypervisor and VM management features to more tightly align their respective data center and cloud architectures for joint customers. The integrated products are intended to help enable simplified deployment and operations of data centers utilizing products adherent to Cisco's Unified Data Center and Microsoft's Fast Track 3.0 architectures. By giving Microsoft customers programmatic access to the Cisco Unified Computing System, Cisco is looking to give customers more insight and control over how Cisco Unified Data Center elements work with Windows Server and application software.

15 April 2013
Business Standard: A Possible Answer to India's Bandwidth Woes
An inspiring speech by former president A P J Abdul Kalam in 2005 gave birth to VMukti Solutions, a video communications start-up. In the education and skill development sectors, institutions can use the company's video-conferencing tool to hold smart classes and reach out to students in remote locations. "Government spending in the area of skill development is quite high--- Rs 3,000-4,000 crore a year --- about 35 per cent of the total market size in the country. About 25 per cent of this goes into technology," Kushal says. According to Cisco estimates, the web-conferencing market in emerging markets alone is worth about $3-4 billion, say Hardik and Kushal

10 April 2013
Telecom Tiger: Big Data Holds Great Potential But Laced with Security Challenges-Cisco
Despite the flood of date that holds a great a potential for businesses, the IT professionals and businesses in India and in other countries confront several obstacles to extract strategic value from their data, according to a study by Cisco. According to the report, IT managers are confronted with several challenges to adopting Big Data solutions with security being on top their list. Then come budget and staffing. "More than one in four respondents globally (27 percent) said data security and risk management is a major concern. They cited the sheer volume of data, the number of ways to access data, and lack of budget for security as the top reasons why securing data in Big Data projects is such a challenge", the report observes.

01 April 2013
The Hindu: Virtual BITS Lectures
If all goes as planned, BITS Pilani will be offering lectures delivered by its professors to the public by next year. Speaking at a press conference on the BITSConnect 2.0 project that will enable the institute to share lectures live and on-demand through a new technology initiative, Rahul Banerjee, Professor, BITS Pilani said, "We are working on a model to offer our courses as part of our outreach programme to the public. We are in talks with consortiums such as Coursera and Edex to workout a hybrid model that will be partly closed (for credit-based courses) and partly open. This is estimated to be a Rs. 100 crore project and the details will be worked out in the next couple of months." Elaborating on the BITSConnect 2.0 which will make 14 specialised courses available to students across the four campuses of BITS (Pilani, Goa, Hyderabad and Dubai), Prem Jain, Senior Vice-President, Server Access Virtualisation Business Unit, Cisco India and Saarc, added that using the MPLS Network, four virtual classrooms with a capacity of 250 students, seven desktop clients (offered to all directors) and a few more 18-seater telepresence rooms, BITS will be able to reach out to its 11,000 students and 700-odd teachers. BITSConnect 2.0 has been developed through a collaboration between Cisco Systems and the BITS Alumni Association - BITSAA International. The technology, which was implemented in January 2013, has already saved BITS about Rs. 40 lakh by way of travel expenses.

29 May 2013
The Economic Times: Cisco Seeks to Annul MS-Skype Deal
Cisco Systems, the world's leading network equipment maker, asked an EU court on Wednesday to annul the approval of Microsoft's purchase of Skype, saying EU regulators were wrong to allow the creation of a monopoly. Cisco's challenge at the Luxembourg-based General Court follows the European Commission's approval of the $8.5-bil-lion deal in 2011. Microsoft was not required to make any concessions for buying the Internet video and voice messaging company, which Cisco argues has given Microsoft/Skype an unfair advantage. A third of the world's voice calls are now on Skype, while over 280 million people use the service more than 100 minutes every month, Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner said in March. Skype had 170 million users at the time of the deal. The case is important as Inter-net-based voice and video has become a vast market, with many consumers and corporates abandoning traditional fixed-line and mobile as a result, and is an area in which Cisco had hoped to expand its presence.

27 May 2013
The Financial Express: Staying Secure in a Digital World
Bring your own device (BYOD), mobility, cloud computing and virtualisation might hold the promise to bring in increased enterprise productivity gains, but they are also identified as majors areas of concern for data security. With the recent security breach at the two card process-ing firms based out of Pune and Bangalore still fresh in the minds of people, a recent study by Cisco and the Data Security Council of India reveals that existing security solutions may not withstand challenges of the above mentioned trends in the IT landscape. First, a look at some of the key findings from the study. Enterprises as well as employees are embracing mobility because of improved employee productivity and enhanced user experience. An overwhelming 66% of security leaders in India encourage employees to bring in their devices to work and 44% allow employees to select and use a specific set of personal devices...The internet has become a dangerous place in which to do business. The key is to maintain a strong defence on several fronts in order to stay secure online.

24 May 2013
CXO Today: Unweave the Hype Around Fabric Computing
The tech sector loves a new buzz word. Company slogans or hyped-up products also come and go. I believe it's good to stay sceptical of what gets thrown around because when a truly powerful shift happens, you can see it more clearly. We are dead-centre in one of the greatest recent shifts in tech-infrastructure in recent times: unified data centre fabrics. Imagine you wanted to get a coffee in the morning but to get the coffee you had to cross the street to buy it. Once you got there and paid, you had to go over the street to get your change, leaving your coffee at the shop. By the time you got back it was cold and they had to make you another. Instead imagine you pulled out your smartphone, opened a coffee-app, selected your order, the app automatically charged you; then your coffee was delivered quickly and hot. This is the shift to unified data centre fabrics.

24 May 2013
The Times of India: India Not Equipped to Handle Global Hackers, Say Experts
A recent security breach at two payment card processing companies in India that led to heists at ATMs around the world has spawned uncomfortable questions about security risks here. The $45 million heist has brought into focus the vulnerability of India's IT sector. On May 23, TOI reported that a Norwegian cyber security firm had named an Indian company, Appin Security Group, behind possible cyber attacks. Appin rubbished the claims, saying it was "totally false and very imaginative". Instead, its CEO, Rajat Khare, says, "Indian enterprises are in a state of denial about attacks for way too long. This fraud case is likely to change the way we perceive information security"...Arindam Mukherjee, manager, regional sales, Cisco India & SAARC, which offers security solutions, says there is increasing sophistication and targeting of network attacks, and there is a need to deploy comprehensive security solutions to protect against external and internal threats. "The recent ATM heist incident shows how end-to-end network intelligence and control is critical to thwart such attempts".Mukherjee adds that the typical bank software may not have the ability to check applications that are on the network.

16 May 2013
The Economic Times: GE, Cisco, Dell, HCL Helping Women Employees Professionally
Who understands women better than women? Four companies are taking that thought and moulding an internal women's grouping that is a win-win. In the last four years, GE has hired 30 'restart' women. And while the network also looks to cultivate leadership competencies among its female employees, position women in technology and even address their health issues, bringing talented women back into its fold is top-of-the-list, says Leena Sahijwani, regional head of the women's network. CCW (Cisco Connected Women) founder-member Pallavi Arora says much thought went into just how Cisco would construct its women's network for India. In 2002, when it was started, there were just 14 members, who moved in step with the parent network in San Jose, US. Today, more than 350 women comprise the Indian chapter, which is run by a four-member leadership team. The best thing Jessie Paul, managing director of the Bangalore-based marketing advisory firm PaulWriter, likes about the Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network (DWEN), is that it provides a safe and non-judgmental space for women entrepreneurs to get together. Shortly after Srimathi Shivashankar, the diversity lead at HCL Technologies, joined the company, she came across a newsletter (published by the women's network at the time) that was supposedly for women employees. "The company was trying to bring some 'feminine' aspects to the workplace," says Shivashankar, "but perhaps this should have been more in the nature of gender-neutral policies and promoting compassionate relationships." So, in 2011, when HCL Tech formed Women Connect (WC), an affinity group for its women employees, these things were high on the agenda. WC works closely with the diversity team.

14 May 2013
Mint: Should 5G Excite Us? And Where's the Spectrum?
The news that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd has successfully tested a so-called fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology, which will allow users to download an entire movie in just one second, should excite consumers. After all, who does not want to surf the Internet or download videos faster? According to Cisco Inc.'s 'Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2012-2017', 2G supported 76% of global mobile devices/M2M (machine-to-machine) connections in 2012; 3G supported 23%, and 4G supported 1%. By 2017, 2G networks will support 33% of global mobile devices/M2M connections; 3G networks will support 57% while 4G networks will support 10%.

13 May 2013
The Engineer: Brilliant Design: Intelligent Lighting and Sensors in Smart Cities
The idea of 'Smart Cities' is one that's becoming familiar to engineers. Partly an adaptation to more diverse sources of electricity, including small-scale renewables, partly a development of the so-called 'Internet of Things', allowing household appliances to adjust their electricity consumption to take account of fluctuations in prices, the concept is being trialled in many cities around the world and is of particular interest to countries building new cities, such as those in the Middle East and China. James Crowther, Christopher Herzig and Gordon Feller of Cisco explain in a report, The time is right for connected public lighting in smart cities, that adding intelligence to LED street-lighting systems can not only reduce energy consumption, thereby saving money, but can also make cities safer and easier to navigate at night.

12 May 2013
NBC: Earnings Preview: Cisco to Report 3Q Earnings
Cisco Systems Inc. is set to report financial results after the market closes on Wednesday for a quarter marked by weak results from competitors and a pullback in federal government spending. WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Orders for computer networking equipment have slumped this year, judging by reports from smaller companies in the sector. Analysts expect that Cisco was affected as well and have been trimming their estimates recently, but they say the company's size probably shielded it from the worst effects of the macroeconomic "soft patch." As usual, analysts will be listening keenly to the often wide-ranging post-report commentary from CEO John Chambers. Cisco's fiscal third quarter closed in April, a month after most other companies, which means its report provides a window into more recent developments.

10 May 2013
The Hindu Business Line: Unlocking Value from Data Deluge
Sanjay Rohatgi, Managing Director, Service Provider, Cisco India and SAARC Internet users today access data and generate it online multiple times in a day, such as updating status on Facebook, Twitter and uploading videos on YouTube by connecting to the internet through mobile devices. This is corroborated by the Cisco Connected World Technology Report 2012 according to which 94 percent of GenY likes to upload photos online, 73 percent upload videos to share or store in internet sites and 75 percent have Twitter accounts. Undoubtedly, tremendous amount of data is being generated by the escalating consumer demand for connectivity and real time access to content through smartphones and other personal devices which aid connectivity. Service Providers (SPs) play a crucial role in studying, analysing and sieving this seemingly arbitrary data to make sense of it and benefit from the business opportunity that it offers. To cite an example, consider Facebook which reports that its users register 2.7 billion likes and comments per day. This magnitude of data can be intimidating to keep up with, sort, analyze, and extract value from. Service providers who can view far and wide across the network can collect this data, analyze it and convert it to meaningful useful information. When such "crude" data is extracted, refined, and piped to where it can impact decisions in real time, its value will soar. Referred to as Big Data Analytics, this is a new monetization opportunity that SPs can bank on.

09 May 2013
InformationWeek: Workforce 2020: What to Expect
Mahesh Gupta, National Manager, Borderless Networks Sales, Cisco India & SAARC The definition of work and the workforce has changed drastically over the last few years. Mahesh Gupta of Cisco discusses key factors driving this transformation and takes a look at how the workplace and workforce of future will look like. Elroy D'Souza from Goa works for a retail firm as distribution and marketing manager for the region. Elroy begins his day by first checking his go-with-me communications device (he wears on his forearm) for messages, both personal and business (text, voice and videos) that have accumulated overnight. He then checks his personal homepage and switches to his professional dashboard, which gives him secure access to company resources ranging from a concierge function with GPS follow-me capabilities to a satellite uplink available through the IP connection. Elroy has a choice. He can work from his company's local office, work from home, or walk to a nearby DigiCenter, which offers amenities like an air-conditioned work area and high-resolution video conferencing (tele-presence) capsules that provide a wraparound communications experience.

07 May 2013
Telecom Lead: Airtel 3G Gets a Boost as it Launches Video Downloads at Rs 1
Bharti Airtel has launched video downloads at Rs 1. Airtel offers video downloads across 8 genres including movies, lifestyle, music, comedy etc. Users with GPRS/2G/3G connections in over 500 mobile devices, including feature phones can download 30,000+ videos. The new video tariff is expected to boost 2G and 3G customer base. Bharti Airtel's 3G subscribers reached 6.4 million in the fourth quarter of FY 2013. Airtel recently said its data continues to lead the mobile segment growth in India, through deeper penetration and consumption...Cisco recently predicted that India is expected to have the highest IP traffic growth rate with a 62 percent CAGR from 2011 to 2016. In a second-place tie, Brazil and South Africa both have 53 percent CAGRs over the forecast period. By 2016, the Asia Pacific region is forecast to generate the most IP traffic (40.5 exabytes per month), maintaining the top spot over North America (27.5 exabytes per month), which generated the second most amount of traffic.

06 May 2013
Information Week: Airtel 3G Gets a Boost as it Launches Video Downloads at Rs 1
The Indian telecom industry is recovering and preparing for a new beginning. In an ongoing cutthroat business environment, where traditional voice revenues are declining and data revenues are yet to capture a significant proportion of telcos, everyone has realized that it's time to reconstruct the edifice albeit with some new rules. There have been a lot of expectations on the growth from data. The proliferation of mobile internet and digital devices has given a new ray of hope to the industry. This has resulted into the surfacing of many new startups comprising of digital service companies, mobile advertising solution providers, apps developers, smartphone manufacturers amongst others..."Video will be the next voice in the Indian telecom industry helped by the mobile broadband growth. Video Delivery is poor in India presently, and we are also lacking in service innovation - these aspects combined together are hampering the Indian 4G dream," says Sanjay Rohtagi, Senior VP, India & SAARC: Service Provider at Cisco India at a recently held 4G World India Event.

02 May 2013
Mint: India Trails at No. 20 in Mobile Data Speeds Ranking
TMobile data speed is one of the critical determinants of success in a wired world. A Top 20 ranking of countries by data speed is headed by Canada, the US and Australia while India brings up the rear. Based on a ranking by Cisco Systems, Bloomberg has compiled a list of the world's top 20 countries in terms of data speeds along with a forecast for 2017. The results are an eye-opener for India which is ranked 20th, behind Indonesia and all the other BRIC nations. The leader of the pack is Canada where average speeds at 4.5 mbps put India's 0.99 mbps average speed in perspective. In real terms, this means that while it takes 59 minutes to download 50 MB of music in India, it takes just about 2 minutes for the same download in Canada. The loss in productivity terms for India is clear. What's worse, there's little to suggest that anything is going to change too soon in India. While the leader in 2017 is forecast to be South Korea where projected average speed by then will be 17.3 mbps, in India it is expected to scale up to a limp 2.46 mbps.

06 June 2013
The Financial Express: Collaboration Gets Better with Video
Today, we live in a globally connected environment. Greater business demands and a more competitive marketplace mean that organizations must continually find new ways to be agile and increase speed to market while reducing costs. Effective communication and collaboration are critical. The ability to engage instantly across geographies and time zones with employees, suppliers, and customers is a must.Capturing knowledge and expertise is crucial as generational or location shifts occur in the workplace. At the same time, demand for greater work-life balance means freeing workers from specific physical locations..... According to the Cisco VNI report, by 2017, two-thirds of the world's mobile data traffic will be video. Over the next couple of years 90 percent of content traveling on the Internet is likely to be video. New-age technologies such as 3G, 4G and computing devices such as tablets and personalized mobile devices are expected to spur the use of video among enterprises leading to greater collaboration........ Media intelligence has to be embedded into the network infrastructure, distribution mechanisms, applications, endpoints, and the overall solution fabric.To deliver an immersive video experience, greater collaboration is required between service providers, content providers and network infrastructure providers. Success will come from a holistic approach. By being aware of the potential synergy between assets, applications, and the needs of different groups of users, the full potential of video can be realized.
The writer is Minhaj Zia, Director, Collaboration Sales, Cisco India and SAARC

04 June 2013
The Economic Times: India to Have 348 Million Internet Users by 2017: Cisco
India has the fastest Internet traffic growth globally and is expected to have 348 million users by 2017, a study by networking giant Cisco said. According to Cisco's Visuals Networking Index (VNI) forecast (2012-17), Internet traffic in India will reach 2.5 exabytes per month in 2017, up from 393 petabytes per month in 2012. One exabyte equals 1 million terabytes. "In India, there will be 348 million Internet users in 2017, up from 138 million in 2012," the VNI forecast said. Globally, by 2017, Internet users will swell to 3.6 billion, which will be more than 48 percent of the world's projected population of 7.6 billion. In 2012, worldwide Internet users stood at 2.3 billion against a population of 7.2 billion, it added. "The good news is that Internet traffic growth in India is the fastest globally," Cisco VP (Global Technology Policy) Robert Pepper said here. On Internet traffic in India, VNI said, IP (Internet Protocol) traffic will grow 6-fold from 2012 to 2017 in India, a compound annual growth rate of 44 percent. "In India, IP traffic will reach 2.8 exabytes per month in 2017, up from 454 petabytes per month in 2012," it added.

05 June 2013
The Hindu Business Line: Unweave the Hype Around Fabric Computing
Networking giant Cisco Systems, bringing its mid-market strategy into focus, plans to double its investments in partner-led resources to $150 million in the financial year 2014. The San Jose-headquartered company defines mid-market as companies with 100-1,000 employees and estimates to spend $25 billion on technology and $30 billion on services by 2016. "That's a great opportunity. There are a lot of mid-size customers who would not have big budgets to acquire legacy applications. Someone has to help them," said Andrew Sage, Vice-President (Worldwide Partner Led) at Cisco.

05 June 2013
Computer Dealer News: Cisco Aims to Be the No. 1 IT Company in the World
According to Cisco CEO John Chambers, the dream started in the early 90s when he was just a lowly vice-president at the San Jose, Calif.-based networking company. While the goal internally was to become the No. 1 IT company in the world, Chambers has never vocalized it until today at the annual Partner Summit. And, the goal maybe within the company's reach just as veteran CEO is planning his exit from the corner office. Chambers said that he is serving a two to four year role and that there will be no updates on his career until six months before the CEO transition happens. "I have to earn my job each day and it's obvious we have two world-class executives in Rob Lloyd (President, Development and Sales) and Gary Moore (COO), but we also have a deep bench," he said.

03 June 2013
CRN: Cisco Continues to invest in Energy Management and Buys Joulex. The Purchase Price is 107 Million US-Dollars
Cisco is expanding its activities in the energy management of more and buy »JouLex" for 107 million dollars. The company was founded in 2009 in Munich with current headquarters in Atlanta and a development department in Kassel specializes in the development of software that can be controlled in data centers and business with energy management. Here are no sensors or Messinstrumentebenotigt. A similar energy management, Cisco has for its switch products already on offer. With the combination of the two techniques Cisco wants to complete its portfolio of Smart Services. "Our customers demand it, since the number of network-connected devices is increasing exponentially - and these are to be managed energy and cost efficient," says Faiyaz Shahpurwala, Senior Vice President of Industry Solutions at Cisco. After the acquisition, to be completed by the end of the current fiscal year, Cisco plans to integrate the company into its "Industry Solutions Group."The solutions of Youlex are distributed via various trade partners, including Damovo or MKW Trading

02 June 2013
Financial Chronicle: The Big Shift: IPv6 Bug Haunts Firms
TRANSITION to the newest internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the latest bugbear for IT managers: several companies may find that their hardware may not be IPv6 compatible. Every device connected to the internet has a unique IP address, which en¬ables it to communicate with other devices. The current system of distribution of IP addresses, IPv4, assigns a 32-bit numeric address. However, the massive growth in the number of devices accessing the internet has nearly exhausted the available IP addresses. The move to IPv6 may be expensive and complex but inevitable. E R Ashok Kumar, sales manager of Cisco Services India, said, "On an average, most organisations refresh their hardware every five to seven years. However, technology advances during these change periods can be quite radical. When looked at from this perspective, the IPv6 transition provides a good opportunity to refresh hardware and legacy systems to stay ahead in the game. Transition costs are not high but the cost of not transitioning will be higher in the longer run."

02 June 2013
The Economic Times: 9 Out of 10 Suffering from 'Nomophobia' - Fear of No Cellphone
NINE OUT OF every 10 people aged under 30 admit to suffering the new age phenomenon of "nomophobia", the fear of having no mobile phone, a survey says. Telecom giant Cisco, in a survey conducted on 3800 people in Australia, found nine out of 10 in the group aged under 30 were addicted to their smartphones and became anxious when their phone went missing, the Courier Mail reported. "It's happening subconsciously, and one out of five people are texting while driving," Cisco chief technology officer Kevin Bloch said.

02 June 2013
Deccan Herald: Patriarch's Comeback is a Reality Check for Infy
Calling back N R Narayana Murthy, a happily retired and, by his own admission, a man "pursuing his own joys as a private citizen", has brought back questions over the emphasis which the Infosys co-founders have all along placed on their policy of letting the next line of leadership take over the reigns. When Murthy quit in 2002 as CEO of Infosys, the plan of a next-in-line leader taking over the company and steering it to a higher level seemed to work. "When (Kris) Gopalakrishnan made his exit, the company was still growing at 25 per cent," Murthy said on Saturday, defending the earlier, oft stated policy of moving forward with future leadership instead of falling back on the founders for guidance. Not all the idealism is lost though. Most of the executive leadership of the company on Saturday decided to follow the John Chambers (the CEO of networking major Cisco who was the first to take a $1 annual salary) model by drawing Re 1 per annum as their annual remuneration. This was to send out the message that the founders are serious about reviving Infosys and taking it to the dizzying heights of the past.

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