Zeus Kerravala
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Zeus Kerravala
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Cisco’s new campaign: ‘There’s never been a better time’ to be digital
Over the past 30-plus years, Cisco has almost single-handedly carried the flag for network-centric innovation. Its many brand campaigns along the way have told us that Cisco can “Empower the Internet Generation” and connect the “Human Network” and that “Tomorrow Starts Here.” Each of those branding initiatives was tied to a different era in networking. For example, “Tomorrow Starts Here” was targeted at the Internet of Things (IoT). Now that IoT is well underway, Cisco is changing its brand to be more reflective of the next wave in business: the “digital” era. This morning, Cisco’s Chief Marketing Officer, Karen Walker, outlined the thoughts behind Cisco’s new brand campaign of “There’s Never Been A Better Time.” Cisco’s tagline is supported by a number of use cases that explain what it is that there’s never been a better time to do. Below are a couple of examples that illustrate how “there’s never been a better time to make cities smarter” or “… to save the rhinos.” Along with the headline, Cisco provides stories and data points, quantifying the value of digitization.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Communications platform as a service is a digital enabler
Digital transformation has become a top-of-mind initiative for CIOs and business leaders for almost all companies in all verticals. It’s no wonder, as a recent ZK Research study found that digital organizations are 26 percent more profitable than their digitally immature peers.Another interesting data point is that by 2019, 65 percent of workers will use a mobile device first for business purposes. Going digital means shifting to a mobile-first strategy.Becoming a mobile-first organization is more than just building a bunch of standalone mobile applications that customers or workers can use. The process of switching between applications on a desktop is inconvenient, but most users manage. On a mobile device, having to constantly flip between applications while trying to remember data or cut and paste data is inefficient and can make users less productive.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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A mobile-first strategy improves employee productivity, study finds
A silent killer is running through companies today that most business leaders don’t know exists—employee disengagement.According to a recent Gallup survey, each disengaged employee costs an organization about $3,400 for every $10,000 in annual salary. Another interesting data point is that actively disengaged employees cost the American economy somewhere between $450 billion and $550 billion in productivity annually. This shows that creating more engaged employees needs to be at the top of every business leader’s priority list.Now that the problem is understood, how does an organization create a more engaged workforce? The answer is to become mobile-first. A new global study by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), sponsored by Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, discovered a measurable link between a mobile-first work environment and an increase in employee engagement. This should be no surprise, as the majority of digital officers I have interviewed have correlated mobility to customer engagement, so extending that paradigm to employees is logical.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Dell partners up to address the networking needs of the digital enterprise
Dell has made a tremendous amount of noise in the media over the past few months caused by the ripple effect of its acquisition of EMC. Whether one thinks the merger is a good idea or not, it’s a fact that the merger will have a significant impact on the storage and server industries.Today, Dell announced plans that will bolster its position in networking. The move to become a digital organization is a trend that’s now being felt across almost all companies in every vertical. The building blocks of digital are technologies such as cloud, mobile, big data and analytics. What do these have in common? They’re all network-centric, meaning the network plays a key role in the shift to a digital enterprise.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Dell partners up to address the networking needs of the digital enterprise
Dell has made a tremendous amount of noise in the media over the past few months caused by the ripple effect of its acquisition of EMC. Whether one thinks the merger is a good idea or not, it’s a fact that the merger will have a significant impact on the storage and server industries.Today, Dell announced plans that will bolster its position in networking. The move to become a digital organization is a trend that’s now being felt across almost all companies in every vertical. The building blocks of digital are technologies such as cloud, mobile, big data and analytics. What do these have in common? They’re all network-centric, meaning the network plays a key role in the shift to a digital enterprise.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Riverbed looks to redefine networking in a cloud-first world
The technology industry has gone through several waves of innovation since the birth of computing. The industry kicked off with mainframes, which eventually gave way to client/server, which eventually evolved into branch office computing. Today, we are in the midst of the transition to a cloud-first world.Each of these waves brought with it new networking tools and technologies. The devices that we used to build local LANs were not the same ones we used to build WANs.This trend of requiring new tools is also true for the transition to the cloud. Organizations are rapidly shifting to Wi-Fi to enable mobile devices to connect to cloud services and embracing software-defined WANs (SD-WAN) to give the network the necessary levels of agility required to meet the demands of a cloud-first world. Unfortunately, most of these technologies have been built independent of one another, making management of the end-to-end network in a cloud-centric business very difficult.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Riverbed looks to redefine networking in a cloud-first world
The technology industry has gone through several waves of innovation since the birth of computing. The industry kicked off with mainframes, which eventually gave way to client/server, which eventually evolved into branch office computing. Today, we are in the midst of the transition to a cloud-first world.Each of these waves brought with it new networking tools and technologies. The devices that we used to build local LANs were not the same ones we used to build WANs.This trend of requiring new tools is also true for the transition to the cloud. Organizations are rapidly shifting to Wi-Fi to enable mobile devices to connect to cloud services and embracing software-defined WANs (SD-WAN) to give the network the necessary levels of agility required to meet the demands of a cloud-first world. Unfortunately, most of these technologies have been built independent of one another, making management of the end-to-end network in a cloud-centric business very difficult.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Brocade VNF Manager can prevent virtual network services sprawl
Brocade announced today the availability of its virtual network function (VNF) Manager. The product is a commercial version of OpenStack Tacker, an OpenStack lead project designed to make it easier to deploy and operate virtual network services. The initiative is compatible with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Framework.For those not familiar with NFV, the technology allows organizations to run network services as virtual functions instead of requiring a single appliance per function. NFV has many cost benefits, as it reduces the overall hardware that needs to be purchased and managed. More important, it gives network services the same level of agility as virtual servers and storage. Infrastructure agility is a core requirement of becoming a digital company, and NFV enables that at the network level. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Illumio’s cyber assessment program helps find new attack surfaces ASAP
Earlier this week, I wrote a post discussing how visibility can be used to reverse the security asymmetry challenge. On Tuesday, hot security startup Illumio proved my point by announcing a cyber assessment program that uses granular visibility to identify new attack surfaces.Illumio’s Attack Surface Assessment Program (ASAP) was led by Nathaniel Gleicher, former Director of Cybersecurity Policy for the National Security Council at the White House and now the Head of Cybersecurity Strategy for Illumio. The White House obviously has the strictest of security policies, giving Gleicher the necessary level of paranoia to put together a program like this. Now, any company can benefit from his experience.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Illumio’s cyber assessment program helps find new attack surfaces ASAP
Earlier this week, I wrote a post discussing how visibility can be used to reverse the security asymmetry challenge. On Tuesday, hot security startup Illumio proved my point by announcing a cyber assessment program that uses granular visibility to identify new attack surfaces.Illumio’s Attack Surface Assessment Program (ASAP) was led by Nathaniel Gleicher, former Director of Cybersecurity Policy for the National Security Council at the White House and now the Head of Cybersecurity Strategy for Illumio. The White House obviously has the strictest of security policies, giving Gleicher the necessary level of paranoia to put together a program like this. Now, any company can benefit from his experience.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Illumio’s cyber assessment program helps find new attack surfaces ASAP
Earlier this week, I wrote a post discussing how visibility can be used to reverse the security asymmetry challenge. On Tuesday, hot security startup Illumio proved my point by announcing a cyber assessment program that uses granular visibility to identify new attack surfaces.Illumio’s Attack Surface Assessment Program (ASAP) was led by Nathaniel Gleicher, former Director of Cybersecurity Policy for the National Security Council at the White House and now the Head of Cybersecurity Strategy for Illumio. The White House obviously has the strictest of security policies, giving Gleicher the necessary level of paranoia to put together a program like this. Now, any company can benefit from his experience.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Network visibility can reverse the security asymmetry challenge
Securing a business network has never been easy, but the task is becoming increasingly more difficult.Years ago, there was a single ingress/egress point to get into the network. The delineation between what was public and what was private was obvious.Today, that’s all changed. The rise of mobile devices, Wi-Fi access points, cloud applications and software-defined everything has increased the number of entry points into a company from one to tens, hundreds or even thousands for large organizations. For example, it’s common for a worker to connect to some kind of “free” Wi-Fi network when travelling without having any idea who might own that network, browse the web and infect their mobile device.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Mitel’s acquisition of Polycom has game-changing potential in UC market
After months of speculation, Mitel finally pulled the trigger on acquiring Polycom for $1.96 billion.Competing in the unified communications (UC) market means having to butt heads with not just one, but two 800-pound gorillas named Cisco and Microsoft. The combined “MiPolycom” will be a much bigger, stronger, $2.5 billion revenue company—much more capable of competing with the big boys.Mitel’s acquisition of Polycom is a bit of an unusual situation. Polycom is bigger than Mitel in both revenue and market cap, but Mitel was able to secure a $1.05 billion loan from Bank of America and Merrill Lynch to complete the deal. Under the terms of the agreement, Polycom will continue to run as a separate business unit under Mitel and will retain its brand. Rich McBee, Mitel’s CEO, will be the CEO of the combined organization, which will be headquartered in Ottawa, Canada.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Seceon’s analytic approach brings security into the digital era
In the Star Trek episode, The City on The Edge of Forever, Spock found himself in a primitive setting with the task of building a radio to contact the Enterprise.Edith Keeler came in and saw Spock and asked him what he was doing. Spock sarcastically answered, “I am endeavoring, ma’am, to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins.”The normally emotionless Spock was clearly frustrated with working with tools that weren’t designed to solve the problem he was facing. I’m sure security professionals today face the same level of frustration. It’s been well documented on this site and other publications that we are rushing headlong into the digital business era. However, security professionals are working with tools designed for an era long gone. Traditional security devices do a great job of protecting the perimeter of the business, but they don’t help protect against insider attacks, persistent threats or any of the challenges associated with security a digital organization.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Hyperconverged infrastructure requires policy-based security
Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) is one of the key building blocks of next-generation data centers. Originally, HCI was deployed primarily by small and medium-sized businesses that wanted a faster, easier way to deploy data center technology such as servers, storage and networks. Over the past few years, HCI adoption has skyrocketed and is now being deployed by large enterprises looking to shift to a software-defined model.Initially, HCI was driven by start-ups, most notably SimpliVity and Nutanix. But recently Cisco, VCE and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) have jumped into the market, and Juniper and Lenovo have formed a partnership that will likely lead to a combined HCI solution.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Hyperconverged infrastructure requires policy-based security
Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) is one of the key building blocks of next-generation data centers. Originally, HCI was deployed primarily by small and medium-sized businesses that wanted a faster, easier way to deploy data center technology such as servers, storage and networks. Over the past few years, HCI adoption has skyrocketed and is now being deployed by large enterprises looking to shift to a software-defined model.Initially, HCI was driven by start-ups, most notably SimpliVity and Nutanix. But recently Cisco, VCE and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) have jumped into the market, and Juniper and Lenovo have formed a partnership that will likely lead to a combined HCI solution.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Hyperconverged infrastructure requires policy-based security
Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) is one of the key building blocks of next-generation data centers. Originally, HCI was deployed primarily by small and medium-sized businesses that wanted a faster, easier way to deploy data center technology such as servers, storage and networks. Over the past few years, HCI adoption has skyrocketed and is now being deployed by large enterprises looking to shift to a software-defined model.Initially, HCI was driven by start-ups, most notably SimpliVity and Nutanix. But recently Cisco, VCE and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) have jumped into the market, and Juniper and Lenovo have formed a partnership that will likely lead to a combined HCI solution.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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The Network of 2020, what should CxOs expect?
Being an analyst I’m often asked to look ahead and predict what markets will look like in three to five years. Recently, I’ve been asked that if I were to design a next-generation network, which would be fully operational by 2020, what would it look like? The network industry has gone through more change in the past two years than it had gone through in the previous two decades so a network in 2020 will look significantly different than the networks of today.Predicting the future is obviously challenging but sometimes it’s better to look back to understand what the future will look like. In networking, there are many lessons we can learn from the last 20+ years where networks have evolved to be able to meet ongoing application and business needs. The innovation was obviously necessary but each time something new was bolted on to the network, there was a price to be paid. For example, WiFi being deployed as an overlay means having to manage two separate networks. Below are the top lessons learned from legacy networks over the past two decades.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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The Network of 2020, what should CxOs expect?
Being an analyst I’m often asked to look ahead and predict what markets will look like in three to five years. Recently, I’ve been asked that if I were to design a next-generation network, which would be fully operational by 2020, what would it look like? The network industry has gone through more change in the past two years than it had gone through in the previous two decades so a network in 2020 will look significantly different than the networks of today.Predicting the future is obviously challenging but sometimes it’s better to look back to understand what the future will look like. In networking, there are many lessons we can learn from the last 20+ years where networks have evolved to be able to meet ongoing application and business needs. The innovation was obviously necessary but each time something new was bolted on to the network, there was a price to be paid. For example, WiFi being deployed as an overlay means having to manage two separate networks. Below are the top lessons learned from legacy networks over the past two decades.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Arista takes aim at core router market with Universal Spine
The concept of using switching infrastructure as a replacement for a core router is certainly nothing new. Years ago, vendors like Foundry Networks and Force10 tried to make the case but were unsuccessful in their attempts. Although the switches were beefy and had massive port density they were missing some key features such as MPLS support, the ability to support a full Internet routing table and carrier class resiliency. From an economic perspective, the cost per port on a switch is about one-tenth what it is on a router, so there is a financial argument to be made but the products just didn’t have the technical chops to hang with big routers.Arista Networks is now taking a shot at this market again but is taking a significantly different approach to the market. Arista is attempting to disrupt the core router market by replacing the big boxes with a distributed spine, similar to the way the company disrupted the legacy data center switching market. Spine-Leaf configurations are well accepted today in big data centers and cloud providers but this wasn’t the case just a few years ago as there was a certain religion around big chassis deployed in multiple tiers. Continue reading