The Lippis Report

The Cisco mobility group has always had the broadest view and product portfolio for mobility solutions. Their definition of mobility expands beyond wireless LANs to include cellular, VPNs, and location services. But last week the Cisco mobility group elevated their value proposition beyond physical and geographic independent networked computing with the launch of Cisco Motion. Cisco Motion offers the broadest technical and business architecture for mobile networks and communications positioning Cisco far from its smaller WLAN competitors such as Aruba, Meru, Trapeze, et al.

Cisco Motion is yet another example of how Cisco is pivoting its value position to compete for a larger share of IT budgets. With the Network as a Business Platform initiative Cisco is blurring the boundary between computing, communications and networking. Cisco now offers Linux and Windows platforms within its Integrated Services Router (ISR) and Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) products. In the ISR its Application eXtension Platform offers a technical and business architecture for partners creating an ecosystem and value creation around its branch office offerings. The Workspace Ready Networks initiative from its unified communications group links communications and networks together so that collaboration takes place independent of workspace. Its Vframe and Nexus data center orchestration and switch products offer a new approach to data center design that eliminates the old boundaries between computing, applications, networking and storage. Cisco Motion offers a new organizing principal for mobile computing and communications, which connects disparate mobile technologies while offering developers both a technical architecture to build value and business architecture to generate revenues.

There is no doubt that Cisco is increasingly going head-to-head with Microsoft and HP in particular as they seek to gain a larger share of IT budgets. Clearly Cisco has in-segment competitors, which it focuses on, but the real initiatives are engaging business and IT leaders to demonstrate the power of value creation through the network as a core business platform. To that end, Cisco Motion sets Cisco apart from its in-segment competitors such as Aruba, Meru, Trapeze, etc., and engages business and IT leaders with an approach to mobility that includes the following.
The Cisco Motion initiative seeks to:

Unify disparate networks thus allowing mobile applications to be extended to end-points.

Enable end-point choice by being agnostic to various mobile clients while in the process securing and managing devices via centralized client provisioning.

Facilitate Collaboration by using the network to select the appropriate communications media (voice, IM, Video, or a combination thereof) to deliver end-point appropriate collaboration services.

Open Mobility Applications by delivering an open API for ISVs to inject innovation and value creation addressing line of business and/or corporate requirements.

To deliver on the above goals Cisco Motion needs a deep technical architecture. It delivers on that by providing common access to disparate wireless networks and clients through a set of open source protocols, an open API (XML/SOAP) and its Mobility Services Engine (MSE). Cisco Motion includes all versions of 802.11 as well as cellular/WiMax, Zigbee for wireless control of everyday devices and instrumentation, Ultra-Wideband

(UWB) for short wireless gigabit links and Radio-frequency identification (RFID) for supply chain management and senior network applications. Access to these networks is via unified wireless network controllers, which in turn connect disparate wireless networks via a set of open source protocols.
Applications such as conferencing, presence, inventory management, assembly line monitoring, CRM, email, search, et al are presented with a set of mobility services, which increase their access to the above mentioned wireless networks. Mobility services provided in MSE such as context aware, adaptive wireless IPS, secure client manager, mobile intelligent roaming, voice, guest access, spectrum intelligence, et al, are delivered to applications via Cisco's MSE. MSE provides an open API (XML/SOAP based) for developers, which is Cisco's innovation injection and value creation point of entry for partners.

Central to Cisco Mobility is the Cisco Mobility Services Engine (MSE). The 3300 Series MSE is an appliance-based platform that integrates with WLAN Controller and Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS). The 3300 Series MSE provides a common framework for multiple services easing deployment and efficient allocation of capital spend. An abstraction layer based upon Network Mobility Services Protocol (NMSP) and the Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) allows transport and applications to evolve at their own separate pace.

As MSE is central to Cisco Mobility it is the basis for the Cisco ecosystem of application partners where Cisco hopes to accelerate development and deployment of customized solutions for customers. As mentioned above MSE provides a range of mobility services to applications. Today MSE provides four services in its software suite. These include: 1) Context Aware which optimizes business process with context such as location and telemetry; 2) Adaptive Wireless IPS to mitigate wireless threats with integrated intrusion protection; 3) Secure Client Manger to simplify device provisioning and management for the wave of new mobile devices; and 4) Mobile Intelligent Roaming to deliver handoff for mobility applications across public and private networks.

Delivering a platform is only 10% of a solution; the other 90% comes from an ecosystem of partners. The Cisco Motion ecosystem includes business application partners such as Oracle, Philips, AeroScout, PanGo, airetrak, Intellidot, Oat, et al. Client or end-point partners include AeroScout, Nokea, PanGo, Intel and airetrak.

Cisco gets credit for delivering the most comprehensive vision plus technical and business architecture for mobility services in Cisco Motion. MSE offers a great rallying point for Cisco partners and the creation of an ecosystem, but it needs to expand both the number of partners and services delivered to applications via MSE. Cisco also has to remain competitive with its in-segment competitors while offering great application integration value to business and IT leaders. As the WLAN market transitions to 802.11n and meshing, network technology will gain the spotlight, and Cisco needs to keep up with that while increasing its application value proposition through Cisco Motion. This is a tricky balance, but it's a task Cisco has done so well with previous initiatives.
While Cisco continues to put the technical pieces together to deliver the network as the business platform, it needs to do a better job at organizing, growing and galvanizing its Cisco Developers Network (CDN) to offer business and IT leaders thought-leading networked-based application solutions. Cisco Motion is a good step in that direction.