Cisco’s WAN Advantage
Listen to the Podcast ShareThis
Thanks for visiting the Lippis Report. We provide access to thousands of industry white papers, case studies, presentations and podcasts, all you need to do is register. Enjoy!
Watch a video message from Nick Lippis.
Along with a turbulent macro economic cycle comes business rationalization and in networking the wide area offers a unique opportunity to deliver value both in terms of operational efficiency and business initiative alignment. The branch WAN as been pieced together usually site by site without a comprehensive plan as branches are connected with inconsistent WAN Services. IT planners are being offered an opportunity to implement a common set of WAN Services embedded within routers such as UC, WAN optimization, security etc., which promise to lower operational spend, align business initiatives and policy while delivering Local Area Networks (LANs) like application performance over the WAN. Tere’ Bracco Senior Marketing Manager for Network Systems and Security at Cisco joins me to discuss Cisco’s new WAN Advantage initiative that delivers a common set of WAN Services between ASR and ISR routers.
There are over 1.5 billion people worldwide using the internet representing only 23.5 percent of world population and we are now entering an Internet population explosion as emerging internet countries go online and need address space. Experts predict that an IP address exhaustion date is coming between Nov 2010 and Feb 2011 or sooner as countries potentially rush to acquire the last available addresses to avoid being shut out of the internet. In addition the number of IP addresses per person is growing too as millions to billions of new devices have become IP aware such as Mobile internet IPhones, smart phones, etc plus new internet services on trains, plains and the home grow. So the question is, is the industry heading toward another Y2K event? Fred Wettling, a Bechtel Fellow plus Manager-of Architecture & Planning and coauthor of the book “Global IPv6 Strategies: From Business Analysis to Operational Planning” joins us to provide perspective and strategy on how IT leaders can manage IP addressing and avoid a Y2K event.
IT suppliers are delivering products that consume less energy while offering new IT delivery approaches such as data center virtualization to reduce cooling and power demands. Cisco Systems has taken a broader approach to energy management by delivering a power command and control architecture called Cisco EnergyWise which seeks to provide business and IT leaders with the tools to measure, manage and control the power consumption of all devices connected to the corporate network. Further, EnergyWise seeks to connect facility heating, air conditioning, lighting and other non-IT systems—systems that consume the largest proportion of corporate energy—in an effort to provide IT leaders with the tools and means to manage their overall energy consumption. Berna Devrim, Sr. Manager, Access Switching Marketing at Cisco Systems is my guest as we discuss Cisco’s EnergyWise initiative and what it means to business and IT leaders who seek to control energy consumption.
Marie Hattar, Vice President of Network Systems and Security Solution Marketing at Cisco Systems, is my guest as we discuss the sustainable effect afforded by networks and communications. Networking has always contributed to green initiatives by providing teleworking, collaboration, telepresence and other ways of organizing people and workflow independent of geographic location. But networking is now taking the role of power management and control for IT and non-IT systems offering one of the most powerful sustainability tools available. Find out how by listening to this podcast. 
While the global economy slows down, network security spending continues to be robust as business and IT leaders seek to protect corporate assets, thus avoiding a major distraction when market focus is needed most. Recent analyst numbers suggest that data loss can result from myriad corporate security vulnerabilities. It’s getting harder to protect a company’s intellectual property as the modern concept of work is based upon anywhere and anytime electronic collaboration and the borderless enterprise. Nasrin Rezai, Senior Director of Information Security for Cisco Systems is my guest as we discuss PPT or People, Process and Technology as the strategy to mitigate data from being lost or stolen from your company. 
Unified Communications (UC) suppliers have been busy extending their software to work on mobile endpoints, such as the Apple Iphone, blackberry, smartphones etc. But there has been little focus on solutions that extend UC to address in-building roaming applications. This is a huge area that has been overlooked with requirements in nearly every industry such as gaming, education, retail, financial services, transportation, etc. Most business and IT leaders look toward a few technologies to solve the in-building UC roaming problem including Voice Over WLAN, IP DECT, Dual Mode endpoints, reliance on the cellular network and, in the extreme, deploying their own cellular antenna to improve coverage. To sort this all out, I invited Shane Yu Director of Unified Communications Consulting at Avaya where we’ll review these options and provide guidance as to which approach may work best for your corporation. If you’re looking to extend UC to in-building nomads, then you need to listen to this podcast
Working from home has always been a different IT experience than being in the office. Home connectivity was restricted to dial-in, VPN or client-based solutions with voice service usually being the house phone. This poor experience dampened the growth of teleworking, which was good news for most IT leaders as their concerns were security vulnerabilities and management. But with advanced integration of networks and communications in a small appliance the gap between office and home IT experience is closing fast. A confluence of factors ranging from green initiatives to governmental requirements, work-home life style changes, business expense controls and new teleworking solutions are giving business and IT leaders the motivation to embrace and massively deploy teleworking solutions. Mr. Calvin Chai, Senior Marketing Executive at Cisco is my guest as we discuss Cisco’s new Cisco Virtual Office offering, a teleworking solution that can be deployed in scale. 
Teleworking with unified communications is now a major contributor to green initiatives. The thinking is simple, reduce the amount of cars commuting and carbon emissions will decline. On average there are 0.45 Tons of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere for every 1,000 miles driven while a typical commuter travels 7,000 miles per year. Assuming that in the US telecommuters work at home at least one day a week results is some 22.6 million Tons of CO2 that will not be emitted into the atmosphere. That’s just in the US and other countries are more aggressive in their telecommuting initiatives. But to make telecommuting realistic it needs to support multiple endpoints, communication services and all of the conveniences of enterprise communication systems including presence, directory, the corporate dial plan, etc. Combining unified communications with teleworking is delivering on this level of usefulness. Andrey Kuzyk, Senior Marketing Manager Unified Communications at Avaya joins me to discuss teleworking solutions, which helps to support a greener corporation.
Cisco is delivering a networked based application development platform within its Integrated Services Router (ISR) called AXP or Application eXtension Platform. Cisco created a technical and business architecture around AXP to foster an ecosystem of partners. The fact that there are millions of Cisco ISRs in production makes this approach compelling for partners. One Cisco partner is Sagem-Interstar, the global leader in advanced fax server solutions for IP networks. Sagem deploy its XMediusFAX FoIP technology on Cisco’s AXP to virtualize fax functions into the Cisco ISR VoIP gateway. Shashi Kiran Senior Manager Network Systems Solutions Marketing for Cisco Systems and Christian Larocque, Director for Sagem-Interstar are my guest as we discuss the AXP as a development platform; the business value it creates and branch optimization realized. If you’re looking to optimize your branch office network, then you need to listen to this podcast
Voice recording in branch offices and retail stores are becoming mandatory requirements as executive management seeks to capture customer interactions to better understand and optimize customer and market dynamics. Also new and stricter regulations for financial organizations are driving the need to record customer interactions at the branch level. NICE Systems has teamed up with Cisco Systems to deliver their Network Embedded VoIP logger on top of Cisco’s AXP or Application eXtension Platform, which resides within its Integrated Services Router (ISR). In this podcast I talk with Nadav Doron Director of Branch Solutions for NICE Systems about the AXP as a development platform, the business value it creates and branch optimization realized.
Luis Suarez Director of IT at H.I.G. Capital is my guest as we talk about how H.I.G created value and optimized its remote office operations through a new Cisco business platform, which tightly links applications and networks. In previous Lippis Report podcasts we reviewed Cisco’s ISR-based Application eXtension Platform or AXP. Here Luis explains how HIG used AXP along with Sagem-Interstar’s XMediusFAX application to displace both an old world analog fax network plus web based fax services, while integrating fax services into UC extending it to all H.I.G endpoints and in the process speeding up business process and deal flow. If you are looking to reduce TCO and simplify fax services by integrating it into a UC environment, then you have to listen to this podcast.
