At this year’s Cisco C-scape EMEAR analyst event, the vendor downplayed its hardware product launches, focusing instead on its rapidly evolving business credentials. Cisco, with its oft-repeated message of massive Internet traffic growth, talked this time about business outcomes, and delivering all the elements – hardware, software, and professional services — to make that happen….

John Chambers is an institution at Cisco having joined the company in 1983.  He has been the CEO of Cisco since 1995 and has been Chairman of the Board at Cisco since 2006.  He is an engaging, passionate speaker who captivates large audiences.  However, all institutions come to an end and given the rumors swirling…

As netizens and consumers of the World we are all daily users of the Internet and of shared computing resources. Equal access and general availability of the Internet is emerging as a human right, with a raging global debate about net neutrality. However, no similar debate has yet emerged on the equal access to standardized,…

The concept of co-opetition — the combination of competition and cooperation — doesn’t go back quite as far as 400 BC when China’s Sun-tzu made his famous statement about friends and enemies, but it certainly seems timely when considering the recent developments surrounding the entity known as VCE (Virtual Computing Environment). The Richardson, Texas-based company,…

Soaring network demand has been merrily forecast for years, with Cisco’s most recent predictions finding that global IP traffic, which has increased fourfold over the past five years, will increase threefold over the next five years. It appears that, somewhat reluctantly and with more than a few reservations, the networking giant has thrown its support…

Is it possible to be a successful networking professional and not have a deep understanding of what Cisco’s strategy is today and how it is likely to evolve over the next couple of years? Personally, I don’t think so, and in search of that understanding, I attended the recent Cisco Live conference in Orlando. Cisco…

Why is there all this drumming in my head?  Is it the amazing things that were said at the Cisco Live conference in Orlando at the end of June, or is it the aftermath of my sitting too close to a line of percussionists who were drumming the crowd into a state of heightened enthusiasm…

According to Cisco’s Mark Lohmeyer, rumors of WAAS’ demise have been greatly exaggerated. “Cisco is fully committed to the WAAS business.” Given the growing WAN optimization prospects for the foreseeable future, that commitment shouldn’t come as a surprise. Questions about the networking giant’s commitment to WAAS (Wide Area Application Services) – its software/hardware WAN optimization…

As I noted previously, two surveys give different pictures about SDNs. My take: every enterprise will adopt SDNs, but lower hardware prices will not be the biggest reason. Here’s why: To hear proponents tell it, Software Defined Networks (SDNs) are going to commoditize switching and routing, moving all the expensive intelligence software created by the infrastructure…

In my last blog I pointed out that the network is the last major component of IT to be virtualized. However, recent events, such as VMware’s acquisition of Nicira for US $1.26 billion, are dramatic proof-points that network virtualization is gaining traction. Given what has happened to other components of IT, such as servers, that…