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[cisco-spot-blog]

Digital Payments Lack the Framework for Success…And That Needs To Change

Jeff Kastelic - July 22, 2015 

In an era of constant technological evolution, our utilization of different technologies, including mobile devices, has had massive impact on the financial services industry. As a result, the industry is facing major disruption as new technology translates into new ways of exchanging value (money). In fact, digital payment concepts are constantly developing, with technology advances changing the payment universe as we know it. Disruptive innovations, such as Apple Pay, continue to gain scaled acceptance globally. Contactless payment solutions could take us a step further towards getting rid of the security and convenience shortfalls of traditional credit and debit cards, but it’s important that a capable, secure network is put in place before digital payments can truly flourish.

The Changing Payments Landscape

The first official currency was introduced in Turkey in 600vBC and, around 1661 AD, coins evolved into bank notes. In 1946, the first credit card was introduced and since the start of this century technology advances have disrupted the world of money more than once. In 1999, European banks started offering mobile banking while in 2008, contactless payment cards were issued in the UK for the first time. Now, driven by mobile and Internet technologies, we are in the early stages of fundamentally changing how we perceive the concept of money. Financial control is no longer only in the hands of the financial industry. Today, entrepreneurial minds are connecting us to our (and others) money in new and innovative ways.

Smartphones and tablets have recently become common devices with 79.4 million U.S. consumers who shop online. According to (source) 51% of U.S. digital buyers are expected to make purchases using a mobile device. New services like Apple Pay and mobile payments (M-payments) are becoming increasingly common in financial services. The questions we must begin to consider are, who will be the key providers in the financial services market in the future and what sort of payment ecosystem will emerge?

Traditional Banking Under Pressure

According to Capgemini’s 2014 World Payments Report (WPR), M-payments transactions are expected to grow by 60.8% annually through 2015. Electronic payments (E-payments) growth will decelerate to 15.9% growth during the same period. The continued growth in volumes of E-payments and M-payments is putting pressure on all industry stakeholders to rapidly adopt these channels.

Number of Global M-Payments Transactions (Billion), 2011–2015F

Even with this phenomenal growth, too many banks have been sitting on the sidelines waiting to formulate a clear payments strategy and are at risk of becoming increasingly marginalized.

Firms using legacy systems in their back offices are constrained by multiple external forces and internal challenges. The main external challenge emanates from multiple regulatory and industry initiatives related to security and data privacy and a glaring lack of global standards for the exchange of value in the digital world. Other external challenges include overcapacity in the payments processing space, which has led to pressure on traditional business models and the need to find revenues from sources other than volume growth. Understanding these challenges is critical to the development of a reliable network that can enable an improved, efficient and safe fabric for the movement of money.

What Will The New World Look Like in the Virtual Currency Space?

A reliable and cost effective network is vital to success in today’s payments and financial industry. The framework around the movement of value is shifting dramatically, with a greater degree of origination points and rails being run by non-financial entities which are leveraging their proprietary network and/or access to end-clients. Regulatory bodies, including the Federal Reserve System, have recognized the shift towards digital currency and have made an open call to the industry to innovate around speed, cost, and safety. At the same time, security remains a fundamental concern—while there is, with ongoing innovation in securing the entire payment stream; there is still not a 100% reliably safe, transparent and traceable infrastructure.

[cisco-spot-blog]

Virtualised Expertise – A True Win/Win

Simon Blissett - March 10, 2016

In reality it is really difficult for the bank to match the supply of expertise with fluctuating levels of demand from customers. And it is increasingly expensive for them to provide expertise on a local basis due to increased demand for quality advisors and the growing cost burden of regulation and supervision.

That is why many banks are looking to virtualise their sales forces. How? By using fully immersive video-based capability to project their centralised expertise into local branches, homes and places of work.

At Cisco we are seeing an increased demand from banks asking how digital face-to-face capability can enhance their customer experience, lower their cost to sell/serve and reduce revenue leakage.

It has another strategic impact, too. None of us can predict how channel usage will change in the future. Sure, there is a clear trend to move from branches to self-service channels for everyday transactional banking but not so much yet for complex advisory services. We don’t know how quickly people will want to conduct their mortgage discussion from home over their Smart TV for example.

Banks need to build agility into their operating model and that is what centralising their sales (and service) expertise achieves when it can be projected digitally into branches, places of work and homes alike. The biggest challenge in this is not the technology but the change in operating model and sales culture that is required.

Customers win as they are better protected as virtual interactions can be recorded and referenced if sales conduct or product suitability is challenged in the future. They are also more likely to be ‘seen’ by an advisor at a time and place that more suits them.

[cisco-spot-blog]

Cisco and Extension Team Up to Tackle Modern Clinical Workflow Challenges

Mike Haymaker - February 25, 2016

On January 29th, 2016, Cisco joined forces with Extension Healthcare, a leading healthcare alarm safety and event response company, to create a plan, build and manage service that optimizes the network infrastructure for Extension Engage customers. Our two companies are combining our passion for improving clinical and patient experiences to deliver a high-performance workflow for every clinician and a powerful collaboration and communication platform for every hospital.

As a global leader in healthcare infrastructure technologies, Cisco has been on a mission to bring the power of “digital” to every healthcare organization.   In a world where they have to enable, differentiate and define their businesses leveraging digital technologies and devices, embracing a digital strategy will help them remain viable in an extremely cost sensitive environment where patient experience patient outcomes are key metrics.

Because the quality of any application and solution is only as good as the network that it’s delivered on, Cisco has developed a Digital Healthcare Architecture (DHA), based on our Medical Grade Network best practices and guidelines, offering availability from anywhere at any time.  The DHA takes into account the unique requirements of healthcare for the following three key pillars:  security, mobility, as well as unified communication and collaboration technologies.

Our newly announced service, Cisco Connected Health Service with Extension Engage, leverages Cisco’s DHA architecture and services expertise to maximize the success of Extension Engage deployments.

As Todd Plesko, CEO of Extension Healthcare, has said,  “No one company can handle all of the technical and environmental aspects of clinicians using smartphones and also deliver the clinical communication and collaboration platform to run on those smartphones. Our relationship with Cisco’s Connected Health services team solves that problem by bringing two great companies together that will bring peace of mind to hospital executives that their environment is ready, their investment is safe, and the project is going to be successful.”

[cisco-spot-blog]

Is your database at risk? Let Cisco help

Reesha Dedhia - January 25, 2016

Are you preparing your organization for the end of support on Microsoft SQL Server 2005? Continuing to run legacy SQL Server can present significant challenges for your organization.

Information volume continues to grow worldwide at a minimum rate of 59% annually. And while data is expected to grow 44x larger over the next decade, the number of IT pros is only expected to grow 1.4x larger. This puts IT pros under pressure to perform at higher levels than they ever have, and legacy infrastructure is ill-equipped to take on this burden.

As SQL Server 2005 becomes end-of-support, not exposing organizations’ databases to a tremendous amount of security risk should be a priority for your business. As the scale of data growth intensifies, the gapbetween the performance organizations’ require and the capabilities of legacy database systems will continue to widen.

But with this challenge comes the opportunity to leverage powerful new capabilities that aren’t available in older versions of SQL Server. It’s time to think about upgrading to something better and faster soon.

IDC recently completed a study interviewing Cisco UCS installed customers and determined that by installing your application on a Cisco UCS server platform, customers will gain the following business benefits.

Maximize the return on investment of your mission critical applications by upgrading to Microsoft SQL Server 2014 on Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS). The Cisco UCS platform provides an average 5 year ROI of 368% and gives your organization increased SQL Server uptime, and performance while lowering upgrade costs.

Cisco UCS provides your organization with increased SQL Server uptime, and performance while lowering staff time needed for server deployment by 84%. In conjunction with Cisco Application-Centric Infrastructure (ACI), automate your IT tasks and accelerate application deployments, enabling your organization to be flexible, efficient, and agile.

[cisco-spot-blog]

TechSpace Turns to Cisco for Network Support

Byron Magrane - March 9, 2016

TechSpace allows companies of all sizes to rent space in campus environments. So if you’re a small company without a lot of capital for an office or if you’re a large company that has quickly outgrown your building, TechSpace is the company to rent office space from. With all of these different companies setting up shop under one roof, TechSpace needed a network with fast connectivity and ironclad security.

“We decided to partner with Cisco to make good on our promise of a top-notch customer experience,” said Vic Memenas, Chief Executive Officer of TechSpace.

The company used Cisco products to deploy both wired and wireless network solutions to create multiple private segregated, secure customer environments. TechSpace’s network has grown to support 8,000 customers over eight campuses. Cisco’s solutions don’t require a legion of IT support as a 10-person crew oversees the entire network.

The TechSpace network makes use of Cisco hardware such as: Aironet Wireless Access Points, Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series switches, and Cisco 3900 and 2900 integrated service routers. These products provide a fast Wi-Fi and the Cisco firewalls that protect the network from threats. These devices also allow for extras like: voice and video conferencing, collaboration capabilities through Cisco WebEx and Cisco Jabber as well as other customizable features.

With Cisco’s network running smoothly, it has allowed TechSpace the ability to grow and within the next year, the company will open seven new locations. The blueprint for these networks—including the Cisco products, of course—will be duplicated in the new offices.

[cisco-spot-blog]

IoT in Action – Connectivity in Fire & Safety

Randal Kenworthy - December 18, 2014

The Internet of Things (IoT) is having a profound impact connecting buildings and industrial networks to IT environments. By linking your industrial sensors, robotics, trucks, and other equipment with your enterprise applications, through the Internet of Things (IoT), companies have better visibility into what’s happening in the environment. More importantly, these companies can more quickly and effectively respond to that information.

Connected Buildings and Incident Management

One area where IoT is changing the landscape is building management.   Traditionally, building management systems have been maintained on independent and proprietary networks.   This worked when the requirements were for stand-alone systems.   However, with the emergence of IoT, these systems are migrating to an IP/Ethernet based platform.   The benefits of this include: (1) improved ability to communicate between systems, (2) better integration with the building IT networks, and (3) ability to communicate outside the building.

One example is in fire and life safety.Organizations are now looking at these solutions to be more than fire detection and alarm systems by providing additional capabilities and becoming incident management systems.

Edwards/UTC Moving into IoT

For example, when Edwards Fire Safety, a division of UTC Building & Industrial Systems, was looking for ‘Solutions for the Future’, they looked to Cisco. Working with Edwards, Cisco’s IoT business unit initiated a program under a Strategic Technology Integration agreement that combines Cisco’s ruggedized IE 2000 switch with the fire and life safety system.

To properly operate in these environments, networking devices must be highly ruggedized to protect the internal components. Specific and tight connectors are needed to avoid any possible water penetration and disconnects due to vibrations.

For Edwards, this provides a smart, next generation communication platform that provides three key benefits:

Faster Deployments – The “Powered by Cisco” logo is one that is certainly respected and recognized within the networking ecosystem.   Edwards can leverage this logo to quickly address any concerns about the power of their solution components when working with building IT and networking teams.

Next Generation Platform – Allows Edwards to utilize an IP/Ethernet based solution.   This offers multiple benefits including: common platform, open standards, scale and security, and the opportunity to build additional capabilities on the solution to support incident management.

Solution Support – Enables Edwards to easily and quickly perform diagnostic and remediation of networks issues using a smart and managed switch.

[techniqs]

BaaS service, the convenient cloud backup

For more than a decade backup is a big challenge for companies of all sizes. Cloud solutions may eventually bring a significant improvement in the situation, ensuring effective backup while relieving IT department.

The main causes of problems with backup are constantly growing amount of data requiring protection and development of IT infrastructure. Performance optimization, complications with the removal of errors, media management or the need for fitting into the shrinking backup windows mean that IT is becoming more and more involved in the processes of creating backups. Virtualization has improved a lot in this matter, there are also a number of other solutions which reduce possible downtime in the operation of important applications. You can use the snapshot or replication mechanisms and magnetic tapes replace fast disks. However, this does not solve the fundamental challenges associated with backup.

Uploading backups to an external company

Companies are increasingly interested in outsourcing backup to external service providers, such as Integrated Solutions. A good choice is the backup in the cloud Baas (Backup-as-a-Service), among others because of the economic benefits. Providers of such services often offer customers a dedicated network links to efficiently transmit backup WAN. Initially, customers can use this service to protect PCs or remote sites. You can also start by taking a service Baas less important applications and then expand the scope of its use on other systems. In this case usually begins with the applications and systems that operate outside of the main data center. In addition, backups are transmitted from multiple systems deployed in the cloud data center service provider.

According to IDC, Baas is currently used by users to protect PC data, smaller applications, groupware systems and remote branches.

Advantages of backup in the cloud

Backup cloud has a number of advantages, which is worth a look. One of the most important are low cost. Baas solves various problems of backup, while not requiring the user to incur large capital expenditure.

Baas differentiator is the access to the service from any place and any time. The data stored in the cloud are available to you whenever it is needed. Just access to the Internet, even from a smartphone to quickly get to your files. It is not necessary to work in the office to be able to use the data you need.

From the nature of things Baas performs one of the most important best practice backup - backups are stored in a different location than the original data. For if the backup would be created within a single location, random situations, eg. A fire may cause the lost of both the original data and their copies. Storing data in the cloud makes that they are safe regardless of what happens in the office.

Backup in the cloud is also becoming easier to use. Providers Baas constantly improving its services because, in order to simplify the tasks associated with the current management and the eventual restoration of data. Sometimes just a few clicks to find the copied data and quickly restore them. It is also important to automation. Problems with time is one of the most frequently cited reasons why companies fail to backup.From the point of view of the customer, Baas does not need to allocate additional time for backup. Files from your computer are automatically copied to the cloud, according to a defined schedule, if it is connected to the Internet. The user also has the ability to create a backup on demand.

In addition to these advantages, the backup in the cloud enables rapid cloning and duplication systems, eg. For testing or troubleshooting. In addition, the backup in the cloud may be the first step towards full migration to the cloud.

Supplier selection criteria Baas

To benefit from the backup in the cloud, you need to choose the solution that meets several criteria. The following is the top five.

• Acceptable for user data recovery times RTO (Recovery Time Objective) - moving the backup to the cloud, you need to check what parameters RTO offers service provider. Ideally, to be shorter than previously achieved in the company. Modern technologies allow to restore individual files or to repair a virtual machine, even within a single minute.

• Full automation - the method “set it and forget it” is a very important element of the system backup. After the initial configuration, the data should be transferred to the cloud without administrator intervention, according to the established schedule and store it according to the established retention policies.

• Backup to disk with deduplication and compression - hard drives are becoming the preferred medium for backups, because they enable fast, multi-stream backup incremental methods, as well as quick restore any specified data, which could not offer traditional tape drives. Mechanisms for reducing the volume of copies, such as efficient deduplication and compression, reducing the amount of data that must be stored on disks, and - particularly important in the case of Baas - reduce the size of data transferred between locations, which is achieved by the deduplication on the source.

• The ability to test - important to have the opportunity to test the restoration procedures. The effectiveness of backup system not only depends on the successful completion of the backup, but primarily on the possibility of its restoration.

• Restoring in the cloud - a valuable and welcome addition backup service in the cloud is the ability to restore production environment’s also in the cloud, on running in the hardware resources. In emergency situations, it may be the only way to quickly restore business applications to run. If the required times are particularly stringent disaster recovery, the provider of cloud services should be able to offer services not only Baas, but also DRaaS - Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service. This can be particularly useful in situations where the user requires very short times RTO systems containing a large volume of data.

[iotdo]

Call for Papers and Proposals Opens for 2016 IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things - IoT - Internet of Things

2016 IEEE WF - IoT to be held 12-14 December in Reston, Virginia, USA

IEEE, the world’s largest professional organization advancing technology for humanity, announced the opening of the call for papers and proposals to the 3rd annual IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things(IEEE WF – IoT). This event will be held 12-14 December 2016, in Reston, Virginia, USA, and the theme is Smart Innovation for Vibrant Ecosystems.

[cisco-spot-blog]

Moving to the DevOps Model with Cisco and Ansible

Mike Cohen | February 18, 2016 at 4:00 am PST

Today, SDN is being embraced by many companies to increase operational speed and efficiency of network management, and Cisco ACI is rapidly becoming the SDN solution of choice. A key part of Cisco’s SDN work is collaborations and integration with a diverse group of industry leaders and innovators. Cisco is especially focused on support for DevOps tools, as we see the growing customer movement towards the DevOps model.

Cisco has been working for some time with Ansible, a key innovator of DevOps tools, moving forward from proof of concept to demos, and integration. Ansible is a radically simple IT automation engine that automates cloud provisioning, network configuration management, application deployment, intra-service orchestration, and many other IT tasks. Last fall, Red Hat – another key Cisco partner – acquired Ansible. Designed for multi-tier deployments since day one, Ansible models IT infrastructure by describing how all of your systems inter-relate, rather than just managing one system at a time. It uses no agents and no additional custom security infrastructure, so it’s easy to deploy. And most importantly, it uses a very simple language (YAML, in the form of Ansible Playbooks) that allow you to describe your automation jobs in a way that approaches plain English.

Today Red Hat is announcing that the Ansible 2.0 release supports Cisco Open NX-OS and the Nexus data center switching platforms. The integration between Ansible and Cisco Open NX-OS enables customers to model their infrastructure as code enabling DevOps-drivenSDN for Cisco Nexus Series switch platforms. Visitors to AnsibleFest today in London can see a demonstration of the integration between Ansible 2.0 and the Cisco switching platform. Visitors are also invited to attend the session: “Managing Your Cisco Data Center Network With Ansible” presented by Fabrizio Maccioni, Cisco Technical Marketing Engineer.

Automate Network Tasks

Tight integration between Cisco Open NX-OS and Ansible 2.0, will enable Cisco customers to quickly and simply automate the entire lifecycle of their application deployment, from initial provisioning, configuration, orchestration through decommissioning on a Cisco Nexus Programmable Network or VXLAN Programmable Fabric. It enables automation of common day zero operational tasks such as the configuration of SNMP, authentication, and logging, day two ongoing provisioning tasks such as configuration of port channels, VLANS, routing protocols (BGP/OSPF), overlays (VXLAN EVPN) and security (ACL’s), etc. Functionally, IT organizations will be able to utilize an intent driven resource model to describe the desired state of network devices and services, not the paths to get them to this state – Ansible and Open NX-OS will enable transforming it to the desired state. This allows reliable and repeatable IT infrastructure configuration, avoiding the potential failures from manual scripting solutions that focus on explicit actions and not the desired state of your infrastructure.

Cisco Nexus switches are the industry leading generation of datacenter switches, powered by Cisco Open NX-OS. The extensibility of the Open NX-OS software architecture enables integration with a wide variety of DevOps automation frameworks and tools including support for Ansible as part of the 2.0 release. Ansible will leverage the embedded NX-API programmatic interface included in Open NX-OS, which delivers a programmable model based API to ensure consistent, repeatable, reliable, model based automation of common network configuration and management tasks.

[cisco-spot-blog]

How to Properly Implement a Secure BYOD Policy in Your Small Business

JT Ripton | October 13, 2014 at 10:25 am PST

As technology pushes small businesses toward the use of smartphones and other devices in the workplace, securing your company’s privacy is not an easy task. However, if you follow these simple rules, integral information will not land into the wrong hands. Here are some tips on how to make bring your own device, or BYOD, a benefit to the workplace without worrying about security.

1. Establish the Objective

Image via flickr by Sean MacAntee

When deciding on a BYOD policy, you must first identify what you plan to achieve through its implementation. Since there are so many security risks involved, a plan is imperative. If you can’t define the point of it, you might as well abandon it. While security is a risk, plans that are well researched have several advantages including increased employee work rate, improved customer satisfaction, and reduced cost on technological upgrades.

2. Decide What Devices Are Allowed

The next step is deciding what devices to allow. If you only want iPads or Androids, tell your employees specifically. If you are ever in doubt, purchase your own company devices to hand out to employees. While this may seem like an unnecessary expenditure, it will put your mind at ease. It’s also a tax-deductible expense. Check out these area-specific BYOD instructions to connect each of these devices to your company network.

3. Make Security Policies

Since employees are able to access sensitive information on your servers from home or anywhere else, bring forth a policy to curb potential pitfalls. The first thing to do is to decide if you are able to handle this task on your own. If not, you may want to consider hiring an IT firm to overlook the security of your BYOD security. You could also have authentication, as well as passwords. This means that your system will periodically require password updates or even a new password for each log-in, each which goes a long way to preserving important information.

4. Combine BYOD Policy with Acceptable Use

If you don’t already have an “Acceptable Use Policy” for your business, you should strongly consider one. Not only will it curb employee distractions, but it will reduce potential risk for harmful viruses and malware. While employees will undoubtedly slip at some point, set forth rules that will lay out the disciplinary actions for such indiscretion. In addition to this, make sure that you have some sort of monitoring system in place. There’s no need to be nosy, but knowing what your workers do while on your network can save you a headache in the future.

5. Train Your Employees

Training can be the difference between increased productivity and total catastrophe. Engage in communication with your employees about the BYOD policy, and hold training seminars on a frequent basis to show them potential risks of BYOD abuse. This shows employees not only how to use their device effectively, but also that they are being monitored at all times.

6. Develop an Exit Strategy

Undoubtedly, at some point, employees will leave your company. Removing them from access to information on the network, business email, and other apps to which they previously had access can be tricky. Make certain that you figure out a way to avoid security lapse by maintaining an exit checklist. On this list, you can decide how you want to shut down their access. Some of the most common security checks disable company emails, wiping company-issued devices, and changing the passwords to any company accounts used in their position. Once these steps are completed, you can stand assured that your company’s private information is secured.

Once you have considered all of these aspects, it is finally time to decide whether or not implementing a BYOD policy is in the best interest of your business. While there are downsides, the key advantage might lie in keeping up with your competitors. Remaining a forward-thinking business not only attracts new customers, but helps you to retain them in the future.

[cisco-spot-blog]

Security Enables Next Generation Business Outcomes

Tony Shakib | February 24, 2016 at 9:24 am PST

The Mobile World Congress this week in Barcelona is host to almost 100,000 attendees. That’s a lot of people! Since the mobile industry has such a significant impact on the world and the worldwide economy, no wonder there is so much interest. This is an industry that employed nearly 13 million men and women in 2014, and contributed more than $3 trillion to global GDP.

The Mobile World Congress is sponsored by the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA). GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators around the globe and unites nearly 800 operators with more than 250 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem — an ecosystem spanning several industries where Cisco has vested interests, especially in the area of security.

Security is high on everyone’s priority list. Contrary to the notion that most security attacks are from the outside, recent cyber events show that the weakest link is from inside threats (through the use of removable media or vendor/contractor laptops, for example). For this reason, IoT cyber security requires a holistic architectural approach.

It is imperative that we think about security differently. While many think of security in terms of protection, digitization and IoT connectivity open the possibilities for broader applications. Security can be an enabler of next-generation business outcomes through insightful analytics, data visibility, and integration. This has particularly exciting implications for regulated industries like utilities.

Deploying security with Cisco’s substation automation solutions helps to keep utilities compliant with North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s Critical Infrastructure Protection (NERC-CIP) protocols. The NERC-CIP standards promote a secure electricity distribution infrastructure throughout the U.S., Canada, and a portion of Mexico. In addition to using our security solution to avoid fines, utilities receive the added benefits of increased uptime and outage prevention. Cisco’s solutions also help utilities customers get on an easily upgradeable path to subsequent versions of NERC-CIP, which include protections for low impact assets and transient devices. All this helps utilities customers realize a lower total cost of ownership and a higher return on investment.

Cisco recently launched the Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) as part of its Industrial Security Appliance — designed specifically for IoT and industrial customers. The capabilities provided by NGFW leverage Cisco’s many years of security expertise. When availability is paramount and security crucial for day-to-day IoT and industrial operations, the Industrial Security Appliance provides a comprehensive security solution for industrial networks. And many of the same security requirements can be leveraged across all industries, including oil and gas and manufacturing.

The New Face and Function of Security

When we think of security from a fully digitized perspective, it not only provides protection but creates a pathway to the next level of user experiences:

Integration with smart buildings enable a highly customizable employee workspace

Seamless data exchange between vendors, suppliers, and customers, with end-to-end visibility, delivers unprecedented supply chain opportunities

Enhanced health, safety, and environmental impacts provide benefits to industrial customers

Industrial IoT security is not just cyber insurance or the cost of running a business. The new function of security is to enable new digital business services and enterprise optimization.

Interested in learning more?

Read the Cisco White Paper: IoT Industrial Security – NERC-CIP Compliance for Utility Substations

Review the Secure Ops Solution

[cisco-spot-blog]

We Hear You: Retail Security Should Be Simple and SAFE

Christian Janoff | January 6, 2016 at 10:25 pm PST

Retailers are in the business to sell, not to be stolen from. And they don’t set up shop to buy security products from companies like Cisco. However, attackers who target retailers have discovered that it’s much more lucrative to shoplift virtually rather than physically. So even if you focus on security rather than selling, you face a daunting task.

The challenge of retail security is that it gets more complex by the minute. The combination of mobile devices, distributed services, increased customer expectations, virtual systems, and changing business goals creates a huge attack surface for fraudsters. Add in a pantheon of security vendors offering specialized products that don’t always work well together as well as a dwindling supply of qualified security personnel, and feelings of frustration and futility are understandable.

Our industry desperately needs a resource that addresses the problem from end to end and makes security easier to understand. Enter Cisco SAFE, a comprehensive and credible solution portfolio. SAFE uses a model to organize retail networks into areas that can be more easily understood from a security perspective. It looks at the threats that exist and the best practices available to defend against them. It helps manage the design, build, and maintenance of today’s retail networks.

SAFE provides “how to” guides tested in Cisco’s laboratories for complex security challenges. It maps your threats to the security capabilities you need at this time, which can help you avoid overspending and overcomplicating the defenses you need to protect your business.

[cisco-spot-blog]

Transform the Digital Experience from Free Wi-Fi to Interactive Mobile Experiences

Peter Mason | January 6, 2016 at 2:25 pm PST

Delivering a truly unique, unforgettable fan experience is a goal that is transforming the way stadiums and venues interact with fans today.

Enhance the Fan Experience

In fact, most sports fans report that they want a more connected, personal experience. According to Gartner, in 2016, 89% of companies will compete on the basis of customer experience as compared to just 36% four years ago.  Companies will differentiate themselves, attract new customers and identify new sources of revenue using customer experiences as a driver.  To create truly personalized customer experiences, companies are turning to technology—a trend that is typically referred to as digital transformation.  In my last blog, I wrote about how new mobile engagements are improving the guest experiences in Hospitality. Sports and entertainment provide another example of how mobile experiences are enhancing the fan experience.

Build Loyalty with the Connected Stadium

The Norwegian and Swedish Professional Football Leagues (or soccer as we Americans call it) provide a great example of what digital transformation is all about. With so many entertainment options, it is getting harder for Sports & Entertainment properties to compete for fans’ leisure time and entertainment spend. Fans are increasingly attracted to more mobile, personalized, and immersive experiences at live events and on demand. The football leagues wanted a way to capture more information about their fans to enhance and personalize the fan experience and drive loyalty for attending live events. They wanted to connect and engage their fans by offering new services; giving them additional reasons to attend the live matches while creating new revenue opportunities with sponsors and content providers.

Engagement with the fans must be simple and meaningful. Cisco Intelligent Onboarding and captive portal capabilities made possible by the Enterprise Mobility Services Platform (EMSP), engages fans with easy access to Wi-Fi and delivers personalized offerings.  As a fan enters the stadium automatic device detection invites them to join the Wi-Fi network. By capturing some basic information, promotions and special offers can be pushed to fans’ mobile devices based on their location in the venue, their team preferences, and more! Upon return, the device (i.e. the fan) is immediately recognized by the network.  These new and more engaging experiences help bring fans to the stadium offering extensive customization thus tailoring the event to their preferences. On top of delighting fans, the platform provides opportunities to increase sales and sponsorship revenues by enabling the clubs to work with their partners to offer targeted advertising. Cisco’s customized solutions for the Sports and Entertainment industry have placed us at the forefront of driving industry transformation, enabling the sports industry to enhance the fan experience and drive new revenue growth.

Create Interactive Mobile Experiences

Businesses across industries can learn from organizations like the Norwegian and Swedish Professional Football Leagues. This goes beyond simply offering free Wi-Fi, it gives a reason for the customer to login which is the starting point for a goldmine of sales opportunities. Customer expectations for personalized experiences will continue to increase. By investing in a platform-based solution to create personalized experiences on mobile devices, your business can engage customers today and build for the future.

[cisco-spot-blog]

The Internet of Things Is Not Always So Comforting

By  Talos Group | February 8, 2016 at 7:32 am PST

Over the past few years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as reality with the advent of smart refrigerators, smart HVAC systems, smart TVs, and more. Embedding internet-enabled devices into everything presents new opportunities in connecting these systems to each other, making them “smarter,” and making our lives more convenient than ever before.

Despite the new possibilities, there are major concerns about the IoT which inspire a legitimate question: “What happens if it’s not ‘done right’ and there are major vulnerabilities with the product?”

The unfortunate truth is that securing internet-enabled devices is not always a high priority among vendors and manufacturers. Some manufactures do not have the necessary infrastructure to inform the public about security updates or to deliver them to devices. Other manufacturers are unaccustomed to supporting products past a certain time, even if a product’s lifespan may well exceed the support lifecycle. In other cases, the lack of a secure development lifecycle or a secure public portal to report security defects makes it near impossible for researchers to work with a vendor or manufacturer. These problems expose users and organizations to greater security risks and ultimately highlight a major problem with the Internet of Things.

What does this mean for the average user? For starters, a smart device on their home or office network could contain unpatched vulnerabilities. Adversaries attacking the weakest link could exploit a vulnerable IoT device, then move laterally within an organization’s network to conduct further attacks. Additionally, patching vulnerable devices can be complicated, if not impossible, for the average user or for those who are not technically savvy. For organizations that maintain large amounts of IoT devices on their network, there may not be a way to update a device that scales, creating a nightmare scenario.

[iotdo]

Wipro’s Cloud-Based IoT Platform Helps Connect Over 10,000 Construction Equipment Machines - IoT - Internet of Things

JCB’s Livelink telematics system built on Wipro’s cloud-based Industrial Internet platform

Wipro, a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, announced that it has achieved a significant milestone in its ongoing Internet of Things (IoT) deployment for JCB India Ltd, a leading construction equipment manufacturer. JCB’s Livelink telematics system has successfully connected over 10,000 construction equipment and machines, such as Backhoe Loaders, Excavators and Compact Wheel Loaders, deployed for its customers across India.

[infinityleap-blog]

There is a straightforward educational imperative to help raise the awareness of children on the risks related to IoT devices.

[cisco-spot-blog]

Using E-Rate to lead a Digital Transformation in Education

by Renee Patton | February 4, 2016 at 9:44 am PST

For many businesses, technology has become an integral part of operations, transforming the way people learn, think, and do their jobs. With the right tools, K-12 school districts can experience these same transformational benefits. Digital transformation in education means using technology to create better access to educational experiences for students. That can be using mobile solutions to allow students to access anytime, anywhere learning in a secure way. Or it could be using collaboration tools to create a shared learning environment, or data analytics to help teachers fill in gaps in students’ skills and knowledge.

While the benefits of digital transformation for students are vast, one of the biggest hurdles schools face in their quest for transformation is funding. It requires a significant investment to ensure network infrastructure is adequate, to purchase technology tools for students and teachers, and to train educators on how to best use the new technologies in the classroom.

Schools facing this hurdle should consider leveraging the E-rate Program. USAC just announced that the window for filing E-rate applications for Funding Year 2016 will open on February 3, 2016. The window will close 87 days later on April 29. If your school meets the criteria for the program, you can save anywhere from 20 to 90 percent on eligible services. These discounts can ease the financial burden of upgrading network infrastructure and put schools on the path to a successful digital transformation. To learn more about digital transformation in education and how the E-rate Program can help, check out this special report from Cisco and eSchool News.

On Tuesday, February 9, Cisco will host a webcast on E-rate and the digital transformation. The webcast will feature Scott Smith, the CTO of Mooresville Graded School District in North Carolina, and John Harrington, CEO, Funds for Learning. Scott will discuss how their all-digital curriculum has led to more personalized, student-centric, and data-driven approaches. John will provide a briefing on current status of the E-Rate program—including procurement best practices and current filing deadlines.