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Collaboration Is The Future Says Cisco

During a recent keynote speach at Cisco's annual conference in San Jose California, Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers used one word to describe where his company and the entire technology industry is headed in the coming years: collaboration.

From collaborative corporate tools like his company's video telepresence system to social-networking sites like Facebook, Chambers thinks that people, whether they are at work or at home, are looking for ways to connect with each other virtually.

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AT&T Enlists Cisco To Bolster Network Amid Traffic Boom

AT&T said Monday it will buy some of the world's largest routers from Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) for a massive network upgrade, suggesting that big telecom firms are keeping their checkbooks open.

AT&T and Cisco CSCO did not disclose the terms of the deal, but analysts say it easily could reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few years.

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Cisco Unveils Role-Based Architecture to Advance Enterprise-Wide Security

Novel Cisco TrustSec Architecture Addresses Key Compliance Requirements, Simplifies Security Deployment

SAN JOSE, Calif., December 5, 2007 - Cisco® today announced Cisco Trusted Security (TrustSec), a new architecture that integrates identity and role-based security measures for scaled implementation across enterprise networks. When implemented enterprisewide, Cisco TrustSec addresses the increasing compliance requirements for a global and mobile workforce, ultimately enabling a more agile and secure infrastructure. Cisco also announced industry relationships with Intel and Ixia to increase interoperability with this architecture.

"Customers are demanding a highly secure way to expand their businesses and compliance policies," said Jayshree Ullal, senior vice president of the Data Center, Switching and Security Technology Group at Cisco. "The Cisco TrustSec architecture delivers a new paradigm for security in role-based user access to applications and resources without compromising business velocity."

Cisco TrustSec creates a trusted enterprise network encompassing Cisco switches along with Cisco routers and Cisco Unified Wireless Network controllers as a foundation for authenticating users, assigning roles, enforcing access policies and delivering integrity and confidentiality to network traffic. Cisco TrustSec includes:

  • Role-Aware Secure Campus Access Control: Anytime, anywhere access to the network is determined by an individual's role in the company. This "role aware" network helps enforce identity-based security policies pervasively across the network regardless of the network access method or device (wired, wireless, mobile, laptop, printer).

  • Converged Policy Framework: Various authentication mechanics are converged into a single central policy engine that dynamically communicates across the entire switch infrastructure. This framework addresses the information technology (IT) challenge of managing policies consistently across the network by greatly simplifying the management of identity policies over disparate authentication methods.

  • Pervasive Integrity and Confidentiality: Helps maintain the integrity and confidentiality of data as it moves through all points in the network. This safeguards against data leakage, supports regulatory requirements and increases the privacy of the network itself.

"Understanding which users do what and where, on networks and on applications, is a key component of the compliance strategy of virtually every enterprise. Doing so requires implementing a security architecture based on the roles and identities of users. In our recent benchmark on security and information protection, enterprise IT executives cited Cisco as the top strategic security vendor relied on to help with these and other security initiatives," said Andreas M. Antonopoulos, senior vice president and founding partner of Nemertes Research.

Standards and Industry Interoperability

Cisco is committed to working with industry leaders for greater interoperability with other devices in the network. Cisco and Intel announced a shared commitment to support the IEEE 802.1AE standard that helps the network intelligently prioritize data in alignment with business objectives while preserving the integrity of the encrypted data.

Cisco is also pleased to announce that Intel has joined those supporting the Cisco approach that enables IEEE 802.1AE-based components to communicate and negotiate the encryption of data, while preserving the full range of network-based services. This will enhance interoperability between Cisco TrustSec capable switches and Intel® Ethernet controllers that support the IEEE 802.1AE standard. Cisco also announced that Ixia, a global provider of Internet Protocol (IP)-performance test systems, will support IEEE 802.1AE encrypted line cards in their Ixia test equipment so that customers may now test with Cisco TrustSec capable switches.

"Communication between devices that support the IEEE 802.1AE standard for encryption and integrity is beneficial for enterprisewide deployment," said Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manger of Intel Corp.'s Digital Enterprise Group. "Intel will support IEEE 802.1AE-based secure connectivity for our customers in its upcoming Intel Ethernet controllers, and we will be working with Cisco to ensure interoperability of this capability with Cisco switches."

Increased Regulatory Compliance

Regulatory compliance requires enterprises to permit or deny users access to information and applications based on the privileges they are assigned, be they employee, contractor or guest. With Cisco TrustSec, enterprises can secure access control based on the identity attributes of users and their role within the organization. It also helps protect investments by using existing hardware capabilities within Cisco Catalyst® switches.

"I see tremendous value in the Cisco TrustSec architecture for providing a scalable topology independent of network access technology and coupled with Layer 2 confidentiality and integrity. This has the potential to provide us with a solution to help address the de-perimeterization and regulatory compliance," said Uwe Fischer, information security officer of E.ON.

Pervasive Identity-Enabled Networking

Cisco TrustSec creates a highly secure identity-enabled network by distributing admission control and access control mechanisms throughout the network. These mechanisms reduce the complex, manual and error-prone nature of policy enforcement, thereby improving operational efficiency. For the end user, Cisco TrustSec provides a consistent experience regardless of the network access method while also providing optional data privacy across new and legacy applications.

Expected Availability

Cisco TrustSec functionality is scheduled to be available across the Cisco switching platforms throughout the next 18 months beginning in the first quarter of 2008. For more information on Cisco TrustSec, visit www.cisco.com/go/switchsecurity.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

Is Cisco becoming the IP video giant?

Several strategic acquisitions indicate that Cisco is setting itself up to become a dominant force in next-generation enterprise IP video applications like digital signage, interactive advertising and IP video surveillance.

In a recent report entitled "Warning: Cisco Positioning Itself to Dominate Next Generation Enterprise IP Video Applications," MultiMedia Intelligence's chief strategy officer Rick Sizemore dissected a string of recent acquisitions by the powerhouse vendor that individually seemed innocuous, but when looked at as a whole, indicate that Cisco has bigger fish to fry.

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Cisco Acquires Latigent

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Oct. 16, 2007 - Cisco® today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Latigent, LLC., a leading provider of web-based business intelligence and analytics reporting solutions, focused on contact centers. Latigent's products are built from the ground up to take advantage of Web 2.0 principles that help enable customers to create flexible, scalable, easily customizable, and intuitive historical and real-time reports for their contact centers.

Latigent's products complement and enhance Cisco's Unified Customer Contact solutions that are designed to evolve today's call centers to the Customer Interaction Network, a single, integrated platform that easily integrates with legacy contact center platforms and networks.

With the close of the transaction, Cisco will integrate Latigent's team and technologies into its Customer Contact Business Unit. This is acquisition No. 123 for Cisco.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

Cisco to Showcase Complete End-to-End Solution for IP- based Contribution and Distribution Networks @ IBC 2007

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, September 7, 2007 - Cisco® and Scientific Atlanta, a Cisco company announced today that they will be showcasing the next generation of broadcast contribution and distribution solutions over Internet Protocol (IP) at IBC 2007 (Booth 1.471). The innovative IP technology draws on Cisco's IP technology leadership and Scientific Atlanta's video-delivery expertise to provide a complete end-to-end solution for broadcasters and video network operators. These operators face growing requirements for transporting high-bandwidth high-definition and standard-definition content while reducing CAPEX and OPEX.

In order to provide the best solution for operators, Cisco and Scientific Atlanta have introduced a full range of video adaptation products catering to any bandwidth and quality requirement (uncompressed, JPEG2000, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 AVC). These include Scientific Atlanta's D9402TM IP Receiver, D9430TM SDI Gateway, D9431TM SDI JPEG2000 Gateway, D9432TM HD SDI JPEG2000 Gateway and D9435TM IP Video Gateway, which will be launched simultaneously at IBC. Among the Cisco edge routers and metro platforms that form a key part of the broadcast contribution and distribution over IP are the high-end Cisco Carrier Routing System CRS-1 and 7600 Series Routers, the medium-range Cisco 7300 Series Routers and Cisco Integrated Services Routers and the Cisco 3750-ME and ME3400 medium-range Metro Ethernet platforms. A select group of the routers and metro platforms will be on display at IBC. Also on display will be the Scientific Atlanta Digital Content Manager (DCM) with a new feature providing IP forward error-correction capabilities.

Cisco and Scientific Atlanta are teaming with Dimetis GmbH, a full-service Broadcast OSS supplier, to provide its service-oriented architecture (SOA)-based video-aware BOSS© Broadcast Platform for the monitoring, control, and scheduling of IP/Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) based contribution and distribution links. The Dimetis BOSS© Platform incorporates a modular and flexible design to accommodate new-generation services.

"Although IP is a relatively new technology for contribution and distribution, it is becoming the protocol of choice. It is flexible and connection-less and it provides strict Quality of Service (QoS) with managed latency and jitter to reliably deliver TV content. The business and technological benefits that come from using IP-based contribution and distribution over more traditional options allow operators to reduce OPEX and CAPEX while launching new revenue-generating services," said Dean Rockwell, vice president and general manager, Digital Media Networks at Scientific Atlanta.

A study* conducted by Scientific Atlanta at the end of 2006 stated that by the end of 2009, more than 60 percent of the investment in terrestrial- based video contribution networks will be based on IP, due to the very clear business benefits to operators by migrating to next generation IP-based networks. Cisco and Scientific Atlanta can now offer a complete agreed-upon solution from a single source, featuring an end-to-end system, IP and video expertise, and extensive systems integration.

Businesses Worldwide Plan to Increase Spending on Network Security Next Year By as Much as 20 Percent

SAN JOSE, Calif. - August 29, 2007 - Cisco® today released a set of results from an additional international study examining mobile workers' security behavior with regard to corporate security and its impact on businesses, revealing widespread plans to increase security spending by as much as 20 percent next year to protect expanding wireless networks and the growing numbers of mobile employees who access them.

The latest research builds on findings released earlier this month spotlighting the growing trend of mobile employees and how their security behavior can heighten risks for business' IT organizations as they connect to corporate networks and carry sensitive information outside office walls. While the previous findings involve more than 700 mobile employees in seven countries where wireless and mobility technologies are widely adopted, the additional findings released today reveal spending plans and business drivers for more than 700 IT decision makers who work in those same nations: the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, China, India, South Korea, and Singapore.

Ultimately, the global study (conducted this spring by InsightExpress, an independent market research firm) explores what's driving IT to invest more heavily in securing connected business infrastructures. Their plans are driven by various business trends, such as regulatory compliance and strategic mobility initiatives, as well as the greater risks associated with increased collaboration among customers, vendors and partners.

"Businesses today are boosting productivity and corporate agility by enabling more employees to connect to the corporate network via mobile technologies," said John N. Stewart, Cisco's chief security officer. "Employees' awareness and behaviors relating to mobile security are the crucial factors in protecting information and assets."

Many mobile users say they aren't always aware of security concerns, and their actions provide proof. Throughout the seven countries, many mobile employees say they access unauthorized wireless networks in public places and in their neighborhoods. Many say they don't encrypt data on their wireless devices or set passwords to prevent physical access to their information. And, inevitably, some mobile users lose their devices or suffer from theft.

With behavioral security implications as a backdrop, more than half of the IT decision makers surveyed (55 percent) do not believe that the frequency of threats will decline. As a result, three of every four IT decision makers (74 percent) said security spending will increase over the next fiscal year in an effort to accommodate growing wireless and mobility requirements. Almost half (46 percent) expect investments to increase by more than 10 percent, and almost one of every 10 (9 percent) expects spending to jump 20 percent or more.

"These figures are significant, because a 20 percent increase in spending on security alone could represent hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars for mid-size and large enterprises," said Jeff Platon, vice president of security solutions for Cisco.

Aside from the ever-present nature of security threats and behavioral concerns of mobile employees, the research revealed business-related reasons why spending is increasing:

  • Regulatory Compliance: Just over half of the IT respondents (51 percent) say compliance drives them to focus more on wireless security, especially in Asia, where most respondents in China (75 percent), India (65 percent), and Singapore (62 percent) all feature a significant majority.

  • Mobility Enablement: Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of IT respondents say more employees are being enabled to work anywhere, anytime with laptops, smartphones, or both. Germany (74 percent) lead the pack, followed by China and India (69 percent), South Korea (66 percent), and the United States (58 percent).

  • Corporate Growth and Hiring: More than half of the IT respondents (53 percent) said hiring is increasing, which naturally increases the number of employees who will become mobile and wirelessly connected. In five of the seven countries, well over a half of its IT respondents note this development: China (69 percent), the United Kingdom (64 percent), Singapore (63 percent), India (62 percent) and the United States (53 percent).

  • Capital Expense Loss and Theft: Nine percent of the IT respondents say spending is increasing as a result of replacing lost or stolen devices, such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs, most of which carry sensitive personal and corporate information. The United States features the most alarming percentage: More than one in four (26 percent) U.S. respondents say spending is increasing for this reason.

"The research really provides an opportunity for IT to reassess its relationship with increasingly mobile user bases and consider new ways to minimize spending," said Ben Gibson, Cisco's director of mobility solutions. "If you look at it from all angles - compliance, policies, business needs, and human behavior - technology is only half of the equation. Proactive communication, education, and engagement of employees on safe, appropriate online behavior, especially when they are mobile and remote, can help ensure solid returns on strategic IT investments that bring the promise of a secure, mobile wireless business to life."

Cisco Launches Self-Defending Network v3.0

SAN JOSE, Calif. - June 25, 2007 - Cisco® today announced it has completed the acquisition of privately held IronPort Systems, Inc., the leading provider of e-mail and web security products that provides protection to businesses of all sizes - from small organizations to Fortune 1,000 firms - from spam, spyware, phishing, and other Internet security threats.

The acquisition, announced January 4, 2007, for $830 million in cash and stock, marks a significant step in Cisco's evolution as a leader in security and defines the future for information technology security. IronPort's products and technology enable Cisco to extend its Self-Defending Network strategy to now include Wide Traffic Inspection capabilities, ensuring a new approach that combines the depth of network-level security with the breadth of capabilities for inspecting e-mail, web and Instant Messaging traffic.

A core element that powers IronPort is SenderBase, the world's first and largest e-mail and Web traffic monitoring service. SenderBase is a unique database that collects information from more than 100,000 Internet service providers, universities and corporations around the world. It measures more than 110 parameters for any active e-mail and Web server on the Internet, helping to determine the trustworthiness of the source of any e-mail or Web traffic. This massive database receives more than 5 billion queries per day, and because of its size and scope, it can provide an extremely accurate, global view of the behavior of e-mail and web servers across the Internet.

According to Richard Palmer, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Security Technology Group, this evolution of the Self-Defending Network strategy will enable Cisco to provide customers with integrated end-to-end IT security never before offered from a single company.

"The acquisition of IronPort provides Cisco with a proven business that is already respected as a leader in the messaging and Web security space," Palmer said. "The addition of IronPort represents the next chapter in the evolution of the Self-Defending Network, and it accelerates Cisco's growth opportunities. Most important, it dramatically extends the solutions we can provide our customers as security threats and demands evolve."

Cisco's vision for a Self-Defending Network is to incorporate protection into the entire network infrastructure (within its core routing and switching portfolio) and extend that protection from the network (at the packet level) to applications and content. The addition of IronPort's content security technology allows Cisco to provide Wide Traffic Inspection that integrates network and content analysis to stop the most sophisticated threats and protect all major application protocols, endpoints, and the network itself.

"Cisco's acquisition of IronPort underscores the convergence between secure content management and threat management needed to address today's complex threat environment," said Brian Burke, research manager for IDC's Security Products service. "IT departments have moved away from a focus on a single type of protection, such as antivirus, toward a broader focus on threats designed to get past point-solution security and target multiple vulnerabilities in clients and corporate networks."

"IronPort is known for building industry-leading e-mail appliances, but when we introduced our Web security appliance last year, we realized the power of products working better together," said Scott Weiss, former CEO of IronPort and now general manager of the IronPort Business Unit reporting to Palmer. "Our e-mail products are better because we have a web product and vice versa. Merging this technology into Cisco's Self-Defending Network portfolio creates even more powerful solutions for the marketplace."

Cisco Completes Acquisition of WebEx

SAN JOSE, Calif. - May 29, 2007 - Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced the completion of its acquisition of WebEx Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: WEBX). WebEx is a market leader in on-demand collaboration applications, and its network-based solution for delivering business-to-business collaboration extends Cisco's vision for Unified Communications, particularly within the small to medium business (SMB) segment.

As a result of its tender offer for WebEx, Cisco purchased 46,339,278 shares of WebEx common stock, or approximately 90.1% of shares outstanding.

On May 25, 2007, Cisco closed the second-step merger of WebEx, which is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cisco. As a result of the merger, all remaining outstanding WebEx shares not tendered were converted into the right to receive $57.00 per share, net to the seller in cash without interest, less any required withholding taxes.

WebEx's service portfolio includes technologies and services that allow companies to engage in real-time and asynchronous data conferences over the Internet as well as share web-based documents and workspaces that help improve productivity, performance and efficiency of workers in any size organization. WebEx's subscription-based services strategy has been key to its success, and Cisco plans to preserve this business model going forward.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

True Collaborates with Cisco to Deliver Managed Data, Security and Voice Services

Next-Generation Platform Will Help Future-Proof Customer Networks

BANGKOK, Thailand - April 26, 2007 - True Corp. is collaborating with Cisco® to deliver next-generation managed services that will help its customers prepare for future applications over an integrated Internet Protocol (IP) networking platform. The company's True-Hosted IP PBX (private branch exchange) Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and MPLS with Security managed services have met the Cisco Powered Program criteria. Service providers who display the Cisco Powered logo have built their services on a network built with Cisco equipment, the same equipment that most Internet traffic travels on today. True is the first network provider in Thailand to carry the Cisco Powered designation.

Vorkon Patra-Yanan, regional managing director for Cisco Indochina, said that Cisco awards the Cisco Powered designation to a select group of service providers worldwide that are utilizing Cisco's industry-leading equipment as the backbone for their services. "The Cisco Powered logo tells customers that True uses industry-leading Cisco solutions in its network. As the first provider here to carry the Cisco Powered designation, True joins an elite group of around 300 providers throughout the world," he said.

Cisco's criteria for participation in the Cisco Powered Program help ensure that member service providers have the equipment, staff and processes in place to provide high-quality services. For example, True's True-Hosted IP PBX managed service uses the Cisco Unified Communications Manager (formerly Cisco Unified CallManager) software as the foundation for advanced capabilities, including video, mobility and presence-based services. Cisco Unified Communications Manager extends telephony features and capabilities to packet telephony network devices such as IP phones, media processing devices, voice over IP (VoIP) gateways, and multimedia applications.

"Cisco congratulates True for becoming the first provider in Thailand to have its managed services qualified to carry the Cisco Powered designation. True is also Cisco Silver-certified, so its customers can know that True is committed to having the dedicated staff to manage their network requirements professionally and reliably," added Vorkon.

According to Songtham Phianpattanawit, managing director, Corporate Solution, Wholesales & Data for True Corp., "True has continuously developed innovative services as well as network technologies to meet business clients' needs. True not only chooses high-quality Cisco technology and network equipment, which is widely recognised by consumers and corporate clients, but we also work with Cisco to build a network platform that will be ready for any future communications applications that run on IP networks. This will help support any business requirements our customers will face in the future. True is proud to have three of our managed services qualified under the Cisco Powered Program. This will increase customers' trust and confidence in the company's services in terms of network reliability and network security coupled with industry-standard technology and equipment."