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June 2015 Cisco E-Zine

Welcome to Arrowdawns June 2015 Edition of the Cisco Technical E‐Zine. This is put together by members of the Cisco Technical Community to provide up‐to‐date technical information on Cisco Products, Technology and Services. We hope you will find this edition useful and if you have any questions on the details included please ask your Arrowdawn Technical Contact for more information or drop an email to connect@arrowdawn.com.

 

Breaking News… 

  • LEAP SECOND WILL BE ADDED ON JUNE 30 2015
  • INCOMING CISCO CEO CHUCK ROBBINS UNVEILS NEW EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM
  • CISCO ANNOUNCES INTENT TO ACQUIRE PISTON CLOUD COMPUTING
  • CISCO, SPRINT, AND KANSAS CITY, MO., ANNOUNCE AGREEMENT TO DEPLOY SMART+CONNECTED CITY FRAMEWORK
  • CISCO ADVANCES INTERCLOUD INITIATIVE WITH NEW APPLICATION PARTNERS AND HYBRID CLOUD INNOVATION
  • ICF-P PROVIDERS ANNOUNCED AT CISCO-LIVE SAN DIEGO
  • THE MONACO GRAND PRIX: ARE COMPUTERS OR PEOPLE DRIVING THE CARS ?
  • CISCO LIVE SAN DIEGO SECURITY ANNOUNCEMENTS
  • FICON SUPPORT FOR THE MDS 9706 AND MDS 9250I
  • PORT OF HAMBURG PAVES THE WAY WITH EUROPE’S FIRST “SMARTROAD”

Training Events or Summits/Webcasts 2015 

  • SECURITY & MOBILITY SEMINAR – MANUFACTURING AND OIL & GAS SECTOR FOCUS
  • CISCO INTRODUCES NEW CLOUD AND IOT CERTIFICATIONS TO ADDRESS KEY IOE SKILLS

Cisco on Cisco (Inside Cisco IT)

  • INSIDE CISCO IT: ENABLING THE COLLABORATION CULTURE
  • INSIDE CISCO IT: IOE INTELLECTUAL ASSET FRAUD PROTECTION

Cisco TechWiseTV News

  • CISCO MODELING LABS: A VIRTUAL LAB ENVIRONMENT10
  • GET THE MOST OUT OF WAVE 2 WI-FI
  • STOP MALWARE BEFORE IT STRIKES

Secure Enterprise Network News

  • GENERAL AVAILABILITY OF THE CATALYST 3850 MULTIGIGABIT 48 PORT SWITCHES
  • CISCO CATALYST MULTIGIGABIT ETHERNET TECHNOLOGY
  • CISCO SMART SOFTWARE MANAGER SATELLITE
  • NEW ACCESS POINT 1850 & 802.11AC WAVE 2  
  • CISCO CATALYST 3560-CX MULTIGIGABIT AND POE PASS-THROUGH SWITCHES ORDERABLE NOW
  • CISCO SWITCH SELECTOR
  • NSS LABS VALIDATES CISCO NGIPS
  • IOE & RETAIL
  • STAAS IOE SOLUTION DEMONSTRATORS AT RAILTEX 2015

Collaboration News

  • COLLABORATION 11.0 : EXPERIENCE, SIMPLICITY, UBIQUITY
  • JABBER SDK – GET EARLY ACCESS TO THE NEW VERSION
  • WEBEX ON APPLE WATCH
  • LOCATE AND ACCESS REMOTE EXPERTS

Data Center News

  • ANNOUNCING ORDERABILITY OF THE NEXUS 7702 SWITCH
  • ANNOUNCING CISCO PRIME DCNM 7.1(2)
  • NOW SHIPPING – NX-OS 7.2(0)N1(1) – NEXUS 5500, NEXUS 5600 & NEXUS 6000 PLATFORMS
  • ANNOUNCING AVAILABILITY OF CISCO APIC RELEASE 1.1(1J) AND CISCO NX-OS RELEASE 11.1(1J)
  • CONFIGURE AND USE CISCO FLEXFLASH SECURE DIGITAL CARDS ON CISCO UCS SERVERS
  • LISP VALIDATED DESIGN FOR DATA CENTRE MIGRATIONS
  • CISCO ITD WINS THE BEST OF INTEROP 2015 IN DATA CENTER CATEGORY
  • CISCO ANNOUNCES NEW SAN PRODUCTS
  • CISCO SIMPLIFIES SERVICE PROVIDER NETWORK SERVICES MANAGEMENT
  • FIND AND FIX PROBLEMS FASTER WITH NEW SPLUNK INTEGRATION FOR CISCO UCS
  • MEETING THE DEMAND FOR CLOUD TECHNOLOGY SKILLS

EOS/EOL Notifications

  • CUCM 8.5 AND 8.6 END OF SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE – 26TH JULY 2015
  • CISCO FIRESIGHT MANAGEMENT CENTER CROSS-SITE SCRIPTING VULNERABILITY
  • EOS ANNOUNCEMENT ON 4/30/2015 FOR ASR1001, ASR1002, ESP5, ESP10, SIP10, RP1
  • CISCO CATALYST 6500 SERIES SWITCHES IPSEC TUNNEL HANDLING DENIAL OF SERVICE VULNERABILITY


Breaking News…

LEAP SECOND WILL BE ADDED ON JUNE 30 2015

As covered in the April 2015 edition of the E-zine, on June 30 2015 this year, clocks all around the world

will effectively turn 23:59:59 twice.

An extra second, also known as a leap second, is being added to ensure atomic clocks are correctly synced with the rotation of the Earth. While hardly noticeable to us, this extra second has important implications for all computing equipment, software, and applications.

Cisco Engineering teams have conducted detailed assessments across the full range of Cisco products. They determined that many of our platforms are not affected. Where a possible impact has been identified, Cisco plans to provide software updates to all qualified customers with current service contracts in order to address the leap second adjustment.

More details about the leap second, providing information for our customers and partners on the global introduction of the 2015 leap second can be found here: Cisco.com Leap Second Page.

 

INCOMING CISCO CEO CHUCK ROBBINS UNVEILS NEW EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM

SAN JOSE, Calif. – June 4, 2015 – Cisco announced the new executive leadership team that incoming CEO Chuck Robbins has chosen to lead the organization into the next phase of its growth and success. The new team balances continuity in key positions with the elevation of the next generation of Cisco leaders from within the company, and world-class talent from outside of Cisco.

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1646947

 

CISCO ANNOUNCES INTENT TO ACQUIRE PISTON CLOUD COMPUTING

Today,  Cisco  is  taking  another  important  step  towards  realizing  our  ambitious

Intercloud vision. We are pleased to announce our intent to acquire Piston Cloud Computing,   which   will   help   accelerate   the   product,   delivery,   and   operational capabilities of Cisco Intercloud Services.

Paired  with  our  recent  acquisition  of  Metacloud,  Piston’s  distributed  systems  engineering  and OpenStack talent will further enhance our capabilities around cloud automation, availability, and scale. The acquisition of Piston will complement our Intercloud strategy by bringing additional operational experience on the underlying infrastructure that powers Cisco OpenStack Private Cloud. Additionally Piston’s deep knowledge of distributed systems and automated deployment will help further enhance our delivery capabilities for customers and partners.

 

CISCO, SPRINT, AND KANSAS CITY, MO., ANNOUNCE AGREEMENT TO DEPLOY SMART+CONNECTED CITY FRAMEWORK

The  city  of  Kansas  City,  MO.,  Cisco  and  partners  will  begin  “phase1”  deployments  of  smart  city

applications. As part of this new framework, Cisco is working with a group of business partners to bring together an ecosystem to develop applications including smart lighting, digital kiosks, a development data portal, and smart water innovation development

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1647580

 

CISCO ADVANCES INTERCLOUD INITIATIVE WITH NEW APPLICATION PARTNERS AND HYBRID CLOUD INNOVATION

Cisco announced at Cisco Live that it is partnering with 35 independent software vendors (ISVs) to accelerate the creation of innovative cloud services for the Intercloud. This first wave of hand-picked ISVs will  offer  cloud  services to help customers capture the multitude of opportunities created  by the Internet of Everything (IoE).

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1648301

Building  Cloud  Services  for  the  Internet  of  Everything,  to  help  businesses  capture  the  cloud opportunities presented by IoE, Cisco is partnering with 35 ISVs across three key areas: next-generation developer platforms, big data and analytics, and IoE cloud services. Cisco and its partners will offer next- generation cloud services to customers via the Cisco® Intercloud Marketplace a partner-centric global storefront for Intercloud-based applications and cloud services from Cisco and partners. Cisco plans to open the Intercloud Marketplace in fall of 2015.

 

ICF-P PROVIDERS ANNOUNCED AT CISCO-LIVE SAN DIEGO

Cisco announced ICF-P Providers at Cisco Live.    By simplifying hybrid cloud, Cisco Intercloud Fabric is showing strong market momentum with more than 100 customers and 65 partners worldwide. At Cisco Live!™,  10  Intercloud  partners—Cirrity,  Datalink, iland, Long  View,  Peak  10,  Presidio, QTS,  Quest, Sungard Availability Services and Virtustream—announced new hybrid cloud services built on Cisco Intercloud Fabric. Cisco also announced that KPIT Technologies, Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, and the Salvation  Army  are  using  Cisco  Intercloud  Fabric  to  implement  a  single  operational  model  across dev/test, quality assurance and production environments.

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1648301

 

THE MONACO GRAND PRIX: ARE COMPUTERS OR PEOPLE DRIVING THE CARS ?

Monaco’s is the most dangerous of all F1 tracks, which are actually the narrow, winding streets of the town turned into a racetrack for a couple of days. There are many elevation changes, tight corners, and a tunnel. Drivers are forced to quickly adjust their vision as they emerge from the tunnel’s darkness to daylight again at the fastest part on the track.

But the action off the track is often just as, or more fascinating, and can often decide who wins the race. Engineers monitor and analyze a torrent of data coming in from as many as 120 sensors on an F1 car, and make decisions in microseconds that can change the race for a team. The data crunching occurs in the one or two practice runs before a race, and during the race – all in real-time. http://newsroom.cisco.com/feature-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1644939

 

CISCO LIVE SAN DIEGO SECURITY ANNOUNCEMENTS

Cisco today announced new offerings to embed security throughout the extended network – from the datacenter out to endpoints, branch offices, and the cloud – for pervasive threat visibility and control. By integrating security everywhere, enterprises and service providers gain the ability to deliver the threat- centric security requirements demanded by today’s dynamic threat landscape and capture emerging business opportunities created by the rise of the Digital Economy and the Internet of Everything (IoE).

http://blogs.cisco.com/tag/clus15

Cisco is launching the following set of solutions across the entire networking portfolio:

  • Endpoints: With Cisco AnyConnect® Featuring Cisco AMP for Endpoints, customers using the Cisco AnyConnect 4.1 VPN client now can easily deploy and significantly expand their threat protection to   VPN-enabled  endpoints  to   continuously  and   retrospectively  guard  against advanced malware.
  • Campus and Branch: FirePOWER Services solutions for Cisco® Integrated Services Routers (ISR) provides centrally managed Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention System (NGIPS) and Advanced Malware Protection  (AMP)  at  the  branch  office  integrated  in  the  network  fabric,  where dedicated security appliances may not be feasible.
  • Network as a Sensor and Enforcer: Cisco has embedded multiple security technologies into the network infrastructure to provide broad threat visibility to rapidly identify users and devices associated with anomalies, threats and misuse of networks and applications.
  • Broader  Integration   between   Identity   Services   Engine   (ISE)   and   Lancope   StealthWatch: Enterprises can go beyond just mapping IP addresses to identifying threat vectors based on ISE’s context  of  who,  what,  where,  when  and  how users  and  devices  are  connected  and  access network resources..
  • NetFlow on Cisco UCS®: Extending Cisco’s network-as-a-sensor capabilities to the physical and virtual servers, customers now have greater visibility into network traffic flow patterns and threat intelligence information in the datacenter.

 

FICON SUPPORT FOR THE MDS 9706 AND MDS 9250I

On the 9th June, Cisco announced FICON support for the MDS 9706 and MDS 9250i. This is being added to the already existing support for the MDS 9710. This is being accomplished via NX-OS 6.2(11c) which is already available on CCO. http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/mds9000/sw/6_2/release/notes/nx- os/mds_nxos_rn_6_2_11c.html

 

PORT OF HAMBURG PAVES THE WAY WITH EUROPE’S FIRST “SMARTROAD”

HAMBURG, Germany – June 3, 2015 – The Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) continues to make the Smart Port vision a reality with the implementation of Europe’s first “smartROAD”. The smartROAD Proof of Concept   aims   to   improve   resource   management,   traffic   flow,   infrastructure   condition   and environmental management, using an Internet of Everything approach with real time data and analytics. Insights from the proof of concept will help enable Cisco, HPA and ecosystem partners to make a decision on a broader deployment of these solutions in the Port of Hamburg. smartROAD solutions are focused on four areas:

  • Traffic Management
  • Structural Sensors
  • Environmental Sensors.
  • Smart Lighting

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1646155

 

Training Events or Summits/Webcasts 2015

SECURITY & MOBILITY SEMINAR – MANUFACTURING AND OIL & GAS SECTOR FOCUS

We would like to invite you to an upcoming technical event focusing on security and mobility for manufacturing and oil and gas customers.  The aim of the event is to inform you about our security and mobility solutions specific to your vertical industry, to maximise the productivity of these solutions within your business.  The agenda for the session will be as follows:

  • Cisco Security & Mobility Strategy
  • Cisco Secure Ops Solution
  • Cisco Security for SCADA/OT Networks
  • Cisco Wireless Networks for Manufacturing
  • Cisco Location Tracking
  • Case Studies for Security & Mobility in Manufacturing
  • Wrap Up and Q&A

The sessions will be taking place in 2 locations – Bedfont Lakes near London, and Amsterdam.  The Bedfont Lakes session will be held on Thursday 2nd July (from 9am until 1pm), and the Amsterdam session will take place on Tuesday 7th July (from 9am until 1pm).  Both sessions will be held in the Cisco office at these locations, and a light lunch will be provided.

 

Please go to this link below to register to attend:

https://www.ciscofeedback.vovici.com/se.ashx?s=6A5348A77DE44A10

Please register no later than Friday 26th June to confirm your place at one of these events.

 

CISCO INTRODUCES NEW CLOUD AND IOT CERTIFICATIONS TO ADDRESS KEY IOE SKILLS

To help enterprise professionals develop the key skills needed as a result of the Internet of Everything

(IoE), today, Cisco announced new IoT and Cloud-focused career certifications. Available globally, the new Cisco® Certified Network Associate (CCNA) and Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) certifications expand Learning@Cisco’s industry leading portfolio, helping customers develop the critical skill sets needed for these technologies.

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1644181

Join Cisco IT for technical sessions, panel discussions and global webinars.  Our IT experts share their insight, technical acumen and first hand experiences deploying and using Cisco products that yield tangible business benefits. You can also find Cisco IT subject matter experts at industry trade shows, conferences, and Cisco events worldwide.

Why not take a look inside Cisco IT?  Find out how Cisco addresses many of the same IT challenges you face every day :

http://www.cisco.com/go/ciscooncisco

 

Recent Webinars

INSIDE CISCO IT: ENABLING THE COLLABORATION CULTURE

Reviewing technical solutions like Collaboration Edge, Jabber, and video conferencing.  This talk focuses on video conferencing for mobile and remote workers using a VPN-less solution to deliver a simple, seamless video collaboration experience for the user.

May 20, 2015      View Recording

 

INSIDE CISCO IT: IOE INTELLECTUAL ASSET FRAUD PROTECTION

A review of Cisco IT’s current IoE Program status, progress, and plans, along with an introduction to the

Intellectual Asset Fraud Protection Use Case – and the iCAM capability. April 29, 2015     View Recording

 

TechWiseTV – Cisco’s window to the world :  http://www.cisco.com/go/techwisetv

Subscribe to Cisco’s YouTube channel :           http://cs.co/Subscribe

TechWiseTV examines the technology driving IT strategy and decision-making.  Join hosts Robb Boyd, Jimmy Ray Purser, and their guests in these informative and entertaining videos and online workshops.

CISCO MODELING LABS: A VIRTUAL LAB ENVIRONMENT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS5McaTN2JE&list=PLD8054D02CAB78FBF

GET THE MOST OUT OF WAVE 2 WI-FI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWByHu9CpUU&index=2&list=PLD8054D02CAB78F BF

STOP MALWARE BEFORE IT STRIKES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjevIEchzNI&index=3&list=PLD8054D02CAB78FBF

‪CISCO | HACKERS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA5yJLhL00g&feature=youtube

 

 

GENERAL AVAILABILITY OF THE CATALYST 3850 MULTIGIGABIT 48 PORT SWITCHES

Cisco are excited to announce the General Orderability for the Cisco Catalyst 3850 Multi gigabit 48-port Switches.  As  part  of  the  Catalyst  3850  switches,  the  next  generation  of  enterprise-class  stackable switches that provide full convergence between wired and wireless on a single platform, the Cisco Catalyst 3850 Multigigabit Ethernet Switches support current and next-generation wireless speeds and standards (including 802.11ac Wave 2) on existing cabling infrastructure.

CISCO CATALYST MULTIGIGABIT ETHERNET TECHNOLOGY

Cisco Multigigabit Ethernet is a unique Cisco innovation to the new Cisco Catalyst Ethernet Access Switches. With the enormous growth of 802.11ac and new wireless applications, wireless devices are promoting the demand for more network bandwidth. This creates a need for a technology that supports speeds higher than 1 Gbps on all cabling infrastructure. Cisco Multigigabit technology allows you to achieve bandwidth speeds from 1 Gbps through 10 Gbps over traditional Cat 5e cabling or above.

Cisco Multigigabit technology offers significant benefits for a diverse range of speeds, cable types, and

PoE power. The benefits can be grouped into three different areas:

  • Multiple speeds:  Cisco  Multigigabit  technology  supports  auto-negotiation  of  multiple speeds on switch ports. The supported speeds are 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps, and 5 Gbps on Cat 5e cable and up to 10 Gbps over Cat 6a cabling.
  • Cable type: The technology supports a wide range of cable types, including Cat 5e, Cat 6, and Cat 6a or above.
  • PoE power: The technology supports PoE, PoE+, and UPOE for all the supported speeds and cable types.

CISCO SMART SOFTWARE MANAGER SATELLITE

Cisco  announces  the  availability  of  the NEW SMART SOFTWARE MANAGER SATELLITE.   Cisco Smart Software Manager satellite is a component of Cisco Smart Licensing and works in conjunction with Cisco Smart Software Manager (CSSM) to intelligently manage customer product licenses, providing near real-time visibility and reporting of Cisco licenses they purchase and consume.

In a typical scenario, customers would be able to view their install base from the CSSM portal using a secured  Internet  connection,  protected  by  various  levels  of  user  authorization  and  encrypted passwords.  In addition, for security sensitive customers who do not want to manage their install base via a direct Internet connection, Smart Software Manager satellite can be installed on the customer premise.  Smart-enabled products communicate and report license consumption to the satellite the same way it would to CSSM.

Smart Software Manager satellite is packaged as an Open Virtualization Format (OVA)  with Just Enough Operating  System  (JEOS),  Smart  Call  Home  Transport  Gateway,  and  the  Smart  Software  Manager satellite itself.

For more information, please review the following links:

NEW ACCESS POINT 1850 & 802.11AC WAVE 2

This week we announced the Cisco Aironet 1850 Access Points – Cisco’s first (but not last) 802.11ac Wave 2 Access points.  For details on this new exciting access point check out the following resources: www.cisco.com/go/ap1850

Wireless 80211ac Wave 2 will be instrumental in driving new deployments as well as network refreshes and will have an impact not only on the wireless network, but also on the wired switching network and beyond. More powerful devices….faster applications…higher  business  impact…means  the  network  better be ready to keep pace. Cisco is leading the way with an end-to-end solution    that    includes    New    Access    points,    New    Wireless

Controllers, and New Aggregation and Backbone Switches that combine with our recently announced

mGig Access Switches to get the network ready for the impact of 802.11ac Wave 2.

http://www.cisco.com/web/solutions/enterprise-networks/accelerating-digital-business.html

 

CISCO CATALYST 3560-CX MULTIGIGABIT AND POE PASS-THROUGH SWITCHES ORDERABLE NOW

We are  excited  to  announce the Orderability of the Cisco Compact

3560CX Multigigabit and PoE Passthrough Switches. The new compact switches  extend  your  Catalyst  switching  infrastructure  outside  the wiring closet to build new workspaces.

They deliver advanced networking services, increased scalability, management simplicity and secure access. Watch the Better User workspace with Catalyst switches video here – YouTube Video

Specifically we are announcing the orderability for Cisco Compact 3560CX Multigigabit and PoE Pass- through Switches. Key highlights include :

  • First fanless switch model with Cisco Multigigabit Ethernet technology
  • First UPoE powered switch with POE passthrough technology to power switch and PoE devices without any power cable
  • First in the industry with 240W PoE+ in a fanless switch model with silent operation
  • First fanless switch model with 10G SFP+ uplink ports at line rate forwarding performance
  • Cisco Instant Access mode for a single point of management with 10G SFP+ uplinks (optional)
  • Advanced Layer 2 (LAN Base) and Layer 3 (IP Base) software support with an option to upgrade to

IP Services

  • Cisco TrustSec® support for advanced secure access and control

The compact switches give you the freedom to connect devices anywhere and provide unparalleled flexibility in mounting, orientation, powering and networking connectivity for easier deployment and simpler cable management across many industries including cruise ships, conventions, hotels, retail, education, healthcare and various other applications in the enterprise and IoT.

 

CISCO SWITCH SELECTOR

Cisco delivers a comprehensive portfolio of switching solutions for Enterprise Networks, data centers,

and smaller businesses. These solutions are optimized for a wide range of industries, including service providers, financial services, and the public sector. This new tool will quickly identify the right Cisco switch for your needs—whether you’re acquiring a new switch or upgrading an old one.

Just answer a few simple questions and get your results. It’s that easy, so let’s get started here.

NSS LABS VALIDATES CISCO NGIPS

Attacks evolve. You need defenses you can trust. Leading for the past 6 years, Cisco FirePOWER NGIPS received the highest security effectiveness score, performed at 123% of its claimed throughput, and earned another Recommended rating in this latest test.

Cisco FirePOWER NGIPS delivers the industry’s best multi-layered threat protection at high inspection throughput rates. But don’t take our word for it. The NSS Labs report reveals how Cisco FirePOWER NGIPS achieved leading security effectiveness, total resistance to evasion, and competitive TCO for more “Recommended” ratings than any other vendor tested.

Download the report here

 

IOE & RETAIL

If every click made by a shopper on an online store can be considered valuable information, surely every step taken by a shopper in a physical store is also a similar wealth of data. While clearly this is valuable input that many stores would like to have, the means to collect and process it is not available everywhere. This fact has resulted in a significant gap in the information available in an online as opposed to a physical store.

Can the power of Internet of Everything and real-time analytics bridge this gap? Can it help capture the shopper behaviors using sensors in the store?

Can real-time analytics at the edge transform this data into shopper insights?

Door Traffic: This is the total traffic coming into your store. This metric is very valuable for understanding loyalty, conversion, staffing needs, and much more use cases as highlighted in the Cisco white paper on Retail Analytics. By filtering new and repeat visitors, we can understand your shopper’s loyalty – but when we bring together this data with point of sale data, it helps us to understand conversion. When we correlate this with marketing campaigns, it helps you get a sense of your store’s and campaign’s effectiveness.

Dwell Time: This is the time that your shoppers are spending in the store and in different areas of the store. It highlights the engagement of shoppers with your products and displays. For example, this metric can be used to understand products that are getting more attention from your shoppers, or can be used to determine more advanced metrics, such as balk rates and predicted wait times.

Demographics: This is the breakdown of segments among your shoppers. The granularity of this data can vary and can provide insights for customer segmentation and the ever changing dynamics of your shoppers, helping you to match shopper preferences and targeted promotions.

The Cisco Connected Analytics for Retail solution focuses on making this journey easier for retailers to capture the data and derive insights. Leveraging Wi-Fi, video, social, PoS, and other sensor data, and bringing together the power of real-time edge analytics, the solution provides retailers a 3D view of their shoppers.

 

STAAS IOE SOLUTION DEMONSTRATORS AT RAILTEX 2015

Co-funded  by  Innovate  UK  and  RSSB,  StaaS  is  an  award-winning  two-year  collaborative  innovation project with the goal of creating a new technical, operational and commercial model for future stations. Based on real-life user scenarios, StaaS will address the connectivity demands of four groups: security providers, train operators, retailers and passengers. By converging various technologies such as Building Management, Internet of Things and Big Data, StaaS will benefit all groups involved.

At three UK train stations – small, medium and large – StaaS will make the value-add of shared data visible  and  exploitable.  StaaS  will  converge  disparate  subsystems  onto  a  single,  IP-based  network, allowing for development and testing of a holistic architecture with centralised management. This will enable operators to move from closed systems to a co-operative, shared structure. It will also provide a blueprint for improving customer experience.

StaaS will provide an open, extensible architecture that will allow for the participation of SMEs and start- ups in the innovation process.

The demonstration consisted of 3 main areas

  • StaaS Physical Security Application: Developed by Bronze Labs to convey real-time passenger assistance at future railway stations.
  • StaaS iServices Networked Kiosk: Developed by Grassfish to deliver customised content based on real-time data for Colchester Station operations
  • StaaS Ruban IoE Remote Asset Condition Monitoring Application: Developed by Davra Networks to drive efficiencies and profitability by collecting and collating real time data from assets all across the station, trackside and on-board infrastructure which can then be analysed and acted upon from the business intelligence received.

For more information please see

http://www.ciscocreate.co.uk/staas/

 

Collaboration News

COLLABORATION 11.0 : EXPERIENCE, SIMPLICITY, UBIQUITY

When Cisco talks to customers about collaboration and communication, we ask how they work today. Then  we  ask  how  they’d  like  to  work  in  the future  –  and  what  tools  and  capabilities  they  want. Sometimes the things they want are simple, sometimes they’re more complex. But we take them all seriously – and we take them to our development teams to build into our product roadmap.

With  Release  11.0,  we’re  continuing  to  deliver  more  capabilities  and  value  around  these  themes,

starting with the user experience.

  • Experience: Provide a delightful user experience that makes collaboration a natural and integral part of any workday, helping people be more productive.
  • Simplicity: Reduce the time to first call or meeting with a complete solution that is simple to buy, deploy, manage, and use.
  • Ubiquity: Extend the collaborative environment beyond organizational boundaries to include customers, partners, and mobile workers.

 

Conferencing: Multi-streaming is a new feature that allows certain Cisco endpoints to generate and/or receive concurrent video streams of differing resolutions and frame rates. Cisco TelePresence Server’s ability to intelligently switch and transcode streams provides a flexible, high-quality user experience regardless of endpoint or software client.

In the latest version of Cisco Jabber, a single mouse click lets you move a multiparty IM conversation into a videoconference hosted on TelePresence Server, WebEx, or CMR Cloud.

CMR Cloud now includes “mobile proximity join,” which automatically tells the endpoint to dial into a meeting, driving faster meeting starts.

Customer Collaboration: The new IP Phone Agent feature for Cisco Finesse provides agent functionality on Cisco IP phones without a separate agent desktop. Agents can use the phone for tasks including signing in or out, or indicating readiness for incoming calls. The Customer Care Context Service feature provides cloud-based storage, tagging, and customer-interaction data management (phone calls, emails, chats, and texts). With it, organizations can better understand a customer’s journey and provide more personalized service.

Endpoints: Two new members of the 8800 Series IP Phones support highly affordable entry to

720pHD video and Cisco Intelligent Proximity for Mobile Voice. Intelligent Proximity for Content Sharing (Cisco Proximity) lets you automatically pair your device (smartphone, tablet, or laptop) with Cisco room-based endpoints when in range. Once paired, control the video and use your device to view and save snapshots of shared content.

Simplicity Unified Communications: The new configure-to-order process simplifies ordering and deployment of Business Edition 6000.

Conferencing: Cisco TelePresence Server takes advantage of the new MM410v and MM820 hardware platforms to increase scale and improve cost effectiveness. These offerings simplify the system administrator’s ability to meeting an organization’s video conferencing requirements.

Previously, administrators had to manage screen licenses locally on each TelePresence Server.

WebEx Conferencing has enhanced notifications and controls to make meetings even easier for attendees, and we’ve given the administrator a brand new look and feel to enable easier and faster management of users

Customer Collaboration: Cisco Contact Center Express and Customer Voice Portal support for IPv6 dual-network mode simplifies migration from IPv4.

Ubiquity Unified Communications: Cisco have made several improvements to our Collaboration Edge portfolio. Expanded mobile and remote Access support for 7800, 8800, and DX Series endpoints and third-party devices let you connect to UC Manager from outside the firewall via secure VPN-less access.

We also enhanced Microsoft Lync interoperability by supporting Microsoft’s proprietary version of H.264 SVC. Cisco Expressway now allows all participants in a TelePresence Server conference to share content. Not only can Cisco endpoints share with Lync users, but also desktop Lync clients can share to Cisco endpoints.

These are just some highlights of Cisco’s Collaboration System Release 11.0.  For more details, please visit our CSR page as well as our Collaboration solution page.
JABBER SDK – GET EARLY ACCESS TO THE NEW VERSION

A new release of the Jabber SDK for Web (voice and video) is coming soon, and we invite you to join the Early Access Program to get to use it before it’s officially released.   The highly sought-after

capabilities of VPN-less firewall/NAT traversal and Single Sign-On (SSO) using SAML are included, and are planned to be available on Windows and Mac.  Embed Voice, Video and IM Click to X capability in line of business applications.

Find out more about the new Jabber SDK and the Early Adopter Program

WEBEX ON APPLE WATCH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8ofrhDOYFM

 

LOCATE AND ACCESS REMOTE EXPERTS

Cisco has a fabulous solution in this space and we entreat you to read further on some of the benefits of this technology and how it can improve the customer interaction experience.  Furthermore, the latest design guide in this space, developed in August of last year, neatly summarises how to pull all these different technologies together. More and more customers in different sectors are taking advantage of this technology to differentiate their customer engagements in the respective markets they compete in. The classic use case is a bank wanting to differentiate its service offering by providing scheduled immersive video calls between its customers and specialised mortgage advisers, dramatically increasing the customer facing time of its scarce and valuable people – the advisors, with the banks precious perspective new customers.

 

This model though could be just as applicable to the oil and gas industry, whose greying workforce of experienced oilmen (and women) are feeling less inclined to jet around the world fixing problems or designing and building complex machinery.   However, their input and consultation is invaluable to bringing projects in on time and under budget.

Benefits & Proof Points

Identify, locate, and connect with experts for advisory services whenever and wherever they are needed using high-quality audio and video for a compelling communications experience.

Go to the Collaboration Use Case Tool & Resources www.cisco.com/go/collaboration


Data Center News

ANNOUNCING ORDERABILITY OF THE NEXUS 7702 SWITCH

The Nexus team is excited to announce that the Cisco Nexus 7702 Switch is now orderable. This is the latest and most compact addition to the Cisco Nexus 7700 Series modular switch family.

The Nexus 7702 Switch which supports all Nexus 7700 F3 modules shipping today, provides the same robust, proven, and innovative feature set as any other Nexus 7700 switch in a compact form factor. The compact size and operational consistency make the Nexus 7702 a great choice for :

  • The aggregation layer of small data centres
  • The interconnection of small remote site to the primary/main site(s)
  • The deployment of ITD and RISE in a dedicated small “service chassis”

To unlock these use cases the Nexus 7702 will require NX-OS 7.2 targeted for release by the end of June 2015. http://wwcisco.com/c/en/us/products/switches/nexus-7000-series-switches/index.html

ANNOUNCING CISCO PRIME DCNM 7.1(2)

This is the first Maintenance Release (MR) for the 7.1.x program and is now the recommended release for all customers using Dynamic Fabric Automation/Stand-Alone Fabric. It is also the first release for consideration of DCNM for SAN users migrating from DCNM 6.x to DCNM 7.x.

  • This release is a maintenance release to close open caveats.  Please see the updated DCNM 7.1 release notes for significant, closed caveats.
  • Updated H/W & S/W support for Nexus 2K, Nexus 3K, Nexus 5K and Nexus 7K,  Nexus 7000 F3 Line Card – Refer to the updated DCNM 7.1 release notes for H/W and S/W compatibility update.
  • This Maintenance Release updates all formats including OVA, ISO and hosted (Windows/ Redhat) installer binaries. See the DCNM Software Download page for immediate access.

 

NOW SHIPPING – NX-OS 7.2(0)N1(1) – NEXUS 5500, NEXUS 5600 & NEXUS 6000 PLATFORMS

The NX-OS Product Team is excited to announce the CCO posting of NX-OS 7.2(0)N1(1). The NX-OS

7.2(0)N1(1) release delivers new programmability and automation features for the Nexus 5500, Nexus

5600 and Nexus 6000 products in the Nexus Fixed Family of Switches, adding to the Programmable

Fabric offering from the Nexus Family of Data Center Switches

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus6000/sw/release/notes/7x/Nexus6000_Relea se_Notes_7x.html

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/switches/nexus-5000-series-switches/index.html

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/switches/nexus-2000-series-fabric-extenders/index.html

The NX-OS 7.2.0N1(1) release also supports new licenses for the :

 

ANNOUNCING AVAILABILITY OF CISCO APIC RELEASE 1.1(1J) AND CISCO NX-OS RELEASE 11.1(1J)

Cisco is excited to announce the general availability of  Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Release 1.1(1j) and Cisco NX-OS Release 11.1(1j) for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series ACI-Mode Switches. This release delivers several key features spanning areas including virtualization, network   routing protocols, L4-L7 services, security and troubleshooting.

This release enables the following ACI capabilities:

  • ACI Spine: N9K-C9516: Cisco Nexus 9516 (Support  slots 1-8 only)
  • FEX: N2K-C2348UPQ: 48 100Mῖ/1/10 Gigabit Ethernet and Unified Port host interfaces (SFP+) and up to 6ῖ QSFP+ 10/40 Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces.
  • Cisco   ACI   for   the   Microsoft   private   cloud:    ACI   integration   with   Microsoft   System Center/AzurePack allows new cloud services for tenants and enterprise applications
  • External connectivity: Support for eBGP (v4/v6), OSPFv3, iBGPv6, EIGRP
  • IPv6 (data-plane): Support for tenant addressing, contracts, shared services, routing
  • Security: Micro-segmentation and Distributed Firewall with AVS
  • ACI fabric  as  a  transit  domain:  Enables   border  routers  to  perform  bi-directional  route distribution with other routing domains, including route peering with service appliances
  • Troubleshooting/GUI: New wizard for troubleshooting, capacity dashboard, heat map, etc.
  • Scale: Profile based multi-dimensional scale enhancements

For more information on ACI  visit     www.cisco.com/go/aci.

 

CONFIGURE AND USE CISCO FLEXFLASH SECURE DIGITAL CARDS ON CISCO UCS SERVERS

This document provides instructions on configuring and using Cisco® FlexFlash Secure Digital (SD) cards on Cisco UCS® B-Series Blade Servers and C-Series Rack Servers. This document is divided into two major sections discussing the two operating modes for the servers:

  • Cisco UCS Manager mode can be used for Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers and C-Series Rack Servers that are integrated into the Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS).
  • Standalone mode can be used for standalone Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers.

Note the following definitions are specific to this document:

  • Mirror pair: Data on two identically sized SD cards is copied exactly across the cards. Note that automatic rebuilding will not occur. The user must manually initiate rebuilding if one of the SD cards fails.
  • Autosynchronization (Auto Sync): Data on two identically sized SD cards is copied exactly across the cards. Automatic rebuilding will occur upon replacement of an existing card with a new blank SD card.
  • RAID and RAID1: In some images in this document, Cisco UCS Manager and Cisco Integrated Management Controller (IMC) interfaces refer to “RAID.” However, with SD cards, RAID actually refers to the mirror definition. SD card will not be automatically rebuild unless Auto Sync is enabled.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack- servers/whitepaper-c11-734876.html

 

LISP VALIDATED DESIGN FOR DATA CENTRE MIGRATIONS

Cisco is pleased to publish a new whitepaper LISP validated design for data center migrations. LISP can significantly simplify and accelerate data center migrations. Customers who have adopted the solution presented on this whitepaper were able to execute a DC migration with a much lower risk and much faster. In fact some of them expect to reduce the migration time window by up to 95%.

The solution described on the whitepaper makes use of LISP running on Cisco’s ASR 1000 routers. The benefits delivered include :

  • Ability to de-couple the server migration activities (planning, affinity group migration, schedules, cut-overs etc.) from network constraints.
  • IP address mobility: IP address, subnet mask, default gateway and hostname of migrated servers do not need to change.
  • Small migration waves: solution enables even single server migration (if required), or the migration of a small group of servers.
  • Lower hardware cost than alternative solution, just four devices required for a two DC migration.

For full details of the solution, including detailed configuration and deployment considerations, please refer to the whitepaper. To download the whitepaper visit

http://lisp.cisco.com/docs/LISP_DC_Migration_Whitepaper.pdf

 

CISCO ITD WINS THE BEST OF INTEROP 2015 IN DATA CENTER CATEGORY

Watch this 4 minute video interview of Samar Sharma, Manager of ITD Software Development, by

Information Week News Desk.  Read the article by Network Computing on Cisco Intelligent Traffic Director and the rest of the winners.

 

CISCO ANNOUNCES NEW SAN PRODUCTS

The new Cisco MDS 9396S Multilayer Fabric Switch, the new Extended 16G FICON capabilities, and the new SAN management enhancements was announced on May 21 and target availability is July 2015. Also announced is the new 40G Converged Ethernet for Nexus 7700 and Nexus 7000 Series switches will be available in June 2015.

 

CISCO SIMPLIFIES SERVICE PROVIDER NETWORK SERVICES MANAGEMENT

Cisco EPN Manager Provides Multi-layer, Multi-domain Management of Transport, Ethernet, NFV and Service Provider Wi-Fi Solutions

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1646014

 

FIND AND FIX PROBLEMS FASTER WITH NEW SPLUNK INTEGRATION FOR CISCO UCS

IT infrastructures are increasingly complex and include a broad range of technologies and platforms hosted  in  physical,  virtual  and  cloud  environments.  Cisco  UCS  has become  a  world  leading  server platform in large part because the unique UCS architecture enables organization to harness the power of virtualization and dramatically simplify infrastructure management.

The Splunk add-on for Cisco UCS allows a Splunk Enterprise administrator to collect UCS performance, inventory, and fault data from Cisco UCS Manager using the UCS XML API. All the data is and can be integrated  with  other  Splunk  applications for products  such  as  Cisco ASA  Firewalls  or  Cisco  Nexus Switches or Microsoft Exchange.

Last November, Ragu Nambiar blogged about a joint reference architecture with Splunk that improves performance up to 25x over the Splunk reference hardware.

Cisco  also  published  a   Solution Brief. Look for updates on the reference architecture from Ragu soon

 

MEETING THE DEMAND FOR CLOUD TECHNOLOGY SKILLS

What makes the cloud such an attractive option for enterprises? The cloud empowers IT to act as a broker of business critical IT services. It helps the organization become a more proactive player that can aggregate, integrate, and customize the delivery of cloud services to meet specific  business needs. Instead of owning the entire IT value chain, IT can make, build or buy decisions in the context of IT services sourcing recommendations.

Businesses in every industry are rapidly embracing the cloud. They want the agility, security, and performance that cloud technology delivers. And they want the flexibility to deploy their choice of workloads securely to the cloud. This growing demand for cloud services is creating new opportunities for cloud providers and driving new job roles and responsibilities.

Analysts predict that there will be 7 million new cloud- related jobs worldwide. To help individuals prepare for changes within the IT organization, Learning@Cisco is introducing the cloud certification track to its industry leading CCNA and CCNP portfolios.  The new Cloud Certifications enable professionals to build private and hybrid cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service.

Learn from the only company that has an end-to-end cloud, IoT and security story; read more about these new offerings here:

http://www.cisco.com/go/cloudcerts

For more information on the news, please visit:

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1644181

 

EOS/EOL Notifications

CUCM 8.5 AND 8.6 END OF SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE – 26TH JULY 2015

Cisco originally announced the end-of-sale and end-of-life dates for the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Versions 8.5 and 8.6 on January 25th, 2014.  The last date that Cisco Engineering may release any final software maintenance releases or bug fixes is 26th July 2015. After this date, Cisco Engineering will no longer develop, repair, maintain, or test the CUCM 8.5 and 8.6 product software.

Customers are encouraged to migrate to the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Version 9.2 or later. Information about this product can be found at :

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps556/index.html.

 

CISCO FIRESIGHT MANAGEMENT CENTER CROSS-SITE SCRIPTING VULNERABILITY

A vulnerability in the Cisco FireSIGHT Management Center could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to perform cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

The vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation of some parameters passed via HTTP GET or POST methods. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by intercepting the user packets and injecting malicious code. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary script code in the context of the affected site or allow the attacker to access sensitive browser-based information.

Cisco has confirmed the vulnerability; however, software updates are not available. http://tools.cisco.com/security/center/viewAlert.x?alertId=38883

 

IOS ANNOUNCEMENT ON 4/30/2015 FOR ASR1001, ASR1002, ESP5, ESP10, SIP10, RP1

On 20th May 2015 Cisco announced the end-of-sale and end-of-life dates for the Cisco ASR 1000 Series 5- and 10-Gbps Embedded Services Processors, ASR 1000 Series Route Processor (RP1), ASR 1000 Series

10Gbps SPA Interface Processor, and ASR 1001 and 1002 Routers. http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/routers/asr-1000-series-aggregation-services- routers/eos-eol-notice-c51-734572.html

 

CISCO CATALYST 6500 SERIES SWITCHES IPSEC TUNNEL HANDLING DENIAL OF SERVICE VULNERABILITY

A vulnerability in the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) subsystem of the Cisco WS-IPSEC-3 service module could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to cause a reload of the Catalyst switch.

The vulnerability is due to insufficient bounds checks on a specific message during the establishment of an IPsec tunnel. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by establishing an IKE session and sending the offending packet during subsequent negotiations. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause a denial of service by forcibly reloading the switch.

Cisco has confirmed the vulnerability; however, software updates are not available. http://tools.cisco.com/security/center/viewAlert.x?alertId=39233

 

 

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