TechGalaCisco Showcase 2008
Cisco offers next-gen IT solutions
Clockwise from left: Cisco IP Phone with Cisco Unified Communication system on display, a Cisco engineer demonstrates the solutions to the crowd, Arun Shetty, manager, Systems Engineering, Cisco India and SAARC speaks at the event and Harsh Deep Marwah, National Business Development Manager – Govt & Defense, Cisco India & SAARC makes his presentation.
It was a cold winter morning on January 14. Tech gurus, business executives and enthusiasts rushed to Cisco Showcase 2008 (CS 2008), an enchanting tech exposition by Cisco at Radisson Water Garden Hotel in Dhaka. Cisco is a leading network equipment manufacturer and solution provider that has started its operation in 1984 by the collective initiative of a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University. Since then Cisco has been involved in the development of internet and invented promising technologies that keeps alive the global data communication network. The prime target of CS 2008 was to introduce local industries to next generation network technologies. Cutting-edge networking solution is crucial to streamlining business processes, enhancing productivity and improving customer relations. This year the CS 2008 was divided into several segments such as insightful business sessions, incisive examinations of strategic IT issues, informative technical discussions, compelling keynote speech, live demos of advanced and emerging technologies, comprehensive overviews of Cisco technologies (Connected Banking, Smart Biz Communication Solutions, Secure Network Foundation and Datacenters) etc. At CS 2008, Cisco Waas (Wide Area Application Services) was demonstrated which empowers modern business activities. Waas is a powerful application acceleration and WAN optimisation solution for the branch office that improves the performance of any TCP-based application operating in a WAN environment. Cisco Waas enables IT organisations to restructure their installations by consolidating costly branch-office servers and storage into centrally managed data centres and deploy new applications directly from a data centre while still offering LAN-like application performance for any employee regardless of location. "Through this showcase we would like to introduce Cisco's new age technologies to empower the modern businesses and at the same time provide enriched security," said Arun Shetty, manager, Systems Engineering, Cisco India and SAARC, while speaking at the event. In addition, this solution from Cisco also offers lower total cost of ownership (TCO), ease of operation through network transparency, reliable deployment with enterprise applications, better VoIP quality, and ensures security of accelerated traffic. The Cisco Waas effectively improves the performance of file sharing and software distribution. The CS 2008 also exhibited Cisco Secure Network Foundation (CSNF) solution. According to Cisco, the CSNF is a unique solution that adds a new dimension to corporate operation by providing enriched security, simplicity and scalability. Mobility has become an important consideration in modern business, changing the way businesses work. The CSNF helps a business by making information and business applications accessible, anywhere, anytime. In all sorts of business operation, instant result is highly desirable to acquire the ultimate goal. In this regard, real-time interaction, instant messaging, text paging, voice services, network access while travelling, and real-time network access in the office are transforming the business environment. The CSNF enables on-the-road access from venues such as public hotspots, hotels, convention centres, and airports for mobile users and travelling executives. It delivers real-time access to a variety of business environments, providing secure mobility and guest access for business headquarters and branch offices. In mobile business environment, an effective communication system is invaluable in executing all functions efficiently. At CS 2008, Cisco displayed its Smart Business Communications System (SBCS) for small business. The Cisco SBCS paves the way for small business to reach, serve and retain customers. This solution incorporates video, voice and wireless networking technology to conduct effective communication with others. Components that are utilised in this solution are telephony, voice messaging, automated attendant, security, VPN (Virtual Private Network), video, Cisco Catalyst Express 520 series switches, Cisco 521 wireless access point, Cisco 526 wireless express mobility controller, Cisco configuration assistant, Cisco monitor manager and Cisco monitor director. Nowadays convergence between different systems is crucial to gaining optimum benefit from the technology. From this realisation, Cisco unveiled Unified Communication system that integrates industry-leading communications products into a virtualised, full-featured business system that is client-centric and ties next-generation services directly to business processes. Basically, Cisco Unified Communication system combines technology and media-rich environment that facilitate on the way communication through voice, video and data across desktops, portable devices and common business applications. Unlike other communications systems that treat applications, business processes, and the network as disparate components, Cisco Unified Communications takes advantage of the Smart Business Communications framework to provide unprecedented levels of business productivity and operational efficiencies. Cisco Data Centre platform also drew the attention of the corporate world at CS 2008. It is a comprehensive architecture that enables IT executives to consolidate and virtualise computing, storage and networking resources. It also delivers secure and optimised employee, partner and customer access to information and applications. Cisco says it exclusively delivers a complete architecture with advanced services, support and industry leading products. Cisco can help design the optimal end-state data centre architecture and meet each tactical deployment phase of network evolution with the best products and services to achieve it. Cisco Data Centre Network Architecture can be segmented into four key areas such as server fabric, storage area/fabric, data centre interconnect and access network. Server fabric is used to interconnecting servers to create high performance cluster computing. Enterprises are starting to use low-latency interconnects to support parallel and tightly coupled applications that provide financial modelling, fluid dynamics and data mining. Storage area/fabric is used to consolidating and virtualising storage resources so that they can be shared more effectively. Virtual storage area networks (VSANs), and multi protocol storage access through Fibre Channel, Small Computer System Interface over IP (iSCSI), and IBM Fibre Connection (FICON) enable large, heterogeneous storage networks. Support for advanced storage services like virtualisation, serverless backup, data replication, and continuous data protection allow for enhanced business continuance and data migration. Generally data centre interconnect connects the primary data centre to a backup or secondary data centre over optical or traditional WAN circuits. An optical network's inherent featureslow latency, high bandwidth, and high densityare ideal for interconnecting storage area networks (SANs), cluster nodes, and server farms between multiple data centres. When optical networks are not feasible, data centre protocols including Fibre Channel can be transported over IP across traditional WANs. Access network provides secure access to employees, customers, or partners connected remotely over the intranet, internet, or extranet. The majority of users are not located close to the data centre, so robust, secure connectivity to the data centre is mandatory. Since 1998 Cisco's presence in Bangladesh has strengthened the local hi-tech market and met the needs of consumers. Now Cisco is planning to introduce "Select Certification" program for vendors to enrich their service quality. Cisco has already teamed up with several local universities to produce global-standard IT manpower.
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