The public Internet and the cloud shouldn’t mix, according to a paper out today. Cisco seems to agree if its CloudVerse suite of products is any indication. A growing number of endpoints and multiple services in web apps required dedicated and intelligent networks. Read more »
For the occasion of Siemens’ swallowing eMeter, we have pulled together our recurring smart grid acquisitions list, including the new ones we have seen in recent months. Read more »
Wikileaks today released a database of tech providers that are involved in government tracking around the globe and quite a few familiar names are on the list, including Alcatel Lucent, Nokia and Cisco. Called The Spy Files, the project includes 287 records. Read more »
According to data released today as part of Cisco’s Global Cloud Index, traffic over data center networks will reach 4.8 zettabytes a year by 2015, and cloud computing will account for one-third of it, or 1.6 zettabytes. That’s more than all the Internet will handle. Read more »
Here’s the smart grid world according to Cisco and nine points you should know about Cisco’s smart grid goals. Read more »
IBM is the latest amongst a growing list of hardware makers to release networking gear based on the OpenFlow network protocol. A new 10 GigE switch is going to target cloud/ datacenter markets and compete aggressively with rivals that would include HP and Cisco. Read more »
We often ascribe life-changing powers to high-speed Internet connections in our personal lives, but can they cure cancer? The Chan Soon-Shiong Institute for Advanced Health thinks so, and it’s investing hundreds of millions of dollars in a nationally distributed computing system to make it happen. Read more »
Ericsson released a report today about mobile data consumption today that gives a clear picture about how pricing for mobile broadband will change as well as how cultural norms will shift as wireless networks become more popular and prevalent. Check out the charts inside. Read more »
Another day, another gear maker getting into the broadband data prediction game, with Ericsson prognosticating that mobile data traffic will be 10 times what it is today by 2015 at 3.5 exabytes per month. This is about half of rival gear maker Cisco’s guesstimates. Read more »
We’ve long believed that the future of video discovery will be based on personalized search results and recommendations, which will offer up videos users might be interested in based on what they’ve already watched. Digitalsmiths hopes to make that a reality with its Seamless Discovery technology. Read more »
The second chapter of the Cisco 2011 Connected World Technology Report shows that young workers are weighing their job decisions based on factors like social media access, choice of device and the desire for remote working arrangements, which can trump salary considerations in some cases. Read more »
With myriad applications fighting for limited gigabytes on a mobile broadband plan or multiple users fighting for access to a wired home connection, what broadband users need is a connectivity thermostat that they can use to control how they can access their ISP’s pipes. It’s coming. Read more »
The mobile industry is in trouble. Its networks are expensive to run. Retail customers want cheap pipes. At a conference Wednesday, a Verizon executive detailed the problem and explained how he wants to use OpenFlow and software-defined networking to lower his costs. Read more »
Cisco has agreed to acquire startup BNI Video for $99 million in cash. The deal is the latest acquisition Cisco has made to bolster its Videoscape portfolio, and it will extend its offerings for enabling network operators to delivering IP video streams. Read more »
Qwilt is coming to market with a product to help network operators manage huge amounts of video traveling over their networks. It’s doing so with some serious backing from big-name investors, having raised $24 million from Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Crescent Point Group and others. Read more »
Nicira, the not-so-stealthy startup working in the network virtualization space was “outed” Monday by the New York Times as a secret startup pursuing the next hot trend in computing. But the article overstated Nicira’s secretiveness and perhaps its role as network virtualization hits the mainstream. Read more »
Last quarter we highlighted the fast maturation of the Platform-as-a-Service and big data spaces. Those two trends only picked up speed during the third quarter of 2011. Joining them on the cusp of IT greatness, though, are the OpenStack project and flash storage. The former gathered serious validation from big-name companies, while the latter saw less funding than last quarter but a significant number of product launches. Of course, the third quarter wasn’t all lollipops and rose petals. We saw new computing technologies and delivery models such as tablets wreak havoc on both HP and Cisco, and there are concerns (aren’t there always?) about how the Internet will handle our increased use of streaming video and cloud computing. Unfortunately for HP and Cisco, the latter problem might be an easier fix than the strategic woes facing them. Additional companies mentioned in this report include CloudBees, Rackspace, Engine Yard and Joyent. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Last quarter’s big headline in social media and real-time technologies came from Google, which launched Google+, its first social tech product that seems legit. In the third quarter, things were back to normal. Google+ is still growing, but Facebook’s platform update dominated the news. And as Google+ passed 25 million users and won some raves from the digerati, its competition with Facebook intensified. Additional companies mentioned in this report include Zynga, Salesforce, BranchOut and Foursquare. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
As the OpenStack project moves into its second year and more companies evaluate the open-source cloud technology, prospective users have some requests. Documentation, for one. A longer-term roadmap, for another. A more formal process for submitting and receiving feedback, for yet another. Read more »
In the coming year, Wi-Fi is going to become a much more vital part of the plan for mobile carriers transforming them from providers of cellular voice and data to purveyors of connectivity thanks to a new Wi-Fi roaming standard in the works. Read more »
Microsoft, still a server virtualization also-ran, gets key third-party support for its Windows Server 8/ Hyper-V tandem from NEC America, Cisco and OpenNebula. With a little help from its friends, it hopes to dislodge VMware as the kingpin of server virtualization. Read more »
Despite Cisco ditching its home and building energy management products, the router giant is still focusing on the smart grid. Cisco’s CEO and SVP of Connected Energy on Tuesday discussed the importance of using social networks as a third leg of the smart grid. Read more »
Employees love using their own devices to do corporate work, but the practice, known as consumerization, is rife with security risks. Speaking today at Mobilize, Cisco’s Tom Gillis said consumerization is causing a fundamental rearchitecture of how networks look that requires a reimagining of security solutions. Read more »
As our demand for data increases, so too do the number of mobile devices and services. Add to that the infrastructure needed to support such connectivity, and a wide, complex picture of the mobile industry emerges. This report examines the various sectors of the mobile landscape and what the future holds for each. Hardware, cloud services, mobile search, advertising, location-based services and the growing ubiquity of the Internet of Things will all play an important role in the concept of mobility as it shifts and evolves over the next several years. With the help of more than a dozen contributors, GigaOM Pro presents a comprehensive analysis of the companies and trends that will lead us into the next era of mobile. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Thanks to the web and social media, interruptions have become not just a way of life, but a way to work according to data out from Cisco. We’re conducting more work in smaller increments, but why are we still using the billable hour? Read more »
The spectrum shortage, backed by scary stats from Cisco, is the rationale for a $39-billion merger the Justice Department is currently fighting. The running narrative is we want to use a ton of data but our airwaves can’t handle it. But what if we shared? Read more »
Intel is very serious about low power chips, although it won’t have them until 2013. The company showed off the long-rumored Haswell chips at its developer forum on Tuesday, which it says can can run all day and offer a 20x reduction in power. Read more »
Cisco said its sales would grow by 5 to 7 percent through 2014, cutting its revenue growth in half, and signaling the end of its massive restructuring effort at an analyst day Tuesday. The move sent the stock up, but Cisco isn’t out of the woods. Read more »
Last week, Viadeo, “the LinkedIn of France” and a GigaOM Euro 20 company, introduced an API via a developer contest. Comparing Viadeo’s and LinkedIn’s strategies and outlook will help marketers and potential partners prioritize their ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Social media is playing an increasing role in enterprise IT, with companies like Jive Software and Telligent jockeying with IBM, Microsoft and Cisco to tap into corporate IT spending. Today, they build social platforms customers use for both employee collaboration and consumer marketing objectives. Vendors need ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The buzz around OpenFlow is increasing with a few case studies out last month, some fundings and a new beta product from a vendor pushing a software-defined network controller. And now there’s a developing programming language for virtualized networks, called Frenetic. Read more »
The world of networking is changing, thanks to shifting traffic patterns, more widely distributed webscale systems and the economic need for the networking world to catch up to where the computing and server world is today. This trend toward networking virtualization has huge implications for vendors such as Cisco, Juniper, Arista, Dell and Intel, but it also could become the foundation for an entire new ecosystem of startups and value creation, much like what the creation of the hypervisor did for computing. In this research note we look at what network virtualization is, why we’re moving toward it, what OpenFlow is and what the opportunities are for companies, both large and small, beyond that technology. Additional companies mentioned in this report include Facebook, SeaMicro and Zynga. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Cisco’s ongoing retrenchment in its core markets looks like it may need a boost when it comes to enterprise telephony systems. The communications giant has lost market share in the IP telephony market to Avaya in the last few quarters. Read more »
VMware this morning announced VXLAN, the company’s attempt to allow virtual machines to span geographical data centers as part of the same LAN. Herrod said it will create “software-based networks that can be created on-demand, enabling enterprises to leverage capacity wherever it’s available.” Read more »
Cisco said today it was buying a little-known collaboration software company, Versly for an undisclosed amount. Versly makes it easy to collaborate inside Microsoft Office products. This seems like an acq-hire, aka a large company buying small players for their skills. Read more »
Peddling home energy management gear and software successfully is harder than it seems, and big companies such as Microsoft and Cisco are ditching this market. EnergyHub is staying and on Thursday announced a $14.5 million round to help it sell products and services to consumers. Read more »
There’s nothing like a face-to-face conversation, but that hasn’t stopped businesses and technologists from bridging the distance that separates us using telephones, video conferencing, fancy robots, and now wormholes, to give the illusion of being there. So what do these services need to succeed? Read more »
Without thinking about the SLA it’s impossible to compare costs between clouds. An enterprise gigabyte comes with a whole host of services around it, while Amazon’s does not. So while it seems like cost per gigabyte is a good measure, it’s not. Here’s why. Read more »
Google rocked the mobile world on Monday, August 15, with the news that it will buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, marking a 63-percent premium for the handset manufacturer. It’s a move that ushers Google into the exclusive club of companies that control both the hardware and software elements of their smartphone offerings, and it will enable Google to design handsets that are more closely integrated with Android. However, the deal doesn’t come without its risks, and it remains to be seen just how it will affect other handset makers, competition from Microsoft and the crucial patent issues currently surrounding Google. Companies mentioned in this report include Apple, Research In Motion and Samsung. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The shift in networking and the hype around the OpenFlow protocol has led to a a lot of confusion and overinflation of what OpenFlow can do. To get a bit more grounded in reality, I spoke with NEC about what its customers are doing. Read more »
