Cisco

Overview

Cisco, well-known for its success in supplying the bits and pieces that form a company's network backbone, does not lack for ambition. It has built its router and switch business into a $36 billion behemoth, allowing it to invest in related markets, such as consumer products, unified communications, and data center solutions.

When it comes to cloud computing, Cisco focuses on Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS). On the other hand, it prefers to act as an enabler of cloud services through its data center technologies, which service providers use to build their own infrastructure services (IaaS) for their end-user customers.

Cisco's SaaS offerings include WebEx, for real-time collaboration via the Web to conduct meetings, training and events. Its acquisition of PostPath added email and calendaring to its SaaS portfolio, and its Unified Service Delivery platform is aimed at helping service providers quickly and efficiently bring infrastructure services to market.

All at the same time, Cisco wants to help a companies build and operate their own private clouds - ones that use existing IT resources and can tap into public cloud resources as needed, while control and trust is maintained within the enterprise.

Value Proposition

The Cisco WebEx Collaboration Cloud bridges the WebEx portfolio with an on-demand delivery model. It consists of a private global network of eight data centers around the world, all designed from the ground-up with a carrier-class switching architecture. Customers can collaborate in real-time, using the latest Cisco technology without having to invest in the software or the infrastructure to make it happen.

The Cisco Unified Service Delivery solution enables providers to bring infrastructure services to market more quickly, reduce the cost of deploying IaaS and other services, and meet the quality of service (QoS) and security requirements customers need as part of these offerings. Similarly, through its Unified Computing System, it's pushing companies to adopt private clouds, so an enterprise can maintain control and trust over their IT resources and operations to realize the economic benefits and the added flexibility that are the hallmarks of cloud computing.

Products & Services

• Cisco WebEx Collaboration Cloud is a private network designed specifically for large-scale, real-time collaboration over the internet. It includes enterprise-grade security, high scalability and availability to ensure the delivery of on-demand meetings, training, support and events.
• At its broadest, the Unified Service Delivery Platform is comprised of Cisco's network, storage and compute products coupled with a management tier that "enables the provider to offer portions of the virtual environment to subscribers - on demand, at variable scale, and independent of the physical infrastructure - as if that environment were dedicated to the particular subscriber."
• Elements from the Unified Computing System - consolidation, virtualization and automation - help form the foundation for an enterprise private cloud that can interact with a public cloud to draw additional resources as required. Cisco's vision calls enterprises to create trusted, private clouds that can take advantage of public cloud resources, while adhering to existing policies, service levels and utilizing existing skill sets.