SAN JOSE, Calif. – Oct. 29, 2013 – Cisco today announced it has completed the acquisition of privately held WHIPTAIL, a leader in high performance, scalable solid state memory systems that enable organizations to simplify physical and virtual data center environments and process more data in less time. WHIPTAIL will strengthen Cisco's Unified Computing System™ (UCS) strategy and enhance application performance by integrating scalable solid state memory into the UCS's fabric computing architecture.

With the acquisition of WHIPTAIL Cisco is evolving the UCS architecture by integrating data acceleration capability into the compute layer. Integrating WHIPTAIL's solid state memory systems into the computing fabric of UCS will simplify customers' data center environments by delivering the required performance in a fraction of the data center floor space with unified management for provisioning and administration. 

WHIPTAIL employees will be integrated into the Computing Systems Product Group led by Paul Perez, vice president and general manager. Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $415 million in cash and retention-based incentives in exchange for all shares of WHIPTAIL.

BARCELONA, SPAIN – INTERNET OF THINGS WORLD FORUM, Oct. 29, 2013 – Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced a global commitment to educate and empower current and future generations of Internet of Things (IoT) entrepreneurs, scientists and innovators. According to a recent study published by the World Bank, the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector is rapidly growing, with an addressable market of $800 billion globally. Additionally, it is estimated that over the next 10 years there will be two million unfilled ICT-related jobs globally[1], correlating with a projected talent gap of 8.2 percent by 2022. To address this gap, education and training institutions will need to increase the number of technical graduates significantly – 222,000 more each year between 2014 and 2022. Recognizing this projection, Cisco is committed to meeting the critical demand for high-skill workers through strategic programs and collaborations for current and future generations.

Today's announcement reinforces Cisco's investment in education, revealing a new portfolio consisting of IoT curricula, assessments and an upcoming Cisco® Specialist Certification to advance skills development in industrial networking. In collaboration with major industry leaders, this education portfolio will help meet the growing need for specialized talent that can provide Internet Protocol (IP) networking expertise, with a focus in automation, manufacturing and energy, and future expansion to include equally transformative industries. Through this certification program, Cisco and new industry partners will join forces to help to reskill a significant number of individuals in these areas.

In addition to identifying the need to enhance skills of current members of the workforce, Cisco is dedicated to preparing current and future students for the demands of a modern workforce. An enhanced focus on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills is increasingly relevant for graduates to transition into careers in the information technology industry. As such, Cisco also announced today a key alliance with the New York Academy of Sciences. Recognizing the need to empower and educate the next generation of the IoT workforce, Cisco and the New York Academy of Sciences have established the Global STEM Alliance to bring curriculum resources, intergenerational mentorship and access to cutting-edge science and technology research to students around the world. The Country of Malaysia and the City of Barcelona will be the first to join the Alliance. 

Key Highlights:

• Learning@Cisco, along with its partners, will be delivering IoT education courses and certifications that map to new and evolving career opportunities across multiple industries. These world-class programs will help lay a framework for individuals to achieve rewarding careers in IT and industry automation. STEM education collaborations will provide fundamental skills needed to support a sustainable workforce globally. 

• The Global STEM Alliance will allow for the seamless integration of technology and content—effectively linking the New York Academy of Sciences' successful local programs to locations around the world through in-person and online platforms. This partnership will enable sharing of knowledge resources to every corner of the world—humanizing science, through the use of technology, by connecting science-interested people of all ages across geographic boundaries.

• The Cisco Networking Academy program will help individuals prepare for globally recognized certifications and entry-level ICT careers in virtually every type of industry. Students develop foundational skills in ICT while acquiring vital 21st-century career skills such as problem solving, collaboration, and critical thinking. Courses are offered in multiple languages through a blended learning model that combines classroom instruction with online curricula, interactive tools, hands-on activities, and online assessments. The Networking Academy, in collaboration with education institutions, currently reaches over one million students in 165 countries.

MINSK, BELARUS – October 28, 2013 – Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) Belarus, leading mobile service provider in CIS, and Cisco announced a successful launch into commercial operation of a multi-vendor Fiber to the X (FTTx) project. In its framework MTS plans to connect 130,000 Belarusian households to the Internet using high-speed fixed broadband access network. For Cisco it is the first project in the territory of CIS where Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) functionality of Typhoon line cards for Cisco® ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers was used. 

In order to optimize operating expenses (OPEX) and rationalize distribution of investment resources for the FTTx project, MTS set up its core network on the basis of existing transport infrastructure built and actively used for the delivery of 3G services. A unique topology of that network - which has no analogs in Belarus - makes it possible to process huge amounts of data and guarantee high quality of service to end users. 

MTS chose field-proven Cisco ASR 9000 core routers for their exceptional performance combined with rich functionality to satisfy growing demand for bandwidth. Deployment of Cisco ASR 9000 routers expanded the capacity of the MTS transport network, raised the reliability and ensured comprehensive support for the IPv6 protocol.  

Key Facts / Highlights:

• IPv6 was developed to solve the shortage of address space of its predecessor IPv4. IPv4 supports 4.3 billion unique global addresses, while the new protocol supports 3.4 x 10³⁸ = 340 trillion trillion trillion addresses - about 670 quadrillion addresses per square millimeter of the Earth's surface. It means that IPv6 address space is almost unlimited.  
• IPv6 provides end users with a number of benefits – first of all, with a sufficient number of direct static IP addresses needed to identify all user devices in a global network. The protocol makes it possible to supply every end user with a range of unique static addresses as well as assign a whole subnet large enough to support various devices: PCs, sensors, security appliances, video surveillance tools, etc. 
• According to Cisco forecasts, by 2015 there will be almost 15 billion data generating devices in the world. By 2017 fast proliferation of such devices will boost IP traffic to 1.4 zettabytes, which is 14 times more than total global IP traffic in 2008. In this situation service providers must rely on new network technologies and advanced routing solutions capable of handling tremendous traffic growth and support new services.
  

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 23, 2013 – Cisco today announced enhancements to its portfolio of safety and security solutions with video surveillance architectures and new IoT enabled solutions that ease management of millions of connected cameras and devices. The Internet of Things is the next technology transition where devices will allow us to sense and control the physical world by making objects smarter and connecting them through an intelligent network. Video Surveillance Manager 7 (VSM7) provides new capabilities that enable central or multiple operations management of intelligent video surveillance and an open platform for analytics and metadata. 

Organizations are looking to deploy more cameras in more areas to protect citizens, customers, and employees. According to a new report published in the Markets and Markets catalogue, the video surveillance systems and services market is set to reach $36.28 billion by 2018. Organizations need secure and flexible video surveillance architecture to manage the growing number of cameras they are deploying in highly distributed harsh and industrial environments. Cisco VSM 7 adapts to evolving business needs and provides an easy way to manage video, resources, troubleshooting and business intelligence.

Intelligent video surveillance systems are increasingly being used as valuable business tools to mitigate enterprise-wide and global risk and to improve operational processes. By providing a platform where businesses can use their own operational information to improve productivity through analytics and big data, organizations can identify and respond quickly to drive operational efficiencies across different industries, such as healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, oil and gas, and public safety.

Key Highlights

• Cisco VSM7 is delivering three new scalable video architectures providing flexibilities to manage millions of endpoints to meet the challenges increasing business risk.
• Cisco VSM7 also has IoT solution capabilities for business intelligence with analytics and metadata.
• Cisco IP cameras are now smart endpoints providing an application development platform.  Partners participating in the Cisco Developers Network (CDN) program can develop applications that integrate with Cisco IoT solutions.
• An ecosystem of CDN partners are now providing a range of solutions for video analytics, network monitoring, physical security information management (PSIM) and other applications.