LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — PDAs, DVRs and smartphones. Grab all of the fancy
gadgets you want.
But the key to allowing people to collaborate via video, voice, data and
mobility is still the network, which is increasingly becoming virtualized to
connect people from any application and any screen.
The network will essentially become the platform as the industry
hurdles toward the so-called Web 2.0 of shared applications and social
networking.
Eventually, virtualization will spread to desktops and other devices in the “Sometimes we’re not smart enough yet to figure out how you know “The intelligence is going to go throughout the “We try to identify those three to five years before they become
Such was the message from Cisco Systems CEO John
Chambers at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo 2006 here today.
“We believe the network will enable all forms of communication…” Chambers
said in a keynote interview moderated by Gartner analysts David Willis and
Tom Bittman.
John Chambers
Source: Cisco
“The virtualization that people ask about, whether it’s voice, data, video,
mobility; whether it’s servers, applications, or storage, will happen in my
opinion.”
Chambers’ prophesying comes at an interesting time for Cisco; the company,
which has built its multi-billion-dollar empire by selling the pipes that
facilitate data over the Internet, is looking to establish new revenue
streams to continue its formidable growth.
For example, to deliver the network-based collaboration Cisco promised, the
company has opened its umbrella to include middleware applications.
The company calls this software scheme application-oriented networking (AON), the core of its service-oriented network
architecture (SONA), for connecting corporations to the Internet through the
network.
The crux of this plan is using virtualization to deliver what Chambers said
is “any stream to any application in any format you want — wireless, fixed,
data, voice, video.”
This virtualization, he said, will occur first in the datacenter, or across
storage, servers and networks, which Cisco has gained through acquisitions
of Andiamo
and Topspin.
home to facilitate collaboration.
To flesh out its AON strategy to the fullest extent, Cisco will partner
vendors such as SAP and IBM
, he said.
Chambers said that Cisco will continue to move “very aggressively” into
middleware and collaboration software and is actively working on new models
to sell the software.
“We’re learning how to sell software and support software,” Chambers said.
“We’re also learning that sometimes our customers would prefer to have it
bundled.
to charge in ways that adds value to customers.”
Though Cisco is extending its tendrils to software, Chambers hardly believes
the plumbing well will dry up. After all, this software will rely on
improved, intelligent routers, directors and switches to deliver data
packets across the network.
“These plumbing pipes are really going to get bigger and faster and more
intelligent,” he said.
network. You’ll have no idea what kind of intelligence sits on the device in
your hand, the server down the hall… The network will enable all aspects
of it.”
Gartner’s Willis also noted that several companies are preaching
intelligence in the network, infrastructure, applications and middleware and
asked Chambers how Cisco plans to compete in this evolving world of
on-demand networks and adaptive enterprises.
Chambers claimed a neutrality despite the fact that Cisco is
looking to cut big slices of the same markets as many of the world’s largest
players.
“We don’t compete against competitors,” Chambers said. “We compete about
identifying market transitions, the tipping point if you will, lifecycle of
the market.
major because it takes us that long to build in ASICS, build in new product
architectures, etc.”
He said Cisco is a safe partner to align with because it dabbles in many
areas and doesn’t “fall in love” with routers or switches or any single aspect
of the networking market.
However, this neutrality could be a tough act to maintain; while
Cisco partners with IBM on several fronts, Big Blue bought
DataPower last year, thrusting itself to the forefront of the AON market.
“We’re really going to paint the picture that Cisco will go across all
communications, all IP, enable entertainment in the home, all the way to
business process implementation,” Chambers said.