Cisco is proposing a concept called "unified I/O" -- the idea that all of the I/O connections going into or out of a server can be condensed into a single connection. It is part of a larger vision of Cisco's "Data Center 3.0" strategy. If everything has a single connection to a network cloud, all resources can access all the other resources in the cloud. The company notes that to converge traffic onto a single Ethernet connection, the Ethernet fabric has to become lossless for certain types of transmissions. So, Cisco describes a pause mechanism for Ethernet that doesn't halt all traffic - just a certain type. With different traffic types getting their own pause mechanisms, the traffic can coexist on the same link. READ MORE.
Join us right now for a Live Network World chat with Wendell Odom on the topic of Cisco certifications and home labs. Wendell will answer your questions. No registration necessary. Just login at http://www.networkworld.com/chat/
The 10 most interesting entries from the Cisco iPrize contest07/03/08Cisco is famous for its venture capital interests. (The company says it currently has more than $2 billion in venture capital 
investments under management.) But its i-Prize Contest is a little different. Like a reality T.V. show, the winner of the i-Prize will be financed by the router giant for the next two years, Cisco says. Who knows, maybe the winner will be the company's next billion-dollar business? While the contest technically ended on May 3, Cisco is keeping mum about the 12 finalist entries. It says it doesn't want to tip its hand about what ventures it might be interested in. Nevertheless, we scoured the i-Prize Web site to select our own picks of the 10 most interesting projects. (Please note: these are probably not be the finalists.)
Cisco Subnet will be off celebrating U.S. Independence Day on July 4 through July 7. (Yes, Network World is generous with 
a two-day Independence Day holiday for employees.) In honor of the four-day holiday weekend, we rounded up some interesting statistics about Cisco and patriotism:
Cisco subsidiary Linksys introduced a new wireless router today, tailored to the needs of home digital media content especially high-def video.
What's cool about the new WRT610N is that it is a simultaneous dual-N band wireless router that operates in both the 5GHz and 2.4GHz spectrums. Users can connect entertainment-oriented devices, such as a media center extenders, audio players or personal video recorders via the wider 5GHz band.. The 5GHz spectrum is recommended for such high-def content because it provides more than seven times the number of non-overlapping wireless channels, which means clearer transmissions for big media files piped across the wireless network. At the same time users can connect data-oriented devices, like like PCs, print servers or network attached storage, to the 2.4GHz band. The 2.4GHz spectrum is particularly important for older network devices. Lots of wireless routers can connect devices to both bands, but Linksys says that this device can handle all of it -- at full wireless-n network speeds -- on both bands simultaneously.
Cisco became the anchor investor in a venture capital fund that will be focusing on tech startups in Russia and the Commonwealth of 
Independent States (CIS). The fund, Almaz Capital Partners, has been initially stocked with $60 million. Notes the economics blog paidContent.org, this certainly isn't Cisco's first investment in Russia. In April, 2007, it joined Index Ventures which in turned funded etailer Ozon to the tune of $18 million. Cisco says it is eyeing eastern Europe for its anticipated fast growh, particularly in Internet ventures, but also telecom and media. Cisco currently has put more than $2 billion in venture capital investments to work including equity investments in markets such as China, India, Israel and Europe and the U.S, it says.
July giveaways from Cisco Subnet and Microsoft Subnet: win training, books, cash and more
Cisco, others create organization to protect against patent suits06/30/08Cisco is among several vendors banding together to fend off wayward patent licensing organizations, reports the Wall Street Journal. Patent trolls, as they are lovingly referred to by industry 
insiders, are companies that buy intellectual property with the hope of licensing it to others. Firms like Intellectual Ventures, a company founded by a former Microsoft exec, is one example. Giants such as Nokia, Intel, Apple, Sony are all reportedly investors of various such patent organizations. Problem is, some of these patent organizations are at least as interested in suing corporations with deep pockets, claiming patent infringement, as they are in licensing IP.
When you think of convergence, do you tend to think of voice/video/data? In truth a lot of vendors are looking to converge many kinds of networks. For instance, Cisco and Nivis this week showcased an effort to bring sensor networks into the IP fold, with endpoints directly addressable by back-end enterprise applications. So reports John Cox in his Network World blog.
Sneak peek at Summer/Fall 2008 Cisco product quick reference guide BradReese.Com already features 10 years worth of Cisco Product Quick Reference Guides, and soon it will be 11 years with the new Summer/Fall 2008 issue which will begin shipping on ...Read more
Brad Reese is research manager at BradReese.Com, advancing the careers of 1 million certified individuals in the growing Cisco Career Certification Program.
Chat Next Tuesday, CCDE Lab, New CCNA Web Site, EtcWhen writing books, I have to stick to the topic. Blogging (supposedly) can be whatever's on your mind - quite a different beast. Today, I'm hitting a lot of small ...Read more
Wendell Odom, CCIE No, 1624, splits time between writing books for Cisco Press and teaching classes for Skyline ATS. His books include titles on QoS, CCIE R/S, as well as several titles related to CCNA certification, including his newest book Official Exam Certification Library (CCNA Exam 640-802) (Read a sneak peek of chapter 7). Follow Wendell's blog here. More free chapters from other Cisco Press books here.
The Underlying Message of John Chambers Keynote at NetworkersI was impressed by John Chambers keynote at Networkers the week before last, except for his purple tie and pink shirt (what?). But what really struck me was an ...Read more
Morris is a Technical Team Lead and Network Architect at a $3 billion high-tech company. His background is in enterprise WANs working with telcos, and developing large-scale routing designs.
European Union Plans Widespread IPv6 Deployment by 2010The European Commission has previously announced, as a part of their i2010 initiative, an action plan to see IPv6 widely deployed in Europe by 2010. The EC is specific ...Read more
Jeff is president of Jeff Doyle and Associates, an IP networking consultancy, and author of Routing TCP/IP, Volumes I (read an excerpt) and II. Read the transcript of our live online text chat with Jeff entitled "IPv6: Will matter to the enterprise in five years."
Top 5 most valuable skills for security pre-sales engineersAre you thinking of changing careers to security sales engineering? Need some advice on what skills are most needed? Well, here are my top 5. ...Read more
Jamey Heary, CCIE No. 7680, is a security consulting systems engineer at Cisco. Jamey is the author of Cisco NAC Appliance: Enforcing Host Security with Clean Access. Read a chapter from the book here. Follow Jamey's blog here. More free chapters from other Cisco Press books here.
Bad news for SMB customers, Cisco stops 0% financing for potential UC500 CustomersBad news for SMB customers, Cisco stops 0% financing for potential UC500 Customers Cisco has been running a promotion for a while for SMB customers. It gave 0% financing through Cisco ...Read more
Larry Chaffin, Ph.D, is the CEO/chairman and founder of Pluto Networks a consulting company specializing in VoIP, WLAN and security. He is also author of a number of books including Managing Cisco Secure Networks, Skype Me, Practical VOIP Security, and Configuring Check Point NGX VPN-1/Firewall-1.
Cisco Rolls out Collaborative Training CommunityCisco has rolled out a new Web 2.0-oriented online training community aimed at increasing technical aptitude for both established professionals and relative newbies. Leveraging its “CiscoLive” (formerly “Networkers”) event in Orlando, ...Read more
Ken Presti is president of Presti Research & Consulting, Inc., which specializes in go-to-market strategies for technology vendors and service providers.
CCIE Voice / CCVP Exam Objectives #7: RTP and cRTPWhile protocols like MGCP, SIP, H.323 (H.225/H.225 RAS/H.245), and SCCP provide signalling in VoIP/IP telephony/unified communications networks, the Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP) is used to transport the voice and ...Read more
Mark Lewis (CCIE#6280) is an independent consultant who helps service provider and large enterprise clients design and implement leading-edge technologies. Mark has designed and implemented a variety of large-scale technology solutions including VPN, MPLS, QoS, data center, and IP telephony. Mark is the author of Comparing, Designing, and Deploying VPNs; Troubleshooting Virtual Private Networks; and CCIE Voice Exam Quick Reference Sheets.
WelcomeWelcome to my new blog page! I'm glad to be here as a guest blogger for the month of July on Network World's blog pages. By way of introduction, you may ...Read more
Rus Healy, CCIE #15025, is a Principal SE at Annese & Associates, and the co-author of our July book-giveaway, CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide, Third Edition. Enter to win one of 15 copies.
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Cisco Forums at Networking-Forum.com
Multiple holes found, fixed in Cisco SNMPv3
Multiple Cisco products contain one of two authentication vulnerabilities in the Simple Network Management Protocol version 3 (SNMPv3) feature. The holes can be exploited when processing a malicious SNMPv3 message and could allow the attacker to obtain network information or even perform configuration changes to vulnerable devices. READ MORE.
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WIN FREE BOOKS. We're giving away 15 copies of the Cisco Press book CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide, 3rd Edition by By Wendell Odom, Rus Healy, Naren Mehta (a $89.99 value). Enter to win by clicking here. Deadline for entry is July 31. Plus, read Chapter 1: Ethernet Basics.
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Cisco has launched a support wiki for partners and customers to share their knowledge of Cisco gear on top of Cisco documents. According to Cisco: "This augmentation of knowledge gives our user community a medium to share knowledge and improve their overall effectiveness."
VIDEORob Salvagno, senior director of Business Development, discusses Cisco's Nuova acquisition, a follow-on to Cisco's initial investment in August 2006. Nuova's first product is the Nexus 5000.
VIDEOJapan's NTT Group deploys new Cisco ASR 1000 Series routers to deliver advanced services. (3:54)
PODCASTTop analyst discusses edge networking trends and environmental and cost of ownership benefits that new Cisco ASR 1000 Series routers deliver to service providers relative to competitive solutions. (10:37)
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